Posterized

This week started with the best p-day ever. We asked Sister Brown to help us go shopping. We had a blast together and got really good Mexican food. I didn't buy anything but that's ok.

We planned for the Mission Leadership Council and President made it really fun. We did a little role play and any time that he said something that we could link to the temple, we shot him with the dart gun and continued the conversation. We called it Temple Triggers. Later that day, we did a role-play with Sister Carrier to get her a little more comfortable with sharing the gospel. It totally worked.

Sister Zinn came with us to a couple rdvs but they both fell through. That's okay because we had the chance to go pass a less-active member and have a really good conversation on abortion. That evening, we had the World-wide missionary broadcast! There were some changes in the schedule but nothing too huge.

We are struggling a little bit to find investigators but I'm sure that it will pick up soon :)

Love,
Elder Marshall Underwood

Sister Zinn

Sister Brown Pday adventures

Emotion Bomb

From my vantage point, there are a lot of emotions that I have to deal with now. It started off strong at the beginning of the week. Monday night was the departing testimony night and that shouldn't have been as hard as it was. To watch 4 consecrated servants of the Lord get up and bear their testimony was incredible. I'm so restful that I was here to witness that.

On the morning of he next day, we went and picked up the brand new missionaries. Their names are Elder Dawson and Elder Templeton. I wanted so strongly to express to them the experience that they were in for but I'm sure that they will figure it out one day :) Elder Menzel and I had the chance to take Elder Dawson out to knock on some doors and it was a beautiful experience. Elder Menzel and I tried almost every way that we knew in order to get this guy to listen to more of what we had to say and he denied it without fail. I turned to Elder Dawson who bore simple testimony of God. The man stayed there silently and looked at the ground. In the end, he still told us to leave, but he knew that he felt something strong. There is something strong about a young man that left his home for 2 years only to bear testimony of what he knows to be true. That doesn't change the agency of people, but it gives them a chance.

The rest of the week was filled with a little office stuff but we got out to work pretty quickly.

In my last sector, I was teaching a girl named Blessing. When I got called to Ecully, she just happened to be moving there! So, I got to keep teaching her! We went over to her a couple times and had some great experiences. At one of the meetings, we were planning on teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. My companions were speaking and teaching the doctrine and then I knew that it was my time to speak. However, I couldn't remember one thing that had been said to that point. I was taught what a stupor of thought is. At this point in the meeting, her baby started crying and all 3 of us just stayed quiet. She stood up to go make a bottle and Elder Wade turned to us and said, "audible?" We all decided that we were obviously not teaching what needed to be taught. The meeting turned into us teaching only about repentance and the spirit was there in abundance. Blessing is so great. It was a circus to try to get her to church. We stopped by a less active member that lives in her same building and taught him. We then asked if he could go pick up Blessing. He said he would! So we walked over to Blessing and she said that she wanted to introduce us to her friend that was coming to church with her. We walked a few doors down and Faith opened the door! That was cool because the Zone leaders just found her and started teaching her! We had no clue that they were friends!

Today, both of them came to church and loved it! I can see both of them getting baptized very soon!

Love,
Elder Marshall Underwood

In Cognito

Good morning,

This week started off with me getting transferred elsewhere in Lyon (Ecully). I didn't go far but still had to pack my bags and head out. On Monday morning, we went to president Browns house for the preparation day where they had food and games for all of the missionaries in Lyon. It was really fun to play and sing with 20 other missionaries. I even played a song for a couple missionaries to sing. It went alright. At the end of the day, everyone headed out while I got dressed with Elder Wade and Elder Menzel (my new companions). We went into presidents office and started the transfer process. The process went through Tuesday and it was amazing to see how the hand of God is in each and every missionaries life. I know that he leads this work.

Part of this week, since it is the last week of the transfer, was filled with boring office things which I won't write about.

We got to the missionary work and everything started going great! We found one lady that let us in and then invited us back the next day. When we were parking out of the car, Elder Wade jumped out and tried to talk with a mother and her son. He barely missed them but I stopped them and she invited us over the next day. We went contacting with president brown and met some really great people.

Sister brown is going to fatten me and I'm okay with it.

This next week, the new missionaries are going to come in and it is going to be really fun. I am excited to work hard with Elder Wade and Elder Menzel.

This week, my testimony of the family was really strengthened. The church and all of the teaching of Jesus Christ are made to strengthen the family. One day, almost everything will fall away, except for the family. It is a celestial organization necessary to our eternal progression. That's a big decision.

Love,
Elder Marshall Underwood

Miracles

Here are a few miracles we saw this week!

On Monday, we met a guy on the tram that had already met the sister missionaries. We gave him our number and, a day later, we were able to fix a meeting with him! That usually never happens. Not many people call us. But later in the week we had that meeting and it went really well! He asked sincere questions and is now going to read the Book of Mormon to know if it is true.

On Monday night after 9, I got a call from the president and he asked to come teaching with us! Conveniently, on Tuesday, we taught our investigator whose name is Jean-Bonheur (John-happiness). President Brown was there to teach and testify with us! At the end, I asked John if he wanted to be baptized on 25 February and he said yes!

On Wednesday we were outside of Lyon looking for one of our investigators. We stopped by a member and asked her to pray for us. We went to the address that we had for him, but it was actually the wrong address. We set off with a prayer in our hearts, then, to find his house. I spent the next 15 minutes trying to keep up with Elder Battezzato while he was speed-walking through the streets of Saint Priest. Finally we came to a stop right in front of his house. Some may call it luck. Others would call it two consecrated servants of the Lord being led to where they need to go. The latter is true.

That's about it! I love you, and I pray God that he will bless you in your efforts to magnify your callings.

Love,
Elder Marshall Underwood

Happy 2017

Let's start this year with a really long email,

We got to pass a really cool investigator over to the sisters because he's in a different ward. I hope that he will continue to progress.

We saw our investigator Joy a couple of times. She is really understanding well and she should be baptized soon.

We also called an old investigator that we felt that we needed to contact and then taught his whole family. They were excited to study and pray for an answer - what a miracle.

That's about it. Our church changed to 1:30. It's really different.

Love,
Elder Marshall Underwood

This is the basketball hoop in the park. The sign is supposed to say "don't hang from the rim." But instead it says "don't hang yourself from the rim."

Most of the following photos are with Elder Terrell. He did martial arts and he helped me do some acrobatic yoga stuff. Fun