The Geddes Archives

The best two years

2011-06-16T21:14:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-06-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-06-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

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!!

2011-06-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

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

A baptism with more to come!!

2011-05-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-11T21:59:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

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

Much work to be done

2011-04-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

A lifesized game of chess
Jess enjoying a spring day in Kazacahstan

Hey everyone,

Well I just got here after losing an intense match of big chess. There is a park not too far from our house that has a chess board place. There are big pieces and everything. Elder Hasbiullin and I played against the other companionship and ended up losing. It was pretty fun though. After this, Elder Player and I will be going to the market to start checking things off our list of stuff to buy before we have to leave. My companion hates going there so Elder Player and I will be leaving our companions together and we will go to the market.

Time is continuing to fly. For some reason, last week I thought today would never come, but the week, as usual, went by in a blur. The APs were here and we did splits on Friday. I was with Elder Nuckols, who was in the MTC with me. It was a good split. Nuckols doesn't have permission to preach in Kazakhstan so all he did was stop people and ask how they were doing and stuff, then would turn it over to me. All day was like that, I was pretty tired after that day, but it was fun and successful. On Sunday, Venera came to church! Her first time. She really enjoyed it. I spoke on the Atonement and feel like I did a pretty good job. After the meeting, we had a contact that wanted us to go to their church meeting. We ran over there and got there in time to hear the last half hour of the pastors sermon, which wasn't all that interesting. Their church is held in the basement of an apartment building, you have to go down some creepy stairs and down a long dark hallway to get there. They are a branch of Pentacostles as far as I understand. Things got really interesting when they started praying in tongues. There were about 12 people there and they were all standing, pointing their hands somewhere and just rattling off sounds. Our investigator was next to me just making noise. I can honestly say that the spirit was not in that room, not in the least. All I felt was confusion, emptiness, and a little nervous, ha. After they finished, the preacher sat down and some people left and some people stayed to talk to us some. They asked us some questions, of course about why we don't pray in tongues. I was able to testify about prayer, what it is and why we pray. I told them that prayer is a conversation with God, and that when I speak with God, I prefer reverence and calm, rather than noise and confusion. They kept saying things like, ya but when I pray in tongues, God is able to give me revelation and answers. We said that He can do the same exact thing when we pray in our language. It is really interesting how people are deceived. Prayer is powerful, Satan understands that. When he gets people to either not pray, pray to idles or icons, or pray in tongues, he is able to stop that person from having and using the power of true, pure, prayer to our Heavenly Father.

After that little adventure, we went back to the branch where we had a lesson scheduled with a new person. I think I told you guys about it, but a few weeks ago a girl called and said someone had given her our invitation and she wanted to know more. We hadn't been able to meet with her until this Sunday. We met her, showed her the branch and started our lesson. Her name is Olga, she is a 25 year old English teacher from South Kazakhstan. She has been here in Astana for a couple years or so and says she has been searching for the right church for her. We were able to teach the whole restoration. She was so interested and had a few good questions. She liked what we had to say and wanted to hear more. We gave her a Book of Mormon and asked her to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We asked her if, when she receives her answer, she would be baptized. She said of course! We had an Easter dinner scheduled at the maxwells that night for the branch members. We invited her to the dinner and arranged to meet to show her how to get there. It turns out that she lives in the same apartment building as we do. She has seen us around a lot she said, but she never knew we were missionaries. I don't ever remember seeing her, but oh well. So when we met up to show her the way, she said she had already read a few chapters in the Book of Mormon. She was still really excited. The dinner was pretty successfull. Venera came and brought her 15 year old son along with her. It was a really good chance for us all to get to know each other better and have a good time. We watched the film, together forever, after the dinner and everyone enjoyed it. All in all a pretty good Easter, but Easter just isn't the same without coloring eggs, waking up to a basket full of chocolates and gumballs, and going to Grandma and Grandpa Geddes' house for the egg hunt. Holidays on the mission are just a bit different than at home, ha.

We met again with Olga yesterday. We started teaching the Plan of Salvation. There were some surprises for her there, some things that were just completely new for her. God has a physical body, premortal life, those kinds of things. We will have to take it a lot slower than we at first thought, that that is good also. We want her to understand and find answers, rather than just blindly accept what we say. We encouraged her to pray about all the principles that we taught. I'm sure she'll find her answers as she continues to pray and study the scriptures. She said she will be at church on Sunday, so that's good.

Things are going good, and I'm happy. Time is ticking, but I'm not scared, we have success right now, it will take me right to the end of my mission. I'm not going to lie, I for some reason have been getting tired of my companion every once in a while, but we always end the day friends, or start the day friends if we didn't end, ha. We are really good friends, but we've been together a long time, counting the first time we served together. I'm still sure that there's nobody else I'd rather serve with a this time in my mission. Good life lessons. I'm glad everyone is doing good back home, and that Meg and Mica and their kids were able to spend some time there. I hope everyone has a good week. Love you guys.

Elder Geddes

And so the miracles begin

2011-04-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

We had a really great week, one of the best ever! It went by so fast because of all the good things that happened with us. On Saturday, we had district meeting at the Maxwell's house. The Moores had gotten there that morning so they were there with us. I got to give the spiritual thought, I used some awesome verses I have been studying lately from Alma 37 about the Liahona and about faith and diligence, if you get a chance, look it up, from v. 40-47. Compare it with 1 Nephi 16, it is really interesting and applicable to any stage of life. Anyway, after the meeting, we went out to dinner, just the elders and the Moores! We went to that place I told you about, the chinese looking place that has a restaurant on the 23rd floor. The floor rotates which is awesome, we got to see the whole city after about an hour. I got a steak, some fries, some Asparagus in cheese (can you believe it?) and Elder Hasbiullin and I split an order of Bish Bar Mak, the national dish of Kazakhstan. Horse meat and noodles (nothing special if you ask me). After the dinner, we had a meeting with a person we are helping with English. Sunday was a nice meeting. No investigators came, but it was nice to have the Moores there. They spoke, and after the meeting we all had an interview with Elder Moore since he is in the mission presidency. They had invited us to their hotel that night for dinner and to let us watch another session of conference. The other elders made lasagna which was pretty good actually. We only got to watch a couple of talks from the Saturday morning session, but it was really cool. The best thing was on Monday. We haven't been able to meet with Venera for quite a while, she was busy with work, then she got sick. Anyway we set up a meeting with her for monday and we went to her apartment for the lesson. We have taught her the restoration, the plan of salvation and so we wanted to teach her the gospel of Jesus Christ and try to set a baptismal date. We had planned out a really good lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We executed our plan and everything worked out great! By the time we got to the part about baptism, she had already asked, "how do I show my faith? How do you baptize people?" As we started to talk about baptism, she said "I already feel a desire to be baptized, I don't know why, but I feel a desire to be baptized, think about it guys." We told her, we have thought a lot about it and we want you to be baptized. Elder Hasbiullin extended the commitment and the first thing she said was, when. We told her we want her to be baptized the 21st of May and she said, what do I need to do? We assured her that we would be there every step of the way and that we would help her prepare for baptism. It was a great lesson and a great feeling. The spirit was strong, and she was able to recognize it. She said she had met with the Jehova's Witnesses for over 8 months and they wanted her to be baptized, but she never felt the desire. She now has that desire and has agreed to meet the challenge. She agreed to come to church this Sunday, and she also attended our activity last night at the branch. She has a 15 year old son and we can't wait for this family to start receiving the blessings of the restored gospel. We're very excited.

We also had another miracle a few days ago. We were contacting and we were talking to a really nice lady on the bus stop. As we were talking to her, a man in a suit walked up to us and said, guys, I see that you are well dressed and happy guys, that you are talking about something serious. I don't have time right now but lets exchange numbers and meet. We got his number and he left. We also got the lady's number on the bustop by the way. Anyway, that night we called him and set up a meeting for the next day. He invited us to his office in some hotel. As we were heading to the office, we were worried that it was going to be one of those pyramid scheme meetings or something. As we got to his office, sure enough it was one of those businesses. We sat and waited for a minute for our contact to come in. He came in and we sat in a corner of the room. He immediately started introducing himself, saying that he has been thinking a lot about eternal questions lately. He said he didn't know why he wanted to talk to us, but he saw us on the street, saw that we were happy guys, well dressed, working hard. He said, "people are just attracted to enthusiastic happy people, but usually I don't introduce myself to them. I saw you guys and thought, why not?" We were able to talk to him for almost an hour and explain that it was probably the influence of the Holy Ghost that made him want to talk to us, and that we do have answers to the questions of the soul. The whole time we were there, he didn't say one word about his business, we are really excited about him as well. He has a wife who also worked there.

I'm not sure why, but the Lord has been answering our prayers really really fast lately. Sunday night we had sent a message to Venera, making sure our lesson was still set. We hadn't heard back from her, but as we were praying before bed, I asked that we would be able to meet with her. We closed the prayer and the phone rang, a text from her saying everything was good. The next day, for some reason they had shut off our lights and water, so we couldn't shower or do anything really. So we just got dressed and went out contacting first thing in the morning. We got back, still no water or electricity. We were getting worried that our food was going to go bad. We needed to leave for our lesson and we didn't know what to do with the food. We figured, oh well, it should be fine. Before we left the apartment, we said the prayer and I said, please let the lights and the water come back so that our food didn't go bad, and literally at that second the lights flipped on and we were able to leave knowing that our fridge was fine and that all our food would be okay. Small examples, but important ones. Just goes to show you that the Lord listens to even our smallest of desires and problems.

The AP's got here this morning. We already went and played 3 on 3 basketball for about an hour and a half. I wouldn't say I'm great by any means but I'm getting better and enjoying it more each time. We will be working with them tomorrow, so it will be pretty fun. We should be able to find at least one lesson for each companionship. I'm excited. The AP's right now are Elder Nuckols and Tanner. Elder Nuckols was in the MTC with me and Elder Tanner was in the group behind us. Elder Tanner and I served together for quite a while in Voronezh, so it's a really fun set of AP's.

When the Moores came up, they brought with them some mail that had made it's way to Almaty a while back. I got a letter from a member in Kaluga who just left for her mission a couple months ago. She lived in Moscow while I served in Kaluga, but her mom is in Kaluga so she came down a few times. She's really cool and really nice. She sent me a postcard and thanked me for my service in Kaluga and for my support of her and her family. She said "my mom always talks about you with a lot of respect, and you were a great example to me of a missionary." It was a short little note, but it made me so happy to know that people really do appreciate the work we do here. It brightened my day, that's for sure. It's so awesome when people take the time and effort to thank you for something, we should all probably make the effort to do that a little more often, we all probably know how it makes us feel when someone thanks us. It was a nice little surprise for me. Oh ya, by the way, last transfer, they closed down Kaluga. We just don't have enough missionaries. The good thing is that the office elders in Moscow are now traveling every weekend to Kaluga. They have Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday to meet with and support the members there. I guess there is even a couple of pretty promising investigators right now. I was sad that they closed it down, just because I have a convert there and I really grew to love the members. But at least the office elders have a chance to go there every week and support the branch. One of the office elders is Elder Erickson, he and I baptized Tatyana, so I'm sure that's a good thing for them.

We got things sorted out in the hospital with my companion. We had to go back about a million times and wait in about a hundred lines, but finally we got him some medication. I think I told you about it, he has this weird spot on his back that he is constantly itching, so I made him go to the doctor. Yesterday we got the medication and they said in about 10 days it should start going away. I hope so, I'm sick of him scratching himself! Ha, I swear, when you are with the same guy from the second you wake up to the second you go to sleep, things start to wear on you! But I really love Elder Hasbiullin, I'm glad we're together. We have a good time.

I will be speaking in church on Easter Sunday. I'm pretty excited. I'll be speaking on the 4 parts of the atonement. Usually we talk about the 3 parts, suffering in the garden, on the cross, and the resurrection. The fourth part I will include is the fact that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. Without that, there would be no atonement. There are several references in the scriptures when it talks about how Christ was tempted, but gave no heed to the temptations. The fact that he was able to live his life in perfect harmony with the Father, always being able to resist temptation, always serving and loving others, allowed him to give his life for us, and take it back. We know that Jesus Christ showed us the perfect example in all things, and that we are to follow that example. At the end of the sermon on the mount He commands us to be perfect even as He and His Father are perfect. Jesus Christ was able to withstand all temptations, technically, we can too. The fact is though, that we don't always withstand every temptation. The commandment still applies, be ye perfect, the only way we can progress toward that goal is by the atonement which provides the mercy needed to pay the demands of justice. We'll never understand the atonement perfectly, it's too complex and deep, but that just means that we can study it for our whole lives and always learn more! I love studying the gospel and learning, it's such a great blessing for us as missionaries and as members of the church.

Today, we are planning on going to see the sights, since the ap's are here. It should be a nice day, we'll get some good pictures, without the snow and stuff. This is a pretty cool city, some days I just still can't believe I'm here. I'm really glad I am here though. I have a little over 2 months left and we'll be working hard until the end. Thanks for all the letters and support, I love you guys!

It's hard opening a city

2011-04-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Okay, right off the bat I'll start with the cool story for the week. So one day we decided to mix things up and go straight out in the morning and contact at like 8 o'clock. We went out and started to talk to people and noticed that there were tons of people at this one bus stop. We wondered what was going on so we asked and found out that the president would be making an appearance and a speech and so the city was bussing people there to watch. Sometime last week were the presidential elections. From what we heard, President Nazerbaev received 95% of the votes! Everyone loves him here, but wow, I don't know if I can believe that one. Usually they have elections every 7 years here, but this one was different. President Nazerbaev was elected president until the day he dies! He's pretty much king of Kazakhstan now. He's already been the president for 20 years and he will probably be around for another 20 or so. Anyway, we decided it would be a once in a life time thing so we ran home, grabbed our cameras and ran back to the bus stop. We got on one of the last busses and got a free trip to the location of the speech. There were lots and lots of people there and we didn't really know what was going on, but we ended up getting in a pretty good spot. We were pretty close to the aisle where President walked down the red carpet. My comp got it all on film because he's really tall. It was pretty cool. He gave his speech in Kazakh, then in Russian. The whole city was pretty much just partying the whole day. There were open air concerts and food all over the place. It was pretty cool. I've never even seen the president of the USA but I've seen the president of Kazakhstan. Cool huh?

Well this week somehow went by really fast, as usual. I don't understand it. There are some days when I look at my watch and see that it is about 3 o'clock and I think, there is no way I'll be able to make it through another 6 hours of this. The next thing I know I am laying in bed thinking, how did I make it? I can definitely say that the Lord is strengthening us and helping us get through the days. Not that we are just here to endure our time, but even when we have a successful day and get good contacts, all day out on the streets talking to everyone you see takes its toll. I think all four of us have had a moment or two when we thought, that's it, I can't do it anymore. Mine was this week. We had a day with two lessons planned, one at 4 and one at 6. I was so happy, I thought, no problem, contact until 4 o'clock, take a break and teach a lesson, conctact for an hour, take a break and teach a lesson then finish off the day with an easy 2 hours of contacting. At about 4 o'clock we went to the branch to meet the guy, he didn't show up. We called and he didn't answer. I thought, oh well, it's not so bad, just two more hours and we'll get to teach a lesson. I was able to contact for the next two hours with a good attitude and desire. Then at 6 o'clock, we called the investigator to say that we were almost there and she said that she wouldn't be able to meet with us afterall. I just wanted to sit down right there and quit for the day. I didn't see how I could possibly go another 3 hours. It just didn't seem possible at all. I had actually that morning read in the Book of Mormon about the sons of Mosiah, how even they at times were discouraged. It says that the Lord strengthened them when their hearts were depressed and they wanted to turn back. I said a little prayer and just asked for some strength, to just make it to the end of the day. Off we went. We continued to talk to people and continued to work. That was one of those nights when I layed in bed and thought, how did I make it? Another miracle about the whole thing is that each morning at 6:30, I am able to wake up, and get out of bed without problem. I am so beat by the end of the day but the next morning I am able to jump up and do it again. This has been a trying month for me but I think I have grown, even in this month. I know I'll make it through this next two months and I'll be a better person for it. I really want to see some success here of course. I think it isn't out of the question to see some people get baptized before we leave, I really want to see some success. I know that most of what we are doing is planting seeds for the future, but it would still be neat to see some fruits.

The weather changed from winter to summer overnight almost. One day we were in scarves, hats, gloves, everything. The next we were just in our coats without hats and gloves, the next day we wore our suit coats and the next day we wore short sleeve shirts. We have played basketball at a nearby school a couple of times, last pday we played and this morning we already played. It was fun and some good exercise. It is actually getting hot here which is something I never thought I would say. Winter was long but it ended quick.

We have some cool things coming up. This weekend the Moores will be coming up here from Almaty. They are going to be taking us out to dinner on Saturday after our district meeting. The place we picked out is a 20 something story building with the restaraunt on the 23rd floor. The floor of the restaraunt rotates so that you can see the entire city. It's actually not that expensive so it will be really awesome. They will be with us at church on Sunday as well. Then the next weekend the ap's are supposedly coming up here too. We don't know which day exactly, but it will be a good change for a day or two. After that, the next thing will be Mothers day, calling home for the last time. Sometime in the middle of May, I think the 14 and 15 or so, we will be going down to Almaty for zone conference where Elder Schweitzer from the 70 will be there. After that it will be my 21st birthday, followed by my 2 year mark on a mission. Lots of cool things coming up.

It sounds like everyone is doing pretty good. I'm always happy to read about all the funny and cool things that happen at home. I hope everyone has a good week and lots of fun times. Love you guys.

Elder Geddes

2011-04-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

Jess used the clippers on his hair and it was a little shorter than he expected but he still looks handsome!

Pictures of Kazachstan, it really is a beautiful, modern city.

Challenges and joys of missionary work

2011-04-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Before I forget, I wanted to tell you this cool thing that happened last week but I forgot to write about it last time. Elder Hasbiullin and I were contacting, in kind of a different part of town tha we hadn't been in before and we were talking to a lady on a bus stop. A bus pulled up and a bunch of people got on. The last lady to get on was wearing a big fur coat. As she was stepping on to the bus, some guy came up behind her and kind of grabbed her and reached in her pocket and grabbed her cell phone. I saw the whole thing, and then the guy started calmly walking away probably trying to blend in with the crowd. I didn't know what to do but I kind of stepped in front of him and just said, Hey! I think it scared him and he stopped and looked at me, just then the lady got off the bus and ran up and grabbed him and started yelling at him to give back the phone. There wasn't much he could do so he just gave her the phone. She called him some names and then got back on the bus. The guy walked away and was kind of just standing in the shadows. We finished our conversation pretty quick and the guy was yelling for me to come talk to him. Of course I wasn't going to go talk to him, so I just started walking away. Elder Hasbiullin seemed to be a bit more spooked than I was and was trying to get out pretty fast so he had already gotten about 10 or 15 feet away from me. As I was walking away, some guy grabbed my arm. I immediately just tried to rip my arm away but he held on. He said, that guy wants to talk to you. I just calmly said, I don't need to talk to that guy. And he kind of just looked at me and let me go. We got out pretty quick, jumped on a different bus and just left. I'm not sure if the second guy was like a partner or something to the bandit, or if he really just thought that guy wanted to talk to me and thought that I didn't hear him. I didn't want to stick around to find out of course, so we just got out. It was pretty cool, I kind of saved a lady from getting her cell phone stolen! The sad thing about it is that about 25 other people saw the whol thing and nobody said a word or did anything. I know if that would have happened in America, at least in Soda Springs, people would have stopped the thief. I don't like the fact that most people here have kind of a look out for number one attitude. That kind of attitude doesn't help anyone, and if an entire city or country has that attitude, you see that they don't progress very fast at all. Anyway, kind of a cool experience.

Last week we went to a really big aquarium for our p-day activity. It was pretty fun. Then we all went to eat at a mall, we had some KFC! My week went by really fast, although we had some tough days. We lost a few of our investigators and one of our members left town for a month. I as pretty frustrated at first about losing our investigators, but then I realized that they just weren't the ones we should be spending our time with. I know that God's hand is in this work so we don't have to worry when things like that happen. We still have Venera, although she was busy all this week. It is easy to forget that we have only been here for a month, and that it will be like this for a while longer. We didn't really know what we signed up for when we got asked to open up this city, but we should have been more prepared for how difficult it is. Remembering that we are still so new here, and that this is God's work, really helped me pick up my spirits and have a good rest of the week. It went by so fast, I feel like just yesterday we were here writing home.

We had a little miracle a couple days ago. We had no lessons and were getting ready to contact all day long. We went out right after studies and contacted for about an hour and a half. We talked to a girl on the street and asked if she would be interested in practicing English. She said she wasn't but said she had a friend who worked in a nearby furniture store who would be interested. I'm sure she just said it to get us to leave and never thought that we would be persistent enough to actually go find the store and talk with the lady. She obviously doesn't know mormon missionaries! Side note, I realize that we are annoying as missionaries but it really sunk in a few nights ago when one of our contacts said that he would be out of town for about a month, also probably just to get us to forget about him and stop calling, but my companion without skipping a beat, opened his planner to exactly a month from that day and wrote himself a reminder to call that guy, ha, how is that for not giving up, ha. Anyway, of course we found the furniture store and walked in and started talking to the lady working there. She is about 29 years old and was just happy as can be that two people would come up to her and offer free English practice. She has just been studying on her own for about a year and has just wanted practice. We were able to talk with her for about 40 minutes, explain who we are and what we believe, and why we left all our life at home for two years to come here. She is Muslim, but had no problem listening and asking questions about our faith. We have another meeting set up with her for Saturday, so we will be able to start helping her with English and teach her the gospel. We'll see if she accepts. It was just a really nice little break from contacting and was just enough to get us through that long day. It was cool.

Yesterday was the warmest day so far this year. It was so nice. Today is supposed to be even better, we are going to go play basketball at a nearby school. I'm excited to get out and get some exercise, other than walking up and down flights of stairs. I'm so out of shape! Oh ya, and I cut off all my hair. There was a hair cutter here that was left over from the seniour couple and I got the chance to be the test driver. It only had two guards so I figured the bigger one should do the trick. Only after I finished did I realize that I could have actually extended the guard to make it four times longer than what I used. Oops. Oh well, I figure this will be the haircut I wear for the rest of my life anyway, might as well start getting used to it now. 2 years, lots of stress, bad diet, constantly being tired, a sure fire recipe for baldness :) I don't mind, I figure I have an unusually round head, obviously I was prepared from the foundations of this world to be bald. Who can complain about that? If you aren't with God, you are against him, I can't say I like the fact that my hair fell out but what can you do?

Church was really nice on Sunday, although it was just the four elders, the Maxwells and one member. The other two members were out of town and we couldn't get any investigators to come. We also got to watch three sessions of General Conference at the Maxwell's house. We saw Priesthood and the two Sunday sessions. Priesthood was awesome, and so were the other two. I can't wait to see or read the Saturday sessions and re read all the others. This was a very good conference from what I can tell. That's probably why the week went by so fast. I love conference. That's way cool that they will build a temple in Meridian. I wonder how long it will take?

So it turns out I have no idea when Easter is. I always thought it was the first Sunday in April, boy was I wrong. Also, I don't know when Mothers day is, I have a feeling it is the second Sunday in May since last year we called home on the 9th of May. If that's true, it's coming up quick. Only a month until I get to call home for the last time. Crazy. Then after Mothers day, a few weeks later will be my 21st birthday! It's like 19 and 20 didn't really exist. 21 is a big deal it seems like. Don't send me anything though. Take whatever money you would have used to send a package and either just get me something for when I get home or just put a few dollars on my card and we'll go get some lunch somewhere. It's not worth trying to get me a package. Every time the AP's or President come, they have lots of stuff to bring anyway so it's hard for them to bring extra things. It's not a big deal, holidays on the mission are just like any other day. Maybe you can make me a cake when I get home!

That's cool that dad got to go to a mission reunion. I hope my mission keeps up with those things, we have such a great group of people, I would really like to keep in touch with them. I bet that was interesting to see some of those people 34 years later. That's too bad that not everyone stays faithful after a mission. The good thing is that we know what to do to prevent it. Follow the counsil of the prophet and everything will go fine. By the way, how is Dillon doing on his mission? I forgot where he is, South America, or Mexico? Tell everyone from that side of the family hello for me.

Well this turned out to be a pretty long letter. Thanks for the letters and the support. I hope everyone has a great week. Love you guys!

Elder Geddes

Another successful week in Astana

2011-03-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

It has been a pretty decent week, some good and some bad. We have been able to get some meetings with investigators and get some good contacts, but we are still trying to get all of our contacts turned into investigators. It's a bit tricky because we have lots of contacts, we call them, try to meet with them and everything, but if they can't meet, which is often the case, then what else can we do but go out and find more people? Then we get more contacts, have more numbers to call, have more meetings to try to get, but it's kind of a vicious cycle. We have around 100 contacts, which is enough you would think to get some investigators but most of the time we call and they say call back this day, or I'm leaving for a week, try again this time. We have 7 investigators though, people that we have taught and are going to continue teaching. Not all of them are progressing golden investigators of course but we'll sure give it a shot. We have Venera, I think I told you about her. We are meeting with her regularly and have now taught her the first two lessons. Yesterday we finished the plan of salvation and she said, I want to be in the celestial kingdom with my son. We said, next time we meet we will tell you exactly how you can do that. We'll see her on Monday I think. The problem is that she works on Sundays exactly at the time we meet. She said closer to the end of April she will have a schedule change and should be able to come. I hope so. She's pretty cool.

Some of the other lessons we had: Tuesday morning we had a meeting with a Pentecostal, the whole speaking in tongues people. It was interesting enough, he didn't exactly disagree with our doctrines but I'm not so sure he accepted. We'll probably meet with him a couple more times and see if we can get him reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. Right after that lesson, we had the biggest bible bash lesson I've had on my mission! We met a lady on the street, gave her a Book of Mormon and got her number. She said she was interested but that her husband would be even more interested. We had a lesson with her husband who is extremely Russian Orthodox. We met him at our branch building. He looks like he is head of some mafia crime circuit. He was just huge, pretty fat but just looked like the biggest bruiser ever. Anyway, we had a meeting and just argued. I hate to argue but sometimes you just can't listen to the things people say and not argue back. He was just saying the most stupid things like, "nobody knows who the Mormons are, nobody knows who Thomas Monson is, nobody knows who this little sect is." I just said, "you know, I will go home and tell people that we worked with Russian Orthodox people, and nobody will know what kind of church that is, and I know for sure that nobody knows who in the world Kirell is (the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church)" Anyway, lots of dumb things were said and we probably should have just ended the second we started, but we just couldn't hold back I guess. We probably won't be meeting with him again.

One night, we were contacting and I made a greenie mistake with my Russian. It was really actually pretty funny but I just haven't made that kind of mistake for a long time. We stopped a guy and talked with him about the church, he was pretty interested. I went to ask him for his number and mixed up two very similar words to exchange, and to hug! Obmenyatsa, and obnimatsa! So I said, well we don't want to keep you too long here in the cold, so how about we hug numbers, (something like that) he obviously was confused and repeated the word "to hug?" It was the word I said so it made sense in my mind, I said ya, and he got all uncomfortable and was like "guys, probably not right now, you understand, I mean, strangers, kind of a weird situation" By this point it clicked in my companions mind that he had said to hug instead of to exchange and he said "Oh! No, he meant, exchange numbers!" We all had a good laugh and we got the guys number. I was brought back to my greenie days, that's for sure.

We had a good little family home evening with our two members and me and my companion. The other elders didn't come because one of them had gotten kind of sick, so it was just us four. The Maxwell's are in Almaty right now doing a humanitarian project. The spirit is very sweet in a small branch. I remember a few times in Kaluga when the small branch spirit was there, but it seems much stronger here. The three members are so faithful and are so glad that we are here. They are very optimistic about the future of the branch. One of them has to go to India for almost a month for work or something, so he will be gone for a few Sundays, but his 15 year old son will still be here and will be coming to church.

Yesterday was Elder Hasbiullin's year mark on his mission. Can you believe it? I trained him! It has gone by so fast for both of us. We have both grown so much in this past year. We have become better teachers, finders, workers, and have become much more learned in the gospel. He is a good kid and I'm glad we're serving together. We ate at a cafeteria in our apartment building to celebrate. It was pretty cheap and pretty tasty, we'll probably start eating there more often.

When we got home at 9:00, we found a note in our door that said that we hadn't paid the bills and they shut off the electricity. Sure enough, no electricity. Our landlord is 27 years old and is what we say in russian, detskie sod (kindergarten). He is pretty immature and forgetful. He paid the bill, at the very last minute, but he did actually pay it. The systems are probably just a little slow here so they didn't have time to enter it in and stuff before they turned us off. We called him and he came over and got the paper and said this morning he would go first thing to get things taken care of. I hope so. Luckily we had ABSOLUTELY nothing in our refrigerator to go bad. Don't worry mom, we just got new money and I think we should be done with money problems. This week we have money to buy groceries to last a week! I swear, the last month has just been one big problem with money and food. But I think that should all be over.

We decided to call Ludmilla in Veronezh last night to see how she is doing. She was so happy to hear from us! She's doing great and has a new calling of the branch activities coordinator. She was confused and thought that I was going to go to the temple with her even though you aren't coming to pick me up, so I had to tell her that I wouldn't be able to go with her but that I expect her to go anyway. She said of course, and that she has already started working on getting documents ready and everything in order for June. That was the greatest feeling ever. I know I haven't baptized 100 people on my mission, but to know that one of the ones I did baptize is preparing to go to the temple and receive her endowment is the greatest feeling ever. I told her that someday I would return to Russia and visit her. I didn't know when, but I'll see her sometime.

The weather has been awesome the past couple of days. Although there were a few days this week where the wind just about blew us back to Almaty! This city has a constant wind, and for a few days, it was just crazy strong. We could jump up in the air and literally get pushed back about a foot or so by the wind. We tried to just run as fast as we could against the wind and felt like we weren't going anywhere at all. It was really cool and really fun for about the first 15 minutes, then after that it was just miserable! It stopped though. Today is so warm that, guess what mom, I put on my old shoes! The left one isn't as comfy as I remember due to the fact that the leather is all water spoiled and stuff but they are going to last till the end. I have made the executive decision that my coat and shoes are cheap enough in quality that I will not be bringing them home with me. Every single pocket in my coat is just haning by a thread and shoes are just bulky and cheap. They did the trick though. My coat kept me warm and my shoes kept me dry. I'll definitely bring home my grey nice coat, but my fur collar coat will be staying here. I don't have room for all that stuff anyway.

I think that is about all I have for this week. I am having a great time, although there have been some tough days here. On the other hand, I have been sleeping like a baby every night. It's just a little hard to be on the street from 11 to 9 with only an hour break for lunch. Things are getting better each day though as we are getting more and more investigators. I am loving the work and am sure that we will see some baptisms here in Astana. Thanks for the letters and support. I love you guys.

