Elder Gold's Weekly Update - 7 Sept 2009‏

BYU took down the third ranked team in the nation! I was shocked when one of the singles ward members told us about it on Saturday night. A senior couple missionary on our office staff here in the mission home printed off an article and gave it to us to read as a special "gift." That article, combined with the article pasted to the bottom of Dad's e-mail, make it sound like BYU played a great game, but Oklahoma helped them by playing sloppy. It doesn't matter how the win happened; all that matters is the "W" in the score column. Great way to start the season!

Elder Gentry and I spent Tuesday - Saturday night last week near downtown Los Angeles on a "zone tour" that included splits with a total of seven separate companionships over the four day time period. We worked with a lot of young missionaries - training them throughout most of the day - and it was good to get a feel for how a good crop of the mission is doing overall.

For two nights I slept in apartments in downtown L.A. that were sandwiched in-between other large buildings and if I was asked two years ago to imagine myself doing that, I would have never guessed. It was a unique experience, but I enjoyed it. I felt good spending time out on the streets knocking doors, teaching, and getting to know other missionaries while working in several areas that were relatively foreign to me.

On Tuesday night I slept in an apartment near the 110 freeway (heavily used freeway) that felt like a sauna. I went to bed sweating and woke up sweating. The apartment was a studio-sized area that only had windows on one side so the incoming area was bottled-up, causing the humidity to rise. We worked in the area surrounding the apartment on Wednesday and it was refreshing to be around the large latino and black populations. One part of the city in which we worked has been given the nickname of "The Jungle" because of the structure of the city layout and the cultural trends that are popular over there. There were nothing but apartment complexes for 7-8 blocks going north and south, and east and west. I felt like we were in a maze while driving around sometimes because our surroundings looked similar no matter where we were.

On Thursday I worked in the city of Huntington Park, which is the most heavily latino-populated area in L.A. I worked with an Elder who's a stud, Elder Barfuss. He's 21 and didn't feel like he wanted to serve a mission until late last year (2008). He was seriously dating a girl, he had a solid job, and he was going to school full-time, but he still felt like something was missing in his life. He pulled a serious prank on his mom by telling her the day before he got his call letter that his girlfriend was pregnant. He showed her an ultra-sound (sp?) picture that came from his girlfriend's sister to add some spice to the event. Christmas day followed one day after he told his mom that information and his whole family was gathered around the tree. His mom said that Elder Barfuss had something to tell them. He stood up and gave his mom a wrapped-up picture frame and she started reading what was on the inside of it. The frame had Elder Barfuss' mission call letter and his mom couldn't say anything past the first 10-15 words since she was filled with tears. I can't beat that prank.

On Friday I worked in the southern part of downtown with an Elder (Elder Gardner) from Alabama who's a district leader in the zone. He's one of the three black (African American to be politically correct) Elders that we have in the mission and he has the loudest laugh, it kills me. He's a solid missionary who has been brought up various times in conversations regarding potential Zone Leader positions that will be opening up this upcoming transfer. We slept in an apartment on this crowded, dimly lit street in a back apartment/house structure. The day was a good one.

On Saturday I worked in the part of downtown L.A. that has all the huge skyscrapers and apartment complex buildings - poor and rich. There is no parking in the city that isn't monitored by a parking meter, so we had to park on a stretch of road called "Skid Row." This stretch of road covers 4-5 blocks going north to south and it's filled with homeless people, alcoholics, people on parole, drug addicts, crazy people, mentally unstable people and the list continues. We walked about 1/4 mile through the streets where these people were gathered and we passed about five "mission" housing stations that resembled the ones from the movie "Pursuit of Happyness." It was a sobering experience. I gained a greater gratitude for my blessings and opportunities by walking amongst these people than I've gained in awhile. Saturday wrapped-up the "zone tour" and we returned to the mission home that night.

