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!!