Baptism on the 29? Prayers appreciated

Hey everyone,

So dad is back down in the basement, huh? That's okay, nothing wrong with the basement. I'm glad Dad has had such a good time and has done such a good job. It will be a big adjustment I'm sure but it will be good. I feel pretty lucky to have been involved in all of it as well. I see the advantages that came because of it and know that it had a good impact on my life.

Kazakhstan is going pretty good for us. My companion is starting to work harder for some reason. I have really appreciated his effort the past little while, it makes it a lot easier for me when he has a desire to work and find success as well. We sat down and set some really big goals and tried to make plans of how to achieve these goals. We want to have a baptism on the 29th of January. We are really relying on the Lord, seeing as how we don't have an investigator as of right now who has a baptismal date. Last night we had a meeting with an investigator who has already been meeting with missionaries and coming to church for a year and a half. He will be baptized, that's for sure, but right now his wife is out of town and he wants to get baptized with her, so it won't happen this month. We talked to him about his testimony and he admitted himself that the past couple of months (when he hasn't met with missionaries) his testimony has fallen a bit and isn't as strong as it was. He said himself that it is because he hasn't been reading or praying or coming to church. He wants the feeling back of a burning testimony and promised to start doing the things he knows bring those blessings. He is probably about 25 or so with a wife and a 7 month old baby girl. If we can get them baptized, it will be the first family on my mission that I have helped accept baptism! That would be a sweet experience. We have another investigator who has been known the missionaries for a long time but hasn't met for a while. He is doing success and we challenged him to baptism. He didn't accept the date but he promised to pray about it to know if it is for him. We have a meeting with him today, I really hope he read and prayed. We also have a really big goal to find new people. We have been contacting a lot and talking to lots of people, freezing our hands and feet off but we have seen blessings. We have gotten some good contacts, now we just need to turn them into investigators somehow. That is the hard part. Elder Cecil and Hoffman got here on Tuesday. They are pretty good guys and will be a good addition to the zone. They still haven't gotten their permission to preach and stuff so they aren't allowed to do street contacting and what not. They can stand there though, while their companion does the contacting. Anyway, Tuesday, there was a conference in Moscow for the zone leaders. They asked if I could skype them and be involved. It was pretty cool, obviously not as good as being there but I still was able to be involved and hear some good advice and stuff from President. At the beginning it was a little sketchy, I couldn't really hear too well and stuff but by the end it was coming in pretty clear and clean. The mission has a goal to baptize 31 people by the 31st of March. That is our goal at the moment. That seems like a lot of time but it really isn't. It will be fast and we will all need to work hard to make the goal. President is really counting on my zone to produce. A good portion of the missions baptisms last year came from Kazakhstan. He is counting on us do get some real work done here in the next couple of months. It was really cool because on the meeting there were 6 out of the 8 people from my mtc group. Both AP's and four of the five zone leaders are all from my mtc group. It has been so cool to watch them all grow and turn into such strong leaders and examples. President mentioned the fact that our group had become the leaders of the mission and made sure we knew that we needed to work hard and weren't allowed to get trunky because when we leave, it will be a new mission just like what happened just before my year mark. He needs the mission to get a bigger part of it's baptisms the first half of the year since the second have will have so many inexperienced missionaries. I hope we can pull through for him and for these people. I feel like the Lord has prepared us for these last 6 months from the day we all got our calls. I can't wait to see the results of hard work and faith. We talked a lot about goals and how each companionship should be setting goals to baptize at least one person before March 31. When you set a righteous goal and show faith that you can accomplish it, you invoke the powers of heaven, and God does the rest. Our mission saw a lot of miracles at the end of last year, and there are plenty more where that came from.

I got sick last week. I think I had tonsilitis. My glands were way swolen and I had these white spots all over my swolen tonsils. I couldn't hardly swallow anything. Being sick is the worst on the mission, because there is really nothing you can do. It got bad on pday evening. We had three lessons set up, back to back to back. After the first lesson I had a pretty good headache and was all cold and shivery. After the second lesson I just wanted to go home and after the third lesson I just wanted to die! Ha, it wasn't that bad but I definitely would have rather been laying in bed than teaching lessons at the time. We got home and I put on my thermals, my sweater and my mittins and jumped in bed. I sweated all night and ended up without mittens and a sweater but I think it helped. I had Ibuprofen which helped and then the next day I asked Sister Moore if she had anything. She had some basic antibiotics which I am still taking. I have a few more days that she wants me to take them. I feel pretty good now. The sore throat went away pretty quick. After the sore throat came other stuff though, I have just gone through the cycle this week. Yesterday I was feeling just fine and today also I am feeling good. Luckily I'm here with a senior couple, I would have just kept on taking Ibuprofin!

That would be really great if you could get to the temple every week. I can't wait to go there when I get back. That will definitely be one of the first things on the list. I'm still hoping on coming back to Soda Springs, even though I see that that might not happen. I want to see my name on that Arctic Circle board, I'm just afraid that kind of thing doesn't happen in Boise, but I guess wherever I go will be home.

Thanks for the letters, I am glad everything is going good back home. I hope everyone has a good week. Oh ya, I got a letter from Carlene Gunnel, if you happen to see her anytime soon, tell her thank you for the letters. She has sent me a couple on my mission and they are always very much appreciated. Anyway, I love you guys! Talk to you next week.

Elder Geddes