Stear clear of drunk Russians

I read this e-mail at 1:45 this morning and as you can imagine, once you read it, I didn't sleep much the rest of the night. Jess has only been there less than a month and he has been sick twice and accosted by drunk Russians. I hope I make it through the next 20 1/2 months. The Lord will protect them, I know, but this is a little scary. I need to strengthen my faith so I am going to the Temple today in hopes of doing that. I am also going to put his name in the Temple so he can get over the stuff that he is battling with his health. I will trust in the Lord and turn this over to Him since I can't do anything about any of it myself.

September 10th e-mail from Russia
I'm glad everyone seems to be doing great at home. I loved all the pictures I got and I can't wait to get a picture of those babies that isn't an ultrasound, I'm sure they will be some pretty cute little girls. Well first before I forget, if you do send me stuff, I would want nothing but American medicine! Cold medicine, sore throat stuff, all that stuff is junk here in Russia. They think they can just put everything in a weird tablet form that doesn't work. Don't worry about stuff like peanut butter, I know that used to be a popular thing to send but Sister Woolley gives us each a jar of peanut butter at every mission conference. When are you coming to Russia again? I hope you like it here, it will be a bit strange at first. You'll notice everbody smokes and there's litter everywhere but it is really a pretty cool place. This is a little about my last week. Sunday morning I started getting a headache and diarrhea. I felt miserable all day Sunday but I just thought it was because we were fasting. I thought I could just sleep it off that night so wasn't worried. The next morning, Elder Hiatt and I got to go to a city called Kaluga. It is one of the three cities in our zone and since Elder Hiatt is the zone leader, we get to go on splits every once in a while. The bus ride was about 2 hours long and I tried to sleep as much as I could because I still felt really crappy. The bus was super hot and bouncy. That's another thing you will notice in Russia, the roads are so horrible here! We got to Kaluga and Elder Player and I got to spend the rest of the day together tracting and contacting. It was really fun, even though we don't speak well, we are still able to get our message across to people. We knocked on this one door and the second the guy opened the door he told us to come in and he ran back into his kitchen. I said I smell apples, and he said ya apples, and brought us each a nasty rotten apple. Russians pick up apples off the ground instead of off the tree so they are usually pretty questionable. He had us go into his living room and sit down. He asked what we want and we told him we just want to talk about our church. He wasn't interested in that but he could tell we weren't from around here. When he found out we were from America, he got real excited and started asking us about all these different movies but we couldn't really understand so he dug out all his movies. He spent about 5 minutes trying to put a dvd in for us to watch. We were trying to tell him we don't have time to watch movies and that we should go but he wouldn't hear any of it. Finally he gets the movie going and it turns out to be Fly Boys. Don't ask me why he thought it was so important that we see that movie. He kept trying to make us eat the apples which we didn't. Finally we got our point across that we needed to go and so we said goodbye and left. As we were walking out of the building, we both tossed our apples into the bushes and then we hear this guy say something. He had been leaning out his window waiting for us to leave the building. Luckily he didn't notice that we threw the apples but he just wanted to tell us a few more things. Most Russians really just love to talk. Even when they know you don't understand a word they are saying, they just love to talk. We had a ward activity that night which was held in their apartment since they don't have enough members there to have a branch building. It was lucky that it was in their apartment because I was just feeling awful. I ended up going to bed at around 9:30. I had to get up 3 times to go to the bathroom though so the next morning, the other elders had me call Sister Woolley and see what I should do. She told me to call Sister Corbett and told me she's a nurse. What I didn't know was that she is also just a regular sister missionary! I thought she must just be here on a mission with her husband or something. So I called her, told her in great detail what had been going on and she told me to just call her back the next day if things hadn't slowed down at all. We hung up and I said, she sounds pretty young. The other elders told me that she was just a normal sister missionary who happens to be a full fleged RN, they thought that was pretty funny. Hopefully I never see her. We ate lunch in Kaluga and caught a bus home. I was feeling okay because one elder gave me some immodium that seemed to be working. The rest of the week was pretty tough. We kept trying to meet with people and they wouldn't show up but finally we got a hold of a guy who used to meet with the elders but stopped for some reason. When we met with him, he seemed very interested and had lots of questions. When we asked when we could meet with him again he said how about tomorrow? This was yesterday so we have another meeting with him tonight. His name is Ivan and he is really cool. I can't wait to meet with him again. So this is where my day got interesting. We had English Club last night. I teach the advanced group and Elder Hiatt teaches the middle group. Only one guy showed up in my group so it was just me and him. I had him try to teach me some russian. His name is Nick and he is probably just a bit older than me. He's pretty strange but he's a nice guy. He always walks with us most of the way home after English Club. Well after we got sick of trying to speak Russian, we started just talking about stuff in English. Elder Hiatt told me that Nick was gay about a week ago or so, so when Nick asked me what my opinion on proposition 8 was, I knew I was in for a weird time. The rest of the conversation was pretty awkward and not fun. Needless to say, I was happy when time was up. Well I thought my night couldn't get any weirder but it did. We were walking home and we were about a block from our apartment and it was pretty dark outside. These three drunk guys and a drunk girl started yelling for us to come talk to them but we didn't want anything to do with them so we just kept walking. All of the sudden one guy ran and grabbed Elder Hiatt by the arm and stopped him. They said they wanted to know what we were doing here and where we were from. We said we we were here to preach the gospel so he started saying, okay then preach to me! It was obvious that they weren't interested in what we had to say so we were just trying to tell them that we have to go home. They didn't want us to leave so one grabbed my backpack strap. He said they wanted to talk to us over in this dark spot with all these trees. We definitely weren't going over there but he had a pretty good hold on my bag. He started pulling me over there and Elder Hiatt was trying to help. He turned to two old ladies and said call the cops. By this point, another guy had come up and started shoving me around while his friend was trying to pull me to the trees. When Elder Hiatt said call the cops, they got mad and started shoving me even more saying, why do you want the police? The one guy kept shoving my head and trying to shove me to the ground. I said a little prayer and knew I would be fine. All of the sudden, two older Russian guys came and started telling the younger ones to leave us alone and let us go. They didn't want to at first but finally they did. We started walking away and Elder Hiatt said let's run! So we ran the rest of the way home. It was a pretty crazy experience but we sure felt blessed to have gotten away without even a scratch. It could have turned ugly fast but I know the Lord watches out for his missionaries. Don't worry mom, Elder Hiatt said that was the first time that has ever happened to him so it's not like it is a common thing. He said I shouldn't even tell you because when he told his mom something that happened to him, she freaked out and called the mission office! haha, So please don't do that. We really are watched over and protected. Anyway, that was pretty much my week. That was so cool about Shauna's nephew. Our apartment is on the same street as his but we're sure it's not the same one. The weather has been actually pretty warm lately. I've been sweating like crazy, partly because I think I had a fever for a while but Elder Hiatt gave me a blessing today so I am on my way to a full recovery. I love you guys and am praying for you as well. Thanks for everything!
Elder Geddes

