Week??!

Hello everyone! Sorry I'm too uncreative and lazy to think of a good weekly email title. This week was one full of small miracles that hopefully will yield greater ones in the future!

This week we had a lot of time to get out and talk to everyone! We did a lot of street jundoing.  There isn't a ton of people out so we try to make every a meaningful encounter with every man that we see(I would say person but I'm not allowed to talk to women so just men).  One night, we were having a particularly frustrating time, we had been out for almost 3 hours straight after dinner and every time we saw someone they shut us down right away.  So with 30 minutes left we said a quick prayer that someone would be placed in our path that would accept us.  So we talked to everyone we met on our way home.  And no one talked to us....  

So we went home with no fruits to show for our labors.  And we planned the next day and I just thought to myself.  How did this happen, we were so sure we would find someone, and nothing.  So I decided to call some people.  I had met a guy in a small town about twenty minutes from Miryang.  He was super drunk, but nice. He bought me coffee and I politely declined and taught about finding happiness through Christ.  So I called this man and asked if he could meet the next day.  He said no but next Wednesday would work. So the Lord answered our prayer, even though I had little faith and murmered against him.  It was a testimony builder that the Lord answers prayers.  We just need to ask him and he will answer.  Even if it's in a way that you don't understand or think wasn't the right way.  It is the right way, he knows what way is best.  And I know that he will always answer us if we pray in faith to him. 

The next day we had English class. So we had 30 minutes to jundo before then.  We got stuck at a light and this guy comes up to me, and just takes my jundo materials (Book of Mormon, Plan of Salvation and Gospel of Christ pamphlets) and just starts going through them.  So we talk and invite him to meet with us again because we have to go.  He says he believes that religion is a good thing and that he would be willing to learn more.  We also invited him to pray about the Book of Mormon and he said he would.  So that was exciting.  The Lord really does place people in your path that will receive you as long as you are out working your hardest for him.  He wants to bless us even more than he already is.  Just let him take control and everything will be ok! 

Hope you have a killer week everyone! I love you all! Thank you for being such great friends/family to me throughout the years, I'm super grateful for you all!

--

Elder Geddes

 Before scooping poop I got to eat my fav food, jimdak 찜닭!

A horse named Jenny whose poop I scoop

The chicken Elder Barnett ordered to the house the night before my bday

It snowed in Miryang!!!!!

Here's a letter he wrote to his Dad!

Thank you Brother Geddes ;) 

For my bday, Saturday night Elder Barnett order some delivery chicken for me and that was good.  On my actual birthday I went to church.  And then proselyted all day! Super unique birthday! But normal day haha.  At night on your birthday all the missionaries in the mission have permission to call you so I was on the phone for 50 minutes that night. catching up with Sister Lee in Andong, and then Elder Jang called me, which was sweet, I freakin love him.  And then some other missionaries called.

I thought about doing human hungry hippos here but we have no skateboard :/ That sounds super fun! (Brad did human hungry hippos for activity night)

The translations on the church are perfect! I don't have room for an English one tho, so the Korean will do :) (this is the church that brad makes for teaching the apostasy and restoration.  We made one in Korean for him!)

Happy birthday to you this week too! One year older and wiser! 44.  Old man...

I'm missing basketball this week... I did some drills to work on my touch with the ball I found. 

Have a good birthday week! Love you!

Elder Geddes

안녕하세요!

This week has been pretty exciting! First time getting transferred to a different area.  It's pretty exciting though! Me and Elder Barnett got right to work in Miryang.  That night we had FHE with some of the branch members, we played telephone charades. That was super funny! We acted out things like Gangnam Style and whales.  There is one member in the branch that likes to give everyone of the missionaries a disney character, so I am the Cheshire Cat. Not sure why, but it's cool haha. 

The branch is small like the one in Andong.  26 people came to church on Sunday so it's still pretty strong. They also really seem like they want to do missionary work, so hopefully good things start to happen, the branch president is super awesome, he invited me over to meet him and have dinner after church Sunday night.  I've heard he's the best Branch President in the mish.

