July 24, 2011
Heeeeeyyy!! How is everyone doing?! Sounds like everyone had a really great time at the trip to Bear Lake! I’m glad everyone is doing great! Thanks for the e mail. I’m glad that Ryan loved my letter I wrote him. Everything what I said I meant it a lot. I also took some time today to write Ashley a letter. Well I had just an incredible week! Wow the life of a zone leader is a lot different than a normal missionary....well not that much but a little.
We have a lot more responsibility. We also have to account to the Assistants to the President about how well the Zone is doing. That is one thing I would love if all of you could add in your prayers. To pray for the Harbour/Henderson Zone, all the missionaries and people that are set for baptism this month. We have so much potential and we are so close to saving a lot of souls but we need all the help from Heavenly Father that we can get. This week I have been relying on the Lord so much. We as Zone Leaders go on a lot of trade offs with the other missionaries in our zone. And I know I need the Lords help to help us have many miracles. We did have so many miracles from the Lord this week!
I will tell you a little about the zone: So there is me and my companion Elder Chandler (ZL) and there are two districts. They cover Henderson (Which is west Auckland) and the North Shore and Walkworth. (which is North Auckland.) So they are pretty big areas with a lot of people! In the Henderson Zone there are 5 companionships including us. And in the other zone there are 4 companionships including the Assistants to the President, but they don’t report to us really. They are in the mission office a lot and are extremely busy. The missionaries in the Zone are just wonderful. They all work really hard and know how to exercise their faith in Jesus Christ. The District Leader in Henderson is named Elder Espino (from Australia) and his companion Elder Tomasi (from Australia). Then there is Elder Middleton (from Oregon he is a very recent convert, got baptized about a year and half ago. He got baptized and then had to wait one year and then he is on a mission!) His companion is named Elder Finau (from Lehi Utah he came out the same time as me). Then there is Elder Uthi from Samoa and his companion Elder Whipple from Nevada. Then there is Sister Mahas from Utah and her companion is Sister Mouata (from Kitibas islands) She was in my district in Whangarei. And then they just got another companion because they are in a 3 some right now. She is Sister Sitthidomrong from Thai land. She was also in my last district. In the Harbour District there is Elder Ales from California (District Leader). He was in my district in Rotorua. Then Elder Pohahou from Tonga. Then there is Elder Valupe from Tonga and his companion Elder Tokealau (from Australia). And then Elder Abegg from Utah and his companion Elder Ji from China. They are in the Chinese Speaking program! Well that is the Zone!
Well a little about last week: We played Rugby Touch last Monday. Wednesday and Thursday I went on tradeoffs with some Elders. We worked so hard and we witnessed so many miracles. We were able to set investigators with a baptism date both days. We have been working with this investigator named Jerry. He is so cool. He is 19 years old and he is getting baptized this Saturday! He is totally changing his life. We also were led by a member referral to this really nice Maori lady and we had an incredible lesson on the Restoration. We set her for baptism on the very first lesson and she came to church too! Her goal is to get baptized on the 13 of August. We also were lead to this choice family from the Solomon Islands. We had a lesson with her whole family, her and her children. We taught a very powerful restoration lesson and we asked them to be baptized. They said they would if they found out the Book of Mormon was true. We have been blessed so much this week. I have felt the spirit so much and I just love it. We were able to attend a baptism of some elders in our district and it was amazing!
Well we have a car and we have to drive around a lot sometimes to help all the missionaries in our zone. We get to go to the mission office sometimes to get supplies and we have a lot more interaction with President Lekias!
Well I wanted to write more and also answer some things to your e mail but I got to go now....I’m sorry. You’re the best! I love you all so much.
Love ELDER Kitchen
Happy heart day
We love you too!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Dear Family, July 17, 2011
Wow so many things have happened since the last time I e mailed you!! I e mailed Ryan a long letter first and then we know have to e mail our mission president so I don’t have a lot of time today. But thanks for all the e mails. I really loved reading them.
So guess what?! I got transferred!! So on Tuesday afternoon after District Meeting I received a call from our new mission President Lekias! He said that the Lord was calling me to be a new Zone Leader!! WOW!! yeah so now I am a new Zone Leader. I have been called to serve as a zone leader in the Harbour/Henderson Zone of the Mission. That is in West Auckland!! So yup I’m finally serving in the Huge City of Auckland! There are two Districts in the Zone and we cover a big area of Auckland. It is north and west of the Downtown Auckland. I can see the sky line though so we are pretty close to the city. There are a lot of missionaries in the Zone. My companion is named Elder Chandler! He is just an incredible missionary and is so full of faith! He is from Idaho! He has been a zone Leader for a while now and he has been in the zone for a long time so he knows it really well. The missionaries are all so great! I will have to tell you more about each one of them when I have more time. Well Elder Naicker also got transferred to South Auckland so we both got double shifted out of the area. The new mission president is making a lot of new changes with the missionaries in the areas. The Roger family was quite shocked!! I am going to miss that family so much. I’m going to miss the ward and Whangarei a lot. Thursday we drove down to Auckland for Transfers! Wow being a zone leader is so cool! It is a lot different than from being a District Leader. But it is also more stressful and you have more responsibility. You report to the Assistants to the President a lot more. We also talk to President a lot more. I have come to know President Lekias a lot already and he is such a wonderful mission President. We cover the Massey ward. It is a huge ward compared to my last ward. Wow it’s so different serving in the city than in the country. There are good things about both. There are so many islanders around where I’m serving, a lot of Samoans and Tongans in our ward. I have met some Niueans also and have been able to speak the language to them. It has been so cool! I love the island people and I’m so grateful I will be able to serve around them again! We have already had a baptism since I’ve been here! Last Saturday we had a baptism of one of their investigators. Her name is Maria. She is from Samoa! It was such a wonderful baptism! We have two more baptism dates set for this month. It is incredible!