We did have a baptism on Thursday with an investigator of 6-7 months named Jason Zivich. He had baptismal dates set periodically throughout that time period, but he couldn't quite clear a few obstacles with his testimony. We met with him on Tuesday evening and he told us he wanted to be baptized on Thursday. We thought he meant next Thursday, but he said, "No, this Thursday." He's a great guy. His girlfriend and soon-to-be fiancee is a member of the Church. Great miracle!

This is a longer e-mail, so I'm going to respond to some others. Have a great week and enjoy Labor Day!

Elder Brycen Gold

Weekly Update - 31 Aug 2009‏

Tomorrow August will be over and the month of September will get underway. This past month went by real quick, but I'm anxious for the upcoming month. There will be a lot of solid events coming up on the mission front and football season is about to kickoff. Even though we don't watch the games or get the updates from the internet, it's still a great time of the year. Keep me updated on the action.

Life sounds like it's going well. There was a good spirit in the e-mail as I read it. I laughed when I read that Taylor has a countdown or something like that for when I get home. I hope he's still anxious to see me when I actually walk off the plane. He's a stud.

Thanks for the Michigan article, I enjoyed reading it. Way to go on the 12 lbs. lost! That's impressive. Keep it up! With this kind of progression I won't recognize you when I get home.

We're still in the process of teaching and preparing a handful of investigators for baptism. We've ran into some dramatical issues (as mentioned in previous e-mails) that have caused baptismal dates to be postponed or done away with over the past weeks. One of our investigators, Gabe, is still going strong and he'll be baptized after he gets married. The wedding is scheduled for 26 Sept and he has set a baptismal date for 10 Oct. Hopefully that one goes through, especially since the other three baptismal dates we've had recently have not.

We got a phone call from one of our really solid investigators, Jason, this morning when he told us that he wanted to meet with us tomorrow evening. He has been going to church every week for the past 10-12 months with his girlfriend, who is a member, but he has been having some trouble overcoming a few doubts and questions in his mind relative to the gospel and some of the commandments. He's been taught all the lessons and he meets with the Bishop regularly, so when he's ready to go, we're ready to get him baptized.

The past 3-4 days have been toasty - 95 to 101 degrees for the highs. The fires around here don't help too much with the temperature influx and they may even be the primary reason for it. The fires are a good distance away from the mission boundaries and there have been no evacuation precautions issued for anyone within the Los Angeles valley. We played football this morning in the church parking lot for over an hour and it was hot! Good thing we have sunblock.

I went on splits with an Elder in South Central on Saturday and it was good to see some of the sights and hear some of the sounds from a familiar part of L.A. where I served close to about a year ago. We knocked doors for 3.5 hours, taught lots of spanish people, and slept in a humid apartment the night prior to the day's worth of work. It was a good day though. It felt good to get out of the office.

We have a "zone tour" this week from Tuesday night until Saturday night with a zone that covers the downtown L.A. area. We'll be speaking spanish everyday and we'll be near the big ol' apartment complexes near the large office buildings on a few days. I didn't sleep under my blankets for the full four night stretch during our last zone tour and I'm not anticipating the need to use them this week due to the recent weather trends. Elder Gentry and I will work with four separate companionships on four separate days and it should help us get a good look at how certain missionaries are progressing and teaching.

The mission marches forward and the reminders from other missionaries about having five months left are coming often. I wrote an article in the "CLAM Chatter" (L.A. Mission Newsletter) about perspective and how the beginning of the mission causes many of us to feel like the mission is a two year "black hole" with no end in sight. I fell into that mindset at times during my first 6-12 months, but the light has shown itself at the end of the tunnel. It's an interesting contrast of perspective when I talk with a new missionary and he tells me about how he's feeling, what he expects of the mission, and then I tell him how I'm feeling and what the mission really is. I often think to myself, "You're in for one heck of a ride. I hope you're ready."

The mission is great and I'm enjoying life. Thanks for the prayers, e-mails and letters. I have a lot of gratitude for those who are willing to not adopt the "out of sight, out of mind" mindset.

Have a great week! Quote for the Week: "When the time for action has come, the time for preparation has past." - Thomas S. Monson

Elder Brycen Gold