A baptism with more to come!!

The latest pictures from Kazakstan. The first baptism in Astona Kazakstan, her name is Vernera. They are still boys underneath that missionary attire. Zone conference in Almaty with Bro. and Sis. Switzer who is over the European missions.



Hey everyone,

Well I am finally a man! I can now legally break the commandments! Ha, I'm just kidding, but I am an adult now, crazy huh? 21 years old is a big deal, although it doesn't seem like much while I'm here. I don't even feel like I was ever 20, and now I'm already 21! Last year I had a really great birthday in Voronezh, this year has been good so far as well. Last night we had English club and we talked about birthdays, we sang a primary song, I played the piano, and the Maxwells gave me a box of Oreos, and one of our members gave me a cherry pie thing and some flowers. It was pretty nice. We had a sleepover at the other elders apartment where we shared my oreos and pie. This morning we made breakfast burritos, so it has been a great birthday so far. The weather is pretty terrible today, cold and rainy, but we are still going to have a good time.

Okay, so the baptism. Saturday morning comes along and everything went as smooth as could be! Everyone showed up who needed to, including one of our investigators named Svetlana. The water was colder than we thought it would be, and Venera is pretty scared of water. I'm glad Elder Hasbiullin baptized her, she really trusts him and he was able to calm her down enough to get the baptism done. She bore her testimony afterwards and it was just the testimony you would want to hear from a newly baptized person. She said she felt like she had wings, that she had flown somewhere, she said she couldn't really explain how she felt, but that she felt really light and happy. That's what I'm talking about! The next day, I had the chance to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost. I feel like I said the words I needed to say, I worried of course, it's always a bit stressful to do that in a different language, but I really feel like I was given the words to say. Svetlana was also present for that as well. She had tears in her eyes at the end of the blessing and told Venera she was jealous of her. The day before, after the baptism, Svetlana went up to Elder Hasbiullin and asked him what she needed to do to be baptized. He told her we could meet with her and prepare her for baptism. We were able to meet with her after church on Sunday and right off the bat she asked about baptism and what she would need to do to be baptized. Her next question was, how do I pay tithing. We have a meeting with her today, at 1:30. I don't love having meetings in the middle of my p-days, but when it is with an investigator preparing for baptism, I'll do it no problem. She's really busy with work during the week so we took whatever chance we could to meet with her. She will be baptized on June 18th, my last Saturday on a mission. I can't think of a better way to end my mission. The work is moving forward. From our humble beginnings of 9 people at the meeting, to the 14 that we had on Sunday, including our new convert, I can honestly say that the work is moving forward. The other elders set a baptismal date for the same weekend with one of their investigators. Things are just going great here. I guess throughout the whole mission things are just going awesome. We have record amounts of baptismal dates (22) investigators on the meeting, progressing investigators, new investigators, things are just cruising. President Woolley is really happy, and obviously we are all happy as well. It's really fun to be involved in this work and see the Lord's hand in our lives and in the lives of people all around.

I already bought myself a little birthday gift. I bought the Russian classic, Crime and Punishment by Fyoder Dostoyevski. I'm not sure if you have heard of it or not, but I guess it's supposed to be really good, and have a lot of symbolism of repentance and stuff. I bought it in Russian of course, it might be a challenge for me to read as it is written in classic Russian language, but I'm excited for the challenge. I have been planning my whole mission on buying two books to take home, a Russian classic, and the first Harry Potter in Russian. I know I'll be able to read that one no problem!

Anyway, time is flying and it is going as good as can be. I will write home 3 more times after today, because the day before I come home I probably won't write. I can't believe it, but it's coming to an end. I'm just so glad we have success and I have motivation to finish strong. I'm so glad to be here in Astana with Elder Hasbiullin. President Woolley will be here in Astana for our baptism on the 18th as well, which will be really awesome. Things just can't get any better. Thanks for all the support and prayers, and thanks for all the birthday wishes. I love you guys! Have a great week.

Elder Geddes

The first Stake in Russia created

Hey everyone,

I really enjoyed talking to everyone as well, as usual it went by too fast, but this time I know I only have a while longer and I'll be able to see you guys and talk in person. Sorry I didn't write yesterday, our ap's had problems with visas and weren't able to end up coming, they called us Tuesday night and told us so we didn't have a reason to do p-day on Wednesday. Since the phone call, not a whole lot of new things have happened. We had 3 investigators at church along with a member from Almaty who was in town for the weekend. We had a record 13 people at the meeting. I can't believe it, that's more than we had in Kaluga a lot of the time, although here we have 6 missionaries as a buffer. We have some new investigators and some new contacts to work with. Things are going pretty good.

The biggest news is something I just found out a few minutes ago when I read the email from President Woolley that he sends us each week. He said that on the 5th of June, Elder Nelson will be in Moscow to create the very first steak in Russia!! Can you believe it? There will be a steak in Russia, making it eligible for a temple someday! I just can't believe it. That will be such a blessing for the saints in Russia. I really think the work will go even faster and better once there is a steak and espescially someday when there is a temple. This is a huge step forward for the Russain people. It's a bummer that I won't be able to attend the conference, all the missionaries in Russia will be able to, but we are just too far away I'm sure. I would love to be present for that but just the fact that it's happening is good enough for me. I don't know too many details about it, but it is a miracle we all dreamed about when we were in the mtc and all throughout the mission.