Well I’m so sorry but I have to go. I will have to tell you about so many things next time. I love you all so much!!
Love Elder Kitchen
Wow so many things have happened since the last time I e mailed you!! I e mailed Ryan a long letter first and then we know have to e mail our mission president so I don’t have a lot of time today. But thanks for all the e mails. I really loved reading them.
So guess what?! I got transferred!! So on Tuesday afternoon after District Meeting I received a call from our new mission President Lekias! He said that the Lord was calling me to be a new Zone Leader!! WOW!! yeah so now I am a new Zone Leader. I have been called to serve as a zone leader in the Harbour/Henderson Zone of the Mission. That is in West Auckland!! So yup I’m finally serving in the Huge City of Auckland! There are two Districts in the Zone and we cover a big area of Auckland. It is north and west of the Downtown Auckland. I can see the sky line though so we are pretty close to the city. There are a lot of missionaries in the Zone. My companion is named Elder Chandler! He is just an incredible missionary and is so full of faith! He is from Idaho! He has been a zone Leader for a while now and he has been in the zone for a long time so he knows it really well. The missionaries are all so great! I will have to tell you more about each one of them when I have more time. Well Elder Naicker also got transferred to South Auckland so we both got double shifted out of the area. The new mission president is making a lot of new changes with the missionaries in the areas. The Roger family was quite shocked!! I am going to miss that family so much. I’m going to miss the ward and Whangarei a lot. Thursday we drove down to Auckland for Transfers! Wow being a zone leader is so cool! It is a lot different than from being a District Leader. But it is also more stressful and you have more responsibility. You report to the Assistants to the President a lot more. We also talk to President a lot more. I have come to know President Lekias a lot already and he is such a wonderful mission President. We cover the Massey ward. It is a huge ward compared to my last ward. Wow it’s so different serving in the city than in the country. There are good things about both. There are so many islanders around where I’m serving, a lot of Samoans and Tongans in our ward. I have met some Niueans also and have been able to speak the language to them. It has been so cool! I love the island people and I’m so grateful I will be able to serve around them again! We have already had a baptism since I’ve been here! Last Saturday we had a baptism of one of their investigators. Her name is Maria. She is from Samoa! It was such a wonderful baptism! We have two more baptism dates set for this month. It is incredible!
Well I’m so sorry but I have to go. I will have to tell you about so many things next time. I love you all so much!!
Love Elder Kitchen
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Kia Ora Whanau!! Faka Lofa Lahi Atu!
Kia Ora Whanau!! Faka Lofa Lahi Atu! July 10, 2011
I hope this message gets to my wonderful family all safe, happy, and doing well. As the weeks go by....I am just amazed about how fast the time flies by. Everything in the beautiful country of New Zealand is just doing great for me. Me and my companion are both safe and doing great! Transfers are this Thursday so we are really sad that one of us might be getting transferred. I'll let you know if I am emailing you from somewhere else next Monday. The weather here is just rain and rain. It seriously rains EVERY single day....and I’m not kidding! It is all sunny and okay...(still pretty cold) and then the rain hits and it pours down really hard. We just wear our rain jackets all day just in case in the middle of nowhere it starts pouring down on us :) I’m just so grateful to be here in this beautiful place!
Well you wanted to know a little about my new mission President. His name is President Lekias. He, his wife, and their 3 daughters are here in New Zealand. They have a son on a mission right now in Wellington New Zealand. We met them and they are just wonderful people. They are way nice and energetic. They are young...like in their 40's and are really excited to be here. They have such strong testimonies. We didn’t get to meet with them that long...but from what I can see they are going to be just wonderful mission president. It is a little weird not seeing President and Sister Porter anymore....but I know that President Lekias is called of God to be our new mission President.
Well last Monday me and Elder Naicker went to this Fijian Indian restaurant for lunch. It is exactly his food and so he really wanted to go there! Oh I don’t know if I have told you already but I love the Indian Food here...like people from India and Fiji. It’s a lot of good things like curry and butter chicken and so many good things like that. We don’t have really any Indian food where we live. I hope I can find a restaurant when I get back and we’ll all go there. On Tuesday we have such an incredible lesson with Stephanie and the Roger family! I don’t know if I have talked about them a lot but I absolutely LOVE that family. They are incredible in every way and we are over there all the time. The reason why is because we have a lot of lessons with their family. They are a family that I have helped bring into the gospel and they are making their way to be a forever family. When we first went there the whole family wasn’t really interested except Caleb. He is 15 years old. The dad was a less active and the whole family was non members. Well obliviously you know we have helped Caleb get baptized. Then we started working with Destiney his younger sister that is 10 years old. She got baptized and know guess what Stephanie (the mom) is SET with a baptism date!! She is getting baptized on the 30th of this month. (July) The whole family except Azalia (13 year old girl) has been coming to church every week for the past 3 weeks. Then just yesterday Azalia came! So the whole family came! They were all dressed up and it just made me get emotional and full of joy to see their whole family sitting in Sacrament meeting! :) I’m so happy for them! Jared (the dad) wants to come back to full activity and receive the priesthood. Stephanie is getting baptized. We are helping Azalia want to get baptized. And we are just doing our best to help the whole family. Caleb is doing so good and wants to serve a mission! He is going to go to baptisms for the dead in the temple soon! The other night we had a very spiritual lesson on forever families and the temple and them being sealed. The whole family felt the spirit so strong. I know they will go to the temple! Hopefully in a year’s time (one year after everyone gets baptized) I really want to come to New Zealand and be there when they get sealed together! I would love that so much. Mom and gave Stephanie the Book of Mormon you gave me that has your testimony in it. She loved it so much!
