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That subject line has nothing to do with anything in this letter. It's just a cool talk and a thing my Grandpa Wold used to always say.

Good Morning! What a week! We had some highs some lows, some fun some bores, but it's been great overall and quite the learning experience. 

So to start off, we finally had a lesson with Mariah! I don't know if any of you remember that story or if I ever told you it now that I think about it but whatever. Just know it involved a hard day 2 transfers ago, me pushing a drunk homeless guy in his wheelchair, and all of this happening outside a nice woman's house who we went back and talked with, who ended up being Mariah. 

ANYWAY, we finally got a set lesson this last Tuesday since work had been so busy for her, plus the holidays and it was awesome! We just got to know her needs and what she had a belief in. We made some common ground on how there are so many churches and that it doesn't make any sense that there would be so much confusion from the same God we all believe in. From there we were able to connect Joseph Smith to her and his whole search for the true church among so many denominations. The Spirit was felt and we were able to also teach her about the Book of Mormon and left her with a marked one to read. We'll be going back over this week to see how the reading is going and to answer any questions she almost certainly has.

So that was definitely the highlight to me. But the rest of this week was cool. 

We...

-met this former investigator guy named Tristan who was cussing up a storm but invited us back and gave us some shady looking rip off ding dong treats. We still ate them.

-were confronted by this big African American guy at 7 at night when we were locking up our bikes at a stop sign that was kinda sorta on his property (not really but whatever). He was like "HEY WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!!!" and was all mean until he saw our name badges. Then he like flipped a switch and kept referring to us as his church brothers and gave us some tips about his sketchy neighborhood. It was funny.

-watched a homeless guy make his puppet dance on the side of the road next to an intersection to the song "you gotta fight" by the beastie boys. Pretty weird especially since it wasn't for money. 

-taught primary again with the same class of crazies! It was way fun but man I have so much more respect for my primary teachers and primary teachers in general!

-made friends with a new investigator named Richard from "DE-troyeet" who rides a sweet chopper and used to live in AZ. He used to ride with the biker gang "Hell's Angels" so he's a bit intimidating.

-Had an awesome dinner at an inactive member's home along with a young couple from the ward. The inactive member is from the Philippines and the wife in the young couple just got off her mission there a couple of years ago. So she connected well with the inactive member and it was so cool . He has never opened up to someone like he did with her. Members are soooooooooooooooooooo important.

-did an FHE with another inactive family. They showed us their sweet aquariums, their karate belts and their gun twirling abilities (fake guns like color guard stuff. no need to worry mom, we weren't hurling AK's around). We showed them the Ask of God video and it was cool seeing the Spirit work on that family, especially the two boys. 

SO those were some of the things we did! We also did a lot of biking and tracting this week. Both were cold but Elder Vogt and I equally don't take ourselves very seriously so we made it fun. I guess this week all comes back to this quote from Joseph Smith for me.

“Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.”

We had a lot of days this week that just weren't super Spiritually powerful or filled with lessons. We honestly just worked a lot this week, trying to find people, talk to people, invite people etc. Some of the days really weren't that eventful and sometimes, just sometimes, they didn't feel very successful either. But that quote reminds me that all I can do is do my best with my whole heart. To do it with faith and hope that the Lord is blessing the lives of these people through us. And to do all of this cheerfully!

Love you guys!

Elder Wold