New city new challenges

Hey everyone,

I am in my new city, Kaluga. It is a small city with only around 300,000 people I think. My last city had over a million. My new branch had 18 people come last Sunday, that's including my mission president, his wife, two office elders, me and my companion... my last branch averaged about 75. There have been 2 baptisms here in the last year, one of which is a mildly crazy grandma. I was in Veronezh for 8 months and saw 5 baptisms. My last companion was Russian and taught me so much about the language, my new companion has been here for three months and doesn't speak much at all. The comparisons are many. If a missionary in my mission found out he was going to serve in Kaluga, the first reaction is AWWWW MAN!!! I say bring it on. Once I get used to the city a little bit, we will get some serious work done. I'm not sure how but we will. If the Lord has people prepared in Veronezh to hear the gospel, he should have a few people here in Kaluga as well. I just need to try my hardest to work smart and effective. I feel like my companion and I are up to the challenge. We have around 50 members or so here in Kaluga. There are a lot of inactives. The branch president is a 21 year old guy named Dima. He's a bit immature but for the most part, he's a pretty good guy and takes his calling seriously. His first counsilor is a 24 year old guy named Andre. He's pretty cool, kind of quiet. He actually lives about an hour out of Kaluga and takes the bus in every week. It is likely that I will be the second counsilor which will be interesting. I have spent about a week here and there have already been a few days where we had nothing to do but contact. It's the hottest summer in Russia for the past 130 years, we were on the streets for around 5 hours just talking to people. Part of the reason is that my companion is still really green and doesn't really know who to meet with in emergency situations such as these, but I'm trying really hard to get to know the members so I can be more of a senior companion. It's hard right now because I pretty much just have to follow my companion Elder Frehner around all day. I don't even really know where we live! I bought myself a small pocket map of Kaluga so I will be working on that problem. I'm sure the first week is always a struggle. I have been thinking a lot about how a small branch grows. We had a lesson with a member who was baptized a little over a year ago. She said when she saw our branch for the first time she just thought it was kind of a joke, not anything serious. It's true, when people walk in to our meeting and see just a handful of people, it's hard to keep them interested. Kaluga is a very very Russian Orthodox city. There are over 30 Othodox churches in our small city. Therefore, it is very hard to talk to people on the streets. The only thing that keeps coming to my mind is the part member families. There are a few spouses, a few children, and even the branch president's mom we could somehow work with. I just don't know how. If they have been a part member family all this time, what could I do to change their minds? I just feel like reactivating people and trying to work with the part member families will be the only thing worth doing here in Kaluga. I don't know how long I will be here, but that will be my focus this whole time.

My companion's name is Elder Frehner. He is from St. George. He is a pretty cool kid. He wants me to speak to him in Russian all the time because he really wants to learn the language. He's struggling with it as of now, but we all struggled with it at that age. I am now realizing how much I grew in the language serving with Elder Khasbiullin. I am trying to speak a lot of Russian with my companion but it is sometimes a little harder than it seems. It's just not natural first of all for two Americans to be speaking a different language to each other. Second of all, I have to translate a lot of what I say anyway, so sometimes I just don't like it, but I do like that he has a desire to speak the language. That's probably most important. On Sunday, President Woolley and Sister Woolley spoke in sacrament meeting here. I was the translator for both of their talks. It was pretty cool. I was pretty nervous at first and started off a bit shaky, but after I calmed down I feel like I did a pretty good job. I love this language and will tell you for the first time, I'm speaking Russian! Every once in a while I finish talking to someone and realize the things we were talking about and I just have to smile. Last night I had a conversation with our landlady about our contracts, a leaky faucet, how to properly clean the shower and some other stuff. Conversations like that just make me feel like I'm not just learning missionary vocabulary but I am actually learning the Russian language. It's pretty fun.

We had a lesson with a super old couple in the branch the other day. We had been outside contacting a lot and I was super tired. We had a lesson planned specifically for Elder Frehner to practice teaching some principles so I was trying to let him do as much talking as he could. It was super hot in the apartment, and as usual when I get too hot, I fall right to sleep. I fell asleep as we were talking about the atonement. When I woke up, the grandma was showing my companion some x-ray pictures of the bullet that is still to this day lodged in her husbands back. I thought it was so funny, I fall asleep for 2 minutes and the lesson goes to that.

I have been waking up the past few nights just soaking wet with sweat. It is so hot!! My pillow and the blanket that I sleep on are just wet and nasty. I definitely have learned to sweat on my mission. It gets this hot every once in a while, but the thing about this summer is that it has been non stop heat for a couple months now. It is supposed to break next week and cool down a bit, I sure hope it does. This kind of heat just drains my energy fast.

We had another missionary have to go home early because of a death in the family. We had a Russian elder serving here with only 2 weeks left on his mission when his brother got in a car accident and was killed. He went home that day. He has a younger brother who just started his mission. His older brother that was killed wasn't a member, neither is the mother. The father died about 9 years ago. I can't understand why that stuff has to happen. He only had two weeks left. I'm sure that is just so hard to deal with. Once again, please be safe everyone! I still have quite a while to go, so just be careful.

Anyway, that's about all that's going on here these days. Each day from here on out will get better, as I get more and more used to the city. I really hope I can make a difference here in Kaluga. I'm trying to show faith and work hard. The rest is up to the Lord. Thanks for the letters, I love you guys.

Elder Geddes