Kazahkstan, time is flying by

Hey guys,

I'm glad to hear you made it home okay. I'm sure that was a fun trip for everyone. It sounds like everyone had a pretty nice Christmas. I also had a great time. It was really fun to talk to everyone, although I feel like we didn't get much said for some reason. 45 minutes goes by in the blink of an eye, that's for sure. I guess it's all in perspective though, if a year and a half can fly by so fast, then 45 minutes is literally nothing. I guess that's how God feels, he watches as our lives speed by in a flash as we try to prepare ourselves for eternity. Time is an interesting concept. Anyway, the next day I got to go to church and meet lots of the members. There are a lot of great people in our branch, I can't wait to get to know them all a little better. The branch had been doing a service project, making little Christmas goody bags for a blind center. We made somewhere around 1000 goody bags. After Sacrament meeting we loaded up a truck and went to deliver the treats. Apparently the blind people knew we were coming because they were all there standing around wating for their gift. I felt a little bad because it didn't seem like the people were very grateful. It almost seemed like they expected people to do this kind of thing for them and they were just there to grab the gift and leave. We had packed all the goody bags into bigger bags that weighed probably around 60-70 pounds. We had to carry the bags from the truck up a flight of stairs and into a small room where it seemed like every blind person in Almaty was standing. There was some kind of director lady there yelling at all the people to get out of our way because they weren't even letting us through pretty much. They come from a society where if you aren't first you might not get it, especially if you are handicapped in some way. So nobody wanted to give up their spots and instead blocked the road. There was just a narrow tunnel, like we were football players running onto the field. It was crazy. I was pretty dead by the last bag that I had to carry. We took the last bag up and the people started pushing and crowding to try to be first, but we had other things planned. In came one of the members with a keyboard and a bunch of hymn books and we made them all wait about 10 or so more minutes while we sang some carols. I didn't hear one thank you, or good job, but I hope we helped some people have a nice Christmas.

We have had some meetings this week and have had a lot of contacting. I really want to find someone new to work with seeing as most of our investigators have already been long time investigators. The thing with finding new people is you get a lot of figs. You set up meetings with 3 new people and only one of them shows up. It's never fun to get figged but it's what you have to do I guess to find new investigators. Almost all of the contacts we get are English contacts. We tell them that we can help with english and we try to do a 30 minute English lesson and then 30 minutes in Russian about the gospel. Some people don't really want to hear about the gospel but they want the english practice so they listen. That is how a lot of the baptisms happen here, people coming for english, hearing the gospel and accepting it.

Time is just going by so fast, it almost seems like I don't have time for p-days anymore. I never even know what to write about because all the days just blur together. I keep thinking time will slow down as I get settled in but everyday it seems like it is going faster than the last. Even a few days this week we had a few hours of just street contacting and it just fluew by! Here we are on new years eve and I can't even tell where this past year has gone. Tonight we will be at the moores house at 6. We have two movies to watch, one is called Forever Strong, it's a movie about a rugby team from Highland Utah. The other one we will watch, if we decide to is the best 2 years. We will be there until 12:30 when Elder Moore will drive us all home. Tomorrow we are not supposed to leave the apartment all day. I think Sister Woolley just worries a lot. Last year I didn't even hear as much as a firecracker if I remember right. We have instructions to plan out our week and deep clean the apartment. I have a feeling tomorrow will be a long day. I have developed a sever case of A.D.D. on my mission, and I don't like to just sit around. Especially I don't like to just sit around in a tiny apartment with absolutely nothing to do. It will be good to get the apartment nice and tidy though. And we can get the area book in order. I think it will be good, and maybe I'll even get a good nap in.

Today we went to a place called the Baraholka. It is just a huge huge market. They have everything there and it is stinking cheap. One elder bought a huge winter coat, bigger than mine for half the price I paid for mine. If I had known I would be coming here, I wouldn't have bought some things in Russia. I bought today a pair of sweet slippers with pointy toes. I think that is one habbit that might stick with me, I'm not sure. I wear sandles in the house, just like all natives here and in Russia. I can hardly stand to walk around the apartment without some kind of footwear. Anyway, it was so cold and I didn't have my hat or scarf so I just got the slippers and my companion bought a new scarf and we left. But I can tell that is a place I will want to spend some time looking through someday.

It would be so awesome to come back here with the family, whoever wants to ever go to Russia I would be glad to accompany them! That would be really neat. Anyway, I think thats everything. I hope everyone has a happy new year and set some good goals for the 2011. I'll be home in 2011, crazy huh? Anyway, thanks for the letters, I love you guys. Talk to you next year.

Elder Geddes

Day before our Christmas call

Well it's Christmas day and we got our much anticipated phone call from Jess. He wrote this letter the day before and wanted to save something to talk about on the phone so it isn't as newsy as usual. We had a wonderful conversation for about 45 min. and he sounds so happy. Each time we talk to him it gets a little harder to let him go but hearing how happy he is makes it a little less painful. He is in the strongest area of the mission and he says there are about 80 people who come to Church each week. They had two baptisms on Christmas day and a fun Christmas party. He got to go to the Hyatt for dinner with the senior couple and he was in heaven. It was a buffet and he said, lets just say I got my their money's worth. He is excited to take the helm as zone leader and keep up the success of the area. One more call and he comes home!

Hey everyone,

Well I am safe and sound here in Almaty. This week has been pretty crazy and I don't think it will calm down until after new years. I got here Monday night with the AP's. We did splits with them on Wednesday, yesterday we had zone conference, today is our Christmas party, tomorrow is the branch Christmas party and we have some other stuff going on as well. Things are going pretty good, and I'm way excited for today.

My last week in Kaluga was good. It was a little hard to keep focused but I luckily had a lot to do. I got a call on Monday night saying I needed to be in Moscow the next day because they got my visa for Kazakhstan and I needed to be there to pick it up. I stayed the night Tuesday night in Moscow because on Wednesday there was a zone leader training meeting and President Woolley asked me to be the zone leader here in Almaty. The training meeting was way cool. We talked about all the zones, what kinds of problems we are running into, what kinds of successes we are having, all that kind of stuff, then we had a Senior Elder give a presentation on planning and goal setting. Both he and President Woolley are way successful buisness men so it was just really interesting to sit in Presidents house among some way successful people and hear tips and pointers about not only missionary work but pretty much life in general. The next day was zone conference. It wasn't too bad, it was cool to see the missionaries again, especially since I'm not exactly sure if I'll see some of them again before the end. Some of them I might not see again ever for all I know. Elder Khasbiullin is pretty sure he'll come to America at least to visit, so I'll hopefully get to see him again in the future. Elder Bressler and I went back to kaluga and were there working on Friday and Saturday, went to church on Sunday and got back on the bus to Moscow. I had plane tickets for Monday morning along with the AP's. Sunday night at the AP's apartment I spent a lot of time unpacking and repacking my bags to try to make the 40 pound weight limit. Pretty much I'm here witht he absolute bare necessities. 5 shirts, some other clothes and my books and coats. And I'll probably ditch even more stuff when I leave this city. My other suitcase is sitting in moscow with all the things I couldn't take here. Lots of clothes, some souvenier things, stuff like that.

The flight was good, lots better than last time when I was alone. Also it was a day flight, not a night flight. We got to Almaty at around 6 o'clock here but we were stuck in traffic for a while. We got to the branch, met up with the other missionaries and did some other stuff. The next day we had 6 lessons, the most I've ever had in one day, it was cool. I'm still trying to figure my way around and what not and figure out who our investigators are and stuff. Since me and my companion were shotgunned so a couple of the good investigators went with the elder that moved over to a different area. It seems like our investigators are all pretty old and stuff so I really want to hit the streets and find some new ones.

I'm not really sure what to say, I want to save as much as possible for the phone call, assuming everything works out. I hope I'll get to talk to everyone. It's only a 45 minute call this year, but that's okay. I'm excited to hear from you all and ask and answer some questions. I was hoping someone could write me back but I guess thats not happening. I guess I am planning on calling at around 9 oclock my time, I honestly don't know what time that will be in Idaho and especially in Iowa I have no idea. It's only a 45 minute call so I need you guys to make sure everything will work out so that we don't have to waste time trying to connect everybody else and all that stuff, maybe do a practice run with everyone? Ha, anyway, I'm excited. I love you guys, and I'll talk to you soon.

Elder Geddes

Merry Christmas from Kaluga

Hey everyone,

Still here in Kaluga, honestly not a whole lot has happened this week. We have been having a hard time getting contacts lately for some reason. We talked with almost 150 people this week and we got one contact! It's crazy. We had a couple days where we just had contacting and one appointment. It has gotten pretty cold so it's not so fun to be outside for hours on end talking to people who are also cold and don't want to stop to talk. We kept our spirits up though. We have been meeting with our investigators still, trying to get them to make some decisions. They are still kind of at a standstill right now. Yesterday they came to church and during Priesthood we had a pretty good chat with them and the branch president. After it was over, we left and our branch president stayed and had a chat with them for about 10 minutes. He told them that they need to make a choice and that they need to be working towards baptism. He didn't get any further than we have, they still just don't exactly have that desire. I have a feeling that if they continue to work with missionaries when I leave, they will be baptized but right now, they just aren't showing the desire.

This week has actually been a tough one for me. A combination of Christmas, waiting to go to Kazakhstan, inactive members, it all just kind of built up to this week. During Sacrament meeting (on which there were 9 people including me and my companion) I was just thinking a little about my few months I have had in Kaluga. It was kind of hard to see that I have been here for so long and we still have such low attendance. I sat next to Tatyana though, she is completely solid. She hasn't missed church since her baptism and has clearly seen how the Lord blesses us for keeping the commandments. It is just really hard to see these inactive members with cigarettes on the table, complaining about how hard life is and that kind of stuff. I just want to tell them to wake up and look around, they know the truth, they know exactly how they can get themselves out of these ruts but they won't do it. I have a little over a week left in Kaluga, I feel like visiting all these inactives and just calling them to repentance! I know their lives would all improve 10 fold if they would just remember the covenants they have made at one point and honor them. It's hard to feel sympathy for these people when they are outright breaking the commandments and then wondering why life just doesn't work out for them.

