Week 39

Matching shirts for Latino Memphis Group Service Day

  I hope that y'all had a great week over there in the Utah!  As for me over here in Memphis.It was just another pretty normal week of missionary work, but a week on the mission is always a great week!  It really feels like 2 days ago it was Monday, and then boom another Monday comes.  As for your question about the storms there wasn't really any storms that hit us, maybe at night but you know when I'm asleep nothing can wake me up!  It's just been cloudy the whole week, with a little bit of rain.  That has made the weather super nice though so it's been great for walking around!

  On Saturday we were able to go to a cool service project for the community with a group called Latino Memphis.  Some members of the branch had set it up so that we could go.  Us and the East Elders were able to go there with a really cool family.  Probably some of the nicest and most behaved kids I've met here!  But they took all four of us and we were able to talk with the kids and well as the dad Maricio on the way.  It's always super cool to see people get together from different faiths and help others out in a better cause.  Something I have been working on recently is trying to be more personal with the people that we meet, and show them we are normal people to.  I've always found it way easier to teach when we are more personal and connect with people right from the beginning.  So we were able to get Maricios number and it sounds like they would be interested in having us come over one day and sharing our message with them.  So either us or East are going to do that! 

Family who took us to the service project

  Then on Sunday night we had a lesson with the Perez family (Enrique y Angelica).  We weren't able to see them very much this week because he had been busy with work and everything.  But we were able to have a lesson with them on Sunday.  We went in there planning on teaching some of the commandants y la Palabra de Sabiduria (word of wisdom).  They were super cool as always but before started the lesson he told us how they had been talking and they feel like they needed to stay with the tradition of their family in the Catholic church.  That's why they weren't able to make it to church with us.  I asked if he had heard someone talk bad about the church or anything and he said no and that they always loves it when we come over.  As we were talking with them we really focused on prayer and how when we have a big decision in our lives we should ask God first with what we should do.  It was a super good lesson and it really made them realize that they needed to pray to see which camino they should take.  We also talked about specific prayer to receive specific answers.  They committed to praying specifically for what path will be best for their family.  We are praying that they will receive an answer and that they will be able to start coming to church and continue progressing!  We also got a pretty strong commitment for coming the the Noche de Hogar tonight at a members house that lives close by!  But it was a great lesson, and lesson for me of the importance of teaching to peoples needs.  If we would have just taught the commandments still we probably wouldn't have gone anywhere with them.

Look what we found!

 Also me and Hernandez were on exchanges this week and I kick this box between his legs while walking and made a "goal".  But the little box was heavy so I went back and picked it up and it was a brand new box of individually wrapped shortcake chocolate covered cookie things!  We always find the greatest stuff on the streets.  First the peaches and now this!                                                   

Other than that it was a pretty good week, and we are excited for this week coming up! Have an amazing week, and thank you tons for the email!  Love you lots!

Love,

Elder Geddes

You know you are a Spanish Missionary when you put chili on your fruit!

Week 38

 Me and Heaton with The Cahoon's. Senior couple going home.

 Hey y'all!  By the way "you" means one person and "y'all" means two or more.  Yes this old guy that we met the other day explained that to us because, we said we weren't from here! haha!

  My week here in Memphis was a really good week.  We got a lot of work done this week, and were able to find some super cool people.  We were able to see Angelica y Enrique a few times this week as well.  As it has always been the spirit was strong as we were teaching them, and they had really good questions.  It was really cool in the middle of one of the lessons he told us that when he sees us and hears us talking he sees us as one person!  It definitely means that the spirit is testifying to them of the truth as we teach.  They weren't able to make it to church this week, but it sounds like they will be able to come to a Family home evening that we are having at a members that lives really close to them tonight.  So we are looking forward to that, and this upcoming week to contact and continue teaching the people we were able to find this week. 

  Also this week we there was a Branch party for the Branch President's Birthday.  I was able to take part of my first Pinata hitting with a bunch of Hispanics.  It was pretty sweet, and they sang this fun little song for each turn that a person hits it.  The Hispanic culture is super cool, and I love all of their fun little traditions that they have.  And of they course they have the best type of food.  I'm very grateful that I was able to be called to serve as a Spanish Speaking missionary, and learn this awesome language.  But other than that just a pretty normal missionary week!

 That's a way sweet story from Taylor Seeley's mission.  It is crazy to see the people who become members, it is sometimes the people that you would have never imagined.  I still can't believe that he is home, I swear he only left a year or so ago.  The mission is truly an amazing experience. 

  Sorry for the short email, but I hope you have an amazing week and thank you tons for the update and all of your support!  I love you tons!

Love, 

Elder Geddes  

                        You know you are in the Redneck area when you see this going down the road!                            

Week 37

Me and Elder Ludwig in front of mural of old people.

