Peace, Be Still

This week started with an amazing council about having the faith to baptize. I know that I have already made the decision to be a great missionary but I wasn't sure if I actually had the faith to baptize people. I can now confidently say that have the faith to baptize. And I will baptize. The mission leadership council was on Tuesday and president started a group discussion by asking me a question. The fact is that it isn't legal to contact people on buses and trams in Geneva. We had one of our companionships ask president about it and he turned the question to us. So, I told them that it may be illegal to walk up to people and talk about the church, but it's not illegal to answer questions. So, I counseled them to just talk to them and be nice and answer any questions that they had. When I explained this to president, he said that that was great and he asked if I had ever considered a career in law. I told him no, because I have frankly never given it a second thought. He quickly told me that I should consider it. So, who knows.

On Wednesday, we were planning on asking 3 people to be baptized. For various reasons, we weren't able to ask anyone, but we saw an awesome miracle. We prayed on Tuesday night and asked where we needed to be. God revealed to us a time and a place. So, we went. We saw a woman and started walking to her. Only woman in the park really. It was a little bit of an awkward walk but we stood up straight and strode swiftly. Once we started talking to her, we quickly realized that we were there at the right place at the right time. Her name is isis and she is so smart and observant and learned. We taught her a lesson and she told us she would read the Book of Mormon, and actually planned to read it all in a couple weeks. We will have to see what comes of her because we will see her again this Wednesday. I also had the chance to give a baptismal interview to a man named mark. It was an amazing experience that I don't think that I will forget. The humility I that man taught me many things about myself.

We had a zone training on Thursday and tried to get everyone pumped. It worked pretty well and it is at times like those that I am very grateful for my experience in high school.

We met a lady that told us we were a cult because we think we have the truth. By her standards, she was also technically part of a cult. Oh well. We just dodged that blow and invited her to learn more about the message. After denying many loving attempts to share with her the message of the restored gospel, she had to leave. I can't really explain the sadness I have to see those that wander in darkness because they refuse to learn of the truth.

At marks baptism, elder Kelsey, elder Ramsey, and I sang nearer my god to thee. It's went pretty badly but I don't get embarrassed very easily so it's okay. The spirit was there anyway.

On Sunday, Geneva didn't allow cars to go through the center of the city. It was pretty awful.

John 8:2-11
early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people
came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

I thoroughly love these verses because of the understanding that I have of them. To understand more fully the lesson that Jesus was teaching, we must understand the context. By bringing him this woman taken in adultery, the scribes and the Pharisees were trying to catch Christ in his words. It is true that, in the law of Moses (the law followed by the Jews, given in the Old Testament) those who were adulterers were to be stoned. However, the city at this time was under Roman rule, and the Roman Empire prohibited this punishment. So, if Jesus agreed that she should be stoned, he would advocate a practice that wasn't popular and actually illegal. On the other hand, if he said she shouldn't be stoned, he would advocate the belittlement of the law given to Moses. Through his response, Jesus was able to teach us something much more than what the scribes and Pharisees were seeking. In inviting he without sin among them to cast the first stone, he taught us that we shan't judge, for we are no better than her. It goes even further, though. Jesus was the one without sin. By his invitation, he could have cast a stone. However, he lovingly invited this woman to 'go, and sin no more.' I think all of us at one point will find ourselves in the place of this woman: lost, rejected, unloved, confused. Thanks to this example, though, I am sure that anyone, no matter how far gone, can come back to who they truly are and claim their potential of who they truly can be as a son or a daughter of God.

That's all,
Love,
Elder Marshall Underwood

 Mark

 Giant fork in Lausanne

Strike Out

This week started out pretty slow. We teach a lot of people on theroad but aren't really finding any
new investigators.

Let me tell you about Abdel. He took a Book of Mormon from me and then read a little and at our next meeting he told me that it was true. In another meeting, he indirectly claimed to be Jesus Christ. Needless to say, we aren't teaching him anymore, but it was a good experience.

We got to see another baptism in the Spanish ward again. It was really powerful.

If you have seen the Mormon message about the Swiss people (the husband of the couple really loves chocolate), they invite us over often. It's quite the game trying to sneak brother muller chocolate because his wife won't let him eat any. Also this week, I had the opportunity to give sister muller a blessing. It was so specific and powerful.

On Saturday night, the Spanish ward threw a party that was really fun, and a lot of investigators came.

On Sunday, some guy showed up at church saying that he wanted to know more. Miracle. We'll see where that goes!

That's all.

Love,
Elder Marshall Underwood

Side note:

We were walking out of the train station and a guy stopped us and asked us a question about Jesus. Elder Kelsey answered and he told us that we were wrong. Side note: a change has happened to me in Geneva that makes it so I'm basically not scared to say anything to anyone. So, I gently touched his shoulder and shifted myself next to him. I said "sir, we are not wrong. We are here to testify of Jesus Christ an......." He cut me off and said, "you remind me of someone. You know, the American actor that died young." Turns out that he was talking about James dean haha. I'll take it.

Can you smell that?

This week was a great week because it was the last week of Elder Keller. He decided to really work as hard as he cold so we did some good stuff. The week started with chocolate that literally blew my mind. Probably one of the best days of my life.

The week was scattered with moments of me getting really excited because it is fall and it is starting to smell like fall. It's one of my favorite things in the world so I kept asking elder Keller if he could smell fall in the air.

Here are some random good experiences that I had:

We walked into the park and the first couple people weren't having it at all. Then there was a man that stopped us and asked if we speak English. He then said, "oh, you are the elders, great!" It turns out that he got baptized a few weeks go in Kosovo and now he lives in Geneva. It was a great miracle to find him.

There were also two kids in the park that saw that I had a plaque on and smartly bragged that they knew my name. One of them walked up to get a closer look and said, "I recognize you. Your name is..... Jesus Christ?!" Needless to so, I quickly corrected that and told him who I was.

I started to talk to this lady and she said, "oh yeah you're talking about the Book of Mormon and blah blah blah." I said, "not the blah blah blah, but yes the Book of Mormon." She laughed and asked some good questions which was good because I've actually tried to talk to her before and she rejected me straight off.

A member took us to Chinese food.

On Saturday, basically everyone rejected us. It was really weird. That's okay though. With my new comp Elder Kelsey (from Orem) we will kill it.

Love you,
Elder Marshall Underwood

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