Monday, March 23, 2015

Week 34
Semana De Pie (Pie=foot, not food)

  Well as the title of the email says, that about sums it up we did a ton of walking this week.  This week was basically dedicated to finding.  We work in an area called the "triangle" it is three big streets that intersect with a bunch of Hispanics and other people packed inside, it's a pretty big area!  So we ended up doing a lot of door knocking this week, and found some really cool people.  This week we should be able to go back to a lot of those houses and see some of the people.  We have some appointments set up, so we are looking forward to those!  Even though there wasn't a ton of immediate success this week, we know it's all part of the process and we're grateful for the great people that we did find!

  One funny story from this week was we were walking down the street and decided to knock on a house that was Hispanic looking.  We walk up to the front door and there were a bunch of chairs blocking the door so we walked down to the driveway to knock the side door.  There was a window from the kitchen to the driveway and a Hispanic lady was looking out it.  We say hi to her in Spanish and she respond "No Hablo espanol"(I don't speak Spanish) in perfect Spanish and she was clearly Hispanic.  So we were like "de veras?" (really?) and she said "si." ha!ha! it's always funny to see what people will do to avoid talking with missionaries!

   Oh and another story from the week.  This is a great example of how the Lord will always provide, Even if it's not the way you are expecting! On Saturday Me and Elder Fortie had been walking for about 4 hours or so, and we were getting really hungry. We didn't really have anywhere to eat.  We were hoping we could get in with the East Elders on their dinner at that time but it didn't work out.  We were just walking and went to sit on a bench for a quick rest, and then I saw a can of peaches under the bench and jokingly said "hey we could eat those for dinner".  Not knowing they were sealed or anything.  But the can was perfectly sealed so we decided to try and open them on the fence post.  After a few minutes of Elder Fortie prying it open on the fence post, then we enjoyed some nice canned peaches! 
  As for the work we have been working with a less active family the Hudspeth's.  Most the time we just talk to the husband, and he is super cool and had been having a strong desire to come back to church.  A few weeks ago he came to church for the first time, I think it had been a while since he had come.  And then this week he came again and brought his 2 kids as well!  So that was super cool, and always great to see a less active come back and start receiving the blessings of attending church again.  The wife has told us she will come, but she hasn't made it yet.  So hopefully we can get her to come soon, and then the whole family will come together!  Also we saw a less active Jose  a few weeks back who used to be super active before I came.  We talked to him, and he just needed a ride and wanted to come back to church again.  So we found him a ride who is actually an investigator of the East Elders, who is super awesome.  He is basically a member, but just needs to get married.  But we hadn't plan to see Jose Gonzales that night, but it just worked out that way and he has been active every since!  But other than that all is well over here in Memphis!

Thank you so much for the email and for all of your updates!   I love you lots and I hope you have a great week!  
Love, 
Elder Geddes

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Week 33

You  know you're in the South when you see this!

  This week was a pretty good week. It was a little slower week as far as the missionary week, but that happens sometimes and this week should be great week!  It has been raining the last couple of weeks every day, but the last 2 days have been perfect one of the days it got into the 80's.  So it's a perfect start to our bike week!
   This week I went on exchanges in the Memphis South area.  It was a really good exchange, and we taught some really good people.  We talked to this guy in a tire shop and he sounded exactly like and talked just like my friend Lucas from BYUH. It  was pretty funny.  Apparently Elder Jenkins y Doty had blessed his car shop or something, because the guy said weird things had been happening.  But apparently after that all the weird stuff stopped, and the business has started doing really well!   So that was pretty cool!  Then we had specialized training on Thursday which was a really sweet meeting, It's always great when we can hear from President Wakolo.  That's super cool that he sent you that foto from our quarterly interview, He's such an amazing guy, and his love for everyone is just incredible.  I'm very grateful that he is my mission President.     
  We did find a really cool lady this last week, She answered the door and started talking in English. She knows both.  But then she asked about if our Church was in Spanish because her husband as well, and doesn't speak good English!  We told her we were actually Spanish missionaries, so she was really interested and we were able to set a return appointment for this week!  It was a slower day of work that day, because of the rain and stuff, but it's awesome to see the people the Lord will place in your path!  We're looking forward to that, and if anything else I'm sure more opportunities will come up around there as well! Oh and as well I gave my first  talk in Spanish in Sacrament this week!  I had to talk on la obra misional (mission work) for 15 minutes.  It went pretty well, and I was able to talk pretty decent Spanish. It was nice to have that opportunity, and to be able to get more confident speaking in front of a lot of people in Spanish! So that was good, and this week we should be able to find some new investigators and start teaching some new people.  As for Lupe we still haven't been able to teach her, she is just way busy all the time.  We are working with the Familia Hernandez.They are in the moving process, but have been super solid in the past.  So once the moving is all done, they should get back on track.   That's about all for this week! 

Me and Elder Fortie in front of the Memphis Temple

  For your questions about Zones in the Missions, there are 5 zones in total.  There are 2 Spanish Districts in the mission (here and in Little Rock) both have either 3 or 4 companionship's.  And then there are a few other Spanish areas, and they are part of English districts. Elder Udall and Brown are my Zone Leaders, so that's cool to be serving by Udall again!  And for Our Apartment it's just me and Elder Fortie, but we have a huge apartment it's one of the nicest on the mission. Definitely an upgrade from the Little Rock apartment!  So that's a nice perk.  And then Elder Heaton and Henderson live like a little ways away from us, but we share the exact same working area. Oh and for your temple question I live super close to the temple, but probably won't go until July.  Elder Heaton got to go today, because he had a birthday in February.  There is only one temple trip every transfer normally, and only about 40 missionaries can go each time.  The temple is super tiny, but it's super cool to see when we go there though!   But all is good here in Memphis! 