Elder Geddes

A week of miracles

2011-03-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,

Another week flew by. Every week on Saturday or Sunday it seems like Pday might never come, then the next thing I know, it's Thursday. Time flies here. We have had a really great week, including some miracles, disappointments, and some blessings. We ended up getting 40 contacts last week, getting 5 new investigators, giving away 10 Books of Mormon and having over 700 conversations. It was definitely the biggest week of my mission. Sunday we had a different lady come to church. Unfortunately Anna couldn't come, and she is out of town for a while this week. I'll get back to her later though. Church was pretty good, Elder Hasbiullin and I taught Sunday school again, about the sacrament. It was really good. I'm still playing the piano, at least trying. I haven't exactly had a lot of practice on my mission and I don't exactly love the keyboard that we have, but it works, plus one of the other elders that got here can play too so we will be taking turns. Anyway, after the meeting, the woman who came to church (who happens to be the first contact Elder Hasbiullin and I received here) had some questions and we ended up teaching her the restoration. She's a really nice lady and is really interested, had good questions, but at the same time thinks that she could never abandon her church that she goes to. We'll see what the spirit can do with her. She did take a Book of Mormon and is supposedly reading, we'll see in a day or two how she is doing.

We had an awesome lesson with another lady on Friday. She had so many questions and wanted to know everything. She had kind of investigated the Jehova's Witnesses for a while, but she didn't agree with a lot of their doctrines and said she didn't get baptized because she didn't feel the burn in her chest that let her know it was right. We answered all her questions and she accepted everything we had to say. We taught her the entire first lesson and the spirit was very strong. I felt like talking about baptism and I knew somehow that Hasbiullin wanted to as well. Finally I got to a point where I could, and we told her that we want her to get an answer about this church, and that when she does, we want her to get baptized. She said that if she receives an answer, she'll get baptized. She also wasn't able to come to church on Sunday but we had a lesson with her on Monday. We reviewed the restoration and answered some questions she had about the bible. It was important, she saw that we are pretty well versed in the bible and that we can truly give her some answers. I feel like it was a good lesson to build her trust in us. On Wednesday, we had a family night at the senior couple's house. This week was a national holiday, so Askar and his son weren't in town, but Zhanna, the other member came and our investigator, Venera, came as well. She was supposed to bring her 15 year old son but he ended up having some other things to do. She really enjoyed herself. She is an English tutor, which is good because the Maxwell's think everyone should be fluent in English and do the whole fhe in English (we'll have to work on that one). She will try to be at church on Sunday. We're excited about her. She reminds us a lot of Ludmilla in Veronezh.

The other Elders came on Monday. We met them at the trainstation, took them to their apartment and then went to ours to have lunch. They live about 3 or 4 minutes from us, so it's really cool. We are really happy to have them here. We had our first district meeting on Wednesday. Elder Player is our district leader and he is going to do a great job. The meeting was really good, although it was also the first district meeting for the Maxwell's and they didn't really know what was going on. District meeting is always something an elder looks forward to. It is always spiritual and the senior couple ALWAYS prepares lunch for us. The Lowry's in Veronezh were awesome about it and the Moore's in Almaty were way good too. Sister Maxwell is the cheapest lady I've ever met in my life! Ha, first they asked where we wanted to have the meeting. We said, at your place of course! They said, okay, that's fine. We got there, had a meeting for an hour and a half and left without even the offer of a cookie or a glass of water or something. They said at first that they wanted to have family home evening once a month, or just as needed, but then they found some ice cream for 300 tenge and figured that they could handle that once a week. 300 tenge is 2 dollars. No matter what, if you talk to Sister Maxwell, she will bring up how something is too expensive, it is too cold, they couldn't understand something, pretty much just not the most pleasant person to be around. They don't have a single picture on their wall, a single little trinket on the shelf, and I know for a fact that as long as they are here, there won't be any of that. They are nice people, but just have a way of casually complaining about things and talking about money non stop. As you can see, I'm a little upset that we didn't get lunch at district meeting! ha, Oh well, it could be worse!

I have been freaking out this whole week because it has been getting really warm and I still haven't bought a real traditional Russian fur hat. I thought I had probably missed my chance, that it was already getting warm and that they probably have put them away. I made everyone go to the market this morning to look. I found one! They still have a lot actually. There were some really cool ones, some really expensive ones, some really junky ones. I got a pretty good one for a pretty good price. It's not the nicest one I saw but it is really pretty nice. I talked the guy down 5000 tenge, pretty good huh? I ended up spending 10000 tenge. That's a little over 60 dollars. Pretty expensive, but the one I really liked was more than 3 times more. I'm pretty pleased with the purchase. I have only a couple things left that I want to buy before I go back to America. A Muslim prayer rug, a Kazakh jumpsuit, and a nice church suit if I can find one. They have a bit more of a European style suit here, if I find a nice one, I'll take it. Oh ya, I fell on the ice at the market! I fell hard and fast too. Right on my knee right on a big mound of lumpy ice. It was pretty bad. I guess it makes up for the fact that I didn't even fall down half as much as I fell last winter, ha.

I have decided to go to USU. I feel really good about it. I'm pretty excited. You'll have to do the talking for me, since I think you said the deadline is the 21 of June. I have no idea what to tell you about housing, if we need to get that early, or what the deal is. I'm going to kind of let you guys take care of that if that's okay. I'm not picky, I trust you guys to get me a roof over my head. Also, will you have to pick my classes? There are obviously some classes I would like to retake, one being that stupid creative arts class. I figure I'll be able to do some work on my gpa. As far as math, I think I have to take a placement test, which could be really bad as I have forgotten everything I ever knew about math. I'm not sure, just let me know what kinds of things you'll need to do. Honestly I wouldn't be against going back to Old Farm. That was kind of a fun place. Keep me updated about that if you find out anything.

Our shower has been driving me crazy, the drain just wasn't working and I would always finish my shower with water over my ankles. Today I got fed up and after my shower I took off the little U-bend thing. It was just full of nasty nasty hair. It was long hair, not our hair. Whoever lived there before us just clogged that thing right up! It was disgusting but I was able to take care of it and now it should work a little better!

Today is March 24th. Exactly in 3 months I will be home. It's going by fast and showing no signs of slowing. I am happy, working hard, getting along with my companion, and still learning. I'm so glad I'm here in Astana. I know I'll be able to work hard til the end here. Thanks for all the letters and pictures. I really enjoy reading and seeing how you are doing. I hope everything is going good back home, and that Grandpa is able to meet with that doctor, that would be awesome. Have a great week. I love you guys.

Elder Geddes

The fields are white all ready to harvest

2011-03-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Thanks for writing, it sounds like lots of stuff is going on back home. I'm glad to hear that the babies are home and that Liz is feeling good too. Well it has been a pretty interesting week. I am really really happy to be here in Astana. It is already apparent that the Lord has been preparing people for the gospel here. I know that by the time I am done serving here, there will be a handful of new members in the branch.

Last Thursday was kind of just walking around looking at the sights. This city is so interesting. We are here in the capital of a country I had hardly heard of before my mission and it is one of the most modern cities ever. It is still in the process of being built of course but the buildings that are here are really beautiful. I have been taking lots of pictures to show you guys. Friday we were supposed to meet with the registration lady so we could recieve our permission to preach and our registration. The papers didn't come in time so we couldn't meet Friday. Which means we had another day that we legally couldn't preach. We got on a bus and wentto the market and bought a bunch of stuff for our apartment. We got a frying pan, knives, some other stuff I forgot, oh an Iron and Ironing board, we got almost all the stuff we needed. Our apartment is still kind of empty, there are no desks or any table in the main room for us to study on and stuff like that, there aren't any coat hangers or bookshelves. I have been studying on the couch, Hasbiullin uses the kitchen table. Today we will spend some time to get things a little more in order. That took up a lot of time actually to go to the market and back, we also kind of just went around the streets trying to figure out what was what, what was where, that kind of thing. Saturday, we met with the lady at around lunch time and we talked to people on the streets the rest of the day! I haven't done so much street contacting at one time ever in my mission. All day every day, we have just been on the streets talking with people! It has been cool how the Lord has blessed us. The time doesn't drag by, we are getting contacts, we are having fun and we are doing what we were called to do.

Sunday, the first ever real church meeting in Astana, went really well. There has been one member here for the past 3 years, she has just gone to the humanitarian aid couple's house every Sunday where they would give a prayer, pass the sacrament, they would give her a talk from conference or some kind of article in Russian to read, they would read one in English, then they would go their seperate ways. This week, we met in our new branch building (a small room on the second floor of some kind of office, it has a few chairs and a couch, a big table, and a smaller table) and had a kind of real sarament meeting. I played on the keyboard, we had the sacrament, then we had a talk from one of the three members. It was about a 5 minute talk, then Elder Hasbiullin and I were asked to give a lesson on the priesthood. Things are a little different when you are just a group. Can you believe it? We don't even have a branch, we are just a group! Cool huh? There were 8 people there however, honestly there were a few weeks in Kaluga when only 8 people came! The best part about it all, there was an investigator there! We showed up, saw the members, and saw some kind of woman. Askar, the member who just moved here from Almaty, invited a friend to church and she came! Her name is Anna, she is 39 years old. She has 3 kids, twin boys who are 17 years old and are currently in America finishing High School, and a 9 year old daughter named Stephanie. Her last husband was Scottish, her last name is Pinkerton, can you believe it? Anyway, she participated in the lesson, seemed to enjoy herself. She speaks pretty good English, and her daughter Stephanie is fluent in English and Russian. She goes to an American school here in Astana. All the teachers are Americans and there are lots of foriegn kids there. Anyway, we were all just talking after the meeting and Askar, very awkwardly, says "So Anna, when can the missionaries start working with you?" She didn't really understand what he meant by working with her, but we quickly explained that we just wanted to meet to let her know some more about the church. She's so cool and really nice. She has been here for 2 years and honestly I think she is lonely and feels out of place. The branch will be her family and is exactly what she needs. We planned a family night at the Maxwell's apartment Tuesday night and she said she would come. She left but then a few minutes later she called back and said she wanted to show us around Astana. She has a car so she said if we wanted she would come get us and we could meet her daughter who didn't come to church, and we could see Astana. We thought it would be a good chance to get to know her and let her know who we are, so we agreed. She came and got us and we were driving, just chatting, she drove right to a restaraunt. She said, this is a really nice place, never very full. We told her, we don't need to eat, but she said she and her daughter were hungry, so we figured we would just take the chance to talk about the church while she and her daughter ate. We told her we didn't want anything but she ordered us the lunch deal. By then it was too late, so we just went along for the ride, we were of course starving, and who wouldn't eat, it was some nice French restaraunt. We felt bad that we were eating there on a Sunday, but it just kind of happened. I won't lie, the food was way good. It had a salad, way tasty bread, steak and potatoes. It was called a steak but it was pretty much a big hamburger patty. It was pretty tasty though. She paid for the whole thing, somehow she is pretty wealthy. I know her former husband, the Scottish guy, works on the other side of Kazakhstan near the Caspian sea in the oil business, so that might be where she got her money too. Anyway, she paid, we had a good conversation, were able to tell her a lot about the church, and get to know her daughter as well. She came on Tuesday to the family home evening. The lesson was given by the Maxwell's. They had prepared a lesson about family home evening, and about family, how to strengthen family, how to do FHE and stuff. They had Anna read a story about a little boy who was running around his house when he said, Mom, do you smell that? The mom asked what the smell was, and the 4 year old boy said, it smells like happiness. The woman in the story admitted that she didn't know what happiness smelled like anymore, but that the 4 year old was able to smell it, at this point Anna asked someone else to read, she continued to listen and just cried the whole rest of the story. I'm not sure exactly why she was crying, but I hope it was a good thing. She really enjoyed the family night and afterward invited us to some kind of art show that her friend had put on. She wanted us to meet her friends, we went and met a few Americans and some Kazakhs. We were able to tell them that we were here as missionaries and stuff but they weren't exactly too interested. It was worth a try. The next day, yesterday, she called us and invited us to some kind of celebration and a fancy pants university here in Astana. We thought that would be a good chance as well to go meet some important big wigs. We gave out some invitations to the people who were interested. I got talking to a black guy from England. I told him about our church and gave him an invitation, some info about the church with our number and address. He asked if he could share it with other people, and I said, please do! He said he works in a different university but that they are all kind of connected and that he would put our info up on the bulliten board where there are all sorts of different announcements and information about different things. I thought that would be pretty cool, I am really hoping that we get some calls from that. President Woolley wanted us to try hard to build bridges with the government and with the Muslim church. Anna is turning out to be a really good contact. She wasn't affraid to tell her friends who we are and what we are doing here. It was cool. Actually before the ceremony thing we met her at her house and were able to give her a brief real first lesson. She accepts what we have to say and seems really happy about it. She thinks we are just the best friends ever and said that she knows that God sent us to her. We are excited and are sure that she will be our first convert here in Astana. She is really good friends with the member that invited her, so she already has friends in the branch, she speaks English so she gets along and really enjoys talking with the senior couple. She said next week Stephanie will be with her for sure. She said that she wants Stephanie to be raised in this kind of surrounding with people like us in her life. We are so excited.

Also, aside from that, all the street contacting we have been doing has been paying off as well. We have already gotten over 30 contacts, given away 5 or 6 Books of Mormon and have met with a couple of people. We have some really promising contacts actually and we are really excited about that. We will be focusing on meeting with all of these contacts this week. We hope to get a few of them to come to church. There are lots of Muslims, there are less Russians here than in Almaty which is surprising because we are so much closer to Russia. The people are pretty nice and open here though, of course there are rude people and people who just plain don't want to hear from us, but what can you expect. We are talking with everybody. The other day, we were contacting and 3 guys were coming our way. I looked at the first guy who seemed pretty normal so I decided to stop them. I stopped them, started talking and then looked at the second guy. The second guy was an old drunk guy with one eye that looked like someone scooped it out with a rusty spoon, let me tell you, this guy didn't lose his eye in a hospital, more like in a bar or on the streets. It scared me so I immediately looked over at the third guy, also an old drunk guy with nasty black and blue bruised face. I realized I had stopped the wrong guys, and we got out of there pretty quick, ha. It was pretty funny. Later that day, we stopped to young guys. We were talking to them about the church and stuff when Elder Hasbiullin asked what church they go to. One of the kids seemed to struggle to say that they were Russian Orthodox. Hasbiullin jokingly said, what, did you forget which church you go to? The kid simply said, no, I have a stutter. Elder Hasbiullin immediately said, oh, sorry, anyway, about our church. Ha, I thought that was pretty funny. Foot in mouth moment, right?

Anyway, we are having a good time. The other elders still haven't gotten here. They should get here on Saturday though, that will be cool. Today we are going to just kind of rest a little bit. Every night I have been falling asleep at around 10:00, reading a book or something. We are pretty tired at night but we feel awesome during the day, working hard. We leave the apartment at 11:00 and just take an hour for lunch at around 1:30 or so and then get right back out. What an awesome place to finish a mission! I was glad to get a letter from Grandma and Grandpa and Pam today, thanks for that letter, I'm glad to hear that you guys are doing okay. It might be spring time there but I think we still have a good month here before the snow goes away and it starts to warm up. I'll admit that it isn't as cold as everyone said up here but it is still pretty chilly. Especially when the wind is blowing all day long. The wind just bites at you, and after a few hours of just walking around outside it gets pretty cold. It hasn't bothered us too bad though, we are being blessed like crazy.

I think that's about all for this week. I hope next week the good news keeps coming from your side of the world and I'm sure it will keep coming from my side. Thanks for all the letters. Love you guys!

Elder Geddes

Astana!!! finally, now the adventure begins

2011-03-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Well it sounds like everyone is really excited to welcome a couple of new babies into the family, myself included. The pictures looked pretty good, they look healthy and cute. I can't wait to see them in a few months. I hope they get to go home soon, or maybe they are already home, anyway, I hope they are healthy and happy and that Liz makes a good quick recovery as well. My big news for the week... we finally made it to Astana!! After barely making it onto our train, we enjoyed a nice 20 hour trip from Almaty to Astana. I actually really do enjoy the overnight trains, they're fun.

Anyway, I'll start from last week. After writing home, we went to the mountains and went sledding and played some football. Sledding was crazy, it was fun, but a little scary. One sister wrapped herself around a tree going about a hundred miles an hour, she jumped right up after that though. We all though she was a gonner! I had a good time, even though I didn't feel way good. The next day we had zone conference. I was just feeling terrible the whole time. I had a headache and my whole body was achy and stuff. I think I had a flu or something. The worst possible day to get sick, after not eating hardly anything the whole week before due to a lack of food, I ate very little at Sister Moore's dinner due to lack of appetite! I was pretty bummed. She made some kind of shredded pork or beef sandwiches. I did eat some and it was really good but I just couldn't eat too much. I slept through a good portion of zone conference, nobody bothered to wake me up because they all knew I wasn't feeling too great. All day Saturday I wasn't feeling too good either, but by Sunday I was feeling better, which was a miracle. President Woolley was with us at church and after church he gathered the four of us who are going to be here in Astana and told us some news about when we would be able to go. He said, I want two elders to go Tuesday night. He wanted my companion and me to go but he thought I was sick so he was going to send someone else. He asked me how I was feeling and I said, I'm feeling great, I'm ready to go. So that was that. The other two elders didn't come with us because one of them has to go back to Russia and get a 6 month visa for Kazakhstan, which means his companion had to stay in Almaty to wait for him there, rather than have an awkward threesome here in Astana. We were happy to go, they were bummed to stay of course. They should be here next week or so. Well Tuesday was the 8th of March, a big holiday in Russia and Kazakhstan. It's Womens Day, the equivilent to our Mothers Day in America, I think. Anyway, there was a big branch activity and we missionaries prepared a number. We watched and studied a clip of the Temptations performance of My Girl. We practiced for a combined total of probably 2-3 hours, and we pulled it off. The dance was a way big hit, I got it on film and will show you all someday. It was a lot of fun. Anyway, after the activity, we needed to get home to finish packing and cleaning up our apartment. We had someone from the branch coming to pick us up at 7. We scrambled to get everything ready, we each had one suitcase and then there was one more suitcase full of supplies for Astana. We jumped in the car and headed out. Our train left at 7:53 or so, so I was keeping an eye on the clock the whole time. At about 7:30, the driver started asking us some questions about our train and stuff. We told her what train it was and she said "guys, that train leaves from the different station!" We said, ya we know, where are you taking us? So she got us on the right course and we started cruising to the other station. We jumped out of the car at about 7:40 or so and started running, asking people where we needed to go. We got on the right track and started heading out but two young guys stopped us and we had to weigh our bags. I guess you are only allowed to take 35 kilograms per ticket, I'm not sure why, but that is their rule I guess. Well both Hasbiullin and I had about 37 or 38 kilos, plus another suitcase that weighed about 36 kilos! We said, our train leaves in about 5 minutes. They said, okay, 2000 tenge. Luckily I'm with a Russian, he bargained them down to 1000 and I threw them the money and they let us through. It has been interesting living in countries where everything is taken care of by under the table deals like that. Anyway, we ran through, found our train and headed for the wagon. I forgot to mention that the suitcase full of Astana supplies is about the most worthless sorry suitcase you've ever seen. The entire handle that usually comes out to drag it with has been ripped out, leaving a gaping hole, so you have to drag it just using the top handle thing, and both of the wheels are messed up so you are just dragging it on its bottom, ha, it's a joke of a suitcase. It's Elder Player's suitcase, and he is taking it home with him, I can't wait to see his parents faces when they see it. The inside supporter things along the walls of the suitcase are broken so now it naturally sits flat as a pancake, ha, its funny. Anyway, some older guy had grabbed it out of our hands to help us take it to the train, of course for money, but we just let him take it. As we were jumping on the train, we grabbed whatever coins we had and gave him a grand total of 170 tenge, around a dollar. He wasn't too happy since he had just ran a good distance, including a couple staircases, hauling our 70 pound piece of junk, ha. Oh well. After that, things went pretty smooth. We had a pretty restful 20 hour ride. I fell asleep probably around 11 o'clock and woke up at 8:30. Not that I was trying to be disobedient, but we were in a train until 4:30 anyway, I didn't feel like waking up at 6:30 just to sit there until 4:30. It felt good.

We got here yesterday, Elder Maxwell met us at the station. He is originally from Canada, but lived in America since he was 14 years old. He and his wife lived in California the past 20 something years. His wife is from Tahiti, I'm guessing they met on his mission since that's where he served. They are way nice. They themselves have only been here about 2 weeks, so we are all just going to figure this out together. They had been living in one of the apartments that the elders will be living in while the other senior couple has been showing them around. The other couple left so they have just moved into their apartment. Sister Maxwell fed us dinner, some bean soup that tasted a lot like a soup that mom makes, it was pretty tasty. After that we went to see our apartment. Elder Maxwell gave us the keys and we said goodbye. Elder Hasbiullin and I just walked around a bit, crossed the river (still completely frozen solid) and took a look around. We got back to our place and unpacked a bit, although we don't really have a chance to unpack everything yet because we have no hangers and no place to hang hangers. Today we will hopefully get a rod to hang our stuff on. Also, we will need to get a cell phone, an iron, an ironing board, food, and whatever else we come across that we need.

We are starting a big adventure, along with Liz and Dallin! It will be really interesting for us all to see what the next few months will bring. I am just now realizing how close it is, and how fast time will fly. I just finished my last transfer, moved into my last apartment, am serving with my last companion probably, it's all pretty crazy to me. There is a lot to do here in Astana, next week I'll have stories about how the people react to the first missionaries in their city. We are excited to get going. I'm glad to know that everything is going good back home. Thanks for everything, have a good week. Love you guys.

Elder Geddes

Still in Almaty and waiting.....

2011-03-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Well I got new shoes! They were about 1000 rubles, they are pretty nice and they were a pretty good deal too. I figured that was one of the first things mom would want to hear. I will wear them until about may when it starts to warm up in Astana, then I'm going to put on my good ol' eccos to finish out the mission. I figure as long as it is dry I can wear them, they still look okay. I cleaned them up real good and set them aside. My shoes are pretty warm. They'll serve me well the next few months in Astana. Oh ya, by the way, I'm still in Almaty! We still don't know when exactly we will get to go, but the rumor is next Tuesday or Wednesday. As far as the money goes, I think the picture of our fridge should explain that, ha. We are fine though. We have money now and will be fine. We still don't want to buy a ton of food just to leave it all here in Almaty.

Anyway, I'll start from the beginning. Last week after writing home we all went to the market and I got shoes, then we took a look at the central Mosque here in Almaty. It was pretty cool. They are very simple inside, no pictures, not really anything at all. It was just a really big room that only men are allowed in. There is a different part for women. People were praying there and doing their thing. It was quiet and peaceful. We went into a different room and I witnessed a lady become a Muslim. She had to recite in Arabic a certain phrase, something like There is no other God besides Allah and his prophet Muhammed. Then she signed a paper and, boom, she's a muslim. The man told her that now she should start praying five times a day and coming to the service on Fridays. Pretty interesting.

On Saturday we went to the mountains with the priesthood from the branch... or at least 3 of them. Honestly this branch has some problems. People are so laid back here in Kazakhstan that certain things just aren't important. Only a couple people were there but we made it fun. We sledded down a way steep mountain, I immediately plowed into a tree, giving myself a dead leg for the rest of the day, it is still a little sore now. We got it on film, two different angles so it's pretty cool. We had some shishkabob things that we all probably would have been better off not eating. After lunch we were playing american football. Our elders quorum president walks over to the middle of the field, says he doesn't feel very good, bends over and throws up right in the middle of our field! It was pretty funny. We grabbed a sled and shoveled off the puke. When we were getting ready to clean it up, the guy with the car, who happens to be an American, drives his big heavy suv into our field to pack up the stuff. The snow was way soft and pretty deep so he got his car way stuck! It took around an hour for like 10 or so guys to get it out! I couldn't believe it. It was a pretty good adventure though. We got back to the branch and there were two baptisms.

The next day we were pretty dead tired from pushing and pulling and running and playing the day before. Sometime on Monday, my stomach started bothering me really bad. Tuesday and wednesday we spent about an extra hour inside the house because I felt pretty junky. Last night I was still feeling bad and this morning too. The AP's came and stayed at our apartment last night and we are all going back to the mountains right after this. I asked Elder Harrison to give me a blessing. It was a really powerful blessing, I know I have asked for a lot of blessings, in particular because of this sickness, but my partrarchal blessing tells me to never hesitate to ask for a priesthood blessing. I feel really confident that the priesthood has the power to heal people. I am so glad we have this true principle in our church. It is such a blessing for all of us.

We have been actually doing a lot of contacting the past week. We are trying to get some good contacts and investigators for the other elders when we leave. Honestly it is a little hard to work as hard as possible here when we are just waiting for the go ahead to go to Astana. We are doing pretty well though, I think. We are talking with everyone and getting contacts and having a great time. President will get here sometime today and we will be having zone conference tomorrow. I'm pretty excited for it, especially for the dinner that will come after it. We really have been eating pretty poorly lately. Although, with how my stomach has been feeling, I haven't really had a huge desire to eat a ton of food.

Thanks for writing me last minute, I know my pdays have been messed up lately. I was happy to hear from you guys. I hope you have those babies soon Liz, I can't wait for the day I get to come read my emails and find out I have two new nephews. When I get home, one of my first assignments will be to learn which one is Ashley, which one is Lacey, which one is Miles, and which one is James. That should keep me busy for a little while!

Dad, I'm glad you are enjoying your new job, even if it is a bit boring. It's cool that you are making changes and are able to magnify your calling so to speak. Keep saving up your frequent flyer miles, that would be so awesome to come back with you guys!

And say thanks to Bishop Humble for the letter, I was glad to hear from him. I wanted him to be the bishop when I got home, but Bishop Gambles will do a great job.

Anyway, thanks for the letters and support. I love you guys and can't wait to write you next week from Astana (I hope). Have a great week everyone.

Elder Geddes

A great mission experience

2011-02-28T09:24:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Well I'm in Almaty, along with the other three elders who are going to Astana. We are awaiting permission to preach the gospel in Astana. I already have permission to preach here in Almaty, so we are just here working until we are able to leave in order to not waste time. It's cool to work here with Elder Hasbiullin. It's a lot easier and more productive than it was the past couple of months. We are working hard and the time is flying! Just like I knew it would. We are all pretty antsy here in Almaty, waiting to go to our real area. Elder Hasbiullin and I are just working in the area I worked in with Kruglyak, the other two elders are on splits with some other elders here. We are working hard and doing pretty good. We didn't have a ton going for us when I was with Kruglyak as you remember but we are trying to build it up a little right now before we have to pass all of our investigators and contacts to other elders in Almaty. The elders are being reduced from 6 to 4 so our area is kind of being absorbed by other elders. We have been doing quite a bit of street contacting trying to get in shape for Astana. Yesterday we were on the streets for a few hours straight and it just flew by because we were talking with everyone. We got I think 5 or 6 contacts and had a good time. That's how it will be in Astana, talking with everyone, all day every day. Last night we went over to a members house and had a lesson, she said she had some friends in Astana. She called this guy right up while we were there and said to him that he would have a chance to help us build the church in Astana. It was obvious he was a little confused, he asked, "what, do they need an apartment to meet in or something?" She just said, no, don't worry, all you have to do is show up and listen, they will explain everything when you get there, just listen to them! She's awesome, there have been like 4 or 5 or even more people that have been baptized because of her. She'll be meeting with this guys mom today and has already told her all about us. I really hope that turns out to be a good contact. President Woolley said that our assignment is to build the church by finding families and prosperous people. It should be awesome. Today I think I will by some warm shoes. We have been watching the weather in Astana, the coldest I have seen it (during the day) was -32 and the warmest -18. Also it is supposed to be pretty windy there, so that only adds to it. The senior couple claims that a few nights ago it got down to -47, that's just crazy. If it is that cold, I don't even think you are supposed to go outside. I'm glad I brought my thermals! I wanted to just tough it out in these shoes, but my left foot has been wet and cold for the past couple weeks and it's no fun. Also, I think the leather is spoiled on that shoe due to the crack, so the leather gets really wet and then when it dries, it is completely white from the salt on the roads. I look pretty bad. I think I'll buy some nice warm shoes, then when the snow is gone, I'll get these shoes back out to finish the mission in. They look fine if I can get the salt off of the one.

Anyway, we got here to Almaty about 6:30 Friday morning. We got here to find out that the missionaries that were here while I was in Russia left us with around 4000 tenge, that's 800 rubles, for two weeks. We have a few more days to last and we have 1000 tenge, 200 rubles! that's like 6 dollars or so! We are going to buy a bunch of Raman noodles to last us a few days until we get our new money. What a joke. We're doing okay though, mooching off of everyone of course. We had to take our p-day today because the patriarch has been here this week giving blessings in the branch. We have taken turns as missionaries sitting in the branch while he gives blessings to help make sure the reverence is maintained and to help the people who are recieving their blessings fill out things, answer questions, anything they need. It has been such a neat experience. The patriarch is from Provo, he is assigned to our area, the Eastern European area, and he comes to different missions throughout the year. He has such a busy schedule when he is here, giving 7 blessings a day for about three weeks. I'm sure it is just spiritually draining. He takes it very seriously and is an awesome guy. The branch has had a spirit in it like never before for the past week. It has been a sweet experience to feel the spirit so strong when in the presence of one of God's chosen and very valuable servents. His name is Gary Browning and he was actually the first mission president in Russia back in the 90's. Cool huh?

That's cool that Marie was a page, I can't believe she is a senior either. I got a letter this week from a bunch of the youth in our ward back home. It was sent sometime around Christmas, but it was awesome to get it. Jack James is also graduating? That's crazy to me. He told me he is really excited to graduate and move to college. He's a cool kid. He said he can't wait to talk to me after I finish my mission, and to watch out for muggers because they are evil and greedy. There are a lot of people I can't wait to see from the ward, the James family will be some of them. How are they doing? Did they get divorced? Are they still living in that house? What's Joe doing?

A few days ago someone called us, a former investigator that I have never met. She wanted to meet with us and told us an address where to meet here. We set up the meeting and last night went to it. The address was a hotel and we were taken into a conference room where there were a few other people, a table with a tv and some kind of health products on the table. There was some kind of infomercial playing. I immediately understood what it was but it was too late, we were already there. We sat there for about 15 or 20 minutes and listened to the most unoriginal pyramid scheme ever. All you have to do is invite people and you can become a millionare. It was pretty funny, we participated, answered questions. The guy asked me some questions and said, if you were to continue doing what you are doing today, would you be able to become a millionare in 15 years? I said, absolutely not! Ha, it was funny. We finally just said, we have to get going, we have a different meeting. He stopped the whole presentation to try to talk us into staying. This lady must have been pretty desperate to invite a couple of young missionaries to her little pyramid scam thing. The guy's whole point was that the company had existed for 15 years and already 80 people in the company have become millionaires. He asked me what I was doing 15 years ago, I said, well, I was 5 years old, if that answers your question, ha. It was a good laugh, but a waste of time. I think we offended the investigator lady but oh well, I had called her a few times to try to meet and she never wanted to, so I guess that's that.

