Week 65

Dinner with the Callejas

  This week was a super busy week which made for a great week!  The weather is starting to change as the leaves have been falling and it's been raining a lot more.  My companion thinks it's super cool...he'll be in for a treat in about a month or so.  

  We were able to bring six different members to some of the lessons that we had which was super awesome!  First we were able to see our investigator Re. a few times this week.  The first lesson of the week went pretty well y she really felt that she  needed to improve on reading. We helped her with a few ideas so she would be able to read.  So by the next  lesson later on in the week she had read the chapter that we left her!  This lesson we were able to teach the Plan of Salvation.  We were in a trio with Elder Doty that day, and as well as a member had come with us to the lesson.  We start teaching the Plan of Salvation and it is going super well. She felt that it just made sense that we lived with our Heavenly Father on the earth.  We then talked about Adam y Eve y she said "I heard it was part of God's plan that they were supposed to fall".  Very rare that I have had an investigator that already knew it.  After that she had questions about our purpose on life, and it just led the lesson perfectly.  By the end of the lesson she was telling us that is just makes sense especially that God would give everyone a fair chance to accept the gospel.  We had talked about baptism with her before, but at the end of the lesson we were able to set a solid baptismal date in November!  So that was a great experience as the Spirit testified unto her about the great plan of happiness!  We are excited to continue helping her as she feels she has reached a point of her life where she needs to turn herself over to the Lord.  She was planning on coming to church but unfortunately the morning of her baby was sick y she wasn't able to come.  Next week she should be coming though! 

 On another day we had planned to go to an appointment that we had with a lady we had found y we had brought a member.  We go knock on the door, and they were cooking so they asked if we could come back in  a few hours.  After that it was just about time to head to dinner, but I felt that we needed to knock on this trailer on the corner.  A guy had told us to visit it, but we were not sure if that was even the right one.  Some kids were outside y they said that their mom was inside. We knocked and the mom answered, and was just kind of confused who we were.   We explained that we were missionaries, but she still just had a puzzled look on her face. She had never heard of us or our church before. She wanted us to sit down and tell her more.  We explained to her the basics of what we do as missionaries and what we believe.  Then Elder Ceron mentioned something about eternal families, and she cut him off mid sentence and said "speaking of that my husband and I were about to separate not too long ago, but we decided to wait and endure a little longer.  My  husband told me that he felt that some people from a church were going to come to their house, invite them to church y help them become more united as a family!"  She was telling us how we probably didn't believe her ha ha.!  A few days later we were able to come back and teach her with an awesome member from they ward.  That was super cool, and amazing how God always guides us to where we need to go as long as we are listening.  She was telling us that she thought there was no way people would come,  because they don't know a lot of people here, and the she said and here you are.  God works in mysterious ways!  

  We are continuing working with Cla. y it is going super well!  I've said this before, but recently we can tell the difference in his character and how he acts ,because of the changes he had started to make.  His family keeps telling us how sad they are going to be if I get transferred.  They are super awesome y honestly feel like my Hispanic family here in Jonesboro!  We are hoping to continue helping him get closer to baptism as he continues learning about the gospel.  

  Overall it was a great week, y we are excited to see what is prepared for us this week!  It could be my last week here but with President Wakolo, you just never know what is going to happen!  I love y'all and hope you week is great!  

Good old Green Tree Frog!

Week 64

Elder Geddes in front of the ASU Librray

Dear Mom (Abuela),

  Congrats on being a Grandmother!!  Your wait has finally ended, that's so awesome and I'm glad to hear that everything went well.  It's crazy to think that I'm an uncle!

  Well another solid week here in the great city of Jonesboro!  We have had some great experiences this week as we did a lot of finding.  One night we were finding in a trailer park y we talked to three guys outside, There is one in particular who seemed to stand out a little more.  We talked to them for a little bit y were able to get all their addresses. Then we were walking in the same trailer park just 10 minutes after y we felt that we should knock on a certain trailer.  We knocked without noticing the number, and it was that same guy we had talked to just a few minutes before!  He told us he was interested to go to church with his family.  It was a cool little experience and we are hoping to see them a few times this week.  

   As well we were able to see Cla. a few times this week.  One of the days his wife y other family took us out to eat which  was super nice of them.  And another night we were able to bring a member to a lesson.  We had a great lesson on the importance of setting goals as we act in faith, and we were able to talk about a baptismal date with him.  He said he would work towards that date, and even told us him y his wife had done some prayers together which was a huge step for them!  That was nice to see some more progression in him, as well as he came to church yesterday.  

