Week 52

La Primera Semana en el trio!

Elder Geddes and the district saying goodbye to Elder Hernandez

  Let the trio begin!!! It looks like I'm going to the roots of a year ago when I was in a trio in the CCM.
This week has been a super good week, and we are getting a lot of work done I'm serving with Elder Zickella who is from Florida, and Elder Croft who is from Pocatello !It's been a pretty sweet first week with them, and they are both really focused missionaries.Elder Croft has been out for two transfers, and is still being trained. Elder Zickella and I have the same amount of time out on the mission. They ended up just moving into my apartment,but it was a pretty easy move because the apartments are only half a mile away!
  On Tuesday we had our District meeting with a tiny district (just the 4 of us), and after that the AP's came to pick up Hernandez. Now that he is gone our district is even smaller, and it is just the 3 of us. Haha! I think it's the smallest a district can possibly get!

Elder Geddes and Elder Hernandez

  Before Hernandez left we had some really good experiences on Monday. In the morning we were able to go do some Service for a non member family. We helped them moved y they were super cool. I asked them if we could come back and share our message? They were open for it. So we went back later in the week as a trio, and were able to teach them. She is Hispanic, but speaks really good English. Her husband is American. They had some really good questions, and we were able to clear up some false doctrine that their church had been teaching about our church...Yes there is a church here who dedicates every Wednesday night for preaching anti-Mormon. It was a solid way to begin teaching a lesson y they wanted us to come over another time and have dinner with them, and share more of our message. We are excited for that. They are going to Mexico for a little while and after that we will continue to teach them.
  Also on Monday night me and Hernandez were able to go over to la Familia Lopez (Claudio) togive their daughter a blessing. She has cancer, and has really been having a hard time. It was a great spiritual experience, and a great opportunity to have them see the power of the Priesthood. We went back later on in the week y they said that the daughter was feeling a lot better. They were really grateful for that. We are just working on getting them to church. He is looking for a sign, like God to tell him to go to church, but we need to help him realize that he has seen plenty of signs already. They are such an awesome family though, and they are going to start progressing more soon. The wife even told me that she feels like she will be at our church soon!
  Another great experience was one day we were walking around and we ran into this lady Taknechia..We gave her a card and we set up an appointment for the next day. That next day we went back, and
she let us in. We shared the message of the restoration y she was just soaking it all in. At parts of the lesson she was saying "this is so awesome", and she even told us that we weren't going to believe it but he had been praying to know the real truth. We told her about the Book of Mormon y she asked us if she could buy one. We gave her a copy for her to read. It was a good lesson on the importance of talking to everyone, you just never know who is going to be prepared to teach the Gospel. We hope to see her several times this week!
  For other great news, David was able to come to church today!!!! Such an awesome experience to see all the hard work we have put into teaching him. He said he loved church so much, and that he felt very welcomed. He even asked some really great questions in some of the classes and decided that day to keep the Sabbath day more holy by not watching TV, and stuff like he normally does. So that was awesome to see, and we are hoping that desire will lead him into making some bigger commitment more quickly. During priesthood David introduced himself and, a classic member in the ward with the thickest southern accent yelled "fill up the font! We were all thinking it, but, he just decided to say it" Haha! We are excited and
are glad he was able to take this next step.
 Overall it was just an awesome week. it is different teaching in English most of the time but, it is a great experience for me, and it’s helping me to learn and grow. Sometimes it's hard to pray in English. or I accidentally throw out some Spanish words while teaching but it's great! I know I was sent here for a reason and the Lord has many miracles prepared for us as a trio! I hope that y'all have an amazing week!! Love you tons!

Con Amor,                    
Elder Geddes

Week 51

La ultima Semana con Elder Hernandez

Elder Geddes and Elder Hernandez!

  This week has been another great and busy week. Especially with it being the last week with Elder Hernandez. This week we started stage 2 in our iPads so now we are going to be planning our days on the iPad and the area book on the iPads. We went to a meeting in Jacksonville again where we got training on that. It's going to be a really cool tool to have. It keeps everything organized, and will help us keep more on top of things once
everything is put in!
  As for teaching it was a pretty sweet week as well! On Monday in the morning we decided that we were going to study about the apostasy for one of our investigators Claudio. We gt some really good scriptures together, and our goal was to teach the Apostasy in full detail so he would be able to understand it, because that was a big thing that was holding him back.That night we went to teach them and the lesson went super well! The spirit was helping us a ton remembering certain scriptures we felt we needed to share with him. It really gave him more understanding of the importance of the Restoration. Before this lesson he would not read the Book of Mormon, but at the end of the lesson he said "let's pray about this right now." He said a really great prayer and accepted to read the chapter we left him in the BOM. It was great learning experience for me on really studying for my investigators, and focusing what they need at that moment. He knew that there things were true or not, and now he has a choice to make. Later on in the week we went to see him and he and his family. We were driving in the car and saw he us driving to his house. He turned around and told us to follow him because he wanted to take us out to eat. That was way nice of him y his wife remembered it was my Birthday a few weeks back,and had them sing Happy Birthday to me there
at the restaurant haha! That was an awesome experience, and they are a really great family.They had us over for dinner at the house the next day y we taught another good lesson on the Plan of Salvation. And as well on Sunday night we went over with a member and had a really good lesson. He does have a lot of questions and doubts, but he has definitely opened up to the message a lot more since we met him. We are praying that they will continue listening and accepting the gospel that will change their lives so much. They really need it right now in their family.

