Happy heart day

Happy heart day
We love you too!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

I just posted the letter Tyler wrote before this a few hours ago, so if you didn't already read that one, you might want to read it first. :)

Dear Family!! May 22, 2011
Wow my heart is so full of joy and happiness right now! I am forever grateful for everything in my life. I can’t stop thanking Heavenly Father for all the incredible blessings I’ve received. I am so truly blessed to have you all as my family. I love each and every one of you more than you know. I’m so thankful to hear that everyone is doing so good. I loved the emails and I loved reading what everyone has been up to and all the amazing things happening in your lives. The greatest joy in life is with your family and just thinking about all the memories we've had and the absolute love I have for you....my heart just pours out to God in gratitude! Thank you for everything you all have done in my life. I seriously could never tell you or show you....any of you how much you mean to me. Thank you.

Thank you so much for wishing me a Happy Birthday!! Wow it’s so crazy to think that I am 21 years old!! Time just goes by way too fast....like Dad said I can remember when I was younger and when I was a young teenager like it was just yesterday...and now I am an adult...Me and my companion were talking about how when we are young we always say "when I grow up" I want to do this or that. But it’s weird to think....but it’s already here for me. I am grown up and my life will just continue to increase. My birthday was pretty good...its wasn’t anything that special or out of the ordinary....it was mainly a normal day in serving the Lord. This is one of the greatest birthday gifts I can have is to serve the Lord. Another gift I had received is we had a baptism on Saturday!! I was able to baptize Naina and then yesterday on my birthday, I was able to confirm him a member of the church. It was just indescribable. The look of his face and the joy he has now being a member is priceless. He is doing great and I know his life will be so much more happier because he is a member of the church! We went and saw Bridget in the hospital yesterday and she is doing a lot better...thank you for your prayers! Holly our other investigator (Bridget’s friend) was there too. They both sang happy birthday to me. They are both so amazing and I just am so grateful to know both of them. Ohhh yeahh!! Guess what...we set Bridget for baptism!! She was agreed to be baptized on June the 15th!! She has had a serious change of her heart and life and wants to follow God! I am so happy for her. We go see her almost every day up at the hospital! Church was great yesterday! A lot of people said happy birthday because my companion told some of them! :) haha. Then what made my day really great is that the Roger Family (Caleb’s family) made a really nice birthday dinner for me. Then they made me a birthday cake and sang to me! They are so awesome and I love that family so much. We had a lesson afterwards with the whole family. The mother and two sisters are non members. The dad is a less active...I know they will come to church soon!! Yesterday was a great day and I know today is my kind of real birthday...so thank you. I haven’t received my package yet but I’ll let you know when I do! President and Sister Porter called me yesterday and sang happy birthday to me! haha I’m going to miss them....

Well on a sadder note...I got my bike stolen! Uh.....someone came and grabbed it in the middle of the night....that’s no good eh....well I am going to go to the police and report it. Right now one of the members is letting me use their bike, so it’s okay you don’t have to worry at all about it. I don’t want to buy a new one because I don’t have that much time left. I will just figure out something. On a happier note...haha we are teaching this guy named Thomas. He also wants to change his life and guess what..we set him for baptism too on June 25!! Yay! Miracles and miracles!! I love this area. Tuesday was our zone conference. It was wonderful. President and Sister Porter gave powerful trainings and we learned so much. The spirit was very strong. The APs also gave some really good trainings. The lunch we had was so good too. This month the mission is doing so good. We have a possibility of baptizing 200 people in the mission! That’s really good for 1 month! Lyric is all set for his baptism this Thursday! We are excited for him. And also on Saturday we will be having another baptism. Sheridyn will be getting baptized!!

Oh yeah.. I did get the letter from Grandpa Kitchen! I loved it....he is so funny! It made me feel so good! I wish I could write him back! I will try and email them next week. Ohhh grandpa he is the coolest. He told me a lot and I was laughing because he said something about my shotgun hahaha he is a crack up! I miss them a lot.

