The Moon, the Bear, and the Big Blue House

It was a good week here in Perigueux. We did everything like normal.

I notice some missionaries that burn out some weeks and send a couple sentence email to their families. I'm not going to send only a couple sentences but this will be a short one.

The funniest things that happened this week were teaching the Garcias, and district meeting. Elder MacArthur is a really good guy and he put together an awesome district meeting. As for the cup I am holding in the picture, there was a competition and I won. It basically means that I was the funniest and most knowledgeable on the life of elder Christofferson.

Our district meeting was in Angoulême and we all slept over. But, the Angoulême apt is tiny. We were packed in like sardines. That day, I went finding with elder Quinn and we had a blast. We saw a teeter totter and profited from it. I made dinner for everyone.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty normal. I got a beret from a member! Also, many members gave us chocolate for Easter.

It was a little sad because I had to say goodbye to a lot of people. Thus the subject line of my email. If you understand it, you were a nineties kid.

All in all, great week.

And, hello from Bastia. (On the island of Corsica)
Love,
Ancien sousbois

Kingdom Come

Every day of this week looks pretty lame in comparison to Tuesday.

First of all, on Monday, we flew from Bordeaux to Lyon.

Tuesday was the mission conference and we got to meet Elder Christofferson before it all started. We shook his hand! After I let go of his hand, I said, "let's get a good picture" and then turned to the camera a gave a thumbs up. Definitely not the thing to do when you meet an apostle but it was definitely congruent with my character. Anyway. We all sat down and President Brown stood up to address us.
Now rewind-
remember that goal that we had to find 187 new people that say yes to baptism? That started the 15 of February. on Friday morning, we had 55 left. So, the whole mission knelt at sunrise to pray for guidance. Then, the miracles came endlessly. The mission was amazed as we found person after person, family after family. On Sunday morning, we got a text that said there were 10 left. So, we got to work and finished the day exhausted. We didn't have the total before the conference. Ok, now back to the conference- He said some great things and then choked up a little. Then, with great humility, he announced to an apostle of God that our mission had found not only 187, but 223 people that have started their path to baptism. How incredible. I looked around to see many missionaries crying (including myself) because of the miracles we knew had taken place.

We flew back to Bordeaux and then took a train to Perigueux. By this time it is Wednesday and I am on exchange with elder Rellaford. We saw the Garcias and we were eating together. Then, all of the sudden, the little boy (he's 5) says, "what the ____" I'm not going to type the word but it definitely rhymes with buck. I quickly told the mother that that was a very bad word in English and she immediately reprimanded all of the kids. The angel daughter said he knew it from grand theft auto. The mom stood up and took away the game. By this time everyone was really excited and the house was loud. The mom said "oh I need to get that video, that always calms them down!" She proceeded to get the restoration video with Joseph smith and put it on. All of the kids immediately went silent and calmly watched the video. WHAT. It was crazy and awesome.

This week we also passed the jam lady. That old lady that gave me and Elder Berry jam. She was really happy to see us but still hates God.

Also, on Friday, elder little and I wanted to make a cake for one of the ladies that lives in the shop beneath us because she is cool and shrilled us. So, we made a cake. Long story short, it was a disaster and it tasted awful. I walked into her store hanging my head and told her I was sorry. She said, "you forgot the cake?" Because I had previously told her I was going to make one. I then went on to explain that I just totally messed it up and it was the worst cake ever. We are going to try again this week.

I would like to end this email with some lyrics:
Demons seem so small/
They're the same ones that I fought in all my nightmares/
And conquered in my dreams/
We have won/
As we watch them fall/
I begin to realize my only enemy is me/
KINGDOM COME

I like these lyrics because demons are real, but they can always be beaten when we realize at we are the only ones that can stop ourselves from doing great things. God, may your kingdom come.

Love,
ancien sousbois

 Great to see Elder Berry

The group of missionaries that came to Lyon France October 2015

 France Lyon Missionaries

 Getting better at giving myself a decent haircut

 Flying to Lyon for our mission conference with Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Hurry up, they're behind you