That's good that you got to speak in church. I have decided that I have learned what a talk should be, and that I will take every chance I get to stand up in front of people to teach the gospel. That's what a talk should be, teaching the principles of the gospel. That's what the Prophets and apostles do, and that's what we should do, I can't wait to give it a shot in English. My mission has helped me in so many ways. One thing I have been searching out my whole mission is what gifts of the spirit do I have. There have now been a few times where people have given me their opinions, without me asking, and I take it as answers to my prayers. Pasha in Kaluga, who I wanted to baptize, told me I have the gift of speaking with people, conversing with people. No wonder I always got in trouble in school for talking too much! Little did those teachers know, they were trying to hinder my spiritual gift! But last night when we were on that lesson with the member, she mentioned something that she noticed and felt. Elder Kruglyak and I had a lesson with her a while back. She invited a friend from a different church, and it ended up being a big argument between this friend and Elder Kruglyak. I was trying to keep my calm and still teach the restored gospel. The lady wasn't listening, but one time I said something and she said, Just look into his eyes, he has the calm peaceful eyes, something to that effect. Last night, I was surprised, but Svetlana, the member, remembered that comment and began to talk about it. She was talking about why some people don't accept the gospel because we don't always teach with love. She used the example of Elder Kruglyak and I last time we were there. She said Kruglyak was just trying to argue, to prove everything, and trying to teach without love. She said both her and her friend felt from me and saw in my eyes, peace and love. She said after we left that this lady told her that when I would tell her something she would feel peaceful and appreciated how calm I was and that I didn't argue. There have been a few times on my mission where people have commented to me that I have a calm about me that helps people feel comfortable. Obviously God doesn't give us gifts for us to brag about, but I feel like this is one of my gifts and I know that my mission has helped me develop this gift and find out about it. It's important to find out our gifts so that we can use them to our benefit and more importantly, to the benefit of the people we serve and associate with. God truly does answer our prayers, he listens to us and loves us. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door unto me, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me." (Rev. 3:20) Something to that effect, maybe not word for word, but close. I know that God could give us anything and everything we need, but sometimes he just waits for us to ask for it, to show faith that he can and will answer our prayers. Sometimes we are shy to ask, or we just think, if it is the will of God he will give it to me, if not, then not, but we see so many times in the scriptures, ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened. How often do we try that? All we have to do is open the door. I love the gospel and all the blessing that it brings. I hope everyone has a chance each day to open the scriptures and study the words of life, actually, I know everyone has the chance, but I hope we are all taking the chance. I love you guys and am so thankful for your support and love. I feel your prayers and hope that you feel mine. I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Geddes

Traveling again

2011-02-14T09:48:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Hello from Smolensk Russia!! I flew in to Moscow Friday night and
took a 7 hour van ride from there to Smolensk where I will be for a
few more days while I'm waiting for my visa. Elder Hasbiullin is here
finishing up his service as branch president. It has been cool to see
my greenie in action as the leader of an entire branch. I'm pretty
proud of him and we are both really excited to get working in Astana.
Although President Woolley is still not 100% sure about when we'll get
there. I will have a new Kazakh visa on the 17th and will be flying
back to Almaty as far as I know, at least I hope because all I brought
with me from there was a couple extra changes of clothes. The senior
couple in Astana found us some apartments and a place to meet, so
that's good. I've been trying to think about what exactly will be the
best way to approach this whole new city deal. I think we'll be on
the streets a whole lot, but all four of us are ready for that.

I can't believe they got rid of the 8th ward, is Bro. Hegamen the
bishop of the 5th ward? That's cool that Scott Gambles is the bishop,
he'll do a really good job. Was Delvin happy to be done? What
exactly is happening to Soda Springs? Is it because of the economy?
What's going on with Monsanto and Agrium and all those places, are
they still laying people off? Have a lot of people packed up and
moved away or what? That's pretty crazy.

I have a major cold going on right now, my nose is just completely
useless to me right now and I've been coughing all over the place.
The problem is that when I left Almaty it was around 0 degrees, maybe
even plus 1 or 2, so I didn't bring a scarf or thermals or anything,
but when I got here to Smolensk, it has been -15 or more the whole
time. I've been freezing here. I always only get sick when I have no
medicine near me. When I went to Kazakhstan I left all my medicine in
Kaluga. I got sick the first little while there. Elder Bressler,
bless his heart, decided I might need my medicine so he boxed it up,
took it to the office in moscow the next time he went and had them get
the box to me in Almaty, ha. In Almaty I have a huge bag of medicine
now, but of course, I leave for a week and immediately get sick. Oh
well, colds aren't bad, they are just uncomfortable.

I was pretty sick of traveling by myself by the time I finally got
here. It's no fun. The plane ride then the long van ride. They guy
sitting next to me smelled pretty weird and fell asleep on my shoulder
for a good portion of the ride. The last few hours they showed a
movie. It wasn't a good movie, in more ways than one, so it was a
pretty uncomfortable ride. I got to the station in Smolensk and
there was nobody there to meet me. I asked a lady if I could use her
phone to call Elder Hasbiullin, she said no so I just said thanks
anyway and walked away. People here are always so suspicious, anyway,
as I walked away she caught up to me and asked me what I needed, she
ended up letting me use her phone. Turns out Elder Hasbiullin had
been at the station a while before that but they said my van was
running pretty late because it was snowing pretty bad. He had called
two girls from his branch and asked them to wait for me at McDonalds.
I asked around and found the bus to McDonalds and found the girls. I
just sat there for about a half hour with them while we were waiting
for Hasbiullin who was a in a meeting with someone. I was pretty glad
to see him and his companion. There are 4 of us here right now
because this week Hasbiullin is training the new branch president. We
are supposedly going to be leaving Thursday but we'll find out for
sure probably later today. I am glad I got to come to Smolensk, it is
a super old city here in Russia. I think they even filmed part of the
movie Get Smart here, but I can't remember. Anyway, it's cool to see
another city.

Anyway, other than that, not a whole lot has happened with me since
the last time I wrote. Tell Delvin and Bishop Gambles congratulations
for me, and make sure Bishop Gambles knows I want to speak in the 4th
ward when I get home. I hope everyone has a good week, I'm not sure
when I'll write next, either Thursday or Monday, depending on where I
am. I love you guys.

Elder Geddes

Opening a new city in Kazakhstan

2011-02-10T06:41:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

Well a lot of exciting things are happening in the mission these days. Before I get too far ahead of myself, I better talk about last week. Last week, we went and watched one of the events of the Asian Winter Olympics. We traveled up to the mountains and watched a freestyle ski event... in the pouring rain! We were all completely soaked. I didn't have a hat at first, but then one of the other elders gave me one to wear. Our feet were soaked, our clothes were soaked, and we had a blast. I'm really surprised they were able to do the event, the snow was probably terrible! I expected them to cancel it. We got there, rode a ski lift to the top of the mountain, and had to walk half way down the mountain. They figured out how to get all the people to the top, but they didn't plan much for us to get half way down, it was slushy, muddy, and slippery. I think I am one of the only elders who didn't fall down. I had just complemented one of the sisters about how she hadn't fallen once, after which, she quickly fell about 5 times in a row, ha. It was pretty funny. Anyway, we all froze to death but it was fun. By the way, speaking of wet feet, I think I might have to bite the bullet and buy a pair of new shoes. My left foot has been wet for the past week straight. If only I could hold out until April, after that it would be dry enough to last til the end. Oh well, maybe I can find some cool cheap European shoes to buy. Anyway, this week has been okay. It has been a bit stressful, for the fact that I knew President would be calling about transfers any day. Finally last night I got the call.

We were contacting last night when President Woolley called me. He told me that I would be transfered and that I will be working in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan that we are opening up. I was pretty excited, but then he told me who my companion would be, that's when I got really excited. I will be serving with the elder that I trained last year. Elder Hasbiullin has been one of my best friends on the mission, and when I got transfered here, I thought we would probably not see each other again for a long long time. He's from Russia and I just don't know when I would be able to see him again after the mission. He was such a good elder, super fun and optimistic. He's a great teacher and the nicest guy ever. He will definitely help me to work hard until the very last day of my mission. The other two elders there will be Elder Player and Elder Melling. Elder Player was with me in the mtc. He is currently the AP and one of my best friends here. We have been talking to each other since the mtc about opening a city together. Now our dreams come true. His companion, Elder Melling is a pretty cool kid. Today is his year mark on the mission, he is already an awesome elder from what I hear. Working with these three elders in this new city will be the greatest adventure of my life, and I couldn't think of a better way to spend the last 3 transfers of my mission. I know that miracles await us there. I can only imagine that God has enough of his elect in this city, that he has decided to send missionaries in to find them and teach them. There are already 3 members there, one a mongolian woman who has been a faithful member for a number of years, until just recently she was the only member in the city. Last month, a man and his son who were baptized a few months ago moved to Astana for work. Soon after he moved there, he recieved the Melkizidek Priesthood, so he will most likely be the branch president. His son is around 16 I think. They will be a big blessing to the work. I am going to Russia tonight on a plane, I will be there for about a week. I hope President gives us some good advice about what we should do first. I know they are looking for apartments and a branch building right now, so they don't even know exactly when we'll go to Astana. I'm hoping within the next two weeks. I think if it takes longer than a week we will just be here in Almaty working. I am excited and humbled to say the least. I have prayed a lot on my mission, but I think the next couple of transfers are going to include a whole lot more time on my knees. I want to be an instrument in bringing the gospel to as many people in this city as possible. There will be only 4 of us there, but D&C 64 talks about how we are agents of the Lord and that anything we do in his name is his business, that out of small things, great things are brought to pass. I believe that with all my heart and will do everything I can to show faith in God's plan. I have been studying a bit more about a couple of principles lately. Faith and Obedience. The two are so much connected. Faith is the first principle of the gospel, obedience is the first law in heaven. When we have the faith to be obedient to the commandments, we receive the blessings attached to those commandments (D&C 130:19-20). Mosiah 2:22 says that all the Lord requires of us is to keep his commandments. Why? Because only when we are obedient are we able to receive all the blessings the Lord has in store for us. I like to picture a literal pile of just great things, blessings, sitting right next to the Lord. He watches us and waits for that moment when we show our faith and obedience. When we do, he sends down all of those great blessings. As we receive the blessings, and understand that it is thanks to our obedience and faith, that strengthens our resolve and desire to have more faith and be more obedient. It is one big circle. If we can get into a habit of exercising these two principles, the Lord will be able to give us so much, and even better, we will be in a position to allow the Lord to use us as instruments in his hands to serve others and move the work forward. I get excited just thinking about it.

Anyway, that's the spiritual thought for today I guess, ha. Today is my companions last p-day. He will be serving with a mini missionary for the remainder of his time here. His companion is an elder who finished his mission here about a month ago, went home for a few weeks and is already back to help for a week. Cool huh. We are going to go to the branch and play some ultimate frisbee and some board games with the other missionaries. It should be a pretty fun and relaxing p-day. Then I will have a few hours to myself as I fly to Moscow. I will take my books and keep studying, time is short. I love all of you guys, and I'm so glad to have you as a family. So many good examples of all these principles that I am learning and teaching others. Keep up the good work. I hope all of you have a great week! I don't know what will happen in Russia, where I'll be or what, but the pday is on monday in Russia, so I'll be able to write you sometime next week. Thanks again for everything.

Elder Geddes

Transfer soon?

2011-02-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Well, we had kind of a rough week this week. We weren't able to get a hold of our investigator, and there were some motivation problems in our companionship if you know what I mean. The AP's came on Wednesday, that was fun, and President was here for the weekend. He was accompanied by Elder Senkants from Latvia. Our zone conference was pretty good, I had to translate half of it into Russian for one of the Sisters here who doesn't speak English. The cool thing was that night, they had a fireside where Elder Senkants spoke. He talked about a lot of things that have been interesting to me my whole mission. He talked about agency, truth, and the 93rd section of the Doctrine and Covenants. It was a really good talk, not a whole lot of people bothered to show up, which was sad, but it was still really cool. I had an interview with President Woolley after the fireside. He asked if I would like to go to Astana, the new city that will be opened. He said he still isn't sure who he will send, but I'm one that he has been thinking about. I'm in a good position to go, my companion is leaving, stuff like that. It would be cool with me whatever happens. I think we will know within a few days.

We had kind a discouraging week, a lot of time got wasted and I got in a couple of arguments with my companion. I can't see how you can just let your last couple of weeks go by like this. Elder Player, the ap, and I were on splits and we talked about how we won't even be stopping for lunch our last couple weeks. We'll carry a sandwhich around with us, ha. I hope I have that same attitude when my time comes. I'm just trying to use my time wisely. I'm trying to be effective. Only another couple of weeks. He's a really good guy, he is just tired I guess.

After we write home we are going to go to watch some of the Asian winter olympic games that are here right now. We bought some tickets yesterday for the freestyle ski event. It should be pretty awesome. I'll take lots of pictures and videos. I hope we get good spots. It's pretty fun here. I think that's why my emails are getting shorter and shorter, and less and less detailed. That and the fact that we are just struggling to find people who are really interested in the gospel. Right now on my mission, I think I have really learned how to study. The past week or two I have just learned a lot. I have really enjoyed learning from the scriptures and reading the conference talks. The gospel is just a cool thing when we think about it.

I can't believe that Dallin Brown was hurt so bad. That is a pretty big miracle that he was able to come out of it. I just want everyone to be careful, car crashes are scary. I thought it was pretty funny what happened to dad when he needed a shot, ha, I laughed about that one. And I honestly have been having dreams about Otis lately, I can't wait to get home and play with him.

Anyway, things are going as good as possible. I'm happy and doing my best. Thanks for the letters. I love you guys and hope you all have a good week.

Elder Geddes

A promising new contact

2011-01-26T19:06:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

We got up early today to come write home. We had the ap's over so we had to wake up at 5:30 to be here by 6:30. We have a breakfast at the senior couples house because it is one of the missionaries birthdays soon so we are celebrating today. After breakfast we are all going to head to the huge market here in Almaty. I'm going to start looking for a nice new suit! I don't know if I'll find one today, but we'll see, I'm sure I'll find something interesting.

I'm glad I'm not in Moscow too. I think that is a pretty scary city when it comes down to it. Especially since we use that airport often. I flew out of a different one the last two times but I have used that airport on my mission. Crazy. I just don't understand why people want to hurt other people. It just dosn't make sense.

I think President might hold off on opening the new city for one more transfer. It's really cold in that city because it is up on a steppe with no mountains or anything and it is way windy. It is pretty cold there all the time. He's afraid that it would be a bad time to open the city since the elders will be doing a lot of street contacting. I kind of agree with him, but at the same time, if he wants to send anyone from my group there, he would probably need to do it now since we only have 3 transfers left. Two transfers isn't a very long time to try to get some things moving in a new city. Oh well, as for me, I'm happy wherever. I think it would be a pretty cool experience to open up that city, but I really like it here in Almaty as well. The ap's came yesterday with President Woolley. President got straight on another plane and flew to Astana, the city he wants to open. He needed to renew his visa and wanted to check out that city so he decided to fly there to do it. It is an hour flight from here, so not too bad. He will be back tomorrow night and we will have zone conference on Saturday. We have a member of the 70 who will be with us so that will be cool.

This week we started working with a really cool guy named Almaz. He called us up one day and wanted to meet with us, kind of to practice English but I invited him to come to church and he said okay. He came to church, all three hours, really enjoyed the lessons, stayed after church to meet with us and then came back at 6 o'clock when we went to one of the members house for dinner. He's cool and we have another meeting with him on Sunday again. He can only meet with us on Sundays, but that's okay, I really want to help him do success and accept the gospel, I really hope he continues to enjoy what we have to tell him.

I think my companion is officially dying. I'm doing all I can to keep him going but he has three weeks left and he doesn't think there is much more to work for. It's sad but I'm glad to serve with him to see the things that I shouldn't do during my last transfer. I'm sure it is easy to get distracted and trunky, but it's also possible to work hard to the end. I'm really glad that the ap's came because it will give us some time apart to do splits and stuff. I think he will leave around the 16th so just a couple more weeks with him. The thing is, he's a really good missionary when he tries, but sometimes he doesn't try too hard. I'm sure its the same with all of us, we have our good times and bad. Anyway, I have no idea who I'll be serving with after him. I'll have to fly back to Russia sometime around the 20th. Maybe even a little earlier so I could go with my companion when he goes. I have to get a new Kazakh visa, in Russia. Maybe I'll be able to fly back here with a new companion. We are getting 4 new elders, maybe I'll get another greeny. Who knows. I hope I get a hard worker. There is so much potential here, it's crazy. That is one reason I want to go open up that city, because I know the other three elders would be the best in the mission and they would be able to help me work hard and be effective. It would be just the best end to a mission.

Sounds like everyone is doing pretty good. I can't believe Mikelle painted that picture, I thought she was just standing by one she liked or something. That's awesome! Congratulations to her. I hope dad's hand is okay, Rob said he sliced it up pretty good. Anthony wrote me a little note, I can't wait to see him again. Sounds like he's a little genius.
I haven't heard from Liz in a while, how is she doing? Is she large and in charge? Only a few more months for her. I hope she's not too sick. Anyway, I'm glad everyone is doing good. I hope dad is liking his new job. I'm sure loving my job. I gotta go though. Thanks for all the letters. I love you guys!

Elder Geddes

Time slows down again

2011-01-20T06:59:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Well another week has gone by. Honestly, this past week, from Thursday to Monday was probably the slowest time has gone by for me for a long time. For some reason, time just stopped and for a few days it seemed like we were in some sort of craziness. We have been struggling for investigators, which is probably why the time slowed down for a while. We have gotten 50 something contacts in the last month, none of which turned into investigators until last night, one of them finally met with us and we had a good meeting. We have just been stood up so many times in the past little while, it's what happens with new contacts, but still, it is not fun. Last night we finally had a meeting with a guy named Ruslan. He is a pretty awesome guy. He was really interested in what we had to say, took a Book of Mormon and said he would read it. I am really looking forward to meeting with him again. A lot of our contacts said they could meet this weekend, so tomorrow night we will be calling a ton of people and trying to fill Saturday and Sunday with lessons with new people. I am feeling completely better, so that's good. Being zone leader here isn't too tough. All the missionaries are really experienced, and we have a senior couple so a lot of questions and problems pretty much just solve themselves.

I can't believe all the changes that are going on back home. I probably don't even realize how different everything will be. Things would have been different no matter what, but it seems like just about everything is going to be completely different at home. Good thing I have a few more months still to let you guys all get settled and figure out all the changes yourselves before I get there. Dad will have to fill me in on what his new responsibilities are. Is he just going to be sitting in an office now? How did monsanto handle it? Is that a pretty quick process? Was Delvin sad? I bet that was strange to walk out of that place. Hopefully someday we have some land somewhere near Soda Springs so we can visit from time to time and keep it in the family. I'll be fine with wherever I fly to or wherever I first go, but that would be really cool to be in Soda for the 4th of July.

I have a feeling that once January is over, time will really start flying. February is a short month and after that I will have just a little time left. In a few weeks we will find out who is going to Astana, the new city in Kazakhstan. Once we find that out, my future will be a lot more stable. I will either find out that I am going there or staying here. If I go there, obviously I would be there until the end of my mission. If I stay here, I should be here until the end of my mission as well. One kink in the system, that could add to my chances to go to Astana, my Kazakh visa ends at the end of February. I will have to somehow get another few month visa, I think the only option is a 6 month visa. I have a Russian visa in Moscow on my other passport, but my Russian Visa that is on my passport right now expires in a few days. That means in a few days, I won't be able to get back to Russia if I wanted to. Somehow they need to get me my other passport, or something. President is really good about that kind of thing so I'm not worried. I could always go to Kurgestan or someplace like that, ha.

Some elders had a baptism here on Saturday. I was one of the witnesses and she had to be baptized 5 times. She was wearing this way big loose dress and it would just get a big air bubble and not go down. Elder Moore tried to say that just the person had to go down but the white handbook says that clothing has to go down as well. He said there is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. When it comes to baptism, I would rather go with the letter of the law. Finally, one of the elders took off his belt, she put it on, and she was baptized one last time. She was a champ about it. She joked about it and laughed, she wasn't offended or anything. I say that women should just go for the jumpsuit. It might not look as classy but I think the dress just causes problems. After the baptism, there was a branch activity. A girl in the branch just got home from her mission, she was actually in the mtc with me. We had songs and dances. The missionaries sang a song, we did a couple of skits, and had a good time. We had a few investigators show up to church on Sunday which was really good. One of them was a man that a member invited a few weeks ago. We haven't been able to meet with him yet but he is one of the ones we need to meet with this weekend, so it should be pretty cool.

I see that my letters have been getting shorter and shorter it seems like. Not that less and less is happening, probably the complete opposite of that. Also, there are more missionaries here, more things to do, more things to get distracted with on pday, so I'm sorry if my letters are getting worse! Actually, last pday, we wrote home, bought groceries, ate, and then started working at around 3. My companion has really started working harder since we have started serving together. He decided it might be a good idea to sacrifice 3 pdays to show the Lord that we really want to make a goal and get some baptisms. I agreed, partly because I felt like it would be a good sacrifice, but mostly because I wouldn't argue with him for trying to work too hard, when at the beginning of the transfer he didn't even hardly wake up in the mornings. He has a desire to finish strong and I'll let him do that. Today the other elders want to go up into the mountains, we aren't going with them. I feel a little bad but I just need to remember that sometimes you have to do things for your companions, serve them and help them. Next pday will be the last one we will sacrifice and then after that I will be living it up every pday for the rest of my mission. My companion has less than a month left, I think that might be another reason time slowed down for a while. A change will be coming my way no matter what at the end of this transfer. It always makes me wonder, who will by my companion? Will I be here? What will it be like? I feel probably like you and dad, not exactly certain what will happen in the future. It's all for the best though, and I am having a blast. I will try to keep track this week of all the miracles that happen this week so I can let you know next week. Thanks for all the letters and support. Good luck with everything, especially to you, Dad, with your new job. You'll get used to it pretty quick probably. Anyway, I love you guys, talk to you next week.

Elder Geddes

Baptism on the 29? Prayers appreciated

2011-01-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

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

Kazahkstan, time is flying by

2010-12-30T22:44:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I'm glad to hear you made it home okay. I'm sure that was a fun trip for everyone. It sounds like everyone had a pretty nice Christmas. I also had a great time. It was really fun to talk to everyone, although I feel like we didn't get much said for some reason. 45 minutes goes by in the blink of an eye, that's for sure. I guess it's all in perspective though, if a year and a half can fly by so fast, then 45 minutes is literally nothing. I guess that's how God feels, he watches as our lives speed by in a flash as we try to prepare ourselves for eternity. Time is an interesting concept. Anyway, the next day I got to go to church and meet lots of the members. There are a lot of great people in our branch, I can't wait to get to know them all a little better. The branch had been doing a service project, making little Christmas goody bags for a blind center. We made somewhere around 1000 goody bags. After Sacrament meeting we loaded up a truck and went to deliver the treats. Apparently the blind people knew we were coming because they were all there standing around wating for their gift. I felt a little bad because it didn't seem like the people were very grateful. It almost seemed like they expected people to do this kind of thing for them and they were just there to grab the gift and leave. We had packed all the goody bags into bigger bags that weighed probably around 60-70 pounds. We had to carry the bags from the truck up a flight of stairs and into a small room where it seemed like every blind person in Almaty was standing. There was some kind of director lady there yelling at all the people to get out of our way because they weren't even letting us through pretty much. They come from a society where if you aren't first you might not get it, especially if you are handicapped in some way. So nobody wanted to give up their spots and instead blocked the road. There was just a narrow tunnel, like we were football players running onto the field. It was crazy. I was pretty dead by the last bag that I had to carry. We took the last bag up and the people started pushing and crowding to try to be first, but we had other things planned. In came one of the members with a keyboard and a bunch of hymn books and we made them all wait about 10 or so more minutes while we sang some carols. I didn't hear one thank you, or good job, but I hope we helped some people have a nice Christmas.

We have had some meetings this week and have had a lot of contacting. I really want to find someone new to work with seeing as most of our investigators have already been long time investigators. The thing with finding new people is you get a lot of figs. You set up meetings with 3 new people and only one of them shows up. It's never fun to get figged but it's what you have to do I guess to find new investigators. Almost all of the contacts we get are English contacts. We tell them that we can help with english and we try to do a 30 minute English lesson and then 30 minutes in Russian about the gospel. Some people don't really want to hear about the gospel but they want the english practice so they listen. That is how a lot of the baptisms happen here, people coming for english, hearing the gospel and accepting it.

Time is just going by so fast, it almost seems like I don't have time for p-days anymore. I never even know what to write about because all the days just blur together. I keep thinking time will slow down as I get settled in but everyday it seems like it is going faster than the last. Even a few days this week we had a few hours of just street contacting and it just fluew by! Here we are on new years eve and I can't even tell where this past year has gone. Tonight we will be at the moores house at 6. We have two movies to watch, one is called Forever Strong, it's a movie about a rugby team from Highland Utah. The other one we will watch, if we decide to is the best 2 years. We will be there until 12:30 when Elder Moore will drive us all home. Tomorrow we are not supposed to leave the apartment all day. I think Sister Woolley just worries a lot. Last year I didn't even hear as much as a firecracker if I remember right. We have instructions to plan out our week and deep clean the apartment. I have a feeling tomorrow will be a long day. I have developed a sever case of A.D.D. on my mission, and I don't like to just sit around. Especially I don't like to just sit around in a tiny apartment with absolutely nothing to do. It will be good to get the apartment nice and tidy though. And we can get the area book in order. I think it will be good, and maybe I'll even get a good nap in.

Today we went to a place called the Baraholka. It is just a huge huge market. They have everything there and it is stinking cheap. One elder bought a huge winter coat, bigger than mine for half the price I paid for mine. If I had known I would be coming here, I wouldn't have bought some things in Russia. I bought today a pair of sweet slippers with pointy toes. I think that is one habbit that might stick with me, I'm not sure. I wear sandles in the house, just like all natives here and in Russia. I can hardly stand to walk around the apartment without some kind of footwear. Anyway, it was so cold and I didn't have my hat or scarf so I just got the slippers and my companion bought a new scarf and we left. But I can tell that is a place I will want to spend some time looking through someday.

It would be so awesome to come back here with the family, whoever wants to ever go to Russia I would be glad to accompany them! That would be really neat. Anyway, I think thats everything. I hope everyone has a happy new year and set some good goals for the 2011. I'll be home in 2011, crazy huh? Anyway, thanks for the letters, I love you guys. Talk to you next year.

Elder Geddes

Day before our Christmas call

2010-12-25T15:07:00.000-08:00

Well it's Christmas day and we got our much anticipated phone call from Jess. He wrote this letter the day before and wanted to save something to talk about on the phone so it isn't as newsy as usual. We had a wonderful conversation for about 45 min. and he sounds so happy. Each time we talk to him it gets a little harder to let him go but hearing how happy he is makes it a little less painful. He is in the strongest area of the mission and he says there are about 80 people who come to Church each week. They had two baptisms on Christmas day and a fun Christmas party. He got to go to the Hyatt for dinner with the senior couple and he was in heaven. It was a buffet and he said, lets just say I got my their money's worth. He is excited to take the helm as zone leader and keep up the success of the area. One more call and he comes home!

Hey everyone,

Well I am safe and sound here in Almaty. This week has been pretty crazy and I don't think it will calm down until after new years. I got here Monday night with the AP's. We did splits with them on Wednesday, yesterday we had zone conference, today is our Christmas party, tomorrow is the branch Christmas party and we have some other stuff going on as well. Things are going pretty good, and I'm way excited for today.

My last week in Kaluga was good. It was a little hard to keep focused but I luckily had a lot to do. I got a call on Monday night saying I needed to be in Moscow the next day because they got my visa for Kazakhstan and I needed to be there to pick it up. I stayed the night Tuesday night in Moscow because on Wednesday there was a zone leader training meeting and President Woolley asked me to be the zone leader here in Almaty. The training meeting was way cool. We talked about all the zones, what kinds of problems we are running into, what kinds of successes we are having, all that kind of stuff, then we had a Senior Elder give a presentation on planning and goal setting. Both he and President Woolley are way successful buisness men so it was just really interesting to sit in Presidents house among some way successful people and hear tips and pointers about not only missionary work but pretty much life in general. The next day was zone conference. It wasn't too bad, it was cool to see the missionaries again, especially since I'm not exactly sure if I'll see some of them again before the end. Some of them I might not see again ever for all I know. Elder Khasbiullin is pretty sure he'll come to America at least to visit, so I'll hopefully get to see him again in the future. Elder Bressler and I went back to kaluga and were there working on Friday and Saturday, went to church on Sunday and got back on the bus to Moscow. I had plane tickets for Monday morning along with the AP's. Sunday night at the AP's apartment I spent a lot of time unpacking and repacking my bags to try to make the 40 pound weight limit. Pretty much I'm here witht he absolute bare necessities. 5 shirts, some other clothes and my books and coats. And I'll probably ditch even more stuff when I leave this city. My other suitcase is sitting in moscow with all the things I couldn't take here. Lots of clothes, some souvenier things, stuff like that.

The flight was good, lots better than last time when I was alone. Also it was a day flight, not a night flight. We got to Almaty at around 6 o'clock here but we were stuck in traffic for a while. We got to the branch, met up with the other missionaries and did some other stuff. The next day we had 6 lessons, the most I've ever had in one day, it was cool. I'm still trying to figure my way around and what not and figure out who our investigators are and stuff. Since me and my companion were shotgunned so a couple of the good investigators went with the elder that moved over to a different area. It seems like our investigators are all pretty old and stuff so I really want to hit the streets and find some new ones.

I'm not really sure what to say, I want to save as much as possible for the phone call, assuming everything works out. I hope I'll get to talk to everyone. It's only a 45 minute call this year, but that's okay. I'm excited to hear from you all and ask and answer some questions. I was hoping someone could write me back but I guess thats not happening. I guess I am planning on calling at around 9 oclock my time, I honestly don't know what time that will be in Idaho and especially in Iowa I have no idea. It's only a 45 minute call so I need you guys to make sure everything will work out so that we don't have to waste time trying to connect everybody else and all that stuff, maybe do a practice run with everyone? Ha, anyway, I'm excited. I love you guys, and I'll talk to you soon.

Elder Geddes

Merry Christmas from Kaluga

2010-12-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Still here in Kaluga, honestly not a whole lot has happened this week. We have been having a hard time getting contacts lately for some reason. We talked with almost 150 people this week and we got one contact! It's crazy. We had a couple days where we just had contacting and one appointment. It has gotten pretty cold so it's not so fun to be outside for hours on end talking to people who are also cold and don't want to stop to talk. We kept our spirits up though. We have been meeting with our investigators still, trying to get them to make some decisions. They are still kind of at a standstill right now. Yesterday they came to church and during Priesthood we had a pretty good chat with them and the branch president. After it was over, we left and our branch president stayed and had a chat with them for about 10 minutes. He told them that they need to make a choice and that they need to be working towards baptism. He didn't get any further than we have, they still just don't exactly have that desire. I have a feeling that if they continue to work with missionaries when I leave, they will be baptized but right now, they just aren't showing the desire.

This week has actually been a tough one for me. A combination of Christmas, waiting to go to Kazakhstan, inactive members, it all just kind of built up to this week. During Sacrament meeting (on which there were 9 people including me and my companion) I was just thinking a little about my few months I have had in Kaluga. It was kind of hard to see that I have been here for so long and we still have such low attendance. I sat next to Tatyana though, she is completely solid. She hasn't missed church since her baptism and has clearly seen how the Lord blesses us for keeping the commandments. It is just really hard to see these inactive members with cigarettes on the table, complaining about how hard life is and that kind of stuff. I just want to tell them to wake up and look around, they know the truth, they know exactly how they can get themselves out of these ruts but they won't do it. I have a little over a week left in Kaluga, I feel like visiting all these inactives and just calling them to repentance! I know their lives would all improve 10 fold if they would just remember the covenants they have made at one point and honor them. It's hard to feel sympathy for these people when they are outright breaking the commandments and then wondering why life just doesn't work out for them.