  I'm glad to hear that all is going well back at home It sounds like you had a great Stake Conference. That's crazy that Oli is already 1, The time really does fly by! Thank you so much for the update and email!  I love you lots and hope your week is great! 

 Love,
Elder Geddes 

Monday, March 9, 2015

Week 32


   This week was a pretty good week, a little slower of a week as far as the week goes because we got a pretty big snow storm on Wednesday night.  And when there is any snow or ice everyone kind of freaks out and nobody knows how to really drive in the snow.  So on Thursday we had to stay in our apartments for the day.  The snow was actually kind of like Utah snow, and we got a solid 3 inches or so! 




  But as for other events this week, nothing too exciting happened.  We did meet a super cool family one night and taught the restoration.  It was a pretty good lesson, and the husband said if he were to gain a testimony of the truthfulness of the things we talked he would be baptized.  The wife is way cool as well, but she said the classic "we're Catholic".  They said they would still like us to come over, and so we are really looking forward to continue teaching them and have them be touched by the spirit. 

    For our investigator Lupe we were not able to see her this week, because her baby was sick and had to go to the hospital for a couple days.  He is now  is better and Lupe ended up coming to church, which was sweet!  We are going to go over this week, and continue preparing her for her baptismal date.  Other than that it was just a pretty normal week here in Memphis. 
 
Me and Elder Fortie are doing pretty good.  His first name is Alex.  It's the same set up for the bike that I had in Little Rock-  three weeks car and one week of bike.  Fortie is the designated driver! 
 
Well sorry the email was short this week, hopefully it will be long next week!  Thank you so much for the email and updates!. Have a great week, love you!
 
Love,
 
Elder Geddes

Tuesday, March 3, 2015


Buenos dias de Memphis!
Week 31 
Leaving Little Rock
Ana who fed us 2x's a week
I'll miss her so much!
Saying goodbye to Elder Meyers!
  
Well as you saw from the pictures I made it safely here in Memphis, Tennessee!  Earlier in the week I said goodbye to the members in Little Rock and got all my stuff packed up.  It was sad having to say goodbye, I met some really awesome and great people there.  But I know that I need to be here in Memphis, and that the Lord has many things prepared for me here.  Yader had me and Meyers over for dinner our last night there.  We had really good sushi, yes I said really good and yes I did eat Sushi!!  Now I can go to the beloved Sushi Buffet with Dad, Dustin, y Andrew in Vegas! 

Elder Heaton and Elder Geddes

Wednesday day we had our transfer meeting.  We first went up to North Little Rock, where we had the first transfer meeting.  I met Hermana Ashley Lewis, the Lewis' cousin!  She was really cool, and she will be training up in Russellville, Arkansas.  Then after the meeting we drove over in a van over to Memphis for the next transfer meeting.  It was snowing the whole time, but luckily it didn't affect anything.  Then we got to the church building and we are just driving down the road, and then we get past a little wall and there is the Memphis Temple!  It's really small but it is super cool looking.  

Hermana Lewis and Elder Geddes

    Then we start transfer meeting and I am serving with Elder Fortie!  He is also from Kaysville, UT.  He has been out for about 17 months, i'm looking forward to serving with him. It should be really good.  Elder Heaton will be serving with Elder Henderson and we basically share the same area with them.  It looks like the Heaton Y Geddes dream team just can't be seperated!  There are 4 sets of missionaries in the Spanish branch.  Three Elders and one set of Hermanas.  The branch is bigger than the Little Rock Branch, so i'm looking forward to getting to know the members.   Then after President Wakolo announced all the transfers the Temple President came in and told something to Wakolo.  Then he goes out and walks back in and says that we have a special guest.  Then 2 youngs guys walk in and it's David Archuleta!!!   He had just finished a session at the Memphis temple and the Temple President had hime come over and say hi to us!  It was way sweet, he talked to us for a second and then we had him sing "I know that My Redeemer Lives" his voice really is incredible.  So that was pretty crazy and awesome.   Then we went to the apartment and i'm actually in a really nice apartment this time, so that's a nice upgrade!   

David Archuletta

   As for the missionary work, we have a few solid people that we are teaching.  I still don't know a whole lot about our investigators, because I've only been here a few days.  The ones we have taught so far have been really cool.  We have an investigator and her name is Lupe.  We taught her on Saturday night, and we able to set a solid baptismal date with her!  She came to Church the next day, and really liked it.   We are really excited to keep working with her, and preparing her for the Baptismal Covenant.  I always love seeing people make changes for the better in their lives. You can tell they want to do it, and then when they do make the change you can just see how much happier they look.  The gospel will make anyone happy as long as they are living it.  It is a perfect gospel, and we are so blessed to have the knowledge.  Just more of a reason to share it with everyone that we know, it's what God expects from us. 
   On Saturday morning we went to a Women's conference to translate for some of the Ladies in the Spanish Branch.  I was in the food line after and one of the servers asked "are you from Cedar Hills."  and it was Devin Jakson!  The world is so small, that's crazy he happened to be there.  And as well I got to meet Abigail Blackham's (Curtis's niece) mom at the women conference.  She was super nice, so that was cool to meet her! 
 Everything is going well here in Memphis,  It's just going to get better as I get to know the area better and find people who are ready to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ!  It should be a great transfer!  Thank you so much for the email, and I hope that you have a great week!  I love you lots!
Love, Elder Geddes

Former AP's Daley, Udall & Smith


The Rivera's
The Fosters