Update from Elder Gold, June 15, 2009

Vacation time is almost upon us, well you at least, and it sure sounds like it will be a welcomed time period. Be sure to take pictures and then to send them to me after the vacation is over.

I'm anxious to try out some of Taylor's workout routines when I get back home. That's one of the big things that I miss doing - working out. We only have 30 minutes in the morning and we can't go to weight-lifting gyms, so I'm stuck with a couple 20 lb. dumbells in the apartment that I can use and doing push-ups as well. I feel like I'm staying pretty "toned," but I kinda wish that I could do some bulking up as well.

I went on splits in Beverly Hills for the day on Saturday and I came away feeling very thankful that my parents taught me how to work hard. We participated in a table and chair moving project in the morning that took about 1.5 hours and towards the end of our un-loading we were asked to scrub the railing that surrounded an outdoor balcony of a huge house. The sister in the ward who asked us to do this for her had three of her kids sitting right there and it seemed like they usually had any sort of responsibilities deflected off of them and instead given to others. We did the scrubbing and took off. She was a nice lady, but man, the kids just seemed like they got whatever they wanted without having to do much for it. Thanks for teaching me how to work.

I had a cool experience while we were working in Beverly Hills when we went over to contact a less-active member of the ward up there who happens to be the wife of Larry King. We were inside of his house for 10-15 minutes and his kids showed us around the place and showed us pictures, books, etc. We talked with their house-sitters for most of the time we were there and then took off to knock some doors on their street. While we were walking down the street, we met Larry King. He kinda brushed us off and only spoke to us for maybe two minutes, but it was still a cool experience.

Most of the missionaries who serve up there have at least one opportunity to meet him I've heard. We worked for two hours in West Hollywood, which is a synonym for "gay capital of the world." While we attempted to contact a few former investigators, we had some time to knock some doors and try to find new people to teach. We knocked into two gay guys twice in one complex and it was an awkward experience. After we finished up knocking, we ran back to our car because we were late for our dinner appointment and we had a small group of "gay pride" guys yell some weird stuff to us.

Working in Beverly Hills helped me appreciate the opportunity to work in Gardena a little bit more. We have an investigator right now who has a baptismal date for 28 June (James Koenig), but we'll probably end up pushing the date back to 5 July to make sure that he's getting baptized because he has a testimony and not because his girlfriend is a member of the Church. He's a smart kid (age 23) and we found out yesterday that his boss was willing to give him every Sunday off so that he can come to church. We're hoping to meet with him two more times this week.

Life is busy and I'm loving being a missionary. I'm working on a study topic about adversity and another one about apathy, which are two things that seem fairly common in the Church and the world in general.

Quote for the Week: "We will have to make some hard choices of how we use our time. But there should never be a conscious choice to let the spiritual become secondary as a pattern in our lives. When we put God's purposes first, He will give us miracles. Those apparent prison walls of 'not enough time' will begin to recede, even as you are called to do more." - Henry B. Eyring

Thanks for the e-mails, support and prayers. This is the Lord's work and I'm grateful for each of you and all your efforts to make sure I'm doing well.

Have a great week!

Elder Brycen Gold