I posted his last two letters today....enjoy!

-->

Dear Family, October 16, 2011

Thank you for all your prayers and everything you! The Missionary work is doing great! We as a mission are doing amazing things and there is many of Heavenly Fathers Children who are coming into the restored Gospel. Our goal is still 204 and we will be able to do it with the Lords help! I’m doing great just even more busy now. We have a lot of new things happening now because President Lekias is adding some new things so we are helping our zone know everything. Just so you know I wont have a lot of time to e-mail today...I’m sorry.

This last week was really great. We had a lot of trainings and meetings but we were still able to do some incredible work. Right now we have 4 investigators preparing for baptism. Patu, Sarah, Nazereth, and Linoa. They are all great and are doing well. But there are things that are keeping them from being baptized. Some of them are Law of Chastity concerns, like not being married. We are praying very hard and trying to do everything we can for them. Tuesday we went on a trade off with one of the companionships in our zone. I love going with elders and seeing their strengths and helping them with things they could improve. On Wednesday we had Zone Leader Council. It was great....I always love going to those. It’s great to be with all the zone leaders in the mission and get to be at the Mission Home. We had some really good food. And we learned so much and the spirit was very strong. On Thursday we had Leadership Training. Saturday we were able to bring our investigators to a baptism of another companionship in the zone. Yesterday we were able to do some baptism interviews for another companionship in our zone. We also had a Come and See Fireside we went to. It was awesome to see all the investigators and Listen to our leaders speak and listen to recent converts bear their testimonies.

Wow seriously when you told me Jami was 16 years it hit me! That is crazy! Wow Happy Birthday Jami!! :D Congrats on being 16! What an awesome age and I’m sure you had a great Birthday! Sounds like you did some really fun things. Just like me you went to Park City and got to have a hotel room. That is really cool. Jami I cant wait to see you drive....man that’s going to be weird. How do you like driving so far? I know mom they are probably going to look a lot older when I see them in real life! Mom I’m sure your very busy, I hope you can have some rest.....I know how it is to be very tired. On a mission there is absolutely no time to rest, no time to nap, the only rest or sleep you get is from 10:30-6:30...its more like 11-6:30 because your having your companionship and personal prayers. I know the Lord blessings us missionaries with extra strength from on High...its a miracle.

I’m so glad that you’re reading the Book of Mormon together as a family and that’s really cool how you were reading the story in Alma. What a blessing it would be to know our mission The New Zealand Auckland Mission saved 204 souls in one month. It is very possible but we must have the Lords help and that comes from qualifying and praying a lot.

Say hello to the family for me! I miss all of them so much. Haha Dad you asked if my companion skis or snowboards. He said he doesn’t do either. He said he doesn’t like the snow!! HAHA he lives in Park City though....that’s all it is!!

About the New Zealand Trip, I was able to look over the schedule and it looks great! I will try and think of some other things to do, probably next week. I’m pretty busy this week. It will be such a blessing for you all to come to New Zealand. The main thing for me is to see all the people again, the members, recent converts, investigators, and just to see and be where I served! I’m sure when we are at all the places I will want to do certain things haha.

I love you all very much.

Love Elder Kitchen

-->

Dear Family! October 23, 2011

Thanks for the e-mails this week. I always love to read them. Sounds like everyone is doing great and your all loving being in St George. Hope everyone is having a lot of fun. I’m sure its nice down there to see everyone. That is really cool that you are still with Grandpa and Grandma even though they are on their mission. And that’s cool that Zach loved his mission so much and was a AP and everything. I’m sure he already misses his mission. Tell Maddie congrats for getting married for me. Also if you could tell the Pugmire’s and Grandma and Grandpa hello and let them know I love them all so much. Also I’m so grateful they set such a good example to us by serving 3 missions. They are so faithful and incredible people to serve the Lord. That will always affect us for them to serve missions and I know we are all extremely blessed because of them.

This week was another great week. We went on three different trade offs with our missionaries. We talked to A TON of people! We shared the gospel to so many people and it was so amazing to do that. We had interviews with our mission president too. Last Monday we went to a really cool site seeing place by the shoreline in west cost of Auckland. It was beautiful. New Zealand is so incredibly amazing! You are all going to love it so much.

