메리 크리스마스

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!

I hope your Christmas has been as good as mine has been!! 

The Christmas spirit is so strong and you can feel it so well as a missionary.  This Christmas is going to be one that I'll always remember.  Things ended up not working out with Hammed so we weren't able to baptize him yet.  He needs to have a current long term visa and his expired like two years ago. So we will work with him to try to get one.  But just it's been a testimony to me that things happen for a reason and that in the end God's plan will work out.  Hammed is so prepared to be a member of the church. I know he will get baptized eventually. On the Lords time.  And when the Lord decides it's his time. But for some reason it wasn't this week.  

This week was spent a lot outside of my area.  I went on exchanges with the zone leader Elder Orndorff wednesday and thursday so I got to spend a few days in Daegu working in the Suseong area.  We ended up going to the military base which was pretty sweet.  I had my first dinner apointment with an American family.  We ate Korean fried chicken of course though.  That was cool.  And then on Friday we had our mission Christmas party in Busan.  It was super cool to see some old MTC friends.  Me Elder Meyer and Elder Hubble were reunited again so that was fun.  We also watched a cool video that BYU put out called Winter Thaw, if you haven't seen it go watch it. It's super good.  

We had a branch Christmas party on Christmas eve.  That was super fun! We did a play about Jesus' life and miracles.  I was the donkey in his birth.  And then I played the man himself in the missionary production of Jesus Christ's miracles.  So I had to memorize lines straight out of the Korean Bible.  I was so broke.  I forgot half the words that I was suppose to say... But the members seemed to enjoy it. And they had tons of fun!

Christmas morning we woke up, opened a few presents and then went to the church for sacrament meeting!  After sacrament meeting we went and sang Christmas carols to some people living in a care center and then went out to jundo (sticker board proselyting).  Pretty much a normal day except almost everyone I jundo'd to was drunk haha.  That's what they do on Christmas I guess.  

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone! I love you lots and the Lord loves you more!

ps my camera was dead all week but I fixed it, so next week i'll have pics and I'll get christmas pics for ya too.

--

Elder Geddes

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It snowed in Andong this week so it really is beginning to look like Christmas.  Everyone told me this mission is warm so you won't have a problem being cold.  haha Andong is freezing!! It's just like home except I can't wear two layers of sweats and huge puffy jackets :)

This tuesday we did our usual service project and the Silver Bell care center.  We go every week and play games with old 80 year olds.  It's super fun! We played basketball this week. They're super good at it haha! Elder Jang made me start talking to them on my own.  It's super hard cuz you can't understand what most of them are saying at all. ButI can really feel the spirit when I'm trying to serve them.

Yesterday was a super good Sunday.  We ended up having 4 investigators at church.  Brother Kim Gyeongdu and his family showed up again!  I love watching them interact with the members of the branch.
Afterwards Brother Kims wife taught all the ladies in the ward to dance while Brother Kim was talking with the men and me and Elder Jang were talking with their son Kim Beomdo.  They fit in perfectly and our branch is so friendly to our investigators we bring to church. 

We had a baptismal interview scheduled for Hammed on sunday night too.  We were worried because he's been trying to quite smoking and he's made a lot of progress but we weren't sure if he had stopped smoking.
But it turns out that he's been doing good and he passed his interview.  The only problem is that he's not a citizen of this country so President Barrow is going to have to interview with him to see if it's even legal to baptize him.  It's super crazy.  So we're praying for him and crossing our fingers that everything works out.

Spiritual thought this week is just keep your head up.  If you have a positive attitude and look to the future knowing everything is going to be alright and the Lord has a plan for you. Even if it seems like that plan is a bad one, he knows what's best.  Just trust in him and keep going forward with joy.

Love you all! Have a Merry Christmas!

PS camera died. no pics, sorry

--
Elder Geddes

HERE ARE SOME ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WE SENT THIS WEEK:

1.  Have you eaten dog?  

Lol no I haven't eaten dog.  Koreans don't actually eat it that
much... Most dogs here are pets... There is a dog market in Daegu
though, so if I serve there I might go try it :) 

2.  What are the plans for Hameds baptism?

We haven't reallyworked out the details with Hameds baptism, because we just had the

interview last night, he passed but President Barrow wants to
interview him is the rumor i've heard... So we'll see.  We will drive
down to Daegu after church and baptize him in the Suseong ward
building cuz we have not font and it's freezing so we won't do it in
the river.

