June 30th e-mail

Hey everyone, thanks for the emails, I did get the post cards from Kirtland yesterday but I haven't got the letters yet. I'll be looking forward to that. News of Michael Jackson and Billy Mays has been here for a few days now. Thats terrible about Jesse Lyon. Tell his family I will keep them in my prayers. So how is everything going? I'm assuming you guys are pretty much moved in by now right? Are the kids loving the new house? I bet it feels like a mansion to you guys. Emily, are you feeling any better? I'm not sure what we get to do for the 4th of July, some missionaries say we get to sit out on the grass and watch but one thing I've noticed about the mtc is that there are more rumors that go around here than in the girls locker room of a junior high! It's pretty weird so I just wait and see with everything. Liz, thanks so much for the package, it was great! How's alex's nose doin, did he ever get any black eyes or anything? How is Burley treating you? Thanks for the medicine Rob, I'm still trying to decide if I should take it now, since things haven't been too bad for the last few days, or if I should wait and see if things get bad again. How are you guys doing? Have you been doing anything really fun? Well I had a pretty good week this week. It was the mission president seminar and once again, swine flu kind of ruined something I was really looking forward too. Every single apostle, including the first presidency was here at one point. 14 of the 15 were here on Sunday. I only saw 7 of them and that was because they were at the devotional on Friday. They couldn't come and mingle with us like they usually could because of the swine flu. A lot of people got to see and meet the prophet but not nearly as many as usually would and unfortunately I wasn't one of them. Also, in years past, the mission presidents get to spend a day with the missionaries heading to their missions. But because of the swine flu they canceled that too. I was pretty sad because I was really looking forward to meeting President Wolley. Oh well, I will just have to wait until I get to Russia. The whole week they had kind of set up barriers where we could and couldn't be so that we didn't get in the way of the seminar and so we didn't chance spreading flu to the leaders. Half of the cafeteria was just for the leaders and there was a big wall set up so we couldn't see them. It's kind of funny, they treat the church leaders like the world treats celebrities. At the Devotional on Friday, Elder Holland spoke. It was really good. He spoke about teaching by the spirit. It helped us realize how big of a deal it really is to have the spirit as a companion as we teach. Elders Perry, Bednar, Cook, Oaks, Anderson and Christofferson were all there. It was pretty cool. All the mission presidents were there too but I never could find President Woolley and his wife. I sung in the choir, partly just so I could get a guaranteed seat in the gym but also because I've been wanting too. We sung Joseph Smith's First Prayer and it sounded awesome! Me and Elder Guynn even got on the big screen for a second but I didn't see it. Class has been going good but I'm not quite sure how much I'm liking one of my teachers. I can't tell if his heart is really in teaching or what. It seems like he's involved in a million things at once. He gets here almost 20 minutes late when he teaches and every time he teaches lately I've been feeling like I just took two steps back. I know I just need to work a little harder but it's really hard. My other teacher is so awesome. Every time he teaches I feel like I take two huge steps forward. He's a really awesome guy. I am making progress in the language, sometimes it's hard to notice though because I don't speak a whole lot yet. I like it though, it's a really good challenge. The district in front of us is headed out in less than a week, pretty crazy. I saw Elder Blake yesterday, Reed Blake's son. He seems like he is doing really well. He's also leaving in less than a week. He told me he was pretty bummed that he didn't get to learn a language at first but after being here for a couple weeks he said he knows there is no way he would have been able to handle it, haha, some people just aren't cut out to sit on those chairs for 12 weeks. I'm still trying to decide if I am! Also I decided if you are trying to think of something to send me for christmas or whatever, if you can find some sort of music playing device that you could hook up to some kind of speakers. We aren't allowed to have any sort of video ipod or anything so I'm really glad I didn't decide to keep that but maybe like a portable cd player or like an ipod shuffle or something. I really like the rooms here where Elders brought something like that, it helps keep the spirit in our rooms a little better. Also I could use a couple more pairs of regulare socks for gym and stuff if you want to send some of those, if not it's not too big of a deal. I can't believe it's been a month! Time flies and yet goes soooo slow at the same time. I know the next few weeks will fly by just as fast and the next thing I know I will be in Russia! I really can't wait to be out there. I've been thinking a lot about that Book of Mormon Anthony gave his teacher. If a 7 year old is brave enough to give that away, I will be too. I hope to be brave enough to speak to everyone the Lord puts in my path, even though I'll hardly be able to communicate. Tell him thanks again for being such a good example. I love all of you and really appreciate all the letters and support you give me. I hope everything is going great for you all. Be careful with all this traveling mom and dad! Have a good 4th of July weekend and I'll talk to you next week. Love Elder Geddes
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Moving Day in Des Moines

