Okay, this week has been just plain great. First of all, I haven't had a stomach problem in a little over a week. Things are "working themselves out" quite nicely with my guts if you know what I mean! That just makes everything 10 times better. I'm happier, more focused and just an all around better missionary without that problem. Also, I got to watch conference. It was so good. It was by far the most meaningful conference I have seen and heard. It was pretty intense since we would watch one session then pretty much start the next one but it was so good. I think I finally realized that the men and women who speak are really called of God and have a special message for us. I loved hearing the talk that mentioned Russia. That made us all feel really proud to be here and made us all want to work even harder. I loved Elder Hollands talk! That was powerful. All I have to say is I feel bad for Elder Cook for having to follow that talk, but he did good to. I can't wait to get the conference ensign. I wish we each got our own but it's one per companionship so we'll just have to fight over it. The only hard part about the conference weekend was that not too many members showed up. Only 3 people showed up for Saturday and only two stayed for both sessions. There were about 9 on Sunday, but once again, only a few stayed for the whole thing. Elder Hiatt and I really want to do something to strengthen the branch. The big thing is that we need to help our branch president extend callings to everyone. I think if they had some sort of responsibility in the branch they would be more active. We'll see though.
On Monday, Elder Hiatt and I got to travel to Rezon to conduct splits with those elders there. It's about a 4 hour bus ride or so but I got a little sleep since we left pretty early so it wasn't too bad. Splits are always fun since the two other cities in our zone each have an elder from my mtc district. Elder Guynn is in Rezon so I get to be companions with him again once a transfer. It's fun to work as two greenies and find out what we can do. We taught a lesson and then took care of some branch stuff since he is the new branch secratary just like me. It was cool because I was able to help him fill out the paper, I knew what to say to the post office lady to send the money, and I was able to help out a little with some of the other paperwork. The next day we had lunch at McDonalds since they don't have one here in Tula and got back on the bus to head home. This is where one of the funnest/coolest things ever happened. The bus stops two times on the way, each for just a few minutes so people can stand up, get a drink, go to the bathroom or whatever. The bus driver told us we would be at this one stop for about 20 minutes. Elder Hiatt had to go to the bathroom and he refused to use the one at the bus stop. (a hole cut in the concrete floor...) We decided to walk a ways down this road to find a nice covering of trees for him. As we were walking back to the bus, we see our bus pulling away from the stop. We had left our bags on the bus and also, we were still over an hour away from Tula. We start running and I thought for sure the bus would stop for a second and we would be able to catch it but it didn't. It just pulled right out and started driving. I kicked it in gear and started running faster than I think I have ever ran. I jumped over a huge puddle and even had to jump in an even bigger puddle and just when I thought this was going to work, the bus sped up and drove away. I couldn't believe it, I thought for sure I had just lost my scriptures and my backpack. We decided the only thing we could do was try to flag someone down and have them drive us up ahead of the bus so we could stop the bus. We turn around and there are two taxis right behind us. They had seen us running and knew what was going on. We spoke with the first taxi and he said Don't use me, this guy behind me has a faster car! So we hurried to the taxi behind him and the guy already had the doors open for us. We jumped in and he said Where was the bus headed! I yelled TULA and Elder Hiatt said STRAIGHT AHEAD and this guy stepped on it. It was like it was his personal mission to get us on our bus! We were going so fast, passing people left and right. It better than any ride at disneyland or anywhere else, it was awesome. Finally we see our bus and the guy starts going even faster. We catch up to it and he honks at the bus and sticks his hand out to wave him down. We jumped out and Elder Hiatt gave the man 200 rubles, not bad for 5 minutes of driving. When we got on the bus all the old babushkas were laughing and saying, Wow, we thought we left you guys, or Don't you know we only stop for a few minutes? We were both really out of breath, we were pretty muddy from the puddles, but we were sure glad to be back on the bus. It was awesome.
The week gets even better with last night. We had a lesson with an investigator we got from the sisters, although Elder Player and I found her on the streets about a month ago. We had decided we were going to commit her to baptism. When we finally got to the part of the lesson where we were going to do it, I was really nervous and just praying she would know how important it is and accept. Elder Hiatt invited her to be baptised and she was a little confused with the question or how Elder Hiatt said it or something so he had to repeat himself. When he did that she said, Oh, okay, ya ya. We figured she was still a little confused and were both kind of like... uh... you will? and she said Ya, I will. We couldn't believe it! I was so happy, I couldn't stop smiling. We set a goal for November 14th. Happy birthday dad! She still has a lot to learn, and we really want to make sure she understands exactly what needs to happen and exactly what she is about to do. We will work really hard to help her understand this and have her ready by the 14th. I am really hoping she is because I'm not sure if I'll get to stay in Tula next transfer or what and the transfer ends on the 15th. But if she's not ready, we won't rush it. I am pretty excited. We have two more ladies we are ready to commit next time we meet with them and also a guy that we will be talking to tonight that wants to be baptised. When the blessings come, they come in bulk! Thats why we always have to be patient when we seem to be in a drought.
Anyway, that's pretty much our week. Today we have to get the washing machine out of the sisters old apartment and haul it across town to ours because ours broke this week. It will be an interesting experience, hopefully it won't be so bad though. I'm glad you two seem to have had lots of fun and interesting experiences in Russia. Hopefully you got some cool pictures and some cool souveniers. Way to go for sharing the gospel with all those people. We learned in our last mission conference that a lot of times all we are doing is preparing people for the day they are ready to accept the gospel. Every time we share our testimony or our knowledge of the gospel, we are helping people get a little closer to becoming the elect of God. Keep it up. Oh ya, I can't believe you couldn't eat the Borsh! I have had a bowl, it's downright tasty! Did you put the sour cream in it? That's just unbelievable. Honestly, I haven't really eaten one thing that I haven't liked here. I did have one rogue pastry that wasn't my favorite which was wierd because I have been extremely lucky at picking out delicious pastries. Let's just say what looked like strawberry jam was just some sort of sick spicy sort of undescribable substance. Anyway, other than that, I really have liked what I have eaten. For the most part we cook for ourselves or eat at a restaraunt but we have been fed a few times. It got cold enough to turn on the radiators. Everyone says they day they turn on the radiators is the day it starts getting warm again and thats exactly what happened. Now, our radiators are going full blast but it has been pretty warm outside. Our apartment is stinkin hot! I haven't bought my winter stuff yet, every time we plan on it, something comes up. Should I just use my credit card to pull money off after this month until you can get me a new debit card? If not, I'll probably have to just pull a bunch of money off before the end of the month so I have some personal money. Let me know what I should do. Well I think that's all I have. I can't wait to get the packages! The work is going well, I'm still struggling to learn Russian but it's coming along. I love it here and I love being a missionary. There is a lot I could do to improve but I'm working hard and doing my best. I love you guys! Thanks for everything.
Elder Geddes
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