  This week was a really good transfer week!  On Monday we were able to go up to the temple and see all the Elders and Sisters who were going home.  It was great to see Elder Meyers, Daley, and some others that have been great friends.  I just still can't believe that they are already home, the time really does just fly by out here.  Then on transfer day on Wednesday we took Elder Fortie to the temple early in the morning, because he was getting transferred over to the Arkansas side.  The transfer meeting was good, David Archuleta didn't show up this time though. Ha ha!  My new companion is Elder Ludwig!  He is from Orem, and has only two transfers left on the mission so about three months.  Most likely I will be his last companion, but you just never know!  The week has been really good, and I've enjoyed serving with him.  And of course Elder Heaton is still in my District!!  His companion also goes home the same time as mine does, so if they both end their mission with us, me and Elder Heaton will have served for the first year of our mission next to each other!

Elder Heaton, Elder Daley,& Elder Geddes

     

Elder Geddes, Elder Heaton, & Elder Meyer

                         

  As for this week, it was a really good week.  I am the Designated driver again and it's been fun and really good taking over the area.  As for our investigators we had a really good lesson with Angelica y Enrique who I talked about last week.  A couple lessons ago we had some members and Angelica was away from the lesson and didn't really seem interested that time.  But when we taught them this week she was really involved and really interested.  The spirit was always been pretty strong as we have taught them.  We we taught them the Plan of Salvation and invited them to be baptized.  We tried to set a date, but we were able to find out there main concern, or their main thing holding them back.  There are just some things they have to fix, but they really understand that you have to repent unto baptism and it's something that they really want to do.  They are super cool, and they have really enjoyed us coming over.  So we are going to keep teaching them, we are really looking forward to that!  Also we were able to teach Rosie again this week, it went well we just need to take it a little slower with her.  But she is super cool and always give us food when we go over there.  It's always great when we are eating Mexican food...the best food around!  Other than that it was a pretty good missionary week.  We are excited for this upcoming week, and hoping that we will get some more people progressing.  But all is well over here in the great city of Memphis! 

The Memphis Temple in the early morning.

  I loved the example from our Bishop.  It's so true, even when times get rough in life we will always be able to make it through it.  We have trials for a reason, without trials and weaknesses we would never be able to grow. The plan of God is perfect, and there is always a reason for everything.  It reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures in Jacob 4:7.   The gospel will always bring us happiness no matter how dark times get, the gospel always provides light if we are living it the best we can.  Way cool that Joe Mac is going to Washington DC, tell him congrats from me!  Love you!

Week 36

Our district here in Memphis

  This week was an awesome week!  Probably one of the best weeks so far here in Memphis!!  To start off the week after P-day we went back to visit Rosie for our appointment that we had set up.  We knock on the door and she was cooking, and normally when an Hispanic is cooking that means the world stops and they can't do anything else.  But she said that we could come in and share a message!   So we go in and her husband Adolfo is there as well.  He came in and we were able to share what we do as missionaries, and share part of the Restoration.  It went really well, and it was nice to get to know him in his normal state!  Then we were finishing up and Rosie came in and asked if we could eat with them.  And as Elders of course we accepted, and we enjoyed some great Pacalla with them.  Her Brother n Law also came in and ate with us. We were able to share about what El Libro De Mormon was and answer some of the questions that they had about our church.  It went really well, we've always had a really good feeling about Rosie, and you can tell she really wants this gospel in her life. Especially so her husband can change, and be a better example for her kids.  We are really excited about continuing teaching them, she is super nice.  We also went back later in the week, and taught her as well, and had a another good lesson.  

 The Rivera family Visiting Memphis

  Then on Wednesday I went on another exchange with Elder Doty which was great as well.  I went down to his area and we worked down there.  Yader Rivera from Little Rock was coming to Memphis for an appointment, so we set up a time that we could meet up.  Him and his whole family came!!  It was super awesome to see them again, they are the best!  They are about to start the Temple prep classes, and will start preparing to get sealed in the temple as a family!  I was super pumped that it was able to work out that I could be able to see them again here in Memphis! 

  Another great part of the week was on Thursday.  We had been having a pretty solid day already, we had found a pretty cool family and the work was going really well.  We had finished up a dinner later in the night with some Members.  We had about an hour left to work, and we decided to try this lady that we had found on exchanges the week before.  We knocked on the door and the husband opened the door who we had not met yet.  He let us right in off the back, and we did the basic get to you know you and what our purpose as missionaries.  They were super cool,, and told us how they had been recently talking about getting close to God as a family.  We taught them a quick overview of the Restauracion, and as we were explaining about the Book of Mormon the Wife Angelica was sitting on the couch and we were all at the table.  But as we started teaching that, she got up and joined us in the lesson. You could tell something had caught her attention.  The spirit was super strong, probably the strongest it has ever been on my mission during how to begin teaching.  As we explained conference we told them that they would get a good feeling (the spirit) while listening to the Profeta y Apostoles.  When we said that he turned to us and told us that he felt a super strong feeling right that moment, Something that he had never really felt before.  And that he could tell that there was something special about this message.  The spirit was just way strong during that lesson, and overall it was just awesome!!  It's always awesome to see who the lord will put in our paths., We were just trying this house as a last minute thing and they turned out to be great people and a desire to better their  lives as a family.