The next day I taught my first lesson in my new area.  It was to our investigator 유일.  Yooir, not sure how to spell his name in English... He is in prison at the detention center in Miryang.  So we could only meet for 15 minutes and then he had to go.  He has been meeting with missionaries for maybe a year and a half.  He has a baptismal date for I think July 23, which is right after he gets out of the slammer.  He is so awesome though.  He really is the perfect example of the atonement working in someones life.  He is paying the price of what he did, but know that he has truly repented he is so happy. He reads the Book of Mormon in all of his free time and has even tried  to share the gospel with other inmates! Hopefully we can get a new prison investigator soon.

Miryang is pretty countryside.  I thought Andong was small, but Miryang is tiny.  If I stop and talk to everyone I see walking from one side of the city to the other, it will only take me 50 minutes to walk to the other side! So there's not a lot of people, but the people here are nice, and lots of them will talk to us even if they don't want to hear about the gospel.

We also have a pretty neat service project every week.  We go to a members horse shelter place, and we shovel the horses poop with the sisters! It's super fun, there's a little donkey named Himang and he is super hyper. We let him out and he went nuts running around the track.  The sisters in our area are Sister EeHongbee and Sister ChoiEehyeon.  Sister Ee is from Seoul, and Sister Choi is from California, she's even more American than me even though her name doesn't sound like it.  She wouldn't even eat the Silk Worm Puppas at lunch, I downed like 10 trying to get her to eat one. They weren't bad.

We only have 2 investigators right now.  유일 and 구민준. But the second one hasn't met with us in a few weeks, he's about to start his third year of High School which is an absolutely absurdly busy year for students here, so it's hard.  But we've had a lot of time on the streets, talking with people, which has been fun. We don't see a lot of people so me and Elder Barnett talk to each other a lot.  He's super funny. He's from Idaho, he's been in Korea for 18 months so he's nearing the end, but he's not trunky which is nice. 

Anyways, thank you everyone who endured to the end of my long letter.  Hope you all have a great week and have the spirit with you this week and always!

PS this is about coldness.

You don't know what it's like to be cold.  In Korea if you put on a jacket, the cold goes through the jacket.  Humidity sucks.  I wear a jacket, a windbreaker, a suit, a sweater a beanie, gloves, and thermals and it's still cold. 

But the more you talk and feel the spirit the warmer it gets!

My new apartment is huge!

Selfie by the rice paddy.  Totally Miryang.

The view from our apartment window in Miryang

ANSWERS TO OUR QUESTIONS THIS WEEK:

1. Is your mind blown that you were transferred?   My mind is blown.

2. Tell us all about Miryang?  This new area is so different, to add to the madness of the language, almost everywhere you go in our mission has a different dialect, so after a transfer call it's a bit hard to understand.  I talked to a student last night, usually students are easy to understand, but I didn't understand this dude. Probably about half of the people I've talked to speak normalish Korean. The language is coming well though. My confidence is pretty high right now.

3.  Did you hear anything about getting a new mission president in July?  I know about the new president, I'm nervous, the Barrows are awesome.

4.  You look super skinny.  Are you feeling okay?  I'm doing fine, I don't feel skinny, I eat a lot, but it's healthy food.  Like rice every meal and kimchi.

5.  Do you get to play ball in Miryang?  No basketball :/ but there's a ball in the house that I mess with. Don't use my shoes Carson. PS can I get a pic of those? (he customized his shoes last year)

6.  What is your apartment like?  My apartment is HUGE! Three rooms and a kitchen and a bathroom! My chair is broken though... I have a bed.  

7.  The Branch?  The branch is really nice, but kind of small, like Andong.

8.  Did you get our birthday packages?  I got your presents! Thank you so much! All I wanted was MandMs and that's what you gave me! You're the best! Also Miryang is colder than Andong so I am very grateful for the thermals. And we are excited to use the blocks to teach about the church when we find Mr. X (our miracle baptism).