I’m sure your all very excited to come here....I would talk more about it but I’m still staying focused on the work and I don’t want to get that distracted....but don’t worry you talking about it doesn’t really get me distracted. haha. I wish I could write more....I’m sure your sad when I don’t write as much but we are planning on going to another cool place by the ocean to see and we have to leave soon and we had some other things to do too.

I love you all very much and I’m so grateful for everything you've done for me.

Until Next week! Love Elder Kitchen

Dear Family, October 9, 2011

What a wonderful blessing it is to be able to e mail you all this week. It sounds like everything is going great for all of you and that is a big blessing. For me things are just amazing. As you can see on the subject of the e mail, transfers has happened. I stayed here in Massey ward of Henderson Auckland but Elder Moss got transferred. He went down to Hamilton. And President Lekias has asked me to be the senior zone leader and I am training a new zone leader named Elder Walk. He has just been a District Leader and this is the first time for him to be a zone leader. I know this is from the Lord and even though this is a lot of responsibility I know the Lord will strengthen me and help me as I have faith and rely on him. It is quite different being the senior zone leader. There is a lot more reporting to the Assistants and the Mission President, and of course most importantly to the Lord. I would love your prayers for me to help me always have the spirit so I will know what the Lord wants me to do. The zone got changed a lot. 8 new missionaries left and new ones came in. Elder Walk just came from the Chinese Program in the mission. So he got called to speak Chinese in the New Zealand Auckland mission. He can speak fluent Chinese. It’s so cool to hear him bear his testimony that he knows the Lord gave him the gift of tongues to help him know how the speak the language. He is from Park City Utah! His Dad is a convert to the church and his mom came back into activity. He was one older sister who just got married. He is around the same height as me, has blond hair, and he is just a great missionary. We get along very well and I’m excited to work with him.

In the mission right now we have a mission goal of saving (baptizing) 204 souls! In the Book of Mormon Alma was able to baptize 204 souls in the waters of Mormon. President Lekias has received revelation that we can do this and we are so excited to rely on the Lord to achieve this worthy goal. I love helping our brothers and sisters gain testimonies of the truth. I love kneeling down with them and as they pray about the Book of Mormon it is the best feeling when they feel and recognize the spirit speaking to them. This week we have had many spiritual experiences and I wanted to e mail just a couple. We found this lady named Marlena about a week ago. We had a very spiritual experience at the door and she knew we were messengers sent from God. She started to cry as we told her our message. So we have been trying to help her any way we can. She needed her lawn mowed and so one day without even telling her we brought a members lawn mower over and started doing it. She is a mother of 7 children and has a defective relationship with her partner (boy friend). They are struggling a lot financially. Well we were mowing it for her and then suddenly it wouldn’t work. We tried everything and it just wouldn’t start. So we had faith and we said a prayer and begged Heavenly Father to start it so we could finish her lawn. Right after the prayer we had faith and pulled the starter and A MIRACLE it started!! WOW it was such an amazing experience and I know the Lord answers even small prayers like that. We also had an experience with one of our investigators named Patu. We were at his house and we helped him understand that in order to receive an answer he needed to pray with all his heart. We taught about prayer and knelt down and asked him to say the prayer. He did for the first time and after we were silent waiting for the spirit to answer him. He said he felt something he has never felt before and it gave him so much peace and happiness. He started to cry (which he would never do) and said he knew that God had answered him. He and his partner committed to obey the Law of Chastity and get married. They also committed to obey the Word of Wisdom and said he would stop smoking.

I absolutely loved General Conference!! WOW!

Well it looks like everyone is leaving now and they are waiting for me....so I have to go now....I’m sorry it was short. I love you all so much.

