I Pray For Safety Often

Hey Mom & Everyone Else,

      You wanna know something funny?  Isn't it said that, ‘Once bitten by a dog, every dog in the neighborhood wants a taste?’  Well, since my encounter with that one dog, I have had four more near attacks. :p   I had to beat two dogs away with a sugar cane stick, me and my companion had to battle two more dogs in the middle of the street with stones, and a couple other close ones.  I hope you find the amusement in that, and not the worry.  I pray for safety often that the Lord does watch over us.  I trust in Him.

      Anyway, I wish I could have been there to hear those two young men give their mission farewell talks in sacrament.  I can really picture and imagine it, and I know that they are prepared because I know them and each of their characters.  It moves me to think about being apart of this work.

      Well, we know that there is a purpose in all things, right?  Since I have come to Margate, it has been very hard to find and teach investigators. However, we have given partial focus and have received tremendous success among the less active members of the church.  Anyway, we have located many less actives since I got here, and we have seen a few really deeply and sincerely start on a process of repentance.  It has been wonderful to see.

      My companion and myself also realize the need to be 110% in tune with the spirit in order to find those who are prepared.  We are starting a forty-day-fast to put away from our minds all things that will distract us and keep us from being the most successful servants of the Lord we can be.  By forty-day-fast I mean that we will not give into thoughts, feelings, or actions, which are not in line with our sacred calling.

      Thank you for your prayers, and all others who I know do likewise . . .  and not just for us, but for this cause of righteousness.  We need be fully engaged whether at home or abroad.  Please continue to pray for us, for yourselves, and all those whom we are striving to bring to the light of this Gospel.

With love,

        Elder Gold

Editor’s Note:

      After receiving Landon’s email I later opened an attachment that was his journal entry from a few days earlier.  I really liked the insight he gave to exactly what the Forty-day-fast was all about.  Here are his remarks.

      “Last week I received a letter from (a friend) who is serving a mission in the Kentucky, Louisville Mission.  She sent me a letter regarding a purification process they have been doing in their mission.  It was an answer to my prayers to receive this letter.  As I have been here in Margate, and looking at the nature of the area, I have realized that I cannot be an average missionary to be successful here.  My companion and I need to have greater faith, need to work harder, and need to be more obedient with exactness.

      The purification process she sent me was the experience of a Stake President (Church leader of many congregations) while he was on his mission.  He wanted greater strength and power, so he fasted for one day asking the Lord to show him all the things he did or thought about that took him away from the spirit and made him less focused and less effective.  Then for forty-days he did not do or think about those things.  Through the entire process his will became the Father’s will and he became a very successful missionary.

      I myself fasted today for that very purpose written about: That I might identify those things which keep me from being a most effective missionary, then for the next forty days, I will be giving those things up.”

      As I read this entry I was struck by how focused Landon really is on the purpose of his calling and just how much he is willing to do to get it right.  I am enormously impressed with his maturity and actions to be better.  There sure is a lesson to ponder in the reflection of his example.