Latest News from Elder Gold

We had the opportunity to go tracting last Tuesday afternoon with one of the young men from our Spanish Ward and I thought it was kinda funny how E. Roldan and I were so intrigued by the current life events of this young man. We asked him questions for nearly three hours while we knocked doors and occasionally we swapped stories back and forth. I had the privilege to share my junior prom story involving Chelsea Tomlinson and all the chaos that surrounded that wonderful time of my high school career (sarcasm added). There were some good laughs in response to the story! We went out tracting with the Spanish Ward young man again on Thursday afternoon and while we were teaching a man on his front lawn, another man drove up next to us and asked which church we were from. I told him, then he started freaking-out and "cussing" at us about all sorts of things. He told us that he was "going to go home, get his gun, then come back and shoot us!" The man was nuts! We quickly wrapped-up our conversation on the front lawn and left the neighborhood to avoid any confrontation. It's interesting to see how up-tight and crazy some people become when they see us or when they hear which church we represent... We un-intentionally crashed a Compton "block party" on Saturday night when we attempted to contact a referral and we had some good discussions with six of the black guys there about various topics. One of my favorite topics was when we were comparing Tupac's legacy as a "prophet" of hip-hop culture to Pres. Monson as the prophet of the Church. We were able to connect the two pretty well, surprisingly. We took a few photos with these six guys and they were all really cool with us. They were big football fans, so that was another topic we discussed for a while. Some of the most memorable events and people I've met have come during my stay in Compton. I love it! I'm struggling to think of other exciting or noteworthy events that have happened over the past week...it was a pretty routine week for the most part. We have transfers on 21 Jan and we have little idea of what to expect. We'll have mission president interviews tomorrow for our zone and we'll likely have a better idea of what's going to happen. There will be three Zone Leaders and one AP going home on 21 Jan, so the mission will have a solid shake-up of leadership in the near future. We're working with a young man named Edward (age 17) who is the boyfriend of one of the young women in the Spanish Ward we cover. He's a good kid and it helps to have his girlfriend with us while we teach him. Hopefully we can set a flexible baptismal date with him on Tuesday if the timing feels right. Take care and I'll talk to you next week. Elder Brycen Gold

Hawaii 2008-A Trip of a Lifetime