3.  What are you doing for your ward Christmas party?

For Christmas eve we are throwing a ward Christmas party.  I have to
memorize Jesus' lines in the bible when he casts out a devil and turns
water to wine because I'm playing Jesus in our play of that part of
his life.

So I'll get to talk to you for an hour next week. Thinks of questions for me :)
My district is singing Oh Holy Night in our mission talent show but
that's it for music. I did get the music you sent me tho, thank you
thank you!

4.  What are the youth programs like in Andong?

The young mens is 3 members strong, two of them come to young mens
every week. There is one young woman, but she doesn't come a lot.  2
primary kids.  It's crazy, there's like no people in our branch.  I
love it tho!

5.  Do people really love your blonde hair and blue eyes that much?

Also Koreans think I'm super handsome, but they don't touch my hair.
I've only been asked out on one date so far... I would probably be
asked on more but I can only talk to females when we are sticker
jundoing

Love you fam! Have a merry christmas! I'll talk to you next week!

Hahoe Village and Missionary Spy Work!

안녕하세요!

This week was sweet! I hope it was good for all of you.

Last P-day we had a super cool experience.  We got to go to a place in our area called 하회 마을 (Hahoe Village).  It's this super cool old village in the 안동 countryside.  It has some of the oldest houses in Korea.  Some of them are over 600 years old.  The village was the home of the 류 (Ryu) family. There were two brothers that lived there.  One was a Confuscian scholar and the other was the prime minister during an invasion of Japan at the time.  But that's what the pictures are of.  They also have a mask dance festival there every year so I had to get a mask cuz that's one of the things 안동 is famous for!

So our investigator Hamed that is getting baptized on Christmas, is from Egypt, and because of the political and religious situation there he came to Korea to work.  But the stake president was worried about him and his family's safety with him getting baptized, so we had a talk with Hamed and the stake president and found out that we can baptize him and it'll be alright if no pictures or videos get put online.  Because someone will find out and bad things will happen.  So me and Elder Jang are pretty much doing spy missionary work.  Super cool! But ya, you won't ever see any pictures, just know that I'm not lying when I tell you that I baptized someone.  

Spiritual thought this week is to always have joy.  I was reading my patriarchal blessing this week and just some of the stuff that came to my mind was that I need to always have joy and rejoice for the blessings that God has given us.  As we do that we will be blessed even more and will come to know God and feel his love in our lives.  So I challenge each of you this week to take just a few minutes out of your day to think how God has blessed you that day and to give thanks to him.  I know that if you always have a grateful heart that you will be happier, and feel God's love more in your life.  

Have a good week! I love you all!

-- 

Elder Geddes

December 5 Letter

ENGLISH CLASS AND THE SPIRIT

Hello everyone! Hope all is well! This week was super great! 

On Monday we went shopping and I bought all that I need to survive the winter in Andong! We also got to pass by some cool Buddhist temple stuff while on the way the shops downtown.  There were also some stuff talking about Buddhism there so we stopped and read it.  Super weird.  But they have kind of the same standards and rules as us which is kinda cool.  But ya I'm glad that I can be in this true church which doesn't believe super crazy weird stuff. ;)

On Tuesday we taught English and then went to teach Hamed.  He is so amazing. Super prepared to hear the gospel.  We went in planning to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and about the Word of Wisdom because we know he has problems with that.  We had invited him to read the pamphlet on Gospel of Christ in Arabic before our visit so that he could understand better what we were teaching and he did.  And then we started teaching and it was basically just we would ask his thoughts and he would explain it perfectly (in broken English) but he can really understand the gospel and he feels the spirit.  It is crazy how strong the spirit is in our meetings with him. Even though the language barrier is hard and he likes to get off topic it is so powerful.  We were worried that when we brought up the Word of Wisdom it might scare him off because it's part of his culture and who he is.  But like it says in preach my gospel no one will be offended if you invite them with love and a desire for them to come unto Christ.  It says something like that at least.  So that's what we did, invited him with love to change.  And he said that he had already been trying to quit smoking, and he already knew about the WoW! And then we taught him how to pray from the heart and he prayed at the end of the lesson and after he said that he felt warmth in his heart and knew it was the spirit.  

That is why the spirit is so important in this work.  We could never teach a man that speaks a bit of English and no Korean the gospel without it, and we would never be able to convert anyone. 

