Saturday, November 30, 2013
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Tuesday, November 26, 2013
email: transferred! | November 25, 2013
Calgary!
So this past Wednesday I was transferred! It was kinda a shock but also kinda expected. I went from one of the most southerly places to one of the most northerly places! I'm now in the Calgary North Zone which is one zone south of the northernmost zone. I don't know what to say about it. It is extremely different from Lethbridge because it's a big city. Some of the downtown skyscrapers are in my zone! There is no real open spaces here and the area is a lot bigger. To make things worse, we don't have a car :( most of the ward lives an hour walk or more away from us. It makes things tricky but that's okay. The worst part of Transfers is that I had to leave my two investigators (Ben and Beth) and since I'm so far north, there is no chance of me going to their baptism. But something that happened up here made it a little better, but I'll talk on that more.
Calgary is a very diverse city, way more diverse than Lethbridge. There are a lot of Asians here, about 1000% more than my previous zone. The people are also a little more poor too. It's a very different environment than I'm used to, but I'm also excited to get a new experience.
So, I said something awesome happened already. Well, we have this investigator, Roberto, who we taught on Friday. As we were teaching him he was saying things like how he couldn't be baptized until he knew everything and he was fully clean of sin. We told him that Baptism was the gate and the start of the journey, not the finish. He didn't really agree and said he would probably be baptized in 6 months or a year or something. So I was super bold and promised him that if he would come to church and keep a open heart with real intent, the spirit would tell him he needed to be baptized and when. I also said it would be a lot sooner than he expected. I've never been that bold before, and was scared I offended him. But after church on Sunday, his daughter was talking to him and he told her to tell us to pick a baptism date a few weeks a way!! My promise came true!! I was so happy and when we meet with him on Wednesday we will put him on date for probably the 14th.
Well, I don't know what else to say today. It has been an interesting week. Oh! I know, I almost forgot the big news!!! We are getting another visitor from the Church this transfer. It is last minute but we got the email this morning to prepare spiritually for his coming. He wants us to read and study three talks and he will even ask us questions and let us ask him questions. It's going to be pretty sweet and since he'll be in Calgary not the south, I'll be able to see him in person. I won't be mean and withhold the name for another week, so I'll say it now. The one, the only, Elder David A. Bednar is coming to Calgary Canada!!!! I'm pretty excited for him to come and I'm excited for him to teach us!!!
Other than that, nothing much is happening. Have a great week and stay safe! I love you all.
Love,
Elder Wake
So this past Wednesday I was transferred! It was kinda a shock but also kinda expected. I went from one of the most southerly places to one of the most northerly places! I'm now in the Calgary North Zone which is one zone south of the northernmost zone. I don't know what to say about it. It is extremely different from Lethbridge because it's a big city. Some of the downtown skyscrapers are in my zone! There is no real open spaces here and the area is a lot bigger. To make things worse, we don't have a car :( most of the ward lives an hour walk or more away from us. It makes things tricky but that's okay. The worst part of Transfers is that I had to leave my two investigators (Ben and Beth) and since I'm so far north, there is no chance of me going to their baptism. But something that happened up here made it a little better, but I'll talk on that more.
Calgary is a very diverse city, way more diverse than Lethbridge. There are a lot of Asians here, about 1000% more than my previous zone. The people are also a little more poor too. It's a very different environment than I'm used to, but I'm also excited to get a new experience.
So, I said something awesome happened already. Well, we have this investigator, Roberto, who we taught on Friday. As we were teaching him he was saying things like how he couldn't be baptized until he knew everything and he was fully clean of sin. We told him that Baptism was the gate and the start of the journey, not the finish. He didn't really agree and said he would probably be baptized in 6 months or a year or something. So I was super bold and promised him that if he would come to church and keep a open heart with real intent, the spirit would tell him he needed to be baptized and when. I also said it would be a lot sooner than he expected. I've never been that bold before, and was scared I offended him. But after church on Sunday, his daughter was talking to him and he told her to tell us to pick a baptism date a few weeks a way!! My promise came true!! I was so happy and when we meet with him on Wednesday we will put him on date for probably the 14th.