Hello from Russia

Hey everyone, I was happy to get all your emails, it sounds like things are going great there. Meg, your kids crack me up, they are pretty cool. Hopefully Liz and Dallin and Alex made it safely to Iowa and you are all having a fun time. You can send me pictures on my email if you want, I even can send pictures as well but I don't have my cord. I will probably try to find one here rather than have you send it to me so I can send some pictures soon.

So starting with the rest of my p-day last week, this is what has been going on. After we finished writing we went to a store to try to find some ties. Dad, make sure that when you get here you find a place that sells ties. They have some awesome awesome ties here for really cheap. They are a bit thicker and wider than the ones we are used to but I love them. Anyway, we found a place after searching for a long time and got some ties. This place wasn't as cheap as we would have liked so I only got two. It ended up costing about 14 american dollars which is still really good because these are some seriously nice ties. I hope to come home with enough ties that I never have to wear an American one again. Anyway, after that, we took a look inside a Russian Orthodox Temple. They are everywhere and they are the buildings people think of when they think of Russia. They are really beautiful buildings with some awesome architecture. The inside is a bit odd and creepy but still very beautiful. Every inch of the inside is covered in murals and paintings and pictures. The Orthodox people believe they aren't worthy to speak with God so they speak through an icon. There is a picture of every priest they can pray through and we saw a woman do it. She crossed herself said a prayer and kissed the picture a few times. The idea is that you pray to the patron saint of a certain virtue. That saint will then count on the good side for you when you die. When you die they believe a big scale is brought out. On one side is all the sins they committed against these certain virtues. On the other side is all the good things you did for these virtues along with the saints help that you prayed for. If the good side outweighs the bad side you are allowed into heaven. Aren't you glad we know what we do? The Atonement is pretty amazing and I just wish that these people understood. Also, I am so glad we know we not only can, but we should speak with our Heavenly Father regularly. After we got done looking at the temple, we went and got some lunch at a grocery store. It ended up taking so long!! We waited in line forever because this is how they do it here. You order your food, they take it out of the display case and put it in the microwave. There is one microwave, ha, it was ridiculous but the food was really good. Then we just got some groceries and headed home and relaxed for a while. When we got dressed and headed out to work for the rest of the night, we had a mini miracle happen to us that had a strange ending. We were walking through a busy street corner when for some reason I turned my head and looked behind us. There was a man trying to wave us over to him but it was too loud so we couldn't hear him. He wanted to know what our badges meant and what we were doing here. He was really interested and asked if we could come teach him tomorrow sometime. We got his number and said goodbye. What an awesome feeling we had after that. We knew neither one of us heard him and that we could have just kept walking and never known the difference. I was so excited until that night when we tried to call him. For some reason his phone number didn't work. I was really disappointed but I am still making Elder Hiatt try calling him every night. So far, no luck. I'm wondering why the Lord let us find him and now we can't get a hold of him. There are too many people here and it is unlikely that we will ever see him again. His name was Pavle or Paul I guess but he seemed perfect and I would have loved to help him learn more. The next day, Elder Hiatt and the sisters and I had an opportunity to go do some service at a less active womans dacha. A dacha is like a small farm. It is where people here go in the summer to try and grow enough food for the winter. She had Elder Hiatt and me sawing a log that I swear had to be a few hundred years old into smaller pieces for firewood. She gave us two little rusty handsaws and we got to work. It was like trying to saw a rock with a butter knife! It took forever for us to cut one piece and we were both sweating like crazy. We didn't even get half the log cut up by the time we had to leave. She was grateful for the help though and she even came to church the next sunday! We did find a guy to teach though. His name is Justin. He is from Camaroon Africa and he is here going to school. His native language is French and while he is better than me at Russian, he still didn't understand a lot of stuff but he is really nice and we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon in French. We will hopefully meet with him again soon but he said he is really busy with school. He said he will find time though and that when he says he'll do something he does it so I am excited. Elder Hiatt says one thing he has learned is that if you see a brother, talk to him. They are all really nice and friendly. Other than that, the rest of the week was filled with a lot of contacting and tracting.