Every time we go over there they have a cup of Milo (kind of like hot chocolate) ready for us. They feed us sometimes....awe I just love them. So many good and wonderful memories with them. I will never forget that family. Well Rata and Miriana are still doing good and they are set for the 30th of July for Baptism also!! I’m excited that family is awesome too. Their mom Teresa wants to be baptized too!! Miracles are happening all around! The work is just doing wonderful and we are working so hard. Tony isn’t set for baptism because he is going to get baptized down in Auckland. Oh yeah Elder Naicker is okay...he just had a crash....we were laughing so hard. He is lucky he didn’t get hurt though.
Wow so many people are getting married back home. Life just keeps getting more crazy and is just amazing. I really do miss you so much. My heart is so full of gratitude for all the many blessings I have in my life. I love you more than you know. Thank you for everything you guys do for me. I wish I didn’t have to go now but I do....okay so next week I have to e mail so other people before I e mail this letter. Ryan!! Krissy (she sent one this week) and Ashley!! Time is just so valuable. That is one thing I have really learned on my mission.
Have a great and happy week.
With much love your brother, and son.
Elder Tyler Kitchen
I hope this message gets to my wonderful family all safe, happy, and doing well. As the weeks go by....I am just amazed about how fast the time flies by. Everything in the beautiful country of New Zealand is just doing great for me. Me and my companion are both safe and doing great! Transfers are this Thursday so we are really sad that one of us might be getting transferred. I'll let you know if I am emailing you from somewhere else next Monday. The weather here is just rain and rain. It seriously rains EVERY single day....and I’m not kidding! It is all sunny and okay...(still pretty cold) and then the rain hits and it pours down really hard. We just wear our rain jackets all day just in case in the middle of nowhere it starts pouring down on us :) I’m just so grateful to be here in this beautiful place!
Well you wanted to know a little about my new mission President. His name is President Lekias. He, his wife, and their 3 daughters are here in New Zealand. They have a son on a mission right now in Wellington New Zealand. We met them and they are just wonderful people. They are way nice and energetic. They are young...like in their 40's and are really excited to be here. They have such strong testimonies. We didn’t get to meet with them that long...but from what I can see they are going to be just wonderful mission president. It is a little weird not seeing President and Sister Porter anymore....but I know that President Lekias is called of God to be our new mission President.
Well last Monday me and Elder Naicker went to this Fijian Indian restaurant for lunch. It is exactly his food and so he really wanted to go there! Oh I don’t know if I have told you already but I love the Indian Food here...like people from India and Fiji. It’s a lot of good things like curry and butter chicken and so many good things like that. We don’t have really any Indian food where we live. I hope I can find a restaurant when I get back and we’ll all go there. On Tuesday we have such an incredible lesson with Stephanie and the Roger family! I don’t know if I have talked about them a lot but I absolutely LOVE that family. They are incredible in every way and we are over there all the time. The reason why is because we have a lot of lessons with their family. They are a family that I have helped bring into the gospel and they are making their way to be a forever family. When we first went there the whole family wasn’t really interested except Caleb. He is 15 years old. The dad was a less active and the whole family was non members. Well obliviously you know we have helped Caleb get baptized. Then we started working with Destiney his younger sister that is 10 years old. She got baptized and know guess what Stephanie (the mom) is SET with a baptism date!! She is getting baptized on the 30th of this month. (July) The whole family except Azalia (13 year old girl) has been coming to church every week for the past 3 weeks. Then just yesterday Azalia came! So the whole family came! They were all dressed up and it just made me get emotional and full of joy to see their whole family sitting in Sacrament meeting! :) I’m so happy for them! Jared (the dad) wants to come back to full activity and receive the priesthood. Stephanie is getting baptized. We are helping Azalia want to get baptized. And we are just doing our best to help the whole family. Caleb is doing so good and wants to serve a mission! He is going to go to baptisms for the dead in the temple soon! The other night we had a very spiritual lesson on forever families and the temple and them being sealed. The whole family felt the spirit so strong. I know they will go to the temple! Hopefully in a year’s time (one year after everyone gets baptized) I really want to come to New Zealand and be there when they get sealed together! I would love that so much. Mom and gave Stephanie the Book of Mormon you gave me that has your testimony in it. She loved it so much!
Every time we go over there they have a cup of Milo (kind of like hot chocolate) ready for us. They feed us sometimes....awe I just love them. So many good and wonderful memories with them. I will never forget that family. Well Rata and Miriana are still doing good and they are set for the 30th of July for Baptism also!! I’m excited that family is awesome too. Their mom Teresa wants to be baptized too!! Miracles are happening all around! The work is just doing wonderful and we are working so hard. Tony isn’t set for baptism because he is going to get baptized down in Auckland. Oh yeah Elder Naicker is okay...he just had a crash....we were laughing so hard. He is lucky he didn’t get hurt though.
Wow so many people are getting married back home. Life just keeps getting more crazy and is just amazing. I really do miss you so much. My heart is so full of gratitude for all the many blessings I have in my life. I love you more than you know. Thank you for everything you guys do for me. I wish I didn’t have to go now but I do....okay so next week I have to e mail so other people before I e mail this letter. Ryan!! Krissy (she sent one this week) and Ashley!! Time is just so valuable. That is one thing I have really learned on my mission.
Have a great and happy week.
With much love your brother, and son.
Elder Tyler Kitchen
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Dear Family! July 3, 2011
How are you all doing today?! Well I hope all is well with everyone. I’m excited to hear that mom and the girls are just having a great time in Arizona. This e mail is going to be pretty short.....we have had a pretty crazy day today and some things didn’t work the way we wanted so I’m sorry about that. And Ryan I hate to do this to ya.....but I will probably have to e mail you an e mail next week. I’ll see what happens but I want to e mail a good one and don’t want to be all rushed and stuff.