Well, I don't know what else to say today. It has been an interesting week. Oh! I know, I almost forgot the big news!!! We are getting another visitor from the Church this transfer. It is last minute but we got the email this morning to prepare spiritually for his coming. He wants us to read and study three talks and he will even ask us questions and let us ask him questions. It's going to be pretty sweet and since he'll be in Calgary not the south, I'll be able to see him in person. I won't be mean and withhold the name for another week, so I'll say it now. The one, the only, Elder David A. Bednar is coming to Calgary Canada!!!! I'm pretty excited for him to come and I'm excited for him to teach us!!!
Other than that, nothing much is happening. Have a great week and stay safe! I love you all.
Love,
Elder Wake
Monday, November 18, 2013
email | November 18, 2013
Hastening The Work
Well, I have some freaking awesome news for y'all, but you'll just have to wait until later to hear what it is. For now, my week...
So, basically this week was slow again, but I guess that's to be understood with just me in the 12th ward and I can't even focus a majority of my time there. Ben and Beth are still progressing rapidly. I'm actually a little worried because we are already half way through the lessons and still have more than a month to go!! I'm thinking that we'll teach a little random "church" topics after we finish to give them a head start as members. Things like Church History and how to use the footnotes in the scriptures and maybe delve deeper into topics such as prayer. If anyone has ideas for what I could teach, I'm open for suggestions.
Funny thing about Ben and Beth, they made me feel faithless the other day. I was talking to them and was letting them know that I wanted to help in any way I can with an addiction they have. Then they basically said, "we know that if we try our best and pray, God will make sure that we are clean and ready for our baptism on January 1st". They have so much faith it's crazy! It made me feel a little bad because I was worrying about their addiction and was not showing as much faith as they are. But I've changed my ways and have joined them in their faith.
Aside from that, one of the items of big news is that Elder Gregory A.Schwitzer of the Seventy came and talked to us. He shook all of our hands first off. Then President and Sister Nicholas gave us some training, then the Assistants gave us some training. Following that we did role plays as a zone. It was cool because the zone leaders made up the scenarios for each companionship so that it was tailored to their needs. Since I'm living with the Zone Leaders, I got to help and put in my input. They even used two of my toughest investigators. I think that everyone got something out of it, so that's good. Then Sister Schwitzer gave us some training followed by an hour of Elder Schwitzer training us. They both gave us some awesome things to think about. Elder Schwitzer told us something that President Packer tells the General Authorities when he trains them. He told us to put down our pens and paper and to only write what we learned from the spirit towards the end. Many missionaries (my self included) look so concerned that they couldn't use their pens!! It was quite funny, but I guess that we are all note taking addicts :) It was nice to see a bunch of people from past transfers and theMTC.
Now, for the exciting news about myself. I was talking to President and he told me that I will follow up train someone this next transfer. Basically, whensomeone's trainer goes home or is transferred before the training is complete, a followup trainer is called. President sounded surprised that I didn't know though, so I guess the assistants forgot to call me. Plus, President said things that make me think I will be transferred somewhere on Wednesday. I guess that we will see.
Okay, okay, I guess I owe you guys some awesome news... but first, due to some requests to hear about the culture of Canada, here are some more answers to your questions:
Most Canadians say "eh" at least a little. It's not at the end of every sentence, but is more like a question of understanding. Example, "It's a little warm in here, eh?" or "So you learned a lot in class, eh?". In addition to that, in Southern Alberta many substitute "eh" for "hey".
Many Canadians are all about Christmas!! Since they don't have Thanksgiving in November, they don't have an "official" start of the Christmas Season. Most have Christmas lights up the week after Halloween. With all the lights and snow and freezing weather, I'm already getting super excited for Christmas!!
Lastly, in Canada the letter "z" has a different name. In the States it's pronounced "zee", but in Canada it's pronounced "zed". it's kinda weird, but I'm getting used to it. So in this mission a nickname for zone leaders is "Zeds", so if I say that, that is who I'm talking about.