  For David he wasn't able to come to church this week. He didn't get out of the hospital until Thursday and then had to go back to the ER the next day, but luckily got out that night He was still recovering and couldn't make it to church. We did have some really good lessons with him y were able to visit him several times in the hospital. He had me pull out my planner and write him down for Church next week for sure, and said "I dare anyone to stop me from coming". He is really committed to come, and said that this time he is making
a promise so that he will be able to make it. We are looking forward to next week y we know that he is going to love the church y the ward is going to welcome him really well. 

  Well this Tuesday I will be going into a trio with the English Elders (Zickella y Croft). I'm really looking forward to it and it should be a great experience. We are going to be working a lot with the ward doing splits and stuff to keep the work more effective. We will either be moving into the apartment I'm in now or I'll move to the English elders apartment, we haven't decided yet. It's only a half mile away so it is not a big deal. I'm sure this week is going to be another super busy week, we have a lot to get done. Sorry I don't have too much time today because we were doing service this morning and we have to be at FHE at 4. But all is going well here in Jonesboro!!! The mosquitoes haven't been as bad this past week which was nice, but earlier on in the week they were flying planes that were dropping Mosquito repellent haha! Dragonflies are coming out now, so I think they are starting to eat them. I hope your week is great, y thanks so much for the email!

Love you lots!! 

Love, Elder Geddes

Former Little Rock Sister Missionary (Jenessa) ran into the Elders eating dinner!

Week 50

Pres. Wakolo and Elder Geddes

  This week was another great, and busy week here in Jonesboro! It's a lot different here in this Zone when we have meetings. When we have a meeting we either have do drive to Searcy about an hour and a half away,or we have to drive to Jacksonville or Little Rock which is more than 2 hours away. We had a zone meeting in Searcy that went really well on Wednesday. Then on Friday we had a day called "DOT" Defenders of Truth Day. We were supposed to have it last week on the 4th but it got rained out. It was Elders only because the Sisters did something similar to it last year. We had a big Luau where President Wakolo cooked a bunch of food in a pit. As well we were able to play a bunch of little games, and do
challenges in the Gym and outside. It was a lot of fun to be able to get together with all the Elders on this side of the mission, and enjoy part of the day together! It was really cool that President Wakolo did all of that for us! He was also wearing a Spanish name tag which I thought was sweet! It was the first time I had ever seen President Wakolo without a suit on.

Luau Feast 

  The missionary works was another solid week as well. We were able to visit one of our main investigators David several times this week with members. We had a couple of really great lessons and especially the lesson on Saturday. We have been really focusing on getting him to church, because we know how much it will help him progress and receive an answer about Baptism. In the lesson he really opened up to us about his fears of going to church, and howhe felt a little inadequate about going. We were able to help him out with those concerns, and he told us how he felt a lot better. He asked us what kind of clothes he should wear, and committed on coming to church that next day! We had a ride all set up for him and it wasgood to go. On Sunday morning he then gave us a call, and told us he had gotten all ready  for church, but then was having lot of pain and had to go to the emergency room. It's amazinghow hard the devil will work from keeping someone from doing good things and progressing! After church we were able to go visit him in the hospital and give him a blessing. Sure enough he was in his Church pants, and his white shirt was sitting next to him on the chair. We know he will be blessed for his intent and, are hoping that his health will allow him to
go to church next week! It was a good lesson for me on the importance of asking inspired
questions. Because of that David really opened up to us, and we were able to help him with his real concerns that he had. 

