The best two years

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

Returning with HONOR!

Hello everyone,

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

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

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

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

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

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

С любовью, Старейшина Геддес

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

One more post and done!

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

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

Hey everyone,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elder Geddes

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

Hey everyone,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Geddes

A baptism with more to come!!

The latest pictures from Kazakstan. The first baptism in Astona Kazakstan, her name is Vernera. They are still boys underneath that missionary attire. Zone conference in Almaty with Bro. and Sis. Switzer who is over the European missions.



Hey everyone,

Well I am finally a man! I can now legally break the commandments! Ha, I'm just kidding, but I am an adult now, crazy huh? 21 years old is a big deal, although it doesn't seem like much while I'm here. I don't even feel like I was ever 20, and now I'm already 21! Last year I had a really great birthday in Voronezh, this year has been good so far as well. Last night we had English club and we talked about birthdays, we sang a primary song, I played the piano, and the Maxwells gave me a box of Oreos, and one of our members gave me a cherry pie thing and some flowers. It was pretty nice. We had a sleepover at the other elders apartment where we shared my oreos and pie. This morning we made breakfast burritos, so it has been a great birthday so far. The weather is pretty terrible today, cold and rainy, but we are still going to have a good time.

Okay, so the baptism. Saturday morning comes along and everything went as smooth as could be! Everyone showed up who needed to, including one of our investigators named Svetlana. The water was colder than we thought it would be, and Venera is pretty scared of water. I'm glad Elder Hasbiullin baptized her, she really trusts him and he was able to calm her down enough to get the baptism done. She bore her testimony afterwards and it was just the testimony you would want to hear from a newly baptized person. She said she felt like she had wings, that she had flown somewhere, she said she couldn't really explain how she felt, but that she felt really light and happy. That's what I'm talking about! The next day, I had the chance to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost. I feel like I said the words I needed to say, I worried of course, it's always a bit stressful to do that in a different language, but I really feel like I was given the words to say. Svetlana was also present for that as well. She had tears in her eyes at the end of the blessing and told Venera she was jealous of her. The day before, after the baptism, Svetlana went up to Elder Hasbiullin and asked him what she needed to do to be baptized. He told her we could meet with her and prepare her for baptism. We were able to meet with her after church on Sunday and right off the bat she asked about baptism and what she would need to do to be baptized. Her next question was, how do I pay tithing. We have a meeting with her today, at 1:30. I don't love having meetings in the middle of my p-days, but when it is with an investigator preparing for baptism, I'll do it no problem. She's really busy with work during the week so we took whatever chance we could to meet with her. She will be baptized on June 18th, my last Saturday on a mission. I can't think of a better way to end my mission. The work is moving forward. From our humble beginnings of 9 people at the meeting, to the 14 that we had on Sunday, including our new convert, I can honestly say that the work is moving forward. The other elders set a baptismal date for the same weekend with one of their investigators. Things are just going great here. I guess throughout the whole mission things are just going awesome. We have record amounts of baptismal dates (22) investigators on the meeting, progressing investigators, new investigators, things are just cruising. President Woolley is really happy, and obviously we are all happy as well. It's really fun to be involved in this work and see the Lord's hand in our lives and in the lives of people all around.

I already bought myself a little birthday gift. I bought the Russian classic, Crime and Punishment by Fyoder Dostoyevski. I'm not sure if you have heard of it or not, but I guess it's supposed to be really good, and have a lot of symbolism of repentance and stuff. I bought it in Russian of course, it might be a challenge for me to read as it is written in classic Russian language, but I'm excited for the challenge. I have been planning my whole mission on buying two books to take home, a Russian classic, and the first Harry Potter in Russian. I know I'll be able to read that one no problem!

Anyway, time is flying and it is going as good as can be. I will write home 3 more times after today, because the day before I come home I probably won't write. I can't believe it, but it's coming to an end. I'm just so glad we have success and I have motivation to finish strong. I'm so glad to be here in Astana with Elder Hasbiullin. President Woolley will be here in Astana for our baptism on the 18th as well, which will be really awesome. Things just can't get any better. Thanks for all the support and prayers, and thanks for all the birthday wishes. I love you guys! Have a great week.

Elder Geddes

The first Stake in Russia created

Hey everyone,

I really enjoyed talking to everyone as well, as usual it went by too fast, but this time I know I only have a while longer and I'll be able to see you guys and talk in person. Sorry I didn't write yesterday, our ap's had problems with visas and weren't able to end up coming, they called us Tuesday night and told us so we didn't have a reason to do p-day on Wednesday. Since the phone call, not a whole lot of new things have happened. We had 3 investigators at church along with a member from Almaty who was in town for the weekend. We had a record 13 people at the meeting. I can't believe it, that's more than we had in Kaluga a lot of the time, although here we have 6 missionaries as a buffer. We have some new investigators and some new contacts to work with. Things are going pretty good.