  And to top off an already awesome week we were delighted to listen to the leaders of our Church in General Conference.  I always love conference, and have grown to have greater appreciation of conference on my mission.  I just still can't believe 6 months have passed by since the last one. It feels like that was just a month or so ago.  It was cool in the last session on of the 70's said the phrase "Every day, every day, every day".  Several times.  Our Mission President Wakolo always says that in every meeting that we have with him!  A big thing I learned from this conference was that we must grasp onto the basics truths that we know, and not let our little doubts bring us down.  The gospel is true happiness, and as we have a planted anchor in the gospel we are not going to lose the blessing and happiness that we received from the true gospel.  It was great to be able to reflect on the Savior's selfless sacrifice and amazing resurrection as we listened to conference on Easter Sunday.  Overall it was an awesome week, being my last week here with Elder Fortie, He received his transfer call on Easter morning.  So I will be receiving a new companion on Wednesday.  The work has really picked up these last few weeks, and me and my new companion will have a lot to look forward to.  

  It looks like you had a good week visiting Dustin and Jalynne in Portland and Easter in Boise.  Those pictures your sent me are great, especially the photo bombing one. . I can tell Grandpa is a lot better, by his letters that he sends.  I might not be able to read them, but the ones he has typed he is almost back to his normal self!   I hope you have another great week and I love you tons!!

Love, 

Elder Geddes                                                

Us and the East missionaries enjoying smoothies at a members house!

Week  35

Hearmana Johnson visiting the Branch.

(I served by her in Little Rock)

  This week here in Memphis was a pretty solid week!  We did a lot of finding again and as well were able to teach some really good lessons with the people that we had found the previous week.  We have some investigators La Familia Hernandez.  They are both in their 20's and they have two younger kids.  Elder Fortie was teaching them pretty consistently before I came, but then they moved house so they have been in the moving process for a while. Now they are all settled in and we were able to see them earlier  in the week.  We were able to review the first three lessons with them and get them back up to speed.  The big thing for them is just getting them married first.  They are super cool and have desires to get baptized.  Then on Saturday we were able to see them again, She just had gotten surgery and they had visitors. but they still had us come in.  We were able to teach them a really good lesson, and they committed to the commitments that we left them.  Then their baby was sick so they asked if we could give her a blessing.  We gave her a blessing and the spirit was really strong in the room.  They could really feel it, and were grateful that we were able to do that.  Then we related it to him how he would be able bless his own kids after he gets baptized and later gets the Priesthood.  That got them really excited, so we are hoping that will give them a push to get married and baptized pronto in order to receive the wonderful blessing that there are in the gospel.  They are super good friends with a family in the branch as well, which always makes the mission work way easier.  We are really excited to be able to continue teaching them, and preparing them for the next big step in their lives! 

  Also this week I was able to teach for the first time some people from the "La Luz del Mundo" church.  Elder Meyers had told me all about them.  We were actually going to see an investigator that we had, and this guy let us in.  He was super nice, but we started into the Restauracion and you could feel that it was going to be a struggle.  Their big thing is that the Church that Christ set up was with Apostles first, and so they have only 1 apostle leading their church.  After plenty of different opinions on every subject we made it through La Restauracion and they wanted us to come back.  So our goal is to get them to feel the spirit as much as possible, and hopefully they will be able to feel the truthfulness of our message.  It was kind of a fun experience just because I had never taught anyone from that Religion beforre.

  Then we had Branch Conference on Sunday and that went really well.  Later on in the day we went to see Rosie who me and Elder Doty had met on exchanges.  We had a really good exchange and met a lot of cool people.  So we knock on the door of Rosie and one was there but we hear noise in the backyard and so we walk back there.  Rosie was there and as well there were three other guys.  2 of the guys had beers in their hand and were definitely pretty tipsy.  Then one of the guys (who ended up being Rosie's husband) starting yelling ridiculous stuff like "God doesn't exist" and "I'm the devil".  He was by far the most drunk guy I had ever seen in my life.  He was so drunk that he was drinking his beer, and spilling most of it all over his hoodie.  We felt kind of bad for Rosie because she is super nice and way cool, but her husband just drinks a ton.  So the drunk guy just keeps yelling at us, and delighting us with is wonderful vocabulary in Spanish and almost impossible to understand English. ha ha!  But what we ended up doing is one of us would talk to the drunk guy, and the other would talk to Rosie or the other super cool guy who wasn't drunk.  He kept asking us if he could have my bible, and I told him I would give him it if he gave me his shoes.  Well he was so drunk he took of his shoes and wanted to trade.  But we didn't want him to destroy the bible.  It was pretty hilarious to watch, and definitely made for a good story.  Nevertheless we made it out of their with a super cool investigator the brother in law de Rosi,e and a return appointment with Rosie.  We'll see how that goes!  Other than that it was a pretty good week, and we should have another good week this week as well!  We are looking forward to conference this week,  it is always amazing to hear the wonderful words of the Prophets and Apostles.  We are so blessed to be able to have that guidance in our life. No better time to listen to the words of our leaders on Easter Sunday. 

  I hope that you have an awesome week up in Portland and an amazing Easter.  Thank you so much for everything and all the support.  I love you so much! 

Me and Heaton keeping the Arizona tradition going!