The Things We Lost in the Fire

This week was very interesting.

It started out with some great miracles. For example, teaching three lessons on a P-day which doesn't happen very often.

The next day, I was with elder Whitmer of an exchange and we had a really good time together. We taught some interesting people in the park. Including one guy that pulled out the "don't add or take away" line. At that moment, if you were there, you would have seen me pull out my scriptural bazooka and prepare to blow his mind into oblivion. Luckily I just calmly explained to him that he was dead wrong. He didn't really understand in the end, which was either proof of my outstanding inability to incorrectly explain an entirely elementary idea or of his outstanding inability to misunderstand a fundamental fact of the gospel. Contrary to the tone of this paragraph, we left him with a prayer and a smile. He was a cool guy that loves God. Sometimes I can't ask for more than that.

On Wednesday we had a conference. Elder Keller and I wrote a mix of the songs carry on and high on a mountain top. It went pretty well! It was fun because we had never done that kind of thing before. The conference went pretty well and we ate breakfast for lunch. We also got to play capture the flag and Elder Keller, I, and the assistants led our team to uncontested victory.

On Thursday I went to Gex so that I could start getting my titre de séjour (so that I can be legal in France for another year.) We had a couple investigators that cancelled our rdvs that day but we found some cool people in the park.

Then the week burned. We had 3 people on track to baptism. We currently have 0. One of them doesn't want anything to do with us, another wants to stay home instead of engaging in church, and the other one called one of our members and told her that he wanted to do naughty things with her. When I received this last news, I wanted to go over to this guys house and smack him silly. This man has a wife and children that he's basically willing to desert for a young woman. It was thoroughly surprising because I knew that this wasn't him. We went to his house and didn't mention in. We taught him a lesson about Enos and I called him to repentance. With tears in his eyes, he looked up at me and said that he wanted to follow God. Still crying, he said a closing prayer and led us to the door. We mentioned that we had heard about the situation and he recognized it as Satan trying to pull apart his life. It seemed to have gotten better but other news later in the week made it seem as if he wasn't so repentant. With the other guy that just didn't want to commit, we told him that he was in a war for his soul between Satan and God and that it was up to him to chose. We told him how to win and he basically rejected it. I'm not done with that guy. I love him too much to just watch him walk away from what saved his family.

The next day I got a text from a woman that said "I AM YOUR MOTHER THEY WILL TURN YOU INTO A WOMAN." She's crazy.

Still taught 20 lessons this week even though we basically got wrecked.

During church, i was thinking about the power of the priesthood and I thought of my dad. I asked myself why my dad never got mad even thought most of the time he had every reason to smack us silly. I have always been amazed at how he keeps calm and collected in the face of firecrackering emotions. Most would say that it is just his personality. I don't say that his calm disposition doesn't play a role in it, but I believe that there is something else that means more to him. He wants to have always that power of the priesthood that comes through being like the Saviour. He wants to follow his steps and become like him, thus accessing his same power. Thanks dad. I started to learn that lesson.

I had a beautiful week. I love it here.

Until next week,
Elder Marshall Underwood