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
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