Thanks for sending me those letters. I also received a letter from Grandpa Kitchen. Awe he is so funny. I miss him a lot. He was telling me about my Gun. I can’t wait to go hunting with him sometime when I get back. I’m glad everyone is having a wonderful time for the 4th of July. It doesn’t seem any different here.....they don’t even say one thing about it haha. I’m sure they are a lot of fireworks going off in the States though! I’m glad to hear that everyone was able to hang out with the cousins and everything! :)
I haven’t been able to meet our new mission President yet....but I will tomorrow. I’m excited...I’ve heard some good things about him. Even though I’m still really sad President Porter had to leave. I’m sure he is excited to be home with his family that he hasn’t seen in 3 years!! He worked so hard and he did some incredible things. Well I’m still here in Whangarei but transfers are coming up soon....so I will see what happens.
This week has been great! We have been teaching and talking to a lot of people. I have been able to go on a lot of tradeoffs with the missionaries. We have had some really great success and miracles. Carol (Hone's mom) got married in the church last Saturday. She married Tony. He is our investigator and we hope to set him with a baptism date as soon as possible. We are trying to set more investigators with baptism dates so if you could pray for that I’d more than love it. Elder Naicker had a pretty big crash on his bike this week. Luckily he is okay and nothing serious at all happened. I finally made that birthday cake you sent me. I’ve just been busy. I made it last night. It was so yummy so thanks very much. A member made us a really good dinner a while ago. It was this amazing Roast! Soooo Good! Well the Roger family is going great. Stephanie Rogers (the mom) came to church again and so did Brother Rogers. Sister Rogers has committed to try and keep the word of wisdom. She has a lot of things to give up but i know she can do it. So please keep her in your prayers too....she is trying to change her life around. Our week was just great and we just hope that we can continue to spread the gospel to Heavenly Fathers children!
Well I’m got to go now. I love you all so very much! :)
Love your missionary, Elder Tyler Kitchen
How are you all doing today?! Well I hope all is well with everyone. I’m excited to hear that mom and the girls are just having a great time in Arizona. This e mail is going to be pretty short.....we have had a pretty crazy day today and some things didn’t work the way we wanted so I’m sorry about that. And Ryan I hate to do this to ya.....but I will probably have to e mail you an e mail next week. I’ll see what happens but I want to e mail a good one and don’t want to be all rushed and stuff.
Thanks for sending me those letters. I also received a letter from Grandpa Kitchen. Awe he is so funny. I miss him a lot. He was telling me about my Gun. I can’t wait to go hunting with him sometime when I get back. I’m glad everyone is having a wonderful time for the 4th of July. It doesn’t seem any different here.....they don’t even say one thing about it haha. I’m sure they are a lot of fireworks going off in the States though! I’m glad to hear that everyone was able to hang out with the cousins and everything! :)
I haven’t been able to meet our new mission President yet....but I will tomorrow. I’m excited...I’ve heard some good things about him. Even though I’m still really sad President Porter had to leave. I’m sure he is excited to be home with his family that he hasn’t seen in 3 years!! He worked so hard and he did some incredible things. Well I’m still here in Whangarei but transfers are coming up soon....so I will see what happens.
This week has been great! We have been teaching and talking to a lot of people. I have been able to go on a lot of tradeoffs with the missionaries. We have had some really great success and miracles. Carol (Hone's mom) got married in the church last Saturday. She married Tony. He is our investigator and we hope to set him with a baptism date as soon as possible. We are trying to set more investigators with baptism dates so if you could pray for that I’d more than love it. Elder Naicker had a pretty big crash on his bike this week. Luckily he is okay and nothing serious at all happened. I finally made that birthday cake you sent me. I’ve just been busy. I made it last night. It was so yummy so thanks very much. A member made us a really good dinner a while ago. It was this amazing Roast! Soooo Good! Well the Roger family is going great. Stephanie Rogers (the mom) came to church again and so did Brother Rogers. Sister Rogers has committed to try and keep the word of wisdom. She has a lot of things to give up but i know she can do it. So please keep her in your prayers too....she is trying to change her life around. Our week was just great and we just hope that we can continue to spread the gospel to Heavenly Fathers children!
Well I’m got to go now. I love you all so very much! :)
Love your missionary, Elder Tyler Kitchen
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Dear Family, June 26, 2011
My heart is full of overwhelming joy and happiness. These moments in life make life worth living and allow us to feel a little bit of what Heaven will feel like someday. I don’t know how to describe to you what I’m feeling. I know this powerful feeling of love comes only from one place....from God the Eternal Father. I know that this love was shown in one of the most extreme expressions of love when the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ performed the Atonement. I am forever grateful for the Atonement. I hope and pray that each of you will allow the Atonement to enter into your own lives. Let it purify, clean, and allow you to have the Holy Ghost into your heart. I know that God lives, that is Son Jesus Christ is my savior...I not only hope those things....I absolutely know them for a fact. I know that the Holy Ghost has made them manifest to me. I know that the Fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of Mormon is a sacred and holy record given to us in these last days to understand the teachings of the Savior. I have a solid Testimony of that book. I love reading its pages and learning from the holy prophets of old and the experiences they had with God. I can feel the power in the Book of Mormon confirm to me that the only true and living church on the face of the whole earth is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I love the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation which makes it possible for families to be together forever. I would love to say a lot more but because of time I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
I just thought I’d share my testimony with you. I have a strong testimony and I wish I could write more of it. I just love all of you so very much. Thanks for everything you do for me! I am so glad to hear that everyone is back safely and that all of you had such wonderful and amazing experiences. Thanks for sharing them with me. I also have had so many incredible things happen this week.
