20170330 Andrew Geddes MTC letter - Hermano Hernandez

From: Andrew Geddes 
Date: Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 3:54 PM
Subject: Mi Hermano

Hermano Hernandez is the most spiritual person that I've ever met. He
could be an apostle. Whenever he speaks I feel the spirit. This
week he told me that I was his favorite. My companion was like, I
thought I was your favorite. Hermano Hernandez said, "you're me
favorite amigo but he is my favorite brother. I would die for my
brother." He has really helped me here in the CCM and I do consider
him my brother.

20170330 Andrew Geddes MTC letter - Love of God

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From: Andrew Geddes
Date: Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 3:49 PM

Subject: Elder jidus

This week has been good. We pretty much do the same kinds of things everyday. Here are some things that I learned this week.

I was thinking this week, everything in the gospel and in life is done out of love. God prepared a plan for us because he loves us and wants us to return back to Him. Christ died because he loves us. The first and second greatest commandments are that we love. We follow the commandments because we love God. Jesus asked Peter do you love my three times. Missionary work is an act of love for our fellow men. Charity, the pure love of Christ never fails. It says love in the scriptures 1580 times. 

Prayer is so important. "As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Heavenly Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive." The Lord’s attitude in prayer is recorded only once. In the Garden of Gethsemane He knelt (Luke 22:41), fell on His face (Matt. 26:39), and fell on the ground (Mark14:35) Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.

Nephi failed two times before he was able to get the plates. In so doing, he was able to learn how to listen to the voice of the spirit. It's okay to fail as long at we continue to keep trying. 

"Every good thing that has happened to me is because of the mission." -Holland MTC Devotional January 11, 2011 This makes me excited to see how the mission will bless me throughout my life.

1Nephi17:53 This is proof the Nephi had the force. 

Exodus 4:10-12

10 And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

11 And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?

12 Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

I found this scripture this week and as I've been struggling with the the language. I've been praying like Moses did, I am slow of speech and slow of tongue, but I need to have more faith in the Lord because this is his work and he will bless his servants. 

I'm leaving the CCM to my mission at 3:30am. I was assigned to be travel leader, so I'm in charge of the 8 missionaries that are going to Monterrey. Because I'm the travel leader I have to be a Reception at 2:30am and make sure everyone else gets there by 3am. We are taking a bus to the airport. I don't actually know what time the plane leaves.

Elder Geddes

20170323 Andrew Geddes MTC letter - Christ walked so utterly alone that we don't have to.

From: Andrew Geddes 
Date: Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 3:30 PM
Subject: Elder Geddes

This week was good. Here's something that happened to me and some things that I've learned this week:

On Saturday we taught Pablo about the Word of Wisdom. It was our first time teaching the Word of Wisdom to someone. We read 1Corinthians 3:16-17 and asked him questions and talked to him about it. We read some verses from DyC 89 and had him read the blessing he would receive if he kept this commandment. We tried committing him to keep the Word of Wisdom and he said that that's hard and wouldn't commit. I bore my testimony that I have seen the blessings from DyC89:18-21 in my life and that he will receive them if he kept these commandments. My companion started to bear his testimony and was asking him if he would pray about it when I was prompted to say something. I gave him a little nudge and he stopped talking. I said something like, Pablo, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ, and exercise faith to God by keeping the commandments in the Word of Wisdom? The spirit was really strong and he committed. It was cool because he wouldn't have committed if I hadn't listened to the spirit. He said he was going to a fiesta that night at the beginning of the lesson so if I didn't say anything he would have definitely still drunken alcohol that night. I've noticed that the spirit has wanted me to speak boldly to our investors recently.

Difficult days are ahead. Rarely in the future will it be easy or popular to be a faithful Latter-day Saint. Each of us will be tested. The Apostle Paul warned that in the latter days, those who diligently follow the Lord "shall suffer persecution." That very persecution can either crush you into silent weakness or motivate you to be more exemplary and courageous in your daily lives. 

How you deal with life's trials is pat of the development of your faith. Strength comes when you remember that you have a divine nature, an inheritance of infinite worth...As you walk in the Lord's path of righteousness, you will be blessed to continue in His goodness and be a light and a savior unto His people.  -Russel M. Nelson 

If you argue for your weaknesses they become your weakness. 

When bad thoughts come into your head they're not yours, there're the devil's. So don't get mad at yourself for being tempted. Put the blame where it belongs; blame the devil.

The devil only has power over us if we let him. In Moses all he had to say was In the name of the Only Begotten, depart hence Satan and Satan had to leave and in the temple we see that same thing. His power is nothing compared to the power of God.

Even the devil knows that the gospel is true. He wouldn't try so hard if he didn't know it was true. 

Christ walked so utterly alone that we don't have to.

Bingham Young said after this life, the thing that will surprise you the most is how familiar Heavenly Father's face is. 