Both of us got pretty sick sometime last week and while I was getting over it, Elder Hiatt was getting worse. I had the worst sore throat and cough I've ever had because we couldn't just sleep it off like I would have at home. I didn't really complain much and kept working. Once elder Hiatt got it though we went to the pharmacist and got some sore throat medicine. It was really funny because we had no idea what to get so we just got something that pointed to the throat. Turns out they were big tablets. We had barely gotten them open when Elder Hiatt tells me they aren't easy to swallow. I asked him why he swallowed it because it doesn't make much sense that a tablet you swallow would help a sore throat. He said, ya you're probly right. Try sucking on it, it had some flavor. So I sucked on one and it seemed like that was the way they were supposed to work, but they didn't work too good. I just thought it was the funniest thing that he just went ahead and swallowed it, he must have been pretty desperate. By Sunday morning, Elder Hiatt was feeling sick enough to call Sister Woolley. She told him to go get this one antibiotic and take it easy for a while. We went to church where he had to speak and teach Sunday school. He gave his talk then we just put on a movie for Sunday school. After church we did the financial stuff. I don't really have to do a whole lot. I have to tell the branch president some numbers and sign some papers where he tells me to then write a little thing. It's not too hard so I should be fine. Once we were done with that we went home and ate some sandwiches and Elder Hiatt went to bed. He slept for almost 4 hours. I studied and cleaned up the apartment a bit. When he woke up, we had about an hour left until 9 so we decided to just finish the day by really cleaning the apartment. I felt a little bad that we didn't really do anything but it seemed to help, Elder Hiatt is feeling better so hopefully we never have to do that again.

On Monday, we got to travel to Rezon to go on splits with the elders there since Elder Hiatt is the zone leader. It is about a 4 hour bus ride and I'll tell you one thing, the roads here are terrible. I slept some of the way there but the bus was so hot. We got there and took our stuff to the apartment. Their apartment is so nice! They are the first people to ever live in it and it is huge. Elder Hiatt went with Elder Gillis and I got to work with Elder Guynn again. It's interesting to see all the things we have learned in just these short weeks since we were companions. They gave us a cell phone and trusted us to get some work done and not get lost. We even had a lesson with a member set up. I was amazed at how well we were able to communicate with the people. Even though we weren't able to understand a lot, or say too much, we were able to get our message across to a lot of people. We even got chased out of a stairwell by an angry old babushka. That night, I slept on the hard wood floor and Elder Hiatt slept on the couch bed. He woke me up at about midnight or so and had me and Elder Gillis give him a blessing. He had been coughing the whole night I guess and just couldn't sleep. I have become a very deep sleeper lately. I'm not sure if it is because I got used to Elder Guynn snoring at the MTC or if I'm just wiped out by the end of the night. It takes me about 5-8 seconds to fall asleep and I usually don't wake up at all until morning, even when I am on a hardwood floor. Anyway, I annointed and Elder Gillis blessed him. He coughed maybe one more time that night and was able to sleep the rest of the night. The priesthood is an amazing power. The next morning we had a district meeting, lunch and then another 4 hour bus ride back to Tula. I slept even more on this bus even though it was even hotter. Yesterday we had another opportunity for service that ended up being a lot more than we knew we were going to do. We were going to do some farm work at a lady in the branch's farm. This sister hasn't come to church in a few months because she was an endowed member but she got pregnant and had a baby. She wasn't excommunicated or anything as far as I know but I think she feels really ashamed and embarrassed maybe. It's pretty sad because she is a really nice lady. I guess her family doesn't even know she is a member of the church so for some reason we had to take our badges off. Anyway, we did the service with her sister I think, who was pretty crazy. She didn't want to call us elder and sister so she asked for our first names. It was weird having her call me Jess all day, it's been a while since that has happened. It was about a 45 minute bus ride to the farm. It's not exactly pretty here in the city of Tula, it's really actually pretty dirty but out in the country it is really beautiful. It's really really green and there are farms and stuff. So we got to the house and her sister leads us to this big blue volkswagon bus. It had no seats in the back but we all hopped back there and went for a ride a lot like the Indiana Jones ride from Disneyland. This lady was driving this manual bus like a champ through mud and bumps all over the farm. We were going to pick potatoes for the service. I would say we picked a row of potatoes a mile long since we did one and a half rows. We probably easily picked over a thousand pounds of potatoes and filled that bus up pretty well. I was so tired and dirty by the end. This lady was a bit crazy but really nice. She kept getting mad at Elder Hiatt and me because we were either putting too small of potatoes in the big bucket or putting too big of potatoes in the small bucket, or we were picking ones that were a bit rotten or a bit unripe. All in all it was pretty fun and she fed us lunch after. She had mashed potatoes and hot dogs. They were so good, along with the black bread and tomatoes. Make sure you try some fresh black bread when you come here, I quite enjoy it! Then the woman who had the baby brought out this big jar of some nasty nasty looking stuff. I thought it was some sort of pickled something. She poured us each a glass of the juice inside and I took a drink. It tasted really good and sweet and I thought I recognized the taste. Turns out it was plum! They were bottled plums and the juice was really good. After that we went home and worked for just a couple more hours since the service took way longer than expected.