Oh man I loved the pictures you sent me! Ryan's house looks so good!! Wow it’s beautiful and I’m sure it’s so nice. Ahh man I wish I could go in it and see the amazing work that he did. Good job buddy it looks really good. And mom I was so happy to hear about your race!! Congrats!! You did such a good job! I’m sure it was very hard and tiring but you did an incredible job! I’m so proud of you....thanks for sending some pictures. Also that’s so cool to hear about all your job interviews....you are so blessed to receive a lot of job interviews. I know Heavenly Father is blessing our family! I will be praying that you get a job soon! Wow so many things are happening with the family right now! Jazzi and Zoe! Awe I miss them so much. I wonder if they even remember me or if they think that I died! haha....we'll have to see what happens when I get home.

WOW Ryan graduated from Seminary!! Yay! I’m so happy for him! Good job man that’s amazing. And then he’s going on Heritage Tours....you'll love is so much. And Kaylee gave a talk....Good job I’m sure it was a little scary but I’m sure you did amazing. I wish I could have been there to hear you give it. Tell all the family hi for me and tell them I love them all!! I can’t believe Ryan is graduating from high school so soon! You'll have to take a lot of pictures so I can see! This is the one of the sad things...I miss all the moments like this...oh well.

Dad I loved reading about when me and Ryan were younger and did all those funny things. I felt so good reading those and just taking in all the memories. I’m sure it’s sometimes hard to watch us grow up so fast but really cool to see where our life is taking us. I love life so much.

Well Jami and Kaylee I love you both. Have a great week okay!
I love you all mom, dad, and Ryan!
I will keep you all in my prayers every night! I hope you do the same!
Thank you for everything....
Your son, and brother....
Elder Tyler Paul Kitchen
Dear Family!
I am so glad I got to talk to you all last week. It was great to hear all your voices and talk in person for a while. It always seems so short and goes by way too fast. Life as a missionary is just so so busy. We are here in the Lords time and every minute counts. Time just flies by sometimes when you’re working so hard. Thanks for the e mails as always....I love reading them. I loved reading about the springtime over there mom. It made me remember some really good memories of Utah haha. I’m sure it’s beautiful and I’m glad it’s starting to warm up. Over here it’s nice and fall is definitely in the air. Yeah there is a lot of beautiful colors here....not as much as Utah but there are a lot of nice ones. It’s starting to get more and more cold but up here in Whangarei it’s actually really nice! :) I’m lucky....but now I’m going to have a whole year a winter!!
Our week was really great this week. On Monday I interviewed 3 kids for baptism for the ZL's. They all passed and I’m sure they had a good baptism. Tuesday like always we had district meeting and it was very spiritual and we all learned a lot. We had a District Blitz....that’s where we all go into one of the missionaries areas. We all went in the sisters area and worked for an hour. We had a trade off with the D-Ville elders on Tuesday too. Thursday we went on a trade off with the zone leaders. I got to go into their area. In the morning we just went crazy and talked to so many people. Then for lunch we got some really good burgers at a restaurant and we ate them by this really nice lake. It was beautiful...it was at a small town north of Whangarei called Hikerangi. We then drove about an hour up the east cost of New Zealand. So I went even further north. It was so cool to see the northland of New Zealand. Wow breath taking. I’ve been really lucky because I’ve seen a lot of New Zealand....I’ve been really down south...almost to the Wellington mission and then I’ve been clear up north. And Niue!! It’s really unusual that I have served my whole mission out in the country...I don’t think I have ever met a missionary that hasn’t served in the City (Auckland). I got to see the Ocean of the northland new Zealand coast.. It was nice. We had some really good lessons and I got to meet a lot of people. We had a really good dinner with a member family...Aww I’m going to miss some of the food here....like the island family feeds haha.
Well Saturday was just a great day!! We had Caleb’s baptism and it was incredible. We went up really early to fill up the font and get the chapel ready for the baptism. Then all his family started to come. He had a lot of family come to his baptism and almost all of them were non members. It was great to see all his extended family come to support him. The program was great and when he got baptized my heart was full of joy! All the family members felt the spirit. Caleb went up and bore his testimony and it was very powerful. Experiences like this are what make it all worth it. He bore such a strong testimony and said he wanted to serve a mission. Wow I’m sure he will. And his family is starting to be interested. I hope we can bring his dad back, baptize his mom and sisters....that will be a miracle!!! Yesterday at church I was the one that was able to confirm him a member. Wow what a blessing. It was just so amazing. Then me and my companion spoke in church!! We talked about missionary work and trying to get the members more involved. We handed out referral cards and Books of Mormon for them to give to their non member friends. It was a great Sunday. Oh yeah Sunday morning before church we went and gave one of our investigators a blessing up at the hospital. She was very badly beaten up by her ex boy friend and was in a very bad condition. It was so sad to see her....she looked like she was in a lot of pain. We were able to talk and testify about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. How it can heal us physically and spiritually and we gave her a priesthood blessing and said a powerful prayer with her. I felt the spirit so strong as she said I know that God loves me and tears rolled down her face. My prayers are for her right now and I would love it if you all can pray for her too. Her name is Bridget.
Well I was surprised to hear your doing a triathlon!! MOM that is way awesome. Good luck and I hope you will do really good!! I’m glad Jami and Kaylee are so busy and doing a lot of really great things. Dad, have a great time at your customer meeting and be safe. And I know can you believe it I’m almost 21 years old!! It’s so weird to think about! Thank you so much for sending a package...I can’t wait to get it!! And yep, Zone Conference is Tomorrow!!! I’m very excited!!! I will be praying for you mom so you can get a job!!! I’m sorry but I have to go now. I love you all so much. I tried to send some pictures but I wasn’t able too...I would love it if you could send some pictures next week...I love to see them!!
Have a great day!! I love you
Elder Kitchen!!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Dear Family! Kia Ora!

