Bouta be on an island

.
Oh, how lovely was the morning!
Radiant beamed the sun above.
Bees were humming, sweet birds singing,
Music ringing thru the grove.
When within the shady woodland
Joseph sought the God of love.

I start my email with these lyrics from Joseph Smith's first prayer in the hymn book. We sang these words in the world wide devotional with D. Todd Christopherson that was broadcasted. My cousin, Dayton, who is in the Mexico MTC, said that he saw me in the choir, which is cool! These words are so powerful and really sets the scene of how it felt when he was there.

On Wednesday, it was our teacher's birthday. We threw him a surprise party - sorta. Our other teacher taught us a Marshallese happy birthday song and we sang it to him accompanies by the uke. Since we don't have a piano in our classroom, our teacher plays his uke with the hymns, in the Marshallese hymn book, there are chords so you can accompany it with the uke. It is so fun to sing.

We did our last TRC yesterday where we skyped a member in the islands and taught him a lesson. It is so fun! We got our flight plans last week and we leave Tuesday morning, we fly to San Francisco then to Honolulu then to Majel. We are all stocked! Stay tuned for the first episode of Elder Underwood vs. wild!

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Elder Underwood

Almost the Marshalls

The MTC goes slow and then all of a sudden you are about to leave and then it slows down.
This week wasn't too eventful. We started with TRC which is teaching someone for 20 minutes in your mission language. We also taught someone over skype that is in the islands currently. That went well. It is crazy to see how much Marshallese I know already.

We had a great lesson taught by our teacher. I would encourage everyone to watch "The Hope of God's Light" and "The Will of God" on lds.org. They are incredible.

This past Sunday was the first Sunday coordinating the priesthood meeting. It went well and the branch president complimented us as the most organized meeting he has ever seen. I performed "The Manner Of Men" on the piano in a devotional. It was awesome.

We taught a lesson on the floor with no shoes just like we will in the Marshalls. I have participated in choir every week and we learn a lot of stories about how the songs came to pass. We learned a Marshallese birthday song, so if you want me to sing it to you just give me an email and I will be sure to send you an exclusive musical number.

That's all for this week, by next week I will be leaving in a few days!!

--
Elder Underwood

New elders arrive

This week started out with zone 14 singing farewell to all the elders going to Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati, and Hawaii. We stood outside and did it and you could hear it throughout the whole MTC. We had quite the audience.

I had to say goodbye to my mom, the zone mom, which was actually Elder Ortiz. He was the priesthood coordinator. I am going to miss him. Then my comp and I got called to that calling so now we are the zone moms. It is crazy how close you can get to people in 3 weeks.

Elder Smith got up to bare his testimony, he talked about he is fluent in Spanish so he thought he would go Spanish speaking. He got his call to Samoa; although he wasn't upset he always thought he needed to teach people with the gift of knowing Spanish. Having faith he brought a Spanish Book of Mormon and some other Spanish teaching tools. His visa got delayed so he got sent to Washington DC for a transfer. What he didn't realize is that mission is huge for Spanish. He was so grateful. It was a great testimony that God knows each of us and we all have a plan.

On Tuesday, we got back to the residence and for some reason I felt like I shouldn't change out of my proselyting clothes. You know me - I am kinda always like whatever. But then as I walked into our district in the other room they were all talking and Elder Lunt has asthma and is struggling because all of the fires and smoke in the valley. Only his companion and I were still in proselyting clothes. Although a few of them could have changed really quickly; it was a great testament that you always need to be ready spiritually to give blessings or invite unto Christ. I got to participate in a priesthood blessing and the next day he was completely fine. It was a testimony builder of priesthood power.

We initiated the new elders and I was one of the intimidators. We did the Baafa thing like they did to us, but then they told an elder "you will not speak! or we will feed you to lalo papa" then they started chanting lalo papa, and I jumped over everyone out of no where and scared the crap out of some people. It was awesome. Everyone calls me lalo papa, which means Underwood in Tongan, but it sounds cool haha.

Lokwe ippami,
Elder Underwood

Familiar Faces

It is always wonderful to see a familiar face in the MTC. Sister Makylee Scherschligt called to serve in Norway.

It feels like I have been out for a century ....

It also feels like I just got here. 

     It was a good week this week. The longer you are here the more monotonous the schedule gets. Not much changes because we do the same things every day. 

     I have said this a lot but my zone is the best! We sing these pacific island farewell songs every time someone leaves. It is so powerful and although the polys are really big and scary they are the nicest people I have ever met. In a picture below it shows one of the polys pair of pants. I can almost fit my whole body in them. I can fit both my legs in one leg hole. 

