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!

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

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 

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

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