The best two years

From a scared 19 year old boy to a very capable missionary to a wonderful young man, we have watched the transformation from afar these last two years. No one ever said it would be easy but it certainly has been worth it. These last two years have given Jess the best foundation you can have in this life. A foundation built upon the rock of our Savior and tempered in the refiners fire. Experiences so rich they will be talked about for the remainder of his life and looked back on with fondness. Friendships to last a life time and memories to match. We have thanked our Heavenly Father everyday these last two years for the blessings of Jess' mission both on him and our family. We will forever treasure the chance we have had to experience it with him if only through his wonderful letters that will follow in the remaining pages of this book. Thanks Jess for allowing us a window to peak through into your life as a missionary, it has truely been "the best two years."

Returning with HONOR!

Hello everyone,

Alright, well this will most likely be the last email I write as a full time elder. Wow, I really never thought I would write those words. I always had a theory that other elders finish their missions, but you yourself never finish yours. I think that theory was wrong, but we'll see, I'm not done yet :) Time is only speeding up. I'm trying to get everything done that I need to before I have to leave this place, see everyone I want to, see everything that I want to, buy everything that I need (or don't need, you'll see when I get home) and most importantly, finish preparing Svetlana for her baptism this Saturday. She is so great.

I'll start off by telling about her, since she's most important right now. We have finished teaching her everything she needs to know before baptism. She has accepted everything without a problem and often times, before we even explain things, she just understands. More than once it has happened where we ask her a question, something like, "Svetlana, what is faith?" And she'll answer with these kinds of answers, "well, faith to me is like when you just know something, even though you can't see it, or hear it, but you know it is true." She always comes up with these Preach My Gospel answers which really makes missionaries happy. She has already had her interview, she passed with flying colors, and in a lesson we had with her on Sunday after church, she asked me to baptize her. I didn't know what to say. It will be a real honor for me to baptize her, help her get through the gates leading to eternal life. I do feel a little bad about how I will baptize her and then just leave a few days later. I feel like I've just put on her training wheels and I'm already taking them off. Of course she will still have great missionaries here helping her along the way, but it almost feels like I'm abandoning her. I hope she doesn't feel like that. She's so ready, I love this lady, she's just great. She has a great understanding of the gospel and will be such a great addition to our small branch here. I am so happy that I will get to spend a few minutes on Saturday in a baptismal font, participating in this life changing event with her. You'll all have to wait until I get home to see pictures of this baptism, but don't worry, that will only be a week :)

My companion is a little nervous actually, for what will happen when we leave. He is really good friends with pretty much everyone in my mtc group, and has spent his whole mission so far with us. When Elder Player and I leave, a greenie will come in my place and an Elder who has only been out a couple of transfers will come in place of Player. I'm not sure what the game plan is, but it will be a lot of pressure on Hasbiullin to be the leader, if not the babysitter, and keep things moving here. He has already been here now for 3 transfers and isn't sure if he can handle 2 more, but I know he'll be fine. He's a good missionary and will be a great trainer. It will be a big change for him, but it will help him grow even more.

I still can't say that I have fully accepted the fact that I'll be home soon. I don't think it will click until I get on that plane from Moscow to New York. These two years have gone by fast, really fast. Yet at the same time, it seems like I have been gone forever. I am a little nervous for all the changes that are coming, but I'm excited, and I think I'm ready. The mission has taught me a lot of things, and I think it has given me a good starting point for the rest of my life. The scary thing about the whole thing is that my whole life has been planned up until the mission. Everything just pointed to the mission and I never thought of what would happen after. Well I left on my mission, I knew I had two more years that I didn't really have to think too much about what would happen after the mission, and now I'm sitting in Astana, my last p-day on the mission thinking, well, it's about to begin. I know I'm going to have a lot of surprises, but I know that the mission has prepared me for anything that comes my way. I'm ready.

I'll never forget these two years, the good times, the bad times, the hard times, the really hard times, and all the blessings. Somehow having the energy to keep going, somehow having the answers when I need them, somehow learning more when I thought I couldn't learn any more. There are lots of things of course that I can't explain, but all I know is that I'll never forget my mission, and the people in Russia and Kazakhstan.

