Happy Birthday

Hey everyone,

I'm 20! I decided that for a mormon boy, the age of 20 isn't real. You leave on your mission when you are 19 and come back when you are 21. Nonetheless, this is going to be an awesome year. This has been kind of a crazy week but a really good one. We had some bad news though and one of the sisters in our zone had to go home. Tuesday morning I was talking on the phone to the lady who handles our registration here in Veronezh. While I was talking to her, she got a call from moscow and I could hear her talking in the background, sounding very surprised. Then she picked up the phone and said, "Elder Geddes, Sister Corbet needs to leave now! Her mom just died." My stomach dropped. I had no idea what was happened or what was going on. The worst part was that since I had sort of overheard the news, I couldn't call anyone else to ask about it. I had no idea what I was supposed to do and so I just sat tight the whole day waiting for someone to call me. I figured that maybe President would call and tell me I needed to get a ticket for her to Moscow or at least fill me in on the news. We went about our whole day and I was just sick, thinking that Sister Corbett had gotten the worst possible phone call a missionary could get. To make matters worse, she had just set a baptismal date with a 17 year old girl the night before. Well nobody called me all day, so finally I called the Lowry's to ask what was going on. First of all, I had gotten some bad information. Her mom didn't die, but she was dying. Her mom has been battling cancer for a long time and I guess her kidneys and liver are beginning to fail. Sister Corbett had already gotten on a plane earlier that day and was in Moscow, with plane tickets to Canada set for the next morning. She had around 3 months left on her mission and it is unlikely she will return. I felt bad because it all happened so fast that I didn't get to say goodbye. Nobody felt the need to let me know, which was also annoying because I had worried all day that her mom had maybe been in an accident or something and I could just picture Sister Corbett getting that phone call. It is still very sad but I'm glad she will get to see her mom before she dies. Things like this put the plan of salvationtion into perspective. So right now, we are a sister down. Her companion, who happens to be a greenie, is now without a trainer. That could put a twist on transfers. Also, the reason we have a picnic today is because it was my birthday yesterday and Sister Corbetts in a few days. She wanted to have a combined birthday party for us. Pretty sad. I imagine it would leave a sort of unfinished taste in your mouth to have to leave your mission like that. I hope everything is okay and the family is handling things well. Everyone do me a favor, be safe and healthy for another year.

Other than that news, the rest of the week was really pretty good. We had two meetings with new people this past week, both of them we are excited about. Just last night we met with a woman who just walked into the church. She is a haircutter and we don't know who but someone was getting their haircut and told her about the church. She couldn't find time for a few months after that to visit but she finally found time. We got to her house last night and she had prepared a full meal, macaroni with some sort of beef soup stuff to put on top. She gave us fruit instead of tea because she doesn't drink tea either! Anyway, she and her daughter in law were there and we just answered their questions and got to know them. She had so many deep questions, a lot of them were really not important and I just wanted to say, that's not important! but we tried to answer them. We said next time we want to talk about where our church came from so that we will be able to actually teach her a lesson next time. She loved what she had to hear. She even teared up when we told her we use water instead of wine for the sacrament. We told her that in all actuality, the wine Jesus used was probably just grape juice anyway and she about jumped out of her chair and said I knew it! We can't wait to meet with her again soon. Her daughter in law was interested as well but not as much as the mother in law. She asked us how old we were and I said, actually I'm 20 years old today. She jumped up, grabbed a little wicker basket, filled it up with fruit, candy and cookies and gave it to me as a gift. She's a really nice lady.

My birthday was awesome. I was surprised how many people remembered and gave me a call to tell me happy birthday. Even a 80 something year old grandma that we sometimes take the sacrament to called me. It made me feel really good. President Woolley called me that morning to tell me happy birthday as well. Not to mention my package from mom. I don't know where to start with that. I have been eating maybe 5 animal crackers at a time so that it will last a little longer and I'm just not ready to open the Reeses Pieces quite yet. I opened the box the night before my birthday, partly because I just couldn't handle it anymore and partly because I knew I would be more in the mood to eat candy that night rather than at 6:30 the next morning. Oh well, I waited as long as I could. We went and did service at a home for children with tuberculosis, however you spell that. We knocked out a foundation of an old fence. It wasn't too hard but it started raining really really hard towards the end so we had to end a bit early. Then we went to McDonalds and ate lunch. All in all, a really great birthday.

Oh ya, I have a terrible haircut right now. I cut it way too short. It's not as bad as my companions, because the machine broke halfway through his. He's lucky it looks as good as it does, but we're not sure what to do since we have no money right now. We had to buy an ironing board and a cutting board and stuff and the office doesn't like to help out with things like that these days. Oh well, we will be getting our new money any day now, so we survived another month. My companion eats like an animal so we have to buy a few more groceries than we used to.

It has been raining nonstop for the last couple weeks, so it has been pretty cold. I hope it warms up soon but I know it will just get too hot.

Well, I've kind of got to hurry because we have to buy a little dessert for the picnic. Thanks for everything, for the letters that made for a happy after birthday day. I love you guys and will talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Geddes