Do you know where the cologne was put? Thank you for the packages. I'm not a huge fan of Dr. Pepper though. My bowel is doing fine. The Spanish isn't the best but I'll learn. I think I leave on April 3rd. I don't know what time. Please stop telling me not to call Morgan. I don't need to be told from you guys to follow the rules I'll do that myself. I'm not bragging but me and my companion are probably the most obedient missionaries here.

Love,

Elder Geddes

20170317 Andrew Geddes MTC letter

From: Andrew Geddes 
Date: Fri, Mar 17, 2017 at 1:55 PM
Subject: Elder Geddes

This week we taught a fake investigator named Monica who has two kids. We were talking to her and found out that she was pregnant and that her boyfriend was engaged to someone else and she was thinking about abortion. I had a whole written down on the plan of salvation. My companion began to talk to her for a little bit and then it was my turn to teach. I put away my little cheat sheet that I had prepared and just spoke what I felt that I should say. In broken Spanish I bore my testimony on prayer. I said something like, if you pray, you will feel peace and God's love for you. I don't remember exactly but I remember after that I said, Yo se (I know). After saying those simple words, the spirit was so strong in the room. I've realized that yes it's important to learn Spanish but it's even more important to learn the language of the spirit.

Thursday we taught Monica again. We both felt like we needed to talk to her about how abortion was a sin. It was a really hard topic. We got in there and began talking to her. We followed up on our commitments to her and began talking to her. I don't remember everything that we shared because the spirit was definitely speaking through us. We shared Alma 39:5-6 which basically says that it's an unpardonable sin. We asked her some probing questions and we both shared our testimonies. The spirit was so strong that she started to cry. The spirit definitely testified that what we were saying was true. We had her say the prayer at the end and in it she said that she was thankful that the missionaries had the courage to be bold and teach through the spirit. Later that night she talked to us about it (she is one of our instructors) and said, that was the the best lesson that she has heard. It was a really cool experience.

It doesn't matter what I eat. The food here doesn't like anyone. It's been pretty bad recently so my companion had me go to the doctor and he gave me some pills and put me on the BRAT diet. So I can only eat Bananas, rice, apple sauce, and toast until my bowel calms down. They had Costco pizza on Tuesday night and that was a real bummer seeing it and smelling it but not being able to eat it. It has definitely helped though but I'm sick of eating the same food every meal.

We were talking about tithing in one of the devotionals and and I thought to myself 10% of 20(years) is 2. Mind blown. I'm paying tithing on my life lol.

We are busy all day every day. There is never enough time to all that you want in a day. For example on Wednesday:

6:30-7:15 Wake up and get ready 

7:15-7:45 Breakfast

7:45-8:45 Personal Study

8:45-10:15 Fundamentals: revelation through the Book of Mormon

10:15-10:30 Prepare to teach

10:30-11:30 Teach Progressive Investigator 

The MTC President asked me and my companion to talk to the new set of missionaries that came in at 10:45. He liked what we said and asked us to do it again next week too.

11:30-11:45 Review teach plan for TRC

11:45-12:15 Prepare: Study and create summary of lesson 4 The Commandments

12:15-1 Lunch

1:15-2:15 Transition

1:15-2:15 TALL Lab (learn Spanish on the computer)

2:15-2:45 Daily Planning

2:55-3:45 Gym time (we play ping pong or basketball)

3:45-4:15 Prepare

4:15-5:15 Study

5:15-6 Dinner

6-7:15 TRC (we teach members, inactive members, or possibly real investigators)

7:15-8 Language 

8-8:30 Book of Mormon (Someone picks a chapter in the Book of Mormon and leads a discussion on it. I did it on Tuesday on Moroni 10)

8:30-9 Seeking the gift of tongues 

9-10:30 We get ready for bed, talk about the day and the needs of our zone, say companionship prayer, write in our journals

I've been reading my patriarchal a lot. There are some amazing blessing in there. I made a goal to read it once a day.

I can't find my cologne, I've looked through everything and I can't find it. My camera runs on batteries remember. I don't have a camera cord to plug it into the computer though.