Last P day we played sports for hours. It was so much fun to run around and play some sports. We played basketball, football, and some rugby. Wow I haven’t really said much about rugby...it’s so fun. I’m not that great at it....it gets confusing compared to football. But it’s a lot of fun. I’ve played it in Niue a lot and now a couple of times in New Zealand. Tuesday we had a wonderful District Meeting. The spirit was so strong and I could feel the power just lift all the missionaries. It’s such a blessing to work with such great missionaries. They are all some of my best friends and I love them all. That’s one of the hardest things about a mission...is saying goodbye to the people you love. Well we just went crazy talking to people of Tuesday. We talked to 50 people and it was great just to be urgent on sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. It rained and rained this week and we got really wet. The grass here is just so muddy. I was able to do some really good baptism interviews this week. Thursday was amazing. We went on a trade off with the zone leaders. Elder Naicker and Elder Haight stayed in our area and I went to the Zone Leaders area with Elder Aldridge. It was awesome. We worked so hard and had some miracles. Wow I learned a lot from him. He is a great missionary. We got to go to Hikurangi which is a beautiful place. We met one of the returned missionaries in their ward over by the shops. He just got back about a month ago. He bought us heaps of food and stuff. Later that day we went to Punuruku. It is a beautiful place on the coast of New Zealand. Wow its breath taking there....amazing views of the ocean. We did some really wonderful work there and one of the YSA preparing to serve a mission came with us. We had some great lessons. I interviewed one of the ZLs investigators for baptism. Then we drove out in the country more to go to one of our teaching appts. It was at this farm house in the country side of the coast. It was a kiwi family and they had a lot of kids at their house. They had a lot of young adults there from around the world working at this high adventure camp they run. There were a lot of people from Europe. It was so cool to meet all of them. Then the mom and the dad rounded up as many of their kids and their friends who wanted to listen to the missionaries. It ended up being 12 non-members above the age of 15 listening to our message!! That is the most people (investigators) I’ve taught all at one time. They are all Catholics. We taught a powerful Restoration Lesson. The spirit was very powerful and I could literally feel the Holy Ghost helping me know exactly what to say. They had a lot of questions but we were able to answer all of them. At the end of the lesson we gave them some Book of Mormon’s and committed them all to read and pray to know if the book was true. It was such a great experience I’ll never forget. After the lesson was over it was too late to drive all the way back to Whangarei so we stayed the night at a members home in Punuruku. (of course with permission from President Porter). They live right on the beach and its just incredible there. There is no road to get to where they live....so you just drive right on the beach. I took some really good photos. It was so fun and an experience
I’ll never forget. I just loved it.
Well guess what....we had an incredible miracle from the hand of the Lord happen to us this week. So, on Friday night we had a dinner with Hones aunty...Sister Kake. Well it was a miracle but guess what Hone came back to Whangarei!!! YAY! He decided he wanted to come back and continue to be taught by us. He told us he had an experience that just made me so happy. He said his grandma took him to buy a new coat. He saw two coats....one was a worldly (gangster sweater) or he saw a suit coat (church one). He said he prayed to know which one to get and he decided to get the suit coat....!!! This is a 14 year old kid (mind me he looks 18) Wow we were so happy. Well we invited him to come to the baptism of Destiney we would be having the next day. Well yup Destiney Rogers was baptized on Saturday!! YAY!! It was an incredible baptism, wow the spirit of the Lord was so strong. Her whole family came. The music was amazing. Everything went so good....Elder Naicker baptized her. Well after the baptism Hone said he felt the spirit and that he wanted to be baptized!! WOW!! So we took him into the room went over the things we've taught him. Asked him questions, prayed, and then we got confirmation from our leaders to baptize him the next day!!! The zone leaders came down to do his interview! He passed! So Yesterday an hour before church Hone was baptized. Then he and Destiney were confirmed and then Hone received the Aaronic priesthood in the 3rd hour! What a miracle from Heavenly Father. Hones baptism was great. Elder Naicker was blessed to do it. Wow I felt the spirit way strong...the Lord answered my prayers. Everything about that experience was an absolute miracle.
I am so glad to hear Ryan loved Heritage Tours. Wow I loved his letter so much. It brought back so many wonderful memories for me. I wish I could talk to him over the phone....or better in person. Haha....well I will have to e mail a letter to him next week because I have to go soon. I’m happy to hear Mandy Got married again! :) tell her congrats and that I love her very much. I’m so happy for them. I can’t wait to go to their sealing. Awwww I love this gospel so much. Mom I loved the experience you wrote about going to the mission zone conference. It touched my heart and I’m so glad you were able to have that experience....you know a little bit about the mission experience. That’s so cool you were able to meet that missionary....I think I remember him. Wow I’ll have to go meet him when I get back. Thanks for sharing that experience. Well I love you mom and have a great time down in Arizona! Tell everyone hello and that I love them all so much. I couldn’t ask for a better extended family!
Love Elder Kitchen
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Dear Family! June 19, 2011
Kia Ora agian! Time just flies by sometimes! There is a lot going all with all the family! I’m glad that everyone is getting involved with all the exciting activities...especially with the church. That makes me happy to hear Ryan is still on Heritage Tours and is loving the experience. I can’t wait to hear how it was and get an e mail from him. So did he get to go in Washington D.C.? I remember we didn’t get to go there for some reason. When did he go to New York City? I wonder if it was the same day I went past Auckland.... I just hope and pray that he is having a wonderful spiritual experience. I’m so happy for him. I absolutely loved Heritage Tours. I hope he is taking a lot of pictures and writing in his journal. Wow and I’m excited to hear Jami is going on OYA! That will be really cool and exciting...I remember I wanted to do that. I looked at it and it looked really fun. Jami you’re going to have an amazing experience. Take Pictures!! And then tell me all about it. I will be praying for you to have a great experience. I’m just so happy everyone is doing some really amazing things. Our family truly is blessed so much to be able to do all things incredible things.
