Oh, what a rough couple of weeks it has been. After wrecking my Jeep, I was in such stress. But thanks to a couple of great people in my life and good people to work with, she is all fixed up now and my life is back to normal. Thanks for your help, mom, pa, Mike, Eric and Bill!
L.A. and Denver are coming closer together in more than one way now with the Nuggets playing the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals this week, nice! We saw a couple neighbors in our apartment complex watching the Lakers vs. Rockets game yesterday and during church at the english ward someone showed me their cell phone with the final score reading: Lakers 89, Houston 70. I was hoping the Nugs would luck out and get to play Houston instead of the Lakers, but I'm just glad they have the opportunity to play for a trip to the NBA Finals. It must be a great time to be in Denver right now with all the excitement!
I'm feeling a mixture of feelings today: frustration, irritation and stagnation. We had a meeting with the L.A. Mission Presidency and the members of the Stake High Councils for the stakes that are inside of the L.A. Mission boundaries and following the meeting Pres. Blackburn pulled Elder Gentry and I into a room to talk with us. Pres. asked Elder Gentry to be the next "Assistant to the President" (AP) in order to replace another Elder who will be leaving to go home on 27 May. I was stoked for Elder Gentry and for the opportunities he will have, but I began feeling the before-mentioned feelings after I found out that I will be in the South Bay Zone for another transfer, which will be number 10 of my 11 transfers as a missionary. Most missionaries get a nice mixture of variety over the course of their missions as they are transferred from area to area and zone to zone, but I haven't been as fortunate.
I'm not feeling frustrated or irritated because Elder Gentry was given the opportunity to be AP instead of me. I really feel the way I do right now because it seems like I have a built-in handicap associated with my name, which would be the "ASL" label I carry. I feel like I've had restrictions or limits imposed on me as a missionary that have not resulted from actions on my part, but because I carry this label. The ASL missionaries have adopted the South Bay Zone as their zone to serve in when they're in the ASL program and I've always had a connection to that zone even after serving in the program itself. I want to at least have the chance to serve in a group of different cities, which would be a different zone. Maybe this frustration comes from me being too focused on myself and not enough on the people I serve or the area I serve in, so I'm doing my best to find a balance between being concerned for the enjoyment of my mission and then being satisfied with where Pres. Blackburn has asked me to serve. The balance is the tough part.
Anyway, now that my little rant is over, I'm doing well otherwise. We had four investigators come to church yesterday and the Winter Family is still doing very solid. We're excited for the big change that has come to the lives of their family. They were confirmed yesterday morning and Brandon (age 12) was given the priesthood later in the afternoon.
I will be training a new Zone Leader for the second time (Elder Gentry was the first one) next transfer and I still don't know who it will be, so I'll have to wait another couple of days. I will be working in a three-some of missionaries for the next week after I drop Elder Gentry off at the mission home tomorrow afternoon and that will have its "ups" and "downs."
I hope everyone is doing well and thank you for your prayers and your encouragement on my behalf. I appreciate it and I love all ya'll!
Take care,Elder Brycen Gold