Anyway, enough of that, I am still having tons of fun, granted I am getting a little antsy to get this transfer done with. Not that I'm sick of Kaluga or Elder Bressler, but it is always just interesting to see new places and new things. Especially when the new place is a completely new country! I have been trying hard to stay focused on what is going on here in Kaluga, but the closer I get, the harder it is. I really want to work hard this last week though so that I don't leave Elder Bressler and his new companion with nothing to go on. It really will be a lot of fun though to get to Kazakhstan where there is a district and a senior couple. Being in a two man city is a good experience and I'm really glad I got to serve here, especially with Elder Bressler but I'm ready to get back to a district and a big branch.

I fell down for the first time this week, I tried jumping over a pile of snow and landed on the ice on the other side, I think I'm doing a lot better than last year though. Maybe I got some skills from last winter and I won't fall so many times. We will be going to Moscow this Thursday for zone conference, then I am assuming we will be going back next week either Monday or Tuesday, if all goes according to plan. I'm sure I'll know by next pday what the plan is.

I have missed the community concert too, I liked singing in it, the few times I did. We have been listening to Christmas music non stop while we cook lunch or dinner. President put a lot of music on the ipods we have and so we are hooked up with everything from the classics to some pretty modern Christmas music. Also, we have been listening to a 14 part lecture series on Jesus Christ that was given a while back at BYU. It has been so awesome. 14 different speakers just taking parts of the life of Jesus and talking about it for an hour. It has been really interesting. I love the Christmas season. We have so much to be thankful for and it is all thanks to the Saviour coming to the earth just for us. Hopefully everyone is remembering the reason we celebrate Christmas.

So Caleb is married huh? That's crazy. Did they get married in the temple? How is he handling being an instant dad? Is he going to school? Hopefully dad gets that appointment that he wants, sounds pretty important. It's of course really sad to leave Soda, but like I said, I'm still going to give my homecoming talk in the Soda Springs 4th ward with Bishop Humble sitting right behind me. We might all have to sleep in tents in their yard, but that's fine with me! I really want to go straight to Soda if possible, see my name on the Arctic Circle board! I know it's a completely different town now, but there are some things that will never change.

Thanks for all the letters and support. Have a safe trip to Iowa Mom and Dad, and Grandpa and Grandma! That will be lots of fun. I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season! I love you all.

Elder Geddes

New and exciting experiences

Pictures of downtown Kazhakstan taken from Jess's apartment window early the first morning he got there.


Hey everyone,

Well my trip to Kazakhstan was a lot of fun, I can't wait to go back. So last Monday, I got taken to the airport. The driver walked me in and made sure I got my ticket and then left. Right after he left, I realized I had a bit of a problem. I had left my migration card in Kaluga! It's the small piece of paper that we get when we fly back into Russia after visa trips. It's pretty important as it is pretty much the only reason we go on visa trips. You need to present it as you go through passport control. They check your passport, visa, and migration card. I had given my passport to the office the week before so they could get my Kazakh visa and I had left my card on my desk in Kaluga. I didn't have a cell phone or anything so I got a little nervous. I decided to just keep my cool, say a little prayer, and remember all the things I had seen in all the Jason Bourne movies and James Bond and stuff like that when they had to get somewhere. I handed my passport to the lady, she opened it up and immediately asked me where my migration card was. I said I didn't have one. She just looked at me for a second and then grabbed one from someone else to show me what it was in case I didn't understand. I told her I knew what it was, but that I just didn't have one. I told her I had done a bunch of stuff with my passport in order to get a Kazakh visa and had lost the card somewhere in the process. She just sighed a little, looked at me like, well what do you want me to do? Then finally she just stamped my visa, handed it to me and let me go through. I said thank you very much and went on my way without looking back. I felt pretty cool, and said a little prayer of thanks, and headed on my way to the gate. I had to wait about 2 hours in the airport because our plane left about an hour late. I had a pretty good conversation with a woman from Almaty. She was telling me about how cool it was and stuff. Anyway, I got on the plane and we flew away. I fell asleep and woke up at about midnight when they came around to feed us. They were showing some hidden camera joke show on the screens and I couldn't help but laugh at some of them. I realized at that time that I have been on my mission for a long time as I ate the airplane food and thought to myself, wow, this is really good, I haven't had food this good in a long time! It was chicken and rice, a salad, a roll and a dessert, nothing wrong with that. Anyway, there is a three hour time difference in Almaty so we got there at about 6 o'clock Almaty time, or 3 o'clock moscow time. I was pretty tired but really excited to get there. I walked in and immediately knew that I wasn't in Russia anymore. All of the signs were written in Kazakh, not Russian. For the most part everyone speaks Russian there, but the national language is Kazakh and they want everyone to remember that. I got through passport control there no problem and as I got to the other side, a small woman about 45 years old or so came and asked if I was a missionary, I said yes and she said, good, come with me. First of all, I asked her name and couldn't understand it. The names are just crazy there. I've gotten used to all girls here being named Irina, Ludmilla, or something like that and all the guys being Ivan or Sergey. This lady's name is Noorzya, and that's one of the easier names I heard during my two day visit. She is a member who is in charge of getting missionaries and President to and from the airport. She's way nice and actually her daughter is on a mission right now and we were in the mtc together, so she recognized me from a picture her daughter had sent of our district. As she drove me to the apartment we went through a section of town where all the houses are seperate. They were pretty shabby to say the least. After a while, we started getting closer to the center where the branch is and where the missionaries live, it's a pretty nice city. Lot's of big highrise buildings. We stopped and picked up Elder Khussainof who was my companion for the couple days I was there. We served in Veronezh for a pretty long time together so it was nice to see him again. We got to our apartment and I got all cleaned up and stuff. By the time I got ready the sun had come up and he said, look out the window. I looked and immediately felt a little more at home. The mountains surrounding the city look like something you would see in Utah and Idaho and Wyoming, it was so cool. I'll send you a picture. When the weather is nice, the missionaries spend p-day hiking and having picnics in the mountains. I hope I get to stay there until the end of my mission so I'll get a chance to do that. We studied and I fell asleep after about a half hour, I was pretty beat. We went to the branch to wait for a lesson to show up and in the meantime we were supposed to be doing language study, but I fell asleep again. The guy never showed up. I guess the people there are just really nice and so you ask them if you can have their number and they give it to you, then you ask to meet with them and they say, sure, but then they don't show up. Elder Khussainof said they just don't really have a sense of urgency and they don't really respect time there. There were some members that I met at the branch and even a couple non members. Sometimes people just go there to hang out I guess. It's in a really good part of town. Anyway, one thing we did, we had to go to this one place to fill out some documents in order to be volunteers for the upcoming Aisian Winter Olympics!! President thought it would be cool if we were able to be volunteers for it. I guess it's a pretty big deal. Athletes from all over Asia compete. They have been preparing Almaty for the past two years for the games. They start in February but the athletes will be there in January to start preparing. We will be kind of translators and doing odd jobs like putting numbers up on scoreboards and stuff. There is this big ski resort place a little ways outside of Almaty that we will be stationed at. It's going to be pretty cool. It's all the missionaries, some investigators and even some of the members will be helping out. I'm excited for that. The next day we had district meeting at the senior couples apartment. It is way nice, on the 13th floor of some new highrise building. They are the Moores and Elder Moore worked as a chemical engineer for Cheveron. I guess they are pretty well off and they like to spoil the missionaries. That's what I like to hear. It was so fun to be back in a district again after being in Kaluga for the past few months. It will be awesome to serve there. That first night I was there I was just way tired. At 9:00 we were doing some planning for the next day and I was just nodding off. Finally Elder Khussainof told me to just go to bed, so I got ready and started saying my prayers. Next thing I know, Elder Khussainof was waking me up and telling me to get in bed. I had fallen asleep pretty good on my knees. Not the first time it has happened of course, and probably not the last, but man was I tired. So the next day, I pretty much only had time to go to district meeting and teach one lesson before I had to leave at 4:30 to catch my 7 o'clock flight. The flight home was pretty rough because I didn't sleep much. I was really really bored and this time the food just wasn't quite as good as the first time. I got back to Moscow and it was around -24 outside. I got to stay that night in Moscow and the next morning Elder Bressler and I headed back to Kaluga. We have met with Bogdon a couple times and we just aren't quite sure what will happen with him. Our branch president ran into him on the street and said he was either drunk or on some kind of something, he just doesn't have a huge desire to keep the word of wisdom. We actually found Pasha as well. He still claims to have a desire to get baptized but we aren't sure if he has a desire to keep the commandments either. He came to church and stuff but I want to make sure he is ready if he gets baptized, I don't want to baptize him just to find out he left the church.

Anyway, that's pretty much an update of how the week went. I'm now officially over 18 months and I feel like I'm still just getting the hang of some things. Elder Bressler and I are having a great time together still. We are going to go grab some Christmas lights and stuff for the tree. Things are going pretty good. Thats cool that ecco is giving me some new shoes, good idea about keeping them there, that way I will have some way nice new shoes! I can get some cheap shoes in Kazakhstan, I'll let you know how cheap when I get there. Anyway, thanks for the letters and support. I love you guys, talk to you soon.