Your probably right....it must be so weird to have only one child in the home from used to be 4. haha Dad I started laughing when you said you’re in a house full of girls. I’m sure it’s good for you to go golfing or the gym eh? I hope you start playing a little better....I remember how frustrating it can get sometimes. Mom I’m sure you’re so excited to go down to Arizona with all your sisters. That’s always exciting....I remember when you guys would stay up so late talking and we always wanted to be involved with listening. I was really sad to hear that the forest is all burnt down...It’s a blessing though that Eagar is okay. It seriously is the signs of the times...even fires are extremely worse than usual. I’m really glad Kaylee had a good time at the youth conference. :) Jami and Kaylee are both really wonderful girls!
Well your probably wondering how my Temple Trip/Zone Conference went! Wow it was seriously so much fun and very spiritual experience...I loved it. Well we were supposed to drive down Monday night and stay the night in Auckland. But one of the other companionships clear up north didn’t understand and they left to late. So me and my companion had to stay back and wait for them. Went had to get up at 2 am!! Eh I know!! And then leave by 3 am so we could get there on time and be early just in case the bus left us. So we drove all the way to Auckland. Then everyone got on this really nice bus and we all drove down (1/3 of the mission) the other 2/3 went to the temple of different days. Oh yeah guess what our mission is one of the biggest missions in the entire church!! The bus ride was fun...We watched the Joseph Smith movie. We got to the temple and we had a spiritual devotional in the visitor center. Then we went up and did a session in the temple. Wow I had so many spiritual experiences and I received some revelation from Heavenly Father. That place is literally Heaven on earth. I loved it so much and I love being in that sacred and holy place, absolutely beautiful inside. Then we went to a stake center in Hamilton and had our zone conference. We had lunch first which was so good. We had some musical items while we were eating. Then we went inside the chapel for some trainings and things. We had another musical program...wow it was breath taking...some of the missionaries and just so talented here. It is amazing to be in a mission with so much culture. There are missionaries from all around the world. In our zone we have missionaries from Samoa, Africa, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, Fiji, and the United States! That’s just in our zone!! So it is just great to see musical performances and just experience all the culture. After that we had a very spiritual experience with President and Sister Porter. They gave some just wonderful training and we had kind of a farewell program for them. Wow I got so emotional....I’m going to miss them so much. They have influenced me in incredible ways. You could tell President and Sister Porter loved their mission so much and they are going to be so sad to leave. They got so emotional too. But it was a bitter/sweet experience. They also did a really funny thing. They both went up to the front and said okay we've never done this...but now you can ask us about our marriage, dating, how the met and stuff about that. Wow it was hilarious!! We laughed so hard. ohhh man....I love them. After that we all went to this famous place and all got ice cream!! It is a place with so many flavors and you can get as many scoops as you want. The record is last year a missionary got 18 scoops! And they are big scoops! Someone in our trip got 12 but I don’t know about the other days. I only had 4...I didn’t want to spend that much money on just getting a brain freeze haha. Well after that we headed back and traveled to Auckland. We then we into our cars and headed back up to Whangarei....okay we had this crazy experience. We were driving and the main high way was closed because of an accident. So we had to drive on this Tiny little country road in the middle of NZ and it was almost a dirt road. Well the missionary who was driving us went way to fast around a corner and .......well we crashed!! I got in my first accident! Wow it was a weird....But before I say anything more...I am perfectly okay! I didn’t even get a little bump or scratch on me, nothing at all. And no one in the car did. But the car got pretty banged up. Well just the front. We slipped off the road and crashed into a little hill side. It wasn’t bad and we are lucky we crashed where we did. The missionary was pretty upset. Well I don’t know what happened to the car we just went into another car and drove home. Well that was my Temple Trip experience!
This week was great. The sisters in our district had a baptism and the guy asked me to baptize him because I had interviewed him, so that was a cool experience. Ohhh yeah my bike tire exploded on Friday. hahaha...we filled it with too much air and when I was just riding it, it sounded like a gun shot went off and it was my tire! So we've been walking the past couple of days. Oh man I’ve had some pretty funny experiences. Riding bikes in this crazy place is just an adventure.
Well Destiny will be getting baptized this Saturday. Hone had some big trails and decided not to get baptized which was heart breaking....but we just have to move on and don’t be too depressed when things happen like that. I know Heavenly Father will prepare a way. Well it just keeps on raining here....So much!! Rain Rain Rain hahaha. Well tell all the family hello for me! On both sides...I miss them all so much.
Thanks mom for your e mail. I love hearing all about the family and whats going on. I really miss ya. :) You should send some more pictures. I am going to send another DVD with more recent pictures with it soon. Have you gotten 2 DVDs from me?? I think so eh. Me and my companion made Lasagna last night for dinner....it wasn’t as good as yours. I miss your cooking mom! I just love everything about you.
Well until next week everyone be safe on all their trips and everything they are doing! I love you all very much. Just know I’m loving my mission and everything is just amazing.
Love your son, brother, and friend.
Elder Tyler Kitchen
Kia Ora agian! Time just flies by sometimes! There is a lot going all with all the family! I’m glad that everyone is getting involved with all the exciting activities...especially with the church. That makes me happy to hear Ryan is still on Heritage Tours and is loving the experience. I can’t wait to hear how it was and get an e mail from him. So did he get to go in Washington D.C.? I remember we didn’t get to go there for some reason. When did he go to New York City? I wonder if it was the same day I went past Auckland.... I just hope and pray that he is having a wonderful spiritual experience. I’m so happy for him. I absolutely loved Heritage Tours. I hope he is taking a lot of pictures and writing in his journal. Wow and I’m excited to hear Jami is going on OYA! That will be really cool and exciting...I remember I wanted to do that. I looked at it and it looked really fun. Jami you’re going to have an amazing experience. Take Pictures!! And then tell me all about it. I will be praying for you to have a great experience. I’m just so happy everyone is doing some really amazing things. Our family truly is blessed so much to be able to do all things incredible things.
