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