Elder Geddes

A hard week

Hey everyone,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was interesting to say the least. I can't wait for next years Thanksgiving, I'll be in heaven. Our Thanksgiving began with us going to a meat market with the branch president. This place wouldn't pass a health inspection in a million years. There are just piles of meat everywhere, sitting on pieces of cardboard, or just on a metal table, all the workers are handling several different types of raw meat, all without gloves, there are random things like calculators and other instruments all over the meat, and they have EVERY kind of meat you could ever think of. There were brains, livers, intestines, noses, tongues, kidneys, other round things, everything. We found one lady who had what she called turkey. It looked like these people may have found a turkey that had been run over by something and then just salvaged what they could out of it. It was also really expensive. We decided to keep looking for other options and ended up walking out of that place carrying probably about a 10 pound duck. I wasn't too sure about duck, but I thought, oh well, lets do it. Our branch president claimed he knew how to do it so we trusted him with it. We went home and made mashed potatoes, which were really good, and I used my gravy packets to make gravy. We also made some cookies. We got to the branch plenty early to prepare for the party. Our branch is just a small room with a sacrament table in it, so there is no kitchen or anything. Dima, the branch president, brought a microwave, with the duck inside. When he opened the microwave it was dripping with blood from the duck. The bird was wrapped in tin foil and Dima said he thought it was probably not done. We ended up carving it up the best we could and finishing it off in the microwave. The members came and everyone brought their assigned dish, so there was enough food. Everyone loved our potatoes and gravy. The duck wasn't exactly bad, but I'm glad we traditionally have turkey. Neither Elder Bressler or I ate a ton, because nothing was way delicious. Of course there were no pies, homemade rolls, freezer jam, stuffing, all that good stuff. I think last year I was just so new that I just thought everything was just way awesome so I hardly noticed the meal (which was way better anyway because we were with the Lowries) but this year I was really missing a real thanksgiving dinner.

The disappointments started on Tuesday when I got back from Moscow. We had a meeting with Pasha set up and he didn't come. He doesn't have a cell phone so we called him at home and he said he just had some different things he had to do. We set up another meeting with him for the next day and again he didn't come. We had a meeting with Bogdon and he said he hadn't seen him for a few days. After that we couldn't get a hold of him at all. We called and called and couldn't get a hold of him. We taught some lessons with Bogdon and he had some problems with the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. I was getting pretty scared about all of this but we just kept trying to testify of the blessings that come with these laws. On Sunday, Bogdon came to church. He had a good time and we had a lesson in priesthood about tithing and at the end of the lesson he grabbed a tithing slip and wanted to pay right away. We tried to set up an appointment with him but it wasn't too firm. We left right after church to Moscow. I leave to Kazakhstan tonight but Elder Bressler was supposed to go back to Kaluga tonight with a different missionary. I called Bogdon to ask if he would be able to meet with the other missionaries tonight and he said he didn't want to meet because I wouldn't be there. He said he wouldn't be meeting once I leave, and that the church is good but its not something he wants to do every week and stuff like that. He said he talked with Pasha and Pasha said the same thing, that this church just isn't for him. I was pretty surprised and confused. I said I would meet with him when I get back and we would talk. How does that happen? How does someone go from absolutely crazy about the church to not wanting anything to do with it? I of course will keep trying to work with them but it just scares me, even if I baptized them, I wouldn't want to baptize them just to see them go inactive immediately after the baptism. There was a young guy baptized in another city in our mission not too long ago and he is already not coming to church, already drinking and smoking again and already partying with girls. It's really sad and I wouldn't want to see that. What's better? If I were to try, maybe I could get them baptized, but would it benefit them if they just turned around and forgot everything? This is where the spiritual stress comes from on the mission. You know nobody can be saved without baptism, yet it says if a person is baptized and then denies it, it would be better off for them not to have known God. Missions just aren't games, this is peoples lives. You can't take the easy way out and say, they can just wait until the spirit world, but people can't afford to make covenants just to break them. I have no idea what to do. We just have to keep trying to meet with them and feel by the spirit what to do. The other scary thing is, President Woolley told me that if we can't average 15 people at the meetings over a certain period of time, they will take missionaries out. It would be way sad, but then again, there have been missionaries in Kaluga for 12 years and we can't get 15 people to come to church? I just don't understand that. So kind of a rough week.

The other reason it has been a rough week is for the fact that I have a transfer. Every time you get news that you will be transferred, it is kind of hard to keep focused on your area. Add to that that I am going to Kazakhstan, it's been on my mind quite a bit. My mission is about to change big time. I will be in a predominantly Muslim country, teaching will change, finding will change, it will all be different. The crazy thing is, I have been thinking about it this week, today I'm going to fly there, I'll come back on Wednesday or Thursday and I'll be in Kaluga for another few weeks. If Bogdon and Pasha are completely gone, it will be pretty tough to keep focused and work hard in Kaluga.

I'm pretty bummed about the whole thing but I'm pretty dang excited to go to Kazakhstan, even if it is only for a few days. President says that I should be back in Kazakhstan around the 21st of December. I'm kind of distracted, as usual when I'm in Moscow. Thanks so much for the letters, and the Christmas money! I am going to put it to good use. Not today, but soon. I know there are tons of awesome things to buy in Kazakhstan, and I hear it's really cheap there. It will be cool when I get to call home soon, I'll have been there for a while and will be able to tell you a little about it. As of now I don't know a whole lot about it but it should be interesting. Next week hopefully I have a better letter to send home. I love you guys!

Elder Geddes

KAZAKHSTAN Bound!!

Hey everyone,


Where do I start this weeks email?? So much has happened! I guess I'll just start from the beginning. On Tuesday night, we had English club. Pasha, Bogdon, and Anton came to it. After the club was over, they just stayed, along with a girl from the club and Elder Bressler and I just preached the gospel. We were answering questions, reading from the scriptures, testifying. It was great. The next night, we had family home evening at the branch which is usually just youth and people from English club. We play games, have treats and have a spiritual thought. Anyway, after that Pasha asked if we would have time to meet with him the next day. The zone leader and his companion came down for splits that next day so Elder Bressler and Elder Brown ended up meeting with Pasha. After the lesson, they were both really excited because they said he was just ready to be given a baptismal commitment. During the lesson, Pasha wanted to demonstrate how he has been getting answers from the Book of Mormon. He asked the question, what do I need to do in my life right now? He opened the book and read Mosiah 2:22 it says something to the effect of, all that I require of you is that you keep my commandments. Elder Brown then opened another scripture in 2 Nephi 31 that says it is a commandment from the Father to be baptized in the name of the Son. Anyway, they didn't set a date because we hadn't talked about it and he wanted me to do it. Pasha wanted to meet the very next day, so Elder Bressler and I planned out a lesson leading right up to a baptismal commitment. By the time we got to the part about baptism, he already knew what was coming. He beat us to it and said, I already know I'll be baptized, it's just a matter of when. We told him the date we had prayed about, December 4th, and he agreed. This is all just great, I was on top of the world, but the thing is, today is the day we are supposed to find out transfers. Within a week of transfers, if you get a call from President Woolley, you know what it is about. Halfway through our lesson with Pasha I got a call from President. I answered and asked if I could call back. I knew something was going to happen though. After the lesson, I called President back and he said, how was your lesson? I told him that we had just set a baptismal date with Pasha. He said, that's great! I'm so happy for you, I'm calling to tell you that you are being transferred to Kazakhstan, you need to be in Moscow Sunday night to give your passport to the office elders. In order to get a Kazakh visa, you have to get a letter of invitation, apply for the visa, do some paper work and stuff like that. I will have to fly to Kazakhstan on the 29th, next Monday, and get registered there. Once in the country, I have to wait for almost a month for the government to give me permission to preach the gospel. Pasha asked if I would baptize him, and President thinks there's a way I can be there for the baptism but it's still not for sure. I will have to return to Russia no matter what at some point, but I don't know if I will be able to make it back before the 4th. I know the right thing to do would be to have someone else baptize Pasha. It would be dangerous to delay his baptism, I wouldn't want to do that, but I really want to be there for it and I really think it would be cool to baptize him. He is someone the Lord has prepared so much! I'll tell you some of the miracles that have happened with him.

First of all, his father is dead, he died from affects of Trenobel or however you spell it, that huge nuclear problem in Ukraine. When Pasha was born, the doctors said he would be brain dead. When he was four years old, he was given supposedly 6 more months to live. He's 20 years old now, doing fine and will be baptized on the 4th. Two months ago, he didn't believe in God whatsoever. He said that one night he just woke up and had this really strong desire to pray. He has been growing little by little ever since then, until he met us and has began to grow leaps and bounds. He came to the first meeting to learn English. I told them from the start that we use religious topics to teach English. He said without even thinking about it he agreed and thought, hmm, strange. The next day he was sitting in our branch thinking, how did I get here? The next week he has given up smoking and drinking and is planning on being baptized! He has found several answers to his questions in the Book of Mormon. Last time we met with him, we taught him the word of wisdom. He looked at it and kind of didn't understand completely, he said stuff like, maybe Joseph Smith received this revelation for just certain people, and that he was going to pray about it himself to find out if it was true. We encouraged him to pray about it and ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet. At the end of the lesson, we got on our knees and he offered a short prayer asking if the revelations Joseph Smith received were true for everyone. He said Amen and grabbed a copy of the D&C and opened to section 128:5 it says something to the affect of, you may think these things are very particular, but it is an order set by the Lord to bring to pass his will or something like that. Anyway, he said, oh, okay, I guess that's my answer. The good thing about Pasha is that when he feels like he gets an answer, he accepts it as an answer. The next day, yesterday, he was at church and said, if you would have told me 2 weeks ago that I would be sitting here today, having given up smoking and drinking, I wouldn't believe you for a second. He says that he has never felt so good in all his life. He says every day this feeling just gets stronger and stronger. He's awesome and is just a happy guy. He and our branch president have already struck it off really well and are good friends. I told him I was leaving and he opened up the D&C again and read, many are called but few are chosen. He said, I guess it's just part of your calling, part of your mission. He was sad but he understood. I just really hope I will be there for his baptism, dressed in white right along with Pasha.