  Other than that just had met a lot of other cool people, and we have several return appointments this week.  And to answer your question, yup we eat Southern food all the time.  The classic is  BBQ, baked beans, and some slaw.  The work is going well here, and we are excited going into the month of November as we have a mission goal of 100 baptisms as we did last year!  We are looking forward to seeing even more miracles than last year.  Something I was reminded of this week was a great principle of miracles.  God will never cease to work miracle.,They will only cease to exist by lack of faith.  I know this is so true, and we must continue forward in the miracles we have already witnessed in our lives, and not just be looking for the next miracle.  Instead preparing ourselves by being the best possible instrument in the hand of the Lord. God is so loving y his works are miraculous!  I love y'all and hope that you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Geddes

Week 63

Zone with their Trainers and trainees, and Pres. Wakola

  This week was a pretty normal week here in Arkansas, One day we were out contacting some people and one of our investigators that Elder Hernandez y I had was sitting outside.  We hadn't seen her for a couple months so we went y talked to her.  Come to find out she is best friends with Bri.!  That was kind of cool y Bri. has been telling her how awesome it has been, and has gotten her to start reading in the Book of Mormon again.  We are hoping that we will be able to start teaching both couples and get them all progressing!  

We were able to see Bri. y Ja. once again this week, y were able to bring Sister Boudrero with us as well.  That went super well y we taught them the Plan of Salvation.  They are learning a lot and have been reading in the Book of Mormon.  They were planning on church but we aren't sure what happened.  She told us she would explain later, but we are going to be able to see them a couple times this week.  

Elder Geddes, Nikki, Jason, and Elder Ceron

 This week we went over several time and we were able to talk with Nikki.  She has been doing great y she wants to continue to progress even more and asked us if we could come over every day starting next week to be able to help her learn more!  That was super awesome, so we were really looking forward to that.  We hadn't seen Jason. for a few days because he had been working in Memphis.  On Sunday afternoon we went over to stop by y see how everything was going?   Then they told us that they were moving that day :(.  They are moving to Memphis, but we are super sad to see them leave.  They were both progressing so well, and Jason has such a strong testimony, and Nikki has progressed so much, It has been so cool to see.  It was always the best teaching both of them.  We were able to take a picture with them y say goodbye so that was nice.  We will have the Elders in Millington y they can help them towards their baptism.  Jason wants me to come to the baptism so hopefully that will happen coming up in the next month.  That was a little sad for us, but we are grateful to be able to get to know them and are excited that they are still continuing forward.  They are going to receive so much light by accepting the gospel into their lives.  

 Other than just another good Missionary week!  For your questions I do need some more contacts I have one more pair left I think.  I haven't been able to go to the dentist, not really sure who to go to.  And yup our district doubled in size!  We are actually the only Spanish missionaries in the entire zone.  We are grateful for the people we are teaching right now and are looking forward to those who we will be able to find this upcoming week!  

Love, Elder Geddes                                                                                         

Elder Geddes and Elder Lewis getting in a little Golf on P-Day!

Week 62

La Semana de Conferencia General

The Jonesboro Disitrict 

  What and amazing weekend it was to be able to sustain three new apostles, and listen to the Prophets y apostles that guide and lead us today.  The spirit is always so strong during their talks. We are so blessed to be able to have that guidance for our families in these days with the world and it's constant changing values.  I always love Conference weekend, especially as a missionary.  It's a great time to look back and reflect on how we can improve in our own lives.  

  This week we had a few really cool experiences.  Remember the couple Brii. y Jai. from last week that came to church?  We were able to see them with a member one night and teach them the Restoration.  The lesson went super well, and they are both just so ready to learn, even though everything is super new to them.  We were able to invite them to be baptized, and both of them without hesitation said yes!!  That was awesome and they committed to come to conference.  On Friday night she even text us saying that they would be attending the Sunday morning session.  Unfortunately, 3 o clock in Sunday morning we got a text from her saying she had just gotten back from the hospital with their baby and wouldn't be able to make it, but was hoping we could still come on Tuesday.  That was really cool that she wanted to let us know as soon as possible, and shows us that these things are important to them.  We are excited to see them this Tuesday, and help them to learn more in the Gospel as they progress towards their Baptismal date..

  

Eating with our Investigators

  Another awesome thing that happened is when we went to see Cla..  Right at the beginning he told us that he had been reading in the Book of Mormon.  He told us he had asked God to show him where to read.  He was just kind of flipping the pages, and happened to stop on Moroni 10:4.  He said that stuck out to him super strong and he though it was so cool, because it was exactly what we had been talking about.  He knew he was meant to read that verse,, and says that he knows El Libro de Mormon is the word of God.  It's been amazing seeing the spirit work on him, from starting at not even wanting a copy of the LDM, to receiving a spiritual witness of the truthfulness of it. He was able to make it to Priesthood Session with us on Saturday night.  

  Other than that this week was just a great week, especially the weekend with Conference.  I'm excited to see what is in store for this upcoming week!   

Love,

Elder Geddes

Spyders are huge in Arkansas!

