Give Him The Spirit to Soften Hearts of Stone

Hiyo,

This week I hit nine months and I don't know where the time is going. It's kind of weird.

But other than that this week was a blast! I got to go on a exchange with Elder Otteson and Elder Thangaraj down in Ajaccio. Elder Otteson is an amazing elder so I learned a ton and elder Thangaraj is just the biggest bro on the planet so we had a good time together. That exchange lasted from Wednesday until Friday. That was great because I got to see Sylvia and Noel and Mary rose, which were all people that I have heard a ton about but that I have never met. I got to eat a Mary rose cake and it was delicious. Basically, the Ajaccio sector is on fire and we invited someone to be baptized down there. Elder Thangaraj also got a shirt from off the back of a guy. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he refused not to give us something back so he just took off his shirt (which was pretty dang cool) and gave it to elder Thangaraj.

On Friday we had a zone training. It's kind of weird because we Skype in so it feels really separated but it is ok. During zone training, the vendassis talked way to much haha. They had to comment on everything.

The most important things about this week are the things that I learned. First of all, I learned that I hate talking to people that literally don't want to listen to a word you say. I spat the quickest French just to keep up with this guy and he still didn't listen to me. I then found a lot more patience for the rest of the day. Also, lately, we have been having doors get opened to us and usually the first sentence out of the persons mouth is "no thank you, bye." And then a couple minutes later I find them asking a question and me answering it with a story from the Book of Mormon. It's amazing to see the spirits way of softening hearts. We taught a lot of lessons this week from the Book of Mormon because everyone has a question, you just have to find it. The last thing I have noticed is that my attitude for missionary work has changed. It used to be just something that I would do for 2 years and then go back to real life. But sometime (I don't know when) I subconsciously decided that this was just my life and it changed everything. There's no more reluctance or fear, just faith.

All in all, great week right?

Love,
Elder Marshall Underwood