I have mixed feelings about everything because I have always kind of wanted to go to Kazakhstan to serve so of course I am excited about that. I have been in Kaluga for around 4 months and it has absolutely flown by. I was ready for another couple months there. I was also ready for Christmas with Elder Bressler. We have had so much fun together, a lot of laughs and a lot of miracles. Both of us were so excited for Christmas together, and we were both so excited to baptize Pasha and his friends. My replacement will be an Elder from Latvia. He goes home in a couple of transfers but he has some slight mental problems and wouldn't be called exactly the strongest missionary. Of course he's a great guy and I'm going to be praying for him because I know he can do whatever needs to be done in Kaluga. Elder Bressler will have to be strong and be a leader and I know he can do that, but it won't be easy. They have a lot of work and there is a lot of potential. I was a little nervous when President told me who would be coming in my place, but I know the Lord's will gets done, we are just tools in his hands.

I also don't know exactly if I'll make it back to Russia before the end of my mission, besides the small amount of time while I wait for my visa. I know I'll come back before I go home and everything but that will probably be just for a day or so. Do I need to buy the last few souvenirs I need? I'm not sure. I know I'll come home with a bunch of Kazakh souvenirs, that's for sure. Oh ya, my companion will be Elder Kruglyak. He's Russian and he only has 2 more transfers. I hope he is ready to work til the end. He's a good guy, I know him pretty well already.

Anyway, that's about all about me. It's really cold here today, did I tell you I'm in Moscow? We came last night and will just be spending our pday here. Anyway, there is snow here and it is pretty chilly. It sounds like the family is doing pretty well. I'm glad Dad was able to serve so long as Pro Tem, it will be good for him to take a break from that. Liz's family sounds like they are doing great and I didn't even know it was the twins birthday! Those little twirps are going to be driving by the time I get home for all I know. Anyway, things are going really good. We are having a branch dinner for Thanksgiving, I really hope everyone is able to bring the stuff they are assigned so it ends up being a good night. I'm having a great time and really seeing the hand of the Lord in the work right now. Thanks for everything, I love you guys.

Elder Geddes

Investigators!!!

Hey everyone,

Summer seems to be on its way, it is probably in the high 50's or low 60's right now for some reason! We had a pretty cold day the other day but for the most part, it hasn't been too bad at all. Don't worry about my shoes, we still have plenty of time before I can't wear them anymore, it's dry outside so my feet are dry as well. Also, you can't see the damage really unless you look, so as long as I don't look like I found the shoes in a garbage can they're fine with me. Some missionaries like to wear their shoes until you can pretty much see their toes hanging out the end and the heel hanging out the other end. Mine still look pretty descent.

That's really scary about Doug, I hope they find out what is wrong and that it is something they can fix easily. I'm glad to hear that Grandma and Grandpa are doing pretty good though, is their little dog still running around all over the place? How is Daryl and his family? And Ken and Shauna? How is your side of the family doing, mom?

Well I guess I'll get right to the good stuff. This week has been a week of miracles. We were asked to fast at the beginning of this month to find new investigators. When an entire mission fasts for one reason, the Lord answers. We reported 4 new investigators this week.

Miracle 1: Elder Bressler and I are walking one night on the way to take sacrament to an old grandma in our branch. We walk past a couple of kids and I hear one kid say to the other, "No, I don't drink vodka, and I never will" something to that affect. We walked a little bit more and I told Elder Bressler what I heard and we both agreed that we should go talk to him. We decided to go for an english contact, see if he would be interested in practicing English. That often works with the youth here. We told him that we were here as missionaries and that part of our service was helping people with English. He was interested in that then he asked us to tell him a little about our church. We told him a little, got his number then left. He came to English club on Tuesday. After the club was over, we played the Restoration film for anyone who wanted to stay. Two girls stayed and this kid, I'll tell you his name later. Anyway, he said thanks and left after the movie. We decided to call him and meet with him on Saturday. We were there a few minutes before the meeting was supposed to start and he called and asked if he could bring some friends. We said of course and he showed up with two friends. He is 21, his friends, Anton and Pasha, are 17 and 20. Anyway, they said they were there to get some practice with English. I told them that's great and then reminded them that we are missionaries and that the way we help people with English is we talk about gospel topics in English. They agreed and so we began to talk about family. They are all pretty new with English so they didn't know enough to have a real conversation or anything so we were pretty much just teaching them family words and how to create sentances. After thirty minutes we said, okay we have done 30 minutes of English, now we want to do 30 minutes of gospel, in Russian. They all agreed and we began to teach them about the Book of Mormon. They are all interested in church, all took a copy of the Book of Mormon and said they would read. They had lots of questions for us and made a few points that line up exactly with our teachings. We invited them to church the next day and they all came, and they even brought a girl with them. They stayed for all three hours and even when we told them that our last hour was going to be in a seperate room, they just abandoned the girl to the relief society and came with us to priesthood. They participated, answered questions and shared their thoughts and concerns. It was all really great. Towards the end, Pasha started talking about the Book of Mormon a little bit. He said, 'Yesterday we tried the book, it works pretty simply actually. We would just ask it a question, open it up, and the first thing our eyes found was a great answer to the question." I was really surprised to hear that from a 20 year old kid who for the first time in his life held the book. He even shared with us one of the answers he found. He said he did it 7 times in a row and it worked every time. Pasha and the our contact said it worked for them as well. I thought it was pretty funny but at the same time a miracle. I warned them that that technique won't work every time and that sometimes God wants us to work a little harder to get answers and they all agreed. We will be meeting with them as soon as possible, hopefully tonight if we can but if not tonight then tomorrow. The kid that we first came in contact is named Bogdan (as in boat with a g and dan as in dawn) The reason I felt like that was significant was that Bog in Russian means God and Dan or dawn means given. So his name pretty much means God given. Cool huh? It seems like they smoke so that will be an obstacle, but they are already developing a testimony of the Book of Mormon. This group of three friends would provide our small branch with such a breath of fresh air, it would be incredible. We need preisthood more than anything! If we could get these guys baptized we would be in good hands for the future. I can't wait to continue working with them.

Miracle 2: One night, Elder Bressler and I didn't have any lessons and its never too much fun to do street contacting in the dark so we decided to do some mining in the area book, all the work of missionaries from the past. We found some pages and called a few people. One of the ones we called was a young guy named Ivan. He agreed to meet with us. I had actually met with him once before a couple months ago. He wasn't too interested in becoming a member or anything but he listened to us and asked questions so I thought, why not. Anyway, when we met him, we waited for him on the street. I saw him coming with another kid with him. He brought his 20 year old friend Gleb with him. He said hello to us and said this is my friend Gleb, he's really interested in learning about the Mormons. We started walking and talking, Elder Bressler with Ivan and I was talking with Gleb. Gleb had read some good things about us on the internet which is always good. He said he had learned a little bit about us and ever since has just been wishing he could find out more. He said when his friend Ivan called and said he had a meeting set up with Mormon missionaries he just began to burn he said. He was so excited. I started telling him about the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy. I started telling him about Joseph Smith and the first vision and he said he had already read about it. He also smokes and asked if he could smoke while we were talking. I asked him not to and then explained that we don't smoke or drink in our church. He was so happy and said he has wanted to quit smoking for the longest time because he knows its bad but he just hasn't been able to do it yet. He had a problem come up and wasn't able to make it to church, but we have a meeting set up with him on Wednesday. He wanted to come to church but he couldn't this time. He promised to come next week.

In one week we were able to get 4 young men as investigators, good investigators. Fasting works. I can't wait to find out the results of the rest of the mission. We are going to be working really hard to get these guys baptized. Keep these young boys in your prayers because we all know that Kaluga needs them.

Speaking of Kaluga, I just can not believe I have been here already almost 4 months. That is the craziest thing ever. When I heard I was getting transfered here, I wasn't exactly too happy. Now, I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else on earth. Kaluga is just a nice place to be as a missionary. Lots and lots of work needs to be done, sometimes we have days where we couldn't get one person to meet with us, but at the same time, I just love this city. Of course Veronezh is at the top of my list but Kaluga is a close 2nd place. I'm glad I am content with my city. It's sometimes overwhelming to be one of two missionaries in a city of over 400,000, but at the end of the day you are really able to see the tender mercies of the Lord and see that we are truly blessed to be here.

I am sending my Christmas package home today, I am sending it to Megan's house so that when Mom and Dad come home from Iowa they will be able to bring everyone else's stuff with them. I couldn't decide which ties will go to which guys, maybe you won't like them, but I do know that the black one is Dad's. He'll like that one, it is pretty slick looking. Anyway, I'm also sending home some cheap soccer jersey's I got clear back at the beginning of my mission, mostly I'm just sending them home to protect the other stuff I'm sending so just put them with the other clothes and stuff I have sent. Maybe you could send me a little inventory of things I have sent home for myself so I don't buy any doubles and so I don't forget to buy anything cool. I'm sending some candy as well, share it with the kids but make sure that some of it gets over to Alex. I don't think the babies can eat it though, ha.

There are still things I am going to need to buy here in the next little while, I'm shopping for good deals and trying to spend as little money as possible but I will be spending some more, just so you know. I was able to take money off my card just fine, the machine must have just had a problem that one time.

I think that's about all I can think of. I hope you guys all have a fun Thanksgiving. I am really missing Thanksgiving. It's one of my favorites. Remember that I have been first in line for the past about 16 years? Now who is in front? This will be their last year because next year, I will resume my spot! Anyway, thanks for everything. I love you all!