Week 61

  Another week has already flown by, and we are approaching General Conference once again.   It felt like 2 months ago that we had the last one.   We were sad to hear the passing of another Apostle with Richard G. Scott.  We as missionaries are so out of the loop that we didn't hear about his passing until 3 days after.  We were at a a dinner about to share a spiritual thought, and she said something about Scott dying. We were really surprised.  But the cool part was I had already pulled a video up to share and it was by Richard G. Scott!

   Well this week really was another really awesome week!  We have met once again some promising people, and we are pumped to go see them this week!  Earlier on in this week we were doing some finding around Tina's house, and we felt that we needed to go down a certain street.  There was a house that we went up to, and we saw them in their front living room.  We heard them talking, and as we knocked they told us to come right in.  They were relieved to find out we were Mormon's, and not from another faith ha ha!  But there names are Reg. y Car..  Reg. was telling us some things that had been happening in her life, and how she has been looking to be nurtured by the word of God.  Car.is an Elderly lady that lives across the street but is always visiting.  She was hilarious the whole time. She was raving about how great of people we were, and how we were sent to them at that time to help them.  We were able to get to know them y set up a return appointment.  On the return appointment we brought a member with us, Sister B!  The car wasn't there, but Carol was waiting there for us. Re. told her to wait because she didn't want us to miss her while she dropped her baby off.  Then Re. came back y we taught both of them the Restoration.  When we started they asked if we brought the Book of Mormon's as promised, because we were out last time.   It was a good lesson, although everyone was trying to tell their story, but we got through it.  They were super excited to get to read the Book of Mormon and learn more.  Car. the whole time just kept on saying how great we were even though we were the first missionaries she had actually talked with.    We were able to set up a return appointment.  On the day of the return appointment Carol called us all worried how she felt so bad she wasn't going to be a the appointment, because it was her Birthday. She didn't want us to think we were hiding from her, and she said she was reading in the Book of Mormon.  She is so funny, and it's so great!  She wants to come to church this week!  It was a great experience of how the Lord will continually guide us to people who are waiting for us.  

  Another story from the week was with the Ja. y Ni. family.  We were able to see them a couple times this week which was awesome.  We had an appointment with them on Saturday. and that morning we called and got it confirmed.  That night we invited a member to join us.  As the member pulled up to this appointment I looked at the phone trying to pull up this text that had come in a few hours later, but earlier it wouldn't let me open it saying "no information." and it had somehow gotten moved to the bottom of all the texts.   I tried to open it up again as we were in front of their house, and this time it pulled up and it was Ja. who had text a couple hours earlier saying he had to cance,l but he would be at church in the morning.  We were already at the house with the Member so we decided to go anyways.  They were out back doing some things, and we talked for a while y explained the text thing.  They said we could come in anyways.  We had planned to teach the 10 commandments y were really praying to know if we should teach the Word of Wisdom that night. because they still hadn't gone to church.  We were able to teach lesson, and had just an awesome lesson with him. We were going to start teaching the Word of Wisdom, and  he kind of mentioned it himself how he wanted to improve a few things!  It was an amazing experience of how the Lord allowed us to teach him that night, because it was no doubt something he needed.  He said they were coming to church no matter what, even if the house burnt down.  Well long story short he text "on my way" on Sunday morning, and then right after that they  got called to pick up Nikki's kid unexpectedly and weren't able to come.  We saw them that night and Jason was a little sad he couldn't make it, He said I had my tie on an everything ha ha!  He did tell us that on that day he had called some of his LDS friends that he had when he lived in Memphis.  He told them he was getting baptized!! He said they are going to try and make it out to the baptism.   Ja. y Ni.i are both so awesome and we scheduled his baptism for the 11th!  We are just super excited for that, and he has such a strong testimony already.  He has seen many blessing in his life already with listening to the gospel, I just can't wait to see the blessings rain upon them as they are baptized and fully live the gospel.

  Another cool thing that happened that yesterday at church was that Cla. came again as well as Bri. an American friend of theirs y her husband Jai.  We had met them once or twice at Cla., but we never have taught him, because we are always speaking Spanish there.  She told us at church she wanted to start coming every week, so her kid can grow up in it.  After church I asked if they had any other questions, and she turned to her husband and said "can we come back next week".  That was sweet, y I gave them the Restoration pamphlets, and was able to set up an appointment to go to their house for the first time.  That was a tender mercy for sure on Sunday!  

  Really it was just a great week here in Jonesboro! General Conference this week is going to be amazing! Such a strength to our lives to be able to listen the words of living Prophets called of God.  We also have a lot of investigators that are looking forward to watching it.   I'm just loving it here, and the members and people here are all so awesome!  Have another great week, love you tons!