Ok, so,

I don't know if I have explained this already, but I'm going to explain it again anyway. So, we are putting a big focus on families right now so we contact every family that we see. When the family has a teenage girl in it, I know exactly how to get them to stop. Basically, I just make eye contact with the girl because what French girl isn't going to stop for two foreign guys who speak English? They will all stop. And their family will naturally stop with them. Anyway, on Tuesday I m contacted a family using this exact method. But, a problem that I have never encountered arose. She stopped... But her family didn't! Eventually the mom yelled back to tell her not to talk to us. And she left. Later in the day, we met a guy working in his garden. I contacted him and he told me he didn't want to answer any questions. So, I said, "that's ok. We are also here as volunteers so would you like some help with your garden?" He responded that he didn't want to answer any questions so we left. The street turned so we ended up passing by him again and he called out to us and said, "why do you ask so many questions? Do I ask you questions?" So, sassy me responded, "um, yeah you just did." He said, "oh... Yeah I guess you're right. Now, ask yourselves the necessary questions." You can imagine that by now I'm a little confused so I just stood there until he turned around. I gave him a weird look only to see that his wife was watching the whole exchange from the window. Oops.. Remember that family I was talking about earlier? Ok let's go back to them. Later in the day, we we're walking across a bridge and they passed us from behind. I said hello again, but the mom didn't see that it was us. The girl turned and said hello again, so she naturally fell a few steps behind her family. The mother looked back to see why (at this point they were about 10 feet in front of us) and then said in a hushed voice to her daughter, "hurry up, they're behind you!" Now.. You don't just let someone say something as hilarious as that without responding, so I said, "yep! We're still here!" What a good day.

Wednesday, I was walking down the street and I turned around and saw Zoe Wadge's long lost twin. I literally almost tripped over my own feet. Then, later, I was walking down another road (we do a lot of walking down roads) and I saw out of the corner of my eye a father and a teenage daughter in a car that turned to each other, laughed, and then both looked at us. So, I knew that they were talking about us. Thus, the staring contest began. I caught eyes with the daughter and we kept eye contact. I assumed that once I walked past the car, she would give up. BUT she was a warrior in this battle of stares. They started to pull off so it was getting further and further away. Just as she was almost out of sight, I thought "wow, I haven't looked where I am walking for about 10 seconds. Then BAM I walked straight  into a pole. Classic.

On Friday, we went tracting around the Garcias and basically we just met a bunch of people that sit in the dark and wait for death. It's really sad, but in small French cities, there are a lot of old people that just don't do anything. And all the young people move off to big cities. Eventually, all those little French towns are going to die.

We at a lot of cake on Saturday.

A member bought me a plastic cup because I told her that I had 6 glasses and elder Berry and I broke 5 of them.

This week, elder little recounted to me many films. I love that guy. Sometimes, he's the only thing that makes tracting endurable.

Love,
Elder Marshall Underwood

We saw some Alpacas - where am I, Peru?

Pea sized hail - it hurt

Folles

Elder StortiThis Monday started out and it was pretty exciting. So, here's the thing, elder little is pretty good at making cakes and so he was making one while I was writing a letter in the other room. Then I heard something fall and "oh no." So I waltzed into the kitchen and it seemed as if he took the cake pan full of batter and threw it at the open oven. I immediately collapsed in laughter and then grabbed the kitchen roll to help him clean it up. The cake ended up being really good even though half of it was wiped off the inside of the oven.

So March started and we taught 4 lessons to less active members in a day. We also met a lady that told us to have a lot of sex while we are young because if we don't, when we are older, we will regret it like she does. Welcome to France haha. I also received the amazing shirt that the McIleece fam sent to me. Thank you ❤️

Elder Storti - a Frenchy on the right

For the Garcia lesson, I was with Elder MacArthur who is normally in Brive. We taught them about the law of chastity and they happily agreed to get married. Then, we taught the girls. I don't think that I have ever been more stressed in my life. While teaching, they were literally wrestling on the couch and there was no way to calm them down. They were literally insane. I feel so much respect for parents that can control their children. In the end, I ended up pulling them apart and sitting between them while I asked them questions one by one. After I did that, the lesson went smoothly but oh my goodness. They were insane.

On Thursday, well, this is how I would describe Thursday: Background info, I made meringue. When I was young, I wanted to help my mom make meringue. She told me specifically to not get ANY yolk into it or else it would ruin the taste. Now fast forward. I got yolk in the mix this week. It was literally nothing so I thought it was fine... When my mom told me this, was she right? 100%. My meringue was awful. Another question: if you are too impatient to wait for your meringues to cook in the oven so that you can put in a second batch, can you try to fry them? Yes. Will it work? No. Will your kitchen smell like burnt meringue? Absolutely.

Friday we had an apartment check and the senior couple said it was the cleanest that they had ever seen. It was also one of the garcias daughters birthdays so we texted them. It made them really happy.

The weekend was not that eventful.

But, Elder Little skyped his family so it was really fun to see them - It was Mother's Day in England!

Love,
Ancien Sousbois

Happy Leap Year!

This week started with some area book work. Elder Little likes area book work, but I absolutely despise it. I feel like staying inside to look through papers and call people makes me a lazy missionary. In reality, it is a good thing to do because there are people in there that once stopped meeting with the missionaries. but are now prepared. So, we took a couple hours and I tried to do anything and everything that we could. Tuesday ended with an English class where I had to explain to a member the difference between 'hustle' and a swear word that sounds a lot like askwhole. I was going to explain 'hassle' to him. but I decided it was too dangerous for a French person to try to say hassle.

