Week 26 

6 months

P-Day Hike/ Mt  Pinnacle

  Wow that is crazy to think that this week I will hit my six months out on the mission.  The time has gone by crazy fast, it honestly felt like only a few weeks ago that I was in the CCM in Mexico.  All the things that have happened in these last six months,  I've learned and grown so much especially from the people around me, and those that I serve. 

 This week was a super busy week, but that means that it was a super awesome week and also a crazy fast week!   On Thursday our Elders Quorum President and the Stake set up a branch outreach.  We all split up, and went to try different less active members houses.  I went with Heaton and his comp to his area, and didn't have too much luck.  But Meyers stayed in our area, and they saw a less active who really needed the help.  She has been working a ton trying to support her family, so she hasn't had much time to do anything.  But they said the visit was awesome, and we are going to start helping the kids get rides to church and visiting them more often.  And then on Sunday the Mom actually came to Sacrament meeting which was awesome!  So the Branch outreach was a great success even if it was for one person.  It's amazing the blessing and opportunities the Lord gives us even if it's not what we are expecting.

  Then this week we were able to able to have a lesson with our top investigator Monica.  A member  came with us as well.  The lesson was really great and she told us she was able to get permission to leave work early to come to church. So on Sunday we went to guide them to Church, and they were just finishing getting ready.  The whole family ended up coming (Monica and her 3 kids + a cousin).  Church went really well and they told us that they really enjoyed it.  At the end of our Sacrament meeting President Wakolo came in for the last 15 minutes.  Then at the end he asked if Monica and her family were our investigators, and then invited them and us to have a Family Home Evening and a dinner in President Wakolos home!!  So we are going to do that Next Monday, if it all work out!!  We are so excited!!  Even though Monica can't speak English she will be able to feel the spirit so strong in Presidents home.  The spirit he brings is just absolutely amazing!  The baptismal date is still looking great for Monica., She is super awesome and just loves everything that we teach.  We are going to teach her tonight with the relief society President!  It's so much easier to help investigators get familiar with the church when they become friends with members.  It's just amazing to see her progression, and how her life is changing for the better. 

On Saturday we were also able to see one of our other solid investigators Brenda & Vivian.  We taught the plan of salvation and they really like it.  We were able to set a baptismal date with them as well.  They enjoy learning, and have been reading in El Libro De Mormon.  Vivian even took it to her house, and has been switching off reading it with her step dad.  She wants us to go over to her house to meet her brother and her dad!  We are really looking forward to that.

  I wish I could write more, but I'm running out of time!  I hope that you have a great week and thank you so much for the update.  I Love you so much!

Love,

Elder Geddes

Week 25

P-Day Group on last P-day

  This week here in Little Rock Arkansas was a really awesome week for missionary work.  On Friday we were able to teach the Plan of Salvation to one of our most solid investigators Monica.  We taught the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was really strong.  She really liked it and had a lot of question which was good, because it is so much easier to teach when people ask questions.  It shows that they are legitimately interested ,and then they learn a lot more.  When we got there she asked us about the story of Nephi killing Laban.  We were super surprised, because we left here to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and she read 5 chapters!!  It was awesome, and at the end of the lesson we were able to set a baptismal date with her.  She asked what all she needed to do to be baptized, so we explained and she said she really wants to.  The only problem is getting work off on Sundays because she works a lot of them.  She is going to pray and as well we are praying for her that the lord will provide a way to her for a work.  It was pretty funny after she accepted the baptismal invitation she turned over to Francisco (her brother in law) and said "do you want to be baptized to?"  She was doing our job for us!  He isn't that interested but always sits in on the lessons which is good.  

  Also we were able to teach a couple great lessons with some potential investigators that we had.  The first was Eugenio and we just met him one day while he was on his lunch break.  So we were able to go 1 night to teach him, and he wanted to hear all that we taught.  Obviously we don't have time to teach all in one lesson, but we were able to share some of the restoration with him and he wants us to come back.  Him and his wife were super nice and even offered us to come back for dinner if we were able to.  So hopefully we will be able to share more with them.  Then the next was with Enrique who had come and played soccer one time at the church.  He explained to me where he lived, and luckily I heard it right and we were able to teach him at his house!  He is 16 and just moved here a few months ago.  We taught him the Restoration and it was a super good lesson filled with the spirit. He was paying attention and was understanding what we were teaching.  It was great, and he also wants us to come back and share more of our message.  We have a lot of solid investigators right now, so hopefully we will continue to see more miracles in the upcoming week.  Tyler Hunt did come into the mission last week, and I was able to see him at Transfers!  I talked to him for a while and he seemed to be doing really good and liked the MTC.  He is actually serving kind of close to me, so I will be able to see him at meetings and such!  

