Weekly Update - 23 Nov 2009‏

Happy Thanksgiving week to everyone! This will be the last Thanksgiving holiday in the mission field for me and I'm sure it will be a lot like last year where I'm feeling like I'll be seeing my family at some point throughout the day, but then it never happens. Holidays in the mission field are strange and memorable at the same time. I'm sure I won't forget any of the Thanksgivings or Christmas' or New Year's Days that I spent as a missionary.

Maybe I'll go buy some huge headphones and a satellite antenna to see if I can tune-in to the birthday singing on Saturday night. Elder Welling and I are planning on hitting-up the Hustler Casino that night to celebrate. We got special permission from Pres. Blackburn to use 6-9pm as time to celebrate my 21st birthday, so we're going to capitalize on that three hour period for sure. Elder Welling said that he's really good at Texas Hold 'Em, so we'll see what he's got. All of that was a joke; we'll be working all day just like any other day. Maybe now that I'm 21 my voice will drop a couple octaves.

We were tracting last night and ran into a group of guys who were watching Sunday Night Football and they told me that the Broncos lost to the Chargers. I was pretty bummed. That's three in a row now, ouch. I was also told today that Kyle Orton is still trying to pull off the trucker mustache look; boy, he should shave that thing quick and save it for "mustache may" or something.

It's only been five days since we last heard from each other and we're still having a tough time finding new investigators in our area and helping our one solid investigator progress. We knocked doors for 11 hours last week, which is the highest amount in a one week period that we've done since I've been up at the mission home. Normally we knock about 5-7 hours on a good week. On most days we leave the office at 3-4pm and we try to make the most of that time by visiting investigators, but we don't really have any right now so tracting has become more of a priority for our time. We found 4-5 Spanish people who accepted a return appointment last week and we're hoping to get the Spanish work moving along.

Elder Hopoate, Elder Christensen (Housing and Finance Coordinator at the mission home), and I spent four hours on Friday afternoon searching for new apartments for missionaries to live in for next transfer. We found two that we should be able to sign contracts for in the near future. Elder Christensen checked out another one this morning and we should be getting the paperwork process rolling with that one too. We're sitting with three apartments that we feel good about right now and we need four total, so only one is left to find.

Being able to speak Spanish is a blessing when working with apartment managers and anyone in L.A. that wants to do business. There's a good amount of Spanish business owners or property managers that have struggling English, so being able to speak Spanish with them helps things move a lot quicker and smoother.

I went on splits with a Zone Leader (Elder Romrell) in the Lakewood Zone of the mission on Saturday and I'm glad to have gotten one day of splits done with early in the transfer. I'm supposed to go on splits with four separate Zone Leader companionships each transfer and then do a "zone tour" on top of that where we work with 3-4 separate companionships in 3-4 days. I consider it a relief when I'm able to stay in my area and work with Elder Welling. Elder Romrell and I spoke a lot of Spanish and taught a few lessons throughout the day. He's a solid missionary.

We ate dinner that night with a family who has a daughter preparing to be baptized on 17 Dec. She has a checkered history that involves drug and alcohol abuse, and she's currently facing misdemeanor charges for an incident involving her and a police officer. She's a great person - at least she seemed to be one when she's sober - and it's unfortunate to see people turning to drugs and alcohol as a source of happiness. Really, it is a dangerous way that people use to cope with tough circumstances.

Yesterday at church Elder Welling took a bath in the sacrament tray water. I had just finished giving Jason N. (recent convert) a chance to grab a cup of water and I swung the tray back to my right and it nailed Elder Welling's knee. We were in the single's ward so it was nice and quiet and the bang of the tray towards the knee was pretty loud. Once it hit his knee, water from multiple cups spilt onto his pant leg and onto the bench. That was a memorable experience.

This afternoon we met up with Kevin Prince (UCLA QB) on the UCLA campus. I called him last night to see if he'd be willing to show us around the football facilities again and hook us up with a chance to shake hands with Norm Chow (UCLA Offensive Coordinator). He agreed, and we spent 1-2:30pm checking out the UCLA film room, coaches offices, weight room, trophy room, press room, and the locker room. Kevin gave us each a pair of his game cleats, some wristbands, a game towel, and some packets of Muscle Milk (protein shake mix). We met up with Norm Chow for 5-10 minutes and he wrote some plays on a dry-erase board while he discussed them with Kevin. It was a good time. The P-Days I remember most have been the ones that I've spent at USC and UCLA checking out their football facilities.

Happy Thanksgiving, again! Thank you for the cards that have been sent and for the Happy Birthday notes. Enjoy the week and be sure to take some pictures for me. Take care.

Elder Brycen Gold