Week 94

     The Geddes duo 

           Missionaries

   Another awesome week for the great land of Arkansas!!  So y'all remember the story I told last week of finding a family and blessing their home?  We have seen them like 4 times this week and they are so legit!  She fed us on our first visit with them, and  we brought a member who had been one of their kids substitute teachers.  We taught them after the dinner, and they want to be baptized in two weeks!  They also came to Book of Mormon class, and after she asked me "how do people deny this book when it says the same things the bible says?".  She told me how she was glad she came to the class. Her husband played basketball with us afterward as well.  Then in our next appointment we taught her and her daughter the Plan of Salvation.  When we got there she asked "what about all those people who didn't get baptized with the proper Priesthood Authority".  We explained to her about baptisms of the dead and temples and she loved it!  They came to church this last week, and they enjoyed the service.  She came up to me after and told me how grateful she was that we knocked on her door and, how much she loves about learning!   We are pretty excited for them and to see them several times this week!  

  For exchanges this week I got to go up to Paragould with Elder Geddes!!  So it was the Geddes duo and we had a great time.  Every time we introduced ourselves everyone was so confused, and we were able to teach a lot of really good lessons.  I also got to conduct my first Baptismal interview of my entire mission!!  He was a Marshallese guy named Ken, and he was very ready to be baptized.  He was a way nice guy, and the interview went well.  He was baptized and confirmed this last Sunday, and elder Geddes said he kept saying "one more step" referring to the temple because his wife is already a member.  

When we exchanged back we met up in Jonesboro, and I got to visit Claudio and his family.  They are doing really well and were super excited to see me.  My "Sobrino" has grown a ton already.  Claudio is doing great, and still loving the gospel!  It was really nice to see them again. It felt like going home.  We also got to drop by to see Takiya and she has decided that she wants to serve a mission!!!  That is awesome because she has always kind of wanted to, but now it is in her plans.  She also gave a talk this past Sunday in Jonesboro.  

  This week we had a member move from Nevada, his name if Brother Fitzgerald and he was baptized 3 years ago.  He has been helping us out a Lot ,and we are excited to have him here!  This morning we got a call from him saying that he met a lady at the hospital and told her about blessings.  It was her dad that was dying and she said that she would like for him to get a blessing. We met brother Fitzgerald at the hospital, and went to give the blessing.  The whole family was there and they said he only had a day or so left to live.  I gave the blessing and basically told him that he would pass in peace, and will learn more once he goes to the other side.  It was a cool experience and the family was grateful.  After we left I told Elder Plaira "we will probably never know what happens to that guy".  A couple hours later Brother Fitzgerald calls and says someone wants to talk to us.  A lady came on the phone and it was the lady who requested her dad got a blessing.  She told us that a few minutes after we left he passed away peacefully.  She said thank you so much and that's what he needed.  It is amazing the power of the priesthood! It truly connects Heaven and earth and I'm grateful it's back on the earth today.  

All is well in Arkansas, have a wonderful week and I love y'all!!

                       

                Searcy Zone Leadership                               Baseball with the Mauldins                                                            

Week 93

Spanish Amigos

  It was awesome talking with y'all on Skype yesterday!   After skyping we went to try some recent converts and less actives.  We went to a recent converts apartment and they were not home. We saw there were some people walking around a few doors down and I we felt that we needed to knock that door.  We knock the door and a lady opens up and was like hey y'all got to the same church as my neighbors right?   Then she started asking us a bunch of questions about our basic beliefs, and she was happy and surprised how "normal" they were.  We clarified to her what the BOM was and gave her another copy, because the Recent convert had giver her a copy.  Then she asked about blessings on homes, and if we do things like that because they just moved in. We said yes and I offered to give a blessing on the home.  Alyssa, Charles y the family all got together and we had a kneeling prayer as I blessed the home.  It was a cool experience, and  they even asked us if they could come to church and what time it was at!  It's amazing what small promptings will lead you to. Later that night when we were driving back home we get a call from that recent convert, and he said when he pulled in his neighbors couldn't wait to talk to him.  They told him we had came by and blessed their home, and how she and her daughter had felt the spirit really strong during the blessing on the home!!  The Lords work continues to amaze me.  

