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

My Name's Blurry Face

Well, it's been quite the week for me. I have been more stressed out that I have ever been. You know, I never stress out. But this week was bad. I can confidently say that I didn't know what stress felt like until this week.

At least the week started out well! If you have seen the Mormon message about the Swiss couple with the blind husband that loves chocolate, we went to their house. She basically just listed off her friends that she wants us to teach so that was awesome!

The next day was interesting. We went to give a member a blessing and her baby that she was holding started screaming right in the middle. She got him to stop pretty quickly and it was pretty impressive. However, I did not expect to see what I saw when I opened my eyes after the blessing. Enough said I guess.

The English elders that we have are both Tahitian and they get work done. We did an exchange with them and taught a ton of lessons on the street. They fed us today too. We are homies.

We saw this lady in the park and she looked really swaggy and so I went up to talk to her. A while later, we finished teaching her the plan of salvation and she was stoked. She said that she would want her kid to learn what she just learned. What a miracle. Hopefully we can start teaching her.

On Sunday, we had 5 investigators come to church which was great. One of them brought a friend too! Stuff is going really well here. However, we were teaching this one girl and she literally dropped off the face of the planet this week. I don't know why it's stressing me out so much but we have no clue what to do. I guess it's when everything seems perfect that there is a storm on the horizon.

Love you very much,
Elder Marshall Underwood

 Trying to combine High On A Mountain Top and another song - we will see how it turns out.

 Got burgers this week and it was the best fries that I have had in Europe, but the burger was dry.

Tahitian Elders

Little Boys Still Pushing Big Bills

Hello,

This week started out with a nice little walk around the chapel saint pierre where I learned a lot about the protestant movement. We often contact not far from this chapel where they have statues of the reformers. That makes it really easy to bring up the subject of a true church! But anyway, it was a beautiful place!

We started out the week going hard. We are having a big push to teach twenty lessons per week in our mission and I don't plan on falling short. We only had one lesson on monday, but that's okay because it was a pday.

Tuesday we had an exchange with the elders from Gex. I was with elder sebra and we were contacting separately. This guy got mad at me and started yelling and then walked away. I noticed this lady looking at my sad self standing there disappointed and so I walked up to her. 20 minutes later, I had taught both her and her daughter the restoration and they asked for the missionaries number for where they live. I gave them the number and also a book of mormon saying that it was free. They simultaneously pulled their bags off of their shoulders and pulled out money. It then turned into an argument of who was going to take the gift of the other. In the end, should wouldn't accept the book without giving me something in return, so I told her that I could put the money into the general missionary fund and she was okay with that. This was quite the day for me because everyone in this park was really generous. I walked out of there with 120 swiss francs for the general missionary fund. We also met out new investigator named denis. He's a cool guy and he loves the church. As he continues to understand, he will surely be baptized.

Later that night we had big plans that ended up falling through and we found ourselves in annemasse with two hours to spare. So, we went contacting. Then, the office called us and told us that there was a missionary not accounted for and he was probably at the geneva train station. So, we sprinted with all of our stuff back to the car and drove off. Then they called us and said that he showed up to where he was supposed to be. So, we were tired and sweaty and hungry and we went inside to eat. 

There were some emergency transfers in the zone and so we had to take care of some stuff. That was a good experience and everyone is safe. Wednesday was special for me because i realized that we had hung out with a bunch of americans in the morning, taught a girl from brazil (her name is Jamel and she should be baptized soon), and then ate at an iranians house at night. I don't think I could be having a better experience here. 

On thursday, we taught a family in the park. Elder Keller taught the dad and I taught the daughter. It was an interesting experience to teach a 14 year old. She thought she had everything figured out and I realized that I did too at that age. 

The rest of the week was pretty packed with stuff and we couldn't find a ton of time to find people. However, we ended the week with more than twenty lessons and it was really motivating. I hope that I can keep this pattern through my mission!

that's all I guess :)

Love,

Elder Marshall Underwood

Sunrise

Dear my family,

Those week was probably the best one of my life.

On Tuesday I got to go to the mission leadership council, which was probably the most powerful meeting that I have been to. We watched a video called missionary work and the atonement and I learned what a broken heart feels like.

Truthfully, the things that I did this week pale in comparison to the things that I learned. I learned how to be contrite and submissive. I learned why obedience is important. But mostly, I learned how the atonement can be applied into my life and I'll never be the same. There is a sunrise happening in my life and my eyes are fixed on it. I can't believe the love that I have felt for others this week and I want to keep feeling that.

Other than that though, I got to go on exchange with the assistants. Elders wade and Landry. They are great. Elder wade and I took a young missionary knocking doors and he was a stud. I wished that I could have been in his place again. I have about a year left out here and I am going to make the most of it!

Love,
Elder Marshall Underwood

The High Life

Life in Geneva has been a ride already

I showed up and met my awesome new comp elder Keller. He is a great elder. The life as a zone leader is a little different and you have to take care of some stuff but it's all good. We spent way too much time at the train station.

We got to meet a few new missionaries that came in. It's so fun to introduce them to French things that I love!

Just a couple of things to shar from this week.

The first is that one day me and my comp were feeling pretty down. It just felt dark. It was almost as if we had an enemy that was opposing our every move. I was pretty unmotivated but then elder Keller got in the car and said "let's go contacting". I suddenly felt my motivation come back and we went contacting. Talked to 4 people and got 2 new investigators. Miracles right?

The other  one is that I'm basically living in Mormon Utah. There are three wards in my building and my ward seems huge compared to Bastia. I bore my testimony in church and I could really feel the spirit. I almost cried during the sacrament nosing that so many people had come to church for such good reasons. I finally got to see families with 5 kids running up and down the aisles. What is this place?

I know I will have a good time here in Geneva and I hope that I will be able to do good work.

Love,
Elder Marshall Underwood

Kicked Out Part 2

Hello!

This week was a pretty good week.

To tell the truth, it was a pretty normal week. Here are some experiences that I enjoyed:

I got to speak in church and it was a pretty emotional time. I love Bastia and I didn't want to leave. Oh well, I was going to leave sooner or later, nevertheless I would have preferred later. I spoke about the priesthood and it was a great topic because there are a lot of women there and a lot less men. The blessings of the priesthood need to be sought after.

We went to corte to see a single sister and her granddaughter opened the door. Then she flamed me. I asked if her grandma was coming back and she said, "of course." And then didn't say anything after. She was super sassy so we got along and she showed me all of her Pokemon drawings. We then gave a blessing to her grandma. When we all stood up to put our hands on her head, the little girl stood up and did it too. It was hilarious and just so cute and innocent. We explained why she can't give a priesthood blessing and she understood.

We also received a referral from Nice of a lady in a Bastia hospital. We went there quickly and she asked for a blessing. She is really cool and it was a crazy experience because she is related to frère Vendassi! It was a cool connection to make and she was really happy to see us.

We usually visit this one lady every week. Her name is Mireille and I gave her a Book of Mormon to read last week. She doesn't do much. But we went back this week and she has basically read the whole book. What a baller.

It was a killer last week because I got to visit Sisco and Murato and Saint Florent and Corte. It's really a beautiful place, and even more beautiful when you're going around it to share the gospel, strengthen members, and teach the doctrine of the kingdom.

Much love.

I'm off to Geneva.

Elder Marshall Underwood

New Companion Elder Keller

Kicked Out!

Hey yo,

I'm getting transferred to Geneva. I'll be a zone leader over there.
Won't really be able to communicate today but I'll send off some emails.

Love you,
Elder Marshall Underwood