On a more funny note, this saturday was English class.  We teach them basic pronunciation, vocab, and conversation.  I do the basic with Sister Jung and Elder Jang does advanced with Sister Lee.  This week the pronunciation practice was the difference between R and L.  Which are the same thing in Korean so it was impossible.  I would say a work like read and they would repeat then I would say lead and they would say the same thing as before.  So they couldn't differentiate between my pronunciation. It was super funny!

And that was my week in nutshell! I love you all! I love the Lord and all that he does for me. I'm so grateful for this short opportunity to serve him in Korea!

The cool Buddhist tower in Andong

The box of 60 bags of seaweed  (which Koreans eat like chips, super good) from Elder Jangs parents.

And teach practice/attempting to embrace the culture

안녕하세요?

I hope you are all well! This week I've been thinking a lot about the things I'm grateful for a lot since it was Thanksgiving!  I'm super grateful for all of my awesome friends and family for helping me stay on the strait and narrow and for always being there for me.  And I'm also grateful for all the amazing people I've met since leaving on my mission. My MTC teachers, my companions I've had and all the people that I've been teaching.

Last P-day was super awesome! We went to this restaraunt up the canyon (I don't know it's really a canyon but we'll call it that) and had this super awesome traditional food that is only found in Andong.  헛제사밥& 간 고등어 It's like a fake Korean worshiping meal.  It's rice, veggies, and fish, and shark, and beef. Doesn't sound super crazy but I guess you only find it in 안동. It was super good!  

We planned to hike up to this Buddhist temple on the other side of the river but we ended up not having time so we just walked across a super cool bridge and went back home to finish grocery shopping and stuff, kind a bummer but it was still way fun!

Last Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving! We had to deep clean the house so we did that and then deep cleaned the church while cooking the food for the meal.  We made chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pizza, and cornbread! Just like home! We even drank root beer which is super hard to get here.  Before we started I shared a thought on Thanksgiving and shared Psalms 100:4 and then we went around the table saying everything we're grateful for! Super fun!

This Saturday was transfer call night so we ordered some chicken and ate while waiting for a call. None came, which is good so me, Elder Jang, Sister Lee and Sister Jung are all staying in Andong!  So the food delivery service in Korea is super good.  You can have anything
you want delivered to your house in 30 minutes, it's one of my favorite things about Korea.  America needs to take a lesson from this.  It's way cool, I'm also super grateful for that.

Sunday was such a miracle! We were told the night before by our branch president that he had a friend that had some interest and would be coming to church! But he showed up at church and his wife and son came with him! So we taught them the first lesson with 0 prep time.  It was my first time in Korea so that was a little scary but it went well and the spirit was super strong.  They seem pretty prepared.  They had to drive all the way from yeongyang to come and they really seemed interested!

So ya that was my week!  I'm super grateful to be serving the Lord! ​​​​​​​​​​​​

​Have a great week everyone! Love you all!

SUPER GOOD ANDONG FOOD

THE AWESOME BRIDGE

A REALLY PRETTY PICTURE OF THE TREES

A FUNNY SNAKE SIGN ON THE PATH WE WERE WALKING HOME ON

My pants handed down from my great grandpa trainer to grandpa trainer to Elder Jang and to me. They are meant for grandmas!

Thanksgiving Dinner!!

Hello friends family and anyone else reading this! I love you!

This week has been full of success and blessings!  I really learned the importance of Faith and trusting in God.

I don't want to say that I was broken down but before this week I really was, I had little faith and was to scared to talk to people cuz I understand nothing.  But this week I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with another newer missionary who doesn't know much Korean either, and we had a big talk about faith and not being afraid.  So, we set out to proselyte on the street for 7 hours straight in Kimcheon. We had a goal to place 7 Books of Mormon, and we really believed we could do it.  Before this my goal was to talk to 5 people a day and I usually didn't meet it or get more than 2 or 3.  But I had to have talked to at least 35 people. We were able to place 9 Books of Mormon that day! Super crazy!

We also have another investigator who made a baptismal date on the exchange.  My companion committed him while I was gone! I'm so excited!

We taught Hamed, our Egyptian investigator this week! We were able to find Arabic pamphlets to give him! He is so excited for his baptism which is awesome! I can't wait for Christmas day so that he can finally have that in his life!

Have a good week everyone! I love you all! I know that if you have faith anything really is possible! 