  As well on Friday night we got the zone together on a conference call, and we all knelt in prayer as we fasted to set 20 baptismal dates as a zone on our super Searcy Saturday!  There was definitely power as the whole zone was united on their knees in prayer.   We sure saw the fruits of the fast from the next day.  In the morning we went to see a truck driver Richard, his name had popped into my head the night before while planning. I had never met him but talked to him on the phone and, he seemed really nice.  We got to their house and they were out on the porch.  We pretty much  went straight into the restoration telling them how awesome it was.  They were all paying attention and but they didn't have much time.   We ended the lesson pretty quickly and boldly invited them to be baptized on June 11.  Richard agreed to it at first, but wasn't too committed.  Then Elder Plaira mentioned somethings about Authority and everything just clicked in his head, and he told us how he can't wait to learn more.  He started testifying to his friend that she needed to be baptized by the proper authority and how much it would help her!  It was an awesome experience, and as a zone overall we had an awesome day setting 18 baptismal dates and seeing miracles throughout the zone!  

  We also set a date with a lady name Melanie later that day, and we taught the lesson outside.  She had no chairs so we taught the lesson form the back of the truck.  She came to church the next morning and seemed to like it especially with her occasion "amens" throughout some of the speakers talks haha.  I'll sure miss the culture here in the house!  Overall great week, and this week should be grand as well.  Have a great week y'all!

Exchanges with Elder Bare

Week 92

                             

                                   

A cliff we found in Arkansas, as good as it gets!

  Una buena semana aquí en Searcy!  This week we were really busy again with lot´s of teaching an exchanges!  We started off the week well, by going to dinner  with the Sherwood's.  They live in a small town own named Beebe and live on the little Farm.  After dinner he took us out to go Milk his goat.   He then sprayed the goat milk directly into our mouths!  It actually tasted a lot better than I thought it would, and then he taught me how to milk to the goat.  It was way fun!  

This week was actually transfer week for the rest of the mission.  So there was a lot of exchanges in our zone, but we still have a lot of good missionaries so we are excited about that!  And to answer your questions form last week Elder Plaira is a zone leader and it's his first time being one.  He just got transferred from his first area and has been out about 10 months!  

One day we went out to see Dee and to our surprise her daughter Jeanene answered the door and then after went back to sit on the couch.  Where she normally will leave right when we get there.  Recently we have been able to talk to a little more like outside and she has been opening up.  But we were able to teach her and really just explain what our purpose is as missionaries and remind her of her role as a daughter of God.  She really enjoyed the lesson, and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon.  When we were leaving I went to grab my Bible and then the BOM by instinct and she was like "hey that's my copy".  She's pretty excited to read it!  

Remember how  we went up to the fair in Heber Springs the other week?  So we had gotten an address for a lady in Kensett which is a tiny town right next to Searcy.  So we went and knocked the door and no one answered so we left a not.  Then we got a referral for a lady named Tammy so we called her and it was her!  She had called in to Mormon,org  and told them she is dating a member and had met the missionaries before, and wants them to come over.  We have an appointment with her this afternoon which should be great!  The fruits are already showing front he 2 days at the fair.  

We also went up to Batesville to do exchanges, I went with Elder Jennings but this time we went down to Searcy.  It went well and it' always great to see him and his companion Elder Taleni.  He is Samoan and a super great guy!  That is about all I can think of for this week!    Y'all have a great week, love y'all lots!

                     

                                            The ward Grill out with Tanya y Larry                

  Week 91

                                                    

   Where to begin, so many things happened in this past week it's been awesome! Well to start off the week we had exchanges with the AP's.  Luckily they both stayed in our area, so it was more effective.  I went with Elder Cunningham and we were able to visit a lot of people.  We went to see Amber who we have now taught serveral times.  On the way to the lesson I knew we needed to set a baptism date so I pulled up the calendar and felt like we should ask her to be baptized May 21st.  The lesson went super well and when I came time I asked her if she would be baptized on that date.   She then stopped and dropped what was in her hand and looked at us.  We weren't sure what was going on and then she said "On my Birthday???"  She said that would be awesome, and she excited to prepare herself to be baptized that day.  It's great how the smallest promptings of the spirit can make such big differences.  