     We have TRC today. We are teaching a full lesson in Marshallese almost every day. It is hard. My comp and I were teaching about Heavenly Father, we decided to share Moses 1:39. Our investigator was confused because that scripture was in the Pearl of Great Price, but he knew Moses was in the bible. He was confused and we didn’t know how to explain it. We asked the Lord for help to be able to help him understand. We were able to use what we knew in order to help him. I testify that Christ lives and he helps us every day and all we need to do is ask. 

     The Marshallese elder is in a picture below and he is amazing. He always comes to our room and bares his testimony for about an hour in English and helps us with Marshallese. The language is hard, but it is super specific and a lot of back story from words. For example apostasy is Bun jan 

tomak, which literally translates to: fall from faith. 

     The MTC is awesome and I am always spiritually uplifted. 60 elders from our zone are leaving next week and we will be receiving 60 new guys. There will be new zone leaders called and everyone is saying it will be someone else, we will see on Sunday. Our teacher talks more and more about the islands and I can’t wait to get there but also enjoying my time here.

--
Elder Cole Underwood

Week 1

This was my first real week in the MTC. You usually have class early for a few hours and a night class for a few hours, and study and work out time in the middle. Sometimes the language is really frustrating because I really just want to know it and I am working hard. Sometimes that’s how life is and you keep pushing on. When I was getting frustrated about the language, it was because I was only thinking about myself, that I wanted to learn it for me. When I realized it isn’t for me, it is for God and the people in Marjel, it started to click more and I could remember things easier. We have taught a few lessons in Marshallese with notes, and then we couldn’t use notes and weirdly enough if you just have faith that you prepared for the lesson and that God would help you, the lesson will go great. Its crazy how much you remember during the lesson but then forget after. 

On Sunday we don’t know who is speaking in sacrament until the branch president announces it, so everyone has to plan a talk and so when it happens in the field we will be prepared.

Early the next morning we had a service assignment, so we had to wake up a half hour earlier. One elder in our room, Elder Carr, had a dream that the zone leaders were yelling at us cause we were late, so then he woke up in a panic, looked at his watch, and only looked at the "40" and thought crap its 6:40! and then woke us all up. Turns out it was 5:40. It was hilarious though, he is also so funny. 

The MTC all-time record is 38 real full pullups. I really want to beat it. We have a pullup bar right outside our resident room. My current record is 25, but by the time I leave I will get 40. Everyone calls me Harry Potter, mostly because of the glasses but now after someone saw me do pullups they started calling me jacked Harry Potter.

We sent off a few elders as a zone. It was so cool. We sang God Be With You Til We Meet Again – a verse in Tongan, Samoan, and Fijian. Then we sang it in English. I’m already in love with the island culture. There is so much love here and that’s how it always should be. 

Then the next day we welcomed the new elders, just what they did to us when we came. It is videoed below our zone is the best.

We have a Marshallese elder and he is so funny. I can tell how much favoritism he shows towards our district because we are trying to learn his language. Shows a lot about the people in Majel. He talks to us for about an hour everyday about his testimony and the islands. I can’t wait to learn more about the culture!

Elder Underwood

lokwe, ej et am mour? (hello, how is your life?)

     It has been two days since I have left, so not much to say. It is great here in the MTC, great food, fun elders, and our zone is the best zone ever - according to everyone. #zone14

     Our first day, we got introduced to everything and had a bunch of tours. Right when I got here, we jumped into language class right off the bat. Later in the day, when we went back to the residence, the whole zone was waiting for us. They circled around the new elders. Then the biggest Tongan I have ever seen (our zone includes all the oceanic missions so there are a lot of poly elders) starts yelling "Baafa!" just like M'baku in the movie Black Panther. Then all the other elders yelled "Hoo Hah!" and repeated that a few times. It was the awesomest and most scary experience in my life. 

     Our daily schedule is basically wake up, study, eat, class, study, eat, study, eat, class, bed. My comp is Elder Seward. He is a cool guy and our district is awesome. Everyone is super funny and quick witted. Almost nonstop laughs this whole time. Especially Elder Carr. He is probably the funniest man I have ever met in my life. 

     Today is my first P day and we got up and got ready and ate and studied and I looked at my watch and it was 9 am. I was like - I have 9 more hours to fill until class. I am really excited to learn the language and delve into the culture. One thing I have learned about the lang/culture is the word for hello is also love. That says a lot about the Marshallese people. I was feeling really good about small conversation until Elder Katol (who is from the Majel Islands) walked up to all of us that are going there and it basically sounded like "lksn jakldjs". All of us had a blank face to what he was saying. All he said was "how old are you?"

      I have worked harder since then and I am going to work everyone else into the ground. I know basic conversation and memorized 0-100, and can tell time. It’s all good in the MTC, my P day is every Friday so I will email then!

kom Ij lokwe! (I Love all of you)

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Elder Underwood