Elder Geddes

17 months!!!

Hey guys,

Well today I realized I have been on a mission for 17 months, crazy huh? I can't hardly believe it. Right now I am sitting in the office in Moscow. We got up this morning at 4 to catch our bus to Moscow at 5. I have a visa trip tomorrow morning so Elder Bressler and I would have had to come here tonight anyway and tomorrow instead of p-day would have been a visa trip. Friday we have zone conference here so I just got permission for us to come up here today and have p-day in Moscow. Surprisingly they gave us permission. Elder Bressler is a huge war buff so we decided to visit a huge World War II museum. This thing had 5 floors and it was full of really cool stuff from the war. There were a few movie screens that had some footage going from the war, it was so crazy, I don't think I'll ever quite comprehend war. I do think, however, that if I were to be born in a different time, I would want to be born at that time so I could fly planes in the war, I think that would be so awesome! Anyway, the museum was cool, we were with the office elders and a senior couple that just got here yesterday. It was a lot of fun. On the way back we stopped and got a Sharuma, or a Kabob as the Europeans call it. Its that rotating meet stuff that they make kind of burritos out of, bottom line, they're always good and we can only get them in Moscow. I'll probably head out with the AP's tonight and do something, I'm not sure yet. At the museum I bought some really cool propaganda posters that they used to have during the war here in Russia. They were less than a dollar which was the best part.

This past week actually wasn't the best. For some reason some weeks seem to work out perfect and other weeks, nothing seems to work out. We did get a new investigator, a lady who speaks really good english. Maybe she just like speaking English with us, who knows. She did come to church but she hasn't started reading the Book of Mormon. We got a contact of a family of 6, a mom a dad and 4 kids. We had a lesson set up with them and they didn't show up, so I called him and he said, I'll be there in a half an hour. So we waited and after about 45 minutes we called again and he didn't answer. I don't understand how people can tell you that they will do something and don't do it. That kind of thing happened alot this week, oh well, we'll try again this week.

Elder Bressler has been trying to speak Russian all week this week, he's been doing a good job. He speaks Russian until 9:00 and then we plan and then speak English with each other. It's hard to talk Russian because he's still pretty new and stuff and also because he's really funny and we have a lot to talk about all the time but it makes it fun after planning and stuff.

Some funny things happened the last couple days. First of all, we were tracting and we knocked on a door. The way the door opened, I couldn't see in, only Elder Bressler could see. The door swung open and the guy said, come on in! Elder Bressler just stood there and said "...uhh..." I peeked around the door and I'm not sure what this guy was doing, I think he had been in the bathroom when we knocked or something but his pants were not pulled up nearly enough. Elder Bressler saw more than me luckily but it was pretty funny, we just said, we'll come back later or something and then we left. Later, we went to a members house to visit. Her name is Ludmilla. She was baptized last year sometime and she's probably in her 60's and she's a little crazy. Anyway, she had us do some stuff for her, Elder Bressler was putting up a new shower curtain for her and she wanted me to open a bottle for her. She handed me the bottle and it was a bottle of Vodka. I said, Uh, Ludmilla, this is vodka, you can't drink this and I won't open it. She started shouting at me and telling me that she just adds it to some weird stuff and makes medicine out of it. I told her that she would be better off not taking the medicine if it was vodka. She was getting pretty upset with me because she already had some of the medicine made up but she was just running low on it and wanted to make more. I didn't know exactly what the medicine was so I told her I would call the branch president and ask him. He pretty much told me to do whatever I wanted because he wasn't too sure either. I called another lady in the branch and asked her advice, she said that the Lord probably understands that Ludmilla isn't all there in the head and would take care of her. I thought about it and just opened it for her. Probably not the best choice but she said if I didn't open it she would just break the top off the bottle. Kind of sad but at the same time it was pretty funny.

I tried to take some money off my card today and it denied it. I need you to put some of my own money on my card so I can buy some Christmas stuff for everyone. I won't spend too much, I bought some 3 dollar ties today, one for dad, Rob, and all the girls husbands. You'll be surprised what 3 dollars can get you in Russia when it comes to ties. They are probably better than any other ties you guys have. I bought two more for myself as well.

Anyway, I think that's about all I have. Tomorrow and Friday should be pretty fun, I'm excited to see all my buddies again. Zone conference will be great because the whole mission except for Kazakhstan will be there. I'm not sure how much longer I will be in Kaluga, my guess would be at least one more transfer after this one but who knows. Anyway, thanks for writing on such short notice. Love you guys, have a good week.

Elder Geddes

P.S. I really want to learn more about Russian history, especially from the start of communism through WWII and to the end of communism, so if you can find any good books about that kind of stuff, interesting ones though not just history books, that would be cool. It would be good for everyone to learn about it because it's a big part of history in the world. I hope you aren't just forgetting about all of my book requests, like things from Bruce R. McConkie and Joseph F. Smith, and stuff like that. I hope when I get home there is a nice stack of books for me to read! Ha, thanks for everything!

Halloween fun in Russia

Hey everyone,

Well Happy Halloween! We have had a great Halloween season, even though they don't really celebrate it here. There is one poster that I know of in Kaluga advertising some sort of Halloween night at a night club, other than that, there isn't one witch, skeleton, or ghost anywhere in the city, plenty of spider webs, but that's a different story. Last night, Elder Bressler and I hosted a Halloween themed family night. We had lots of people come, namely almost everyone from our English club. It worked out really great because we had more people than I have ever seen at English club on Tuesday so we were able to invite them all to the Halloween party. We had two investigators and a couple of new people come. We had a spiritual thought then played some games. Our first game was kind of a dud. We had bought a bunch of doughnuts and tried to get them to play a game where you had to eat a doughnut hanging from a string without using your hands. They didn't understand and nobody wanted to play so Elder Bressler and I did a demonstration. I won of course and they all thought it was pretty funny and stuff but they still weren't willing to play. So we just moved on to the next game. We had bought a bunch of rolls of toilet paper (you can get rolls of toilet paper here for ten cents, but of course... you get what you pay for) and we had teams of two race to see who could mummify their partner the fastest, they liked that game a little more, but they had no technique. Elder Bressler and I creamed everyone. I ran around him in circles and he spun in circles the other way, the obvious path to victory. Anyway, we had made cookies, bought some candies and juice and just had a nice set up. After the mummy game we broke out three pumpkins that we had bough that morning and everyone worked together to carve them up. They did a good job for their first times ever doing it. Nobody cleaned out the inside anywhere near my specifications but what can you do, they just wanted to cut up the pumpkins without doing the necessary work. Speaking of whiche, remember that huge pumpkin I bought a few years ago? I know I took pictures, but I don't know where they ended up, if anyone could find them, they should send them to me. They should just be on our computer somewhere. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Things are just going pretty good here. We had 4 members take a trip to the temple last week, 2 of them for their first time. I feel like the city is feeling the blessings of it's faithful members efforts. We had a record amount of people at church on Sunday since I've been here, 22! It was mostly because there was a girl in our branch that lives in Moscow right now but comes back to Kaluga sometimes. She got her mission call and so she called all of the members and personally asked them to come and then she brought two friends. We have gotten some really great contacts lately, including a family of 3 and another family of 6! We haven't met with them yet, but we're trying. Also, we have started working with 3 new guys in the past little while. A 21 year old named Ivan, a 23 year old named Igor and a 27 year old named Gary from Armenia. We have had a couple lessons with Igor, and Ivan came to Sunday School last week and I think he really enjoyed it. We got Gary's contact on Saturday, met with him on Sunday, met him again Tuesday before English club and he came to the halloween party on Wednesday with a friend. Granted he did call me before the party and ask if he needed to bring any alcohol, he's a great guy. He's interested in learning and I hope will be acceptive of what we have to teach him. He understood everything in the first lesson and had great questions. If we could get these 3 guys baptized it would help out the branch so much.

Tatyana is doing good, still strong. She has lately become very protective of us, acting like we are her kids, always telling us to be careful and telling us that we need to carry around flashlights when we have to walk home in the dark. She's pretty cool.

We bought coats this morning. The lady originally asked for 3300 for the coats but said she would sell two to us for 5500. I eventually bargained her down to 4500 so we ended up paying 2250 each for our coats that were originally 3300. I felt pretty good about that, that's more than 30 dollars we got off. They're pretty nice coats, good fur collars and everything. Oh ya, I have heard that ecco shoes have some kind of guarantee on them. One elder had a pair blow out and sent pictures to his mom. She showed the pictures at the store she bought them and they gave her a new pair right on the spot. I don't know if you have any papers or anything left from my shoes, but it might be worth looking at. My other option would be to buy a pair of winter shoes so I could give my eccos a break for a few months then just start wearing them at the end of my mission again. Like I said, they still like fine, they just have cracks in the bottom that let water in. Let me know what you think.

Christmas, I really don't need a whole lot other than just tasty snacks. Maybe it would be nice to throw in some cool aid mixes or some drink mixes. Did you remember to put at least one good pen in there? I'm really struggling with my pens right now. Oh ya, I have been meaning to ask for this for the longest time, could you get a copy of my mission call letter and send it to me?

I haven't gotten sick and my stomach has been treating me great lately. I still have a ton of medicine, cold medicine, cough medicine, I have it all from last year so I don't think I need that.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Halloween. Thanks for everything, the letters and support. I love you guys.

Elder Geddes

Long time no blog

Sorry I haven't posted Jess's last two blogs. The one on the 22nd was only a paragraph long and then the internet quit so he couldn't write anymore. I was pretty disappointed to say the least. He did,however, tell us about Tatyana's baptism. It went very well and she is doing great. Several branch members showed up and everyone bore their testimonies. Here is his last letter, just in time to post this weeks so you will get two in a row.