One thing I like is English Club. I had to teach it by myself last Saturday for some reason and it was fun. I taught the advanced group so pretty much you just lead a conversation. I decided to talk about the first day of school and the differences between here and home. We still had some time left over and I made the mistake of asking about the last day of school. I was trying to get at the point how I felt when I finished school, how I felt nervous but excited and a little sad to see all my friends going different ways. They all just talked about how they couldn't really remember too much because there is so much alcohol. Note to self, never ask Russians how they celebrate big things.

A little about my companion. He is from Riverton Utah. He goes home in December and he had been in Tula for about 5 weeks before I got here. He and I have a very similar sense of humor and he is always making me laugh. He is a hard worker and he has taught me a lot of stuff. Also, he cooks some really good stuff. I have gotten in the habit of doing the dishes right after dinner. Our sink is really small and can't afford to hold too many dishes for too long. We usually listen to some motab or some talks by Truman G. Madsen on Joseph Smith. We have a twelve part series he did and it is awesome. We've already listened to it once and we started it over yesterday. By the way, if you want a good cd, buy the Mormon Tabernacle Choire "Come Thou Fount" cd. I think it is their newest one and it is really good. Today we are going to visit the Kremlin here in Tula. Also we are going to visit the weapons museum here. I have decided I am pretty interested in old communist stuff. Elder Hiatt has some old pins and coins from the soviet union and a member in our branch is going to give us both a one ruble coin from the soviet days. It's crazy to see the influence those days had and still have on a lot of people. The other day, we were knocking on doors and an old babushka just couldn't figure out why we were there. She said, First this country teaches us there is no God, now God is preached freely. Also I found out they didn't even know about Christmas here until about 10 or 15 years ago. A lady was telling us about how it's not really that cool of a holiday here because not everyone really even knows about it. Interesting stuff.

Well, that's about what my week was like. I am still having a ton of fun here. Tonight, Elder Guynn and Elder Player will be coming to Tula and staying the night. Both of their companions have a visa trip tomorrow along with one of the sisters here in Tula. Tomorrow we will have to wake up at about 4 to go meet the sisters at the bus stop and take back sister Lavrenteva to our place. There will be 5 of us tomorrow which will be really interesting. We will probably split up. Hopefully I know my way around good enough to not get us too lost. But I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well and having fun there. Mom and Dad, you probably don't need to be waking up and staying up all night reading this email haha, just sleep and read it in the morning. I could tell Dad was pretty sleepy by the end of his email. I love all of you!

Elder Geddes

One Week Down

Here is Jess's first letter from Russia. It's a bit late so you are getting his second letter also today. As you will see as you read, he is a pretty excited young missionary. His e-mail comes in at around 2:00 in the morning and somehow I am able to hear it and wake immediatly so I can read it first thing. As you can see, he has a very excited mother also. We love his letters and hope you will enjoy them with us.