Elder Geddes

20170309 Andrew Geddes MTC letter

From: Andrew Geddes 
Date: Thu, Mar 9, 2017 at 7:26 AM
Subject: Elder Geddes

Mexico is good. It's really hot but it's really pretty inside the CCM. The natives tell me that Monterrey is like the second hottest place in Mexico so that's fun :) The CCM is hard work. The language is really hard. I've learned more now then I ever did in school. I'm pretty much always tired. We wake up at 6:30 every morning and go to bed at 10:30 every night. In between we are always doing something. I wish I could take a nap during the day. They gave us a lesson on managing stress this week. I think I leave for Monterrey on April 3rd. The CCM has been difficult but I have definitely grown spiritually. I'm trying to work on being patient and to develop charity towards others. There are a lot of disobedient missionaries but I'm trying not to judge because I'm no were near perfect. We have been having a problem with disobedience in our district. There has been a visible division in our district. Elder Sanders, his companion Elder Davis, Elder Potter and his companion Elder Szendre aren't always obedient. We are trying to help them because they have so much potential to be great missionaries. Their actions also distract others because they are so loud. Sunday was fast Sunday (only 23 more fast Sunday's left) I fasted for 24 hours. The meetings on Sunday were really spiritual. I cried during sacrament meeting. After sacrament meeting we had our own testimony meeting as a district. We all shared our testimonies. I started to cry when I shared mine. I bore testimony of Jesus Christ. The spirit was so strong and it brought our district closer together. We taught in TRC yesterday where you teach members, less active members, or possible investigators. That was hard because they couldn't always understand our broken Spanish but it was still good. My companion is the best at Spanish at the district. Every so often he'll nudge me be like, "say something" or "bare your testimony". My Spanish is really bad haha. I still don't understand what people are saying a lot of the time. Me and my get companion get along well we both want to be obedient. He reminds me of Rod from Hot Rod. We get gym time most days from 2:55- 3:45 we both like to play basketball and if we don't feel like sweating then we'll play ping pong. He's pretty good but I'm better haha. He's from Washington state. I got your packages but why are you sending me chips and salsa? I'm in Mexico haha. Even though the food gives us diarrhea, they feed us pretty well. I gave pretty much all of my food away. You should send me gum or mints or diarrhea pills haha. Yesterday I went poop 8 times. I can pretty much roll my R's now. Yes I did my laundry last Pday and I'm doing it again today. We are going to the temple today. I'm getting my hair cut today hopefully that goes well.

When President Nielsen taught us on our first night here he said, "The Lord uses the unlikely to accomplish the impossible." If we humble ourselves God will shape us to who he wants us to be and then we can do the impossible.

Elder Geddes

20170301 Andrew Geddes MTC letter 2

From: Andrew Geddes 
Date: Thu, Mar 2, 2017 at 3:42 PM
Subject: Elder Geddes
To: Adonna Geddes

There is so much to say. The night that we got here I was able to hear President Nielson speak and got to shake his hand! It was really cool to meet an apostle. After that the first two days were so slow. They jammed a whole bunch of rules on us and I tried to understand when they spoke to us in Spanish. They called Elder Lawyer to be our District Leader. He is a nice kid and is always helpful in Spanish. The days just blur together here you wake up at 6:30am, study and go to classes all day. My Spanish has improved a lot but there is soooo much to learn. My companion is Elder Burrup. I’m grateful that I got him as my companion. There are a lot of Disobedient missionaries. On Sunday we had church and a lot of Devotionals. It was really spiritual. In priesthood one of the Elders in my zone, Elder Burton, gave a really powerful testimony. Just about everyone in the room was crying. He left the CCM on his mission earlier this week. The food here is okay. We all made the mistake of eating the beans and suffered for it our first week. This Monday everyone had Diarrhea... I don’t eat the beans anymore haha. Me and my companion were made zone leaders on Monday. I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve. I have been trying to be exactly obedient to the white handbook. We had a problem with the most disobedient missionary in our zone named Elder Sanders. We aren’t aloud to have people in our apartment and he came into our apartment. Me and my companion asked him to leave but he wouldn’t so we raised our voices a little bit and then he left. Later he came to us and said that we aren’t going to be respected as leaders if we are yelling at people. He was especially unhappy with me. I apologized for raising my voice but told him that it’s a rule not to let people into our Apartments and that we need to strive to be obedient. We are teaching fake investigators in Spanish every day. I don’t speak Spanish yet haha. I try my best but rely heavily on my companion who knows a lot of Spanish. I got a little emotional during class this week because I was really struggling with the language. My teacher talked to me about it and I was able to change my perspective and have been able to memorize a lot of words. There is a leader here named Hermano Hernandez, I’m so grateful for him. He is in charge of a lot of things but I connected with him in class and he said he will teach me. He takes the time to help teach me one on one when he has the time. I feel the spirit pretty much whenever he talks. I almost forgot! On Sunday what happens is everyone prepares a talk and when Sacrament meeting starts the branch president says, "Okay today we are hearing from..." and names off a bunch of people. My zone is full of people who have been here a while except for my district. There was only one person from my district who got called to give a talk. Can you guess who it was??? My talk was on receiving revelation. I had to give to whole thing in Spanish by the way. I had a talk prepared but my Spanish is really bad. I read the whole thing. I was so nervous. But I guess I did something right because my companion and I are Zone leaders. God has humbled me a lot already here. He is teaching me paciencia and not to compare myself to others. I pray a lot but I need to more because I can’t do anything on my own. I need his help to bless me with el Don de Lenguas. I am trying to work on not judging. I have a hard time with Elder Sanders. I just need to love Him like Christ would. Our personalities just don’t mesh. He is going to my same mission so I bet God will make us companions at one point as a joke haha.... Sorry if I misspelled some words. It’s a Spanish keyboard and I can’t see if I accidently misspelled a word. I just want to know how you’re doing. I have pictures but I don’t have the camera cord to upload them. If I figure out a way to send them I will.

Amor,

Elder Geddes