Hi everyone,

Sorry again Mom, that was just a terrible P-day. Me and Elder Erickson had to pick up the other two elders that morning and pretty much show them around for a couple days. We went to Kaluga on Saturday and on Sunday, President Woolley came to church in Kaluga. He gave a talk in Russian, so I didn't have to translate. After church, Elder Erickson and I got to ride to Moscow with President, and that's when the craziness started.

The ride to Moscow was great, it isn't every day that you get to just have a couple of hours to sit and chat with President Woolley, so I took advantage and was asking all sorts of questions about the business world. He has done a lot of things in his life, including buying a 2.3 billion dollar business to expand his own... wow. Anyway, it was just really nice to be able to just chat with him. We got to Moscow and he dropped me and Elder Erickson off at a metro station near the office which is at the very north west corner of Moscow. He took Elder Erickson's bags and we took off on the metro to pick up a sister who was coming from Tula. We had to go from the very north west to the very south east of the metro map and the city of Moscow for that matter. If you have a chance, you should take a look on the internet at the Moscow Metro, it's pretty incredible. Anyway, it took about an hour and twenty minutes to get there, but when we got there, we realized we had no idea where exactly to find her. We asked a few people where buses from Tula come and got a couple of different answers. Sister Kelly was being transfered so she had all her bags with her and she's only been in Russia for a few months. I just said a prayer that we would be able to find her as fast as possible because it's not good for her to be alone. After the prayer we just crossed a street and said maybe this way. We walked maybe 10 feet and saw Sister Kelly walking up the street with 3 suitcases. We were all pretty relieved. So we grabbed her bags and jumped right back on the metro and went all the way back up to the stop near the office. After a total of 3 hours on the metro we walked from the metro to a senior couple's apartment that is about 20 minutes from the metro to drop off Sister Kelly. We then walked 20 minutes back to the AP's apartment where luckily Sister Woolley had brought over some food for all the elders that would be stayinig there that night. There was a big visa trip so there were some elders who had to wait for their companions like I had to. I think there were about 8 or 10 of us there. The next morning I was going to wake up at 6:15 to go with one of the AP's and another couple of elders to help some more missionaries get where they needed to be on time. So one other elder and I walked back to the senior couple's apartment to pick up Sister Kelly again, and walked back to the AP's apartment. We got some breakfast and a shower and then got a call from the senior couple askin us to come back to help them with some bags, so once again we walked back there to get the bags. After that, we went to the office where I opened up my package and sized the inserts, they're way nice, thanks! I was pretty excited about the jam too. The rest of the day was pretty boring just sitting in the office. I like just hanging out with the other missionaries though so that's always fun. President took us to a mall for lunch and I got a big baked potato, it was pretty tasty. All the elders, including my new companion Elder Bressler, got back to the office at like 6 or so, quickly got their documents and we took off. Once again we needed to make the hour and twenty minute trip down to the south east corner of the map. We had to help Elder Erickson get to his train station which was on the way. This all would have been fine and easy except for the fact that Elder Bressler's biggest bag has two broken wheels! It is one of those suitcases that has four wheels on the bottom, and it just so happens that the wheels on the side with the handle are completely destroyed. His older brother took this suitcase on his mission to Russia a few years ago and now it's whith him. We were trying all sorts of ways to drag it with the wheel side, I walked it for about 10 minutes in a crouched over position like an old man, finally one other elder just threw it on his back and got it almost the rest of the way to the metro. Once in the metro it was my turn again and I was just dragging it on the melted pathetic pieces of plastic that were once his wheels. Anyway, we get on the metro, down to Erickson's train station and they took forever to get him a ticket. Once they finally got him on his train, we jumped back on the metro. Somehow we ended up getting on a wrong train that took us to this dead end, there is one track but there are two different trains that come and we didn't know that. So we get to the dead end, get on the train back, look at the signs and we are sure we are in the right place so we get back on a train and once again get to the dead end. This time we're all just about frustrated out of our minds with Bressler's big suitcase. We get back to the right place and figure out that there are two trains on that track and finally get on the right one. By this time it is about 9:00 or so, we knew that the last bus left at sometime around 10 to Tula. We ended up getting to the bus station around 10 and we couldn't find any buses that should have been there heading to Tula! We went over and me and my zone leader tried haggling with the taxis to take four guys and 3 suitcases to Tula. They wouldn't do it for less than 4000 rubles. We called the office elders and they said that's too much, so they told us to just come back to their apartment! With Bressler's beast of a bag! So that's what we did, got back on the metro for an hour and 20 minutes. When we got out the other side, we put my companion and Elder Brown's companion in a taxi with the beast bag and sent them to the apartment. We went to McDonalds and bought us all some dinner since nobody had eaten all day and walked to the AP's. We ended up getting there at around 12. The next morning we woke up early and were out the door by 7, back down to the other end to go to Tula. We had to go to Tula because we had a small zone meeting on Tuesday there. It was a nightmare. Now we can laugh but at the time, we all just wanted to throw our hands up in the air and give up. So we got to Tula, had a district meeting and then went to the bus station to take what hopefully is my last trip between Tula and Kaluga for a while. We pulled into Kaluga around 7 o'clock and as we were pulling in, a guy from our English club called and said "Are you guys coming or what?" We told him where we were and he jumped in his car and picked us up, along with the bags, which was a relief. We had English club and a short meeting with Tatyana then the guy took us home. We were so happy to get home!

That's pretty much what has been happening this week. My companion is Elder Bressler from Rexburg. He's hillarious. I've been laughing pretty much since we got together. This is only his 3rd transfer so his Russian is still pretty rough, but I hope to help him out with that. He loves war history and told me about this really cool book he read about this LDS kid in WWII. I think it was called something like, a distant prayer or something. You should check it out sometime, it sounds really good.

The weather has been really rainy the past few days. I am just now understanding that the cracks in the bottoms of my shoes kind of are taking their toll. My feet are getting kind of wet, but I'm thinking that once the snow comes that will stop. Right now I'm just trucking through puddles and what not, I don't think the snow will bother me too much. I wouldn't get rid of these shoes because the damage isn't even visable, so it would be a shame. Elder Bressler hasn't bought a winter coat yet so we're going to check it out today, if we could buy some together, I think we could get them a lot cheaper.

I will be going to Ukrain sometime around the 3rd or so of next month. We won't be able to go to the temple because they have a goofy schedule there that we wouldn't make it to a session and be able to come back in one day. We get Liahonas here, and we got the temple edition, it was really cool. We have enough copies of them here, thanks though.

Oh ya, President Woolley got permission from the area presidency to give each companionship an ipod. He has had ipods in a few cities but has been struggling to get them approved for everyone. He finally did it though so we have an ipod again. We got a new movie on it, the Joseph Smith movie that the show at the visitors center! It's cool, I put it on my personal ipod as well.

Today we went to the space museum here in Kaluga. Tatyana wanted us to go with her. They have a planetarium and they showed about a 45 minute thing about space. It was pretty neat.

I think that's about everything, things are going pretty good, I'm happy and having fun. Elder Bressler and I will baptize someone this transfer we hope! Thanks for the letters and thanks for the package mom! I am taking it slow with the jerky and the hot chocolate is delicious! I can't believe we are already heading into the end of October, this month pretty much didn't exist for me, it's like a dream. Anyway, I love you guys, have a great week.

Elder Geddes

Always an adventure

Hello,

Another fast week. Traveling back and forth makes it go fast. The good, and I guess bad part, is that when we are in either city, we pretty much just have time for meetings so we never have any down time, especially in Kaluga. We go from city to city, meeting to meeting. It's been fun but both of us are ready for transfers already. We got called last night about transfers by the way. I will be with an Elder Bressler. I met him once, the day he got to Russia was the day I was leaving Veronezh. This is going to be the beginning of his 3rd transfer. President and other missionaries only have good things to say about him so I am excited to serve with him. I gave him a call last night and he's excited to come to Kaluga and serve with me too. He says people still tell stories about me in Veronezh, so I'm not forgotten. Also last night I called the other elders in Veronezh to get a phone number. I talked with Elder Johanson and he said 3 people that day had asked how I was doing. It made me feel really good. I called him to get the phone number of Ludmilla. I asked President if I could call her and he said that would be a great idea. She immediately recognized my voice and was so happy to hear from me. She says she hasn't missed a Sunday since her baptism and is still planning on going to the temple in June! I was so happy to hear that she is still doing so well. She says she wants to go to the temple with me, I'm not sure that's possible if you guys can't come get me but I'm going to ask if there's any way to do that. Maybe I'll just have to hurry back to Russia after I get home from my mission for a week or two. I'm not sure but I'd really love to go to the temple with her.

Anyway, some other cool things happened this week. We had an open house in Kaluga on Saturday. We had about 5 or 6 people come and we got one good contact out of it. It was a 20 year old kid named Igor. He came to the open house and stayed for over an hour. Then the next day, he came to church. We talked with him for a while and he said that he's not interested in becoming a member right now but that he enjoyed the meeting and would continue to come listen on Sundays. Maybe through some time he will become more interested. Also, Sunday night, Tatyana had her baptismal interview. It was with Elder Moffat so I had to translate. She did awesome, and even bore a great testimony at the end. After she finished her testimony, she said, oh, I have one more testimony, she then told a story about how earlier that day (fast Sunday) she was walking home and found a delicious pastry laying on the sidewalk, untouched. She said she was really hungry from fasting and that the pastry was something delicious and that it was a miracle that she found it on the ground because if she had found it in the store, she wouldn't have been able to buy it because it was Sunday. So she picked it up and took it home to break the fast, ha. She said, That's a testimony too, right? I said, sure, whatever you say. She's pretty cool. Then, aftr the interview, she said "Elder Geddes, you have spent a lot of time and energy on me, I know you are only 20 and you might be using all your energy on my, but I would like to ask you to use your last bit of strength and give me the gift of the Holy Ghost after my baptism." I couldn't tell if she thought I was weak or what but I was pretty touched by her humble request. I said I would love to do that for her. Elder Erickson will be baptizing her. It will be a great experience for us both.

