Jess' July 28th e-mail

Hey everyone!

How's everything going? First of all, I did go to the doctor. He said that when this happens, it strips your intestines of the enzyme that breaks down lactose. As I kept drinking milk (at least 6 glasses a day, not counting the occasional chocolate milk) the lactose would ferment, giving me more problems. I never really knew it but it has just appearantly been a vicious cycle. He told me to stop drinking milk and fruit juice and also gave me some probiotics. He also told me to stay away from greasy food but then I think he rememberered where we are and said "actually greasy food shouldn't bother you too bad." I thought that was pretty funny. The probiotics don't seem to be working as good as the last ones did but he gave me a whole months supply of them. I charged the doctor visit and the prescription on my credit card, I hope thats okay. Honestly, If this is the worst thing I have to put up with for the next few years... bring it on! It's really not so bad so don't worry about me.

I can't believe Caleb is back, how long is he supposedly back for? Do you think he was just homesick or what? That's really pretty sad. From what I've seen in the MTC, I can't see how anybody can just go home early unless it is because of worthiness. That's too bad. I hope he goes back out and finishes it out.

Well I have a list of things I want to write about so I'll just go straight down the list. First of all, we got our Russian name tags a few days ago! They are really cool, they changed mine up a little bit from what I thought it was going to be but it is still really cool. At first I felt like it looks exactly like my last name in english but I think I must just be getting used to the alphabet. We can't wear them until we get to Russia though so they are sitting on my desk begging to be opened.

Next, I can't remember if I told you but Elder Johanson, an elder in my district and also one of my roommates, had to have surgery on his ankle last week. Appearantly he had broken a small piece of bone some time ago and it has just been rattling around in there causing damage. We all figured it would be a pretty basic surgery and that not much harm would be done but as of now, he will be staying an extra 4 weeks longer than the rest of us. I feel really bad for him. One of the worst parts was that he had to stay in bed for three days after the surgery. As a district we took shifts babysitting him during class. I only had to miss about an hour and a half of class so it wasn't so bad. Also, he wasn't able to shower for those few days so, needless to say, our room was smelling pretty ripe by the end of that week. He's up and moving now, on cruches which is good becuase he was missing a lot of class.

The other day, I was at breakfast and I saw a familiar face. I took a better look and it turns out it was Sister Mazza! I went and said hello and talked to her for a while. I didn't know she was going on a mission. I bet the majority of Dan's senior couples are from Soda Springs aren't they! It was nice to see a familiar face and to talk to someone from Soda.

Oh ya, I somehow lost a pair of garment bottoms last week during laundry. I am going to check and see but I'm not sure there's a place I can get garments here. I have had to wear those spandex ones once a week and that is just not fun. If there's any way you could send me a pair that would be awesome. Also, I keep forgetting to ask about that book my mission president wanted me to get, 555 Russian verbs. We can't get it from the bookstore here and I hate to have you mail it all the way to Russia so maybe you could find that somehow and get it to me? If not, I think one of my teachers said I should be able to get it there so don't worry too much about it.

I also forgot to thank you for the seat cushion! It's awesome! I felt a little bad though, the day it came in the mail, Brother Sagers surprised us each with a pillow his mom had made for us. Oh well, now I have a back cushion too. I have to take a day off of the cushion every once in a while so I can appreciate it. Otherwise it's like Adam and Eve in the garden of eden, never knowing happiness because they knew no sorrow!

How's your ankle dad? Is everything okay with that? 

Hopefully you are healing okay Rob. How are you going to be playing frisbee golf in a cast? 

Em, are you still going to send me some pictures of yourself? I'm excited to see what twins can do to a girl who has to prop her elbow on her hip to support the apple in her hand!

I can't wait to get the pictures that go along with the letter you sent me Meg, it sounds like you guys are doing really well. I always love the letters Anthony sends me, It's so true what he said, if you're not having fun, just make yourself! He's a pretty awesome kid.

Well that's about all I had on my list, a new record, I have 6 minutes and 30 seconds to go! I can't believe time is going by so fast. I love the MTC but I just can't wait to go to Russia. I know that is where I will really begin to learn the language. It just seems like you can only learn so much of a different language while you are here, surrounded by people speaking english. It's going to be so hard but I can't wait. There are quite a few native Russians here right now. I try to talk to them as much as possible. Yesterday 3 sisters came to our class and talked to us for a few minutes. They couldn't believe we had been here 8 weeks, appearantly they weren't too impressed with our Russian skills. The problem was that females usually tend to speak really fast no matter what language! No wonder we couldn't understand them! I really love talking with the natives though, it's a lot of fun.

Well I'm glad everyone is doing well, thanks for your letters and emails. I will try to write real letters from time to time. I wrote you one today Liz. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all!