My heart is just so full of gratitude to our Heavenly Father right now. I thank him every night for my wonderful family and the joy you all bring into my life. I am so thankful we get to e mail each other every single week and I get to hear all the exciting and wonderful things that are going on in your lives. I am also so grateful that you are all safe, happy, and well. There are so many natural disasters happening throughout the world right now. It truly is the signs of the second coming of our savior Jesus Christ. I heard about all the tornado's in the southern United States. I heard Alabama got hit really bad. I’m glad the Eakins are here safe in Utah now. Well when all these go on in the world we as members of the church should not fear at all but be happy and grateful that our savior Jesus Christ is coming. That is if we are ready spiritually and everything. My prayer is that all of us as a family will continue to always be ready to met Jesus Christ again and know we are clean and worthy to enter into his presence.

Well far far away in a foreign country of New Zealand....over up in the far northland in a place called Whangarei it just keeps raining and raining. Wow, I think it rained all last night and so far as rained ALL day! There is a fair amount of water flooding parts of the fields and stuff. New Zealand truly is a very different place from Utah. It rains here like crazy. It’s so beautiful here though and it’s starting to get even more and more green. I really feel like I’m in a foreign country....I love New Zealand. I can tell it’s starting to get more and more cold. That should mean you guys are getting warmer...but when you told me there was snow on the ground I was very surprised. Me and Elder Naicker are just getting along very well. We are having a lot of success and miracles happen all the time. Guess what we have 6 investigators right now with a baptism date!! We have seen so many spiritual experiences. We had 5 of our investigators attend church yesterday which made me so happy. I love to see them be there and them to tell me they feel the spirit so strong. It was a great fast and testimony meeting and our investigators loved it. Caleb is just doing incredible. He is almost 15 years old but looks and acts like 17. He already wants to go on a mission and he reads his Book of Mormon and prays every day. He is keeping all the commandments and just loves church. He is a golden investigator. He will be getting baptized on the 14 of May!! I am so excited. His cousin Lyric is also getting baptized on the 21st of May. We have Naina getting baptized on that day too. And we have a guy named Boudene. He is awesome. He is my age...almost 21 and he came to church yesterday for the first time and loved it. We have a Family Home evening with him tonight at some member’s house. It will be great...We have a young girl named Sheridyn we set for May 2nd and we are working with her less active family to come back to church. We also have a lady with a family of kids getting baptized on May 28th!! So on Kaylee’s birthday hopefully we have a lot of baptisms!! This week has just been a very spiritual week and I love it so much. I love my mission....I just can’t get off my knees....I love praying. I LOVE reading the scriptures too....I have learned So much about the gospel. I can’t believe how much my testimony of the gospel and the Atonement of Jesus Christ has strengthened. I have learned to use the Atonement each and every day and I’ve repented more and more. The thing that I could encourage you all to do the most....is use the Atonement in your lives. Repent and just change and do better and better each day. Awe I just love this gospel with all my heart.