Okay, this time it's for real, the big exciting news!!! Please hold your gasps and applause until the end because each sentence gets more and more exciting. Here we go:
We get iPad mini's. Earlier than expected (around next General Conference). Every missionary gets his/her own. They may have 3G (maybe). To ensure that we take good care of them, we get to (drum roll please....) TAKE THEM HOME WITH US!!!! That's right, for only $100 dollars we get to come home with our very own iPad Mini. The best part is that I can just take out $7 a month from my allowance for the rest of my mission and pay that way, so it's no extra cost!!! Needless to say, all of us missionaries are super excited and are already "shopping" for cases and accessories. I really want a wireless keyboard so that I can type up talks and notes and stuff. It'll be really cool. It will have all of the Gospel Library, Mormon Messages, and other stuff. Plus it will have our planner and the ward mission leader and auxiliaries will have access to it so that they can put in appointments or they can see what we are doing when. Plus it will have our Area Book and therefore our teaching records and progress reports. And it will even have a GPS with all of the Progressing, Other, New, Potential, and Former Investigators and Less Actives marked with pins. So if an appointment cancels, we can go to the nearest one of those so that we don't get lost or whatever. It truly is an exciting time and will definitely hasten the work.
I love you all and will be thinking about you this American Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Be sure to do missionary work in whatever way you can. Be good and make good choices :)
Love,
Well, I have some freaking awesome news for y'all, but you'll just have to wait until later to hear what it is. For now, my week...
So, basically this week was slow again, but I guess that's to be understood with just me in the 12th ward and I can't even focus a majority of my time there. Ben and Beth are still progressing rapidly. I'm actually a little worried because we are already half way through the lessons and still have more than a month to go!! I'm thinking that we'll teach a little random "church" topics after we finish to give them a head start as members. Things like Church History and how to use the footnotes in the scriptures and maybe delve deeper into topics such as prayer. If anyone has ideas for what I could teach, I'm open for suggestions.
Funny thing about Ben and Beth, they made me feel faithless the other day. I was talking to them and was letting them know that I wanted to help in any way I can with an addiction they have. Then they basically said, "we know that if we try our best and pray, God will make sure that we are clean and ready for our baptism on January 1st". They have so much faith it's crazy! It made me feel a little bad because I was worrying about their addiction and was not showing as much faith as they are. But I've changed my ways and have joined them in their faith.
Aside from that, one of the items of big news is that Elder Gregory A.Schwitzer of the Seventy came and talked to us. He shook all of our hands first off. Then President and Sister Nicholas gave us some training, then the Assistants gave us some training. Following that we did role plays as a zone. It was cool because the zone leaders made up the scenarios for each companionship so that it was tailored to their needs. Since I'm living with the Zone Leaders, I got to help and put in my input. They even used two of my toughest investigators. I think that everyone got something out of it, so that's good. Then Sister Schwitzer gave us some training followed by an hour of Elder Schwitzer training us. They both gave us some awesome things to think about. Elder Schwitzer told us something that President Packer tells the General Authorities when he trains them. He told us to put down our pens and paper and to only write what we learned from the spirit towards the end. Many missionaries (my self included) look so concerned that they couldn't use their pens!! It was quite funny, but I guess that we are all note taking addicts :) It was nice to see a bunch of people from past transfers and theMTC.
Now, for the exciting news about myself. I was talking to President and he told me that I will follow up train someone this next transfer. Basically, whensomeone's trainer goes home or is transferred before the training is complete, a followup trainer is called. President sounded surprised that I didn't know though, so I guess the assistants forgot to call me. Plus, President said things that make me think I will be transferred somewhere on Wednesday. I guess that we will see.
Okay, okay, I guess I owe you guys some awesome news... but first, due to some requests to hear about the culture of Canada, here are some more answers to your questions:
Most Canadians say "eh" at least a little. It's not at the end of every sentence, but is more like a question of understanding. Example, "It's a little warm in here, eh?" or "So you learned a lot in class, eh?". In addition to that, in Southern Alberta many substitute "eh" for "hey".
Many Canadians are all about Christmas!! Since they don't have Thanksgiving in November, they don't have an "official" start of the Christmas Season. Most have Christmas lights up the week after Halloween. With all the lights and snow and freezing weather, I'm already getting super excited for Christmas!!
Lastly, in Canada the letter "z" has a different name. In the States it's pronounced "zee", but in Canada it's pronounced "zed". it's kinda weird, but I'm getting used to it. So in this mission a nickname for zone leaders is "Zeds", so if I say that, that is who I'm talking about.