This week has been really warm, and we have been loving it.  It actually is easier to teach when it is warm outside, because people are outside and it seems like everyone is just in a better mood when it is warmer.  So that has been awesome and hopefully it stays that way.  Advice for the week for everyone: Never drink!!  A lady walked right in front of our car without any notice, but luckily we were kind of watching her and I was able to swerve out of the way.  She was completely drunk, I even honked and basically no response from her. It's just crazy how people will let drugs and alcohol take over their lives.  Luckily we have the knowledge of the Word of Wisdom, it really is such a blessing that we have. 

  I appreciate the e- mail.  Thank you so much for always supporting me.  Have a fantastic week, I love you all so very much!!

Love,

Elder Geddes

Week 24

  Well as the title says, I get to stay here in Little Rock for at least one more transfer with Elder Meyers!!  I'm really glad that I'm staying here because we have a lot of really cool investigators right now, and they are getting closer and closer to baptism!  Elder Heaton is staying in his area as well! 

Parking attendants at Religious Freedom Event

  This week was a super awesome week! it was pretty cold and rainy all week, but we were able to have some great lessons and find some promising new investigators.   Saturday was an awesome  day.In the morning we were able to go to a religious freedom event that was held at our Church.  Earlier in the week we were told that no missionaries could go to it, but the day before the AP's called us and said they needed help for parking, so us and a couple other missionaries could go!  It was a pretty big event, the Catholic Bishop over all the Catholics in Arkansas was there, a Big Muslim leader, as well as some other leaders as well.  The messages given there were really great, the last speaker was Rodney K. Smith I believe he is the President of SVU right now.  His message was really powerful and even though it was mainly about religious freedom, you could still feel the spirit strongly.  It was a great opportunity to familiarize these people just a little bit with our church.  We were grateful that we were able to attend.

 Elder Geddes and Elder Meyers with Priscilla Smith at Religious Freedom Event

With Rodney K. Smith, former President of SVU

   That night we were able to teach Luis.  We were planning on teaching him the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Then he asked about if we drank Coffee because he heard that in church.  We taught him the Word of Wisdom and it was a super good lesson, filled with the spirit.  He saw the blessings he could receive from the Word of Wisdom and accepted it live it.  We then watched the Restoration movie and talked about baptism.  He told us he was already baptized, but realizes that he needs to be baptized by the proper authority.  He really understands what we are teaching, which is awesome.  We set a baptismal date with him for February.   We are going to continue to prepare him for that date, he is such a nice guy and already has a ton of faith. 

 On Sunday night we drove a little ways to a Reference that we had receive from the Hermanas.  His name was Juan, we knocked on the door and they let us in right away.  It wasn't Juan, but we ended up meeting Gustavo and Aleacys (she had a hard name).  They were super nice, and we able to talk to them for a while and get to know them.  We explained to them what we do as missionaries then we set a return appointment on Wednesday.  He said he was going to cook us Argentinian food!  It's pretty rare that people are here from Argentina, and she was from Colombia which is also rare here.   It was a great example of how the Lord places people into our path even if it's not what or who we were thinking.  Sharing this knowledge that we have as members is one of the greatest things we could do in our lives.  There are so many people who need this gospel, we just need to go out and find them.

   

That's sweet the Mini mission went well, that's a great idea to have the new couples in the ward as Mission Presidents.  It really gets them involved and part of the ward quickly.. I hope you have an awesome week, and the Ducks win tonight!  love you so much!

Love, Elder Geddes

Elder Geddes with Elder Udall
(Relative of Chad and Michelle Lewis)

Week 23

 The completed Paper Christmas tree!  Thanks so much for that, such a cool idea and so nice hearing from everyone!

   This week was a really great week as it normally seems to be here out on the mission.  I probably say that at the beginning of every email, but it's the truth!   We had the "privilege"  of being on bike week this week, although we ended up walking because it got a little colder this week.  I really enjoyed the week, because it helps us to make better plans, and talk to everyone.  As a result of the week, we found a ton of new investigators this week.  More than the previous weeks, and there are a lot of them who have really good potential. We met a lady named Erika and she said she was from Puebla.  And we told her we know people from there (Ana).  Then we told her the name and she said she knew her really well, so she was really friendly to us.  We hope to teach her and her family this week, and invite them to come to church and start the small steps of entering into the best path we could ever be on in this life 

   As for Church, Luis was not able to come to church.  It's just really hard to catch him while he is at home, but we're praying that we will be able to teach him a few lessons this week and he can come to Church again.  They really loved church, so hopefully it won't be too hard getting him to church!  But one of our Investigators who is the younger of Maria (who Meyers had taught before when he was in this area) came to church.  They were on vacation and he is really good friends with our recent converts.  So they told us that he had gotten back from his vacation on Sunday morning and ten minutes after he was at their house asking if they were going to church.  He went with them and really liked it!   His name is Eliam and is about 13 years old.  Now that they are back we want to start teaching him and Maria again!  We're really praying that we will be able to baptize them soon.  They are both super cool! 