Hey everyone, How is everthing going in America? I can say that now because I am in Russia! It sounds like everything is going really well, I'm glad Britney made it back from her trip okay. I can't believe that about Caleb and Struan. That is really too bad. Oh and don't worry about my license, I found it, plus I found out it is pretty much useless anyway but I was glad to find it. I can't believe Mikelle is in school! That's pretty exciting. I guess I can receive emails from you all I just can't send them to whoever I want, so feel free to email me and I when I email you I will just have to do it through mom's account. We have to go to an internet cafe and we just pay for how much time we want. We got an hour and a half so it should be plenty for this week. Okay, so my first week in Russia. What an awesome week! After I got done talking to mom, we had interviews with President Woolley. He told us a little about our areas and companions and expressed his love for us. He really does love us already. In my interview he told me Elder Hiatt is the first counselor in the branch presidency as well as a zone leader. He asked me to be the branch clerk in our small branch here in Tula. Elder Hiatt says that we keep the branch afloat because right now there are only 3 worthy melchezidek priesthood holders and two of them are us, but I'll tell you about the branch later. After the interviews we got to go to the ap's apartment. It was so nice! They had tons of food, they had real milk but it still tasted a bit weird, and they even had a bedet if that's how you spell it. I didn't get a chance to use it though, I was just too tired. My whole district, plus two other elders who were going home in a few days, slept in the living room on these IKEA mattresses they had. I didn't sleep too great, even though I was completely exhausted. I had the misfortune of getting a bed in between Elder Guynn and Elder Grossman who both snore like crazy. I woke up at about 5:50 and knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep so I just layed there until 6:30 when I could get up. I ate a bowl of cereal called little pillows in english. They were way to sweet but I have figured out a good way to eat them thanks to the other elders. You add corn flakes and granola! It is so good. Granola here is awesome. Anyway, we all got up and got ready, it took a while for all 11 of us to shower and what not. Actually 12 because another elder showed up at about midnight for some reason, I never figured out because he didn't speak the best english. We were picked up by President Woolley and his driver Sasha. Sasha drives like a champ but it is really scary, I'm really glad we aren't allowed to drive. One of the ap's forgot something important at the apartment so he and the president took the presidents car and drove back and Sasha took the rest of us to Red Square. Sasha doesn't speak English but he is really nice. All of us were so excited when we got to see St. Basil's Cathedral. We took a bunch of pictures and everything but right as we got there, Elder Anderson found out his camera battery was dead so he didn't get any photos of Red Square haha, I felt bad but it was kinda funny. Another cool thing we got to see was similar to the changing of the guard and Arlington Cemetary. They have the same kind of monument there and have a similar ceremony when the guard changes, only with a bit more Russian flare. I got it on video. While we were watching that, Sasha was saving our spot in line to see Lenin! I never knew this but they preserved his body and have it on display. We walked in, without Sasha because he was holding our cameras and stuff since we aren't allowed to take them in, and we walked down some stairs into a really dark room. There were Russian guards about every 15 feet. Lenin was in the middle of the room in a glass case looking about as freaky as ever. We walked around and stopped to look and right as we stopped, a guard started yelling something to us in Russian so we assumed we weren't allowed to stop and we got out of there. We also saw the Kremlin, that was cool too. After that we were driven to the central office in Moscow where we would meet our new companions. I met Elder Hiatt, said goodbye to my district, grabbed my bags and left. We walked quite a ways to get to the metro. The metro was beautiful, it had high ceilings with mosaics and murals and everything. We took a short metro to the train station and waited for a train for a little while. While we were waiting Elder Hiatt bought me a yogurt drink and some chocolate and we talked to a woman at the store about our church. The train was finally there and I was really excited because I had never been on a train. One of the first things that happened was I got yelled at for having my suitcase on the bed above me instead of in the bin below me because it was too big to fit in there. She made us put it on this shelf clear at the top of the train and this bag was heavy! Other than that, the train really wasn't as cool as I thought it would be. It was so slow and the seats weren't very comfortable. I knew I should be studying or something but I was so tired, I couldn't stay awake. I slept almost all of the 3 hour ride. I was awake for part of it and finally got a chance to talk to Elder Hiatt a little bit. We only spoke Russian, since there were two Russian guys sitting accross from us and Elder Hiatt was really impressed with how much I was understaning and able to say. When we got near the stop, we grabbed my bags and stood in the doorway. I farted silently and when Elder Hiatt smelled it he said "Ah, Tula!" He explained how there was some sort of sewage plant thing right as you come in to Tula. I still haven't told him it was me, I probly will today. We walked what seemed forever to get to our apartment. Elder Hiatt bought me a Russian pastry that Tula is famous for making. It was pretty good, I had another one yesterday. We got to our apartment and I was a little nervous. One thing I have already realized is that here in Russia, no matter how nice the apartment is, the entry and stairwell is really sketchy. We open this big steel door and walk into a dark entry way and head for the elevator. The elevator is tiny and reeks of urine. It has graffiti on the walls that amazingly enough was washed off the other day. The graffiti is sometimes funny because Russians try to write things in English and if there is one thing they don't understand about the English language it is words like the, and is. Our elevator said "Linkin Park the best" Elder Hiatt said he saw one that said "Rap cool" Kinda funny. Anyway, our apartment is pretty nice. It's pretty small but I like it. We have a small kitchen, a small room with a toilet, a small room with a shower and a washing machine, a living room with a piano, which happens to be my desk until further notice, and a bedroom. It's pretty nice. All I have eaten since I have been here is stuff Elder Hiatt makes me. He is a good cook and we have eaten well. We eat lots of vegetables and lots of taco stuff or chicken on rice or in barley. It's all been really good. We taught a lesson to an awesome member of the branch and she fed us these delicious pastry things and a cup of berry flavored tea. Elder Hiatt is awesome. He has already taught me a lot and he makes me laugh so hard my stomach hurts. One of the greatest things he has taught me so far is that somedays we will be disappointed in the results we have, but we should never be disappointed in ourselves or in our efforts. It's true too. We walk I don't know how many miles a day and knock on tons of doors and sometimes people don't want to talk to us, sometimes they talk to us but don't want to learn more, sometimes they give us their info and we never get a hold of them or they say nevermind. We have found some awesome people who I think would really enjoy the message but we haven't been able to get back in contact with them. We have some investigators already, one that is really promising. I haven't met him because he has been in Paris. We are hoping he got married to his girlfriend in Paris. If so, we should be able to help him get baptised. This is what we do, we set up meetings with people at night, if they don't follow through or if we can't get anything set up, we go knock on doors or talk to people on the street. We don't have a ton of strong members to help us find so a lot of it is up to us. We go get into an apartment building and go all the way to the top and work our way down. It's pretty funny because most people when you knock on the door just yell "KTO TOM!" Who's there! We explain that we are doing a small survey about families and that we would like to talk to them. I can do it already. I can tell them who we are, why we are there and give the survey. At the end I ask them if they think it's possible to live after this life. That's usually where I hand it over to Elder Hiatt. It's pretty cool, I'm not sure why, but I am not one bit afraid to talk to anybody. Probably because I have Elder Hiatt to help me out but I have talked to a few people all by my self and had a small conversation with them. The sister missionaries we share Tula with just love me for some reason. One of them is a native who was actually in the mtc with me for a while. She tells me every time we do anything with them how great she thinks I'm doing. She says I speak almost without an accent and that she can't believe that even though I don't really know the language too well I will go up to anyone on the street and start talking to them. I love to hear that and even though I have SOOO far to go, it really helps build my confidence. Church was an interesting experience. I had to give a five minute talk, basically just bear my testimony and I shared a verse from the book of mormon. When I stood up, I could see everyone's face looking like "this oughta be good" After the meeting, lots of the members came and told me good job and that I'm already speaking well. Once again, I know I have an incredible amount to learn but that is always good to hear. After church, me and Elder Hiatt had to meet with our branch president. He is awesome. He is 25 and he's a returned missionary. He is a great force in the branch. I had to be trained on the finances, it isn't too hard but I felt bad because President Alfonin had to wait for me to try to understand and also to write in Russian. I'll get good at it though. I have a pretty tough time understanding. Some people are better than others but for the most part I am just trying to pick out words here and there. If they say short phrases I can usually figure it out but when they go off forever I completely lose it. Russians love to talk a lot so I am usually pretty lost. It will come though. A lot happened this week, this email is huge and I probably left out a ton. Some of the more interesting things that happened: My first morning, as we left the apartment, we saw a guy carrying a full grown man over his shoulders because he was too drunk to walk. I see a lot of people stagger from alcohol, it's pretty sad. It's such a so called tradition to drink here, if you are a guy that doesn't drink, people think you must be an alcoholic and you just can't handle alcohol. Another funny thing that has actually happened twice now, an angry old babushka tried to make us leave the stairway we were in. The first one was the worst. She was just screaming and waving her newspaper. Elder Hiatt explained we were here by the law and we didn't have to leave but she insisted. I didn't understand anything she said except for leave fast. Elder Hiatt said she was using some pretty foul language though. The next one that did that to us was pretty calm about it. She just kept saying, leave quickly, leave quickly, I'll call the cops haha. We aren't too scared of them. We hold English club every Saturday night. We are trying to get it going on Wednesday's too but nobody came last night. Elder Hiatt and I teach the advanced group where we simply hold a conversation with them. It was a lot of fun and it was a relief to understand what people are saying. Hmm, I'm sure there are other things I have forgotten but this is a really long email. Oh, the weather has been rainy and pretty chilly lately. We have been wearing just sweaters. One of the sweaters I brought is way too big so I have only been wearing one. Maybe that could be a good gift. As for music, we are allowed to listen to any motab, and any variation of the hymns. we have a cd player in our apartment and some pretty good music. Sorry this is so long, I hope you don't get too bored, they probably won't be this long every week, it's just this was a pretty big week for me. Everything is going great, I am loving the work. It's really hard and I am just tired every day but I just love it here. I'm glad it sound's like everything is going well at home. I'll talk to you next week. I love you all!
From Russia with Love,
Elder Jess W Geddes