Did somebody say HUMID? The truck came at around 9:30 today (a day late) and it was unloaded and picked up by 3:30 and we felt like we were walking through a hot furnace all day. I guess you eventually get used to it but it would take more than a week which is what we have here. I still can't believe how friendly people are here. One neighbor came and brought muffins, one brought a couple pens(what was that all about), and a couple friends, from the last time they were here, stopped by to say welcome. The teenage girl from across the street came by to introduce herself and the mailman hand delivered Jess's letter and introduced himself also. We would all do well to follow these examples. I to often think that I should do something like that and then let my life interrupt and it doesn't happen. I need to do better. But right now all I want to do is lay down and go to sleep. My feet are so tired they already went to bed without me. 'Anthony was so cute today, he worked so hard helping us. He opened all the boxes of toys and games and put them all away downstairs all by himself. He even broke down the boxes and brought them up to the garage. Mikelle kept taking them out to play with them and he got pretty upset. He said "Mikelle, you are making my job so much harder." She couldn't quite understand why he was so upset. I can't believe Megan and Mica moved from a small apartment, I don't know where all the stuff was because they sure had a lot of boxes. We all looked like we were homeless people living on the streets by the end of the day today. I asked Bob if he was body surfing on the boxes before he brought them in because his yellow shirt was black from top to bottom. I went to pick up some dinner for us and I looked at my shirt and it was so dirty I would have been embarrassed if I weren't so tired. Oh well, I won't see any of those people again so what the heck. Now watch, I will go to church on Sunday and someone will recognize me from Culvers. Anyway, the kitchen is put together which is a major task and we are all tired. I am the last one up so I think I will go join my feet and go to bed. If any of my kids are reading this, please don't plan a move anytime soon.

To Liz and Dallin-June 23

How are you guys doing? I hope Alex's nose is okay, that's pretty scary! How is Burley treating you? Getting used to it? How is Otis? Thanks for taking care of him, it means a lot to me and although he is sad, I'm sure he is 10 times more happy there than he would be at the kennel.

Thanks so much for the letters and the package. They sure brighten my day! It's always fun to read about all the funny things Alex does and says. He's a pretty cool kid. I'll have to reintroduce myself to him when I get back but hopefully he remembers me a little.

Everything is going great here. This is definitely the hardest thing I have had to do and there are days that I get frustrated with myself and the language but there are other days where I fully believe the verse in 1st Nephi where it says, The Lord giveth no commandment save he prepare a way. I know there is a way for me to do this, I just need to have faith and go to work. Your letters and support definitely help me do that.

Thanks again for everything. I love you guys and pray for you. Good luck with the adoption, that's so exciting! You can apply that verse to this situation as well, it will be tough to have a new baby and still chase Alex to the ends of the earth but I know the Lord will prepare a way.