   But that's about all for this week, this week should be a really good week because we have a lot of investigators to go to and teach!  Our new years was great, and still can't believe that we are already in 2015.  And this transfer is getting close to ending just about a week and a half.  It's been the best and fastest transfer of my mission. 

   Sounds like you had a really awesome news years week.  Wow that is so amazing that Bryce is going back on a mission.  That would be really really hard to go back out after that time, but what an awesome example of fulfilling his duty and serving the lord.  He will blessed in so many ways, and bless the lives of so many people. Good luck with the mini-mission, that was always fun and a great missionary experience.  Have a great week love ya'll so much!! 

Love,

Elder Geddes

                                                                 

Missionaries of the branch with the departing missionary Derek, son of the Branch President.

Me and Jerry outside of trailer with sweet lights!

Week 22

Merry Christmas!

Missionary Stockings

Christmas Joy!

   It was so great talking with all of you on Skype on Christmas!  So nice seeing everyone's faces again, way cool that we are able to do that now!  I hope that the trip to Boise was a great time.  The rest of our Christmas was really good as well. 

Christmas Eve dinner with the Lopez and Barrientos family

Christmas at the Riveras

         

1st Christmas Eve dinner with Amore!

   Then the weekend was really awesome.  On Saturday we had one of our members (Alfredo) teach with us the entire day, he is such a great and humble guy.  We had some really good lessons with him.  We tried to see Luis who has a baptismal date on Saturday but he wasn't home.  And earlier in the week he told us he wanted to go to church, and that we could come and guide him to church.  We didn't really hear from him so we were a little worried.  Then on Sunday morning me and Meyers called him, and it just went straight to voicemail.  Then while me and Meyers were studying we get a call from a random number.  It was Luis!!  He said he still wanted to come to church with us, and that we could come by his house at about 11:30.  So we went to his house to guide him to church and he was ready to go and also his wife and two little girls came as well which was a great surprise!  We had only really taught him, and his wife has always been in the back room so we were super excited that she was coming as well.  We get to church and the first 2 meetings are really good (we have sacrament last).  Then after Church we were asking him how they liked it and they both Loved it and saying how we were such nice people!  Elder Meyers asked the wife why we hadn't taught her at all and she said she just thought it would be better if we taught him and she watched the kids.  But now she wants to join us in the lessons, she was super nice and well.   So we are still looking good for the baptism, and now hopefully we can bring them both into the waters of baptism!  I just loving seeing these miracles, and the blessings that God has in store for us and the people we are teaching.  It is going to be awesome preparing them to be baptized.  Luis already has so much faith, so I know he will be a great member in this Church and receive so many blessings.  

 

Eating with Alfredo!

  Sunday night was really awesome as well.  One of our members Gerardo (Jerry) came teaching with us after we had dinners at Ana.  Probably the 4th dinner with her this week, she really is the best!  But we went teaching with Jerry and we met 5 new investigators in just a couple hours of teaching with him.  They were all really cool people to, and we set up some really solid return appointments.  I always love teaching with members because their testimonies really relate to the people we are teaching.  Members are key in bringing more people unto Christ.  In reality every member is a missionary, it may be hard sharing the gospel but after you do it the blessing you will receive are better than anything else.

Our District

   That's all about all I have this week, but these upcoming weeks should bring many miracles.  I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for me and Elder Meyers this week.  Thank you so much for the email and have an awesome week!  Love you so much! 

The Capitol

Week 21

 

Zone Conference Gift

   Well Christmas is just right around the corner, and the year is almost coming to an end.  These last 5 months have been some of the quickest and best months of my life!   I love the area that I'm in right now, and Elder Meyers really is an awesome companion!  

 

   This last week was a super quick week, and also a really good week.  We were able to set a baptismal with one of the Referrals that we had  gotten from the Spanish sisters.  There used to be us and Spanish sisters in our Area but they closed their area this transfer, so we have been kept busy.  It's been great!  The baptismal date was with Efren, he is super cool and really interested.  He is going to Mexico for a week, but we can't wait to help him prepare for his baptism.  We just need to get him to church, which is one of the hardest things here!  As for our other Baptismal date, Luis is still looking really good.  He has super strong faith, and we were able to teach him the plan of Salvation to him last night.  He loved it, and understood it pretty well.  We'll keep working with him and he promised he will join is at church next week.  We are even going to guide him, so I'm really excited for that.  I know that he will love the church, especially because he has been reading in El Libro De Mormon consistently and loving it. 