Reassurance From Russia

We just recieved an e-mail from President Wooley telling us that Jess made it and a little about his first couple days. Can I just tell you how much that means to a missionary mom, hearing that their son made it all the way across the ocean safe and sound. He also sent a picture from the airport which was so fun to see. As you can see, Jess is all smiles, even after more than twenty hours of travel time. Now the mission begins!

Dear Brother and Sister Geddes,

We want you to know that your son arrived safely here in Moscow. His first day he had some orientation, a meal at our home, and an interview with me. His second day he had a chance to visit Red Square and then met his new companion Elder Hiatt. He and Elder Hiatt then traveled to Tula, where they will be teaching and serving the Russian people. We are most thrilled to have your son with us. He is with an excellent Missionary who will help your son become a confident and effective missionary.

Yours Sincerely,


President Kenneth M. Woolley
Russia Moscow West Mission

Seven new strippling warriors just entered Russia

Jess and six other missionaries reached Russia yesterday for the Moscow Russia West Mission. We received a call around 1:15 yesterday and it was music to my ears. Jess called from the Atlanta Georgia airport and we had a short but very sweet talk. We were able to conference in Rob, Liz and Megan so he could talk to all at the same time. We felt bad that Emily couldn't talk, she had to see some clients and he ended up calling an hour earlier than planned so it didn't work out. It was so fun to hear the excitement in his voice along with some nervousness. He spoke Russian to us just before he hung up and it was so fun to see his growth over the past 2 1/2 months. I thought we were going to get two hours but ended up with less than one. I won't complain though, it was so fun just to hear his voice. This morning I got a wonderful surprise when he called my cell phone from Russia to tell me that he made it and everything was great. I can't tell you how wonderful that made me feel. I had been a little stressed last night and I was so thrilled to hear his voice again. He was so excited that I couldn't even be sad. He went with the AP while they were waiting for the rest of the missionaries to get their second passport and did some street tracting. He said the second person he talked to wasn't going to stop until he saw their badges. Turnes out that he had been contacted by the missionaries a while ago and then lost contact. He wanted to have them come see him again. They got his name and number to give to the missionaries there so they could go see him. Jess was so excited he couldn't even stand it. He said "this is going to be the best mission ever, I already know I will love my President, he is an awsome man." I can't even tell you how much I appreciate President Wooley allowing them to call home to say they were there safe and sound. I think I can now allow them to take care of Jess and I feel so much better. It still is a long time to let them go but things like this make it a little easier. I can't wait to hear from him.
I am going to post his pouch address since that is the best way for anyone to send a letter to him. It has to be one page folded in thirds and taped, leaving the ends open. No envelope, just address the back of the page and put a piece of tape to keep it folded.