Love, Elder Geddes

On The Road Again

The title says it all. I feel a little like the motel 6 commercial, I've been everywhere man. Today alone we've been through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. We are finally settled into the hotel in Des Moines and it feels good to be laying prone on the bed. The kids were great travelers, even Finlay was a trooper. It was fun seeing the landscape change as we proceeded from the east to the mid west. From, nothing but trees, to large open fields planted in various crops, most of which I'm not familier with. The heat has finally come and along with it the humidity which the mid west is known for. We got to see Megan and Mica's home for the first time along with the kids. They are so excited to finally be in a house of their own and the neighbors all came over while we were there to introduce themselves. That right there is where the mid west gets its reputation for being a great place to live. It sure makes it easier to leave your kids so far from home when everyone is so nice.

I never thought I would be tired of eating out but a homecooked meal sure sounds good right now. We have a lot of work ahead of us this next week but this is the fun part. I like to move stuff in a lot more than moving out. I think it's fun to find places for everything and its so organized and clean right after you move. This is especially true when you have never owned a house before. The kids can't wait to play in their new backyard and it's fenced so mom won't be as worried when they go out.

It sure can rain in this part of the country though. I happened to be driving when we hit Chicago and it started as sheets coming down. No drops here and there, and slowly getting harder, no, it just opened up and I couldn't see a thing. My wipers were whipping as fast as they could go but to no avail. I simply couldn't see a thing and I was scared to death. It was a four lane freeway and cars all around me. I wanted to stop so bad it took all I had in me to keep going. But as quickly as it started, it ended and we were under blue sky. I finally took a breath and pulled my shoulders from around my ears. My hands had to be preyed from the steering wheel as if they had been super glued to it. I decided I like Idaho and that is where I am going to stay.

I really feel like I am out of the loop with everything right now. I don't know where everyone is or how everyone is doing. Rob called and said he broke his elbow during a softball game the other night and may require surgery. Emily says she is feeling a little better finally so I hope she can start eating again. Liz is going nuts trying to keep up with Alex as always and I feel like I am of no help to anyone. I'm sure Megan would argue on that statement though. Jess is doing great in the MTC and we are so proud of him. He is wishing however, that the chairs had a little more padding. I hope all is well in Soda and wish we could be there a little more, especially this time of year. My goal is to stay home a bit more after this massive trip we are taking. I can't promise anything but that sure sounds fun to me. Anyone for a barbecue?

June 23, 2009

Hey everyone, how is everything going? I just read your email meg, that is so awesome about the book of mormon! Tell Anthony I said good job and that he is one brave little boy. I sent you a letter and I sent it to Iowa... hopefully that works out. I'm glad the first half of the move went good. When will you actually get there? Can you believe you finally are moving?

Mom and Dad, how are you enjoying life on the road? Hopefully you don't get sick of it yet, you still have a lot of traveling to to in the next little while. I hope you guys are having fun though.

I wrote everyone a real letter today, the temple is closed for cleaning I think so I had some extra time. I'll send them off today. They aren't very exciting but I know it's not fun to send letters to people and have them not reply so I'll try to write more often.

This past week has been good. Not a whole lot of exciting things happened but it was still a good week. The district 6 weeks older than us only has two weeks left until they leave. When you get down to two weeks, you make a commitment to only speak Russian until you leave. We have been told that it is recommended we start doing that even earlier than two weeks so we'll see what we end up doing.

Yesterday was the day they started and one of the guys over the Russian missionaries, Brother Reynolds (everyone calls him czar Reynolds because he's a Russian genius, he is actually leaving soon to begin getting his P.H.D. in slavic linguistics if that tells you anything.) anyway, he asked us to help the district out by commiting to only speak Russian for the rest of the day. This was at about 11 o'clock so it was a pretty long day. We all did better than we thought we would and it was pretty fun. It was really hard and we couldn't say hardly any of the things we wanted to say but the cool thing was, for me anyway, I realized I know a lot more than I sometimes give myself credit for. I actually am learning so that was pretty cool. It's still really hard. Somedays I just wish I didn't have to learn this language but I know I'll be grateful once I know it. There's just a lot more to learning a new language than I ever thought, but it's fun and we have really good teachers.