Anyway, enough of that, I am still having tons of fun, granted I am getting a little antsy to get this transfer done with. Not that I'm sick of Kaluga or Elder Bressler, but it is always just interesting to see new places and new things. Especially when the new place is a completely new country! I have been trying hard to stay focused on what is going on here in Kaluga, but the closer I get, the harder it is. I really want to work hard this last week though so that I don't leave Elder Bressler and his new companion with nothing to go on. It really will be a lot of fun though to get to Kazakhstan where there is a district and a senior couple. Being in a two man city is a good experience and I'm really glad I got to serve here, especially with Elder Bressler but I'm ready to get back to a district and a big branch.

I fell down for the first time this week, I tried jumping over a pile of snow and landed on the ice on the other side, I think I'm doing a lot better than last year though. Maybe I got some skills from last winter and I won't fall so many times. We will be going to Moscow this Thursday for zone conference, then I am assuming we will be going back next week either Monday or Tuesday, if all goes according to plan. I'm sure I'll know by next pday what the plan is.

I have missed the community concert too, I liked singing in it, the few times I did. We have been listening to Christmas music non stop while we cook lunch or dinner. President put a lot of music on the ipods we have and so we are hooked up with everything from the classics to some pretty modern Christmas music. Also, we have been listening to a 14 part lecture series on Jesus Christ that was given a while back at BYU. It has been so awesome. 14 different speakers just taking parts of the life of Jesus and talking about it for an hour. It has been really interesting. I love the Christmas season. We have so much to be thankful for and it is all thanks to the Saviour coming to the earth just for us. Hopefully everyone is remembering the reason we celebrate Christmas.

So Caleb is married huh? That's crazy. Did they get married in the temple? How is he handling being an instant dad? Is he going to school? Hopefully dad gets that appointment that he wants, sounds pretty important. It's of course really sad to leave Soda, but like I said, I'm still going to give my homecoming talk in the Soda Springs 4th ward with Bishop Humble sitting right behind me. We might all have to sleep in tents in their yard, but that's fine with me! I really want to go straight to Soda if possible, see my name on the Arctic Circle board! I know it's a completely different town now, but there are some things that will never change.

Thanks for all the letters and support. Have a safe trip to Iowa Mom and Dad, and Grandpa and Grandma! That will be lots of fun. I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season! I love you all.

Elder Geddes

New and exciting experiences

2010-12-06T08:04:00.000-08:00

Pictures of downtown Kazhakstan taken from Jess's apartment window early the first morning he got there.

Hey everyone,

Well my trip to Kazakhstan was a lot of fun, I can't wait to go back. So last Monday, I got taken to the airport. The driver walked me in and made sure I got my ticket and then left. Right after he left, I realized I had a bit of a problem. I had left my migration card in Kaluga! It's the small piece of paper that we get when we fly back into Russia after visa trips. It's pretty important as it is pretty much the only reason we go on visa trips. You need to present it as you go through passport control. They check your passport, visa, and migration card. I had given my passport to the office the week before so they could get my Kazakh visa and I had left my card on my desk in Kaluga. I didn't have a cell phone or anything so I got a little nervous. I decided to just keep my cool, say a little prayer, and remember all the things I had seen in all the Jason Bourne movies and James Bond and stuff like that when they had to get somewhere. I handed my passport to the lady, she opened it up and immediately asked me where my migration card was. I said I didn't have one. She just looked at me for a second and then grabbed one from someone else to show me what it was in case I didn't understand. I told her I knew what it was, but that I just didn't have one. I told her I had done a bunch of stuff with my passport in order to get a Kazakh visa and had lost the card somewhere in the process. She just sighed a little, looked at me like, well what do you want me to do? Then finally she just stamped my visa, handed it to me and let me go through. I said thank you very much and went on my way without looking back. I felt pretty cool, and said a little prayer of thanks, and headed on my way to the gate. I had to wait about 2 hours in the airport because our plane left about an hour late. I had a pretty good conversation with a woman from Almaty. She was telling me about how cool it was and stuff. Anyway, I got on the plane and we flew away. I fell asleep and woke up at about midnight when they came around to feed us. They were showing some hidden camera joke show on the screens and I couldn't help but laugh at some of them. I realized at that time that I have been on my mission for a long time as I ate the airplane food and thought to myself, wow, this is really good, I haven't had food this good in a long time! It was chicken and rice, a salad, a roll and a dessert, nothing wrong with that. Anyway, there is a three hour time difference in Almaty so we got there at about 6 o'clock Almaty time, or 3 o'clock moscow time. I was pretty tired but really excited to get there. I walked in and immediately knew that I wasn't in Russia anymore. All of the signs were written in Kazakh, not Russian. For the most part everyone speaks Russian there, but the national language is Kazakh and they want everyone to remember that. I got through passport control there no problem and as I got to the other side, a small woman about 45 years old or so came and asked if I was a missionary, I said yes and she said, good, come with me. First of all, I asked her name and couldn't understand it. The names are just crazy there. I've gotten used to all girls here being named Irina, Ludmilla, or something like that and all the guys being Ivan or Sergey. This lady's name is Noorzya, and that's one of the easier names I heard during my two day visit. She is a member who is in charge of getting missionaries and President to and from the airport. She's way nice and actually her daughter is on a mission right now and we were in the mtc together, so she recognized me from a picture her daughter had sent of our district. As she drove me to the apartment we went through a section of town where all the houses are seperate. They were pretty shabby to say the least. After a while, we started getting closer to the center where the branch is and where the missionaries live, it's a pretty nice city. Lot's of big highrise buildings. We stopped and picked up Elder Khussainof who was my companion for the couple days I was there. We served in Veronezh for a pretty long time together so it was nice to see him again. We got to our apartment and I got all cleaned up and stuff. By the time I got ready the sun had come up and he said, look out the window. I looked and immediately felt a little more at home. The mountains surrounding the city look like something you would see in Utah and Idaho and Wyoming, it was so cool. I'll send you a picture. When the weather is nice, the missionaries spend p-day hiking and having picnics in the mountains. I hope I get to stay there until the end of my mission so I'll get a chance to do that. We studied and I fell asleep after about a half hour, I was pretty beat. We went to the branch to wait for a lesson to show up and in the meantime we were supposed to be doing language study, but I fell asleep again. The guy never showed up. I guess the people there are just really nice and so you ask them if you can have their number and they give it to you, then you ask to meet with them and they say, sure, but then they don't show up. Elder Khussainof said they just don't really have a sense of urgency and they don't really respect time there. There were some members that I met at the branch and even a couple non members. Sometimes people just go there to hang out I guess. It's in a really good part of town. Anyway, one thing we did, we had to go to this one place to fill out some documents in order to be volunteers for the upcoming Aisian Winter Olympics!! President thought it would be cool if we were able to be volunteers for it. I guess it's a pretty big deal. Athletes from all over Asia compete. They have been preparing Almaty for the past two years for the games. They start in February but the athletes will be there in January to start preparing. We will be kind of translators and doing odd jobs like putting numbers up on scoreboards and stuff. There is this big ski resort place a little ways outside of Almaty that we will be stationed at. It's going to be pretty cool. It's all the missionaries, some investigators and even some of the members will be helping out. I'm excited for that. The next day we had district meeting at the senior couples apartment. It is way nice, on the 13th floor of some new highrise building. They are the Moores and Elder Moore worked as a chemical engineer for Cheveron. I guess they are pretty well off and they like to spoil the missionaries. That's what I like to hear. It was so fun to be back in a district again after being in Kaluga for the past few months. It will be awesome to serve there. That first night I was there I was just way tired. At 9:00 we were doing some planning for the next day and I was just nodding off. Finally Elder Khussainof told me to just go to bed, so I got ready and started saying my prayers. Next thing I know, Elder Khussainof was waking me up and telling me to get in bed. I had fallen asleep pretty good on my knees. Not the first time it has happened of course, and probably not the last, but man was I tired. So the next day, I pretty much only had time to go to district meeting and teach one lesson before I had to leave at 4:30 to catch my 7 o'clock flight. The flight home was pretty rough because I didn't sleep much. I was really really bored and this time the food just wasn't quite as good as the first time. I got back to Moscow and it was around -24 outside. I got to stay that night in Moscow and the next morning Elder Bressler and I headed back to Kaluga. We have met with Bogdon a couple times and we just aren't quite sure what will happen with him. Our branch president ran into him on the street and said he was either drunk or on some kind of something, he just doesn't have a huge desire to keep the word of wisdom. We actually found Pasha as well. He still claims to have a desire to get baptized but we aren't sure if he has a desire to keep the commandments either. He came to church and stuff but I want to make sure he is ready if he gets baptized, I don't want to baptize him just to find out he left the church.

Anyway, that's pretty much an update of how the week went. I'm now officially over 18 months and I feel like I'm still just getting the hang of some things. Elder Bressler and I are having a great time together still. We are going to go grab some Christmas lights and stuff for the tree. Things are going pretty good. Thats cool that ecco is giving me some new shoes, good idea about keeping them there, that way I will have some way nice new shoes! I can get some cheap shoes in Kazakhstan, I'll let you know how cheap when I get there. Anyway, thanks for the letters and support. I love you guys, talk to you soon.

Elder Geddes

A hard week

2010-11-30T15:30:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was interesting to say the least. I can't wait for next years Thanksgiving, I'll be in heaven. Our Thanksgiving began with us going to a meat market with the branch president. This place wouldn't pass a health inspection in a million years. There are just piles of meat everywhere, sitting on pieces of cardboard, or just on a metal table, all the workers are handling several different types of raw meat, all without gloves, there are random things like calculators and other instruments all over the meat, and they have EVERY kind of meat you could ever think of. There were brains, livers, intestines, noses, tongues, kidneys, other round things, everything. We found one lady who had what she called turkey. It looked like these people may have found a turkey that had been run over by something and then just salvaged what they could out of it. It was also really expensive. We decided to keep looking for other options and ended up walking out of that place carrying probably about a 10 pound duck. I wasn't too sure about duck, but I thought, oh well, lets do it. Our branch president claimed he knew how to do it so we trusted him with it. We went home and made mashed potatoes, which were really good, and I used my gravy packets to make gravy. We also made some cookies. We got to the branch plenty early to prepare for the party. Our branch is just a small room with a sacrament table in it, so there is no kitchen or anything. Dima, the branch president, brought a microwave, with the duck inside. When he opened the microwave it was dripping with blood from the duck. The bird was wrapped in tin foil and Dima said he thought it was probably not done. We ended up carving it up the best we could and finishing it off in the microwave. The members came and everyone brought their assigned dish, so there was enough food. Everyone loved our potatoes and gravy. The duck wasn't exactly bad, but I'm glad we traditionally have turkey. Neither Elder Bressler or I ate a ton, because nothing was way delicious. Of course there were no pies, homemade rolls, freezer jam, stuffing, all that good stuff. I think last year I was just so new that I just thought everything was just way awesome so I hardly noticed the meal (which was way better anyway because we were with the Lowries) but this year I was really missing a real thanksgiving dinner.

The disappointments started on Tuesday when I got back from Moscow. We had a meeting with Pasha set up and he didn't come. He doesn't have a cell phone so we called him at home and he said he just had some different things he had to do. We set up another meeting with him for the next day and again he didn't come. We had a meeting with Bogdon and he said he hadn't seen him for a few days. After that we couldn't get a hold of him at all. We called and called and couldn't get a hold of him. We taught some lessons with Bogdon and he had some problems with the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. I was getting pretty scared about all of this but we just kept trying to testify of the blessings that come with these laws. On Sunday, Bogdon came to church. He had a good time and we had a lesson in priesthood about tithing and at the end of the lesson he grabbed a tithing slip and wanted to pay right away. We tried to set up an appointment with him but it wasn't too firm. We left right after church to Moscow. I leave to Kazakhstan tonight but Elder Bressler was supposed to go back to Kaluga tonight with a different missionary. I called Bogdon to ask if he would be able to meet with the other missionaries tonight and he said he didn't want to meet because I wouldn't be there. He said he wouldn't be meeting once I leave, and that the church is good but its not something he wants to do every week and stuff like that. He said he talked with Pasha and Pasha said the same thing, that this church just isn't for him. I was pretty surprised and confused. I said I would meet with him when I get back and we would talk. How does that happen? How does someone go from absolutely crazy about the church to not wanting anything to do with it? I of course will keep trying to work with them but it just scares me, even if I baptized them, I wouldn't want to baptize them just to see them go inactive immediately after the baptism. There was a young guy baptized in another city in our mission not too long ago and he is already not coming to church, already drinking and smoking again and already partying with girls. It's really sad and I wouldn't want to see that. What's better? If I were to try, maybe I could get them baptized, but would it benefit them if they just turned around and forgot everything? This is where the spiritual stress comes from on the mission. You know nobody can be saved without baptism, yet it says if a person is baptized and then denies it, it would be better off for them not to have known God. Missions just aren't games, this is peoples lives. You can't take the easy way out and say, they can just wait until the spirit world, but people can't afford to make covenants just to break them. I have no idea what to do. We just have to keep trying to meet with them and feel by the spirit what to do. The other scary thing is, President Woolley told me that if we can't average 15 people at the meetings over a certain period of time, they will take missionaries out. It would be way sad, but then again, there have been missionaries in Kaluga for 12 years and we can't get 15 people to come to church? I just don't understand that. So kind of a rough week.

The other reason it has been a rough week is for the fact that I have a transfer. Every time you get news that you will be transferred, it is kind of hard to keep focused on your area. Add to that that I am going to Kazakhstan, it's been on my mind quite a bit. My mission is about to change big time. I will be in a predominantly Muslim country, teaching will change, finding will change, it will all be different. The crazy thing is, I have been thinking about it this week, today I'm going to fly there, I'll come back on Wednesday or Thursday and I'll be in Kaluga for another few weeks. If Bogdon and Pasha are completely gone, it will be pretty tough to keep focused and work hard in Kaluga.

I'm pretty bummed about the whole thing but I'm pretty dang excited to go to Kazakhstan, even if it is only for a few days. President says that I should be back in Kazakhstan around the 21st of December. I'm kind of distracted, as usual when I'm in Moscow. Thanks so much for the letters, and the Christmas money! I am going to put it to good use. Not today, but soon. I know there are tons of awesome things to buy in Kazakhstan, and I hear it's really cheap there. It will be cool when I get to call home soon, I'll have been there for a while and will be able to tell you a little about it. As of now I don't know a whole lot about it but it should be interesting. Next week hopefully I have a better letter to send home. I love you guys!

Elder Geddes

KAZAKHSTAN Bound!!

2010-11-22T08:38:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Where do I start this weeks email?? So much has happened! I guess I'll just start from the beginning. On Tuesday night, we had English club. Pasha, Bogdon, and Anton came to it. After the club was over, they just stayed, along with a girl from the club and Elder Bressler and I just preached the gospel. We were answering questions, reading from the scriptures, testifying. It was great. The next night, we had family home evening at the branch which is usually just youth and people from English club. We play games, have treats and have a spiritual thought. Anyway, after that Pasha asked if we would have time to meet with him the next day. The zone leader and his companion came down for splits that next day so Elder Bressler and Elder Brown ended up meeting with Pasha. After the lesson, they were both really excited because they said he was just ready to be given a baptismal commitment. During the lesson, Pasha wanted to demonstrate how he has been getting answers from the Book of Mormon. He asked the question, what do I need to do in my life right now? He opened the book and read Mosiah 2:22 it says something to the effect of, all that I require of you is that you keep my commandments. Elder Brown then opened another scripture in 2 Nephi 31 that says it is a commandment from the Father to be baptized in the name of the Son. Anyway, they didn't set a date because we hadn't talked about it and he wanted me to do it. Pasha wanted to meet the very next day, so Elder Bressler and I planned out a lesson leading right up to a baptismal commitment. By the time we got to the part about baptism, he already knew what was coming. He beat us to it and said, I already know I'll be baptized, it's just a matter of when. We told him the date we had prayed about, December 4th, and he agreed. This is all just great, I was on top of the world, but the thing is, today is the day we are supposed to find out transfers. Within a week of transfers, if you get a call from President Woolley, you know what it is about. Halfway through our lesson with Pasha I got a call from President. I answered and asked if I could call back. I knew something was going to happen though. After the lesson, I called President back and he said, how was your lesson? I told him that we had just set a baptismal date with Pasha. He said, that's great! I'm so happy for you, I'm calling to tell you that you are being transferred to Kazakhstan, you need to be in Moscow Sunday night to give your passport to the office elders. In order to get a Kazakh visa, you have to get a letter of invitation, apply for the visa, do some paper work and stuff like that. I will have to fly to Kazakhstan on the 29th, next Monday, and get registered there. Once in the country, I have to wait for almost a month for the government to give me permission to preach the gospel. Pasha asked if I would baptize him, and President thinks there's a way I can be there for the baptism but it's still not for sure. I will have to return to Russia no matter what at some point, but I don't know if I will be able to make it back before the 4th. I know the right thing to do would be to have someone else baptize Pasha. It would be dangerous to delay his baptism, I wouldn't want to do that, but I really want to be there for it and I really think it would be cool to baptize him. He is someone the Lord has prepared so much! I'll tell you some of the miracles that have happened with him.

First of all, his father is dead, he died from affects of Trenobel or however you spell it, that huge nuclear problem in Ukraine. When Pasha was born, the doctors said he would be brain dead. When he was four years old, he was given supposedly 6 more months to live. He's 20 years old now, doing fine and will be baptized on the 4th. Two months ago, he didn't believe in God whatsoever. He said that one night he just woke up and had this really strong desire to pray. He has been growing little by little ever since then, until he met us and has began to grow leaps and bounds. He came to the first meeting to learn English. I told them from the start that we use religious topics to teach English. He said without even thinking about it he agreed and thought, hmm, strange. The next day he was sitting in our branch thinking, how did I get here? The next week he has given up smoking and drinking and is planning on being baptized! He has found several answers to his questions in the Book of Mormon. Last time we met with him, we taught him the word of wisdom. He looked at it and kind of didn't understand completely, he said stuff like, maybe Joseph Smith received this revelation for just certain people, and that he was going to pray about it himself to find out if it was true. We encouraged him to pray about it and ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet. At the end of the lesson, we got on our knees and he offered a short prayer asking if the revelations Joseph Smith received were true for everyone. He said Amen and grabbed a copy of the D&C and opened to section 128:5 it says something to the affect of, you may think these things are very particular, but it is an order set by the Lord to bring to pass his will or something like that. Anyway, he said, oh, okay, I guess that's my answer. The good thing about Pasha is that when he feels like he gets an answer, he accepts it as an answer. The next day, yesterday, he was at church and said, if you would have told me 2 weeks ago that I would be sitting here today, having given up smoking and drinking, I wouldn't believe you for a second. He says that he has never felt so good in all his life. He says every day this feeling just gets stronger and stronger. He's awesome and is just a happy guy. He and our branch president have already struck it off really well and are good friends. I told him I was leaving and he opened up the D&C again and read, many are called but few are chosen. He said, I guess it's just part of your calling, part of your mission. He was sad but he understood. I just really hope I will be there for his baptism, dressed in white right along with Pasha.

I have mixed feelings about everything because I have always kind of wanted to go to Kazakhstan to serve so of course I am excited about that. I have been in Kaluga for around 4 months and it has absolutely flown by. I was ready for another couple months there. I was also ready for Christmas with Elder Bressler. We have had so much fun together, a lot of laughs and a lot of miracles. Both of us were so excited for Christmas together, and we were both so excited to baptize Pasha and his friends. My replacement will be an Elder from Latvia. He goes home in a couple of transfers but he has some slight mental problems and wouldn't be called exactly the strongest missionary. Of course he's a great guy and I'm going to be praying for him because I know he can do whatever needs to be done in Kaluga. Elder Bressler will have to be strong and be a leader and I know he can do that, but it won't be easy. They have a lot of work and there is a lot of potential. I was a little nervous when President told me who would be coming in my place, but I know the Lord's will gets done, we are just tools in his hands.

I also don't know exactly if I'll make it back to Russia before the end of my mission, besides the small amount of time while I wait for my visa. I know I'll come back before I go home and everything but that will probably be just for a day or so. Do I need to buy the last few souvenirs I need? I'm not sure. I know I'll come home with a bunch of Kazakh souvenirs, that's for sure. Oh ya, my companion will be Elder Kruglyak. He's Russian and he only has 2 more transfers. I hope he is ready to work til the end. He's a good guy, I know him pretty well already.

Anyway, that's about all about me. It's really cold here today, did I tell you I'm in Moscow? We came last night and will just be spending our pday here. Anyway, there is snow here and it is pretty chilly. It sounds like the family is doing pretty well. I'm glad Dad was able to serve so long as Pro Tem, it will be good for him to take a break from that. Liz's family sounds like they are doing great and I didn't even know it was the twins birthday! Those little twirps are going to be driving by the time I get home for all I know. Anyway, things are going really good. We are having a branch dinner for Thanksgiving, I really hope everyone is able to bring the stuff they are assigned so it ends up being a good night. I'm having a great time and really seeing the hand of the Lord in the work right now. Thanks for everything, I love you guys.

Elder Geddes

Investigators!!!

2010-11-15T15:55:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Summer seems to be on its way, it is probably in the high 50's or low 60's right now for some reason! We had a pretty cold day the other day but for the most part, it hasn't been too bad at all. Don't worry about my shoes, we still have plenty of time before I can't wear them anymore, it's dry outside so my feet are dry as well. Also, you can't see the damage really unless you look, so as long as I don't look like I found the shoes in a garbage can they're fine with me. Some missionaries like to wear their shoes until you can pretty much see their toes hanging out the end and the heel hanging out the other end. Mine still look pretty descent.

That's really scary about Doug, I hope they find out what is wrong and that it is something they can fix easily. I'm glad to hear that Grandma and Grandpa are doing pretty good though, is their little dog still running around all over the place? How is Daryl and his family? And Ken and Shauna? How is your side of the family doing, mom?

Well I guess I'll get right to the good stuff. This week has been a week of miracles. We were asked to fast at the beginning of this month to find new investigators. When an entire mission fasts for one reason, the Lord answers. We reported 4 new investigators this week.

Miracle 1: Elder Bressler and I are walking one night on the way to take sacrament to an old grandma in our branch. We walk past a couple of kids and I hear one kid say to the other, "No, I don't drink vodka, and I never will" something to that affect. We walked a little bit more and I told Elder Bressler what I heard and we both agreed that we should go talk to him. We decided to go for an english contact, see if he would be interested in practicing English. That often works with the youth here. We told him that we were here as missionaries and that part of our service was helping people with English. He was interested in that then he asked us to tell him a little about our church. We told him a little, got his number then left. He came to English club on Tuesday. After the club was over, we played the Restoration film for anyone who wanted to stay. Two girls stayed and this kid, I'll tell you his name later. Anyway, he said thanks and left after the movie. We decided to call him and meet with him on Saturday. We were there a few minutes before the meeting was supposed to start and he called and asked if he could bring some friends. We said of course and he showed up with two friends. He is 21, his friends, Anton and Pasha, are 17 and 20. Anyway, they said they were there to get some practice with English. I told them that's great and then reminded them that we are missionaries and that the way we help people with English is we talk about gospel topics in English. They agreed and so we began to talk about family. They are all pretty new with English so they didn't know enough to have a real conversation or anything so we were pretty much just teaching them family words and how to create sentances. After thirty minutes we said, okay we have done 30 minutes of English, now we want to do 30 minutes of gospel, in Russian. They all agreed and we began to teach them about the Book of Mormon. They are all interested in church, all took a copy of the Book of Mormon and said they would read. They had lots of questions for us and made a few points that line up exactly with our teachings. We invited them to church the next day and they all came, and they even brought a girl with them. They stayed for all three hours and even when we told them that our last hour was going to be in a seperate room, they just abandoned the girl to the relief society and came with us to priesthood. They participated, answered questions and shared their thoughts and concerns. It was all really great. Towards the end, Pasha started talking about the Book of Mormon a little bit. He said, 'Yesterday we tried the book, it works pretty simply actually. We would just ask it a question, open it up, and the first thing our eyes found was a great answer to the question." I was really surprised to hear that from a 20 year old kid who for the first time in his life held the book. He even shared with us one of the answers he found. He said he did it 7 times in a row and it worked every time. Pasha and the our contact said it worked for them as well. I thought it was pretty funny but at the same time a miracle. I warned them that that technique won't work every time and that sometimes God wants us to work a little harder to get answers and they all agreed. We will be meeting with them as soon as possible, hopefully tonight if we can but if not tonight then tomorrow. The kid that we first came in contact is named Bogdan (as in boat with a g and dan as in dawn) The reason I felt like that was significant was that Bog in Russian means God and Dan or dawn means given. So his name pretty much means God given. Cool huh? It seems like they smoke so that will be an obstacle, but they are already developing a testimony of the Book of Mormon. This group of three friends would provide our small branch with such a breath of fresh air, it would be incredible. We need preisthood more than anything! If we could get these guys baptized we would be in good hands for the future. I can't wait to continue working with them.

Miracle 2: One night, Elder Bressler and I didn't have any lessons and its never too much fun to do street contacting in the dark so we decided to do some mining in the area book, all the work of missionaries from the past. We found some pages and called a few people. One of the ones we called was a young guy named Ivan. He agreed to meet with us. I had actually met with him once before a couple months ago. He wasn't too interested in becoming a member or anything but he listened to us and asked questions so I thought, why not. Anyway, when we met him, we waited for him on the street. I saw him coming with another kid with him. He brought his 20 year old friend Gleb with him. He said hello to us and said this is my friend Gleb, he's really interested in learning about the Mormons. We started walking and talking, Elder Bressler with Ivan and I was talking with Gleb. Gleb had read some good things about us on the internet which is always good. He said he had learned a little bit about us and ever since has just been wishing he could find out more. He said when his friend Ivan called and said he had a meeting set up with Mormon missionaries he just began to burn he said. He was so excited. I started telling him about the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy. I started telling him about Joseph Smith and the first vision and he said he had already read about it. He also smokes and asked if he could smoke while we were talking. I asked him not to and then explained that we don't smoke or drink in our church. He was so happy and said he has wanted to quit smoking for the longest time because he knows its bad but he just hasn't been able to do it yet. He had a problem come up and wasn't able to make it to church, but we have a meeting set up with him on Wednesday. He wanted to come to church but he couldn't this time. He promised to come next week.

In one week we were able to get 4 young men as investigators, good investigators. Fasting works. I can't wait to find out the results of the rest of the mission. We are going to be working really hard to get these guys baptized. Keep these young boys in your prayers because we all know that Kaluga needs them.

Speaking of Kaluga, I just can not believe I have been here already almost 4 months. That is the craziest thing ever. When I heard I was getting transfered here, I wasn't exactly too happy. Now, I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else on earth. Kaluga is just a nice place to be as a missionary. Lots and lots of work needs to be done, sometimes we have days where we couldn't get one person to meet with us, but at the same time, I just love this city. Of course Veronezh is at the top of my list but Kaluga is a close 2nd place. I'm glad I am content with my city. It's sometimes overwhelming to be one of two missionaries in a city of over 400,000, but at the end of the day you are really able to see the tender mercies of the Lord and see that we are truly blessed to be here.

I am sending my Christmas package home today, I am sending it to Megan's house so that when Mom and Dad come home from Iowa they will be able to bring everyone else's stuff with them. I couldn't decide which ties will go to which guys, maybe you won't like them, but I do know that the black one is Dad's. He'll like that one, it is pretty slick looking. Anyway, I'm also sending home some cheap soccer jersey's I got clear back at the beginning of my mission, mostly I'm just sending them home to protect the other stuff I'm sending so just put them with the other clothes and stuff I have sent. Maybe you could send me a little inventory of things I have sent home for myself so I don't buy any doubles and so I don't forget to buy anything cool. I'm sending some candy as well, share it with the kids but make sure that some of it gets over to Alex. I don't think the babies can eat it though, ha.

There are still things I am going to need to buy here in the next little while, I'm shopping for good deals and trying to spend as little money as possible but I will be spending some more, just so you know. I was able to take money off my card just fine, the machine must have just had a problem that one time.

I think that's about all I can think of. I hope you guys all have a fun Thanksgiving. I am really missing Thanksgiving. It's one of my favorites. Remember that I have been first in line for the past about 16 years? Now who is in front? This will be their last year because next year, I will resume my spot! Anyway, thanks for everything. I love you all!

Elder Geddes

17 months!!!

2010-11-03T14:00:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

Well today I realized I have been on a mission for 17 months, crazy huh? I can't hardly believe it. Right now I am sitting in the office in Moscow. We got up this morning at 4 to catch our bus to Moscow at 5. I have a visa trip tomorrow morning so Elder Bressler and I would have had to come here tonight anyway and tomorrow instead of p-day would have been a visa trip. Friday we have zone conference here so I just got permission for us to come up here today and have p-day in Moscow. Surprisingly they gave us permission. Elder Bressler is a huge war buff so we decided to visit a huge World War II museum. This thing had 5 floors and it was full of really cool stuff from the war. There were a few movie screens that had some footage going from the war, it was so crazy, I don't think I'll ever quite comprehend war. I do think, however, that if I were to be born in a different time, I would want to be born at that time so I could fly planes in the war, I think that would be so awesome! Anyway, the museum was cool, we were with the office elders and a senior couple that just got here yesterday. It was a lot of fun. On the way back we stopped and got a Sharuma, or a Kabob as the Europeans call it. Its that rotating meet stuff that they make kind of burritos out of, bottom line, they're always good and we can only get them in Moscow. I'll probably head out with the AP's tonight and do something, I'm not sure yet. At the museum I bought some really cool propaganda posters that they used to have during the war here in Russia. They were less than a dollar which was the best part.

This past week actually wasn't the best. For some reason some weeks seem to work out perfect and other weeks, nothing seems to work out. We did get a new investigator, a lady who speaks really good english. Maybe she just like speaking English with us, who knows. She did come to church but she hasn't started reading the Book of Mormon. We got a contact of a family of 6, a mom a dad and 4 kids. We had a lesson set up with them and they didn't show up, so I called him and he said, I'll be there in a half an hour. So we waited and after about 45 minutes we called again and he didn't answer. I don't understand how people can tell you that they will do something and don't do it. That kind of thing happened alot this week, oh well, we'll try again this week.

Elder Bressler has been trying to speak Russian all week this week, he's been doing a good job. He speaks Russian until 9:00 and then we plan and then speak English with each other. It's hard to talk Russian because he's still pretty new and stuff and also because he's really funny and we have a lot to talk about all the time but it makes it fun after planning and stuff.