Love, 

Elder Geddes

Week 60

  This week was an interesting week, but it ended up being a great week overall!  We are still working with the H. family and were able to see them a few times this week.  They have been so busy with work we haven't been able to set up a solid appointment to teach them a lesson.  They are doing good though and just some things have happened recently that have made their life kind of crazy.  But we are really praying that this week we will get to see them more consistently and help them progress and be able to enjoy of the many blessing included in the gospel.

 One day we were walking down a street and we felt that we should go knock on a certain door after a few people hadn't answered.  A lady answered and asked who we were, and then told us to come right on in.  She had never talked to missionaries before,but she just decided to let us in.  We were able to get to know her, and then just go right into teaching the restoration to her and a relative.  We could tell that they were really interested, and understanding about the apostasy and the proper authority.  They were telling us how they wanted to know the whole truth and not just part of it.  Towards the end of the lesson Lisa even told us that she had been praying for someone to come help her find the truth, because she has kind of gone astray recently. That was an awesome experience, and we were able to set solid baptismal dates with both Lisa y Nicole!  We have an appointment coming up with them this week so that should be great!

 Also we were able to see the family of C. several times this week.  A few of the times he wasn't there so we were able to teach more of the family!  It went really well, and it was nice to focus more on them because sometimes when we teach C. the lesson gets centered all around him. and it is hard to include everyone. We were teaching some of the daughters and B.. told us that her husband wanted to come to church at our church this week!  Her husband is the one who we have probably seen the least amount out of anybody there.  That was an awesome surprise for us!  So on Sunday B.. E., G. y C. all were able to come to church!!  It was super cool to see them come again, and the other two for the first time.  There were some great classes in the church that definitely helped them.  And the members did a great job fellowshipping them, and making them feel welcome.  We are hoping to start teaching more of the family, and we believe through that we will help them all come together in striving towards being an eternal family!  They are awesome, and they are just way nice to us.  Overall great week, and we were able to do plenty of service as always!

Have a wonderful week, and enjoy the amazing fall weather there in Utah!  Love you lots!

Love,

Elder Geddes

Week 59

   

 Great week here in Jonesboro Arkansas, the weather has finally started cooling down and it feels amazing!  The Fall weather here is always the best. It's weird to think that one year ago from this week I arrived in Arkansas.  It's awesome to look back at all that has happened in the last year, and think of the many experiences I have had that will be influential on me for the rest of my life.

   This week was a pretty awesome week!  Remember about the family I told you about last week?  Yeah they are doing super awesome.  To start off the week were were able to go teach Jas., Nik. and the babysitter Ali. with a couple from the ward. When we showed up we were able to talk to Jason outside for a little bit.  He told us that he had read all that we had left him (2 chapters y a pamphlet).  And as well he thought it was super awesome that other witnesses were able to see the Book of Mormon.  So with that, on his own he had read all the witnesses at the beginning of the Book of Mormon.  That was so sweet he was able to do that, and he had a lot of great questions.  We taught them the Plan of Salvation and it went super well, the spirit was there in that lesson and learning about the plan of happiness really helped them to understand some things that had happened in their lives.  We were also able to set some Baptismal dates with them for the upcoming month.  It went super well! They were excited about getting prepared, and trying all they could do to get ready.  Later that week we went to teach them with another couple in the ward and we had a pretty deep lesson. Overall it went well.  We were able to help Nikki with some big questions and concern that she had with stuff that had happened earlier in her life.  Us and the couple that were with us were able to share some personal stories and testimonies to help her understand a little better.  They also committed to coming to church that next day.  Long story short, they weren't able to come to church because they called into work last second for some final inspections.  They wanted us to come over that night and visit them.  We were able to talk with Nikki and as we walked up one of the first things she asked us if she could move her baptismal date to later on in the month to a significant date for her.  We told her of course, and she explained to us more why she wanted to do it.  She said she wanted to take everything seriously, and that she didn't want to get baptized unprepared.  She knows it is going to take a lot to get her prepared.  She went on to telling us how some things that we had told her the night before really got her thinking, and she was able to set some great goals with that in mind.   

  When we have taught them we have always kind of taught them outside, but last week was the first time we went inside their house and were able to teach them.  She told us last night that the first time we came inside and taught them that the whole time we were in there she could feel something on her chest.  We told her that was the spirit and she says that she knows that there is no way it could have been anything else.  That is such a big testimony builder to me on the real power of the spirit testifying of our words.  How blessed we are to share the gospel with the spirit as our companion.  Without the spirit the mission work would be impossible.  That was an amazing experience and we are looking forward to continue teaching them, they are such a solid family and I know the light that his gospel will bring them without a doubt.  They are super awesome, and as well we are working with some other great people!  

   That was the highlight from this week!  It's amazing how some days everything can go wrong and then that one little thing will just make it the best day ever.  That happens all the time in the missionary work, heavenly father blesses us with tender mercies todos los dias!  Have a wonderful week, I love you lots!  

Love,

Elder Geddes