Another Baptism

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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