The Blessings the Lord Gives Us When We Keep Trying Our Best!

Malo lale everyone!

MAN what a week!  This week has been pretty awesome! we had transfers, and Elder Harmon got transferred ( my companion) and my new companion is Elder Moala from Tonga! So now I am the only white person in our district, everyone else is from Tonga , Samoa, and Kiribati. its pretty interesting. I can still school most of them in basketball :p  But they all come to me for questions their Investigators have been having. Being the senior companion, for a Tongan is pretty hard, but it will be well worth it in the end. When the Lord calls us, He qualifies us. We just have to prove to Him we can live up to expectations. Even though it is hard, the Lord doesn't give us anything we cant achieve. So we push forward.

We are trying really hard to get the Members in this ward more into missionary work. So that is what this transfer will be really focused on! And it really good! its only begun and we can already see that the members of this ward are starting to feel more comfortable with missionary work. One thing that has been hard is tracting. Elder Moala has a hard time speaking English. So talking to people is not his favourite thing to do!. We are working on it though, its pretty stressful!

We had a huge miracle this week with our investigator Dana, she came to church on Sunday!!!! it was a miracle! And the class she came to, she had a bunch of questions that were answered! man it was such a relief to have that. So on Tuesday when we see her it will be a huge a burden lifted! It was so nice! It was such a miracle!

We also met a new man named Kahn and had a pretty awesome lesson! He is American Indian and Maori! And the lesson - he was way into what we had to share! It was wonderful to see the blessings the Lord gives us when we keep trying our best!

So then this week I did the craziest thing... There was a challenge my Ward Mission Leader challenged me to! Challenge accepted... I had no idea what was in store for me. He brought a pizza to me... with a warning on it...

This pizza had ghost peppers on it... the hottest peppers in the world... OMGSH!!!!! so I told my ward mission leader Bro. mathie id do it if he does it ( kind of a 5 year old thing to do) but I was not going down alone! So he and I clinked pizza and began.... Holy flip..... I don't think I can tell you the intense amount of pain.. so we ran to the fridge in need of milk.. and we were like crying, and jumping in pain. Then all of sudden Bro. Mathies dad walked in on us jumping like girls.. he started dying with laughter... it wasn't funny... we literally couldn't feel our faces for ever... not fun..

That was the week

Kia Kaha everyone! love you all

-Elder Gish

Heavenly Father Has Not Forgotten About You

Kia Ora everyone!

Okay so beware this is going to be a long az email! So get ready for a mind blowing email!

So this week was absolutely jammed packed of awesomeness!

SO let me start with Wednesday.

Wednesday we had zone conference. And we got this chance to go to a Mouri, which is like a meeting house for Maori. HOLY AWESOME! it was the coolest thing. People there were all INTENSE Maori. So what makes a Mouri so special is the things we do in it.

The first step is someone needs to speak on our Behalf to the Chief, to let them accept us into the house once in there we do “breathing” with the chief and his other people. Genesis Chapter 2 verse 7 " and God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breathe of life." So what happens is you and the other person touch noses and breathe through your nose (its kind of resembling " im with you in this moment.”) Of course I screwed up and me and one of the others I was doing it with came in too hard and smashed foreheads.. Not to pleasant but we laughed, breathed and then moved on. Its actually very spiritual, and even though weird at first its an amazing feeling.

So then after that the people who had never been to a Mouri got accepted into the Whare ( pronounced like fadey) which means family. So 15 of us got recognized and entered into this Whare. Amazing! Then we had a feed.. like a big az feast…so much food... But then we learned heaps about the Maori culture and their dealings with God and Jesus Christ. Man holy cow... Christ says “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold,” there's literally things in New Zealand telling us that Jesus Christ had visited them. There is a tree, and translated from Maori means “Where the one who brought the resurrection met"... tons of stuff. Now I'm butchering this so bad because I forgot my notes! but next week ill clarify it more!

So amazing!

Then! Transfers are Thursday! EEEK!! But I hope I stay here!

Another sweet thing that happened this week, this was amazing. We have this woman in our ward named Hillary. Her mom took off to Aussie (Australia) about a year ago for various reasons. So the Other day Elder Harmon and I are walking down this street and this women across the street says " THATS IT." So we are like aye? so we go talk to her. She told us she had been away for about a year and was just coming home from the pub. Right as she said that,  the Spirit clear as day said "Elder this is Hillary’s mom." So I said " You’re Hillary’s mom aren't you" Tears came. She looked up and said “yes" tears came to my eyes and I said “Sister, Heavenly Father has not forgotten about you". Tears came even harder. We then went on - but wow!! It was crazy.. Spirit over load!

It was amazing week!

So then to top this all off the other night while I was sleeping I had This dream where a man walked up to me and started speaking to me in Maori.. Crazier than that, I started to talk back to him in MAORI! It was crazy! So I have decided to study the language! Anyway, the week of work was awesome! We have had HEAPS of time spent with members. LIKE HEAPS and it is becoming the best way for us to meet new people. So its a pretty fun way to talk with others!

Well everyone thank you so much for taking time to read this love you all!

kia kaha

your kiwi

-E. Gish