Well it is getting pretty chilly here. I have started wearing my scarf around. All of the coats are coming out on the market. Last week we went to look at them and it seemed like they have some sort of system worked out there on the market because there were about 500 foreigners all trying to sell me a coat. Word spreads fast when you want to buy something. I found some pretty awesome coats for about 2000 rubles, and I think I could get a little lower. That's a nice winter coat for around 60 dollars, I think that's not too bad of a deal. We'll see what I decide to do. There are just a million coats and hats calling my name! Oh, I thought of one more thing you could put in my Christmas package if you haven't already mailed it. I have ran out of good pens and am having the hardest time find good ones here that I like. If you could send me maybe 2 black zebra pens, that should last the rest of my mission.

Well it seems like that is all that has happened this past week. I'm not sure when I will get my new companion but I don't think it will be until around the 18th. Until then, I think we will be traveling back and forth still. I'm getting good at sleeping on the bus but I am still not a big fan. The roads here are awful. Anyway, thanks for everything, love you guys.

Elder Geddes

ps

I just told Rob some things that I forgot to tell you guys. Russia is a place that you just have to love. Sure there are some problems but it is what it is. The other day in our stairwell one floor down from us we found a huge syringe on the ground. There is a serious drug and alcohol problem with the youth in Russia. It's really sad. We find syringes a lot on the streets but never in my own stairwell. My companion got arrested while on splits with the AP's for tracting. Everything was fine of course but he was pretty shaken up about it. They were tracting and an old woman called the cops. Elder Erickson and Elder Nutt, the AP he was with, tried to show that there was nothing illegal they were doing. The problem was that they were both from different cities so the cops couldn't figure out what they were up to. Registration is a huge deal here in Russia and if you mess it up, you will be deported. You are allowed to be in a city for three days without being registered. It was Elder Ericksons second day so we had to leave the next day. Anyway, the cops weren't believing them so they made them get in the car and took them to the station. They were there for a while until the cops figured out they had no reason to keep them any longer. I don't know when it will be my turn to do that, but hopefully someday :) It's getting pretty cold already, our heaters haven't filled up with hot water quite yet so it's pretty cold in the mornings. All in all, every day is an adventure of some sort. Something you could see only in Russia I think, last week we saw two extremely old women trip and fall on the sidewalk. They both fell dang hard. In America, I'm sure you would be calling an ambulence and stuff, but here, people around just picked up the women, they dusted their knees off and continued on their way. It was two different days and two different women but it goes to show you that old women here are tough as nails. When you talk about Russia, people say that bears walk around on the streets, what they mean is the old women. It's funny.

A Baptism soon

Hey everyone,

Well we had a pretty interesting and exciting week. First things first. We got back to Kaluga on either Friday or Saturday, I forgot, but we immediately went to a meeting with Tatyana, our investigator. We taught her the first half of the plan of salvation and then committed her to be baptized on the 9th of October. She has already been to church 4 times and we have almost finished teaching her all the lessons. It should be pretty smooth from here until the baptism, I don't seen any real problems so it will be great. The other thing that happed that was a little crazy was that on Sunday night, I got a call from the branch president in Kaluga saying that Anatoly Lyakh passed away. He was the first person baptized in Kaluga.

Brother Lyakh has been inactive for quite a while and had even fallen back into a habit of smoking. I have met with him a few times since I have been here in Kaluga and he had some interesting points of view that all come back to the point of enduring to the end. He claimed that there is no need for him to come sit through church meetings because he has heard it all. He says Sunday school is for the people who don't know the gospel but since he has been in the church for over 10 years, he doesn't need to come anymore. He was a workoholic and was working 3 jobs at the time of his death. He was only 58 years old. I heard he had been complaining of pains in his left arm for a little while but never bothered to go to the doctor. I feel really bad about the whole situation because we kind of dropped the ball here. Dima called and told me he died and we all felt bad but we didn't do anything about it. I didn't know all the things that needed to be done by the church for the funeral. I called and told Elder Moffat the bad news the next day and he told me everything we needed to do for it, about the temple clothes and everything. He told me how serious and important it is, because he was an endowed member. By the time I got a hold of Dima and he got a hold of this mans wife (not a member) it was too late, they had him in the mortuary all dressed and ready to go for his funeral the next day. He died Sunday and was buried Tuesday morning. I was really scared because I had to call President Woolly to find out about temple clothing and where we could get it (before I found out it was too late) and he told me that it would be me and my companion that would have to dress him in the case that his wife agreed to it. We would have done it if we had to but I was almost relieved when I found out it was too late. Although I would rather have dressed him myself and known that he was buried properly than to have known we could have moved faster and now he's buried in just a suit. So we found out Monday night that the funeral would be the next day. The Moffats came down and we all went to the services. It was so interesting to see a Russian funeral. They have some interesting traditions. First, everyone meets in front of the deceased's apartment building. We all waited there for a while until a blue van pulled up. About 4 or 5 people got out, opened the back, where we saw the coffin. They got out two small stools and set them on the sidewalk, then took the lid off of his coffin and moved him out of the van and onto the stools. I say coffin because that's what it was, not a casket. It was shaped just like dracula's coffin, tapered down at the bottom. All it was was a plywood box with blue velvet covering. Anyway, we all came and surrounded the body and everyone layed an even number of flowers on the body. His wife and son stood near him the whole time and his wife was crying pretty hard. After about 20 minutes, one of the van guys came into the crowd and said, has everyone said goodbye? There was kind of a murmer of yes and so they picked up his coffin, put it in the van, put the lid on and we all went to the grave site. When we got there, they did the same thing, unloaded him, put his coffin on the stools and we all stood there for a little while. All of the sudden a Russian Orthodox priest drives up and gets out. He came up to the body, placed some certain bags of something in the coffin with Anatoly, placed a sort of ribbon on his forehead and then stood at his head and began to sing a prayer. He sung for about 20 minutes, swinging his insense ball around. When he finished, everyone had one last chance to pay their respects. Many people came and kissed Anatoly on the forhead, including Sister Moffat. After the last person finished, they covered him with a white cloth with the Orthodox symbol of the cross and the priest began to pray a bit more. He took out a little bag of sand and poured out in the shape of the Orthodox cross on the body. The van guys came back in with the lid and put it on. One guy drove 5 nails into it then they moved it over and put it in the ground. We all threw some dirt on it and then watched the workers fill in the hole. They placed a large wooden Orthodox cross at the head of the grave. The funny thing is, this priest had no idea who Anatoly was, didn't even know that he wasn't a member of the Russian Orthodox church. The only reason he was there was because he was paid to be there. It was interesting that after he finished blessing Anatoly, there were some other people in the crowd that had relitives in the cemetery. They gave the priest some money and he went over to their relative's grave and blessed it. It's all about money. Anyway, Elder Erickson and I, Dima, Elder and Sister Moffat, and a one more member of our branch stuck around until everyone left. We walked into the grave site and Dima blessed the site by the power of the priesthood. It was a sweet feeling. Without the bells and whistles of the 20 minute prayer and the smoking golden ball, we were able to dedicate his grave as the resting place of his body until the resurrection. The priesthood is cool! There is a very old couple in our branch, he is 91 and she is 85. I hope it doesn't happen while I'm here, but when they die, we will be ready to do things right. It was all a really interesting experience.

Elder Erickson is a good kid. He is very quiet and not very enthusiastic though. Every time we meet with people they say, are you sick? are you tired? You seem tired. It's kind of funny but I think it would be good for him to figure out how to come out of his shell a little. He's really easy to get a long with and we have a lot in common, so all in all, I like being with him. It will only be for another two weeks though then we will both have new companions.

I got a new journal from Elder Frehner, he bought like 4 or something in the mtc. I'm almost done with my first one (I'm a slacker sometimes) but the one he gave me will probably last me until I'm about 50 or 60 years old, it's pretty big. As for my clothes, yesterday Sister Moffat asked me if I was wearing a new shirt because it was so white and clean! It is a long sleeve shirt so it has been sitting in my suitcase all summer but for the most part, all my clothes are holding up like champs! I don't have one hole in my socks and only have a couple shirts that show my age in the mission. Also, about the vitamins, if you are talking about the ones I took with me on my mission, I left those in Tula last year... on accident. Elder Frehner also gave me a bottle of these cool fruit vitamins and vegetable vitamins. I have been taking them off and on and really like them. Maybe if I had been diligent in my vitamin taking my hair wouldn't have fallen out, oh well. I still have tons of medicines so I don't need anymore of that. We have preach my gospels and President Woolly wants so that every member had one, so we're already working on that, though it is a really good idea. It is getting chilly here, it really feels like fall. I like to call it leaf mania 2010! The grandmas here take care of business when it comes to the leaves. They sweep up every leaf they can and then pick up the rest one by one until not one leave is left on the ground. It's just starting since all the leaves are beginning to fall. I like this time of year. I will be buying one more coat before I go home. I have my fancy wool coat and I had that coat with the fur collar last year but it was a hand me down so I sold it to Elder Cecil. I wanted to buy a nice coat this year with a nice big fur collar that I can use at home for the next few years. Anyway, I think that's everything. Thanks for all the letters and support. I love you guys, have a good week.