THE FOLLOWING ARE EXCERPTS FROM AN EMAIL HE WROTE TO THE FAMILY, ANSWERING MANY OF THE QUESTIONS WE PEPPER HIM WITH EACH WEEK:

Hi everyone! I love you all!

The language is coming well! I can understand a word or two here or there when I'm talking.  I mostly just look for the words house, work, buddhist, christian, and atheist and go off of that when contacting.  I can teach the gospel pretty well though for a trainee.  

My companion is super funny! He's from an island in our mission called Goje I think, I'm not sure though, I know which one it is on our map.  He plays the guitar and a bit of piano so at night he plays cool songs on his guitar.  He's a goof ball sometimes, it's really funny.  He's also a super good cook.  Like crazy.  

The branch is super small.  We get 15-23 members at church depending on if there's harvests or anything going on. The branch presidency is just the president and the mission leader.  The mish leader is super cool, he brings us kimbop everyweek for mission conference.  They always make jokes about me when conducting sacrament meeting which is funny.

The members feed us two times a week.  Usually to a restaurant, but when it's at a house it's really just Korean food. Soup, rice, noodles, and side dishes.  Super awesome, but this one member made us steak cuz she didn't know if I could handle Korean food.

We have only taught three real sit down and teach lessons the whole time.  Two to Hamed the egyptian guy and one to 김진훈 .  They both have baptismal dates. Super awesome!

Schedule is different depending on the day.  We wake up at 6:30, do planks and push ups.  Then we get ready, do personal companion and language study.  Eat, do training for an hour and hit the road.  We usually go to the church and do something, which is different depending on the day.  We do a lot of stuff with members and less actives, if you include those we teach, probably 5 lessons a week.  Then we proselyte a little in between meetings and head home to plan from 9-930.  After that it's chill till bed at ten thirty.  It's hard because every day is different. 

The food is crazy.  The Kimchi is way better than the Utah stuff.  I'd have to try it again tho.  Today we are going to try traditional Andong food which could go either way I heard... Not a lot of insane stuff tho, usually just rotten veggies and meat.

The spiders are all dead so I'm not scared haha. 

Have a good week! Love you!

기족과 사랑

Hi everyone! 

This week has been so amazing! I'm constantly feeling the spirit and really learning to love everyone!

Last Monday we had district Pday, so that's why the email stunk.  We only had a half hour to email and it was split into two 15 minute periods.  We went to this amusement park and ice-skated! Super fun!  

Tuesday we had another service activity at the old people home.  After we finished playing games and eating nasty Korean old people food, we helped one of the members whose dad is a nonmember, dig holes to put radishes in for the winter.  So many radishes!  We dug two holes that were 3 feet deep and 10 feet long and filled them with radishes.  Unfortunately the only pics I have of it are on one of the sisters cameras, so I'll get it next week.

We also spent all day Wednesday digging holes for radishes.  

The radishes here are way different than american radishes.  They are super big and green and white.  Also they taste better.  Pickled radishes are a side dish for pretty much every meal I eat.  We have a big box of radish slices in the fridge and I sneak slices all the time when I get hungry.  Soooo yummy!

Thursday we had Zone training meeting and the mission leadership council decided to make it a goal to baptize someone before Christmas as a gift to Christ this year.  They challenged us to up our dedication and consecration and watch the Lord bless us with miracles.  So we thought, how can we find someone to start teaching and baptize?  Since our area is so big we decided to try to visit one of the other cities.  So we randomly chose a city and it turned out to be 영양 Yoengyang.  Friday we set out on our adventure.  When we got there we quickly realized that this was not a great place to proselyte... It was super countryside and there were no people.  We walked around for 2 hours and only talked to like 5 or 6 people... But is was fun! We probably won't go back there for a while.  

So after our lack of success in visiting Yeongyang we decided we needed to fast.  So we fasted Sunday and we saw a crazy miracle.  Right after Sacrament this Arabic man came up to my companion and 류명재 (one of the members) and asked about Alma 7:14.  Turns out the missionaries gave him and Arabic Book of Mormon months ago and then lost contact.  The scripture talks about being born again and repenting.  So I explained baptism, he told me he wanted to take the next step and felt that this church is true, and then I felt impressed to ask if he would be baptized (all in English) AND HE SAID YES!!  So we are going to meet with him and prepare him for Baptism.  

