Elder Gold's update for July 24th, 2009

This past week was pretty solid. We have two investigators with baptismal dates right now (Jad, Michael) and they both go to the single's ward that we cover. We should be able to set two more this week if everything works out. Both Jad and Michael will be baptized on the 16th of August. We do still need to find out if Michael has an apartment within the stake boundaries for the single's ward, but after that he'll be good to go.

We had zone conferences this past Wednesday and Thursday and Elder Gentry and I gave a 40-minute training about being missionaries that work with our heart and our minds. Keeping the mind consistently focused on the work is a challenge, especially here in L.A. At times everything can feel like it's becoming routine and it's easy to allow the mind to wonder. The billboards on the sides of all the roads, sports, stores, etc. make it a tempting place for the mind. As the AP's we go to all the zone conferences, which has some good benefits to it.

On Saturday we had a day that taught us the importance of mental toughness. We had four appointments scheduled for the day but all of them cancelled on us and we ended up tracting or traveling to potential investigators for most of the day.

We have been working with an Elder who is supposed to be in Argentina right now, but he lost his passport at some point during his travels to Buenos Aires, Argentina last week. He flew from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles to Lima, Peru to Buenos Aires, Argentina and then found out that his passport was missing. They sent him back to the U.S. by flying him to Santiago, Chile, then to Los Angeles. We'll be taking care of him until he gets all of his passport forms figured out.

Earlier this afternoon we went to the UCLA campus and met up with the starting quarterback for UCLA, Kevin Prince. He's a member of the single's ward that we cover and we're both pretty good friends with him. He'll be a redshirt freshman this year and he gave us a tour of the football facilities and offices for 1.5 hours. He introduced us to Norm Chow, the offensive coordinator for UCLA and former offensive coordinator for BYU and USC earlier in his career. We met one of the UCLA recruiting coordinators and I had a chance to ask him some questions about how he got to where he's at. Working for a college football team in almost any capacity would be sweet.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the sun. Keep sending the pictures when you can. I love you all and I'm grateful for all that you do.

Quote for the Week: "Just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives." - Dallin H. Oaks

Elder Brycen Gold