Elder Geddes

Traveling Missionary

Hey everyone,

Well this week has gone by especially fast. It has been a crazy week, resulting in me being in Tula for a few days with Elder Erickson. It all started on Monday. Elder Lisevich needed to be back in his home city for one day on Tuesday. It is an overnight train from Moscow so we went to Moscow Monday night. I was just with the office elders all day on Tuesday just being bored in the office. President came in for a while and I got to have an interview with him. During the interview he got a call from the AP's. They told him that Elder Lisevich had been running to catch a bus and hurt his leg somehow and would not be able to return to Kaluga. I know he just didn't want to be on a mini mission so he just needed to find an excuse not to come back. That left me without a companion. Elder Erickson serves her in Tula and was with a mini missionary as well. President just sent his companion home and put me with Erickson. We will be trying to spend time in both Kaluga and Tula. It's going to be a pain but it's only for a couple of weeks. We are getting some new missionaries this next transfer so hopefully things will be all evened out and we won't need mini missionaries anymore. This is especially annoying because we have someone in Kaluga right now who wants to be baptized!

We met this lady back when I was with Frehner. She stopped us on the street and told us this really long story about how her son is in prison because he killed a man while supposedly defending himself and his dog from this guy. Anyway, she had known missionaries a long time ago and recognized us. Honestly I just waved the whole thing off, I thought she was a little crazy and that if anything she just wanted money from the church. She ended up coming to church that Sunday and having a long talk with our branch president. She never asked for money but she was just asking that we remember her in our prayers. Still, I kind of waved it off. Then last Sunday she came again. After Sacrament meeting she came up to me and said, Elder Geddes, how many years does it take to become a member of the church? She told me she wanted to become a member of our church so I thought, hmm, I have been praying harder than ever lately that we would be able to find someone who wanted to be baptized. I thought, maybe this lady is here for the wrong reasons but I'll teach her and find out for myself. I set up a meeting with her for the next day. The lesson we had was a good one. I really felt, by the questions she had and the concerns that she had, that she really does want to become a member of the church. She understands that God blesses us when we do what is right. She feels like she and her son need a lot of help from God right now so she wants to learn what she needs to do to to receive blessings from the Lord. She was very sincere and I feel like as we keep teaching her, she will prepare herself for baptism. Sometimes it's easy to judge someone's appearance or motives but in the end, they are a child of God just like we are. I wouldn't deny someone who truly wanted it, the chance to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. That gift is for everyone.

Anyway, other than that, the week was nothing special. Elder Lisevich and I didn't always get along, president asked me a lot about him in my interview. He knows him pretty well and is wondering if it was the right thing to do to send this kid on a mission. I told him that a mission will be a great experience for Lisevich IF he will choose to accept the lessons that come to us on a mission. I told him to tell his mission president to assign him a trainer who is very strict, very loving and very patient. Lisevich wanted everything his way and wasn't willing to take any kind of constructive criticism. He wasn't willing to work in a companionship setting and that just doesn't work on a mission. I wish him all the best and wish his trainer good luck :)

We have a really great zone leader right now, Elder Brown. He is a man of great faith I would say. Anyway, he called us and asked us to follow the steps that Elder Lawrence gave us last week at zone conference to strengthen your faith. I can't remember if I told you about that but one of the steps was to make a sacrifice. Elder Lawrence gave examples of missionaries doing this in his mission a couple years ago such as stopping writing a girlfriend, or waking up earlier every day to study more. Anyway, Elder Brown asked us to think about and pray about something we could each sacrifice in order to be a more successful missionary and zone. I thought a lot about it and wanted to choose something that would be challenging for me and that would also help me grow the most. The thing that kept popping into my mind was English! I love to talk and tell stories and jokes, and it is hard to tell stories and jokes in Russian! I am still not speaking Russian as well as I want to before I go home so I decided I would sacrifice English for the rest of my mission. It would help so much with my Russian and it would be a good challenge for me. I thought it would be the perfect time to do it while I had a companion who spoke very little English, then he went home. One of the things Elder Lawrence said was to expect trials. After I set my goal and did well with it for a few days, the trials came and my Russian companion went home. I was with Elder Cecil my really good friend, all day Tuesday. Usually we love to talk and tell all kinds of stories in english, but this time, for the most part, we spoke Russian! Of course I will have to speak English sometimes, to president, senior couples, english club, that kind of thing, but I can do my best to speak as much Russian as possible. Elder Erickson is the same age as Elder Frehner was but he speaks really good Russian and understands really well so that's good. It's already been a week since I made the goal and I'm staying strong. It will be hard but it will be great.

I'm glad you are all doing great, I loved the pictures that Megan and Emily sent me, everyone is looking good. I am only going to write one letter today because I have a really terrible keyboard right now! I can't wait to get the package with fatty food in it, it will be great. Oh ya, I forgot, when I went to moscow I was planning on being there for one day and two nights so I packed accordingly. I won't be back in Kaluga until Saturday. When I left it was really warm, now it's freezing and rainy! I had to wash my extra two pairs of garments last night and put them on wet this morning and I am wearing Elder Ericksons sweater. I will have worn the same shirt for six days straight! Ha, but I washed it last night so don't worry. Missions are cool! You never know what you'll get. Anyway, thanks for everything, I love you guys!

Elder Geddes

A wonderful telephone call

I received a phone call yesterday from Mary Pearce, wife of Senator Monty Pearce, and she said she was relaying a message from her sister who is in Russia. She and her husband are serving in the area general presidency right now and have served as mission presidents there a while back. She said she met the most delightful missionary the other day and that he was from Idaho. She said his eyes just shined with light and he was obviously a wonderful missionary. She said he spoke well and she had just a wonderful time visiting with him. She said he knew of Monty because his dad served in the legislature with him. She wanted Mary to call me and tell me what a wonderful missionary son I had. She said she always appreciated it when someone saw on of her missionaries and called her to tell her about it. I really appreciated the phone call, it made my day. She didn't say anything I didn't already know but it was nice to hear from someone who was with him and to know he is doing well. As you read the letter below, it is the Lawrence's that he is talking about that called about him.

Hey everyone,

Things are going pretty good for me right now. Yesterday we had such an awesome zone conference. I always love getting together with the other missionaries in our mission. I especially love seeing Elder Hasbiullin. He's doing great and having a good time. We are really good friends and probably will be forever. By the way, he got transfered and is currently serving as the Branch President in Smolensk. He's a stud. Anyway, apart from that, we had Elder and Sister Lawrence speak to us. Elder Lawrence is the first counsilor in the Area Presidency. He is a former mission president in the Novosibirsk mission here in Russia. He and his wife gave such great talks. His wife spoke a lot about the blood of Israel and who we really are, that we, as the blood of Israel, promised before this life to share the gospel. She told us some really interesting things about so much stuff, I immediately wanted to enroll in an old testament class and start studying. Although we are studying the old testament in Sunday school, it's just not the same in a foreign language. Anyway, she has taught seminary and institute and has taught a lot of classes like Gospel Principles and stuff so she really knows a lot about the gospel. Elder Lawrence gave one of those talks that you just walk away feeling like you can try a little harder to be a little better. I always love those talks, they give us so much hope and desire as missionaries. I swear, they should have zone conference every week, we would probably get more baptisms! Elder Lawrence gave us some steps on how to strengthen our faith. He said we should pick a righteous goal or desire that doesn't exactly have a clear path. We must be believing, pray constantly, do everything in our power to accomplish the goal or gain the desire, then expect the Lord to perform. I definitely have a goal without a clear path, that is to baptize someone here in Kaluga. At this time, we don't really have anyone progressing to baptism, but that doesn't mean we can't have the faith to baptize.

Anyway, we had an awesome day on Sunday, Elder Frehners last day. We got 21 people to come to church! Pretty much we told them that it would be their last chance to see Elder Frehner so a lot of people from English club came and even a couple inactives came. It was really great. Monday we woke up at 4 to get on the 5 o'clock bus to Moscow. I met my new companion and got strait back on the bus to Kaluga. Elder Lesevich is his name. He's not so bad. A little moody and likes to get his way, but nothing too serious. It is kind of weird being with a mini missionary, they don't exactly have the same desires and goals as a full time missionary because they know they are going home in a couple weeks. Anyway, we worked for a couple of days then once again yesterday woke up at 4 to catch the 5 o'clock bus and spent the day in Moscow. We might have to go back to Moscow on Monday because my companion needs to be back home for just a day on the 21st. I would spend the day in the office while he traveled back to his town and we would come home early Tuesday morning I think. We'll see what happens.

I have thought about what I could possibly need or want for Christmas. Pretty much nothing that can't be eaten, I have no room in my suitcases for anything else. But I think I might be ready to make the transfer from manual to electric razor. They say it hurts at first but after a few days you get used to it. If you happen to see a good deal on an electric razor, I think I'm ready. I saw some here, they were pretty expensive. If they are way expensive at home too, don't worry about it. One thing also that I might request, pop tarts. Elder Frehner let me have one of his that he got in a package and I almost started to cry. It was pretty tasty. I hear that Ludmilla is still doing great in Veronezh. She still asks about me and Elder Hasbiullin all the time, so she hasn't forgotten. I am almost certain we will be kicked out of our apartment in December. I'm about ready to start looking for apartments a little bit. I will obviously be here for a minimum of one more transfer but I feel like I will end up being here a couple more. If I am here over Christmas, I can skype you guys. Our branch has a laptop and Frehner and Harrison used it to skype home for Mothers day. That would be cool. It wouldn't be fun to move again, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Anyway, that's about all the news from me this week. It sounds like everyone is doing good and happy, other than the fact that Liz is pretty sick. I'm sure that will go away soon though. Thanks for everything you guys do. I love reading the letters from home. Have a good week. Love you guys.

Elder Geddes