I can't wait to see everyone, that will be one of the greatest moments ever. Thank you all for all your prayers and support for me throughout the past two years. I couldn't have made it this far without it. I love you all and I'll see you next week!!

С любовью, Старейшина Геддес

P.S. I know this might not have been the most detailed email, but I mean come on, I'll have all the time in the world to tell you everything next week :) Oh ya, and Elder Hasbiullin and I were in a car wreck this week on a bus! We got rear ended by a different bus and it shattered out our back window. We didn't even feel anything really, just heard it. The best part is that the bus driver just kept on driving his route, ha, didn't even really stop for anything. It was cool.

One more post and done!

Jess needs some serious home cooking to put some meat on those bones!
It almost looks like it could be in Idaho somewhere doesn't it.

A fun p-day activity. They were able to take their 15 year old investigator along with them which I am sure he loved. Who wouldn't love spending the day with these great young adults!

Hey everyone,

Well, after this letter, I will write home one more time. I can't believe it, but it's true. It has been a long two years, but they have gone by fast at the same time. It seems like one big long dream. We had a good week, a couple of ups and downs but overall a great week.

First of all, last p-day we went bowling. I bowled a 141 the first game, not bad for not bowling for about 8 months. The problem is that by some kind of miracle, my companion bowled a 178, I still don't know how he did it. We bowled two more games and I won them both, so don't worry, I'm still the best :) It was a lot of fun. After that we had a lesson with Svetlana. When we got there, her 3 grandkids were there and her daughter in law was there as well, so we got to meet a few of her family members. She's not shy at all about us, which is really cool. She's doing great. She thought that black tea would be a really big challenge for her, so we fasted for her and have been praying for her. She told us at the lesson that she doesn't understand why, but she hasn't had a problem at all with the tea. We told her, we understand why, and encouraged her to keep it up. She is doing great and really has a strong desire to learn. She pretty much has been living the gospel the whole time, other than the word of wisdom with the black tea. Other than that, she herself had a lot of the same thoughts that we shared with her about the plan of salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and all of the commandments. She's great. She wasn't able to come to church on Sunday because she had to take her grandchildren back to their parents who live a couple hours from here. Even without her though, we had 14 people at church. We had a great fast and testimony meeting. We had 5of our investigators there, including Venera's son Alibek, and a new lady, Natal'ya. Two investigators stood and bore their testimonies, thanking the elders for helping them to learn more about the gospel, and all of the members also bore testimony. I even noticed that Natal'ya was crying a little bit while I was baring my testimony. That night, we decided to go to a Baptist service. We found a huge Baptist church so we decided to check it out. Honestly, it was really boring. Also, they had a hymn book in there with 2000 songs! Crazy.

The downer of the week happened when we met with Gulnafis, the other lady who we want to baptize on the 18th. She I guess just decided to open up and get some things off her chest. She just unloaded for the first half hour of our meeting! She has had a really tough life, which explains why she's a little bit different. She's really shy and very nervous all the time. It's a long story, but I'll tell it in short. She was married the traditional Kazakh way, her parents made an agreement with the parents of some guy and they were married. She said that she never loved this guy and that he never loved her. They had 2 daughters and she said that she would have left the guy if it weren't for the kids. Eventually she did leave him for a while, about a month. While she was gone, this guy was sitting in his car one day and just got really sick. She came back but he ended up dying. She says that her relatives blamed her for the death, even claiming that she had probably poisened him somehow. She went into deep depression and her family, as happens far too often, put her into a psychiatric hospital. I have met a couple people who have been in these hospitals in Russia, they always come out about 5 times worse than they went in. These places are bad news. So naturally she came out for the worse. She says after the hospital, she was beginning to understand that her oldest daughter wanted to destroy Kazakhstan... okay... and that she is a really talanted girl so she probably could do it. in her words "I knew that I needed to kill her. Thank goodness I didn't do it... of course I tried, but it didn't happen" Elder Hasbiullin and I were just sitting there with our mouths open. We just kept listening and then finally at the end of the story we tried to teach our lesson. It didn't work that great, and to add to it, she started just saying how she really doesn't understand why we need to be baptized and stuff. She really doesn't quite understand repentance and some other things. We are still working with her, but I'm not so sure she'll be baptized on the 18th.

