Hello peeps!

IT SNOOOOOWED!! Like a legitimate snow, like not just a little puff of ice coming down, but a bonafide snow storm, to Arizona standards. We even got enough to throw snowballs and I NAILED my companion... and then he got me back so everything was all good in the hood. The coolest part of the whole deal, is that it didn't just snow once, but three times. Twas a beautiful sight to behold, at least for me. The weather dropped significantly, so every morning we can see our breath rise out in front of us in little wispy clouds of smoke. My district and I have been doing a sort of ritual/ tradition of every morning when we get out of the apartment someone hollers out: "Hey Sanka, watch smokin?" "I ain't smokin mon, I'm breathin!" It's exciting and makes the mornings a little more enjoyable. We've been bustin out Christmas songs too, because almost my entire district is going to places where they never get snow and this is the only time in the next two years where we're gonna be cold.  The song that has really been touching me the most is "O Holy Night". Just reading the words breaks my heart and fills me with so much love for the savior. I just want to be an instrument, a perfect instrument, in his hands.

Alright, now that all the formalities are over, it's time to get down to the nitty gritty stuff. Saturday was garbage. I had to delete multiple words to describe Saturday while writing this because they would not be appropriate in a letter by a missionary. But seriously it was bad. My companion and I were super confident going into this lesson with an investigator (actually, just a sister in our zone) and I guess Heavenly Father wanted us humbled. Boy, did it work. We fumbled over our words, the investigator obviously had no idea what we were talking about, and the whole thing was just a fiasco. I'd been feeling the spirit so strongly the entire time being here, but during that visit it was practically devoid. The only time that the spirit was there was when we bore our testimonies at the very end. It was awful. Afterwards, I honestly debated for a minute or so I there was any real point in me being here in the first place and my companion was feeling pretty similar. We asked our zone leaders to give us a blessing afterwards and instead they just talked with us, which turned out to be exactly what we needed. They told us that the same thing was what they went through the Saturday before. One of them said he was so flamingly mad that he practically growled at one of the Sister missionaries who tried to get past him the hall! It was nice to know that we weren't the only ones God needed to humble, and them telling their story was so stinkin funny, it was almost impossible to stay upset.

Sunday was like a breath of fresh air. It felt so nice to not go to class and just de-tox for an entire day. Even though I knew I had really botched it with the lesson, I felt peaceful all day and I knew that God still loved me, I just needed to stop being so self-absorbed with my success and turn it over to him. That night we went to choir and let me tell you something about my district: they're all ragingly tone deaf. It's a good thing we don't have any sisters in our district, cause if we did they'd probably lose they're hearing. It's pretty bad. So choir was exciting. They all sing with gusto, which is very spriritual, it's just never in the right key. :P After choir we watched a former devotional from David A. Bednar entitiled "The Character of Christ". It is life-changing. I'm sort of running out of time, so I'll just sum it up in a sentence. Forget yourself, turn outward and give all glory to God.

Now, time to talk about our investigator. We go to a building on campus called the TRC (training resource center). We've taught our investigator three times already and I've never felt so sure that this is where I need to be. Her name is Lisa and she is just the little old granny who is more or less an angel. She has such a desire to know the truth and all, and she is humble as all get-out. She felt like, at first, that she wasn't good enough to have God listen to her, but the Holy Ghost has really been doing work on her. My companion and I are pretty sure she is an actual investigator (they have some members and some investigators working in the TRC). I asked her to be baptized yesterday because the Holy Ghost was practically shouting at me to ask her, and she said she doesn't feel like she know enough yet, but she'll pray about it. I REALLY hope she does, cause she is seriously an ANGEL!

Love you all so much and I love prayers and emails! God has been very good to my companion and I, and I couldn't be happier to be where I am!

Love,
Elder Gneiting