Upcoming Baptism:)

 Mom is SO jealous that Ty got to see the Yankees bike and Jorge's jersey 

At the gorgeous OCC showroom. One of his top 3 best Pdays ever! 

Life is great! The work is going really well here in Poughkeepsie. Our investigators have been progressing pretty well, but we're running into some concerns with some of them that are difficult to meet. One of our investigators told us a few weeks ago that he wants to be baptized, so we've been working with him to get him there. He has some pretty big concerns to work through before he can be baptized, though. We actually had a pretty frustrating lesson with Brother Smith yesterday. I love him with all my heart, but he is a very stubborn man. He has this whole theory about Joseph Smith and the Word of Wisdom. I won't go into the details, but it's super untrue and pretty disturbing. It's been a roller coaster with him, because he's so sincere about knowing that the Book of Mormon is true and that ours is the only church with the fullness of the truth. He even admits that he knows Joseph Smith was a prophet of God but tells us about how he thinks he was a really bad person. It hurts to hear that kind of thing about our beloved prophet, who I respect so much for his leadership and his character. Anyway yesterday was just more of the same disagreement on the Word of Wisdom and whether or not outlawing coffee was revelation from God. I walked away feeling very discouraged and a little angry. I didn't show it while we were with Brother Smith, but I sure did vent my frustrations to Elder Wagner in the car. I couldn't really think straight, and Elder Wagner couldn't either. So we decided that we should just pray. I prayed that we would be able to think clearly. That we would be able to put aside our frustrations with Brother Smith for the time being and just focus on the people we would be contacting and teaching for the rest of the night. I'm so grateful that I did! About an hour later we had a lesson with Joe. I haven't seen Joe for about a month. He's been visiting his family in Washington and his girlfriend, Jordynn's family, in Utah for Christmas break. We tried to set up Skype lessons with him, but it never really worked out. It was great to see him again. He looked really happy. When he and Jordynn walked into the room and sat down, I noticed that he had a brand new quad with his name engraved on it and a new CTR ring. It turns out his visit to Utah was awesome, and he spent the eighty bucks or whatever it costs these days to get himself a nice set of scriptures. He told us that his family still isn't completely on board with his decision to join the Church but he knows that he needs to do it. He told us that he's ready to be baptized! We were able to set a date for his baptism on the 31st of January, next Saturday. I just felt so incredible after the lesson with Joe. He's such a good guy. I know that the way the lesson turned out was an answer to the prayer I described from earlier in the day. If I had still been thinking about Brother Smith and still frustrated, I don't know if the lesson with Joe would have turned out so well. There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord is fully aware of each one of us. Doing the Lord's work is more and more amazing all the time. I'm grateful that I still have a good amount of time to have these kinds of missionary experiences. There is still so much ahead of me in the next seven months! Well that's the big thing from this week. Other than that everything is great! It's pretty cold here, but I think January will be the worst month. It will start warming up before we even know it. Thank you all for everything you do. Remember that God loves you and that He answers your prayers. I love you all so much. Have a wonderful week.!!