Anyway, in better news, on Tuesday we took our real p-day. Today we are just writing home and buying groceries then we will work. Tuesday, we, along with Elder Maxwell and Alibek, took a 3 hour train to a city called Borovoy. Supposedly the best nature in Kazakhstan. It was really pretty, but nothing we couldn't see in Idaho or Utah. There was a big lake, some mountains, some different trails and stuff to go on. We walked along a path that went along the lake. It was really pretty and really fun. A really nice relaxing day. We played cards in the train on the way up and back which was also fun. We played scum and a Russian game called Durak. I'll have to teach you that game, it's pretty fun. It was also good to spend an entire day with Alibek. I think he'll eventually get baptized, which will be really cool. While we were there waiting for our train home, the police came and did a check on our documents. They do that every once in a while. I have been stopped probably about 5 times since I've been in Kazakhstan. You just have to show your documents and they leave. I almost didn't even grab my passport that morning. I remember thinking, I probably won't need it, but I'll grab it anyway. Elder Hasbiullin just had a copy of his documents, the problem is that his copy has been in his bag for the past 3 months, so it is all dirty and ripped. The cops didn't like that, and started saying that he was a foreigner without documents. They actually took him and Elder Jensen away for a few minutes. Elder Jensen still doesn't have his registration or accredidation, technically he was illegal, ha. We were a little worried but we knew it would work out okay. We still don't know why, but they just let Elder Jensen go, even though he was clearly illegal. They also let Hasbiullin go, so everything worked out good.

Yesterday was the last time for me to handle English club. We take turns each week switching off between elders. It was a good English club, then after that we had our family night where we played musical chairs. I can't remember for sure, but I'm pretty sure I haven't lost a game of musical chairs since I was in like 3rd grade. Sure enough, I won last night as well. I even floored two girls, one of which was Sister Maxwell! I felt a little bad but hey, what can you do?

Anyway, things are going good. I'm trying to stay focused and work hard. It's really easy when you are on lessons to focus and teach the lessons, but on the streets sometimes it is tempting to think, I'm never even going to get to work with these people, and it is easy to be a little lazy. I really want to work hard my last couple weeks though, I know it will be worth it in the end. Of course I can say that I am way excited to go home and see everyone. I still can't really believe that it's coming, but somewhere in the back of my mind I can see that it is real and that in two weeks I will be with my family once again. That will be a sweet time for me, but as for now, I really need to dig down and find some strength to work hard these last weeks. It will all work out great. Thanks everyone for writing, next week I'll be able to write home for the last time. Have a great week, I love you guys.

Elder Geddes

Astana is growing in the Gospel in only 3 months time!!

Hey everyone,

Well June is here! I can't believe it, but I'm going home in a few weeks. We actually have bought our tickets to Moscow. We went a few days ago and bought them, we leave on Wednesday the 22nd at 6:30 in the morning, we will get to moscow at 8ish and have the whole day Wednesday and Thursday to be in Moscow with our group. Everyone should be getting there sometime during the day Wednesday, so it will be pretty awesome. Then I guess Friday morning we come home. Time is flying and I have less than 3 weeks in Astana. Lucky for me, we have three weeks worth of work to do, that's for sure.

I wanted to start of with a story that I forgot to tell last week. Elder Hasbiullin and I were going somewhere on a bus and there were two empty seats. I went and sat down, the seats happened to be in front of two young boys. I sat down and immediately one of the boys tapped my on the shoulder and said one word "sopli". I knew what the word meant, but I didn't know why he would say it so I thought I misheard him. I said, "what?" He repeated the word and I just said, "where" He pointed to my seat, and sure enough, I had sat in a nice pile of snot. I think the kid had sneezed in the seat before I had gotten in or something! He seemed pretty ashamed, and I was a little frustrated. I stood up but didn't know what to do, I had no napkins or anything. Everyone was kind of trying not to laugh around me (besides Elder Hasbiullin, he was laughing pretty hard) but it was obvious that everyone around me noticed the situation and thought it was a little funny. The conductor lady came around and I think she was trying to play off the situation because she just said "oh no, you kids know you aren't allowed to eat ice cream on the bus!" I was like, lady, this isn't ice cream! She actually kicked the kids off the bus, ha, and then she brought some napkins to clean off the seat. I asked if she had anymore napkins and she just looked at me and said, "Where?" Ha, she ended up bringing me some napkins, but it was a little awkward trying to wipe off the butt of my pants on the bus in front of everyone, not being able to see. Luckily we were headed to the senior couple's apartment so I was able to clean up in their bathroom. I was pretty annoyed, but at the same time, I had to laugh about it.

