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