Your probably right....it must be so weird to have only one child in the home from used to be 4. haha Dad I started laughing when you said you’re in a house full of girls. I’m sure it’s good for you to go golfing or the gym eh? I hope you start playing a little better....I remember how frustrating it can get sometimes. Mom I’m sure you’re so excited to go down to Arizona with all your sisters. That’s always exciting....I remember when you guys would stay up so late talking and we always wanted to be involved with listening. I was really sad to hear that the forest is all burnt down...It’s a blessing though that Eagar is okay. It seriously is the signs of the times...even fires are extremely worse than usual. I’m really glad Kaylee had a good time at the youth conference. :) Jami and Kaylee are both really wonderful girls!
Well your probably wondering how my Temple Trip/Zone Conference went! Wow it was seriously so much fun and very spiritual experience...I loved it. Well we were supposed to drive down Monday night and stay the night in Auckland. But one of the other companionships clear up north didn’t understand and they left to late. So me and my companion had to stay back and wait for them. Went had to get up at 2 am!! Eh I know!! And then leave by 3 am so we could get there on time and be early just in case the bus left us. So we drove all the way to Auckland. Then everyone got on this really nice bus and we all drove down (1/3 of the mission) the other 2/3 went to the temple of different days. Oh yeah guess what our mission is one of the biggest missions in the entire church!! The bus ride was fun...We watched the Joseph Smith movie. We got to the temple and we had a spiritual devotional in the visitor center. Then we went up and did a session in the temple. Wow I had so many spiritual experiences and I received some revelation from Heavenly Father. That place is literally Heaven on earth. I loved it so much and I love being in that sacred and holy place, absolutely beautiful inside. Then we went to a stake center in Hamilton and had our zone conference. We had lunch first which was so good. We had some musical items while we were eating. Then we went inside the chapel for some trainings and things. We had another musical program...wow it was breath taking...some of the missionaries and just so talented here. It is amazing to be in a mission with so much culture. There are missionaries from all around the world. In our zone we have missionaries from Samoa, Africa, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, Fiji, and the United States! That’s just in our zone!! So it is just great to see musical performances and just experience all the culture. After that we had a very spiritual experience with President and Sister Porter. They gave some just wonderful training and we had kind of a farewell program for them. Wow I got so emotional....I’m going to miss them so much. They have influenced me in incredible ways. You could tell President and Sister Porter loved their mission so much and they are going to be so sad to leave. They got so emotional too. But it was a bitter/sweet experience. They also did a really funny thing. They both went up to the front and said okay we've never done this...but now you can ask us about our marriage, dating, how the met and stuff about that. Wow it was hilarious!! We laughed so hard. ohhh man....I love them. After that we all went to this famous place and all got ice cream!! It is a place with so many flavors and you can get as many scoops as you want. The record is last year a missionary got 18 scoops! And they are big scoops! Someone in our trip got 12 but I don’t know about the other days. I only had 4...I didn’t want to spend that much money on just getting a brain freeze haha. Well after that we headed back and traveled to Auckland. We then we into our cars and headed back up to Whangarei....okay we had this crazy experience. We were driving and the main high way was closed because of an accident. So we had to drive on this Tiny little country road in the middle of NZ and it was almost a dirt road. Well the missionary who was driving us went way to fast around a corner and .......well we crashed!! I got in my first accident! Wow it was a weird....But before I say anything more...I am perfectly okay! I didn’t even get a little bump or scratch on me, nothing at all. And no one in the car did. But the car got pretty banged up. Well just the front. We slipped off the road and crashed into a little hill side. It wasn’t bad and we are lucky we crashed where we did. The missionary was pretty upset. Well I don’t know what happened to the car we just went into another car and drove home. Well that was my Temple Trip experience!
This week was great. The sisters in our district had a baptism and the guy asked me to baptize him because I had interviewed him, so that was a cool experience. Ohhh yeah my bike tire exploded on Friday. hahaha...we filled it with too much air and when I was just riding it, it sounded like a gun shot went off and it was my tire! So we've been walking the past couple of days. Oh man I’ve had some pretty funny experiences. Riding bikes in this crazy place is just an adventure.
Well Destiny will be getting baptized this Saturday. Hone had some big trails and decided not to get baptized which was heart breaking....but we just have to move on and don’t be too depressed when things happen like that. I know Heavenly Father will prepare a way. Well it just keeps on raining here....So much!! Rain Rain Rain hahaha. Well tell all the family hello for me! On both sides...I miss them all so much.
Thanks mom for your e mail. I love hearing all about the family and whats going on. I really miss ya. :) You should send some more pictures. I am going to send another DVD with more recent pictures with it soon. Have you gotten 2 DVDs from me?? I think so eh. Me and my companion made Lasagna last night for dinner....it wasn’t as good as yours. I miss your cooking mom! I just love everything about you.
Well until next week everyone be safe on all their trips and everything they are doing! I love you all very much. Just know I’m loving my mission and everything is just amazing.
Love your son, brother, and friend.
Elder Tyler Kitchen
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Dear Family! June 12, 2011
Kia Ora to all the Fano! haha Fano means Family. I want to learn some more Maori words since I’m here in New Zealand. Thank you all for your e mails and prayers that you say in my behalf....I really do love them all. I was very excited and grateful to hear Ryan is loving Heritage Tours and having a good time....that brings back so many memories of me going on that. What a wonderful experience. I would love to be in the Sacred Grove today...I pray he will have a very spiritual experience. I can still remember when we went we took of our shoes and walked around because it was holy and sacred ground. I remember when I was in the Sacred Grove I went off by myself and pondered the scriptures. I read the Joseph Smith history of the First Vision experience, I sat and pondered what I must have looked like. And most importantly I prayed. I prayed a lot and I asked our Heavenly Father if the Book of Mormon was true and if Joseph Smith really saw what he said. I can remember I felt the Holy Spirit testify to me that it was indeed true. I knew that the restoration had taken place and I felt the over whelming peaceful, warm, feeling of the spirit enter into my body witnessing unto me that it was true. I loved that place and its beauty...wow it’s a little bit of heaven on Earth. I pray and hope that Ryan will feel the spirit and it will be an experience that will change his life.