New Area! New Companion!

Hello everyone!

Hope 2017 has been treating you well so far! This week was super exciting for me.  I made it a goal to find two new investigators before my birthday and I had already found one last week.  So I set out to go find another with Elder Jang.  So last Monday night we had 20ish minutes to go jundo (stickerboard) on the streets before going home, and we had to get two contacts to meet our goal.  So we set out to do it.  We got the first one pretty fast, first guy we talked to, which means it's a gunna be a good jundo sesh.  

We kept going and right before we were gunna call it quits I talked to this guy, his name was ChoiGapsoo.  He told us that he had met missionaries 28 years ago and had gone to church a bunch but wasn't a member, and then he promised that he would show up to church on Sunday! Which he did!  

Later on in the week there was a man that we had talked to before and saw us walking so he came and talked, turns out his mom is sick in the hospital and that's where he was going.  So we talked a bit about the plan of salvation and he said to call him next week and we could meet again!

So there it was.  Three new investigators in the past two weeks.  It was a real testimony builder that the Lord prepares people for us.  If we try our hardest he will do the rest.  He'll put people in our paths, He will help us with anything we ask for.  So I had three new investigators... and then transfer call night.

I won a Snorlax in a claw machine!

My friend Jason, who is coming to visit you!

My favorites from English class

Hammed!

Andong Branch Mission Leader

I've been called to a new area, I'll be serving in Miryang.  Sorry my keyboard doesn't work so I can't type it in Korean.  My new companion is Elder Barnett.  He's from Idaho, he has a little brother and sister.  We literally just met an hour ago so that's about all I know and I don't have a pic yet haha.  Our area is a branch, about the same size as Andongs branch, so 20-30 members each week in church.  It's super countryside, even more than Andong! So I've been blessed to work in two of the most countryside places in the mission for my first two transfers!  I'm super excited for the chance to be in a new area and to serve with a companion that's more experienced then me, I've been told he's a great missionary and I'll learn a lot of Korean with him! It's gunna be fun!

So that was my week! Super fun! I hope you all have a good week! You're all in my prayers, remember that the Lord loves you!

Happy New Year everyone!

This week we celebrated on new years eve with my Andong branch.  But because we have to be home by 9 we had to cut it short.  We went to a restaurant and had some pork, it was super good.  And after we turned the restaurant into a (church appropriate) 노래 방 or Karaoke room! The branch members got so into it, it was hilarious.  They made me, Sister Lee, and Kelly (the English teacher in our branch from america) sing You Raised Me Up.  I'll try to get the video cuz I heard it was funny, and then they wanted an encore so me and Sister Lee did Footloose and taught them the dance.  It was super fun! Then the next morning we got up to watch the sunrise with the members.

I went on another super long exchange this week.  It started Thursday afternoon and went until Saturday around 5 o'clock, so more than two days.  The missionary I was with had only been out one transfer more than be so we didn't have great Korean skills, and it was my first time being the man in charge in Andong, so it was scary.  I don't know the city too well because we kind of stay in the same area.  So we chose a random bus stop on our map and set out to proselyte all day.  My temporary companion is still a bit quiet so I had to do a lot of the talking.  It was super fun! There were a bunch of people out and I was able to have an actual conversation with some of the people I talked to and get some pretty good contacts that I feel hopeful about.  

Right now I'm really trying hard to talk to everyone.  I made it a goal to find 2 new investigators by my birthday on the 22.  So far we found one.  He was a referral that lives in Yeongyang.  The city we said we would never go to again.  He's from South Africa and his name is Lion.  We met with him this Wednesday and just got to know him, and learned about his background and stuff.  This week we're meeting with him and the lady that referred him to us and we'll teach him the first lesson. I'm super excited! 

Things are starting to go well! I'm getting less afraid to talk to people, and picking up a little bit of the language.  Have a good week Love you all! 

--

Elder Geddes