Some funny things happened the last couple days. First of all, we were tracting and we knocked on a door. The way the door opened, I couldn't see in, only Elder Bressler could see. The door swung open and the guy said, come on in! Elder Bressler just stood there and said "...uhh..." I peeked around the door and I'm not sure what this guy was doing, I think he had been in the bathroom when we knocked or something but his pants were not pulled up nearly enough. Elder Bressler saw more than me luckily but it was pretty funny, we just said, we'll come back later or something and then we left. Later, we went to a members house to visit. Her name is Ludmilla. She was baptized last year sometime and she's probably in her 60's and she's a little crazy. Anyway, she had us do some stuff for her, Elder Bressler was putting up a new shower curtain for her and she wanted me to open a bottle for her. She handed me the bottle and it was a bottle of Vodka. I said, Uh, Ludmilla, this is vodka, you can't drink this and I won't open it. She started shouting at me and telling me that she just adds it to some weird stuff and makes medicine out of it. I told her that she would be better off not taking the medicine if it was vodka. She was getting pretty upset with me because she already had some of the medicine made up but she was just running low on it and wanted to make more. I didn't know exactly what the medicine was so I told her I would call the branch president and ask him. He pretty much told me to do whatever I wanted because he wasn't too sure either. I called another lady in the branch and asked her advice, she said that the Lord probably understands that Ludmilla isn't all there in the head and would take care of her. I thought about it and just opened it for her. Probably not the best choice but she said if I didn't open it she would just break the top off the bottle. Kind of sad but at the same time it was pretty funny.

I tried to take some money off my card today and it denied it. I need you to put some of my own money on my card so I can buy some Christmas stuff for everyone. I won't spend too much, I bought some 3 dollar ties today, one for dad, Rob, and all the girls husbands. You'll be surprised what 3 dollars can get you in Russia when it comes to ties. They are probably better than any other ties you guys have. I bought two more for myself as well.

Anyway, I think that's about all I have. Tomorrow and Friday should be pretty fun, I'm excited to see all my buddies again. Zone conference will be great because the whole mission except for Kazakhstan will be there. I'm not sure how much longer I will be in Kaluga, my guess would be at least one more transfer after this one but who knows. Anyway, thanks for writing on such short notice. Love you guys, have a good week.

Elder Geddes

P.S. I really want to learn more about Russian history, especially from the start of communism through WWII and to the end of communism, so if you can find any good books about that kind of stuff, interesting ones though not just history books, that would be cool. It would be good for everyone to learn about it because it's a big part of history in the world. I hope you aren't just forgetting about all of my book requests, like things from Bruce R. McConkie and Joseph F. Smith, and stuff like that. I hope when I get home there is a nice stack of books for me to read! Ha, thanks for everything!

Halloween fun in Russia

2010-10-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Well Happy Halloween! We have had a great Halloween season, even though they don't really celebrate it here. There is one poster that I know of in Kaluga advertising some sort of Halloween night at a night club, other than that, there isn't one witch, skeleton, or ghost anywhere in the city, plenty of spider webs, but that's a different story. Last night, Elder Bressler and I hosted a Halloween themed family night. We had lots of people come, namely almost everyone from our English club. It worked out really great because we had more people than I have ever seen at English club on Tuesday so we were able to invite them all to the Halloween party. We had two investigators and a couple of new people come. We had a spiritual thought then played some games. Our first game was kind of a dud. We had bought a bunch of doughnuts and tried to get them to play a game where you had to eat a doughnut hanging from a string without using your hands. They didn't understand and nobody wanted to play so Elder Bressler and I did a demonstration. I won of course and they all thought it was pretty funny and stuff but they still weren't willing to play. So we just moved on to the next game. We had bought a bunch of rolls of toilet paper (you can get rolls of toilet paper here for ten cents, but of course... you get what you pay for) and we had teams of two race to see who could mummify their partner the fastest, they liked that game a little more, but they had no technique. Elder Bressler and I creamed everyone. I ran around him in circles and he spun in circles the other way, the obvious path to victory. Anyway, we had made cookies, bought some candies and juice and just had a nice set up. After the mummy game we broke out three pumpkins that we had bough that morning and everyone worked together to carve them up. They did a good job for their first times ever doing it. Nobody cleaned out the inside anywhere near my specifications but what can you do, they just wanted to cut up the pumpkins without doing the necessary work. Speaking of whiche, remember that huge pumpkin I bought a few years ago? I know I took pictures, but I don't know where they ended up, if anyone could find them, they should send them to me. They should just be on our computer somewhere. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Things are just going pretty good here. We had 4 members take a trip to the temple last week, 2 of them for their first time. I feel like the city is feeling the blessings of it's faithful members efforts. We had a record amount of people at church on Sunday since I've been here, 22! It was mostly because there was a girl in our branch that lives in Moscow right now but comes back to Kaluga sometimes. She got her mission call and so she called all of the members and personally asked them to come and then she brought two friends. We have gotten some really great contacts lately, including a family of 3 and another family of 6! We haven't met with them yet, but we're trying. Also, we have started working with 3 new guys in the past little while. A 21 year old named Ivan, a 23 year old named Igor and a 27 year old named Gary from Armenia. We have had a couple lessons with Igor, and Ivan came to Sunday School last week and I think he really enjoyed it. We got Gary's contact on Saturday, met with him on Sunday, met him again Tuesday before English club and he came to the halloween party on Wednesday with a friend. Granted he did call me before the party and ask if he needed to bring any alcohol, he's a great guy. He's interested in learning and I hope will be acceptive of what we have to teach him. He understood everything in the first lesson and had great questions. If we could get these 3 guys baptized it would help out the branch so much.

Tatyana is doing good, still strong. She has lately become very protective of us, acting like we are her kids, always telling us to be careful and telling us that we need to carry around flashlights when we have to walk home in the dark. She's pretty cool.

We bought coats this morning. The lady originally asked for 3300 for the coats but said she would sell two to us for 5500. I eventually bargained her down to 4500 so we ended up paying 2250 each for our coats that were originally 3300. I felt pretty good about that, that's more than 30 dollars we got off. They're pretty nice coats, good fur collars and everything. Oh ya, I have heard that ecco shoes have some kind of guarantee on them. One elder had a pair blow out and sent pictures to his mom. She showed the pictures at the store she bought them and they gave her a new pair right on the spot. I don't know if you have any papers or anything left from my shoes, but it might be worth looking at. My other option would be to buy a pair of winter shoes so I could give my eccos a break for a few months then just start wearing them at the end of my mission again. Like I said, they still like fine, they just have cracks in the bottom that let water in. Let me know what you think.

Christmas, I really don't need a whole lot other than just tasty snacks. Maybe it would be nice to throw in some cool aid mixes or some drink mixes. Did you remember to put at least one good pen in there? I'm really struggling with my pens right now. Oh ya, I have been meaning to ask for this for the longest time, could you get a copy of my mission call letter and send it to me?

I haven't gotten sick and my stomach has been treating me great lately. I still have a ton of medicine, cold medicine, cough medicine, I have it all from last year so I don't think I need that.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Halloween. Thanks for everything, the letters and support. I love you guys.

Elder Geddes

Long time no blog

2010-10-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted Jess's last two blogs. The one on the 22nd was only a paragraph long and then the internet quit so he couldn't write anymore. I was pretty disappointed to say the least. He did,however, tell us about Tatyana's baptism. It went very well and she is doing great. Several branch members showed up and everyone bore their testimonies. Here is his last letter, just in time to post this weeks so you will get two in a row.

Hi everyone,

Sorry again Mom, that was just a terrible P-day. Me and Elder Erickson had to pick up the other two elders that morning and pretty much show them around for a couple days. We went to Kaluga on Saturday and on Sunday, President Woolley came to church in Kaluga. He gave a talk in Russian, so I didn't have to translate. After church, Elder Erickson and I got to ride to Moscow with President, and that's when the craziness started.

The ride to Moscow was great, it isn't every day that you get to just have a couple of hours to sit and chat with President Woolley, so I took advantage and was asking all sorts of questions about the business world. He has done a lot of things in his life, including buying a 2.3 billion dollar business to expand his own... wow. Anyway, it was just really nice to be able to just chat with him. We got to Moscow and he dropped me and Elder Erickson off at a metro station near the office which is at the very north west corner of Moscow. He took Elder Erickson's bags and we took off on the metro to pick up a sister who was coming from Tula. We had to go from the very north west to the very south east of the metro map and the city of Moscow for that matter. If you have a chance, you should take a look on the internet at the Moscow Metro, it's pretty incredible. Anyway, it took about an hour and twenty minutes to get there, but when we got there, we realized we had no idea where exactly to find her. We asked a few people where buses from Tula come and got a couple of different answers. Sister Kelly was being transfered so she had all her bags with her and she's only been in Russia for a few months. I just said a prayer that we would be able to find her as fast as possible because it's not good for her to be alone. After the prayer we just crossed a street and said maybe this way. We walked maybe 10 feet and saw Sister Kelly walking up the street with 3 suitcases. We were all pretty relieved. So we grabbed her bags and jumped right back on the metro and went all the way back up to the stop near the office. After a total of 3 hours on the metro we walked from the metro to a senior couple's apartment that is about 20 minutes from the metro to drop off Sister Kelly. We then walked 20 minutes back to the AP's apartment where luckily Sister Woolley had brought over some food for all the elders that would be stayinig there that night. There was a big visa trip so there were some elders who had to wait for their companions like I had to. I think there were about 8 or 10 of us there. The next morning I was going to wake up at 6:15 to go with one of the AP's and another couple of elders to help some more missionaries get where they needed to be on time. So one other elder and I walked back to the senior couple's apartment to pick up Sister Kelly again, and walked back to the AP's apartment. We got some breakfast and a shower and then got a call from the senior couple askin us to come back to help them with some bags, so once again we walked back there to get the bags. After that, we went to the office where I opened up my package and sized the inserts, they're way nice, thanks! I was pretty excited about the jam too. The rest of the day was pretty boring just sitting in the office. I like just hanging out with the other missionaries though so that's always fun. President took us to a mall for lunch and I got a big baked potato, it was pretty tasty. All the elders, including my new companion Elder Bressler, got back to the office at like 6 or so, quickly got their documents and we took off. Once again we needed to make the hour and twenty minute trip down to the south east corner of the map. We had to help Elder Erickson get to his train station which was on the way. This all would have been fine and easy except for the fact that Elder Bressler's biggest bag has two broken wheels! It is one of those suitcases that has four wheels on the bottom, and it just so happens that the wheels on the side with the handle are completely destroyed. His older brother took this suitcase on his mission to Russia a few years ago and now it's whith him. We were trying all sorts of ways to drag it with the wheel side, I walked it for about 10 minutes in a crouched over position like an old man, finally one other elder just threw it on his back and got it almost the rest of the way to the metro. Once in the metro it was my turn again and I was just dragging it on the melted pathetic pieces of plastic that were once his wheels. Anyway, we get on the metro, down to Erickson's train station and they took forever to get him a ticket. Once they finally got him on his train, we jumped back on the metro. Somehow we ended up getting on a wrong train that took us to this dead end, there is one track but there are two different trains that come and we didn't know that. So we get to the dead end, get on the train back, look at the signs and we are sure we are in the right place so we get back on a train and once again get to the dead end. This time we're all just about frustrated out of our minds with Bressler's big suitcase. We get back to the right place and figure out that there are two trains on that track and finally get on the right one. By this time it is about 9:00 or so, we knew that the last bus left at sometime around 10 to Tula. We ended up getting to the bus station around 10 and we couldn't find any buses that should have been there heading to Tula! We went over and me and my zone leader tried haggling with the taxis to take four guys and 3 suitcases to Tula. They wouldn't do it for less than 4000 rubles. We called the office elders and they said that's too much, so they told us to just come back to their apartment! With Bressler's beast of a bag! So that's what we did, got back on the metro for an hour and 20 minutes. When we got out the other side, we put my companion and Elder Brown's companion in a taxi with the beast bag and sent them to the apartment. We went to McDonalds and bought us all some dinner since nobody had eaten all day and walked to the AP's. We ended up getting there at around 12. The next morning we woke up early and were out the door by 7, back down to the other end to go to Tula. We had to go to Tula because we had a small zone meeting on Tuesday there. It was a nightmare. Now we can laugh but at the time, we all just wanted to throw our hands up in the air and give up. So we got to Tula, had a district meeting and then went to the bus station to take what hopefully is my last trip between Tula and Kaluga for a while. We pulled into Kaluga around 7 o'clock and as we were pulling in, a guy from our English club called and said "Are you guys coming or what?" We told him where we were and he jumped in his car and picked us up, along with the bags, which was a relief. We had English club and a short meeting with Tatyana then the guy took us home. We were so happy to get home!

That's pretty much what has been happening this week. My companion is Elder Bressler from Rexburg. He's hillarious. I've been laughing pretty much since we got together. This is only his 3rd transfer so his Russian is still pretty rough, but I hope to help him out with that. He loves war history and told me about this really cool book he read about this LDS kid in WWII. I think it was called something like, a distant prayer or something. You should check it out sometime, it sounds really good.

The weather has been really rainy the past few days. I am just now understanding that the cracks in the bottoms of my shoes kind of are taking their toll. My feet are getting kind of wet, but I'm thinking that once the snow comes that will stop. Right now I'm just trucking through puddles and what not, I don't think the snow will bother me too much. I wouldn't get rid of these shoes because the damage isn't even visable, so it would be a shame. Elder Bressler hasn't bought a winter coat yet so we're going to check it out today, if we could buy some together, I think we could get them a lot cheaper.

I will be going to Ukrain sometime around the 3rd or so of next month. We won't be able to go to the temple because they have a goofy schedule there that we wouldn't make it to a session and be able to come back in one day. We get Liahonas here, and we got the temple edition, it was really cool. We have enough copies of them here, thanks though.

Oh ya, President Woolley got permission from the area presidency to give each companionship an ipod. He has had ipods in a few cities but has been struggling to get them approved for everyone. He finally did it though so we have an ipod again. We got a new movie on it, the Joseph Smith movie that the show at the visitors center! It's cool, I put it on my personal ipod as well.

Today we went to the space museum here in Kaluga. Tatyana wanted us to go with her. They have a planetarium and they showed about a 45 minute thing about space. It was pretty neat.

I think that's about everything, things are going pretty good, I'm happy and having fun. Elder Bressler and I will baptize someone this transfer we hope! Thanks for the letters and thanks for the package mom! I am taking it slow with the jerky and the hot chocolate is delicious! I can't believe we are already heading into the end of October, this month pretty much didn't exist for me, it's like a dream. Anyway, I love you guys, have a great week.

Elder Geddes

Always an adventure

2010-10-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Another fast week. Traveling back and forth makes it go fast. The good, and I guess bad part, is that when we are in either city, we pretty much just have time for meetings so we never have any down time, especially in Kaluga. We go from city to city, meeting to meeting. It's been fun but both of us are ready for transfers already. We got called last night about transfers by the way. I will be with an Elder Bressler. I met him once, the day he got to Russia was the day I was leaving Veronezh. This is going to be the beginning of his 3rd transfer. President and other missionaries only have good things to say about him so I am excited to serve with him. I gave him a call last night and he's excited to come to Kaluga and serve with me too. He says people still tell stories about me in Veronezh, so I'm not forgotten. Also last night I called the other elders in Veronezh to get a phone number. I talked with Elder Johanson and he said 3 people that day had asked how I was doing. It made me feel really good. I called him to get the phone number of Ludmilla. I asked President if I could call her and he said that would be a great idea. She immediately recognized my voice and was so happy to hear from me. She says she hasn't missed a Sunday since her baptism and is still planning on going to the temple in June! I was so happy to hear that she is still doing so well. She says she wants to go to the temple with me, I'm not sure that's possible if you guys can't come get me but I'm going to ask if there's any way to do that. Maybe I'll just have to hurry back to Russia after I get home from my mission for a week or two. I'm not sure but I'd really love to go to the temple with her.

Anyway, some other cool things happened this week. We had an open house in Kaluga on Saturday. We had about 5 or 6 people come and we got one good contact out of it. It was a 20 year old kid named Igor. He came to the open house and stayed for over an hour. Then the next day, he came to church. We talked with him for a while and he said that he's not interested in becoming a member right now but that he enjoyed the meeting and would continue to come listen on Sundays. Maybe through some time he will become more interested. Also, Sunday night, Tatyana had her baptismal interview. It was with Elder Moffat so I had to translate. She did awesome, and even bore a great testimony at the end. After she finished her testimony, she said, oh, I have one more testimony, she then told a story about how earlier that day (fast Sunday) she was walking home and found a delicious pastry laying on the sidewalk, untouched. She said she was really hungry from fasting and that the pastry was something delicious and that it was a miracle that she found it on the ground because if she had found it in the store, she wouldn't have been able to buy it because it was Sunday. So she picked it up and took it home to break the fast, ha. She said, That's a testimony too, right? I said, sure, whatever you say. She's pretty cool. Then, aftr the interview, she said "Elder Geddes, you have spent a lot of time and energy on me, I know you are only 20 and you might be using all your energy on my, but I would like to ask you to use your last bit of strength and give me the gift of the Holy Ghost after my baptism." I couldn't tell if she thought I was weak or what but I was pretty touched by her humble request. I said I would love to do that for her. Elder Erickson will be baptizing her. It will be a great experience for us both.

Well it is getting pretty chilly here. I have started wearing my scarf around. All of the coats are coming out on the market. Last week we went to look at them and it seemed like they have some sort of system worked out there on the market because there were about 500 foreigners all trying to sell me a coat. Word spreads fast when you want to buy something. I found some pretty awesome coats for about 2000 rubles, and I think I could get a little lower. That's a nice winter coat for around 60 dollars, I think that's not too bad of a deal. We'll see what I decide to do. There are just a million coats and hats calling my name! Oh, I thought of one more thing you could put in my Christmas package if you haven't already mailed it. I have ran out of good pens and am having the hardest time find good ones here that I like. If you could send me maybe 2 black zebra pens, that should last the rest of my mission.

Well it seems like that is all that has happened this past week. I'm not sure when I will get my new companion but I don't think it will be until around the 18th. Until then, I think we will be traveling back and forth still. I'm getting good at sleeping on the bus but I am still not a big fan. The roads here are awful. Anyway, thanks for everything, love you guys.

Elder Geddes

ps

I just told Rob some things that I forgot to tell you guys. Russia is a place that you just have to love. Sure there are some problems but it is what it is. The other day in our stairwell one floor down from us we found a huge syringe on the ground. There is a serious drug and alcohol problem with the youth in Russia. It's really sad. We find syringes a lot on the streets but never in my own stairwell. My companion got arrested while on splits with the AP's for tracting. Everything was fine of course but he was pretty shaken up about it. They were tracting and an old woman called the cops. Elder Erickson and Elder Nutt, the AP he was with, tried to show that there was nothing illegal they were doing. The problem was that they were both from different cities so the cops couldn't figure out what they were up to. Registration is a huge deal here in Russia and if you mess it up, you will be deported. You are allowed to be in a city for three days without being registered. It was Elder Ericksons second day so we had to leave the next day. Anyway, the cops weren't believing them so they made them get in the car and took them to the station. They were there for a while until the cops figured out they had no reason to keep them any longer. I don't know when it will be my turn to do that, but hopefully someday :) It's getting pretty cold already, our heaters haven't filled up with hot water quite yet so it's pretty cold in the mornings. All in all, every day is an adventure of some sort. Something you could see only in Russia I think, last week we saw two extremely old women trip and fall on the sidewalk. They both fell dang hard. In America, I'm sure you would be calling an ambulence and stuff, but here, people around just picked up the women, they dusted their knees off and continued on their way. It was two different days and two different women but it goes to show you that old women here are tough as nails. When you talk about Russia, people say that bears walk around on the streets, what they mean is the old women. It's funny.

A Baptism soon

2010-10-02T18:27:00.000-07:00

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

Traveling Missionary

2010-09-23T13:17:00.001-07:00

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

A wonderful telephone call

2010-09-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

I received a phone call yesterday from Mary Pearce, wife of Senator Monty Pearce, and she said she was relaying a message from her sister who is in Russia. She and her husband are serving in the area general presidency right now and have served as mission presidents there a while back. She said she met the most delightful missionary the other day and that he was from Idaho. She said his eyes just shined with light and he was obviously a wonderful missionary. She said he spoke well and she had just a wonderful time visiting with him. She said he knew of Monty because his dad served in the legislature with him. She wanted Mary to call me and tell me what a wonderful missionary son I had. She said she always appreciated it when someone saw on of her missionaries and called her to tell her about it. I really appreciated the phone call, it made my day. She didn't say anything I didn't already know but it was nice to hear from someone who was with him and to know he is doing well. As you read the letter below, it is the Lawrence's that he is talking about that called about him.

Hey everyone,

Things are going pretty good for me right now. Yesterday we had such an awesome zone conference. I always love getting together with the other missionaries in our mission. I especially love seeing Elder Hasbiullin. He's doing great and having a good time. We are really good friends and probably will be forever. By the way, he got transfered and is currently serving as the Branch President in Smolensk. He's a stud. Anyway, apart from that, we had Elder and Sister Lawrence speak to us. Elder Lawrence is the first counsilor in the Area Presidency. He is a former mission president in the Novosibirsk mission here in Russia. He and his wife gave such great talks. His wife spoke a lot about the blood of Israel and who we really are, that we, as the blood of Israel, promised before this life to share the gospel. She told us some really interesting things about so much stuff, I immediately wanted to enroll in an old testament class and start studying. Although we are studying the old testament in Sunday school, it's just not the same in a foreign language. Anyway, she has taught seminary and institute and has taught a lot of classes like Gospel Principles and stuff so she really knows a lot about the gospel. Elder Lawrence gave one of those talks that you just walk away feeling like you can try a little harder to be a little better. I always love those talks, they give us so much hope and desire as missionaries. I swear, they should have zone conference every week, we would probably get more baptisms! Elder Lawrence gave us some steps on how to strengthen our faith. He said we should pick a righteous goal or desire that doesn't exactly have a clear path. We must be believing, pray constantly, do everything in our power to accomplish the goal or gain the desire, then expect the Lord to perform. I definitely have a goal without a clear path, that is to baptize someone here in Kaluga. At this time, we don't really have anyone progressing to baptism, but that doesn't mean we can't have the faith to baptize.

Anyway, we had an awesome day on Sunday, Elder Frehners last day. We got 21 people to come to church! Pretty much we told them that it would be their last chance to see Elder Frehner so a lot of people from English club came and even a couple inactives came. It was really great. Monday we woke up at 4 to get on the 5 o'clock bus to Moscow. I met my new companion and got strait back on the bus to Kaluga. Elder Lesevich is his name. He's not so bad. A little moody and likes to get his way, but nothing too serious. It is kind of weird being with a mini missionary, they don't exactly have the same desires and goals as a full time missionary because they know they are going home in a couple weeks. Anyway, we worked for a couple of days then once again yesterday woke up at 4 to catch the 5 o'clock bus and spent the day in Moscow. We might have to go back to Moscow on Monday because my companion needs to be back home for just a day on the 21st. I would spend the day in the office while he traveled back to his town and we would come home early Tuesday morning I think. We'll see what happens.

I have thought about what I could possibly need or want for Christmas. Pretty much nothing that can't be eaten, I have no room in my suitcases for anything else. But I think I might be ready to make the transfer from manual to electric razor. They say it hurts at first but after a few days you get used to it. If you happen to see a good deal on an electric razor, I think I'm ready. I saw some here, they were pretty expensive. If they are way expensive at home too, don't worry about it. One thing also that I might request, pop tarts. Elder Frehner let me have one of his that he got in a package and I almost started to cry. It was pretty tasty. I hear that Ludmilla is still doing great in Veronezh. She still asks about me and Elder Hasbiullin all the time, so she hasn't forgotten. I am almost certain we will be kicked out of our apartment in December. I'm about ready to start looking for apartments a little bit. I will obviously be here for a minimum of one more transfer but I feel like I will end up being here a couple more. If I am here over Christmas, I can skype you guys. Our branch has a laptop and Frehner and Harrison used it to skype home for Mothers day. That would be cool. It wouldn't be fun to move again, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Anyway, that's about all the news from me this week. It sounds like everyone is doing good and happy, other than the fact that Liz is pretty sick. I'm sure that will go away soon though. Thanks for everything you guys do. I love reading the letters from home. Have a good week. Love you guys.

Elder Geddes

New Companion

2010-09-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Another week flew by. This week was a pretty good week. We had two investigators at church. One just likes to be with us because he likes to speak English with us. He has already expressed that his only interest is English, but he came to church so I guess thats a start. The other was a 33 year old woman named Svetlana. One of my first days in Kaluga, we were on the streets talking to people and she came up and asked for our book and we got her number. I have been trying to keep in touch with her the whole time and finally she said she would come to church. She showed up late, but showed up all the same. After Sacrament meeting I went up and asked her how she liked it. She said she enjoyed it and then immediately told me that she was looking for a husband. She said she had been married before and her husband wasn't too good of a guy so she is looking for a religious husband this time around. She said she doesn't want anyone from the Russian Orthodox church, and she has checked out the Jehova's Witnesses and said that they were just a little crazy so we was now checking out ours. This is seriously the first thing she said to me... she's not shy at all. Just then our branch president, Dima, walked over. She leaned over to me and asked, "is he married?" I said no, she said "How old is he?" I said, 21. She looked at him and said, "Goodbye" She didn't even waste a second talking to him and asked if we have any guys in our branch who are a little older than 33 and still single. I didn't know what to think at this point. We really have nobody in our branch that she could marry and I think she realized that. I'm not so sure we'll be seeing her anytime soon, but I will invite her to learn more about our church. Kind of a weird lady.

Monday we had a meeting with these two ladies that we meet with on Mondays and Thursdays. Lately one of them has just wanted to argue everything I say to her. She is a very very proud woman and has an opinion about everything. She is probably 55 years old and has some sort of disease that her legs don't work. Maybe she has ms, I'm not sure. Anyway, we have been going through the plan of salvation with her very slowly because she always takes us off course. Anyway, she just started saying things that were just making my blood boil. I was getting upset because she was saying things like, "God doesn't need my repentance and I don't need to be sorry for things I've done. I've already done them and it's too late. When I was a kid I would do something my parents didn't like and I would look them in the eyes and say, ya I did that, so what." I was a little baffled. I said, this isn't a joke. You will not stand before God and say, Ya I did that, so what. She said no matter what, she will never bow her head to anyone, not even God and I promised her that someday, she would bow her head to God. She just laughed. After that lesson, I could only think about a scripture I had read not too long ago about people who aren't willing to enjoy the blessings of the Celestial Kindgom. She is flat out denying the blessings and path to the Celestial Kingdom just because she isn't willing to let go of pride. I think we will meet with her one more time tonight and if it is another bad lesson we will stop meeting with her and use that time to find someone elect, someone willing to enjoy the blessings of heaven.

Tuesday we couldn't find one person to meet with us. I hate it when that happens. Luckily we had bus tickets to Tula that night at 5:30 so we didn't have to contact exactly all day. We got this guy's number who is a pastor in the Baptist church. In Minsk Belarus, a large number of the members there are former baptists. A Baptist pastor was converted and brought half of his congregation with him. Who knows, maybe we can do the same with this guy! Anyway, not a whole lot happened Tuesday. Our bus ride was pretty good, except the bus reeked of exhaust, as usual. Oh well, what can it do, make my hair fall out? Tula was fun. The Elders From Razon were there. One of them, actually the zone leader right now, worked before his mission on a crab fishing boat in the Bearing Sea. Just like the ones from the T.V. show Deadliest Catch. I was asking him questions about it all night. He said it is is the closest thing his mind can imagine Hell to be like. 2 months of just brutal work. He said at one point he went over 70 something hours without sleep. He has some cool stories and he made a ton of money. He wouldn't even tell us how much, he just said, I made enough. That would be so cool.

The District meeting we had on Wednesday was really good. It was at the Moffets house and she cooked tacos for lunch. After the meeting my companion and I got on another bus and headed home. When we got home, we got a call from President Woolley. I answered and he said, Elder Geddes, you're getting a new companion. Elder Frehner and I will be heading to Moscow on Monday morning. He will go to Nizhney Novgorod and I will pick up a mini missionary from that same city. Mini missionaries if you don't know what they are, are just young members of the church from cities in our mission. President Woolley asks them if they can serve on a mini mission, usually for just a few weeks at a time. Since we have so few missionaries, President Woolley really likes to use mini missionaries to spread the work further and faster. A lot of people have been serving mini missions lately but this will be my first experience serving with him. I have seen him a couple times and always thought he was kind of a goofy kid. Today, my email from President went like this:

Dear Elder Geddes: I want you to know that I love you and have great confidence in you. Elder Lisevich will be a challenge. I do not want to sugar coat it. You will not have him for long. He is learning how to be a missionary. He already has a mission call. I want you to do your best to teach him discipline and humility. He wants to serve, but he has a few rough edges. You will have to be careful, because he is actually quite sensitive. I am hoping that Dima will really come and serve a mini-mission. I am praying that you will find someone to baptize and build the branch.

I'm not too sure what to expect. I guess knowing I will only be with him for 5 weeks I will be able to handle anything. I really want to help him learn what a mission is like. He leaves for his own mission the Eastern Russia in December. I'm sure everything will be fine. It will be a good experience for me and will help me out with my Russian. I'll miss Elder Frehner. We have gotten along pretty well. He'll have a good time in his new city.

We don't exactly have anyone making too much progress right now but we have plans to get people progressing. There are some really great people here in Kaluga, for some reason they are all just resisting the Gospel. We'll keep working hard wiht them to get them to progress. I'm doing good and feeling healthy. I can't think of anything I need. I am happy and having a good time. Thanks for all of your letters and support. I love you guys.

Kiev Temple Dedication

2010-09-02T08:12:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures of a Russian Temple called Temple of the Savior. I didn't want you to think this was the Kiev Temple. Someday he will send pictures of the Kiev Temple when he gets to do a session there at his next visa trip

Hey guys,

This week has gone by so fast! We had a great time in Moscow at our training meetings and have been trying to work on the things we learned there. One thing they focused on a lot was asking inspired questions during lessons and really listening to the answers. We got home late Friday night. The next day was Kaluga day! It was cool. We really didn't remember that it was Kaluga day but we were buying groceries and could hear some loud music. We decided to go check it out and found out there was a big stage set up in the center of town with a bunch of dancers performing. We stayed for a while and got to see a lot of really neat cultural dances. I made some cool videos so you will be able to see how it was. It was raining the whole time. Even though we had umbrellas we got pretty wet. Anyway, Saturday went by fast. We woke up early Sunday morning and met all the 7 members at the train station and headed to Moscow for the temple dedication. We were really glad to have so many people come from Kaluga, it was really important that as many people as possible saw the dedication. When we walked in and sat down and waited for it to start, the screen was showing video footage of different temples around the world. I felt so good and then I remembered that we had to show our temple recommend to get in, meaning it was like we were in the temple. I remembered the feelings I had as I went to the temple over a year ago. I had kind of forgotten what the spirit felt like, especially in such a high dosage like we got on Sunday! It was such a warm great feeling. You can't help but KNOW that the temple is the house of God and that this is his church on the earth today. It was a great experience. We went to the second session so we didn't get to see the cornerstone ceremony, but the dedication was great. President Monson was there along with Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Nelson. There were other members of the 70 and also the president of the temple and his wife. The talks were great. Elder Lawrance, I think he is in the area presidency or something here in the East Europe area, anyway, he gave his whole talk in Russian. It wasn't very understandable at times, but it was pretty impressive. I remember when Elder Nelson came to Veronezh to dedicate that building and he bore his testimony in Russian. It was really special to the members I'm sure. President Monson put his translator to the test, as much of his talk was unscripted. He did a great job. Elder Nelson led the Hosanna shout, a lot of people, myselft included, kind of got left in the dust. I didn't have my handkerchief quite ready and I was trying to do it in Russian so I got a little off. It was cool anyway. They had a choir from Moscow in the room and they sang a few songs. They did a really good job. It was just really cool. After that, we had some time before our train so we went to a Russian temple, probably the most famous, "Temple of the Savior" it's called. It's really pretty, something that would be cool to show my family someday in the future. We weren't very prepared and had no food so we had to go buy some. We found a mall and decided to go to the food court. When we got there, much to our surprise, we found a BURGER KING!! I couldn't believe my eyes. We both got ourselves a nice big double whopper. It was so delicious, but I don't think my stomach liked it too much. I'm still paying for it I think. Actually I think it might just be a seasonal thing. When the seasons change, it always bothers my stomach. Nothing too serious of course, but I have just noticed that it seems to happen when the seasons change. It has started getting pretty chilly here. It has been raining a lot lately which is part of the reason. It all happened way fast though so I think my body is just confused about what's going on. Oh ya, some great news, our shower got fixed finally! I can't remember how much I filled you in on the shower situation but to make things short, we went almost two weeks on 3 showers. We took two showers at our landlady's house and one in Moscow. When we got back, they were finishing up the job. I'm so happy!