Elder Jess W Geddes
Russia Moscow West Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, Utah 84130-0150
USA

The only thing that can be sent there are letters folded and taped as I explained. He would love to have letters so feel free to send one if you get the chance.

Time Flies (at least thats what they say)

At times it feels like Jess has been gone forever and other times it feels like it will be forever til I see him again. I guess it's all in the perspective you take. I know one thing for sure, I miss him, but when you read this e-mail you will see why moms have to let their sons and daughters leave for two years to serve the Lord. There is absolutely no other way to grow and mature this quickly in the real world. These two years will give Jess the biggest head start on life, its invaluable experience. Heavenly Father knew what He was doing when He set it up this way. I am so proud of both my boys for serving missions and I know from experience that I will live through this. I spoke to Jess's mission president and his wife the other day. They called to learn more about Jess and I was so glad to hear that they are excited to be there and that they already love these boys. I will never complain about giving my boys up for two years but thats not to say I won't talk about how much I miss him from time to time. I hope you all will humor me once in a while, I kind of have a one track mind when it comes to my kids. Anyway, here's the last e-mail from the MTC:

Congratulations Em and Jason, thats awesome! I can't wait for those little girls to get here. That will be a lot of fun for you.

Okay, so I got my flight plans! We leave here at 5 in the morning on tuesday and catch an 8:30 flight from slc to Atlanta. We only have a 2 hour lay over in atlanta but we do have permission to call you guys. Our schedule says we will get there at 4:15... I'm guessing that is Georgia time so sometime around 2:15ish I will be calling. I can't wait to talk to you! I am a little nervous though because I don't feel like I speak super well, so don't be disappointed to hear some so-so Russian. Anyway, from atlanta we fly straight to Moscow. It says we get there at 11:00 am on the 19th. That must be Russia time as well. That means it will be about 1 in the morning for my body but I will still have a full day of stuff to do. We are all super excited... except Elder Johanson who will be here an extra 4-6 weeks because of his ankle. I feel really bad for him but If anyone had to have it happen to them, Elder Johanson is probably one that could handle it the best. It could be worse, one of the native Russians here just found out he has cancer in his leg and might be in the states for about a year!

It's crazy that things are actually winding down now. Today we went to the temple for the last time, we all ate breakfast in the cafeteria, it was awesome! I will really miss the temple. I was sitting in the celestial room today thinking about things I've learned from the temple. I came to the conclusion the biggest thing I learned was how much our Heavenly Father loves us. There are few places in the world you can feel as loved as you do in the temple. I decided that in the next two years when I run into tough times, I have a strong testimony of how much we are loved and how mindful Heavenly Father is of us. Also, last night was our last real class with Brother Sagers. He is honestly one of my heroes. He has taught me so many things that will not only help me out on my mission but for my whole life. Little things like how he has never been late, he comes to class with a plan down to the minute of what he wants us to do and each week he interviewed us about class and how we are doing, but he also would always ask if there was anything he could do to help. That is when the real teaching began for me. He told me about goals he set for himself, study techniques he uses and a ton of other things. He asked if maybe I would want to have a copy of his study notes from just a topic (charity) so I could see how he studied then I can have a good starting place. Usually when people tell you stuff like that they forget or you just have to keep reminding them but Brother Sagers showed up with a packet of papers he had copied for me. I love him and am so grateful that he was my teacher. He is an awesome example of serving the Lord with all your heart might mind and strength. That is so cool that you got to talk to President Woolley! I can't wait to meet him, he sounds awesome. Well I guess for my last email from the MTC I want to just end it with a little bit about how my testimony has grown since I have been here. As I came in, things were tough. I wasn't sure about my companion, I wasn't sure about my district, I wasn't sure how I was going to learn this language and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to ever stop being homesick. As I learned more from devotionals, firesides, my teachers, priesthood meetings... I think I have a little more of an understanding of what it means to be a missionary. I know this church is true. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God, that he did see God and Jesus Christ, that he did translate a sacred book, the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon does contain the fulness of the Gospel. The spirit does speak to each and every one of us if we just listen. I have learned that the basic lessons we teach as missionaries will never cease to keep teaching me things. I learned that I have taken this gospel for granted, that I haven't understood what power there is in the priesthood. As I am beginning to understand the importance of all this, my love of this gospel and of the principles taught in it have grown more than I can believe. I can honestly lay in bed at night and think not about how much I want to be home, or how much I miss espn or my family and my dog, but I lay in bed and wonder how on earth am I going to help people in Russia get through such big problems when I have never even known what it means to sacrifice or suffer. I have never wanted for anything. I am in the best family on earth, I have always had enough. The people in Russia haven't. I'm a 19 year old kid with a message. A message that can help these people. I might not know what it's like to have to go without and I might not know what addiction feels like, but our Savior Jesus Christ knows. Alma 7:11-12 says he suffered all the pains and sicknesses, the trials and saddness of his people so that he would know how to succor them. I don't know how to help these people, but Heavenly Father does, and he can through me and all the other warriors out there fighting in this battle for truth. I love this gospel and I WILL NOT WASTE ONE MINUTE of my time in Russia, how can I? There are millions of people that need this message and only one of me. I say those things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Thank you for everything. I can't wait to talk to you next week, and I can't wait to get to Russia and get to work. Mom, have an awesome birthday this week. I love you all.
Elder Jess W Geddes