His baptismal date is December 25! Christmas Day.  He is so awesome.  He's from Egypt and his family is still living there.  He speaks a little bit of Korean, a decent amount of English.  His native language is Arabic though.  So it's a little crazy when we have three people in a lesson that all speak a different language haha. So ya that was an amazing faith builder for me.  

I know that this work is God's work.  We can't do it on our own.  I know as we show our faith God will bless us with success in whatever we need.  I know that he cares about me and is helping me all along the way. I'm so grateful for the blessing this mission is in my life.  Have a good week everyone! I'm on a weird computer in Daegu so the pictures might not work.  But I'll get them next week. Love you all!!

Below are excerpts from his email to Brad:

I did remember mom's birthday, I wrote about it in my journal and told all the 안동 missionaries about it :) 

I don't miss cleaning the house because I still do it everyday haha! I do the dishes because Elder 장 cooks all the food.  Also my job is vacuuming on P-day.

The political stuff here is nuts too.  First off, their president is involved in a scandal so 2 million people protested in Seoul the other day.  Over 2% of the population.  It was all over the news.  

The people here are also really invested in the US elections.  They HATE Donald Trump.  One of the members is going to BYU-I in December and he's super worried that he'll get sent home.  I had to explain to him that it's fine though.  

It's hard to talk to people here, especially asking questions but I'll try to ask people questions about serving.  They don't have gardens though.  My companion asked me about lawn mowers and we talked about lawns and stuff. Pretty funny!  Also my weekly email is gonna be clutch so don't miss it.  Love you! Have a good week!

--

Elder Geddes

 

                                                         A view of Andong from the church

                                                            Some Delicious Korean Ramen

                                                             PDay at the amusement park

Basketball and Stickers

Hello all!

It was another good week here in Andong!

The hardest part of missionary work so far has been the eating.  We eat maybe half our meals at mini tables and you have to sit criss cross applesauce.  It's insanely hard.  You also have to lean over the bowl to eat cuz you can't pick it up and put it to your mouth.  I can't lean over far enough or sit criss cross applesauce so ya, it's a struggle.  But the food is really good!  

The Ramen is 1000 times better than American Ramen.  Also at 7/11 instead of slurpee machines they have Ramen walls and hot water dispensers.  You can choose from endless choices of Ramen.  It's awesome!!!

We have been working with a less active man named 이정민 (Ee Jung Min).  He's about forty and he has some mental disabilities.  But he doesn't like to leave his house, even though he loves basketball.  The missionaries have been trying for over 4 months to get him to leave the house.  And we visited with him, and told him that I played basketball in high school, and he ended up accepting the invitation to come play with us! Pretty awesome! 

I'm beginning to see that I can have an impact on people and even though I'm just a trainee that can't speak Korean I can still help people come unto Christ. 

Sunday night we went downtown to Stickerboard Proselyte! It was my first time but apparently you do it a lot in Korea. It was so cool how many people would stop and talk to us and put stickers on our board. Many of them were curious about the questions of the soul and We were able to get a bunch of contacts and hand out tons of business cards and Books of Mormon.  It was awesome!

Sorry that this isn't super long, I don't have much time to email.  But have a good week! Love you all! Keep on choosing the right!

Greetings From Korea!

안녕하세요!

This week was awesome! I love it in Andong. It's such an awesome place! Me, Elder Jang and the Sisters are the only people in the area.  It takes up about a quarter of our mission and it's the largest area in Korea.  We have a small branch, around 30 members come to church each week.  There are a lot of less/inactives because some of them live so far away and it's hard to make it to church.  

People are generally really busy here so they don't want to listen to us.  Because of that and the fact that you don't find many people on the street in Andong, we don't do a lot of street contacting.  We mostly try to work with part member families, and less active member.  

We have one investigator who's name is Kim Jin Hun.  He is 40 and is mentally handicapped.  He's what we call an "eternal investigator"  He's been being taught since 2013.  I'm the 19th missionary that he's met.  He was even taught by my MTC teacher Brother Lees. His mom doesn't really want him to join the church, and on top of that he works the night shift at work and likes to drink coffee to stay awake.  But he's super nice, and funny, even though I don't understand what he's saying.  He hasn't been taught the restoration since 2013 so we're going to teach that this week. Hope it goes well.