I wish I could tell you about all the little miracles we see as missionaries on a daily basis. When we follow the spirit it just leads us to amazing things. Like one day we got prompted to go visit one of our new investigators. When we got there she answered the door in tears....she knew that we were sent from God to comfort her from the trails and challenges she was going through...We said a prayer and she was comforted. We also were lead to someone who was prepared to receive the gospel. We taught a powerful Restoration lesson to two of our new investigators and the spirit was so strong. We bore powerful testimonies of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We had her kneel down with us and the end of the lesson and ask God if the Book of Mormon was true....she did and the spirit testified to her that it was. She said she felt light and happy. Time and time again I see the spirit testify to people this gospel is true. I also have had incredible spiritual experiences to witness to me that this is true. I know that Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father love us and they want all of us to come home. I challenge each of you to do missionary work. It will bring you such great joy as you share the gospel. I know it’s hard because most of the people we know are members but just pray and think about people that aren’t...God will provide a way for you to share the gospel.

I hope you guys have a great trip down in Arizona. Have a relaxing and fun time. Tell Susan hi for me if you see her! :) Dad I’m sorry I wasn’t able to answer all your questions but I kind of have to go. But guess what!! I can’t believe you forgot...well I don’t know if you forgot but you usually always say something about it but its mother’s day this weekend....so be ready I will be calling you!! I love you all and I can’t wait to talk to you then....have a great week!!

Love Elder Kitchen

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Dear Family!

Kia Ora Fano!! It means Hello Family! How are you all doing this week? I’m glad we got to e mail. Sorry it took so long today. It’s a holiday today so the shops were closed and didn’t open until later today. We went and explored some really cool sties in Whangarei this morning and afternoon. We went to a cave!! Wow it was SO cool. We went deep down inside of this cave and we walked pretty far into it. It was pitch black and you couldn’t see a thing. We had lights though. There was some water in it too. It was so cool because when you turned off all the lights and looked up you could see all these glow worms!! It was beautiful...it looked like glowing stars!! It was a really cool experience. We then got to a huge room in the cave and we started singing church hymns and stuff and it echoed and sounded really cool!! It just keeps on raining and raining today. I have a feeling it’s going to rain a lot up here during winter...I’m not excited because we're on the bike. Ohhhh boy!! hahaha

Thanks for forwarding that letter from the sister in my last ward. She is a recent convert.... (I didn’t baptize her) she moved into my last ward in Rotorua. She is a really cool lady...I’ll make sure someone goes and visits her aunt! Maybe you could reply somehow and tell her I will make sure I do that...I don’t know how though. You also said something like she wrote that before I knew I was going to Whangarei....how does that work?? Weird! Oh and I wrote Jami. Tell her I’m so sorry...I was meaning to write her back and then just spaced it...sometimes I forget. But I did this week.