The biggest news is something I just found out a few minutes ago when I read the email from President Woolley that he sends us each week. He said that on the 5th of June, Elder Nelson will be in Moscow to create the very first steak in Russia!! Can you believe it? There will be a steak in Russia, making it eligible for a temple someday! I just can't believe it. That will be such a blessing for the saints in Russia. I really think the work will go even faster and better once there is a steak and espescially someday when there is a temple. This is a huge step forward for the Russain people. It's a bummer that I won't be able to attend the conference, all the missionaries in Russia will be able to, but we are just too far away I'm sure. I would love to be present for that but just the fact that it's happening is good enough for me. I don't know too many details about it, but it is a miracle we all dreamed about when we were in the mtc and all throughout the mission.

Monday was Victory Day. It honestly wasn't as cool here as it would have been in Russia, but they still celebrate here. There wasn't really a parade, although there was some kind of ceremony in the morning. We had a good time with permission from President to attend some of the festivities. There was a concert after the ceremony where people sang old soviet war songs and did traditional Russian and Kazakh dances. There were still quite a few veterens that were present, although I'm sure with each year there are less and less. It wasn't the most effective work day as everyone was busy celebrating and didn't want to meet with us or really spend time talking with us.

Yesterday we had our first ever English club here in Astana. I think we had about 14 people show up. Venera is an English tutor if I didn't already tell you that, so she wanted us to start this club in order to give her students a chance to practice conversational English with us. It was pretty successful and fun, and right after that we had our weekly activity night where we have a spiritual thought, some games, and some refreshments. Some of the students stayed for the activity and everyone had a good time. All three of our members were there along with the Maxwells.

We will be flying to Almaty Sunday night at I think 10:30 at night. We will probably get to the elders apartment by around 1:00 in the morning. Zone conference will be on Monday where Elder Schweitzer, the area president, will be present. I have heard him speak before, he's awesome. President Woolley said that Elder Schweitzer wants to interview us missionaries after the conference. I think that will be a neat experience. This will be my last zone conference. Usually on a missionaries last zone conference, the missionary gives his testimony. I hope President Woolley keeps up the tradition, as there will be 3 of us there for the last time.

May is flying by faster than I can believe. Before I know it, it will be my last month on my mission. I'm feeling really good. I don't feel trunky, I don't feel like I'm counting down the seconds until I leave, I feel like I see what I can do, and I know what I need to do until the end. I'm glad everyone is doing well, I will definitely keep Aunt Vicki in my prayers and hope that everything goes well with her and with Aunt Sue. I'm sure everything will work out the way it needs to. I love you all, thanks for everything.

Elder Geddes

Growth in Kazakstan

Hey everyone,

Well we have had a really good week. As usual, after a hard week comes a really good week. Elder Hasbiullin and I have been realizing that the pieces are falling into place. Things are starting to happen for us here, we have investigators, meetings, things to do, people to focus on, food in the fridge and money in the wallet. We had 3 investigators come to church on Sunday! Can you believe it? Venera is doing great and we have committed her to live the word of wisdom and the law of tithing. She has agreed to both. She said it would be hard to give up green tea, but she will do it. We're so excited for her. Her baptism will be in a couple weeks, the 21st of May.

We met Venera the first day that we had permission to preach here in Astana. We talked to her on a bus stop and gave her a Book of Mormon. She was one of the first meetings we had with and investigator and it was an awesome first meeting. We were able to go through the whole restoration and ask her to be baptized when she received an answer. She agreed and it has been like clockwork ever since. She feels the spirit when we meet with her, she really enjoyed church the last couple of weeks, and she has become really good friends with Sister Maxwell, which is good as well.

The first lady that came to church is kind of an interesting, sad, and confusing story. She was invited by a member to the meeting that first Sunday, she really liked it, came to family night that week, cried during the spiritual thought about family, told us all that this is the place she wants to raise her daughter, surrounded by such good people and good influences, then she just disappeared. We got a hold of her after a while and found out that some of her friends had told her some stuff about us that was completely not true. She herself has no idea what religion she belongs to, but she felt like she knew enough about us to say that we aren't true Christians and that she doesn't want to belong to a sect. Just recently we went to her house, we weren't really able to get a lesson in, because she is kind of a confusing person. She's really nice, but for some reason she can't understand that we aren't just her 20 year old friends, but that we have something much more important to share. She is leaving for America in the beginning of June where she will be for an entire year. She is actually going to be looking for a husband there so that she can be there forever. I think she is just not very good at thinking things through in her head, and because of that she makes some really rash and not very smart decisions. I wish her the best of luck.

We have another couple of investigators that are doing well. We have been helping a 29 year old girl with English. Just recently we have made huge strides with her and have taught her the first half of the plan of salvation. She is Muslim, but she agrees with all the things we have told her so far and has even changed her mind about some things she thought earlier. I wouldn't say she's close to accepting baptism by any means, but just the fact that she is beginning to understand a little more about life here on earth is good progress for her.

Time is flying by, I can't believe it is already May, and that I will be calling home this Sunday. May is going to go by fast, maybe even too fast. We have a lot going for us this month, it will be a good month. I'm glad that we have things rolling here, it will make it easy for me to work to the end. Seeing the goals we have, and seeing how they are achievable will help me work all the way to the end.

I guess I should save some stuff for our phone call. I'm excited to call home, for the last time. By the way, I haven't gotten the mission news letter since I left Russia, I hope you have saved them so I can read through them when I get back. Anyway, things are going good. Thanks for the support and prayers. I love you guys. Talk to you on Sunday.

Elder Geddes