From Monday until today, not a whole lot has happened. We have been having a hard time again finding people to meet with. It has been hard to get contacts this week because it has been raining almost every day and people just don't like to stop and chat when it is raining. We had a family night last night at the branch. We had a pretty good turn out. We were really happy to see that a mom and her daughter finally got back from their vacation. We started to meet with them before english club and talk about the gospel. They have a Book of Mormon and they have a lot of questions. Just when things started to go good, they left for almost a month on vacation! But they are back now, so we will start trying to meet with them again. Anyway, things are going pretty good. You're right about President Woolley and his wife, they are great people. They have high hopes for us and are always encouraging us and helping feel loved and appreciated. President really wants us to baptize someone here in Kaluga. I am praying that we will be able to find at least one person who is interested in the gospel. One of my first days in Kaluga a woman saw us on the street and asked for a Book of Mormon. I have been keeping in touch with her this whole time. She just keeps saying that she wants to read more of the book before we meet. Finally a couple nights ago I talked to her and she asked if she could come to church. She will be there on Sunday I hope. Maybe she's the one person that will be interested. If not, we will keep looking.

I'm glad everyone seems to be doing well at home. Thanks for the letters and the support. I love you guys. Have a great week and I'll talk to you next week.

Elder Geddes

Strengthening a Testimony

2010-08-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I am sitting in a post office in Moscow. We got up early this morning and took a bus to moscow for the second part of our training. We will be staying the night here at the AP's apartment. I thought it was going to be a hotel but oh well, this will be fun too. I am going to just write this one letter because we don't have a lot of time.

This week has been good so far. I decided I'm not going to be complaining about Kaluga anymore. I will most likely be there for another 3 transfers, but who knows. I know me and my companion are going another transfer together though.

The week started out pretty bad though, I won't lie. Our shower has been broken this whole time and my companion and I have taken 2 showers in the last week and a half. We have to go to our landlady's house to shower and we have only been able to make it over there about ever three days! I'll have to take two showers tonight just to make up for it. Luckily it started cooling down right when our shower broke so we haven't been sweating quite as much. Luckily we got to take a shower on Sunday. When we got back from her apartment, I saw I had missed a call from the branch president, Dima. It was 9:30 and church started at 11. I called him back and he asked me to speak in church. Oh well, what can you do. Luckily I had a talk written in English for last zone conference. I just translated it a little bit and used it. I spoke for about 15 minutes and I feel like it wasn't too bad. It felt weird because there were only 2 other members that showed up other than Dima!! In all there were 5 people at church. I played the piano, blessed the sacrament and spoke. I couldn't believe that only 3 members showed up. Everyone is still getting in there last little vacations before school and everything starts up. The week got better after that. Sunday night we had a meeting with a Russian Orthodox priest. I'm not sure why, but I somehow always end up getting meetings with those guys. We found the place that he wanted us to meet at and it was a super old church, kind of more of a seminary thing. Anyway, he led us into a room with a table and about 10 people sitting around it. He said they had just finished a bible study class and that now they were going to ask us some questions. I had a prayer in my heart that I would be able to understand their questions and be able to respond well to them. For the next hour and a half I answered questions to the best of my ability. The priest was asking a lot of questions about Adam and Eve. Something I like about meeting with people like this is it gives me some ideas of things to study in my personal study. His main question was why was the fruit forbidden. Kind of a good question I guess. Why didn't God just send us here in a state that we would be able to make choices, whether good or bad. Why was the fruit a necessary part of the plan? I answered the questions as good as I could, explaining that we were given agency, and that choices were an important part of our learning process on the earth. It explains everything so clearly in 2 Nephi 2 we can't make choices unless there are choices offered. We can't make good choices unless it is possible to make bad choices. They of course didn't really accept my answers but it all makes sense to me. That's why the Book of Mormon is so important and crucial to our knowledge of the gospel. My talk that day in church was actually about agency. That is such an important thing for us to understand! And such a fun thing to study. It's my favorite topic to teach about as well. They asked a lot of things about life on earth and why it is necessary. They think it is a form of punishment to be here, but we know it is a blessing. They feel like God could have just taught us everything we needed to know and that if we still think it were necessary to come here to experience it for ourselves, we don't trust God. It all comes back to telling your kids not to touch the stove. Sure they understand that you don't want them to do it, but you also don't want them to eat too much sugar, or get their pants dirty every day. Until the child touches the stove and burns his hand, he won't understand why he's not allowed to touch it. Or in other words, we've all heard the analogy of trying to explain the taste of salt without using the word salt. The gospel makes sense. It is designed to be understood by all. It doesn't need to be debated or reasoned. It is simple and true. Anyway, the guy gave me a small book written by some Russian Priest. Cool souvenier.

This week, the senior couple from Tula came to Kaluga for the day. Their names are the Moffetts and I feel like Elder Moffett changed my mission. He is probably the most knowledgeable guy in the gospel I've ever met. His scriptures have just about every verse marked up with notes all over the place. He is so good at teaching any topic using the scriptures. They took us out to lunch first and I was just talking with Elder Moffett. I had been kind of down on myself and had come to the conclusion that my time in Kaluga was just a testing period and the only reason I was there was for the Lord to see if I could handle it. I asked him if he thinks the Lord really needs 19 and 20 year old kids walking around Russia trying to get these people to hear the gospel or if it is just a kind of training or teaching opportunity for us. He testified to me that he knows the Lord needs us here, and specifically needs us in Kaluga. He shared a verse with me in the Doctrine and Covenents that has really changed my way of thinking. It is in section 117. The Lord is talking to someone, I can't remember his name right now, but what he says is that he remembers this man and wants him to know that his sacrifice is worth more to him than his increase! My sacrifice is important to the Lord. He is aware of me and my needs and desires. If I am able to keep myself worthy of the spirit, be obedient and work hard every day, it will make no difference if I baptize one more person or a hundred more people, I will be able to know that the results of my mission were the will of God. I really want to work hard. I really want to be obedient. I really want to be a tool in the hands of the Lord. Aside from that great experience, we went contacting with the Moffetts. They are so great! They were able to give out 5 Books of Mormon somehow! They don't speak much Russian but they have a desire to share the gospel.

Elder Frehner and I have gotten a lot of contacts this week and we have gotten one new investigator. Her name is Inna. We finally got a meeting with her and gave her a Book of Mormon and she agreed to begin reading and meet with us again. As I was explaining the book to her and explaining a little about the church, I felt inspired to be bold and be honest. I said, Inna, I will be 100 percent honest with you. We are missionaries called of God to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and baptize them in his name. Both my companion and I have the authority to baptize people and we want you to know that it is our intent to teach you the gospel and help you gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and when you gain this testimony, we would like to baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm sure my companion was a little worried, but I wasn't. She didn't agree to be baptized or anything, and in fact she said, I'm already baptized, but I'd love to read this book and learn more. When I heard her answer, I wasn't worried at all. I don't know if she'll get baptized, but I know if she will follow the steps of the gospel and read the Book of Mormon with an intent to know the truth, she will find out and she will be baptized. It's all in the hands of the Lord. We will do all we can to help her progress towards baptism, but even if things don't work out, I understand my purpose here. I am not ashamed of the gospel and will continue to preach! I have been praying a lot lately for help in strengthening my testimony. I know that God answers prayers and that my testimony has already been strengthened. I love the gospel and hope to continue to learn more and more each and every day.

I will write more about this conference next week. It's going good so far, I translated for the Russian elders and sisters for the last half of today, I hope I don't have to do it again tomorrow, it's hard to get a lot out of the training when I am translating.

Anyway, I have about 3 more minutes left on this computer. Sorry I didn't write everyone, but I got your letters and enjoyed them all. I love you all and miss you but I wouldn't rather be any place else right now. I've still got a few more months to continue to progress and grow, change the things that I need to change and strengthen the things that need to be strengthened. Thanks for everything! Oh ya, I got my package mom, thanks! Love you!

Elder Geddes

Apartment troubles

2010-08-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Happy late birthday mom!! I promise I didn't forget, I was thinking about you on your birthday. I hope you like the gray thing. It is real hair, as far as I know. It's hair from a special kind of sheep or goat or something. Not sure. It sounds like you had a good time for your birthday. Next year I'll be there to celebrate it with you. Cool huh? What about the doll, was it in good shape? I hope so. I feel like I've gotten all the shelf souveniers I want. Now I want to get some sweet movies in Russian so I will have a way of keeping up my Russian after the mission. I feel like Disney will be my best bet.

Well we had another week full of problems with our apartment. I really hope I am out of Kaluga before December because I'm pretty sure our landlady will kick us out when the contract ends then. I'm pretty sure I told you guys that I broke the washing mashine my first or second day here, but if I forgot to tell you, I broke it. I didn't shut these small metal doors on it before I started it so the drum tried to spin but it couldn't so a small belt broke, not a big deal but our landlady wasn't too happy. Anyway, after that, I started noticing that our shower was always so dirty on the floor. Our drain is clogged somewhere so the water takes so long to dry that the dirt and stuff just sits and makes the floor nasty. We decided to try to take a look and see if we could find out how to unclog the thing so we scooted the shower out from the corner and messed around with it for a bit. Somehow in the process we bumped the main pipe that the water comes through. This thing was already duct taped in one spot and was just crappy anyway. There is a long piece of pipe that connects two joints that isn't sealed into the joints at all, it just sits in them. Anyway, we bumped that and knocked it loose so the next time we showered and used the washing machine it leaked water everywhere in the bathroom. We slowed down the leak but didn't stop it so today there will be a guy coming to fix it. Our landlady once again wasn't happy about it but I don't care. She thinks everything in this apartment is just the best stuff in the world but it's mostly just junk. She also isn't happy with the fact that the last elder just left and I just showed up. She thinks every time a new guy comes he will do stuff like break the washer and the shower, which might be the case actually, oh well.

Anyway, last week was a bitter sweet week. For the most part a very unsuccessful week but we did some fun things. We got to go to a branch picnic in Tula that the senior couple invited our branch to. Elder Moffat is the branch president now in Tula and he likes to get the three small towns in our zone together whenever it's possible. We had 7 people from Kaluga show up. It was a lot of fun, we even set up a slip 'n slide, which the Russians had never heard of such a thing. They thought it was pretty interesting. We of course showed them how it works. It was just a long piece of plastic stuff that we just layed on the ground of the woods, so it wasn't exactly the smoothest thing in the world. Also, usually a slip 'n slide has a small pool at the end to stop you, but of course we couldn't get that arranged, so we just had dirt wood and rocks at the end of the tarp. I always managed to stop before the end but some people weren't so fortunate. Mostly the missionaries like it but a couple of the other people there tried it. They just didn't understand why we liked it so much. First of all they didn't know how to slide so a lot of them would try it and go about 5 feet and then just stop. We just had buckets of water that we would fill up in the nearby pond. The person would run and dive while someone else threw the water. It was pretty cool. Also, we played water balloon volleyball. It was really fun. They had brought about a million water balloons. It kind of just turned into a war of launching the balloons. It's always fun to play these games. Almost every time we do this kind of thing, someone makes a comment about how we are able to have so much fun without alcohol or anything like that. It helps the investigators see that we know how to have fun. The two people that were there that I am most excited about are named Ramon and Sveta. They are a young couple, not married yet but are planning on getting married. They have been coming to english club for a long time. They have met with the missionaries a few times and have already quit smoking. We have met with them only once so far since he works a lot but they like to meet with us. I want to work hard with them and see if they can get baptized. They have come to church twice, never since I've been here but we can help them with that. They're cool.

The day before the picnic, Elder Cecil, the zone leader, came and did splits here. He and I worked together. We weren't able to get one lesson set up for the next day, I hate it when that happens. It doesn't happen a lot but it does happen. Anyway, Elder Cecil is a transfer younger than I am and about 10 times more excited to go home. It's hard not to think about and talk about home when your companion talks about it a lot. I only served with him for one transfer but going on splits with him made me realize it would be pretty hard to serve with him for more than 1. He's one of my best friends on the mission but it's just hard to focus on missionary work when we're together.

I am going to use this letter to vent a little bit. Last night I had one of the toughest worst meetings ever. A few weeks back we got a guys number. We met with him and his friend once and gave them Books of Mormon. Last night we met with them again. They had just gone on the internet and found all sorts of stuff to "prove" that the Book of Mormon isn't true. First of all, I wasn't sure what to do, whether I should try to argue each point they made or what. Second of all, it is times like that that I HATE not understanding every word or being able to say everything the way I want to say it. I'm afraid they just feel like they proved something to me because I wasn't able to defend the book. The whole time I just kept thinking, there's nothing I need to worry about, the book defends itself and I don't need to be scared of them proving anything to me. I know that sometimes I don't have all the answers, especially when people try to use all sorts of historical facts and dates, but also I know I don't need to have the answers to every question. It says in Preach My Gospel that sooner or later everyone is backed up to a wall of faith. I could answer questions and prove things all day long, which is what I have been doing with this one lady we have met with a couple times, but sooner or later it will be her choice to excercise faith. The most disappointing thing about last night was that when it was all said and done, I tried to do the only thing I could and bear a simple testimony about the Book of Mormon. They cut me off half way through and didn't let me finish. They want me to go to their church with them this Sunday. I don't feel like meeting with them anymore. I told them that I was sad that they didn't read the book and instead just searched for things like that on the internet. They said, how else should we do it? We need to find out all we can about it so we know if it's a true book or not. They didn't do anything to my testimony of course, but I really need to continue to strengthen my testimony in the Prophet Joseph Smith. I woke up this morning and read the Joseph Smith History.

It's interesting the different experiences you have on a mission. Just changing cities and companions can show you a whole new world of knowledge you need to gain and a whole new set of skills and attributes you need to accuire. It's all for the best but sometimes it's just frustrating. I can say that I'm trying hard. I might not be finding a ton of success here but I'm trying.

Sorry this letter is all over the place. Oh ya, I am once again realizing how my hair is just disappearing! I feel like the mission has aged me about 30 years. You probably won't recognize me when I get home. I look like a 45 year old and I feel like a coat hanger when I put on my suit coat, ha, it's kind of funny, at least my companion seems to think so. When I get home, have a nice tall protien shake ready for me, along with a big beefy steak and maybe a membership to a gym or something, I'm going to need it. Other than that, I'm not sure what else has been going on. The weather has been cooling down a bit which is nice. It still gets hot in the middle of the day but it has been nice and cool in the mornings. I'll send some pictures home this week for you guys. Anyway, thanks for writing, I'll talk to you next week. Love you!

Elder Geddes

Fires in Russia

2010-08-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

The fires are the big topic here as well. Everyone says it is just scary to watch the news. Here in Kaluga we have had a couple days where it has gotten smokey but nothing way serious. Enough that we didn't want to keep our windows open but it wasn't bad enough that we couldn't go outside. It's kind of crazy, it comes and goes pretty fast, like rain clouds the smoke will just roll in. When I was in Moscow for my visa trip, it was pretty bad. I'm glad you got to see it on the news because I couldn't really take a picture of it. It is peat that is the problem. They say it is deep under the ground or under the something in the forest, so they can't just dump water on it. Also that is why it is so smokey. Kaluga is doing fine, there are fires around but none way close. I hope it stops soon, I know it is doing a lot of damage and causing a lot of trouble.

Anyway, my visa trip was a nightmare as usual. Elder Johanson and I were the only ones going. We had to stay up until midnight the night before in order to get the tickets. We went to the airport the next day and waited until it was our turn to check in. After we got through security, Elder Johanson realized that our visas didn't start until the next day, meaning if we were to fly to Kiev, we would not be able to fly back into Russia until the next day. We had a choice of backing out and going to kiev the next day with the rest of our group or just chancing things and going to Kiev. We decided it would be a big waste of money if we just wasted our tickets so we decided to fly to Kiev. Our good idea was to change the tickets for some that were late enough that we would arrive back in Russia after midnight. If we could do that, then we would have time to go find the temple and take a look. So we got to Kiev and tried to change the tickets. We went through the whole process to get them changed because we thought the lady said it would cost 500 rubles to change the tickets. When we tried to pay her 500 rubles, she just laughed and said "I need 500 Euros" That's over 4000 rubles so we said, uh, we don't have that kind of money so we had her change them back. That meant that once again, I got my hopes up to see the temple and it didn't work out. Anyway, we still had a few hours until our plane left so we took a bus to a small town outside of Kiev. We just walked around and bought some fruit and bread and stuff at a store. We headed back to the airport and tried to check in to our flight. The lady couldn't find us in the system. She kept looking and found out that we somehow were on the late flight, the one we had tried to change to. Meaning that lady had not switched us back somehow. So we had another almost 2 hours in the airport. The worst part is that if we had known about that, we would have gone to find the temple!! It was pretty frustrating, but oh well. So we waited and got on the plane and were pleasantly surprised to see we had also been upgraded to business class! Finally, a perk. We got into Moscow at about 12:15. I went through passport control with no problems. Johanson on the other hand, was in the passport control for quite a while because he had some sort of problem with his visa. The person who made his visa put his birthday in wrong and the people at the airport didn't like that. They told him he would have to have a completly new visa made. They said they could do it in the airport but it would take a while. The bad part was that I was on the other side of passport control already so I just had to wait while he went and got a new visa made. Finally at 2:00 A.M. Johanson comes back with the airport people. We had the mission driver there waiting for us, I'm sure he was just really happy about the whole thing. He took us back and we ended up getting back to the a.p.'s apartment at about 3 o'clock. The next morning Elder Frehner and I got on a bus and headed back to Kaluga. I was pretty tired. Next visa trip will be better, I am almost sure we will get to go to the temple. I can't wait.

Church was a little disappointing on Sunday. Only 7 members showed up. One of which was a guy from Finland who was just visiting. After Sacrament meeting, a couple people went home even. So we had about 5 people in all for sunday school and combined priesthood and relief society. The speakers were the branch president and his councilor. I still haven't been made the 2nd councilor. I'm not sure if I will or what. Our branch president is doing as good as you could expect from a 21 year old kid, but that being said, he's still a 21 year old kid. He's a bit lazy and hard to deal with sometimes.

Monday night we had the chance to go to Tula! It was cool to see that city again. We had a zone meeting, which I didn't understand what the point was, but honestly, I just wanted a chance to go to Tula. We stayed the night Monday night, had our meeting Tuesday and then came back. It's only about 2 hours on a bus from here, so not too bad. It was really interesting to think that almost exactly a year ago, I saw Tula for the first time. Can you believe it? Next week, I will have been in Russia for an entire year! That's crazy.

Elder Frehner and I have been doing a lot of finding. We are talking to as many people as we can in between meetings. We get promising contacts but I just don't know what happens to them, they just most of the time don't pan out. We got a few more yesterday that I'm pretty excited about. Hopefully we can start meeting with some of them.

Last night Elder Harrison called me to ask about some stuff. It sounds like things are going great in Veronezh. I still miss that city. He told me that every time they meet with Ludmilla she always talks about me and is always asking how I'm doing and remembering things that remind her of me. She misses me, which is a good feeling.

There is a picnic in Tula on Saturday. When they have activities, they like to have us come and when we have activities, we invite the people from Tula. We are trying to get some of our investigators to come to it. It would be a lot of fun. If we can't get anyone to come of course we wouldn't go, but I would sure like to go. We'll see what happens.
Why didn't they have a carnival this year? Did you see some people from my class there? Caleb is getting married huh? That's interesting. How old is this girl? And Mary is starting college soon huh? Wow, everyone is just growing up. Oh and Torey is getting married? Tell her congratulations. Has anyone gotten back from their missions lately? Keep me updated. Anyway, that's about all I have for this week. Thanks for everything! Oh ya, I haven't gotten my debit card yet, but hopefully it will be there next time I'm in Moscow. Also, I know what you can send in the future if you send another package. If you can find a pair of size 42 inserts for my eccos that would be great. Elder Traasdahl's mom sent him some. My shoes are pretty much like new still exept for the insert in one of them is starting to fall apart. It's not even bad yet but I figure by the time you are ready to send another package I will be ready for some new inserts. I love my shoes! Anyway, I'll talk to you guys next week. Love you.

Elder Geddes

HOT!!!

2010-08-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

I'm sitting in Moscow right now and apparently I woke up before all of you guys because I had no letters to read! That's the only reason I like p-day is to read all of your letters and find out what's happening. Hopefully by the time I finish this letter I will have a letter or two to read. That just means next week I will get twice the letters, right?

Anyway, it is still hot here. People are having a really hard time with the heat and this past week, all the forests have started on fire! Veronezh is completely surrounded by fires right now. They said that you couldn't even see the building across the street because of the smoke that had drifted in. Moscow is really really smokey as well. Kaluga was pretty smokey on Sunday, but it went away. People don't have air conditioning here, and they all had to close their windows because of the smoke in the air. Sleeping is about unbearable. We have a small fan in Kaluga that we sleep with but still, I wake up in the night and my pillow is soaked, my shirt is soaked, and I'm just dripping with sweat. Where is the -30 degree weather when you need it?

My companion and I woke up at about 4 o'clock yesterday morning and got on a bus to Moscow. We had zone conference yesterday which was really great. The church missionary department has recently made some changes in the Preach My Gospel program. They have come out with some additions and have instructed mission presidents to hold a 3 day training. Yesterday was the first training and in a few weeks we will all come to Moscow for the last two days. President says we will be staying in a hotel over night here, cool huh? The changes are all about how we teach as missionaries. They have decided that we need to change our focus a little bit as we teach. I feel like I got a lot of personal revelation about things I need to do better as a missionary and especially as a senior companion to someone who doesn't speak much Russian. I realize that as I have began to speak more and more Russian, sometimes my lessons turn into me trying to convince the people of the truths we have, just using my words and trying to use logic or trying to prove their points wrong. I realize that if I can't figure out how to let the spirit do the proving for me, the investigator will never understand what we are talking about. Anyway, I'll be trying a lot harder to let the spirit guide the lesson. My visa expires on Sunday so we had a visa trip scheduled for Friday. That would mean that I had to come to zone conference Wednesday morning, go home Wednesday night and return to Moscow Thursday night to catch our early flight Friday morning. Instead, my companion and I just stayed the night here last night and Elder Johanson, an elder from my mtc district who happens to serve in the office, and I will be going to Kiev today and the rest of my group will go tomorrow. At first, they told me that Elder Johanson and I would be going to the open house for the temple, I was so excited I couldn't hardly wait. Then we found out that it doesn't start for another couple of days. Then they said, well you guys can just go see the temple anyway, just tell them you're poor missionaries on a visa trip and maybe they will let you see at least part of the temple. Then the problem was that there were no tickets early enough. The planes were full until 2:30 this afternoon. I'm pretty bummed about the whole thing because now we probably won't even get to leave the airport, once again. Oh well, it will be fun anyway. We will get back late tonight so I will be staying another night in Moscow and taking an early bus home tomorrow morning, back to Kaluga. I swear, there is no such thing as a normal week on a mission.

This past week has been okay. I'm getting my bearings a little more each day in Kaluga. I'm not going to lie though, I miss Veronezh so much! I feel sad when I think that they are still continuing to have fun, hold sports nights, family nights, all that fun stuff, without me. I miss my friends a lot in Veronezh. I hope they didn't just forget about me there. Kaluga is still a big city, compared to Soda Springs, but there are still so many people we talk to every day who say, you've already talked to me about a hundred times! On Sunday, we started our meeting with 6 people there. By the end of the meeting a few more people had come and there ended up being a total of 15 people. We just lost two of our strongest members, one left to serve on her 4th mission, and the other moved back to Kazakhstan where she is originally from. That is a big hit for our small branch. I get really frustrated with inactives. They are full of promises that don't get kept. People have no problem saying, of course I'll be there on Sunday, then not showing up. We even went to a guy's country home to help him with his garden so he would have time on Sunday to come and he didn't show up. We cut a bunch of wood for him and we were both just sweating like crazy working hard for this guy. Also, I offended a different less active lady in the branch because I gave her a challenge to be ready to go to the temple in Kiev when it is dedicated. She didn't like that one bit. I guess it was our first meeting but still, it's unlikely she will be a big fan of mine.

I am having a hard time really getting to know my companion. He seems to care about 2 things, food and sleep. He doesn't talk much and I haven't really found what we have in common. He's nice and everything but I still don't know him very well. I don't know how long we'll be together, but it's always more fun and easy to serve with a friend, especially when you can push each other to be better.

We met a guy on the street and had a meeting with him the next day. He showed up with a friend and we talked for about an hour. They are both very Russian Orthodox but we had a good discussion. They invited us to attend their service with them on Sunday. They go to church at a monastery where Russian Orthodox priests and monks live. The times work out and we agreed to go. They told us that this is a place that you can really feel the spirit strongly... we'll see about that. I figure if we go to their church, they'll be willing to come to ours.

Well I'm not sure what else interesting happened this past week. Just a lot of walking and sweating. We had 3 lessons planned on Monday and all three fell through... that's the worst. A whole day of trying to find things to do to not waste time. I would say that walking the streets is almost a waste of time, but honestly we had nothing better to do. Needless to say, it was a long day. This will be a good week, I can just feel it. Mom and Emily were able to get their letters sent in time :) good job! Anyway, love you guys. Talk to you later.

Elder Geddes

New city new challenges

2010-07-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I am in my new city, Kaluga. It is a small city with only around 300,000 people I think. My last city had over a million. My new branch had 18 people come last Sunday, that's including my mission president, his wife, two office elders, me and my companion... my last branch averaged about 75. There have been 2 baptisms here in the last year, one of which is a mildly crazy grandma. I was in Veronezh for 8 months and saw 5 baptisms. My last companion was Russian and taught me so much about the language, my new companion has been here for three months and doesn't speak much at all. The comparisons are many. If a missionary in my mission found out he was going to serve in Kaluga, the first reaction is AWWWW MAN!!! I say bring it on. Once I get used to the city a little bit, we will get some serious work done. I'm not sure how but we will. If the Lord has people prepared in Veronezh to hear the gospel, he should have a few people here in Kaluga as well. I just need to try my hardest to work smart and effective. I feel like my companion and I are up to the challenge. We have around 50 members or so here in Kaluga. There are a lot of inactives. The branch president is a 21 year old guy named Dima. He's a bit immature but for the most part, he's a pretty good guy and takes his calling seriously. His first counsilor is a 24 year old guy named Andre. He's pretty cool, kind of quiet. He actually lives about an hour out of Kaluga and takes the bus in every week. It is likely that I will be the second counsilor which will be interesting. I have spent about a week here and there have already been a few days where we had nothing to do but contact. It's the hottest summer in Russia for the past 130 years, we were on the streets for around 5 hours just talking to people. Part of the reason is that my companion is still really green and doesn't really know who to meet with in emergency situations such as these, but I'm trying really hard to get to know the members so I can be more of a senior companion. It's hard right now because I pretty much just have to follow my companion Elder Frehner around all day. I don't even really know where we live! I bought myself a small pocket map of Kaluga so I will be working on that problem. I'm sure the first week is always a struggle. I have been thinking a lot about how a small branch grows. We had a lesson with a member who was baptized a little over a year ago. She said when she saw our branch for the first time she just thought it was kind of a joke, not anything serious. It's true, when people walk in to our meeting and see just a handful of people, it's hard to keep them interested. Kaluga is a very very Russian Orthodox city. There are over 30 Othodox churches in our small city. Therefore, it is very hard to talk to people on the streets. The only thing that keeps coming to my mind is the part member families. There are a few spouses, a few children, and even the branch president's mom we could somehow work with. I just don't know how. If they have been a part member family all this time, what could I do to change their minds? I just feel like reactivating people and trying to work with the part member families will be the only thing worth doing here in Kaluga. I don't know how long I will be here, but that will be my focus this whole time.

My companion's name is Elder Frehner. He is from St. George. He is a pretty cool kid. He wants me to speak to him in Russian all the time because he really wants to learn the language. He's struggling with it as of now, but we all struggled with it at that age. I am now realizing how much I grew in the language serving with Elder Khasbiullin. I am trying to speak a lot of Russian with my companion but it is sometimes a little harder than it seems. It's just not natural first of all for two Americans to be speaking a different language to each other. Second of all, I have to translate a lot of what I say anyway, so sometimes I just don't like it, but I do like that he has a desire to speak the language. That's probably most important. On Sunday, President Woolley and Sister Woolley spoke in sacrament meeting here. I was the translator for both of their talks. It was pretty cool. I was pretty nervous at first and started off a bit shaky, but after I calmed down I feel like I did a pretty good job. I love this language and will tell you for the first time, I'm speaking Russian! Every once in a while I finish talking to someone and realize the things we were talking about and I just have to smile. Last night I had a conversation with our landlady about our contracts, a leaky faucet, how to properly clean the shower and some other stuff. Conversations like that just make me feel like I'm not just learning missionary vocabulary but I am actually learning the Russian language. It's pretty fun.

We had a lesson with a super old couple in the branch the other day. We had been outside contacting a lot and I was super tired. We had a lesson planned specifically for Elder Frehner to practice teaching some principles so I was trying to let him do as much talking as he could. It was super hot in the apartment, and as usual when I get too hot, I fall right to sleep. I fell asleep as we were talking about the atonement. When I woke up, the grandma was showing my companion some x-ray pictures of the bullet that is still to this day lodged in her husbands back. I thought it was so funny, I fall asleep for 2 minutes and the lesson goes to that.

I have been waking up the past few nights just soaking wet with sweat. It is so hot!! My pillow and the blanket that I sleep on are just wet and nasty. I definitely have learned to sweat on my mission. It gets this hot every once in a while, but the thing about this summer is that it has been non stop heat for a couple months now. It is supposed to break next week and cool down a bit, I sure hope it does. This kind of heat just drains my energy fast.