Another cool thing about this week was our devotional last Tuesday night. It was one of the members of the presiding bishopric and his wife who spoke. They gave good talks but nothing really stuck out to me. After the devotionals we go to our class and talk about stuff and kind of have a testimony meeting I guess. Before we got started I commented to Elder Guynn about how that wasn't really my favorite talk and that it was good but nothing really hit me about it.

Our district meeting started and as I was listening to Elder Guynn talk, I was just thinking a little more about the talk. He mentioned the scripture in D&C 18 about how much joy we will have when we have brought people to the gospel. That wasn't really his main focus but while I was thinking about it, it just hit me. I remembered back to giving the book of mormon away on the airplane and how good it felt. I began to realize maybe just a small fraction of what the joy will feel like when we actually help someone become converted to the gospel.

The rest of the meeting I had one of the most powerful feelings I have ever had. I realized then what the spirit of missionary work was like and what the spirit of the MTC was all about. Since then I have been able to feel the spirit very strongly during things I might have just kind of ignored before. The next day Elder Guynn and I were practicing teaching the first lesson in English. When I got to share the Joseph Smith story I could feel the spirit so strong. It's like I have had a sort of spiritual block for a while where I haven't really done anything that has really broght the spirit. It seems like now that I've realized a bit more why I'm here, the spirit keeps testifying to me that this is the place I need to be. It's awesome!!

There is no devotional tonight because the mission president seminar is this week. The devotional will be on Friday where the rumor is President Monson will be speaking... that's the rumor every week but it is fun to hope for. There is actually a really good chance it will be him this week though so hopefully we make it in and get a good seat.

I saw Thurl Bailey, if that's how you spell his name, in the cafeteria yesterday. I'm not sure why he was here but it was cool. Other than that, not a whole lot has happened.

Elder Guynn and I are getting along great and we have recieved many compliments on our teaching. The volunteer we last taught told us how well we work with each other so that made us really happy. We are teaching the first lesson in Russian this thursday so we have a lot of work to do before then.

I love you all and hope everyone is doing great. Thanks for everything you do for me. All the letters and packages really make a difference.

Love, Elder Geddes

Where in the world are Bob and Tammy

I sometimes wake in the night and wonder where in the world I am. Our life has taken on a life of its own lately and I have had to learn to roll with the punches. Bob's job is requiring him to spend more time in Boise and it seems we are spending more time in the car because of this. This week alone I think we have driven about 1200 miles and tomorrow we will begin an 1100 mile trip from Kingston New York to Des Moines Iowa. Megan and Mica are finally finished with medical residency and are beginning their new job in Iowa. We are all excited to get them a little bit closer to home although we would like it if it were Idaho. The trip should be fun as we will stop at several sites on the way including Kirtland Ohio, Corning NY, Toledo Ohio and anywhere else Mikelle needs to stop and go to the bathroom. We have a few days so that will be nice to take our time a little.

We celebrated Father's Day with the Binghams in their home in Connecticut. We enjoyed good food, good company, and a beautiful drive.

Finlay loves talking on the phone.

Mikelle and Sadie

We had a great day today which is good because tomorrow we begin loading the truck and everything has to go down three flights of stairs. That includes the piano, couches, beds and every other heavy thing you can think of. We have enlisted some help so we hope they show up. Mikelle and Anthony were pretty sad today when we left church and all of their friends behind. It has been a good experience for all of them, one that they will look fondly on in the future.

Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Utah, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, where in the world are we today?

June 16 Email

Hello everybody, how's it going. I see that you wrote me some emails. I only have 30 minutes so I'll try to hurry and write so I can read them all but if it's not too big of a deal, it would be easier for me to get real letters. I know it's way easier to write an email but there just isn't a whole lot of time. I want to try to tell you all the things that have happened this week.

