Elder Gold's update for Aug. 17th

This past week we experienced some more baptismal setbacks with another one of our baptismal candidates (Michael). He has a somewhat heated fued with one of the members of the singles ward he will be baptized into and the ward member has slandered him pretty bad in the past weeks. It's a long story that's too dramatic for guys in the mid-20's to be involved in. I felt like I was in high school again after church yesterday as we discussed our investigator's side of the problem in the parking lot.

I went on splits last Wednesday in a part of L.A. that I had never seen before in the city of Los Feliz. I went with one of the Zone Leaders who's from Chile and we spoke spanish for most of the day with the people we contacted. We taught a less-active member of the Church who claimed that he "lacked the discipline" to do anything that was expected of him (church, taking medication, changing diet, etc.). A lack of discipline in any aspect of a person's life will limit who they can become. This concept repeats itself daily with the people we meet.

I went on splits last Thursday with a member of the Elder's Quorum Presidency in our family ward (Westwood 2nd) for two hours in the evening to check on less-actives and part member families. He (Dean Thompson) graduated from Utah State, then got his MBA from BYU and now he's working for a large banking/investment firm here in L.A. (Barkley's). It was interesting to notice the parallels in interests that the two of us have and how his route in schooling reflects the route I plan to follow in many ways. Fun fact: He has a grandma who lives directly across the street from Grandma Gold's church in Sandy, UT. Her name is Wonda Thompson. I'm not sure if she goes to the same ward as Grandma Gold, but it's likely.

I've been reading a series of talks by General Authorities lately and before my mission I could not envision myself becoming so interested in reading the comments of church leaders. At the mission home we have the luxury of going to lds.org to print off talks and access General Conference addresses if we have time and I've taken full advantage of that opportunity.

I read one talk yesterday by Dallin H. Oaks that deals with the rate of our discipleship. He says, “Some people live the gospel with short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, followed by long periods of lapse or by performance that is intermittent and sputtering. What we need in living the gospel is the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime…This steadfast standard requires us to avoid extremes. Our performance should be the steady 100 percent of a committed servant, not the frenzied and occasional 120 percent of the fanatic…A fanatic is one who has lost sight of his goal but redoubled his efforts to get there.”

We have transfers this Wednesday and we will be opening up three new areas in the mission, which has caused the work load to increase for Elder Gentry and I. We've been coordinating new apartment move-ins, orientation meetings, training meetings, and all sorts of other things that will happen later this week. It's good to be busy. I enjoy the work and the responsibility. It keeps my mind occupied and focused on being a missionary.

Thanks for the e-mails and for the updates about the family.

Nate & Emryn sent me an e-mail with pictures of the pregnancy timeline and I'm looking forward to meeting the new cousins in a few months.

Have a great week! Elder Brycen Gold