Good tidings to you!

Hey y'all! How's everything doing this wonderful Christmas season? Everything is going splendidly here in the thriving metropolis of Concord. This week was really was really fun and this upcoming week is going to be good too, I can just tell. Bike week started this Wednesday, and of course, it conveniently got chilly. Not super cold, but uncomfortably chilly. Elder Nelson was kinda freaking out about how cold it was, the lowest it ever got was the upper twenties, and that was when we were in bed sleeping. The coldest it got when we were out was the low 40's so it wasn't that bad. Elder Nelson is a St. George boy so he's weak when it comes to the cold. But everything's fine, as soon as we get the car back (of course), it's supposed to get back into the seventies for Christmas Eve and Day and for a week so we're excited. 

This week was pretty exciting, we got four 16 year olds on date. I don't know how solid they are but they seem pretty pumped. A month ago we went looking for a former investigator, and the person that answered the door was a kid named Caleb (not the former). We talked to him and he seemed accepting so we set a return appointment, but we were never able to get in contact with him for a while. We decided to just stop by and we met Paul, who also seemed excited for our message and set a return appointment for us. We went to the appointment and Paul and Caleb were there. So was Paul's sister, Alice. We taught all three of them and set another return appointment. When we showed up to that, Paul had decided to bring another friend along, Noah, and we had an amazing lesson with them and then we set baptismal dates with all four of them. I think Paul is the most excited and we really hope at least he will get baptized. It's pretty exciting. 

The Kannapolis Elders had a baptism on Saturday that we were able to attend with two investigators, Tay and Ella. We were super happy that they were there. We've always been able to get in contact and have lessons with Tay, but Ella is a different story. We haven't been able to talk to her in over a month. We brought Tay with Brother Halvorsen, and when we got there, we found Ella there! I guess she and Angie (the one that got baptized) are good friends and Angie picked Ella up. So we were super happy. We also got the whole family (Homer{Recent Convert}, Ella{Homer's wife}, Tay{Ella's son}, and Pie{Ella's granddaughter}) to church! And they really liked it! The
baptism went pretty well. Elder Nelson and I aren't very good witnesses. So when Elder Christensen was baptizing Angie, her foot popped out of the water. The water was so cold that right after Angie came up, she ran up the stairs into the bathroom. Elder Nelson didn't see the foot come out, but I did, but I guess I wasn't fast or loud enough at telling everybody that Angie's foot came out of the water, so we had to get Angie back in the cold water and do it again. But, after, Ella said, "It better not be that cold when I get baptized." Which got us excited. Afterwards we went out with Brother Halvorsen and he took us out to Pizza Hut, which was really good for Tay, because he doesn't get out much because he's wheelchair bound for awhile. We really appreciate the people that do so much for us in this ward, though yesterday at church they made things a little difficult. 

So a couple Saturdays ago, we met this guy named Pryce, who is a really skilled painter. He had just lost everything when his trailer with all of his belongings caught on fire. He didn't have it insured so he was left with only the clothes on his back. He seemed like a super nice, humble guy, so we invited him to church and he said he would love to come. Well, I guess that was a bad idea, because when we picked him up the member who was driving, who is a super nice older guy, told us that guy is crazy and we shouldn't have invited him to church. So the ride to church was super awkward. We then got to church and during the course of the three hours I had five ward members come up to us and say stuff like, "You brought THAT guy!?!" or, "You know that guy's like a time bomb just waiting to go off." So basically all through church I was stressing about if he was going to blow up or something, but he was pretty calm. Oh well. We had a guy sing O Holy Night, but I don't think he did as well as Chris Roper. 😏 

Well, anyways, how about those Panthers? 14-0 now. Pretty exciting. Well, I'm glad to hear that Star Wars didn't disappoint. There is a lot of hype round here about it. I can't wait to see it when I get home. 

Well, as I am writing this we are waiting in the waiting room of a digestive health center. Elder Nelson is going to get a camera down his throat. He's been having some stomach problems and he hasn't been able to eat much lately so we are excited to figure out how to fix it. 

I haven't really played the piano much yet in the field. I played a lot in the MTC, but there are a lot of people in the mission that can, so I haven't really had the need to. I play occasionally in district
meeting, but that's about it. 

I'll be singing tomorrow. We're going to go caroling tomorrow night with some members of the ward and the Concord sisters. Well, I love y'all and hope everything is going well. Talk to ya later!