I'm having trouble displaying cms/input values in Triggered Emails

What I’m trying to accomplish:
So basically I’ve created a custom form that retrieves inputs and adds them to the CMS and created a button that is supposed to trigger my backend code that generates a pdf of the inputs and retrieves the pdf url and displays it in the Triggered Email.

What is going wrong:
The button does send the email however no inputs are being displayed in the email i.e ${firstName} ${lastName} ${pdfLink}

Here’s my code:

$w.onReady(function () {

$w("#submit").onClick(() => {

    const contactInfo = {
        name: {
            first: $w("#input50").value,
            last: $w("#input51").value
        },
        emails: [{
            email: $w("#input52").value
        }],
        phone: $w("#input53").value
    };

   
    contacts.appendOrCreateContact(contactInfo)
        .then((resolvedContact) => {
            if (resolvedContact) {
                
                $w("#text154").expand();

               
                const contactData = {
                    firstName: $w("#input50").value,
                    lastName: $w("#input51").value,
                    email: $w("#input52").value,
                    phone: $w("#input53").value
                };

                // Call the backend to generate the PDF and get the link
                generatePdfAndSend(contactData)
                    .then(pdfLink => {
                        console.log("PDF generated and link is:", pdfLink);

                        
                        const MY_ID = "keeping this clear for this topic";  
                        triggeredEmails.emailMember('UXErZVE', MY_ID, {
                            variables: {
                                firstName: contactData.firstName,
                                lastName: contactData.lastName,
                                email: contactData.email,
                                phone: contactData.phone,
                                pdfLink: pdfLink  
                            }
                        })
                        .then(() => {
                            console.log("Email sent to MY_ID");
                        })
                        .catch((err) => {
                            console.log("Error sending email to MY_ID:", err);
                        });

                        
                        triggeredEmails.emailContact('thanksforsubmitting', resolvedContact.contactId, {
                            variables: {
                                firstName: contactData.firstName,
                                lastName: contactData.lastName,
                                email: contactData.email,
                                pdfLink: pdfLink  
                            }
                        })
                        .then(() => {
                            console.log("Recipient email sent");
                        })
                        .catch((err) => {
                            console.log("Error sending recipient email:", err);
                        });

                    })
                    .catch(error => {
                        console.error("Error generating PDF:", error);
                    });
            }
            console.log("Contact created/updated:", resolvedContact);
        })
        .catch((error) => {
            console.error("Error creating/updating contact:", error);
        });

});

});