Wednesday was my last day of being 18 and I wanted to work my butt off. We left the apartment at 8 am and we got back at 8 pm. Imagine a pumped up Elder Marshall Underwood racing through the French countryside from door to door while his companion struggles to keep up. I don't know where all of the energy came from but we covered about 8 km of ground that day. Also we taught the Garcias which went well as always.

On my birthday, we had an exchange with the zone leaders. At the beginning of the day, the one that would be with me wished me a happy birthday. I told him that it wasn't my birthday and I didn't know what he was talking about. This kinda made things awkward so I said, "thanks for wishing me a happy birthday anyway." We then went throughout the day and I had a ton of fun with Elder Richmond. Elder Richmond was also companions with Elder Berry for 3 transfers. Elder Berry and I talked a lot about him so Elder Richmond was surprised at all the random facts I knew about his life. At night, I made burritos and a cake. While we were eating this feast, Elder Richmond asked "is it really not your birthday?" I explained to him that it was and he got mad. So, I got away with tricking someone into thinking that it wasn't my birthday for the whole day. Sly.  Elder Berry also called me to sing happy birthday. Love that guy.

On Friday we had a zone training. It was great. As we were walking to the tram afterwards, I straight up walked into a pole. Smacked straight into a pole. It was so embarrassing. I didn't even try to pull of a joke like I normally would. I just took the shame. Also, some homeless guy grabbed one of the sisters hands and kissed it. What courage. At night, a member called us and asked to come give her nephew a blessing. It turns out that he was not a member and he just turned up at her house asking for a blessing. He left with a Book of Mormon and he was stoked at God can answer prayers.

Saturday was fun because of this: we went to eat with a member. This member invited a member that just left the church. He started out the night by basically saying, "alright I want to start with a scripture. I don't share this scripture to demean or criticize our friend here who just left the church or anyone else here but I just like this scripture that I read today." He then continued to read a scripture where Nephi gets mad at the Nephi tea because they had testimonies and then they left the church. "Now, it's easy to see that if you have a testimony, you can't leave the church. Now, you just left the church brother and you should really think about when you had a testimony. But, after that, you do whatever you want I guess." LOL this member is a savage. It was really uncomfortable.

The Garcia fam came to church except for the wife. She stayed home so that all of the kids could go together because their car isn't big enough. She's really great.

I also did the 2x2 Rubik's cube without looking. That was fun.

Love you all. Thanks for the birthday wishes

Elder Marshall Underwood

Amazing letter from A French member

Hello, I am writing to let you know something you already know, however I don't thing in this case repetition is a bad thing.  Elder Underwood is doing great.  We are so happy you were kind enough to share him with us to help us with our missionary work.  Thank for the piano lesson also.  You and your husband did a wonderful job of preparing him to be not just a missionary but to be a great missionary.

The main reason I am writing is to encourage you in keeping the commandments and accept the blessings that come to any family who sends out a missionary.  

If you have any questions for us or if you ever want to come to France just give us a little notice so we can kill the fatted calf so to speak.

Thanks and make everyday happy and prosperous 

Your Brother Louis Oziak

PS. Elder Underwood is eating his salad as instructed by you.

-- 
"The main reason for the failure of modern medical science is that it is dealing with results and not causes."
                           Dr. Edward Back "Heal Thyself"

This is great!

This week was just the best. It started out with some great studies on Tuesday. We have a goal in our mission to get 187 new people engaged to baptism by the 15 of March. So, I was studying and getting really pumped about it. It was only magnified on Wednesday when we went over to the Garcias and had a beautiful lesson. I gave the kids balloons on which I wrote "prier" which is the verb "to pray" in order for them to remember. They loved it. Wednesday's studies were also amazing and I was feeling the faith so strongly within me.

But then what happens? Like always, a chance to prove to God whether what he has given you has actually entered your heart. Thursday consisted of 7 hours of either contacting or knocking on doors. To tell you the truth, I haven't had that many doors slammed in my face on my mission. But, this day, I had many. I think Elder Little was a little surprised because after every slammed door, I would say "this is great" and confidently walk to the next door. This day was all made worth it because we found a beautiful family that we set a rendezvous with. I pray that it will go well because I know that their lives can change.

Things went great for the rest of the week. On Saturday, we ate with a member family who invited their friends to join us. We talked about prayer with them and by the end of the night, the wife of the family was asking about why there are so many churches on the earth. The member quickly explained the reasoning of the apostasy and it all clicked in her friends head!

Sunday ended the week with a bang because we had 8 investigators at church. Considering that that number was 0 consistently about 2 months ago, I'm happy with what's going on.

P.S. Elder Underwood sent a couple videos through icloud sharing - I can't figure out how to save them or upload them to the blog or youtube - I will post when I figure it out. Elder Little spoke on one video - awesome English accent.

I love you more than I can tell,
Elder Marshall Underwood

"Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." D&C 64:33