We had another missionary have to go home early because of a death in the family. We had a Russian elder serving here with only 2 weeks left on his mission when his brother got in a car accident and was killed. He went home that day. He has a younger brother who just started his mission. His older brother that was killed wasn't a member, neither is the mother. The father died about 9 years ago. I can't understand why that stuff has to happen. He only had two weeks left. I'm sure that is just so hard to deal with. Once again, please be safe everyone! I still have quite a while to go, so just be careful.

Anyway, that's about all that's going on here these days. Each day from here on out will get better, as I get more and more used to the city. I really hope I can make a difference here in Kaluga. I'm trying to show faith and work hard. The rest is up to the Lord. Thanks for the letters, I love you guys.

Elder Geddes

Transfers

2010-07-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

So Irina already spilled the beans. I am going to Kaluga. Kaluga is a very small city. The branch averages about 12-15 people a week and will be very similar to Tula. My companion will be Elder Frehner. He has been in Russia for about 3 months now so he is still pretty new. Elder Cecil, my last companion will be serving in Tula as the Zone leader. Me and my companion will be the only elders in Kaluga so there will be plenty of work to do. It will be nice to be a little closer to Moscow but I will miss the night trains, they are always pretty fun. I will miss this city and the members here. Irina has been my best friend since about my second week here in Veronezh. She is 32 years old and is just a nice person. I really like her a lot. Yesterday we had our last meeting with Ludmilla before I left. Both of us shed some tears and she told me to tell you thanks, mom, for sending me here and raising me like you did. She told me she'll never forget me and that she will always hold a special spot in her heart for me. She is pretty awesome. She gave me and Elder Cecil both some neat souvenirs. I sent a package home yesterday to the boise house. It has two martroshki stacking dolls, some clothes and that hairy shawl that Ludmilla gave to mom for her birthday. I have no idea how long it will take to get there but I just hope everything gets there in good shape. The big doll I got for myself for when I have a house someday but I think you guys can just put it up somewhere in your house until that day. The smaller one is for you guys to keep forever. The awesome ussr jacket needs to be hung up or something so it will be in good shape when I get home. For some reason there was a red spot on the sleeve when I got it so if you notice that, see if you can clean it.

Anyway, this week I can say will be a week I will never forget, for a few reasons. It has been great though. We have been meeting with all the members I wanted to meet with before I left and almost all of them have fed me. Last night we had a meeting with a lady named Alla. She fed us chicken, mashed potatoes and this cucumber tomato salad. Right after that we went to a meeting with the ward mission leader, a young married guy who served a mission in California. He and his wife had prepared us dinner as well. They brought us out chicken, mashed potatoes, and amazingly enough, a cucumber tomato salad. It was pretty funny.

I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty scared to leave. I still have a little bit of packing to do and then I will get on a train at 4:30. Tomorrow I will spend most of the day in Moscow helping other people who are getting transfered get from train stations and bus stations to the office with all their luggage. My new companion has a visa trip tomorrow so I will be just waiting around for him. I actually get to go to dinner with President. There is one sister missionary who is finishing her mission tomorrow and I get to go to her farewell dinner. That should be pretty cool.

I don't have a whole lot to write about this week. It's been one of the more challenging weeks I've ever had, and that I'll ever have I hope. I am excited to move and just start from scratch kind of. Transfers give you the chance to drop some bad habits and develop some good ones. I always have things I need to work on and I will be using this transfer as a chance to grow. You guys didn't say anything about my invite to Russia at the end of my misison, is that a no? Or are you still thinking about it. Let me know what you guys think

Sorry this is such a short letter but I've kind of got a lot on my mind right now. I'll write a better letter next week from good old Kaluga!! Thanks for everything. Love you guys.

Elder Geddes

A letter from a Russian friend

2010-07-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

We received this lovely letter from a women in Voronezh where Jess has been serving. It sure is nice to hear from the people Jess is serving in Russia, it was a very thoughtful thing and we really appreciated it.

Hello! Your son said, that I should write to his mom J I'm a little scary, because I've never written letters in English, and I always shy to do that .So it’s gonna be a very short one. First of all, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Irina and I live in Voronezh.I am a member of the church here.I guess you heard about this city from your son.Well, I just wanna write that elder Geddes is an excellent missionary here. He is a good example of serving the Lord.He’s really really awesome, kind and I can only say good things about him.. And he already speaks in Russian fluently. Ever since he came here, he has had great success. I would say he speaks Russian as if he has been living here a lot more than 1 year. And many people love him as a friend, teacher and missionary !! Today our missionaries( who had a transfer) bore their testimonies at sacrament meeting. We have 2 Sisters and 2 Elders leaving us. So Elder Geddes was one of them . It always so wonderful to feel the power of the Spirit, when you hear testimonies . It also strengthens my testimony .He will be leaving soon to Kaluga (on Thursday at about 4 p.m.). But don’t worry about him! He have faith and strong testimony and ready to work hard there and bring a message of God to people around!!!! I think they are lucky to get such a missionary, as elder Geddes! And I’m glad that he served in Voronezh and I have an opportunity to meet him!!! So be proud of your son! J I hope all is good for you! So I ended my small letter!
Irina

Grandkids

2010-07-15T08:51:00.000-07:00

"I said stop bugging me, mom, Lacey's bugging me"

"What! I was just sitting here"

alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494167476227009250" />

"I said, there's something in your ear"

"I just know there is something in your ear"

"Okay, I think I got it"

Trip to Russia???

2010-07-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

We had a pretty good week this week. I did splits with the other elders here and yesterday we all went to Lipitsk to try and help them out a bit. At first it was a big nightmare. We had to do it yesterday because there was supposed to be a baptism on Saturday so yesterday was the only day we could do it. It was really really hot outside and there were next to no people on the streets. We had thought up a few activities we could do, but the elders and sisters in Lipitsk didn't think about where we should do the activities. We all went to one spot, there wasn't any people there, so we went to a different place, nobody was there, finally after a couple hours of kind of doing nothing, I was getting a bit panicked thinking we all had just wasted an entire day. We made some decisions and all just grabbed some Books of Mormon and split up into companionships and just started going around the streets talking with everyone. The people weren't coming to us so we went to them. By the end of the night, we had gotten about 9 or so contacts and given out probably as many Books of Mormon. It ended up being somewhat successful and if anything, I think it helped by just mixing things up a bit and giving us all a change of pace. I hope something ends up working out because of it.

I have one thing I need to ask about that I've been thinking about all week. We had a lesson with Ludmilla this week and we were talking about something and she asked a question that we answered, we find that out in the temple. She said, "So I have to wait until next June to find out?" It hit me that she will be planning on going to the temple in June of next year. Every missionary goes home either a couple weeks early, or a couple weeks late. I did the math and realized that if I got to stay a couple weeks late, I would go home sometime around the 23rd of June, almost one year to the day after I baptized Ludmilla. How cool would it be to go through the temple with her? The only way I could do that though is if you guys came and picked me up... will you be ready to come back to Russian next year? I have it all figured out, you could fly in to Moscow, we would spend a couple of days there seeing everything, then take an overnight train to Veronezh and meet up with Ludmilla. After that we could take another overnight train to Kiev and go to the temple with Ludmilla. From Kiev we could fly to St. Petersburg and see the sights there, I figure I'm right here, I have to see St. Pete's. And from there we fly home. It's your choice and you still have a long time to think about it, but I think it would be pretty neat. At the beginning of my mission I really didn't want you to come pick me up, just because I thought it would be so cool to go home with my district and ride down the escalator with my fist raised in the air and see my whole family there waiting, but this would be really cool too. The Lowry's went to Japan for the same reason, got to go through the temple with there son and someone in the branch there and also just got to see some neat stuff, see how their son lived and what he did for two years. I think it would be pretty cool for you guys to see what I have been doing, and see Russia for real, and not just a tourist city. I always thought I would want to go home the early transfer and be home for my 21 birthday but if I have the chance to go through the temple with Ludmilla, I would take it in a heartbeat. Think about it and let me know what you think. I know it would probably be kind of expensive and you guys were just here last year but I just think it would be a once in a life time experience. Ludmilla has asked about you guys a lot actually. The other day we had a lesson and she just stopped and said, Elder Geddes, how tall is your mom? I told her and asked why, she said, oh, I just think I'll meet her someday and was just interested to know how tall she was, ha, funny lady. She gave you a birthday gift this week so I could send it home in time for your birthday mom. It's in fact a shawl made from that nasty gray hair stuff that I told you they make socks out of! I'm sure you'll love it! She said they're really warm and nice to just wrap up in and sit by the fire. My companion said it is actually a really nice gift and that we should really appreciate it. His mom wears them all the time (granted his mom is closer to 70 years old) anyway, I'll be sending it home soon. Her friend Alexander just left on a month long vacation which was a bummer for us. He has already heard the first 3 lessons, read all the reading assignments we have given him and told us that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He'll get back in mid August and will get baptized I'm sure.

Once again I have to say I don't know transfers. They promised that they would be giving them to us today but I'm not exactly sure when. I was hoping to have them by the time I wrote in case I get transfered. That means that next week there is a good chance if I get transfered that I will be either writing home from Moscow or some other city, or not writing at all on Thursday. So, mom, in case I don't get to write next Thursday, I promise I will write as soon as I get a chance so don't worry about calling President Woolley if I don't write! Ha, who knows maybe I'll be writing next week from good old Veronezh.

Anyway, I think that might be everything for this week. President did write us and say this is a big transfer and that lots of us are going to have new comps or new cities. We'll see who that applies to.

Oh ya, what's in Calgary? Try to find the missionaries and say hello to Elder Rudd for me! I can't believe you guys got to go on the field at Fenway, that would be so awesome! I want to go to a baseball game when I get home somehow, maybe next time we go to Disneyland we can go to an Angels game. Anyway, I'm glad you are doing good. Thanks for everything, let me know what you guys think about my idea for next year. Love you all.

Elder Geddes

Missionary enthusiasum

2010-07-08T13:17:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I won't find out anything about transfers for a little while longer, so we'll see. There would be some upsides to staying another transfer here, and it would also be fun to go somewhere else. We'll see what happens. One of the upsides is the friend that Ludmilla has brought to church. His name is Alexander and he is a doctor and a medical school professor. He's probably in his 50's and is really really smart. He's one of those people who is almost too smart so it's kind of hard to understand him sometimes but I think he will get baptized sometime in the near future. Ludmilla told us about him and said that since she brought him to church, he has learned as much as he could possibly learn on his own about our church. He told her that he likes it all and wants it to be part of his life. Yesterday we had our first meeting with him and it was really good. Ludmilla is a champ and she will be an awesome asset to our branch here in Veronezh. She is already friends with all the members, she has a calling as a teacher for enrichment night, and is just loving everything about the church.

Well we had a pretty good week. Zone conference was awesome, we had President Powell, or Paul or however you spell it, I'm not sure. Anyway, he is in the area presidency over our mission but he will be released at the end of this month. This was his last appearance at a missionary meeting and he did such a good job. He talked about what to do when we extend a baptismal committment and people say no. He really inspired and motivated everyone to try some different things and work a bit harder. After conference was over, we went back to red square and took some pictures and just had some fun. There were about 10 of us or more, and it was a lot of fun. We actually ran into a mormon family from Utah on red square, it was pretty funny. The train rides were both pretty fun as usual. We got back Saturday morning, got all cleaned up and then went to a baptism. The sisters had a 17 year old girl get baptized. Her older brother who was just baptized back in October got to baptize her. After that, we had another picnic out in the woods. It was a lot of fun and every companionship had at least one investigator there. I picked up a bunch of bottles people had just thrown around and filled them up with water and set up a bowling alley in the woods. It was fun for a while then people ended up just grabbing the bottles and having a water fight, which was also fun.

I had Elder Guynn and Anderson from Lipitsk come to Veronezh Sunday night and we did splits here in our area on Monday. It was very successful and a lot of fun. Sunday night, we grabbed a chalk board out of the branch building and wrote some stuff on it about the Book of Mormon then all went out and stood on the streets and talked with people and tried to give out books. It is always so much easier to work hard and do a good job when you are having fun doing it. It was pretty successful and we have some ideas of how to improve it for next time. Maybe it will be something we do once a week or so. Tuesday was a pretty normal day and then on Wednesday we had planned a movie night. We showed the movie Testaments and invited members and told them all to invite friends. We had about 30 people show up, 15 of which were non members. Ludmilla brought two friends, Alexander and a 28 year old guy named Dima. Dima speaks English really well and said that for now he is just interested in English, but we'll see if we can't start working with him and show him the gospel. Anyway, the movie night was a big success too. We have some pretty creative people in our district and I think we are just realizing the key to working smart and hard at the same time. In a few days, we will all be going to Lipitsk to give them a little boost. We will spend a day there doing a lot of different finding activities. We will do street contacting, we will sing in the park, we want to get a sign and talk about the Book of Mormon like we did here, and whatever else we can think of to try to get them some good contacts and give them an energy boost. It should be lots of fun.

Last p-day, I bought myself a sweet Russia shirt, a ussr jumpsuit, and a cheap Russia soccer jersey. They are sweet and I got them all for pretty good deals at the market. Today we might just go and see some sights and take pictures and stuff. That's always fun. I have been having some problems with one of the sisters here in my zone. She is impossible to make happy and it really bothers me. She can be down right rude to me sometimes, even when I am just trying to be nice and help. It is starting to get a little frustrating but I'm just trying to always be the bigger person and continue to be nice. She's a native sister and she's just one of those people who has an attitude problem.

We didn't have to pay for his tooth with our own funds, although we could have afforded it with how cheap it was. He has had to go back to the dentist a couple times and he just got an x-ray and found out that he still has 3 more wisdom teeth that will need to come out someday. He doesn't want to do it right now, I wonder if he'll just wait until they cause problems or what. Poor guy. When we buy tickets, it's with straight cash, just like with all purchases here in Russia. I had over 40,000 rubles in my hands. It was pretty sweet, but a pain in the butt to get out of the atm. You can usually only take out about 5-7 thousand at a time, depending on the atm.

Well, that's about all that is going on here. I'm glad to hear everyone had a good 4th of July. Just like last year it was just like any other day for me. I can't wait until I can go to the Soda Springs parade again, I love the festivities in good ol' Soda. Anyway, thanks everyone for writing. Have fun in Boston Mom and Dad. Love you guys.

Elder Geddes

Baptism!!!

2010-06-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

Elder Geddes, Elder Hasbiullin and Ludmilla

Hey everyone,

Well the baptism was perfect! The sun was shining that morning and when we got to the church, Ludmilla was already waiting for us to get there. About 40 people showed up which was really great. It helped that there was a ward picnic planned after the baptism. There were a few investigators there which is also always a good thing. I thought we were going to have some problems about half way through the program though. I was sitting in the front row by Ludmilla and a woman was giving a talk about baptism. She was talking about 3 different points of baptism and was using a yellow flower to represent each point. As she would talk about the point, she would hand the flower to Ludmilla. About 5 minutes into the talk, Ludmilla started to cough a little bit. She coughs a lot and always uses the same excuse that she likes to drink milk with ice, ha. Anyway, she started coughing so much that she had to leave the room. We could all hear her just coughing up a lung outside of the room and a couple ladies went to help her. After about 5 minutes, one sister stood up and said, let's say a prayer for her. She offered a prayer and asked God to give Ludmilla at least a few more minutes of perfect health so she could be baptized. A couple minutes later, Ludmilla came back in the room and didn't cough one more time after that. It turns out she has allergies to certain flowers and these were just the wrong ones. Anyway, it was a pretty cool little miracle. Next it was time for the baptism. I was a little nervous once again but was confident I could do it. We got in the water, which was a little lower than it could have been, and I said the prayer. As I leaned her back, she stopped as her head started to go under, but her whole arm and even part of her head wasn't under the water. I didn't want to have to do it two times so I just used a little manpower and shoved her under. It worked perfectly and we didn't have to do it again. A couple of the members said they thought I was going to whack her head on the back wall of the font but all was well and she was baptized. She bore her testimony after the baptism and told us about how last year on June 19th she was crying in sorrow, but this year, she was crying for joy. It was pretty special. She didn't come to the picnic with us, probably because of her grandson. Maybe she went to visit his grave or something. All in all, it was a perfect baptismal ceremony.

The ward picnic wasn't as cool, ha. They had a bus take us out to this spot in the woods where there was a lake and spots to sit and cook food and stuff. A few of the members, including Anatoly, a 60 something year old less active guy, just stripped down to their little skimpy swimsuits and went for a dip in the pond. The missionaries and the other people who didn't go swim all played soccer for a while. Anatoly came and played after he was done swimming, barefoot and in his boxers. It was... weird. We had some hot dogs and juice and sat around for a while talking to the members and our investigators who were there, then it was time to go home. Everyone got a bit sunburned and was pretty wiped out after that. The AP's were here to do splits with us. They started with us after the picnic and were with us all the next day. I would say that I was pretty disappointed with the splits they conducted. Our AP's are Elder Khussainov and Elder Nutt. Elder Khussainov served here in Veronezh and was the zone leader before me. He's a little hard to get along with and has gotten worse since he's been ap. He's kind of on a power trip and it's not cool. He started out the splits with a sarcastic, negative attitude, complaining about our food, our meetings, the sleeping situations, and anything else he could think of. I was very disappointed with the example he showed as a leader. I worked with Elder Nutt. He's a good guy and a good Elder, but I can say that I didn't learn anything from him either. He has been on his mission for 2 transfers longer than I have. I feel like I speak better Russian than he does and was more capable of getting a quality contact from someone. Both AP's got us a couple of crappy contacts that we could have lived without. They were trying to show us the example of talking to absolutely everyone, but when it is a 70 year old man who is obviously drunk and probably doesn't have much of a home, I'm not sure they are the ones we need to be talking to right now. Anyway, I was happy to have them leave. I remember my other two splits I have gone on with ap's, and I can't tell if it was that I was so young and incapable that I just thought they were the coolest people in the world or what but I didn't get that impression this time.

This was all on Saturday. On Sunday, my companion gave the gift of the Holy Ghost to Ludmilla. I was in the circle as well and it was a very powerful spirit felt by all in the room. Confirmation is one of my favorite ordinances in the church. Hearing the words, receive the Holy Ghost, then feeling a very powerful feeling of love and happiness is about the best way to strengthen your testimony there is. It was an awesome meeting.

Monday was the beginning of a very hard couple of days. We had all of our meetings cancel on us and even had a couple of investigators kind of fall out of the books. We had the same thing happen on Tuesday and are quickly realizing that we will need to spend some serious time on the streets and on our knees to find some people to teach. I just don't know what to do exactly. We are struggling to find investigators. This just goes to prove my theory of how the mission goes. You have absolutely nothing, but if you work hard and don't give up, the Lord will send you someone. For a while, things will be perfect and you will have plenty of work to keep you happy, but after you baptize that person, you are back to nothing. I have been in Veronezh over 7 months and have seen this cycle happen not only to me but to all the companionship's in the zone. It's a trial of faith and dedication so all you can do is put on your shoes and get to work. That's what we'll be doing for the next little while.

This week, we received two mini missionaries from Kazakhstan to serve in our zone making our zone the biggest in the mission. We now have four sisters and four elders in Veronezh, with 2 sisters and 2 elders in Lipitsk. The mini missionaries will be here for the rest of the transfer. The one in Lipitsk has only been a member for a few months, and the one here has been a member for a number of years. Neither one of them know much about how missionary work is done, but they will learn quick. I am praying for guidance and help to be a good leader and a good example to all these people. I hope I am doing a good job and that I am not a burden to the zone.

We have a zone conference on the 2nd of July and the sisters have a baptism on the 3rd, so those are the events keeping me going this week. It will be an exciting and fun week next week, hopefully better than this one has been so far.

President told me last transfer that this will be my last in Veronezh, we'll see if he holds to that. I'm trying not to think about it because it can be pretty detrimental to your work if you just think about where you will serve and with who you will serve next. I can honestly say though, after Ludmilla's baptism, I am ready to leave Veronezh. We'll see what president decides to do in a few weeks though.

Anyway, it sounds like things are going good back home. I'm glad you are all having a good time and doing well and staying busy. I forgot that last Sunday was Father's Day, so happy fathers day to all the fathers in the family, especially mine. Hope you all have a good week! Love you all.

Elder Geddes

A trip to Colorado

2010-06-17T22:04:00.001-07:00

We had a trip to Colorado this week with the whole family except Jess. It was bitter sweet without him and there was a large hole that was very noticeable. We had a good time though all the same. Megan and Mica and the kids left Iowa and the rest of us left from Soda and met Friday night in Fairplay Colorado. We stayed in a cabin that sat right on the top of a mountain and was just breathtaking. It snowed almost everyday we were there but it was fun to just sit and watch it and know we didn't have anywhere to go. We played games and told funny stories and ate until we were sick, it was great. We played with the grandkids and watched our kids parent them. We stayed up way to late and got up way to early and had naps mid morning if we wanted. I don't think we have been that relaxed in a long time and it felt good. We spoiled the grandkids and then let their parents deal with the aftermath, which by the way, wasn't all that bad. We found new games and watched a lot of HDTV and movies. We remembered lots of stories from childhood, some memories were better than others, and laughed until our sides hurt. The sons and daughter-in-law probably wondered what they had married into but laughed nontheless. It was a great relaxing time for all and we are already planning for next year when Jess can laugh right along with us and add his stories to ours. Here are a few pictures to document our good time:

Joy through serving the Lord

2010-06-17T21:31:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

Well, I am just a happy guy right now. Things are going so well and I have had the best past couple of days. Mostly all of my happiness is coming from the fact that I met Ludmilla. She hasn't stopped amazing me every time we meet. She asked to meet with us every day so that she could be ready for baptism on the 19th. We finished teaching her everything we are required to teach, then we went through the baptismal questions with her. She answered them all so perfectly, but we still had to have her talk to President Woolley, but that is later in the letter. Anyway, after the lesson we had with her, which was with a member, the member was talking to me and asked something about when I will leave Veronezh or something. Ludmilla thought that I would be here for my whole mission I think so that was news to her. Ever since then, she has been a little worried about me leaving. She sticks close by my side like a puppy when we're together. She told me that I'm already like a son for her and that especially since I will be the one to baptize her, that makes us family. I agreed with her 100% and will definitely miss her when I have to leave Veronezh. She has told me a lot of interesting things about her life that just show me how God has been preparing her for this decision her whole life. She is so excited for her baptism. She says it will be a day of black and white, a day of death and birth. Remember that her grandson was hit by a car two years ago on the 19th of June? She of course will be sad about that memory but is so excited and fully understands that baptism is truly a rebirth. She told me a little more about her grandson. She said that he was always afraid of cars, and when he would see a car coming down the road he would grab his grandma's hand and hold tight. Two years ago, he saw a car coming down the road, but he also saw a two year old boy playing in the road. I have no idea where that little boy's parents were but her grandson ran out in the road, pushed the two year old out of the way and was hit by a guy driving over 90 km an hour down a residential road. He saved the two year old boy. I told her that her grandson is a hero and that I know for a fact that he is in the kingdom of God right now. She agreed.

There is a member here who had a birthday on the 25th of may, then went to the temple right after that. She promised that we would have a birthday dinner and celebration for both of our birthdays when she got back and it finally happened yesterday. It was so much fun. We brought Ludmilla, the other elders were there with an investigator and the sisters were there with an investigator. We all pitched in for the groceries and had a good dinner. Somehow it turned into my birthday party more than just a fun get together. There was a cake with 20 candles, a happy birthday poster that everyone signed and I even got a couple presents. Ludmilla signed the poster and directed her note to you guys, mom and dad. She said she takes a bow to you and is thankful for the fact that you sent me here. She said you can be proud of your kind loving son and that you can know that there are people in Veronezh who love me as a son. I thought that was pretty special. I'm going to keep that poster forever. I found that the biggest downfall to staying in a city this long is that I have grown to love so many people here. It will be so hard to leave when I finally have to. I don't know what I'll do. While we were together, we had Ludmilla call President Woolley to talk about some things. We told her she would need to do that and she was so nervous but so happy at the same time. She understands the process of repentance and was excited to do it the right way. After she got done talking to president, he talked to me for a minute and said that both he and his translator were touched by her spirit and were so glad that we had the opportunity to teach her. After her phone call, she was just so happy. She knew she had taken one more step towards true repentance and she could feel the love of God in her life. It was such an awesome night. The other elder's investigator who was there hit it off pretty well with Ludmilla. It was really good because she has been struggling herself to make a decision to be baptized or not. I know Ludmilla will be a key instrument in the Lord's hands in bringing people to the gospel. She's amazing.

The baptism will be this Saturday at 9 in the morning. We are having it early because there will be a ward picnic later that day. It will be a pretty special day for everyone. Our ward mission leader wanted to do the baptism in the river, which I was kind of happy about but we ended up deciding to do it in the nice font that we have in the church. I think that is best in the end. I will take lots of pictures to send to you guys. Have you gotten the pictures I've been sending lately?

Elder Hasbiullin is still doing awesome. He's pushing me to be the best I can be as well. We taught 22 lessons this past week, my personal record. President has asked us to try to get 20 lessons a week now. It will be hard but if it is something our leaders have asked us to do, then it's possible. We are on track to do it again this week too.

Well I was glad to hear you all had a good time on the trip. I can't say it was exactly fun to read about all the fun but I'm happy for you all, ha. Next time I hope to be there. A year is nothing and it is already going by faster than I can imagine.

I have been sweating more than ever lately. It has been in the 90's and humid as ever. That kind of weather just drains your energy and makes you smell like an animal, but what can you do. We even got one of our lessons canceled because they said it was too hot! She said she was on her way home but that she had to stop and go to her sister's house because she wouldn't have been able to make it all the way to her house in the heat (it's not that bad by the way) I just thought that was a funny excuse. Today is a lot cooler which is a relief. I haven't slept under a blanket in quite a while.

I have one hamburger helper left and still lots of my crystal light juices. I really like those, unfortunately so does my comp. But there were plenty in there to share so it's okay. The a.p.'s will be coming to Veronezh this weekend to do splits, it should be pretty cool, they'll be here for the baptism. Anyway, I think that's everything. I love you guys and am glad you all got to write me. Thanks for everything. Talk to you next week.

Elder Geddes

Another Baptism

2010-06-17T21:26:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

Well, I'm not really sure what letter President Woolley sent you but it seems like it was a little old. Those 6 elders and 2 sisters came in at the beginning of this transfer. We just got one new sister for the next transfer to replace Sister Corbett who had to go home, and one sister got transfered into my district. I am staying in Veronezh for one more transfer as the zone leader. I'm pretty sure I will get to come out after this transfer but I'm really glad I got to stay one more. My companion is awesome and yesterday, Ludmilla asked me if I would baptize her. I was very humbled and honored to have her ask me. I know the Lord uses his missionaries to bless the lives of those who are ready to accept the gospel. I'll get to Ludmilla in a little bit though.

The trip to Moscow was really fun. We got there early in the morning and just relaxed a bit until the meeting was supposed to be starting. Elder Perry was great. I can't believe how healthy and active he seems for how old he is. I guess he will be turning 88 years old on August 5th (Rob, did you know you shared a birthday with him?) He and his wife were so happy to be here with all of us. We got to go through and shake his hand and tell him our name and where we are from. It was pretty funny, someone would say a city like South Jordon or something and he would reply, "that's terrible!" or "well it can't get any better than that!" It was pretty funny. He said he knew where Soda Springs was at, so that was cool. He got up to start his talk and said that he would be giving his first talk using his new iPad, whatever that is. It looks like a big ipod touch. Then he said, "I hope it works, but I don't trust it" and he held up an old notebook and said, "just in case" His talk was actually just the lesson on the restoration. It was interesting and he had some different insights into things that I hadn't thought about but for the most part it was just the basic first lesson. The cool thing is to think back on the "basic" first lesson and realize that I felt the spirit as he testified of principles of the gospel. He shared with me something I had heard and actually shared with others hundreds of times but yet I was still able to feel the spirit. After the meeting, a bunch of us went to one of the markets in Moscow to find a tie store. We hit the jackpot and found a store with probably a thousand ties in it, all for 100 rubles! I bought 7 ties for somewhere around 20 dollars, and they are all awesome ties! I was pretty happy about that. I want to come home with a nice suitcase full of ties, because you just don't find these in America. My companion from the mtc is sitting at around 45 or so ties that he has bought here. I'm at I think 11 or so. Not bad. After that we just kind of relaxed at the branch building in Moscow. The missionary room there has a ping pong table and a fooseball table and some couches and stuff, it was pretty cool. Our train home wasn't too bad at all.

We got back Sunday morning with plenty of time to get ready for church. It was fast and testimony meeting and it was one of the best ones ever. I was still able to feel the spirit, even though I was translating the whole time. I don't think I have told you, but I always translate the sacrament meetings for the senior couple and for a group of American English teachers. There is some program called ILP and so there are groups of students that come here for a couple of months at a time to teach English. One of them by the way is the girl who sent me that email. We did a couple service projects and they came as well, and they would come to family home evening and stuff too. They were cool but they're gone now. Anyway, I was translating for them and then Ludmilla, our investigator got up and bore her testimony. It was so awesome and all the women were crying. She testified that she knew God had led her to this church and had led her to me and my companion. She shared with the ward the story of her grandson who was hit and killed by a car 2 years ago. She shared an experience that she had where her grandson came to her in a dream and told her she needs to be close to religion. She told everyone that he was killed on June 19th, and that she thought June 19th would be a miserable day for the rest of her life but now that she has found us and has the plan to be baptised on the 19th, it will be a happy day for her. After the meeting, everyone came up and talked to her and thanked her for her testimony. It was a very sweet experience. We have been meeting with her almost every day, give or take a couple days. It has been such an awesome thing to teach her the gospel. She is amazed constantly at the simplicity of gospel truths and has said several times, "why am I just learning this?!" She said she knows it's true because every time we come to teach, she just wants to hear more and more. She is finding so many answers to questions she didn't think had answers. It has been so amazing to watch the small flame of interest she had when we first met her turn into an unquenchable fire. She has found something she has been searching for her whole life and she is excited. Yesterday we didn't have a meeting scheduled with her but she called and said she would be in the area and asked if we could meet her at the branch and teach her a lesson. We taught a lesson about the last three steps of the gospel, baptism, receiving the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. As we were talking about baptism, she asked us a few questions about how it takes place and what exactly will happen. She then asked who was going to baptize her and we told her it was her choice. We went on with the lesson a little further and she stopped us and said, "Well Elder Geddes, it's going to be you that will baptize me. I met you first, and if I hadn't have seen you in the hall, I would have just turned around and left" I didn't know what to say but it was probably the happiest I have been on my mission. I told her I would love to baptize her. I can't really think of a greater thing than to get to baptize someone who I know has been searching for the blessings of the gospel her whole life. It will be a sweet experience that I will never forget.

It sounds like everyone is excited for the big trip to Colorado. It sounds like a lot of fun. You'll have to take some pictures and tell me all about it. Don't worry, I'm happy here in good ol' Veronezh, I won't get too homesick. That is so sad about Donavan's mom and grandma. I can't believe that. That has to be the worst thing ever to have happen on a mission. Be careful everyone! I have been craving a temple session the last while. Sometimes I feel like there is just too much filth all around, with immoral pictures all over the streets, immodestly dressed women everywhere, I could really just use a couple hours in a perfectly pure and clean house of God. I'm really hoping once the temple gets opened up in Kieve we will get to go somehow, maybe on a visa trip. I'm pretty sure we will be able to.