Okay, this time it's for real, the big exciting news!!! Please hold your gasps and applause until the end because each sentence gets more and more exciting. Here we go:
We get iPad mini's. Earlier than expected (around next General Conference). Every missionary gets his/her own. They may have 3G (maybe). To ensure that we take good care of them, we get to (drum roll please....) TAKE THEM HOME WITH US!!!! That's right, for only $100 dollars we get to come home with our very own iPad Mini. The best part is that I can just take out $7 a month from my allowance for the rest of my mission and pay that way, so it's no extra cost!!! Needless to say, all of us missionaries are super excited and are already "shopping" for cases and accessories. I really want a wireless keyboard so that I can type up talks and notes and stuff. It'll be really cool. It will have all of the Gospel Library, Mormon Messages, and other stuff. Plus it will have our planner and the ward mission leader and auxiliaries will have access to it so that they can put in appointments or they can see what we are doing when. Plus it will have our Area Book and therefore our teaching records and progress reports. And it will even have a GPS with all of the Progressing, Other, New, Potential, and Former Investigators and Less Actives marked with pins. So if an appointment cancels, we can go to the nearest one of those so that we don't get lost or whatever. It truly is an exciting time and will definitely hasten the work.
I love you all and will be thinking about you this American Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Be sure to do missionary work in whatever way you can. Be good and make good choices :)
Love,
Elder Wake
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
A bit of Canadian trivia from Braden
On November 11, in Canada, they celebrate Remembrance Day. Our mom asked Braden if it is like Veteran's Day. We thought you might enjoy reading his response:
"So Remembrance Day is the same as Veterans Day in the States. One thing that I like up here is that everyone wears a poppy flower the week leading up to Remembrance Day. It's just a fake little red poppy but it is a way to remember the veterans. I want to bring it down to the states kinda. It is so cool to be walking around the store and seeing everyone, even little kids, wearing the poppy."
Thanks for your prayers & support for Braden!
"So Remembrance Day is the same as Veterans Day in the States. One thing that I like up here is that everyone wears a poppy flower the week leading up to Remembrance Day. It's just a fake little red poppy but it is a way to remember the veterans. I want to bring it down to the states kinda. It is so cool to be walking around the store and seeing everyone, even little kids, wearing the poppy."
Thanks for your prayers & support for Braden!
email | November 12, 2013
Another email... with an exciting twist!
So basically this week has been pretty awesome. I'm still living with the zone leaders and am loving it. Elder Maxwell is super nice and helps me out a lot and Elder Browning is just a really good friend. Together, we are always laughing and I'm learning a lot from them. I secretly hope that somehow me and Elder Browning can stay together and be zone leaders that cover two wards, but that's not going to happen.
Anyway, this week has been great investigator wise. First of all, Ben and Beth. We taught them Tuesday evening and it was a great lesson! They know everything already. They basically told me that they want to take the lessons only because it is a requirement to get baptized. Which leads into my next point. They told me that "The Holy Spirit has testified to us that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a Prophet". Their words by the way... then I asked if they would be baptized and they said yes. So the next day they said that they had prayed and that they felt that January 1st is the day for them to be baptized and that December 13 is the day for them to get married. They came to church and were super involved in everything and were commenting during Sunday School and Elders Quorum / Relief Society. You couldn't ask for a more golden pair of investigators!!
As for the others, Blake and Keanon have moved, Randy has been out of town, and Chris we've only met with once, which was last night. It wasn't the best lesson because the Elder I was with was trying to take the lead and was taking it somewhere that I didn't want it to go. So it was a mess of a lesson, but Chris did say that he would be willing and would like to learn more to help bring peace to his life. And that is better than nothing. Lastly, some other missionaries said they will have a referral for me that is pretty promising. So I'm excited!!
As for other things, it is very cold here and is snowing at least once a week. The sun sets super early, like at 5:00 it's already dark. On Friday Elder Schizer of the 2nd Quorum of Seventy is coming to our mission!! It's exciting but also scary because he's going to do surprise interviews with random missionaries. Plus he might come with some of us to the lessons we have! I'm kinda scared but also excited. I'll let you know how it goes down.
Thank you everyone for you support and prayers. I love you all and as usual, if you have any questions or just wanna talk, feel free to email me. Have a great week!!