Happy Easter everyone!! I’m sure you had a great holiday. What a wonderful time to remember our saviors life, atonement, resurrection, and give thanks to our Heavenly Father. Oh and I loved the package!! I got it so thank you so very much. Wow it was a wonderful package....mom seriously your such an incredible person. You do so much and spend so much time I’m sure making it special. The thing I love about it the most is it came from you. I love the cereal too!! I’ve already eaten a lot of them! And the chips and all the yummy candy. I love the mini chocolate eggs....there my favorite!! And I’m so glad there were peeps in there. I love them...thanks again I love it. It’s crazy how much I miss the American stuff sometimes. They don’t have the same kind of stuff here. What did you all do for Easter? Sounds fun that our cousins are up here. Tell them all hi for me! :) did Kylie come up? Are you doing anything special?

Yup so we had transfers last Thursday. Elder Daniels got transferred to North Auckland. My new companion is Elder Naicker!!! He was in my last district down in Rotorua. He is from Fiji and is a Fijian Indian!! He is really really awesome. I was so happy when I heard he was going to be my companion. It was great to see him again. He is a great missionary and works really hard. We have already seen a lot of success. He is a convert to the church and has a very strong testimony. His big brother also served a mission and just got married in the Fiji Temple. We laugh a lot together....he is very funny. Guess what....some of my district got transferred too. Elder Atkin left and then elder Gonda came from Reno Nevada. And then sister Mouata left and then sister Sididomrong (I think that’s how you spell it) came. GUESS WHAT?! She is from Thailand!! Cool eh?! The same place where the Pugmires foreign exchange student is from and the convert in our ward. She is also a convert to the church. She is great and I’ll have to tell you more about her later.

Well a little about our week. We ended up not having the baptism of Naina. It’s a long story.... but we should have a lot of baptisms coming up in May! I’m excited. We have 4 people set for May so far. We had this really cool Stake musical Easter program. The church members sang in a beautiful choir and sang all about Jesus' last week and his resurrection. It was so powerful and brought the spirit very strong. It was a missionary thing...they invited a lot of non members and we had a lot of investigators there. After the program we had pamphlets and answered peoples questions and did our missionary work. We got some referrals it was great!

That is so cool about Tyler downing and Megan Stucki....I knew they would get married!! And that’s really cool mom about the Thai land kid and girl. I hope she gets interested and wants to learn about the gospel. I’m so glad he wants to serve a mission too that’s awesome. I wish I could have met her too....tell her there’s a girl from Thai land that I’m serving with her in New Zealand. OH my!! Dad I absolutely loved your e mail you sent me!! I was laughing my head off!! I showed all my district and missionaries and they were laughing too. That’s hilarious....wow the experiences you have on your mission. I loved reading those stories...you should send more. I thought the one about the dishes was funny too. I wish I could write more about it but I got to go....Thanks so much dad for your e mail. I loved reading about your experiences on your mission.

I love you all so very much. And I hope you have a great Easter! May God bless you all!
Love Elder Kitchen

Elder Kitchens companions

Tehuacan (5/14/2014) to (8/6/2014) Elder Conrad from Draper, Utah

Nealtican (4/2/2014) to (5/14/2014) Elder Christensen from Denver, Colorado

Nealtican (2/19/2014) to (4/2/2014) Elder Sanchez from Chiapas, Mexico

Puebla (1/8/2014) to (2/19/2014) Elder Dzul from Cancun, Mexico

Puebla (10/15/2013) to (1/8/2014) Elder Betts from Mexi-Cali Baja California, Mexico

Atlixco (7/23/2013) to (10/14/2013) Elder Ortega from Nayarit, Mexico

Puebla (3/19/2013) to (7/22/2013) Elder Burden from Snowflake, Arizona

Puebla (2/19/2013) to (3/18/2013) Elder Knowlton from Springville, Utah

Atexcac (1/8/2013) to (2/18/2013) Elder Olvera from San. Luis Potosi, Mexico

Atexcac (10/16/2012) to (1/7/2013) Elder Tinoco from Dorango, Mexico

MTC (8/15/2012) to (10/15/2012) Elder Astle from Northern California




























































































































































































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