I saw my first spider.  And when I pointed at it and said that's huge the sisters and Elder Jang laughed and said it's a good thing I came in the winter when they're all dying.  I guess they get huge.  The one I saw was about half the size of my hand.  They're called banana spiders I think.  They get into your apartment in the summer time.

Yesterday we went out to an old lady's farm to pick apples.  Andong has a lot of apple farms.  We drove about an hour to get there.  We had to go up the canyon to get there.  It was so pretty! There are mountains everywhere and they're covered in trees.  Since it's fall the leaves are all changing so the mountains are covered in Orange and yellow trees! It's awesome.  Also the apples here are bigger than both my fists put together. The put american apples to shame.

We had a branch Halloween party, even though Koreans don't celebrate Halloween.  It was pretty fun, we worked on that for hours, and the decorations looked so good.  We had about 20 people show up including a man named Bryan Wolf, who's wife is a member but he is not.  He teaches English here and we are trying to get in to teach him but he's pretty busy.  

(Random thoughts from his letter to his Dad:  So sometimes we sit at mini tables to eat and we have to do it criscross applesauce, so it's really a struggle for me.   I was told I became a Korean in just 10 days because of the way I ate my food!)

But ya, that's Andong! It's an awesome place! Spiritual thought of the week.  Go read Mosiah 14 and 15.  Everytime it talks about the Savior highlight it.  And underline anytime that it refers to him.  It's a great chapter on the Atonement and I know that if you read it you will learn something about the Savior as I did.  I'm so grateful for the atoning sacrifice of my savior and I'm so glad that I have the opportunity to share his gospel with people! 

Love you all!

-Elder Geddes

First Week in 한국! Korea!

안녕하세요!

This week has been full of craziness and excitement! I wish you all could be here and see how awesome Korea is!

We got here Tuesday night around 10 oclock Korean time and didn't get to sleep till around 12.  Up for more than 24 hours, it was rough.  The next day we were immediately immersed in missionary work, we went out with the trainers to proselyte pretty much right away.  I didn't understand a single word anyone said except for hello.  But I placed some restoration pamphlets and BoM so it was good.

Later we had our first taste of Korean food.  SOO GOOD! I don't know how I've lived without Kimchi all these years. It is awesome.  The only thing I haven't liked was pig liver, it's too chewy, really weird.  After lunch we were assigned to our trainers.  

My companions name is Elder 장세영(Jang Seyoung) He is so awesome! He speaks pretty much fluent English which helps, but he is so kind and funny, and he's a super good cook.  We were assigned to serve in the 안동 Andong area.  It's way up North and it's "countryside" except for it's really just a less crowded city then the other places.  It was about a 3.5 hour bus ride from Busan so we didn't get home until pretty late. 

Our apartment is just a tad bit bigger than my old bedroom.  But it's split into three rooms.  The bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom.  We sleep on an 이불.  Which is pretty much just a mat, but super comfy! I love it!  

The next day we rode our bikes around thirtyish minutes to give an old lady a blessing in the hospital.  I got to anoint the oil in Korean which was nuts! But so awesome! 

And then we traveled back to Busan to hear Elder Bednar give a devotional for all the missionaries in the mission! It was kind of a question and answer except he was asking questions and we were answering.  The spirit was crazy and I got so many answers to questions.  

I love Korea! It's the best! I wish you were all here with me to experience this! I love you all! Have a good week!  

-- 

Elder Geddes

Ps I left my camera at home sick pictures of Andong next week

Proof of Life Email - October 18, 2016

I'm in Korea!

Hey Family! I'm in Korea, I only have a few minutes so this will be short.  It's crazy here, I don't really understand anything people say.  Today I meet with President Barrows and then we go proselyting.  After lunch we meet the trainers and tonight I head to my new area! Super exciting! Love you all!

From the Mission Office

Dear Parents of Missionaries,

Your son or daughter arrived safely here in Busan, South Korea this evening at 9:30 pm. The missionaries are excited, and at the same time, very tired! The Elders and Sisters were greeted at the airport by President Barrow and Sister Barrow, the Assistants to the President, and the Office Assistants, as well as the Busan Stake President, and a few other drivers from the various wards in the Stake. Tonight they will sleep at the Mission Home (Sisters) and at the AP’s apartment (Elders). In the morning they will start right out with interviews and training. During the training time period, each missionary will have the opportunity to email his or her parents to let you know that they are fine and well! They are safely here in Korea! We are looking forward to getting to know them tomorrow. They will have a very busy, full day, and will leave with a new companion-trainer to go out to their areas tomorrow evening.