First, how's everybody doing? Meg, are you guys getting pretty excited to move? I can't exactly remember when it was that you were doing that but I know it's close. How are the kids doing? Tell them hi. Em, are you still pretty sick? How are the twins doing? are they growing pretty good? Rob and Britney, how is the softball season going? Have you guys done anything fun recently?

Alright, about the swine flu, we aren't able to shake hands or hug or anything, and there are hand sanitizer dispensers everywhere so everyone cleans their hands about a million times a day. That doesn't always help though. Elder Anderson in my district got the swine! He was quarantined along with all the other sick missionaries for five days. He just got back today. We all felt pretty bad because he missed so much class. That would be hard to come back from but Brother Bastian said he would take an hour each day to do some private tutor sessions so hopefully he is caught up in no time. When ever someone gets sick, the rest of the district gets put on some medicine to help prevent it. It's called Relenza, I know Rob would have asked, and it's in this powder stuff that we inhale through these amazingly complicated plastic inhalers. It's pretty funny and we all enjoy doing it, we have to take two puffs every day. So hopefully I can make it through without getting sick.

Last Tuesday for the devotional Elder Bednar came and spoke. It was awesome! He spoke about how so many people are always worried, wondering if it's the spirit that is telling them things or if they are just putting thoughts in their own mind. He said "Don't worry about it!" He said be a good boy, be a good girl, keep the commandments, honor your covenants and just act. He said the spirit doesn't need to yell at us or have us to things completely out of the ordinary. He told a couple of really awesome stories about times he just did things, not knowing why but later in life realized why. It was a really good talk, and I wrote more about it in my journal so someday I can share the story with you. But it brings a lot of peace to know that all you need to do is be a good boy or girl and do what is right and as Elder Bednar quoted from the Doctrine and Covenants "we can not go amiss"

My stomach has still been acting up this whole time. In dad's blessing he gave me he said that a miracle would occur. It has. Although my stomach has still been acting up from time to time, when I am in the classroom I feel completely fine. The only times my stomach has bothered me is when I'm somewhere where it isn't a big deal for me to run to the bathroom. I'm so grateful for that. I know I wouldn't be able to learn anything if my stomach was bothering me during class. Thanks dad. And actually, today and yesterday have been pretty great. I think I might be getting over it for good. The good thing is that my district thinks stories like that are just as funny as we do so I'm in good company.

Sorry I forgot to write about your birthday last time Meg, I remembered it but when I wrote my email, I was just in too big of a hurry. Happy late birthday and I hope everything went good.

That wasn't the same sucker Rob gave me, but it was the same color!

I see Elder Potter quite a bit. He's not in my district or even my branch. There are a lot of russian missionaries here and there will be more in a couple weeks. We have the same gym times and stuff so I see him a lot. He seems like he's doing really well but just like everyone else, he said the first few days were a struggle. He said he thought about going in to the branch president and saying, I'll serve a mission if you switch me to an English one but if not I'm leaving haha. I know he never would have really done that but it was funny.

I got to play the piano that first night at our branch meeting. I haven't played since though, we have quite a few missionaries who can play.I need to tell you a few funny things that happened.

The next thing, at lunch I got an orange dream popsicle. They are so cold you can get your lip stuck pretty good if you aren't careful. Some elders in my district were trying to talk me into doing it but I wouldn't. Elder Nuckols said he likes doing that so he went and got one. He immediately stuck his lip on and stuck it on there good. He had to pull pretty hard to get it off and when it came off, so did a nice chunk of his lip! He had blood all over his teeth and we were all laughing so hard! I thought I might die right then and there my stomach hurt so bad from laughing.

The Blog sounds cool, thanks for doing that. I don't really know what kind of info you need but if you want you can talk to kayla to see if she wants it and Garett and Matt. I just have all their home addresses. the code for that voicemale is 5555. Sorry I forgot to give that to you. Thanks for the package too, that was great.

Thanks for all your letters and support. I love you guys!

Elder Jess W Geddes