Bears, Beets, Book of Mormon

Hey Yous Guys,

Last Sunday, I took my companion to the travel office so that he could go to Mozambique. He was a really good guy and he is going to have a great time. There was this great guy in the MTC named Elder Tanginoa and he drew a picture in the front of my journal. He taught me some Tongan so, to all of you back home, I would like to say "ofa atu and oku ou tui kia kalaisi."

One of my favorite companions in the MTC was named Elder Huang. He is the funniest/cutest guy I know. He is from Taiwan and his English wasn't the best so he can be blamed for quotes such as: latter day satans, doctrine and condiments, and  chie che for that.

On Tuesday morning, I took a trip to the airport and it was awful. P.S. to my friends at the U, I was at a trax station really nearby. Anyway, long flight and I sat next to these awesome girls. A hairdresser and an artist/writer. We landed (p.s. The group going to Philadelphia was a bunch of pretty boys, including Elder Tuttle AKA pristine Alta boy) and the Mission President and his wife had made some bomb lasagna and water ice.

The transfer meeting was on Wednesday and my companions are Elders Martinez and Westmann. Both hail from CA. Martinez likes soccer, he's happy and a great talker. Westmann likes Rubiks, physics, and anime. We get along swimmingly. They call me the Visa Blessing. They say it is because they are blessed to have me here but really I am just happy to be here. I don't mention to anyone that I am waiting on a visa but everyone else brings it up. Also, instead of calling the new guys greenies, they call us Goldens. They threw me a party with balloons and things back at the apartment!!!

My Address:
51 N 2nd Street Apt 310
Stroudsburg, PA 18360
(Pretty close to Scranton, thus the subject line)

Key events:
Spilled shoe polish on my shirt (it came out mom)
I have invited 2 people to be baptized
I started the Book of Mormon in French (@peteyJ it's so hard)

The area:
It is really beautiful. I miss the mountains but it is basically a forest here. I haven't taken any pictures of the trees yet but I'm sure that I will.

The most meaningful thing I did this week was ponder the Character of Christ by Elder Bednar. Click on the talk title for the link. It is absolutely amazing! Seriously.. Live changing. I encourage everyone to watch it because I know that Christ is our best and perfect example. Character of Christ Video

Love Elder Underwood

P.S. I would love for you peeps to send me mroe pictures of you. I like to look at them a lot.
P.P.S. Write me if you please
P.P.P.S. I played the piano in sacrament meeting for everyone to sing.
P.P.P.P.S. I should only be here for one transfer - which is 6 weeks.

This is it Master Frodo

Hello my friends and Congratulations to all of you that got my LoTR reference.

At this point in the movie, Sam says to Frodo something like "If I take one more step, I will have never been farther from home."

And that applies to me. This Tuesday, I leave for Philadelphia.

They told me I had my Visa for France but I guess that they changed their mind ha ha!

But Philly will be great because I love cheese steak and it will give me some good experience before the mission field in a foreign country.

Here is my best experience yet here at the MTC:

We were talking to our sister training leaders and they asked us for a blessing because they were going to leave soon. Then my companion said "can i have one too? That would be cool." So, I didn't think that he was really serious and he just thought it would be cool. Anyway, I gave him a blessing and I said one thing that I can remember. I can remember because I think it was my own words and the first thing I said. After that, God took over. I have tried to remember what I said but I absolutely can't. Because it wasn't for me. It was for him. After I said AMEN, he stood up crying and we embraced for about 10 seconds.

My friends, I know that we have a loving Father in Heaven that wants to help and bless us. All we have to do is ask. The beauty of this Gospel of Jesus Christ is not comparable to anything else on this earth. I invite all of those that read this email to find out for themselves whether this gospel is true. There is nothing to lose, but so much to gain.

I love you all so much.

Family, I miss you and I care about you a ton.

Until the next installment!

Elder Samwise Underwood

P.S. My P day might change in Philly and in France.

 Elder Jacob Ulrich - good friend of Marshall's - going to Japan.

 This is Marshall's companion

Elders and Sisters in his MTC group/district. 

Week one on the Starship Enterprise

Greetings!!

Today is my preparation day and all of the missionaries here are jealous and surprised because I only arrived on Wednesday. Most missionaries have to wait a long time. For example, Elder Jacob Ulrich had to wait about a week.

I arrived on Wednesday and I dropped off my stuff in my residence before proceeding to the classroom. When I got to the classroom, there was only one Elder in there. His face looked very familiar to me. After some talking, I found out his name is Elder Leonardo (Leo) Fuchs (Fooks). For my soccer friends, this is the same Leo that played forward for Utah FC. It was very nice to have someone that I vaguely knew and someone who had the same interests as me. Elder Fuchs is going to Mozambique Africa speaking Portuguese. We didn't see any other missionaries in our branch until later that night.

We are in an international district, which means that, in our classroom, there are 5 elders and 2 sisters, and the languages consist of these : English, Portuguese, Russian, German, Tagolag (?), Mandarin, French, Tongan, and another Filipino language. All of the lessons aretaught in English and there is no language study time bcause we are all "fluent" in our proselytin language. I am basically the only one that is not totally fluent.

Yesterday we had class time and some devotionals with our branch.

The biggest thing that has happened to me is that Elder Fuchs and I were made zone leaders. So, we get to do a lot of things for the other Elders.

 Elder Underwood and Elder Fuchs

General information about the MTC:

-It is the greatest place I have ever been (besides the temple)

-There is no intimidation because everyone is genuinely nice and loving

-The food is good and we eat like kings

-We are very busy but I have been able to follow the schedule so far!

-Here, we are basically in class learning or in the cafeteria eating.

Things that I don't like:

-the toilet paper dispensers

-Elders that run around the hallways yelling at each other after lights-out

I have a lot of friends here in the MTC and I have basically seen about everyone I know. Yesterday I got to see Elder Jacob Ulrich. Elder Ulrich was the senior class president and worked closely with Marshall all last year. I don't have a card reader yet so I am not able to send pics. I will get one and I will have the other elders send pics to my mom. And they did :)

Elder Underwood and Elder Ulrich

I am very happy to be here serving my Savior Jesus Christ.

I have found that the thing that I know of absolute surety is that God loves all of us. And because he loves us, he sent His Son to die for our sins and weaknesses and the power of God is here on the earth today.

I can already feel that my heart is changing. For the better.

Until next week!

Love,

Under Elderwood

P.S. Marshall also said in a separate email that because they don't have district leaders trained - yet - he hasn't received any of his letters that were written through dearelder.com - but he will probably get them today.