Elder Marshall Underwood: "You're not in Kansas anymore"

Salutations from the old country,

Woah.
So much to explain. Actually, I'll tell you the good parts.

I left Philly. That was cool and it wasn't that sad. I got to be in the mission home for a while with a bunch of trunky missionaries and then I stayed at the assistants apartment. They gave me about 8 ties because they literally had boxes of over 100 ties.

I flew from Philly to Atlanta to Paris to Lyon. The flights were chill. I basically just wtched the flight plan of my plane all the way to France trying to wrap my head around the fact that I AM IN FRANCE. How's Utah?

I thought that I would meet the other elders that were coming from the MTC in Paris, but I got on the plane without any of them there. They rushed to get on the flight because their plane was delayed. Then, I met Elder Thangaraj. He saw me and said, "No way - Elder Underwood? Ryan Wadge told me to look out for you." (Ryan is the brother of Marshall's good friend Zoe) He is easily on of my favorite people here and also a spiritual giant. When we got off the plane and went to get our bags, I said, "Alright let's play a game called 'whose bags got lost,' " And then I felt really bad because only my bags came. It was a little awkward, but they got their bags a few hours later. When we saw President and what he said to me first was "Hey neighbor!" So, basically, I'm in.

The food is incredible. To give you an idea, the assistants gave me a sandwich when I got off the plane that had the greatest cheese I have ever had on it. Voila. Also the sacrament bread was better than 90% of the bread I have ever tasted in my life.

My trainer's name is Elder Berry. He is very tall and absolutely hilarious. He is amazing at French and so quick witted. For example, there was this lady running down the sidewalk towards us and he said, in French, "Yes, calm down, you can talk to us." Also, the subject of this email is thanks to him because after my first French conversation he could see that I was very confused and he simply told me that. Also, this little kid was being very vulgar and I did not know. I then told Elder Berry that I didn't know the F word in French and all he said was "you'll figure it out."

This mission is full of capable, attractive, hardworking people that all are totally bros. Also, those that know the language well talk in franglais. Or frenglish. It's hilarious. For example, most people say tranquil (trankeel) to mean chill or cool. This is totally a phrase that I suggest Carl Colby should start using.

Miracle:

We were walking home and I knew that there was someone that we needed to find. So, we said a prayer and asked to be guided. We continued on the street and came to a roundabout. Usually here, roundabouts have around 3-6 roads extending from them. This one had 5. I believe. We followed the one we felt prompted to until it ended and then took a left. Then, all of a sudden, this man said "oh hey elders." We were confused and asked his name and he told us. This is so significant because we were walking home from what we thought was his house and we were about 2 miles off. He took us down the street to his house and he ended up coming to church the next day!

Ponderize scripture: Proverbs 16:32

32 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

My address (copy this exactly):
Elder Underwood
Les Missionaires
2 rue de l'arc
24000 Périgueux
France

Love,
ELDER UNDERWOOD

P.S. We travel by train everywhere basically. When we left the mission home to our area, it was an 8 hour train ride but with layovers took 10 hours. Our area is huge and we will never see the whole thing. We walk around on cobble stone streets.

CDG airport (Paris)