Sorry All!

Can't email this week because everything is closed. It is New Year's Eve here! Transfers are this week. I will be leaving Uliga, but don't know where I will go or who I will be with. We will see.

Baptism. Elder Hanks baptizing his cousin.

The long word is seventy six

The Lagoon

The boys

Cash - money

Christmas

Started from the bottom, Now we are here

This week we went to two Marshallese birthday parties, with most things, they say it starts at 7 and then it starts at 8:30. You start out with food, fish, rice, the usual. Then you sing while you go put money in a bucket. Then the old ladies smear a lot of lotion on everyone, I don't know why, just heard it is an islander thing. Then the cake and ice cream and a dance party. The best way to get Marshallese people to like you is to embarrass yourself. All you have to do is dance crazy. I am pretty good at being crazy.

In my area we have mainly been working with less actives. We are trying to strengthen them before we bring in new coverts. A lot of fun fmaily home evenings and just talking to people more are improving my language. One of them taught us how to play kawujwuj, Marshallese solitaire. It is a lot of fun. We had almost 10 come this Sunday, it was a good day.

We went to a baptism for the other elders. One of my comps turns out to be cousins with him, and he baptized him. I got to witness.

It is one week until Christmas! Enjoy the snow while I am here!

Buddy the Elf, What's your favorite color?

There were so many fun things and so many less fun things about this week. First, on pday, we were taught how to filet fish. We had big tunas and learned how to properly do it.

We then had a really good long lesson with a good investigator. It was about 40 minutes long. Marshallese have the attention span of a 6 year old, so that was surprising. More recently we are trying to strengthen members and less actives. There are so many members that don't come. We had a dinner with a Kiribati family. Elder Hanks knows that language, so we go there sometimes. They are giving us free sleeping mats from Kiribati for Christmas. They are called Jakis. It might not sound too cool to you, but they are about $70 for an average made one, but could go up to $160.

At the dinner with a member, we ate turkey tail and turkey gizzard. They put a whole cake in front of us and said, "finish it." We took that as a challenge and did. We finally got our district leader from the outer island and he is great. He doesn't know English, so we have to speak in Marshallese.

Here comes the worst 2 days of my life. On Friday, Elder Strong finally told the mission nurse that he has had diarrhea for 5 days. She said to take the day off. On Saturday, as we were walking to service, Elder Strong hit his head on a protruding piece of metal. We went to the hospital. The gash wasn't bad, but he may have a concussion. So we stayed inside again. Those 2 days were so long. I was so bored and we couldn't go out and work and it was the worst.

A really crazy week here in Majel.

July??

Life is the best over here. There is no way it is December because it feels like July. Lots of tough things - lots of great things. Trying to improve the area that we have. Lots of less active work and lots of strengthening the ward to then bring new converts in. There is so much to do and not a lot of time.

My new companion is great. Elder Stong. We have a lot of fun in a trio. (with Elder Hanks) It is also December, so we get to do our 12 days of Christmas. This means candy! We got matching candy cane ties and a little Christmas tree so far.

I have learned a few Marshallese proverbs. "Drops together make the ocean and grains of sand together make an island." It is so fun learning about the culture and the language.

I can only send pictures once a month or so. Sorry to everyone. You can only see paradise one time a month.

Finishing with my training and starting someone else's

Not so much happened this week other than zone conference and transfers. I did a musical number at zone conference and killed it. My old trainer, Elder Mower, is going to AP. I got put in a trio with Elder Hanks and Elder Strong. I am finishing Elder Strong's training. I am excited and it's been fun so far. 

Funny story for the week: I asked someone who should pray and he said, "Jeenke." Which is rock-paper-scissors. So we did jeenke to see who would pray. That was definitely a first.

Elder Underwood and Elder Strong (from Springville, UT)

Pictures from Facebook Page - Zone Conference

MTC group

MTC group

Baptism this week

This past week we have been doing a lot of finding. We heard how many Books of Mormon Kiribati has been handing out. We took that as a challenge and have been finding a lot. We found a few really good people to teach. One family we found - he was grateful because he has learned about a lot of churches, but after learning about the restoration he knew this church is true.

Baptism for the other Uliga elders. I found this guy, but the other elders continued to teach with him. I ended up conducting the baptism. That was fun. I have never done that before.

Transfers are this week. They are moving a lot of people around. I am staying in Uliga, but we will see what happens.

Rain rain rain

One of the days it rained all day, it was a really yucky day. We still go out and get soaked, but no one wants to get their hose wet so we go change and then wait for the rain a little bit. We went back out and had an awesome lesson where we read the Book of Mormon with them. I testify of its power. Then we got fed some fish, so good.

I had a surprise interview with president. He said he wanted to talk to me, so I was reflecting on life as to what I may have done. Turns out it was a normal interview, nothing bad.

We had a split with the zone leader. We got his trainee and we were in a trio. It was a lot of fun. We did a lot of finding and gave out many Books of Mormon. This weekend was also stake conference and it was fun to see everyone.

Sorry no pictures this week. We can only send them every 2 or 3 weeks.

Halloween Week

Halloween was this week! We celebrated by going to a resort and eating pizza. We ate way too much and all felt sick. We rode home in the van screaming the song "Proud to be an American" re. Really fun night. (A group of doctors came to the Marshalls for a Humanitarian Service Project. They were making prosthetics for the people)

We taught a lesson in a house that is comfortable for one person sitting down, there were three people in it. Most houses here are made of tin, which is the worst. It is like an oven.