Our prayers are with you, and your sons and daughters, as you make this sacrifice. They will have a great experience and will accomplish wonderful things.

Sincerely,

Sister George

Week #8

안녕하세요!

Five more days until I head to 한국! I'm so excited but also really terrified because I'm not going to understand anything.  But I know the Lord qualifies who he calls so he will be there to support me every step of the way.  

Some highlights of this week were:

1) We got our Korean nametags! We'll get better ones when we get there but these ones will do until then, they're still pretty sweet tho! 

2) Flight plans came. We head out at 3:50 monday morning, could be rough. We stop in Seattle, then in Tokyo!  We'll be in Korea by 9:30 PM the next day, in Korean time so I'm not sure what time it'll be here. 

3) We've been learning how to street contact, which is probably the funnest thing of all time! and 

4) We got to hear from Bednar 장로님! He is so awesome! He taught about how to have a more meaningful experience watching conference which was sweet cuz I could definitely get more out of it than I am right now. That makes four apostles that I've seen since coming here! So lucky!

Hope you all have an amazing week! I can't wait to tell you all about Korea next week!  I love this gospel so much and can't wait to share this message with the people in Korea!

게디스 장로

Elder Geddes

Me and one of my 동반자들(companions).  And, the Korean nametag!

Week #7

안녕하세요!

I hope that all is well wherever you are! I love all of you so much! This week has been great! I love it here at the MTC!  

I really enjoyed conference this weekend.  My favorite session was the sunday morning session.  I really liked how all the talks were focused on how happy and joyful we can be through living the gospel.  Elder Nelsons talk really stuck with me, especially when he said that the saints can be happy in any circumstance.  That was really cool because through Jesus Christ's atonement we know that we can become better from our trials and sufferings.  And knowing that can help us have a good attitude even through the tough times.  I'm so grateful that we have living prophets and apostles to guide us in our lives. 

The countdown to Korea is getting pretty low.  It seems like yesterday I was just learning simple Korean sentence structure and how to introduce myself.  And now I'm a pro at plain form and indirect discourse, which are basically just Korean inception.  It's legit.  I also learned a cool phrase that they use in Korea.  돼지 꿈 꾸세요.  It literally translates to dream of pigs.  And they mean it literally.  It is good luck to dream about pigs in Korea.  I haven't had a pig dream yet, but I'm sure they will come.

That's basically all the exciting stuff from this week.  I saw Elder Hawkins while he was boarding the bus out of the MTC, which was cool.  I'm really jealous that he is in the field now.  But I'll have my turn soon.  

Have a great week! 

사랑해요!

게디스 장로

Eating warm monkey bread (conference tradition) with chopsticks!

Week #6

Hello Family and Friends!

It's been another short week here at the MTC, time flies when you're having fun!  I have less than three weeks till I leave for Korea which is exciting, but also painful cuz I just wanna leave right now.  

The Korean is coming well.  I've stopped teaching false doctrine, which is a plus in my lessons. I find it's easier to have the spirit when you're telling people that I'm thankful for God instead of I'm thankful that God doesn't exist, which did happen... I gave my first lesson that I actually felt comfortable speaking, the words flowed nicely compared to previous lessons.  Our investigators as so awesome! They are so accepting of what we teach them, even tho we tell them that they must completely change.  We had one investigator that stopped drinking tea, and one that stopped drinking coffee, even tho it made him tired in the lesson.  But they said they can both feel the blessing.  

Spiritual thought this week is about repentance and Christ's atonement.  His grace is sufficient for all men.  ALL MEN, it doesn't matter what you have done, his grace is sufficient and if we just turn to him we can be forgiven of anything and everything.  I use his atonement every day.  You may ask, what does a missionary need to repent of? There's always room to repent, even if you aren't doing bad things, you can always turn closer to God and become better, and that's what repentance is all about.  Turning to Christ and becoming better.  So I encourage you every day to think of one thing you can improve on, whether it's not saying any bad words, or studying for a few extra minutes, find something.

Anyways, have a good week! I love all of you and I love serving the Lord! I know that we can repent and become like him even tho we make mistakes, and that is the beauty of the atonement! It works! I know it!

Love,

Elder Colton Geddes

Korea Busan Mission