-Elder Jess W Geddes

Long Time No Post

Its been a long couple weeks and I haven't updated Jess's letters so I am going to post an epic blog post today.  We were in Germany when we got the July 7th letter and Liz must have posted that one.  We returned the 12th and headed straight to Boise for a few days before we landed back in Soda Springs.  We had a nice time and got to see lots of history, some of which is hard to see but history non the less.  I got really emotional when we saw the remaining piece of the wall separating east from west Germany.  I can't imagine being separated from family, knowing that just a simple wall kept us apart.  Things are happening to change that image but it is still very imprinted on the minds of the people, especially the older ones.  Some even wish it hadn't changed.  I love the USA and my freedoms and hope they are never taken away.  It's really easy to understand why the Lord called it the promised land, even with all its flaws.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was attending the Frieberg Temple on our 31st anniversary. We pulled up just as a bus full of Ukrainians unloaded to spend the week doing Temple work.  It was a fun experience since the session was in Russian.  We listened in English through ear phones but could still hear the Russian.  I gained a real respect for Jess to know he would be learning that language and would someday be speaking it as well as they did.  I also felt a little sorry for him as we smelled their cooking down in the cafeteria.  We stayed in the dorms along with all of them and woke up to a very unpleasent smell.  Bob even got up and shut the bathroom door thinking it was coming from there.  As we got ready and went down to the kitchen to eat our breakfast we realized it was coming from the Ukrainians all cooking their breakfast.  I'm sure he will find something he really likes though, I hope.

We met an american couple and their five year old son at the Temple.  They are stationed in Romainia  and had come to spend a few days doing Temple work also.  We visited for a long time that evening and Bob offered to sit with their little boy the next morning so they could at least attend one session together.  They were thrilled and we got to spend a couple hours talking to an extremely smart 5 year old who could speak Romainian after living there one year.  It was great seeing how dedicated these people were and made me want to be more dedicated to Temple work here.  We forget how blessed we are to be so close to so many Temples.  It's so easy to take that for granted.

Any way, now I will post Jess's letters which is why you came to this blog in the first place.

July 14th 2009

Hey everyone! 
Time flies!! I've been here 6 weeks tomorrow! I have just over a month left and I don't feel anywhere near ready to be thrown into Russia. I guess ready or not here it comes. We are still going strong on the 100 percent Russian and it is helping a ton. 

I am always really glad to hear from you all, I'm glad you made it home from all the traveling and I'm glad you had some fun along the way. I'm happy to hear about the chocolate and cushion! Hopefully the chocolate isn't completely melted by the time it gets here. That's really cool about the Russian temple session. I enjoyed the postcards and letter from Germany.

Well Meg, you guys officially are in your very own house now huh? Thats awesome. I didn't even realize it was Finlay's birthday! I can't believe she's 1, even more crazy, she'll be either almost three or already three, I don't have time to do the math right now. How are you liking everything now that you are a little more settled in? Is everyone making lots of new friends? Has Mica started work yet? If so, how is that going? I bet the kids are just loving it aren't they. 

Em, thats so exciting about the babies! I'm so glad they are both growing healthy and everything. They're always in my prayers... along with you guys. And don't worry, I don't plan on murdering anyone while I'm here, although my companion does snore pretty loud from time to time haha. I'm glad the business is doing well, that's exciting.

Thanks again for tending my dog Liz, I'm sure he wasn't always the most polite but hopefully he wasn't too bad. I got your letter today, thats really cool that you're getting put on the adoption list! Hopefully things happen for you as fast as they did last time. How is everything else? Was Alex sad to have otis leave or was he ready to have his house back?

Thanks for the letter Rob, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to sneak in a meal at the temple, because our session is at 7:40 so we usually get out of there around 10, a little to early for lunch. I'm not sure if I've ever told you my food schedule but breakfast and lunch are fine and dinner is served for us at 4:30! by 10:30 at night I'm pretty hungry but there are vending machines with hot pockets and stuff downstairs. How is your arm? Do you have to get surgery? Kayla said she saw you at the pharmacy in a sling, how long are you going to have to wear that? 

This was a pretty good week, it went by really fast though. I just remembered something pretty cool that happened. Speaking of vending machines there is one with chocolate milk in it. When you choose your item, a little box thing goes and gets the drink then puts it in the box where you grab it. There is a small plastic door that opens once the milk is in there. There is something called the chocolate milk challenge where you buy the milk, grab it, open it, drink it, then try to put it back in the machine before the door closes, which is about 9-10 seconds. Me and my companion both did it this week! I didn't think it could be done but it can! It was pretty cool except when I did it, I got it in right before the door shut so we didn't get the empty bottle out in time. I'm sure someone wasn't too happy when they tried to get some chocolate milk! 