  For the rest of Tuesday Elder Pearson and I went and said goodbye to everyone that her knew here.  It was sad to see him have to go, but he left such a good impression on so many people.  After saying goodbye to Cori's kids she texted us saying she came home to a 9 year old balling and was so grateful for the impression that we have had on their family.  They are going to love my new companion Elder Plaira as well.

                       

  On Wednesday we headed to NLR fro Mission Leadership council and following that we did our transfers.  As I said last week my new companion is Elder Plaira and he is from the Philippines!!  He's super awesome and we already get a long really well.  He was a pretty famous rockstar over in his country and has an incredible voice.  He is super humble about it and won't really admit to it though.   My first few days with him have been great! During the weekend we actually went up to a town called Heber Springs for a fair where we had a booth set up.  It was all the Elders in the district and for two days we passed out tons of cards, pamphlets, and Book of Mormons.  It was a cool experience and we got a lot of return appointments for the Elders up there as well.  It is a super pretty town up there, and it's even got a lake and beach that we took some pictures by.  

   Here in Searcy we have a recent convert named Judith and she is from the Philippines.  She was super solid, but recently got offended and hasn't been able to express herself super well because of the language barrier.  So we told her that my new companion was going to be from the Philippines and she was excited.  When Elder Plaira got here we went over to see her.  The language in the Philippines that everyone knows is Tagalog, and then everyone has their own personal dialects.  He started talking to her in Tagolog and then came to find out that they speak the same dialect "ilonggo", and they were able to speak to each other in that.  Judith lit up and was so excited about that and really opened up to him.  Now we know her real concerns and are going to be able to help her better.  It's another testimony to me of the inspiration that President Wakolo receives for the mission.  And it looks like Judith will start coming back to church again!

   As well we had a dinner appointment with a less active family who are way cool.  We walk up the driveway and the son Devin said he had a friend inside and she may or may not be interested in the gospel and this was our chance to teach her.  We were able to teach her the restoration and she really enjoyed it.  Devin also bare his testimony which was the most powerful part of the whole lesson.  It was strengthening for everybody there in that room, and even though they are not active, he knows how much the BOM has helped him. Now we are going to start teaching his friend, and they invited us over to dinner this next week as well.

   Sunday was great as well as we were able to visit several of the members and talk about the missionary work.  Our bishopric member invited us to the baptism of his son in his backyard pool.  His house is crazy nice, and it was a good opportunity to get to know him better.  I met his wife and she is Hispanic, she said we could go to her mom's house and she will make us food from Salvador!  Also that night our Stake President called us and asked if we could go on splits with us and his son!  We were able to see several less actives and it was awesome to go teaching with the stake president.  He is the only stake president I have gone out teaching with, and he has done it several times. The work is great here in Searcy and we are excited for this upcoming transfer! 

Hope y'all had a great week, I love y'all!!        

Week 90

Riding with Elder Pearson

  Well this week has been quite the crazy and great week at the same time!  As mentioned in the title it was my last full week serving with Elder Pearson ::(.   He has been serving as zone leader for a long time, so he will be getting released and transferred to a new area.  It has been so great serving with him. He has been one of my favorite companions!  He's taught me a bunch and we've had a lot of great times, He'll be getting transferred this Wednesday!  This next transfer I will be serving with Elder Plaira!!  He is from the Philippines, and I've heard a lot of great things about him.  

   At the beginning of the week we headed up to a town called Batesville to do an exchange before our big Zone Conference.  I went with Elder Jennings and we had an awesome exchange.  I got to teach several lessons in Spanish which is always the best!   I met for the first time a Mexican that is from Tijuana!  We we teaching all that day, and met a lot of great people.  

  We then drove down to Jacksonville for our Zone Conference.  This conference was also the time that they would be installing TIWI's on our car.  They are little boxes attached to the windshield that yell at you when you are going too fast, braking too hard, and don't have your seatbelt buckled. We are actually one of the last missions in US y Canada to get them.  They are kind of cool, and will reduce a lot of accidents and everything.  Also the AP's took our Chevy Colorado that we had, but luckily we got a new Nissan Frontier which is pretty sweet as well!  

