It definitely feels strange to write 2010 on e-mails and letters. I always have to double-check myself when I finish writing in my journal at night to be sure I write 2010 and not 2009. I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Elder Welling was very relieved to find out on Saturday night that Ohio State beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl. He's from Columbus, OH and his family has had season tickets for Ohio State football for 5-6 years in-a-row.
Elder Welling had a technology misfire on Saturday morning. Salt Lake City sent our mission office three new computers that need to replace four existing, fully operating computers that we already have. The transfer of the hardrives from the old computers to the new ones was not successful after 3-4 attempts. So, we still have four old computers and three new ones that are sitting in their packaging boxes.
We spent New Year's Eve back at the Mission Home and we wrote some letters, hung out and relaxed. Elder Welling and I went to Chipotle for dinner and that was the highlight of the night by far. I love that place! We went to bed at 9:45pm and neither one of us got a phone call from anybody in the mission that night, which is a rare occurance. It felt great to wake up on New Year's morning with 45 minutes of extra sleep.
On New Year's Day we had a mission-wide devotional with all of the missionaries at the chapel near the Mission Home. Richard L. Bushman, who's a scholar on Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, came and spoke to us for about 45 minutes during that devotional. He's a highly educated guy - three degrees from Harvard University, including his P.H.D. He's currently serving as the Chairman of Mormon Studies at Claremont University near Pasadena, CA.
During his remarks he told us about some of the less-known facts relating to Joseph Smith. I learned that his father was considered to be a "treasure seeker" and would often encourage his kids to go find treasure on their property. Joseph actually went to trial for treasure seeking in 1826 because it was considered illegal. I also learned that Joseph faced 175 law suits throughout his life. Brother Bushman discussed the four separate accounts of the "first vision" that have been published and how in the Church we use the account from 1838, which the First Presidency wrote and published at that time. The original "first vision" account was written by Joseph Smith and the first words Jesus Christ spoke to Joseph were, "My son, thy sins are forgiven thee. Go, and sin no more." I wish we would have been able to listen to Brother Bushman for more than 45 minutes, but we sandwiched musical numbers, testimonies and a Book of Mormon scholar video into the program instead.
On the night of New Year's Day, Elder Welling and I watched "The Testaments" movie and worked out while watching it. We went to bed at 9:45pm again and felt fully rested the following morning. I'm anxious to hit the weight room once my mission concludes!
We had a member give us a referral of one of her friends, Adam Gregory, who we went and taught on Saturday afternoon. His fiancee is a member of the Church and she was also there for the lesson. He told us that he wants to get baptized before he and his fiancee get married in May, but that he wants to wait and read the Book of Mormon before pursuing a baptismal date. Pres. Blackburn has asked all the missionaries to extend the baptismal commitment on the first sit-down lesson we have with investigators, so I dished it out and it was thrown back in my face. He's a good guy; just wants to do things on his time schedule. He came to church yesterday and stayed for all three hours. Jason Norber (recent convert) also came to church yesterday. It was the first time we had seen him in about 5 weeks. He had been having some problems with the Word of Wisdom for a 2-3 week period and he's felt the need to do some repenting and change his ways.
Elder Hopoate and I will be going on a "zone tour" on Thursday - Saturday this week in the South Bay Zone. I spent 10 of my first 11 transfers in that zone, and I thought that it would only be fit for me to have my final zone tour in that zone.
Have a great week and tell everyone I say hello.
Elder Brycen Gold
Perfect Homemade Pie Crust
2 days ago