Anyway, we had a way good week this week. On Sunday, we had 16 people at church! That is without three people that were supposed to be there. Venera had something she had to do and missed her first meeting, our baptismal candidate had gotten sick the day before, and the baptismal candidate of the other elders had relatives come to town for a day. We had lots of investigators there, including Alibek, Venera's 15 year old son. We have had some lessons with Svetlana, our baptismal candidate, she is doing great. We had a lesson with her last p-day. She fried us up some potatoes and started making us some black tea. I was a little nervous because we hadn't talked about the word of wisdom with her yet. We were bold and we just said, no we don't drink black tea, explained briefly why, and she said "okay, it will be a hard 2 weeks, but oh well" and immediately poured us all glasses of milk instead. Cool huh? She's doing good about not drinking it. She agrees that it is harmful. She is addicted to it and admits it, but she is willing to give it up. She's great. We have another meeting with her tonight.

On Tuesday of this week, two elders from Almaty came up to Astana for the day with our registration lady. They had to take care of some visa problems but it was pretty quick so we got to hang out with them the whole day. Not exactly the most effective day, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for them to come here so we took the liberty of showing them the town. That night, we had a meeting with a lady named Gulnafis. I don't think I've said anything about her, but she's been coming to church for the past month. She's probably close to 60, and at first I thought she was a little weird, but I think she's just shy. Anyway, she really likes the church and the things we teach her. We had been praying about her to know if we should invite her to be baptized on the 18th along with Svetlana. While we were doing our weekly planning, we talked about it and tried to make a list of all the reasons she should be baptized on the 18th and all the reasons she wouldn't be ready. We both agreed that there were much more reasons for her to be baptized than to wait. We decided we would talk about it with her on the lesson. So Tuesday night, we had a lesson, we taught the second half of the plan of salvation. She accepted everything and really liked what we had to say. At the end, talking about the Celestial Kingdom, we talked about what we need to do to make it there. We talked about baptism and she said she knew that she needed to be baptized. We invited her to be baptized on the 18th, and she accepted! After that, she, for the first time, offered the closing prayer on our lesson. It was a pretty spiritual lesson, everything just flowed and everything just felt right. To celebrate, we went into the other room with all the other elders that were there, after she left, and each took a drink of camel milk! You can buy it here in bottles, it's pretty disgusting, that's for sure. It's carbonated, has a hint of vinegar smell and each and every one of us gagged a bit when we tasted it, ha. It was pretty funny. Now that I've tried it, I never have to try it again. So now here in Astana, we have 4 baptismal dates planned for the 18th. The other elders have two, and we have two. We are sure that our two are going to work out, we hope the other elders investigators will be ready as well. That would be an epic day for us if we could get all 4 people baptized. President Woolley and his wife will be coming to Astana that morning, so that will be great. It's coming up quick, just two more weeks from this Saturday. What a great way to finish my mission. I'm really happy about the way things are going.

It sounds like things are going pretty good at home, although I only got a letter from Mom. I only have a couple of weeks left, don't go and forget about me now! Ha, you all have only two more times to write me after today, let's all endure to the end here and I promise you'll never have to write me an email again after the mission! I'm sure everyone is getting pretty busy with summer preparations. I'm glad Alex didn't break his arm. Why did that dog bite him? Is he going to be scared of dogs now? I hope not.

Wow, today is the 2nd of June. Two years ago today was one of the scariest days of my life! Now I'm on the other end, and I'm just as scared to go back to where I came from! I'll be able to leave the mission peacefully and with a good conscience though. But it will still probably be a bit scary. I'm really glad that I have learned so much out here. I wouldn't trade the last two years for anything. Thanks for all you have done for me over the last 2 years, all your support and advice. I love you all and am excited to see you all soon. Have a great week.

Love Elder Geddes