  In our area we were finally able to see the Mauldin's again after a little while without seeing them.  They have been really busy but we're excited to see us again!  We taught her y the two boys a great lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They loved it and she even gave us a candle melter for our apartment.  They are planning it out so her aunt or daughter can make it out to the baptism towards the beginning of May.  What was awesome is they Cori and her Husband Jeremy made it to church this Sunday!!!!  Unfortunately the kids were at their grandparent, but that was a huge step for Jeremy to come to church and afterwards she texted us saying that they loved it.  

  As well our friend Joey was able to make it to sacrament meeting, and he had some good questions about it.  It was cool because we saved a seat for the Mauldin's and him.  Pearson was sitting in between them so there wasn't room for me on the bench.   I just went back and sat by a guy I didn't really recognize.  The whole back row ended  up being a bunch of Harding students (Harding is basically BYU for Church of Christ) that were there to learn about the different religions.  But he was asking questions and I got talking to him y his friend after.  And she turned out to be majoring in Spanish, so I got to talk to Spanish with her and it was super cool!  They were great people, and it was a cool little experience that I ended up being able to go back and sit by them.  

  We were able to teach y find a lot this week, and while finding we found this lady named Amber.  She came out and we had a lesson right outside of her house.  We started talking and she had a lot of questions, and we basically taught the restoration, and plan of salvation in the same lessons.  She said a lot of what we taught went in line with her personal beliefs.   Fast forward to Saturday and we are able to bring a member with us to teach her.  We gave her a teachings from Ezra Taft Benson book because she wanted to learn more about what modern day prophets taught.  Then we read the introduction with the BOM with her.  While reading we got to the part that says "Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity..."  She then immediately asked, "well what are yours?".  So Elder Pearson and I were both able to bare strong testimonies of how the BOM has blessed our lives and she really enjoyed those.  It was a powerful moment, and she said that our testimonies answered several questions that she had been having.  We are going to visit her again this week, and it should be great!  

  Well that's what I got for this week, there is going to be a ton of change this upcoming week.  Love y'all lots and have a great week!  

Us with Brother Shirley sporting our favorite baseball teams!

Week 89

The Searcy Zone

  This week has kind of been crazy with two meetings and everything else!  Earlier on in the week I was on Exchanges with Elder Hawkes here in Searcy area, and we ended up seeing a bunch of people which was great.  After that exchange we had our zone meeting.  The Sister training leaders had it all set up so it was primary themed because, we are going to be reading the New Testament and focus on Christ like attributes for the next couple of months.  Everyone in the Zone was seated in the little primary seats, and then for questions and other things we pulled Popsicles sticks out of a jar that the Sisters had made.  The zone meeting overall went really well.  It was the first Zone Meeting I had instructed at.  It's always a great experience instructing, because things will pop into your head that your weren't planning on saying!  Instructing with Elder Pearson always goes really well!  We presented the March Madness trophy to Elder Ceron y Santiago (my grandson y son) as they beat us in the championship game in the Searcy March madness.  

  After Zone meeting Elders Geddes and Elder Taleni spent a day with us in Searcy before the leadership meeting.  They blitzed the area, and we drove out to Augusta to give a Book of Mormon to a lady.  She loved it, but said she felt nervous because she hadn't talked to the Elders before haha!  The next morning we all headed to NLR for the leadership training with President Wakolo!  It was an awesome meeting, and I got to see a lot of good friends there.  The Cahoon's who were an office couple at the beginning of my mission returned back to the office for another mission, so it was great to see them!  

 We were able to teach a good amount through that week, but all of our lessons that were set up with members all seemed to keep falling through.  We were able to see the Lagoms. again after a super long time. They were so happy that we dropped by and said they felt bad, because they have been super busy and kept forgetting to respond.  We were able  to set up an appointment with the Husband Alex the next day.  He is from Uruguay so he speaks Spanish.  We taught him a great lesson in English, really getting to know his understanding of religion and the gospel.  We helped him understand some questions he had about God, and I showed him a Mormon message at the end in Spanish which he loved.  He told us that in that lesson we answered several questions that he had been having recently.  That was a cool experience, and I think it is going to help him a lot being able to express himself in Spanish more now that I'll be there to teach him.  They are an awesome family, and we are super pumped to keep seeing them, especially because they were a member referral.  They also gave us two free boxes of Samoa girls scouts cookies!