LOVE elder Kitchen

Hey Everyone! October 2, 2011

The work of the Lord is still moving forward here in the beautiful island of New Zealand. October is already here and it’s the time of year where we only have to wear our suit coats after 5 pm. The weather still isn’t the best, which means your weather should still be beautiful. For myself I am doing great! Just full of Joy as I serve the Master. As I continue to study and slowly understand more and more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and then go and serve Him day after day my love for the Lord and the people whom I serve grows stronger and stronger. Even though we work so hard and barely get very much sleep the Lord blesses me with strength and the promise that he will renew our bodies is fulfilled. As a missionary I have never worked so hard in my life, physically and mentally. The Power of Prayer is so important and I’ve learned to rely and trust the Lord so much. I read in the Book of Mormon of people who truly were converted to the Lord. They had a change of heart and they had no more desire to do evil but good continually. I have experienced a lot of this but I always pray that my testimony will grow stronger and stronger. A mission is a once in a life time miracle of experience. It was the best decision I’ve ever made to go and it has changed my life forever. I am so full of happiness that Ryan is so excited for his mission and he is preparing for it. Ryan it will be the best 2 years of your life. My encouragement is to keep studying as much as you can to prepare for you mission. Get a Preach My Gospel and study it. The more prepared you are the better of an experience you will have and the more people you will be able to help and change their hearts. I’m glad you all enjoyed General Conference. I have been able to watch the priesthood session so far and we are watching the rest this weekend.

Thanks for the pictures you sent me of Ryan's senior photos. They look so good. Ryan looks very mature and grown up. They are really awesome looking photos and really good backgrounds. Sounds like he is just having a blast with all the cool things he is doing.

Mom you asked if I received the letters that you sent from cousin camp. Yes I got them and loved them. Thanks so much it was good to hear from everyone. I’m grateful for all the cool things grandma and grandpa Ellsworth tell me about New Zealand. And wow you really are so busy. I’m sure it is such a good job for you and that you love it a lot. You are such a hard worker and I know you’re a wonderful teacher to them.

Dad, that’s pretty funny how you went to another church. We meet people like that on the street all the time. Born again Christians or have all sorts of different beliefs. Some of them are really strange and some of them just believe that you say Jesus Christ is your savior and that he died for you and then you are saved. Boy do they have it wrong.

Well we had a great week this week. I forgot to tell you a funny experience we had a couple of weeks ago. Well my companion Elder Moss was driving down the street and he was going a little fast because we were late to a teaching appt. Anyway a police pulled him over and asked him for his license. He was waiting for his New Zealand License and so they had given him a temporary paper one. He was looking for it in his wallet. Then he gave the police a paper that he thought was his license. It was really his Dry Cleaning receipt!! HAHA The cop was like what do you think I’m supposed to do with a dry cleaning receipt!! HAHA it was so funny. I was laughing so hard afterward haha.

This past week we worked really hard. We had 25 lessons and talked to 206 people on the street or knocking doors. I love just going up to everyone and spreading the gospel to them. We found 13 new investigators. We helped a lot of investigators come to church too. I was able to bear my testimony in church. I love going up and bearing my testimony.

I have to go now. I love you all very much. Thanks for everything you do. You’re always in my prayers and I’m grateful to know Families Can be together Forever in Heavenly Fathers Plan.

Love Elder Kitchen

Hey everyone! September 25, 2011

Sounds like everything over there in the distant land of American Fork is doing wonderful. Things over here in New Zealand are doing great! I was looking through some other pictures you sent me a little while ago on the e mail and just thinking how everyone is growing up so fast. Sometimes you kind of forget that just because you’re clear over here in New Zealand time doesn’t stop for you over there. Everyone looks older. As for me I don’t think I look that much older than when I came out haha....but oh well. My week was pretty interesting. And it sounds like your week went really good. Just before I forget....I found out I can’t e mail other family members, so just my immediate family. So tell Aunt Esther (she wrote me this week) and the cousins and family I’m sorry. I think that is one of the things I am just not good at...writing people back. I feel so bad but I am staying completely focused and just working hard to build up the Kingdom of God.