It is getting really really hot here. It's getting up into the 90's which isn't too fun. Everyone smells terrible on the hot and stuffy buses. To make matters worse, I ruined one of my short sleeve shirts the other day with the iron. I burnt the collar pretty good on accident. I have to wash my shirts almost every time I wear them because they get so sweaty and dirty around the collar. Anyway, that's about all that's been going on here. I'm having a good time and am trying my best to always be trying to be a better person. Thanks for your letters and love. I love you guys, have fun on your trip.

Elder Geddes

The year mark has come and gone

2010-06-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Well I have a great letter to write today. I'm glad I get to write because at first I wasn't going to. We are going to Moscow this weekend to see Elder Perry. The president doesn't want us to waste too much time so he asked us to take our pday on Saturday after the meeting that will end around 11:30. I wasn't going to want to find an internet cafe to spend my time in while I was in Moscow, no offense, but I decided to make an executive decision as a zone leader and allow my zone to have 45 minutes or so to write home because nobody was going to write home from Moscow. Anyway, I'm glad to write because I have had probably the best most miraculous week and a half ever. The story is about a woman named Ludmilla. It starts two Sundays ago on May 23. We were all in our third hour of our meetings when I got a phone call from an old grandma in the ward that we take the sacrament to. I ignored the call maybe 3 times but she just usually keeps calling back until I answer it. So finally I went out in the hall to answer the phone and as I was out there, the security guard (nonmember) came walking up the stairs with a lady and he told me she had some questions. I talked to her for about 5 or 7 minutes about our church. She said back around Christmas she was at work (she's a barber) and somebody came in and got a haircut and told her all about their church and how it saved and changed his life. She couldn't remember his name or anything but she remembered his story. She was busy with work and what not so she never found a minute to come visit us. She recently quit her job and luckily remembered the client she had had a few months back and decided since she had some time, she would come see what we are all about. I told her a little about our church and the Book of Mormon. I didn't have a copy on my since I left my bag in priesthood so I told her I would go grab my bag. I also grabbed my companion. We talked to her for another few minutes, explained the Book of Mormon and gave it to her and got her phone number. We said we would call back in a few days to meet with her. She was the one that called us a couple days later. Of course I was excited to get a contact but you never know what kind of contact it is until you meet with so I wasn't too worried about her. When she called, she was pretty upset because she had read part of the book and got to the part where Nephi kills Laban. That is a big hang up with a lot of people and I thought she wouldn't be the first investigator we have lost because of that story. Anyway, Elder Khasbiullin got her to agree to meet with us so we could discuss it a little bit. We met on my birthday, I think I told you a little about that meeting. It was kind of all over the place because she had so many questions. We were able to answer a lot of her questions and get a good meal. We said goodbye and invited her to come to church. Sure enough she was at the church building 15 minutes early. This was the weekend that President Woolley was going to be here so there was a lot of stuff that we had to do. My companion and I were translating meetings between the branch president and our mission president for most of the morning but I was able to sit with Ludmilla at sacrament meeting. She loved what she heard from the talks which were all about temple work. After that, we went to Sunday school with her and she loved what we learned about the holy ghost. We had combined priesthood and relief society and had a good lesson in which she even stood up and shared an example from her own life. After church was over, President Woolley had a fireside about the pioneers. It was about an hour and a half and Ludmilla just loved it all. She told us that she will be at any activity that our church has in the future, so we asked if we could meet with her as well and continue our lessons. We met with her the next day and taught the first half of the restoration. The lesson went well and she asked a lot of questions. We addressed the whole Nephi vs. Laban thing and completely fixed that problem. The spirit was strong but I think Satan tried to put a bump in the road because I felt like the discussion was leading to a baptismal commitment but at the time the spirit was the strongest, Ludmilla's daughter in law came home with a screaming 4 year old kid so that kind of put that out, but all in all it was a really good lesson. We asked when we could come back to continue and she said, you can come tomorrow and the next day and the day after that! So we said, okay, see you tomorrow. That brings us to yesterday. We got there and picked up the lesson where we had left off and taught the rest of the restoration. We taught in unity and with power. At first she had a bit of a hard time focusing and kept bringing up sidetracks but we handled them well and continued the lesson. As we got to the Joseph Smith story, there was a very real and powerful spirit in the room. We decided to watch the first vision from the restoration film and after that we bore testimony to her that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. She sat reverently and listened to what we had to say. We had talked about the steps in the gospel, faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the holy ghost and enduring to the end. She said, well what about baptism? I was baptized as a baby but does that count? We boldly told her that, while people truly believe they are doing the right thing in being baptized, that it was only baptism by someone holding the authority of God that will save her. She asked, who has that authority then? We said, both of us have the authority to baptize. She then said, then I'll probably be baptized by one of you, right? That was such a relief. I knew she would accept the call to be baptized. We have two ladies that are being taught by the sisters who will be baptized the 19th of June and so we extended the invitation to her as well. She immediately accepted. We have another meeting with her tonight. I couldn't believe how ready she was to hear the gospel. Now I understand what it means that the Lord is preparing people for us to teach. Now I understand that there really are people out there searching for the gospel, searching for the truth not knowing where to find it. Now I know that the message of the restoration will cause people to act because they feel the truthfulness of the message. It has been a pretty awesome past couple of days.

It is so interesting to me how the Lord works. I always tell those missionaries in my zone that we need to work hard through the dry spells because the floods are coming. I know that the Lord wants to see if we will continue to work even when we have no real progressing investigators. He wants us to be worthy and ready to accept those who he has prepared himself. We have all been working hard. Nobody has given up, nobody has a poor attitude, nobody is lacking in faith. We have had a dry spell since the 6th of March when Inna and Sergey were baptized. We worked through the dry spell and now, on the 19th of June, 3 people will be baptized. Monday, my companion and I conducted splits with the elders in Lipitsk. I worked with Elder Guynn, my mtc companion. We were talking about our missions and he was telling me about one of his companions who had quite a bit of success. I asked how he would find these people and he just told me, the Lord just led people to him. He said this elder was a very good teacher and was so good at helping people understand. He said what he learned from that elder was that sometimes, the best way to find people is to be worthy and prepared for the Lord to lead those people to you. That is exactly what has happened here.

Anyway, zone conference was pretty cool too. My training went well and it just so happens that it was a lot about having the faith to find. I got to have another interview with president and he expressed his thanks to me for doing a good job. I really can feel his love and appreciation for us as missionaries. His mission is so big that he just can't get everywhere and do everything he needs to do sometimes so he has to rely on others a lot. I'm glad he can rely on me. Also, he was very impressed with my language abilities. He has never really seen much of what I can do but as I got to translate for his meeting with the branch president he was able to see that I really am learning this language. That made me feel pretty good. Tomorrow we will be getting on a train to Moscow. Our meeting starts at 9:30 and we all need to be there by 9 to shake hands with Elder Perry. I wonder if he remembers meeting Rob and me, I'm sure he does, right? ha, The meeting ends at around 11:30 and we will have lunch. After that, it is straight to the market! I'm looking to come back from Moscow with about a million new ties. Rumor is that there is an awesome market where all the elders buy ties. I hope we find it. Then we will get back on a train that night and be home in time for church the next day. We were going to get to stay in Moscow and go to the Sunday meeting with Elder Perry as well but President decided not to have us do that. That's okay, I'm sure he will fill us all in.

Anyway, that is about all that has been going on. I was thinking about what I was doing a year ago. I remember being pretty nervous, not even really tasting my last meal at home (a&w) or sleeping much that night (on the couch, since I wasn't allowed to mess up the beds) I remember that next day being so crazy, finally realizing that night that I would be gone for 2 years. One year has passed and I just can't believe it. It doesn't seem possible that it has been a year. I have learned so much but it feels like I'll never learn enough. I know I will be able to enjoy the second year of my mission even more than my first.

Thanks for the letters, you all have done an awesome job of writing me faithfully for a whole year! I love you guys and am glad you are all doing well. Unless I'm mistaking, I have no clue about this Colorado trip. Maybe I just skimmed over it or maybe you forgot to tell me. Or maybe I just blocked that one out because it sounds like so much fun. Anyway, have a good week. I love you guys.

Love Elder Geddes

Happy Birthday

2010-05-26T23:25:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

I'm 20! I decided that for a mormon boy, the age of 20 isn't real. You leave on your mission when you are 19 and come back when you are 21. Nonetheless, this is going to be an awesome year. This has been kind of a crazy week but a really good one. We had some bad news though and one of the sisters in our zone had to go home. Tuesday morning I was talking on the phone to the lady who handles our registration here in Veronezh. While I was talking to her, she got a call from moscow and I could hear her talking in the background, sounding very surprised. Then she picked up the phone and said, "Elder Geddes, Sister Corbet needs to leave now! Her mom just died." My stomach dropped. I had no idea what was happened or what was going on. The worst part was that since I had sort of overheard the news, I couldn't call anyone else to ask about it. I had no idea what I was supposed to do and so I just sat tight the whole day waiting for someone to call me. I figured that maybe President would call and tell me I needed to get a ticket for her to Moscow or at least fill me in on the news. We went about our whole day and I was just sick, thinking that Sister Corbett had gotten the worst possible phone call a missionary could get. To make matters worse, she had just set a baptismal date with a 17 year old girl the night before. Well nobody called me all day, so finally I called the Lowry's to ask what was going on. First of all, I had gotten some bad information. Her mom didn't die, but she was dying. Her mom has been battling cancer for a long time and I guess her kidneys and liver are beginning to fail. Sister Corbett had already gotten on a plane earlier that day and was in Moscow, with plane tickets to Canada set for the next morning. She had around 3 months left on her mission and it is unlikely she will return. I felt bad because it all happened so fast that I didn't get to say goodbye. Nobody felt the need to let me know, which was also annoying because I had worried all day that her mom had maybe been in an accident or something and I could just picture Sister Corbett getting that phone call. It is still very sad but I'm glad she will get to see her mom before she dies. Things like this put the plan of salvationtion into perspective. So right now, we are a sister down. Her companion, who happens to be a greenie, is now without a trainer. That could put a twist on transfers. Also, the reason we have a picnic today is because it was my birthday yesterday and Sister Corbetts in a few days. She wanted to have a combined birthday party for us. Pretty sad. I imagine it would leave a sort of unfinished taste in your mouth to have to leave your mission like that. I hope everything is okay and the family is handling things well. Everyone do me a favor, be safe and healthy for another year.

Other than that news, the rest of the week was really pretty good. We had two meetings with new people this past week, both of them we are excited about. Just last night we met with a woman who just walked into the church. She is a haircutter and we don't know who but someone was getting their haircut and told her about the church. She couldn't find time for a few months after that to visit but she finally found time. We got to her house last night and she had prepared a full meal, macaroni with some sort of beef soup stuff to put on top. She gave us fruit instead of tea because she doesn't drink tea either! Anyway, she and her daughter in law were there and we just answered their questions and got to know them. She had so many deep questions, a lot of them were really not important and I just wanted to say, that's not important! but we tried to answer them. We said next time we want to talk about where our church came from so that we will be able to actually teach her a lesson next time. She loved what she had to hear. She even teared up when we told her we use water instead of wine for the sacrament. We told her that in all actuality, the wine Jesus used was probably just grape juice anyway and she about jumped out of her chair and said I knew it! We can't wait to meet with her again soon. Her daughter in law was interested as well but not as much as the mother in law. She asked us how old we were and I said, actually I'm 20 years old today. She jumped up, grabbed a little wicker basket, filled it up with fruit, candy and cookies and gave it to me as a gift. She's a really nice lady.

My birthday was awesome. I was surprised how many people remembered and gave me a call to tell me happy birthday. Even a 80 something year old grandma that we sometimes take the sacrament to called me. It made me feel really good. President Woolley called me that morning to tell me happy birthday as well. Not to mention my package from mom. I don't know where to start with that. I have been eating maybe 5 animal crackers at a time so that it will last a little longer and I'm just not ready to open the Reeses Pieces quite yet. I opened the box the night before my birthday, partly because I just couldn't handle it anymore and partly because I knew I would be more in the mood to eat candy that night rather than at 6:30 the next morning. Oh well, I waited as long as I could. We went and did service at a home for children with tuberculosis, however you spell that. We knocked out a foundation of an old fence. It wasn't too hard but it started raining really really hard towards the end so we had to end a bit early. Then we went to McDonalds and ate lunch. All in all, a really great birthday.

Oh ya, I have a terrible haircut right now. I cut it way too short. It's not as bad as my companions, because the machine broke halfway through his. He's lucky it looks as good as it does, but we're not sure what to do since we have no money right now. We had to buy an ironing board and a cutting board and stuff and the office doesn't like to help out with things like that these days. Oh well, we will be getting our new money any day now, so we survived another month. My companion eats like an animal so we have to buy a few more groceries than we used to.

It has been raining nonstop for the last couple weeks, so it has been pretty cold. I hope it warms up soon but I know it will just get too hot.

Well, I've kind of got to hurry because we have to buy a little dessert for the picnic. Thanks for everything, for the letters that made for a happy after birthday day. I love you guys and will talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Geddes

Turning 20 W/year mark right behind

2010-05-20T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

First of all, I just wanted to tell you a little bit about how awesome my companion is. I never would have admitted it, but I was a little more tired than I thought when I got him as a companion. I still have a strong desire to do this work but I noticed I had forgotten some of the little things they teach us in the mtc. No matter how hungry we are or tired we are, my companion always wants to try to visit one more less active or talk to a couple more people on the streets. He is an awesome example to me and has helped me rekindle my fire. That being said, this was a hard week! A very good week but a very week. I don't know if it's the fact that I'm nearing my one year mark or what, but this past week, I had a few different times where I felt like I have done the same exact thing every day for the past year and I have a whole year to go. I think this is exactly why I was blessed to have a greenie as I hit my year mark. I'm not saying I'm discouraged or burnt out or anything, I'm just saying, missions are hard. Anyone who has ever served a mission could probably say that there were days on the mission that you just thought you couldn't take it anymore. You just have to keep going and almost always at the end of the day you look back and realize you had a pretty awesome day. We have had a bunch of lessons already this week, mostly with members but still, they have been some good lessons. I am going to focus my second year on becoming an excellent teacher. Right now I'm not sure how I would rate myself as a teacher, but I hope to become one of the best. There is a quote in Preach My Gospel, I can't remember who it is by, but it says something like the best teacher is someone who can take things that might be hard to understand and teach it in a way that a child could understand. That's what I want to do.

I realized today that I forgot to write about the 9th of May. It's a huge holiday in Russia to celebrate the day Russia fought off Germany I think. Anyway, they throw a huge parade and everyone celebrates like crazy. I wasn't too impressed with the parade though. We got there a little late and had bad spots to stand. The parade isn't like ours at home either. We all gathered around Lenin square in the center of town and watched soldiers march and tanks and stuff drive around a bit. It would have been cooler if I could have seen anything that was going on. I'll send some pictures of it. Finally towards the end we had worked our way to a spot where we could see a bit better. It was pretty cool, just not what I expected.

I am making a lot of progress with my Russian I feel like. It's really nice to have a companion that speaks perfect Russian and good enough English to help me out. I like to think that I speak as good of Russian as he speaks English, although he has been studying English for a lot longer than I have studied Russian so of course he knows probably more words than me but he still makes mistakes. The other day we were talking and he said something about his jelley button, I had just taught him the word for belly button not too long before that, ha, it was pretty funny. Speaking of the word belly button, in Russian, the word is пуп pronounced poop, haha. Anyway, I am really falling in love with the Russian language. It is so rich and deep. There are a million different ways to say pretty much everything and each different way has it's own special meaning that can add that much more to what you are trying to say. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it yet, but I am going to keep working on Russian forever so I can master it someday.

Zone conference got postponed until next week. Elder Manzhos or something like that, will be coming next week to Veronezh with President Woolley. I think he is from the area 70. It will be really cool. Then the week after that we will be going to Moscow to see Elder Perry speak. There will be a missionary meeting Saturday morning and something else on Sunday. I'm not sure exactly what will happen but the rumor is that we will be staying overnight in Moscow so we can go to the meeting on Sunday as well. That would be pretty cool.

Well nothing extremely exciting happened this week, just a lot of hard work. I really wonder if I'll get transfered this transfer or if I'll stay in Veronezh for another. Honestly, I'm ready for a change of scenery. I would be fine to stay here for maybe one more transfer but I would also be okay with a move. We'll probably find out in a couple weeks what's going to happen.

So Justin Bagshaw got home huh? Is he the first from that group? There is still Jayde Kowallis, Tony Brown, Rick Berg, I think a few others right? Has he changed at all, other than the eyebrows? What's Caleb doing these days? I can't believe Garett is getting married today! You need to call him sometime if you get the chance and tell him hello for me. That's cool that the whole family was able to be in the temple. Is Katie going to go on a mission or what?

My package is still unopened. I'll admit, there is a tear in the box and I saw a bag of macaroni that I feel like could be a hamburger helper. I also saw animal crackers and what appeared to be a rice crispy treat. I have been tempted to open it so many times but I'm almost there so I figure I can just wait it out. I couldn't help but peek into the tear though. The Lowry's found an opportunity for a service project so the morning of my birthday we will be chiseling out a concrete base of an old fence from who knows how long ago. It should be pretty fun. We got to do service yesterday for that same old guy. My blisters just went away and we got to do it all over again. I was smart enough to ask for a glove this time. Remember how I said we chop the wood? He has a head of an old ax that we just pound into the logs with a sledge hammer. It's pretty fun and I have gotten pretty deadly with a hammer. Well, I busted his ax head, oops. He was pretty unhappy but he had a few other wedges for us to use so we were able to get the work done.

That is pretty funny about the dog. I don't understand what goes through his mind sometimes. He has a little bit of an attitude problem probably. At least he only ate the credit cards and not the cash, right?

Anyway, I'm doing good and I'm glad you all are too. Thanks for the letters, I always love hearing how you are all doing. I'm working hard and trying my best to serve the people here. Next time I write home, I'll be 20 years old! Love you guys.

Love, Elder Geddes

Another Visa Trip (4 more, but who's counting)

2010-05-13T13:40:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Well, of course, not much has happened since we last talked. It was really nice to talk to you all, it's just crazy how fast that time went. It should hold me over for another 6 months though. I just got back this morning from Moscow. My visa trip was a lot of fun and everything worked perfectly. We didn't almost miss any flights or busses, although we cut it pretty close to missing our train home. We made it with about 5 minutes to spare though. It's always so much fun to get together with the other members of my mtc district. They are some of the greatest guys ever. They are all working hard and having a good time just like me. It was especially fun now that Elder Guynn and Anderson are in my zone, we rode the train to and back from moscow. When we got back from Ukraine, there was nothing for us to eat so President Woolley took me and a couple other elders to McDonalds to order us all some food. There were a million people in that place but we bravely stood in line and ordered 13 big tasties, 13 fries and 13 milkshakes. It was funny. After we ate, I had a good interview with president. He told me he was proud of the work we were doing and he was proud of me. I can really feel his love for us as missionaries. We will be having zone conference here in Veronezh on I think the 24th and President said I have the training portion of the conference. I have to prepare a 30 minute training on contacting. I'd better start early and not put it off for the night before so that we can all learn something from it.

It sounds like you guys have had some fun the past few days. Is it getting hot there? It was in the 80's in Moscow yesterday. It's getting pretty warm here. That is so cool that Brian got his mission call, tell him congratulations for me and that he'll be a good missionary. I just remembered that Garett is getting married next week, that is just crazy. It didn't look like they are having any kind of reception in Soda, but if you see him any time soon, tell him congratulations and that he better not be an old boring married guy by the time I get back or I'll be mad. What's Matt Hart up to these days? I haven't heard from him in a long time. Is there any other news about people I know? I know there are very few that chose to go on missions but what is everyone doing? Adam, Ethan? Does anybody know? Anyway, I know this is kind of a lame letter but not a whole lot has happened since we talked on the phone. I'm glad everyone is doing good. Have a good week and I'll talk to you next week. Love you.

Elder Geddes

Mothers Day wishes from Russia

2010-05-06T21:40:00.001-07:00

Happy Mothers Day Mom!

I won't be there to get you your flower after sacrament meeting this year but you should get one anyway and say it's from me. I love you and am so thankful for everything you do for me. I hope you have a great mothers day. Elder Khasbiullin and I sang a song for you but apparently I can't send it through an email, sorry, maybe I'll be able to send a picture instead. I can't wait to talk to you on Sunday! Love you.

Love, Elder Geddes

Busy Missionary

2010-05-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Sounds like things are going pretty good on your side of the world, things on this side are going okay as well. I am loving working with Elder Khasbiullin. He's a great elder and without a doubt will be one of the best in the mission. Hopefully when everyone sees how awesome he is they say, wow, he must have had a dang good trainer, ha. Just kiddin. He really is cool though. He wants to work hard and do a good job. I honestly don't have to do a whole lot as his trainer, it's pretty nice. As far as zone leader, it seems like everyone has at least one problem ever day. At 9:00 when we are planning, I get a call from every companionship in the zone pretty much and they all need me to answer some question or call the ap's to find something out or whatever so I never get to eat anymore at 9:30 like I usually did and I usually don't have a chance to even change out of my clothes until 10:30, but it has only been a week so maybe things will calm down this week. I actually really like being the one people turn to, it's pretty fun. I really like to talk to people so it's no big deal that they are always calling.

This week I have been showing Elder Khasbiullin around the city and we have been meeting with our investigators and less actives as usual. Last night we had a meeting with Dennis, that guy who we gave the loaf of bread to. We got to his apartment and he had a friend there with an open bottle of vodka on the table and an open pack of cigarrettes. Both men were drunk, the friend more so than Dennis. Dennis proceeded to tell us how we are just brainwashed little kids who someday need to grow up and figure things out. He is a mess and I'm afraid we can't help him. I especially don't want to keep going over there if he is going to be drinking. He won't allow us to get a word in anyways so I don't think we will continue to visit him. After the meeting, I told my companion that if I ever in life even think about leaving the church, all I will have to do is remember Dennis from Veronezh. His life is so sad, he is so miserable and has actually brainwashed himself into thinking that there is no God and that the church is just a system created by America in order to control the world. Dennis is the best example of being poisoned by degrees I have ever seen. Satan whispered in his ear and is carefully leading him away from God. His flaxen chords have become chains around the hands and feet, and most importantly, heart of this man. I am grateful for the chance I had to meet with Dennis as it has strengthened my testimony of so many different things. I know the church is the only path to happiness. Dennis knew that at one point in his life. Even though he is completely off the deep end right now, he still knows that the church is true and that it brings us happiness, he feels like he has gone to far from the church and can't get back so he has made up excuses and lies in order to justify himself. It's very interesting how God works. My testimony has been strengthened by a drunk man who tried to convince me that I am a worker in a business that we try to call a church.

Anyway, enough about that. After we met with him, we went over to Anatolie's house, the less active guy who Elder Cecil and I stole Cigarrettes from. We had such a nice meeting. Last time we were there, we left him with a list of verses to read from the book of mormon. He said he read through those verses probably ten times. We talked about repentance with him and by the end of the lesson, you could see a slight smile that he just couldn't seem to get rid of. His eyes were lighter and he had life in his voice. That is what the gospel is for. It gives us hope, even after we feel like we are hopeless. He eagerly asked us for another list of verses to study until our next meeting and promised to come to church this Sunday even though the meeting will be at 8 o'clock in the morning. It was a good ending to a strange day.

Okay, you can call me on Sunday. I think 8:30 a.m. would be the most convenient time for people right? Mom, I think I will try to give you a quick call when you wake up so we can figure out the best time. Once you read this email, talk to people to figure out if that time will work and how you will do it okay? Elder Tanner's parents called him today to make sure that works and it worked out, so hopefully it works for us as well. I will have a calling card just in case. I think that is all I have to say for this week, I'm really excited to talk to you all. Think of some good questions so we can use our time effectively okay? We are all going to go over to my apartment right now and make some borshe! I'm excited. I love you guys, thanks for everything. Talk to you soon!

Love, Elder Geddes

His first greenie has arrived

2010-04-29T07:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

We had quite the week this week, it went really, really fast. Elder Cecil and I just worked as usual and nothing too big happened until Tuesday when we were supposed to go to Moscow. Elder Cecil had a visa trip, I had to go get my companion, the sisters went to pick up their new companions so everyone left except for one poor elder who stayed with the senior couple for a couple nights. Anyway, Elder Khussainov bought the train tickets and said at 4:00 we needed to be at the station. We showed up at about 4:20 which we thought was plenty of time to catch our 4:30 train, the only problem was that Elder Cecil and I showed up to the wrong station. There are two here in Veronezh and we had a bit of a miscommunication (the first one in my whole 10 months of speaking Russian... not) Anyway, we called Khussainov and he made some quick calls. There happened to be a member of the church from Lipitsk, the neighboring city, in Veronezh. The trains leave from Veronezh and end up going through a small station near Lipitsk. The plan was that she could beat the train to that station and we could catch on there. Well, we didn't make it. To make a long story short, we ended up having to buy overnight bus tickets from Lipitsk to Moscow so Elder Cecil could make it on time for his visa trip. At first I was a little annoyed about what had happened but by the end of the day I was pretty pleased about it. First of all, I got to know this member lady from Lipitsk who is actually really cool. She served a mission a few years ago and is just a good lady. Then when we were getting into the town, she got a call from a young girl in the ward who wanted her to come talk to her mom. The girl has been a member for almost 2 years and her mom has been pretty against the church this whole time. She is just now starting to open up a bit to the church. Yulia, the lady we were with, said that she could come talk to the mom and that she would bring two elders with her. When we got there, we were able to just get to know the mom a bit while Yulia talked with the younger girl. Her mom is a pretty nice lady, asked us lots of questions about where we were from and our families and stuff and why we were on missions. Then we got to sing a couple songs and Yulia kind of took over from there and did an awesome job solving a lot of this ladies concerns. At the end, Elder Cecil and I just bore testimony and were able to share our reasons for being on missions. As we were leaving, the mom told me that she feels a lot better now that she knows the people her daughter spends so much time with are actually pretty good people. I am not sure if we helped at all, but the spirit was strong as Elder Cecil and I bore simple testimony about the truthfulness of the gospel. It was pretty cool. I would even say it made the overnight bus ride worth it.

Our bus left at 9:30 and got to Moscow at around 6. I thought at first that the bus might just be better than the train just a bit, but I was so wrong. First of all, one of the first passengers that got on the bus after us was pretty drunk. He went to the very back of the bus and just started moaning and groaning. A lady behind me asked if the driver could kick him off before it was too late. The driver went back to talk to the guy and by the time he got back there the guy had already passed out. They all agreed that it was probably just best to let him sleep, so off we went. I was able to sleep pretty good the first half of the night, but then I woke up around 2 and couldn't sleep hardly at all the rest of the night. At one point, the guy from the back walked up the aisle past me to talk to the driver. He smelled like pure throw up. As he started walking back, sure enough he stops at my seat to talk to me and ask for some help. He was having a hard time getting the buttons on his cell phone to work so he handed me the phone and asked me to do it. His first mistake was that the phone was upside down, so he was trying to punch the number in on the back of his phone, ha. Anyway, I felt pretty good about myself for helping a drunk man covered in his own throw up make a phone call at three in the morning on a bus somewhere in the middle of Russia... only on a mission does this stuff happen.

We finally made it to Moscow and met up with all the others at the train station. We got to the branch building and just waited around for a couple hours for our new companions to get there. I finally saw my companion come in and realized he is about a foot taller than me. I also realized he speaks very good english. His name took me a few minutes to figure out. His name is Elder Khasbiullin... I'm still working on it. Anyway, he is by far the coolest Russian elder in our mission. He is so nice and he is exactly how I wanted him to be, excited and ready to be obedient. I thought about myself as a greenie and how excited I was to see basic street signs just because they were in Russian and how I wasn't affraid to tell my trainer "that's not what the white handbook says" and I thought, it would be easy to be even more obedient if my companion wants to stick to all the rules, even the small ones. Today, my companion asked me if I was going to wear my suit coat and I said, no but you can if you want. He said, ya but they told us in the MTC that we should always look alike. I chuckled a bit and figured I had at one point said the same exact words, only in english. He is 23 years old and has been a member since he was 8. He played college basketball and some professional as well. He is very excited that we have a basketball court here in Veronezh and president wants us to somehow figure out a way to use his basketball skills to find people to teach the gospel to. I'm up for anything. He is a very happy guy and has already helped me a lot with some words. Also, he knows that we as American missionaries need to speak as much Russian as possible so he doesn't try to speak to me in English just because he knows it. He wants to speak to us in Russian to help us. So far, I'm liking this a lot.

We had a really long training/orientation meeting there in Moscow with all the new elders and sisters. It was pretty good but I was so tired from the night before on the bus and I was also really hungry since we hadn't eaten hardly anything. We got fed pizza hut and then had a choice to either go contacting or go to a famous art museum. Of course everyone picked the art museum, even though it meant we would have to take part of our p-day today to work. The museum was pretty cool, once again, really long but I enjoyed it. There were some pretty awesome paintings. There were a lot of paintings of Christ. There was one painting of Judas after he had betrayed Christ that I thought was really cool. It was painted with mostly all dark colors and you could see Judas standing and looking at a mob of people in the distance. You could just feel his guilt and a realization of What have I done. It was pretty cool. After that, we just gathered our stuff and headed back to the train station to get on another train. I will be going back to Moscow in two weeks for a visa trip, then two weeks after that I will be going back because Elder Perry will be coming to our mission to speak to us. I'm excited.

I got the package, but I didn't open it. I was really tempted to because I was really hungry and everyone was telling me to just open it, but I stayed strong. It will be all the sweeter on my birthday. I still haven't heard anything about calling home but I will let you know as soon as I hear anything. It still doesn't seem like it was that long ago we called home for Christmas. Our apartment is really nice now that we have our furniture. We have had some issues with leaks and stuff that are still bothering us but today we finally got a mirror in our bathroom so I guess just one step at a time.

Our converts are doing okay I guess. Inna has a hard time getting to church sometimes, she works a lot. The bad thing is that she doesn't really see it as a big problem to miss church. Sergey is doing as good as possible, as long as his mom is around. She makes sure he gets to church and stuff. We had a lesson with him where we went over the plan of salvation. It was the first time we've gone over it since his baptism. I just asked him what he remembers about it and he proceeded to draw on the chalk board a very detailed plan of salvation. There were just a couple things he didn't remember but I was very happy.

That sounds like it was a crazy wind storm, hopefully nobody had too much damage done. I'm sure all the school kids weren't too disappointed about it. I have been wondering about the other missionaries from our stake. How many do we have out right now? I can't believe it's about time for a few of those guys to come home.

Well, thanks for all the letters and support. We kind of have a busy day so I'm in a bit of a hurry. We have to go buy some serious groceries and get my companion settled in a bit. Plus, we have to use part of our day for missionary work because of the museum. I love you guys and hope all is going well for you. I'll talk to you next week and hopefully I'll know when we get to call home. Love you!

Elder Geddes