Its hard to know what to tell your missionary while they are on their mission. You go between not wanting to say too much about what's going on at home and keeping him informed about what's going on at home. I hate to make him homesick but I know he loves hearing about the family. I guess I will continue to keep him informed and he will get a little tougher as the time goes on. He has always loved it when the family gets together and hopefully always will. We really missed him last week when Anthony was baptized and he had to miss it. It made it a little more special though since that is what his mission is all about. I am including some pictures he sent home last week that are really quite beautiful and really show what a lot of Russia looks like.
Hey everyone,
I'll admit it, I got a tiny bit homesick reading about all the festivities. It sounds like it was a lot of fun and a special occasion. I would have loved to be there to join in the fun. It seems like it definitely kept you all busy this past week. Busy weeks go by way way fast thats for sure. So the furnace went out huh? They just don't make 'em like they used to do they. Don't worry, it can only keep up this way for a while, until you've replaced everything, then you should be set for a couple of years.
Well, I am writing this letter from the mission office. I am stuck here all day while Elder Hiatt is in Ukraine renewing his visa. This week has gone by so fast. We had a busy couple of days with missionary work, lessons and what not then we were excited for mission conference yesterday. I love mission conference because we get to come to Moscow and we always learn a lot. This one was extra exciting because Elder Hiatt had a visa trip the next day which meant we got to stay in Moscow the whole rest of the day and the night. The conference was really helpful and full of ideas how we can improve. I like to get to know all the other missionaries better and plus we get pizza hut for lunch and Sister Woolley gives us all a jar of peanut butter. We still have some peanut butter but we now have more. After the conference, Elder Hiatt, Elder Worthington and I got to kind of do whatever we wanted. We weren't even in our mission boundaries so it's not like we could do work. We decided to go to Red Square and get some pictures. We also went to the main temple of all Russian Orthodoxism. It was closed for some reason but I definitely need to go back there before I go home. We went to a mass that was going on in the temple right on Red Square so I got to see what goes on. First of all, I have no idea where they get the ideas for how their service is supposed to go. It's a very flashy kind of service that is actually broadcast over microphones so you can hear it without even being in there. It seems a bit like they are really trying to impress people. We got covered in insense as the bishop guy walked around swinging his little golden insense thing. It smelled pretty good though, I'm not gonna lie. It smelled like Christmas tree hunting if you can believe it. Anyway, it's funny to think of how on earth they came to the conclusion that this is how church should be led. We went through the mall there on Red Square. Supposedly it is one of the most expensive malls in the world. It was kind of neat. After we were done having fun and it was time to go home, we went to the AP's apartment to sleep. I spent some time with the AP's just talking and getting to know them, all in Russian! They are great examples because they are supposed to speak pretty much only Russian and they do. I am in a sort of slump with the language. Satan has figured out a tool to slow me down and that is fear. For a while, everything I would say to people would get this reaction like "why is this kid slaughtering our language?" One guy even asked me to please speak to him in Russian!! I know he knew what language I was speaking but some people are really intolerant of accents around here. It's kind of funny now but at the time it just ticked me off. Anyway, after a while of this going on, I got a little more timid and shy about speaking. Now, I understand so much but I don't speak well, I feel like. I can understand almost 100% of a missionary conversation. I understand a lot of what other people are saying but when I try to speak, I just can't seem to do it. I told Elder Hiatt that I'm just plain not practicing enough. We speak way too much english and now after staying a night with the AP's, I know I can speak Russian, even in the apartment. I have a new motivation to speak more so I can catch up. I am happy with how much I am understanding but that doesn't help much if I can't speak back to the people. Anyway, it was so much fun staying at their apartment because they share the apartment with two office elders who are really cool and fun. The AP's wanted to take a nap before they got going with stuff so I tagged along with the office elders here to the office. Elder Hiatt will be gone until aound 6 or so. Just enough time for us to catch a Marshutka home to Tula.
Some news about our baptismal candidate Tanya. She has brought two of her friends to lessons with her, one seems more interested than the other but we view both of them as potential investigators. We're almost sure she won't be ready by the 14th just because first of all, she hasn't come to church yet. She keeps saying she will but she doesn't. The reason she hasn't been coming is not a good reason either. She things 10:00 is too early to be there on her day off. If she doesn't get baptised just because she's not willing to get out of bed in the morning, I won't be too happy. Also, we found out she smokes. She's only about 20 years old and she's already tried to quit a few times. We have called her every night for the last 4 nights since we found out and asked if she smoked and so far so good. We are hoping to help her quit that. We haven't gotten any other baptismal dates yet but we have had some trouble getting a hold of some of the people we have a chance with.
That seems to be about all the news for this week. Things are going great and I have a new desire to be a better missionary. The trick is to keep the desire alive. I love you all and thank you for all your love and support. Thanks for everything!
Elder Geddes
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