Monday was Victory Day. It honestly wasn't as cool here as it would have been in Russia, but they still celebrate here. There wasn't really a parade, although there was some kind of ceremony in the morning. We had a good time with permission from President to attend some of the festivities. There was a concert after the ceremony where people sang old soviet war songs and did traditional Russian and Kazakh dances. There were still quite a few veterens that were present, although I'm sure with each year there are less and less. It wasn't the most effective work day as everyone was busy celebrating and didn't want to meet with us or really spend time talking with us.

Yesterday we had our first ever English club here in Astana. I think we had about 14 people show up. Venera is an English tutor if I didn't already tell you that, so she wanted us to start this club in order to give her students a chance to practice conversational English with us. It was pretty successful and fun, and right after that we had our weekly activity night where we have a spiritual thought, some games, and some refreshments. Some of the students stayed for the activity and everyone had a good time. All three of our members were there along with the Maxwells.

We will be flying to Almaty Sunday night at I think 10:30 at night. We will probably get to the elders apartment by around 1:00 in the morning. Zone conference will be on Monday where Elder Schweitzer, the area president, will be present. I have heard him speak before, he's awesome. President Woolley said that Elder Schweitzer wants to interview us missionaries after the conference. I think that will be a neat experience. This will be my last zone conference. Usually on a missionaries last zone conference, the missionary gives his testimony. I hope President Woolley keeps up the tradition, as there will be 3 of us there for the last time.

May is flying by faster than I can believe. Before I know it, it will be my last month on my mission. I'm feeling really good. I don't feel trunky, I don't feel like I'm counting down the seconds until I leave, I feel like I see what I can do, and I know what I need to do until the end. I'm glad everyone is doing well, I will definitely keep Aunt Vicki in my prayers and hope that everything goes well with her and with Aunt Sue. I'm sure everything will work out the way it needs to. I love you all, thanks for everything.

Elder Geddes

Growth in Kazakstan

Hey everyone,

Well we have had a really good week. As usual, after a hard week comes a really good week. Elder Hasbiullin and I have been realizing that the pieces are falling into place. Things are starting to happen for us here, we have investigators, meetings, things to do, people to focus on, food in the fridge and money in the wallet. We had 3 investigators come to church on Sunday! Can you believe it? Venera is doing great and we have committed her to live the word of wisdom and the law of tithing. She has agreed to both. She said it would be hard to give up green tea, but she will do it. We're so excited for her. Her baptism will be in a couple weeks, the 21st of May.

We met Venera the first day that we had permission to preach here in Astana. We talked to her on a bus stop and gave her a Book of Mormon. She was one of the first meetings we had with and investigator and it was an awesome first meeting. We were able to go through the whole restoration and ask her to be baptized when she received an answer. She agreed and it has been like clockwork ever since. She feels the spirit when we meet with her, she really enjoyed church the last couple of weeks, and she has become really good friends with Sister Maxwell, which is good as well.

The first lady that came to church is kind of an interesting, sad, and confusing story. She was invited by a member to the meeting that first Sunday, she really liked it, came to family night that week, cried during the spiritual thought about family, told us all that this is the place she wants to raise her daughter, surrounded by such good people and good influences, then she just disappeared. We got a hold of her after a while and found out that some of her friends had told her some stuff about us that was completely not true. She herself has no idea what religion she belongs to, but she felt like she knew enough about us to say that we aren't true Christians and that she doesn't want to belong to a sect. Just recently we went to her house, we weren't really able to get a lesson in, because she is kind of a confusing person. She's really nice, but for some reason she can't understand that we aren't just her 20 year old friends, but that we have something much more important to share. She is leaving for America in the beginning of June where she will be for an entire year. She is actually going to be looking for a husband there so that she can be there forever. I think she is just not very good at thinking things through in her head, and because of that she makes some really rash and not very smart decisions. I wish her the best of luck.

We have another couple of investigators that are doing well. We have been helping a 29 year old girl with English. Just recently we have made huge strides with her and have taught her the first half of the plan of salvation. She is Muslim, but she agrees with all the things we have told her so far and has even changed her mind about some things she thought earlier. I wouldn't say she's close to accepting baptism by any means, but just the fact that she is beginning to understand a little more about life here on earth is good progress for her.

Time is flying by, I can't believe it is already May, and that I will be calling home this Sunday. May is going to go by fast, maybe even too fast. We have a lot going for us this month, it will be a good month. I'm glad that we have things rolling here, it will make it easy for me to work to the end. Seeing the goals we have, and seeing how they are achievable will help me work all the way to the end.

I guess I should save some stuff for our phone call. I'm excited to call home, for the last time. By the way, I haven't gotten the mission news letter since I left Russia, I hope you have saved them so I can read through them when I get back. Anyway, things are going good. Thanks for the support and prayers. I love you guys. Talk to you on Sunday.

Elder Geddes