I’m glad you received my pictures. I can’t remember whether Whangarei is one those or not. It will be fun to go through all of them with you. Thanks for sending some pictures. Your right Jazzi does look really weird. Wow and Savanna looks SO much older! wow! All the cousins look older. And yup your right Jazzi looks like a goat....Haha its cool to see Dad with his gray....now white Go-Tee haha! And the one of the Temple in the goal is so cool. I printed it out and I’m we are going to give it to some of our investigators. The one of Ryan with the snowboard is awesome. Man he looks really good and it’s a cool picture. Can you send more of his senior pictures? You should send some of you mom. And Dad send some more of you haha. Mom I’m sure you have been staying really busy....I can’t wait to go see your room. I can only imagine right now what it would be like for you to be a teacher. It will be cool to come see your class and students, maybe I can sit down and listen to you teach sometime haha. What is your favorite part about teaching? Have you had any crazy experiences yet? haha That will be nice for you to have the whole summer break off and all the holidays. I can’t believe the Zach is already done with his mission...wow. That is so cool we have 12 missionaries from our ward serving the Lord. What a blessing....I’m so excited for Ryan to be able to go serve the Lord and experience the joy and happiness of serving a mission. How is he doing preparing for it? Is he still working on his papers?

Dad thanks for sending the e mail. That’s cool you can just send it right off your iphone. haha I was laughing when I read that grandpa can’t wait for the hunt. That will be way fun to go with him when I get back. That would be really cool if you got to see Devan when he was serving his mission. You asked the temple trip. It was an amazing trip and I loved it. It is always fun to be with all the missionaries and with President and Sister Lekias. The zone conferences and temple trips are always a high light because of the amazing spiritual experiences and the things you learn. I always learn so much as I attend the temple and the feeling you get there is very strong. Yes you can rent clothes when you go inside the temple there. That would be amazing if we can go do a session when we are here!

My week was great! The temple trip was definitely one of the high lights of the week. We got to have a devotional before, then the temple session then a zone conference after. We went to Pokonos after to get ice cream again. It’s a famous place for the members in New Zealand. It’s really good ice cream and you can get a ton of scoops! It’s really cool to see some missionaries try to beat the records...We got to do some interviews for baptisms after for the missionaries in our zone. We met a lot of cool people this week. Talked so many and had some good experiences. Thursday I went on a trade off with Elder Shepard in our zone. He is in the Tongan Program. So we went to a lot of Tongan speaking appointments. He is from Utah and is white but speaks Tongan fluently. Wow the gift of Tounges is so real on a mission. It’s a cool experience. I also did a baptism interview for one of their investigators that got baptized this weekend. Saturday was another high light of the week. Because we had Dodie's Baptism!! :) I was the one that was able to baptize her too so it was such a great experience for me. She is an incredible convert and has a strong testimony. She was so happy when she got baptized. She shared her conversion experience to the Bishop and it was cool to listen because I was a part of it all along the way. I remember when we first met her mowing her lawn out on the street. Sunday we had her confirmation. We were supposed to have Lisa's confirmation too (she got baptized last Saturday but wasn’t confirmed on Sunday). It is a long story and I was sad that she didn’t but we will keep helping her. Yesterday we had an interesting experience. We had the opportunity to teach two different Muslim people. We taught one from Saudi Arabia, and the other was from Fiji. It was one of the first times I have taught someone from the Muslim faith. I have talked to a lot but never really sat down with a very strong one. He was interested in the Gospel. It went good but we will have to help him a lot. It’s so amazing on your mission....especially this mission to be able to experience so many different kinds of cultures. You get to see so many different things. My eyes have been opened to a lot of different things on my mission. It’s amazing everyone’s different beliefs and everyone’s way of life and cultures. I have met people from all around the world and have been in a lot of their homes teaching them the gospel. What a great experience that only comes once in a lifetime.

I have to go now....but I just want to share a little bit of my testimony of the experience Joseph Smith had in the Sacred Grove. I know with all my heart and Soul that the young 14 year old boy saw what he said he saw. As I read his experience, as I share it with others and as I pray about it the holy spirit of God confirms to me that it is true. I know that God the Eternal Father and his beloved son the Lord Jesus Christ appeared face to face with Joseph Smith. That one glorious vision means that everything this church teaches us is true, that we are a part of the Kingdom of God on earth. Wow what a blessing. We are so lucky to be able to have the fullness of the Gospel in our lives. I love it so much and I love to share it with others. I love you all...keep living the gospel. Do all you can to live the right way and we will be happy. I say these things in the Name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Love your son and brother, Elder Kitchen