Love,
Elder Wake
Anyway, this week has been great investigator wise. First of all, Ben and Beth. We taught them Tuesday evening and it was a great lesson! They know everything already. They basically told me that they want to take the lessons only because it is a requirement to get baptized. Which leads into my next point. They told me that "The Holy Spirit has testified to us that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a Prophet". Their words by the way... then I asked if they would be baptized and they said yes. So the next day they said that they had prayed and that they felt that January 1st is the day for them to be baptized and that December 13 is the day for them to get married. They came to church and were super involved in everything and were commenting during Sunday School and Elders Quorum / Relief Society. You couldn't ask for a more golden pair of investigators!!
As for the others, Blake and Keanon have moved, Randy has been out of town, and Chris we've only met with once, which was last night. It wasn't the best lesson because the Elder I was with was trying to take the lead and was taking it somewhere that I didn't want it to go. So it was a mess of a lesson, but Chris did say that he would be willing and would like to learn more to help bring peace to his life. And that is better than nothing. Lastly, some other missionaries said they will have a referral for me that is pretty promising. So I'm excited!!
As for other things, it is very cold here and is snowing at least once a week. The sun sets super early, like at 5:00 it's already dark. On Friday Elder Schizer of the 2nd Quorum of Seventy is coming to our mission!! It's exciting but also scary because he's going to do surprise interviews with random missionaries. Plus he might come with some of us to the lessons we have! I'm kinda scared but also excited. I'll let you know how it goes down.
Thank you everyone for you support and prayers. I love you all and as usual, if you have any questions or just wanna talk, feel free to email me. Have a great week!!
Love,
Elder Wake
email | November 6, 2013
Four Month Mark
Wow, this last week was the longest of my life. Just with the huge drastic change and having to deal with everything, the week crept by. I think I'm doing better now but I definitely don't like not having a companion.
I guess an update of my situation is needed. Basically I am by myself in the 12th Ward. I live with the Zone Leaders but I go with different missionaries during the day, sometimes multiple companionships per day. Whoever has an open spot during my dinners or lessons, they come with me. It's really weird to think that I am the only missionary for the 12th ward. As for a new companion, I will get one on the 20th, which is transfers. I have no idea what to expect. I think that it is possible that I will leave the 12th ward and it will get 2 new missionaries. Or maybe I'll follow up train someone for 6 weeks then leave. I don't think that I will get a brand new missionary because that would mean I would stay in the same area for 7 and a half months, which is freaking long.
As for the work, things are going. Not bad or good, just... happening. Without a companion to dedicate 24/7 to this area, I can't get much done. That combined with the fact that half of my investigators have moved, this week seemed kinda bad. However, as the Zone Leaders pointed out, the very fact that I had 3 lessons this past week when I'm by myself is a miracle. In some areas 3 lessons per week is a stretch even with 2 missionaries and 100% of the time. Plus I can't control people's agency, so if my investigators don't keep commitments or if they move, that isn't my fault. The good news is that Randy is doing a lot better it seems. He said he was going to come watch a baptism but he made a lame excuse 30 minutes before and didn't show. But he seems more open to becoming a member than he has in the past. Hopefully he will make even more progress and will desire to be baptized. As for Chris, we haven't had a chance to meet with him, but his fellowshipper called and said that he was in a bad place now and needs our help more than ever. Hopefully we can set up a time to talk to him to help him through his trials.
The greatest news is that this very morning the Zone Leaders got a call from someone who said that he had a friend that was interesting in taking the lessons. His name is Ben and he has read half of the Book Of Mormon and has questions and is really open to learning more. I called Ben and when I introduced myself as a missionary he got more excited and wanted me to come over this evening before dinner to talk to him and start teaching him!!! I'm super excited but also nervous because this is like the first "first lesson" I've done with an investigator. I hope it goes well and that he will desire to learn more and get baptized eventually.
What else?... It is flipping cold here. It snowed again Sunday and Monday and will snow on Thursday and/or Friday. After every snow the high for the next few days is usually below freezing and then it gets back up to a balmy +5 Celsius. Then it gets super cold and snows again. The rumour is that all the missionaries in the Calgary Zones had to park their cars for the last week or so due to ice and bad drivers. Luckily we didn't have to because the Zone Leaders live super far from my area. It's like a couple hour walk.