 We saw Cori and the family several times this week which was awesome.  Unfortunately they were not able to make it to church.  They are still doing great, and we have an appointment set up with them tonight.  We are going to move their baptismal dates so one of her daughters who is an active member in Oklahoma can come and see the baptism!  

  We had fast Sunday this week, and had a really good fast y testimony meeting.  There is a guy named Pedro in our ward who only speaks Spanish and can only stay for sacrament, because he works so much supporting his family in Mexico.  But he went up to bare his testimony in Spanish, and one of the bishopric members started to translate for him and he was struggling.  People started looking at me, and then I walked up to the stand and was able to translate Pedro's testimony.  He gave an awesome testimony, sharing some very cool experiences.  The spirit was strong, and it was great being able to have that opportunity, Definitely a highlight for my Sunday! And that'll about do it for the week!  Oh also I got my first tick last night, it was pretty crazy pulling it out!  And the weirdest part is earlier in the day was the first time someone showed me what a tick looked like.

Elder Geddes with Spanish Missionaries

Augusta, Arkansas

          Con amor,
         Elder Geddes                                                                          

                           

Week 89

Mission Leadership Council

  This week was a great one, especially ending it off with General conference!  It's always the best being able to listen to a living prophet, apostles, and other leaders of Jesus Christ's church here on the earth today!  There were several talks that covered exactly what we had been talking about with some of our investigators.   These men are no doubt called of God, and if we follow their advice (God's advice) in these last days we will come out triumphant.  It saddens me when people aren't able to accept there are living Prophets on the earth.  How happy they would be if they would just follow them. They world would be in a better place.  I loved how they talked about verse 7 in "How Firm a Foundation".  We have always sung that as a mission, because it's President Wakolo's favorite song.  

  At the beginning of the week we headed down to Lonoke for a district meeting and then I went on exchanges with Elder Thurgood to a tiny town called Brinkley!  Missionaries were recently called to that area, and in the last couple weeks they were able to start a group which is pretty cool!  We had a great exchange, There was a hotel that had just burned down and we went to took a picture by it.  A guy came over and asked if we were  Mormons. After we said yes he said "get the ..... Off m y property" it was pretty funny!  Also the third largest Bridal store in the world is located in Brinkley for some reason it's called "Low's".  When we exchanged back we went to a Mexican restaurant and the waiter gave me two free extra enchiladas, I think he loved that a gringo was speaking Spanish!  

 This week we have been consistently seeing Cori and her kids (Brayden, Hayden y Payton).  That has been going super well, and we were able to teach them the Plan of Salvation  and the kids retained it really well.  They are loving the gospel, and it's been great teaching them.  We as well watched the restoration video with them and after we left her husband came in y asked what the video was about.  So they watched it again, which was pretty sweet!  He has been listening from a distance, and I know he'll really enjoy the Gospel once he gets engaged.   We have plans to see them many times this week, and we are excited about!  

 We also were able to see Joey y Auburn, and they fed us several times to this week.  We had some really big Bible discussions with him this week, pretty much covering everyone.  It really just all comes down to if the BOM is true or not.  He is continuing reading it, and If he keeps doing that with sincerity he will be able to receive the divine witness.  We had pizza one night with them, and they had this raspberry chipotle Tabasco sauce that they didn't like.   Elder Pearson and I tried it on our pizza and both really liked it.  They gave us the bottle, and they said on the back it said it was good on ice cream which sounded really weird.  We ended up getting ice cream at our apartment and we put the Tabasco sauce on it and it was unreal!  

  We had a Mission Leadership Council in North Little Rock.  It was great going back and seeing all my good friends!  All is going great here in Searcy we are excited for this upcoming week as we have a Zone Meeting which should be good!  I love y'all and have a great week!