I was also excited to hear that Kaylee and Jami went to the Youth Conference thing. I’m sure that was a wonderful great experience. I loved all those kind of things...oh I was wondering...is Jami or Kaylee ever going to go to EFY like I did? I loved that experience. I bet it was really weird to have none of us kids there at the house.
Well my week was really great. I’m so excited too because we are going to the Temple tomorrow!! We will be driving down to Auckland tonight and then we'll stay the night. We will be leaving tomorrow morning at 7 to the temple in Hamilton. I can’t wait....I love the temple. We will be having a zone conference and a big program to kind of like a say good bye to President Porter and his wife. I will really miss them. We are all going to go to this ice cream place too which will be really exciting. This week we have had a lot of success. We've talked to a ton of people and trying to do all we can to spread the gospel. We were able to watch the Joseph Smith movie with one of our investigators that is getting baptized. Right now we have 3 that are set with a baptism date for the 25th of June. Hone, Destiney, and Ani they are all so great. On Thursday we went down to Auckland for leadership training. Wow I learned a lot and felt the spirit. They had some really good DVD presentations which brought the spirit in so strong. President Porter is such a powerful speaker. He is so inspiring...I don’t know what I’m going to do without him haha. He got a new assignment from the church. He is going to help the Leadership of the church leaders improve. Help them become better leaders. I know one of the reasons why I came to this mission was because of him. Saturday we went on a trade off. I went to the zone leader’s area and was with Elder Haight. We had a lot of great miracles, and we were lead by the spirit the whole day. We talked to about 70 people on the street and door knocking that day!! Yesterday at church we had a wonderful experience happen. We were spending the whole morning trying to get people to church. When we got there Hone (our baptism set) wasn’t there. And he needed to be at that sacrament to qualify for his baptism date. He wasn’t there so we prayed really hard. We had no one to take us all the way to his house and get him. A miracle happened a member came out and said elders do you need something. We drove there, talked to him, said a prayer and he got dressed and we drove back just in time and he was in sacrament meeting. So he qualifies...it was just a miracle.
Mom I’m so sorry to hear about Arizona....that’s horrible and makes me sad. I’m glad Susan is okay though. Well I’m sorry but I got to go now....I love you all.
Love Elder Kitchen
Kia Ora to all the Fano! haha Fano means Family. I want to learn some more Maori words since I’m here in New Zealand. Thank you all for your e mails and prayers that you say in my behalf....I really do love them all. I was very excited and grateful to hear Ryan is loving Heritage Tours and having a good time....that brings back so many memories of me going on that. What a wonderful experience. I would love to be in the Sacred Grove today...I pray he will have a very spiritual experience. I can still remember when we went we took of our shoes and walked around because it was holy and sacred ground. I remember when I was in the Sacred Grove I went off by myself and pondered the scriptures. I read the Joseph Smith history of the First Vision experience, I sat and pondered what I must have looked like. And most importantly I prayed. I prayed a lot and I asked our Heavenly Father if the Book of Mormon was true and if Joseph Smith really saw what he said. I can remember I felt the Holy Spirit testify to me that it was indeed true. I knew that the restoration had taken place and I felt the over whelming peaceful, warm, feeling of the spirit enter into my body witnessing unto me that it was true. I loved that place and its beauty...wow it’s a little bit of heaven on Earth. I pray and hope that Ryan will feel the spirit and it will be an experience that will change his life.
I was also excited to hear that Kaylee and Jami went to the Youth Conference thing. I’m sure that was a wonderful great experience. I loved all those kind of things...oh I was wondering...is Jami or Kaylee ever going to go to EFY like I did? I loved that experience. I bet it was really weird to have none of us kids there at the house.
Well my week was really great. I’m so excited too because we are going to the Temple tomorrow!! We will be driving down to Auckland tonight and then we'll stay the night. We will be leaving tomorrow morning at 7 to the temple in Hamilton. I can’t wait....I love the temple. We will be having a zone conference and a big program to kind of like a say good bye to President Porter and his wife. I will really miss them. We are all going to go to this ice cream place too which will be really exciting. This week we have had a lot of success. We've talked to a ton of people and trying to do all we can to spread the gospel. We were able to watch the Joseph Smith movie with one of our investigators that is getting baptized. Right now we have 3 that are set with a baptism date for the 25th of June. Hone, Destiney, and Ani they are all so great. On Thursday we went down to Auckland for leadership training. Wow I learned a lot and felt the spirit. They had some really good DVD presentations which brought the spirit in so strong. President Porter is such a powerful speaker. He is so inspiring...I don’t know what I’m going to do without him haha. He got a new assignment from the church. He is going to help the Leadership of the church leaders improve. Help them become better leaders. I know one of the reasons why I came to this mission was because of him. Saturday we went on a trade off. I went to the zone leader’s area and was with Elder Haight. We had a lot of great miracles, and we were lead by the spirit the whole day. We talked to about 70 people on the street and door knocking that day!! Yesterday at church we had a wonderful experience happen. We were spending the whole morning trying to get people to church. When we got there Hone (our baptism set) wasn’t there. And he needed to be at that sacrament to qualify for his baptism date. He wasn’t there so we prayed really hard. We had no one to take us all the way to his house and get him. A miracle happened a member came out and said elders do you need something. We drove there, talked to him, said a prayer and he got dressed and we drove back just in time and he was in sacrament meeting. So he qualifies...it was just a miracle.
Mom I’m so sorry to hear about Arizona....that’s horrible and makes me sad. I’m glad Susan is okay though. Well I’m sorry but I got to go now....I love you all.
Love Elder Kitchen
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