Hello everyone,

First and foremost, Sergey and Inna were baptized and confirmed last weekend!! It was such an awesome weekend. I felt a lot of things over those couple days that I'll never forget. I found out I would have the chance to baptize Sergey, so I started getting a bit nervous and excited. We showed up on Saturday and were waiting for our baptismal candidates. I was feeling so scared and excited for them, hoping that they came through. Sergey was the first to come. That was the first time I really noticed the physical changes that were beginning to take place with him. His face had more color in it, he had a big smile, and he was wearing a suit and tie! I'm sure a combination of quitting smoking and the gospel fire helped his face to have a bit more color. Anyway, we still waited for Inna and she finally came. We got some pictures and went and got changed. Sergey's pants were way to big but we got them figured out. It was so cool to see him in his baptismal clothes. I even tied his tie for him since he didn't know how. We went and listened to the talks for the program then went downstairs to the baptismal font. Elder Traasdahl baptized Inna first and I had been going through the prayer in my head over and over again. Finally it was my turn. I got in the water first, followed by Sergey. We got ready and I closed my eyes for just a couple seconds to calm down and allow myself to feel the spirit. I said the prayer perfectly with as much power and authority as I could muster and then dunked him. And just like that it was over. He and his mom were both so happy. Later that night as I was writing in my journal, it really sunk in as to what I had really done that day. I had performed a saving ordinance for a 16 year old boy in Veronezh Russia. I would have never known about Sergey had I not been called to serve here, and yet I was able to participate in his first step toward eternal salvation. Of course, he still has a long way to go but he's that much closer to receiving the gift of eternal life. I was also able to participate in the circle the next day as both of them received the gift of the Holy Ghost. What an awesome feeling.

The rest of the week went by really fast. Yesterday we went to Lipitsk for Elder Traasdahl to do a baptismal interview with a lady. We actually had to go to a small town village thing where she lived. It was like stepping back in time. I was just joking as we were walking down the street and said, is this her house? Referring to a crooked old cement shack. The sisters said, yep. We knocked on the door and stepped inside. It was warm because they had all 4 burners on the stove going along with the actual oven itself with the door open. All I could think of was how dad told me that uses all the oxygen up, but luckily there is big gaps in the door frame and the windows are really drafty so hopefully they are getting enough oxygen. This woman was from Armenia, she spoke fine in Russian but for some reason she didn't understand very well. That's the reason she didn't pass the interview... oops. I'm glad Elder Traasdahl was smart enough not to pass her. She had some things that you can't just ignore, like the fact that she's not really married to her husband, and she didn't know some pretty crucial things. I'm afraid some missionaries overlook some things when giving interviews. It was crazy to see the conditions people live in. They had a terrible terrible outhouse out back of their house. Most houses around had some old wells in front of their houses.

I'm not sure what else big happened this week, we are in kind of a bad situation as far as investigators, we have been less than effective in the finding department. That will be something that will change starting next Thursday when my new comp gets here!! We just got a call from President Woolley. It was a bit surprising to say the least. Elder Traasdahl is being made AP for his last transfer... don't ask me why. Not that I don't feel like Elder Traasdahl is AP worthy but both he and the current AP are going home next transfer. That's weird to me. That means that I get to stay here in Veronezh. My new companion is Elder Cecil. He is one transfer younger than me, making me the senior companion. I will have a lot of work to do to try to get our area going again. I already have some big plans of things we will be doing different in this companionship. So, after three transfers, I will say goodbye to Elder Traasdahl. There were some good times, and there were some bad times, and there were some really bad times. All in all, I am still going to say that I learned from him. I learned a few things not to do, I learned some things that work, and I learned that I can keep my cool in some of the most trying circumstances. I know how to control my anger while still getting my point across. Elder Traasdahl had some good qualities. He was actually a pretty good leader. He remembered to do things people asked them to do, his only problem was that he has a really short temper and he takes everything very personally. I'm excited to get a breath of fresh air with Elder Cecil. I have only talked to him a few times but he seems like a really good kid. He was one elder that I thought would be a lot of fun to serve with. I'm pretty sure he speaks Russian really well for how young he is, he had a native companion for either one or two transfers. Anyway, I'm really excited about things right now.

Sounds like things are going pretty good back home, what am I going to drive when I get home? How is the blue car holding up? My birthday is coming up isn't it, weird. I think you will never go wrong by sending me oreos or packets of food mix. We have lots of taco seasoning at our apartment, even a big thing of Lawry's seasoning salt. Elder Traasdahl's mom sent him these things called pasta-sides. I used to buy them in wal mart when I was at school. Those were good, but I can't remember if they make enough for two people. Things get shared so if you find things that make enough for two people it would be the best. Hamburger helper was really good. I still have some spaghetti sauce packs. We really enjoyed those muffin mixes. Anyway, I haven't been disappointed once by the packages you send so don't worry too much. I feel like I am accumulating a lot of stuff so it might be smart to send me disposable things. I guess I won't send anything home this week since I won't be leaving Veronezh but someday I will.

I hope the session winds up on time for you dad. What's the economy like these days? That's cool that you guys saw Marie. She is a nice girl, so Aaron is still sick? I thought he just had to lay off the dairy or something. I need to write him and see how he's doing. I haven't heard from him since he told me about his problem. That's too bad.

It is slowly but surely becoming spring here. The sun is coming up in the mornings and staying out all day almost until 6 o'clock or later. We got a bunch of snow a few days ago but it is really nice weather. There are a lot of pretty places here too, there is an investigator we have that lives out in a pretty foresty area. Well, that's about as much as I can think of from here. Things are good, I'm happy and I'm glad I'm here. I love the work and I love learning all the stuff I am. Sometimes I feel like I'm just not the man for the job but other times I feel the support of the Lord helping me out. Thanks for everything. I love you guys and hope you have a good week.

Elder Geddes

p.s. I have a better picture of all four of us where Inna isn't closing her eyes, just not on my camera. The brown water is in our apartment. It's just like that sometimes when they shut our water off and turn it back on. The old guy just looked super Russian. I feel like if you turn it black and white or something it would look cool! Enjoy! Oh, and can you send this to Kayla please?