The MTC will soon be a memory

Thirteen more days left in the MTC and it's off to Russia ready or not.  He's ready, I'm not.  I am getting more nervous for him everyday and it will only get worse as the time arrives.  I guess it's the unknown that scares me.  Maybe once Bob and I  go there in October for meetings I will be more at ease but more likely I'll be more nervous.  I need to remember it's the Lord that is in charge and that he will be protected.  That being said, It's still going to be a long two years for me.

Well, this is the second to last email I will be sending from the mtc. I really can't believe it has gone this fast! Things are going really well which only makes time seem faster. Part of me wants it to be over right away but I'm sure once I get to Russia, I will wish I were back here, safe and sound at the mtc. 

I got the book today and the other package a few days ago. Last week, after I sent my email, Elder Guynn and I decided to look around to see if we could buy garments here. I found out where and it turns out there were two boxes of garments that said free. There was a box that said mens tops and one that said mens bottoms. They were just a bunch of garments wrapped in saran wrap. I asked why they were free and the lady said they are the garments people have left in washers and dryers. I looked through the bottoms and found one my size and the kind of material I wanted and decided to take a chance on it. Turns out, they were clean as a whistle! For all I know, they are brand new. I just decided to put them in my laundry and today, after I do laundry, I won't even be able to tell which one is the hand me down. I was glad to get some extras from you though, with my situation, I never know when I will need an extra pair of garment bottoms!

So, I'm guessing Emily knows what she's having by now? Or is it this coming monday. Thats exciting!

Liz, you better enjoy the problems you are having with your little boy now, because once you get a little brother for him... well I think they made a movie about it called "Here Comes Trouble 2" haha, that will be so much fun!

Meg, it sounds like you guys are doing really well! I'm sad I will miss Anthony's baptism, that will be a fun thing. Are you going to have him baptised in the spring like us or in the font like you? 

Rob, what are your plans for your birthday? Anything cool? How's your arm doing? What have you and Britney been doing lately? How are your brothers doing on their missions Britney?

I can't believe how fast the weeks go here. In two weeks, at about this time I will probably be on an airplane. We are all hoping we get our travel itinerary tomorrow or thursday. We haven't heard anything about our visas, but the lady said if you don't here anything by a week before you leave, that means there are no problems, so I hope we don't hear anything. I'm sure we all get to fly out together, other than Elder Johanson who will have to stay a few more weeks because of his ankle. I'm not sure about the two elders headed to Ukraine. I guess we'll see once we get our flight plans.

Yesterday, we had our official meeting with the head of the Russian elders. He had us commit to him that we will only speak Russian from here on out. We have been doing really well with it anyway, but this will help too. I feel like I don't know the language at all though! I can speak fairly well, but there are so many things I feel like I need to learn before I leave! Hopefully my trainer is ready for me. We found out this week that both of our teachers are leaving about a week early on trips. That means we'll have substitutes for the last few days we are here. I was really bummed out about that.

Let's see, not a whole lot else happened this week... pretty average week. I'm really happy and loving the work and Russian, as hard as it is. I memorized all 13 articles of faith in Russian and am working on D&C 4. We already have memorized the first vision and our purpose. It's really fun. I have also made a goal to try to memorize a verse in english every day of my mission. Brother Sagers did it and he now knows over 500 scriptures. I have about 6 so far. The key is to plan out which ones you want to learn way in advance. I have a few weeks planned out in my planner and every time I come across a good verse I just write it in my planner on the next available day. Then at night I make an index card with the verse on the back and I look at it whenever I have a spare moment. It's really cool.

How was the fair and everything? Do you ever see Kayla or any of her family around town? How did Caleb get an infection in his intestine from a tooth problem? I wonder what his symptoms were. I am trying to decide if I need to go see the doctor once more before I leave. I am almost a hundred percent sure I would be able to handle this problem in Russia if it doesn't go away so I'm hesitant to go to the doctor again. We'll see what happens. When do you guys go to Russia? I can't remember.

Hmm, this is weird, I have almost 6 minutes left and not a whole lot more to say. I'll definately have my flight plans by next tuesday so I'll be able to let you know all about that next week. Thanks for all the emails and letters, and thanks for the garments and book, the book is exactly the one I needed. Good luck with everything at home. I love you all!

Elder Geddes