Some other cool stuff that happened this week was I got to play the piano in sacrament meeting. Also it was the first week we had to prepare talks in russian and sure enough, I got chosen as one of the two speakers that day. My talk was a little rough, and I had to read it but I guess it went okay. I did fine on the piano too. It was fun.

My teacher Brother Sagers was telling us some stuff about Russia and I can't wait to get out there!! Even if the only word I know is hello, I'll be in heaven once we land in Russia. He said at the beginning of his mission he was just plain happy to be there. At the time, he thought Russia was just the coolest place on earth. He said later on, he began to notice the litter on the ground, the drugs everywhere and the pornography on the streets and the coldness of the Russian people. He decided maybe Russia wasn't all it was cracked up to be. He said this went on for a while until he realized one important thing. He was born in America into a strong LDS family, grew up in Utah where he was surrounded by good influences, his friends never once offered him a cigarette or a drug. In Russia, people are born addicted to whatever drug their mom was addicted to. They are born into poverty and born into abusive families. Russia isn't America, it especially isn't Utah. He realized at that point how bad he felt for the people there. He realized it was up to him to do everything he possibly could to help out as many people as he could. As he began to develop a real honest love for the people of Russia, he began to not notice the trash that was everywhere. He was so focused on his job and the fact that he had something that could help turn these people's lives around. As his focus changed, so did his oppinion of Russia. 

I can't wait to develop that sincere love for the people I am serving. I will do everything I can to talk to every single person because I know if there life isn't what they want it to be right now, it could be if they would only listen to what we have to say.

Thanks for all of your love and support. I love getting the letters and emails and hearing about all that's going on back there. You are all in my prayers and I hope everything is going great for you. 

Love, Elder Geddes

July14th 2009

Hey everyone!

I can't believe how fast time is going for me. I have 4 weeks from today! A week seems like it ends in minutes so if it keeps up, which I'm sure it will only get faster, I'll be in Russia in no time. Hopefully all of our visas come through okay. We haven't heard anything about them, but I got called down to the travel office a week or two ago. I was pretty scared and had a pit in my stomach but it turns out they just needed a picture for a passport... I'm not sure if the ones we sent weren't good or if we didn't get enough or what. On the way back Elder Guynn and I decided to tell everyone my visa got messed up and that I was delayed two weeks. We played it off pretty good, my teacher Brother Bastian even believed it. The funny thing is my teacher said "Elder Geddes, don't worry, the same thing happended to me and I still went on a mission" haha, I guess he was the only one in his district that had that problem so that's probably why he believed it. After we said just kidding he had me open my Book of Mormon to that scripture that says the liar will be thrust down to hell. He's a good guy, he just does not have his heart and mind in teaching right now. I can't remember if I told you or not but he is moving to Kajakastan shortly after we leave. I'm pretty sure he's more focused on that than on us. But don't worry, my other teacher, Brother Sagers is an all star so he makes up for it. I really like him a lot.

Anyway, kind of an interesting week. First of all, the new group of Russian speakers came in. It seems like every other missionary I see now has a Russian badge. 20% of the new group were headed Russian speaking so there are a lot. Our branch is actually getting split up into two zones this week because there were just too many missionaries and we also have 3 counselors in the branch presidency. It's pretty crazy. I have loved having the new missionaries here so far. I find myself hearing them struggle to say words that I have no problem with anymore and think wow you are saying that horribly wrong! But then I quickly remember I was in that exact same position 7 weeks ago. They have really helped me realize how much I have learned and also how much I have grown. It's interesting to see what we were like, even as far as gospel things go. As I watch them I remember when I first got here I would talk to my friends about movies, tv shows, things we all did before the mission for fun. Now, we still mention things like that from time to time but for the most part I find my mind being occupied with scriptures I'm trying to memorize, a good song I heard or trying to remember words in Russian. I love the changes that are happening. 

So that was the fun stuff for the week, the other news is, after I finished taking the pills, it came right back! Also I started getting a cold or something. I had a headache and a cough and sore throat. That was the most homesick I've been so far because I felt like I needed to call mom and ask what I could do but I knew I couldn't. That actually lasted a couple days and it was definitely hard to focus during those days. But I finally decided to follow President Hinckley's dad's advice and forget myself and go to work. My cough is going away and I actually have an appointment with the doctor today. Hopefully he can figure something out, if not, I'm just going to endure this for the next couple years because I will do anything I can not to go to a doctor in Russia!! It's really not that bad, so if the doctor doesn't fix me, I'll try again next time I'm in America.

Last Wednesday, Elder Guynn and I taught a lesson in the TRC. We got in the room and got talking to the people in there and found out the situation was that they were a Buddhist and a Muslim. Our Lesson changed quickly, which I didn't think was possible since what little Russian we know how to teach isn't exactly the most flexible of stuff. But the Lord blessed us because of our preparation and we were actually able to teach one of the best lessons yet. I felt like I was able to understand some of what they were saying even though they were talking really really fast. Afterwords we found out that we weren't exactly right on with every question but that we actually did really good at understanding and answering them. It was a lot of fun.