   As well this week we have been visiting a lesser active lady, and her daughter who had just recently moved into the ward. They are super awesome, but she has a few doubts. We challenged her to start reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. She had been reading it the next time we came back which was super cool. She and her daughter were able to make it to church on Sunday! We are going to keep working with them, and try to get the ward moreinvolved in visiting her, and making her feel welcome into the Ward. Other than that we are teaching some really cool Hispanic families as well, and have been doing a lot of service which makes the week really busy. All is well over here in Jonesboro, and I'm really grateful for this opportunity that I have to serve here. I know President Wakolo was inspired to send me here, and I'm already seeing those reasons after just a few weeks. I'm so grateful to be part of a church that is led by revelation. And even more grateful to be able to share that knowledge with all those around me. I hope that you have another great week, and if you want some mosquitoes I wouldn't mind sending a couple thousand of them over there because we got plenty! Thanks for everything, love you!

 Love, Elder Geddes

Week 49

Gringos, Ingles, Comida Americana, y Mosquitos! 

     

After 11 months of serving in the same areas with Elder Heaton they must say good-bye.

                                      Elder Braden Geddes' MTC Companion

   It's been quite the crazy week with transfers and everything going on. On Tuesday I got to say goodbye to a lot of the members in Memphis which was good.  It's always sad to say goodbye to so many great people, I really grew to love that branch there and all of the amazing people there.  I'm going to miss Memphis for sure,but hopefully I will get to return back there at some point on my mission.  But I know that President Wakolo is inspired and that I'm in my new area for a reason!  On Wednesday we had transfers which also marked the 40th 
anniversary of the Arkansas Little Rock Mission.  It was always the first time we have only had 1 transfer meeting, it was broadcasted from Little Rock to Memphis.  It was actually really cool. 

Ghetto Burger place Sweden Creme has the best shakes

Elder Geddes and Elder Diaz

 

Branch President Perez and his family. They are awesome!

   My new area is....Jonesboro Arkansas!!  It's more north east of Arkansas and is a college town.  Arkansas State University is here which is pretty cool!  I will be serving in an English ward, the first time I haven't been in a Spanish branch on my mission.  There are some really cool Spanish members which is sweet and as well there are a lot of Hispanics to sweet.  The ward is a really strong ward, and I'm excited to get to know all the members better,  it's always different at first going to a new area, but I'm sure it will be awesome and I will meet plenty of great people!  The opportunities here are going to be great, I'm looking forward to translating in the ward, and in a few weeks I'll be the only Spanish missionary in the ward, so it will be a great learning experience! 
   My companion is Elder Hernandez from Vera Cruz Mexico.  He was the 2nd companion that Elder Heaton had in Little Rock, so I've served by him a little bit there and in Memphis.  He is going home in about 2 weeks 
though, so basically he is just showing me the Area and then he's going home.  After that I will most likely just serve in a trio with the the English elders (Croft y Zickella) for the last 3 weeks of the transfer.   That should be really good!  Our District is just us and the English Elders.  And yup once again I'm the designated driver. We 
have full car which is super sweet!  We still have to bike sometimes, but not for a week straight which makes it nice.   I think I'm actually going to get the real southern experience up here in Jonesboro.  It's pretty weird preaching the gospel in English, and I bore my testimony in church in English and was translating most of it 
in my head from Spanish to English haha.  It will also be different eating American food every day, instead of Mexican food.  But I'm pretty excited for my new area, and looking forward to what the lord 
has prepared for us. 

    Our week here in Jonesboro was a pretty busy week.  We were
doing a lot of service. We split a bunch of wood for a member, and then another day we helped another member who is a professor do some demolition in one of the classes.   Service is always good, and great way to get the members trust.  We were also able to teach some really good lessons to some Hispanics on the weekend.  We actually found a really cool couple who had just moved to Jonesboro ,and we we were able to teach them the restauracion.  I had my first English missionary experience as I would call it.  We knocked on a bunch of doors and about 6 different white people opened the door and just said no and shut the door.  Hispanics rarely ever do that so I've never experienced that before! Haha! There is a lot of work to do here I. Jonesboro,  Hopefully we can get some people really progressing pretty soon here! 

Elder Croft and Elder Geddes celebrating their birthdays!

   Thanks you so much for all the Birthday wishes!!  I had a good birthday, and a good 4th of July the day after!  On my Birthday we had weekly planning, and he did some service.  Later on we had dinner with a family and he English Elders.  Crazy enough Elder Croft and I had the same Birthday!  He is the only one in the whole mission that has the same birthday, and we happened to be serving next to each other for it.  4th of July was great as well. It was a normal missionary day and we ate wirht some members.  We also got to see the firework show 

Garcia Family

 Familia Hermosillo with Álvaro  

by our apartment which was pretty cool!  Even if Mosquitoes are eating us alive over here!  Other that just another good missionary week.!   Love y'all so much and hope that you have a wonderful week!!
Love, 
Elder Geddes

Nike Lady and Son

Torres Family

  

Bro. Gonzales and
Grandchildren