 

  Other than that, we finally we able to teach a lesson with a lady named Monica last night.  She is super nice, and has been interested but just has been really busy.  She was super easy to teach, and asking plenty of questions.  It's so much easier to teach when people are asking questions and showing real interest.  We also met a really awesome lady last week, and we have a return appointment with her tonight.  Oh and she had some of the sweetest Nike shoes! Hahaha!   But our area has a lot of potential, so I'm hoping we could get it up and running pretty soon here.  All is well here in the great state of Arkansas, I love it here, and it kind of feels like home already.  There are so many great people here.  we are working with a family(Riveira) who was less active for many years in Miami because of a weird situation, but they have been active since they have moved here.  They are way awesome, and have the cutest 2 little girls.  I think we are going to be over there for a little bit on Christmas.  They are going to be a huge help to the branch! 

 

 I'm really glad to hear that Chad's niece Ashley will be coming out earlier than expected.  Because if she didn't there would have been no sister Spanish missionaries to train her. She would of been trained by someone who had been out for only 6 weeks.  Which happened to the Spanish sisters about a year and a half ago.  But now it will be perfect and she will be trained by some really good Spanish missionaries!   

 

 I can't wait to to Skype with ya'll on Christmas!!  Thank you for the email, have an awesome Christmas week!  Love you tons!

 

Love,

Elder Geddes

Sweet swing Me and Elder Meyers found on P-Day!

Week 20

 Elder Geddes with Santa

   Tu Dijiste que quieres ver mas espanol en mis correos electronicos.  Entonces voy a escribir toda la carta en espanol! Solo Bromeo! Podria hacerlo, pero no pueden entenderlo haha. Well there is some espanol for you, maybe google translate will be able to translate it somewhat correct for you!  

   This week was another great week out in the mission field here in Little Rock Arkansas.  Me and Elder Meyers have been working really well together, and have been really working on talking to everyone.  As we have been doing that, we have found a lot of great potential investigators and have some solid return appointments as well.  I'm excited to be able to get to know them better, and start teaching them the lessons.  

Missionaries serving in the branch and Ramirez who just finished his mission and came to visit!

  We had the Branch Christmas party this last Friday, and there was an awesome turnout there!  Every set of missionaries in the branch (now 3) had investigators that came.  We even had a couple guys who come to soccer every week, come to the party as well.  I really love when there are activities, because it is a great way to get investigators to come see the church and see what we are all about.  We had one investigator (Maria, 16) who came to the Christmas party as well as her little brother.  Elder Meyers had taught her over a year and a half ago when he was in this area.  He actually started his mission in this area.  He said she was almost baptized, but then he was transferred and not really sure what happened over that.  But we are going to teach her again, and hopefully bring her into the waters of baptism!  She's came to church this last Sunday as well.  I believe she has already read the book of Mormon as well.  We're looking forward to start working with her again, and as well as her brother.  They will benefit so much from having the gospel in their lives (as all will), and will help strengthen the branch.  

Enjoying the Branch Christmas Party!

   This last Sunday we were able to teach Luis who we have been kind of on and off teaching for a while but he isn't home a lot.  The North Spanish Sisters actually received a media referral from him, wanting the finding faith in Christ movie.  We took it to him, and had planned to watch it with him.  He ended up watching it himself, because he was too excited to see it I think ha ha!  We read about faith with him in el Libro De Mormon on Sunday and invited him to be baptized on Jan. 10!  He accepted!  He is so faithful, and always tells us how grateful he is when we come over to teach him.  

   For a crazier story this week, which seems to be a normal things every week since I've been with Elder Meyers.  We were driving down a street on Saturday and we are coming up to a school.  There are tons of cars parked, blocking the school on the road, We were a little confused, because it's a Saturday and no one should be at school.  So we drive closer and we see like 40 teenagers yelling at each other and stuff.  We could tell that something was going to happen, then they start just going crazy and hitting each other.  A big brawl breaks out between them and some girls had bats and stuff that they were hitting each other with.  Then after a couple minutes, they all run for their lives at the same time and sure enough the Police come strolling up the road          ha ha!.  The things that happen here in the South are the greatest!  

Thank you so much for the email!  !Tenga una buena semana!  Te queiro mucho.  Y estoy emocionado por hablar con ustedes en la navidad!

Love,

Elder Geddes