I forgot my camera cord so I can't show you the pictures I took this last week. I carved an amazing Pumpkin on Halloween. Which reminds me, Halloween was last Thursday!!! I almost forgot!!! Some member threw a party for us at one of the church buildings. There was pulled turkey sandwiches, candy, other treats and drinks. They also bought a ton of pumpkins for us to carve. Some were really creative, like Sister Lamont carved the Cardston temple. I have to say that mine is the best though. Instead of a boring circle in the top, I cut out the outline of Texas. And instead of a boring face or something, I cut out a BYU "Y". It was quite awesome if I do say so myself.
I think that that was pretty much my week. I'll let you know how my lesson with this new guy goes. Keep your fingers crossed. Just kidding, a prayer is all I need :)
Keep praying for missionary experiences! If you pray, they will come :)
Love,
Wow, this last week was the longest of my life. Just with the huge drastic change and having to deal with everything, the week crept by. I think I'm doing better now but I definitely don't like not having a companion.
I guess an update of my situation is needed. Basically I am by myself in the 12th Ward. I live with the Zone Leaders but I go with different missionaries during the day, sometimes multiple companionships per day. Whoever has an open spot during my dinners or lessons, they come with me. It's really weird to think that I am the only missionary for the 12th ward. As for a new companion, I will get one on the 20th, which is transfers. I have no idea what to expect. I think that it is possible that I will leave the 12th ward and it will get 2 new missionaries. Or maybe I'll follow up train someone for 6 weeks then leave. I don't think that I will get a brand new missionary because that would mean I would stay in the same area for 7 and a half months, which is freaking long.
As for the work, things are going. Not bad or good, just... happening. Without a companion to dedicate 24/7 to this area, I can't get much done. That combined with the fact that half of my investigators have moved, this week seemed kinda bad. However, as the Zone Leaders pointed out, the very fact that I had 3 lessons this past week when I'm by myself is a miracle. In some areas 3 lessons per week is a stretch even with 2 missionaries and 100% of the time. Plus I can't control people's agency, so if my investigators don't keep commitments or if they move, that isn't my fault. The good news is that Randy is doing a lot better it seems. He said he was going to come watch a baptism but he made a lame excuse 30 minutes before and didn't show. But he seems more open to becoming a member than he has in the past. Hopefully he will make even more progress and will desire to be baptized. As for Chris, we haven't had a chance to meet with him, but his fellowshipper called and said that he was in a bad place now and needs our help more than ever. Hopefully we can set up a time to talk to him to help him through his trials.
The greatest news is that this very morning the Zone Leaders got a call from someone who said that he had a friend that was interesting in taking the lessons. His name is Ben and he has read half of the Book Of Mormon and has questions and is really open to learning more. I called Ben and when I introduced myself as a missionary he got more excited and wanted me to come over this evening before dinner to talk to him and start teaching him!!! I'm super excited but also nervous because this is like the first "first lesson" I've done with an investigator. I hope it goes well and that he will desire to learn more and get baptized eventually.
What else?... It is flipping cold here. It snowed again Sunday and Monday and will snow on Thursday and/or Friday. After every snow the high for the next few days is usually below freezing and then it gets back up to a balmy +5 Celsius. Then it gets super cold and snows again. The rumour is that all the missionaries in the Calgary Zones had to park their cars for the last week or so due to ice and bad drivers. Luckily we didn't have to because the Zone Leaders live super far from my area. It's like a couple hour walk.
I forgot my camera cord so I can't show you the pictures I took this last week. I carved an amazing Pumpkin on Halloween. Which reminds me, Halloween was last Thursday!!! I almost forgot!!! Some member threw a party for us at one of the church buildings. There was pulled turkey sandwiches, candy, other treats and drinks. They also bought a ton of pumpkins for us to carve. Some were really creative, like Sister Lamont carved the Cardston temple. I have to say that mine is the best though. Instead of a boring circle in the top, I cut out the outline of Texas. And instead of a boring face or something, I cut out a BYU "Y". It was quite awesome if I do say so myself.
I think that that was pretty much my week. I'll let you know how my lesson with this new guy goes. Keep your fingers crossed. Just kidding, a prayer is all I need :)
Keep praying for missionary experiences! If you pray, they will come :)
Love,
Elder Wake
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