We almost watched general conference this past week, but it got postponed to the first week in December. Later that day I was talking to some drunk people and they were talking about the Utah Jazz and Donovan Mitchell. I told them he was my brother. They believed me.

I ate cow stomach and cow liver this past week! It was really good. They even told us what it was before we ate it. I didn't even lie to them - I actually liked it.

The mission is awesome. I am improving everyday in the language and in missionary work. I have almost been out 4 months. Time flies when you work hard.

 Elder Mower, Underwood, Hanks

 Elder Peterson from Sandy, UT

 Two companionships in one house - Mower, Hanks, Lal, Underwood

 12 year old baptism

Not much to say

I am having a lot of fun here. It is still hot and I am training myself so that is cool. It is so fun to speak Marshallese. I have made so many good friends. I love this gospel and the Book of Mormon. Hopefully I can send pictures next week.

The hardest week....

This was one of the hardest weeks of my life. But, there were still miracles. Not much happened this week except a few things.

I learned to follow the spirit. We were walking to one of our last lessons of the night. I stop... look to the left... see a house. A house that we have been trying to teach fro a while. I hear "do it". We go and knock on the door. It is a Fijian guy. He lets us in and tells us that usually he comes to his house for a few minutes, but then goes to his friend's house. Tonight he was planning on staying in. Because we followed the spirit, we were able to get in tough with him and see when he will be home to teach him.

I got my first convert this week. It was a great feeling. I love all these experiences that have happened and love being a missionary.

Side note: Elder Lal who is from Fiji is Elder Hanks companion. They live in the same house as Elder Underwood and Elder Hanks. Elder Lal knows Aaron Peery (Cousin Madison Underwood's husband) from when he was on his mission in Fiji. Aaron says he is happy to see the less active boy - Elder Lal - on a mission. What a small world.

Transfer Day

A lot happened this week. Elder Day is leaving from our district and that was sad - so we went to tide table and had dinner.

I had my first zone conference. My trainer and I did a training and president said we did really well so I take his word for it. Then transfers. They told us that Elder Mower and I were staying together, then when they announced it - they were like "that's not right". Then they put Mower with Elder Lal training him and me with Elder Hanks and he is finishing my training. There are 4 elders in Uliga now. Elder Lal is from Fiji and he is the man. Really ready to be out here and serve. Fun fact Elder Hanks was on the Kiribati side, and he just came to the Marshalls. He is fluent in Kiribiati, but knows next to no Marshallese. So he is training me to be a missionary, but I am training him in the language. It will be fun.

On Saturday, I saw my first baptism. It wasn't mine, but I went to it to support. The spirit and love I felt there was overwhelming. It has helped me strive to help others come to that point in their life.

Also - I haven't seen conference, so no spoilers!!

 MTC group together for Zone Conference

 Elder Justus Peterson and Elder Underwood

Elder Hanks

SIDE NOTE - Elder Hanks is from Bountiful, Utah. My mom connected with his mom on facebook to get "the story" because I didn't know why Elder Hanks was transferred from Kiribati to the Marshalls and finding his biological mom. The Hanks family adopted twin boys from the Marshall Islands 20 years ago (one of them is Elder Hanks). They went to Majuro and spent a week there to pick up the babies. The birth mom spent a week with them and they grew to love her spending this time with her. It was a blessing for Elder Hanks to get called back to this mission. When President Larkin learned of this situation, he wanted Elder Hanks to have the opportunity to re-connect and find his Marshallese family. The Hanks family anticipated and were hopeful that something would happen. Elder Hanks' mom sent pictures of the birth mom and things and places that we knew so Elder Hayden Hanks would have that to go on. He gave those pictures and information to the AP and President Larkin so they would be able to search for her, knowing she was on the island of Ebeye. A couple of weeks ago, they found her and quickly made travel plans to make it happen! The twins also have a biological sister in Idaho that they keep in touch with. The Hanks family was able to have a Skype call with Elder Hanks, his twin that is at home working, the sister in Idaho, the parents and the biological mom. It is a miracle and a dream come true.

Why I am a missionary

To start the week, we had a going away party for one elder and one sister. These parties are pretty big because the members put them together for the missionaries. There was food and island dancing, super fun.

We got ourselves into some service that was way too much work. They asked us to tile a floor. We didn't realize that they didn't have any of the tools we need and no way to get them. It was hard and took a lot of time. Now we know what projects we shouldn't do.

The mission is the most fun, most hard and most challenging part of my life. A lot of the time it is too hot, too early, and too wet to get up. We could choose to sleep in, not study, and mess around all day. No that would be too easy. We get up before the sun, work out, and start studying do then we can go to 8 hours in the hot, wet outdoors. How do we do it? I have wondered the same thing myself. Some people say it would be nice if we got everything without any struggle, we would be weak! Then wehn something hard comes up in our life, we wouldn't know how to handle it! I am grateful for all of the trials the Lord has put in my life because they are for my benefit and for the strength of my spirit and body. I am doing this because I love the gospel, I love Christ, and I love it way too much to not share it.

 Garbage

 Sweet dramatic person

 The flowers here are unreal

 Fish

A full rainbow. You could see both spots it touched the ground