And Happy Birthday Liz! I hope you had some fun. The treats were really good. I gave another elder in my district one of those chocolate things and after he ate it I could tell he wanted another one. So I gave him one. They were really good. Thanks for taking Otis. I'm sure he will love living with you guys and having somebody to play with a little more. Take good care of him!

I forgot to answer the music question. We definitely aren't supposed to have any device with video capability or games. I'm not picky with what you get, and if it's too big of a hassle don't worry about it at all. But if you do get something, just make sure it has some sort of speakers as well. Some of the other elders have just a discman type cd player with like a computer speaker or something. That would be just fine. 

Well I have 2 minutes left. This thing stresses me out! It is red numbers that flash in the corner haha. I love you all and am very thankful I have so much support. I will try to start writing a few more personal letters. I was thinking maybe I would write two of the siblings each week. Thanks again for everything, I love you guys and hope everything is going great.

Oh and I think I forgot Mica's birthday... Sorry. Happy birthday though, you're getting old!

Elder Ge

July 7th Email

Hi everyone, It sounds like you guys are all doing really well, thanks for the emails and letters. When I read dad's letter, I hadn't heard anything about Rob's accident and all the letter said was that Rob would probably need surgery! I was a little worried for a couple days wondering what was going on but then I got Rob and Britney's letter. It's nice to know that the Lord will be taking care of you guys while I'm not around to do it, ha.

Meg, it sounds like you guys are all loving the new house, even if it comes with a big price tag and some serious stress. I loved your letter Anthony, it brightened my day a whole bunch. Thats cool that you still know some people there.

Em, you guys sure had a busy holiday weekend, it sounds like it was a lot of fun though. Are you still sick? How are the babies doing? How is work going Jason, are you still finding more new clients?

How was the 4th of July in Burley? Did you guys get to see some fireworks? I'm trying to decide if Alex would love them or be a little scared of them. I'm sure he would love them eventually. How's my dog doing? I'm sorry he has been a bit of a nuisance lately, I'm sure he just misses me thats all!

Rob, I sent you guys a letter, you should get it in a day or two. I hope everything is okay with your arm. I sent Emily and Jason a letter with some pictures in it, I was in a hurry when I was picking pictures to print out and so I didn't print them for everyone. I was going to just send them to mom and dad but who know's where they are at any given time so I just sent them to Emily so they would eventually get to Mom and Dads.

The 4th of July was pretty fun. They had a special devotional which was pretty weird actually. Then we got to watch the fireworks they had here in Provo. Everyone had been talking about how they were supposedly number 4 in the nation (more of those rumors I was telling you about) but after the show, I decided I'd just as much like to see the Soda Springs show. I'm sure the ground show was cool inside but we only saw about 10-15 minutes worth of big ones.

They are helping though and I must say I've been sleeping like a champ the last few nights. I had a really good week, nothing out of the ordinary but everything was just pretty good. There were still some times where I felt pretty frustrated with the language but for the most part I feel really good about it. The older district has left and probably got to Russia sometime this morning. There were none going to the Moscow West Mission so my group will be the first in a long time. I'm really excited to be one of the first. A couple cool things happened this week. Since the older district left, we got new zone leaders and they chose two elders from my district that I think will do awesome.

Also, if you remember me telling you about how the older elders started speaking only Russian two weeks before they left? We decided to do it now. It's been almost a week and we are still sticking with it. It's pretty hard and there have been times where we broke down and spoke english but for the most part we have been speaking 100 percent russian. It's been really fun and I'm learning a lot. I found that after a few days, my mind sort of started accepting Russian and it has been a lot easier to memorize words and concepts. Hopefully by the time we leave we will all have a pretty good handle on this thing.

Next week there will be 90 new Russian speaking missionaries coming in. It's crazy to think that I was in that position over a month ago! The crazy thing is to think that when I got here, the older district had almost 6 weeks left. Those weeks have just disappeared and next thing I know it will be my turn. I can't remember if I told you but we taught lesson 1 in russian last week and tomorrow we are teaching lesson 2. We're ahead of the other districts. I'm really glad our teachers are pushing us like this. The teacher that isn't focusing too much has his days where he does a really good job so I'm still learning from him. My other teacher is one of the coolest guys I've met. He's awesome.

Well thats pretty much all that I can think of that has happened. It is getting easier to stay in class all day, I think I'm getting used to it. If you can't find a cushion that's fine but if you do find one soon, I still would appreciate it. Thanks for everything, I'm pretty lucky to have to much support from you all. I love you all and hope everything is going good for you.

Love, Jess