Working Like Crazy

MAN WHAT A WEEK

So super scary story! So the other day Elder G. and I are going and visiting some in-active members. There was this big fence.. and since he and I have had some scary experiences with dogs, we look over the fence to see if there were any. There wasn't, and the door was open with someone inside watching t.v. so we were like “choice!” So we open the fence and right as we were at the door and i yell hello, these two HUGE MASTIFFS come out barking and growling at us and basically had us wetting our selves. Not fun. We stayed as long as we could until we just decided… “Umm nope not feeling like being dog food.” When we got out, we both just plopped on the ground laughing because we were so scared!

(1948 Buick owned by a guy we met on the street. He and his wife have been married for 65 years!!)

So some pretty amazing stuff has happened. We had Interviews with our mission president. President Rudd, who is like the coolest man. So he calls me in, shakes my hand, sits me down…and just pauses for a moment…So i am like UH OH... I haven’t done anything wrong. He asks "Elder Gish are you working?" so I say "LIKE CRAAZY" and he just goes "Awesome! Nice seeing you." and lets me go... Like that was my interview…

Then after the Assistants to the President are teaching about the Book Of Mormon and they decide to do a role play on the restoration. And who do they pick? Yours truly. But man, one of the assistants and I role play…so my face looks like Niagara falls, I was so nervous. Elder S (the AP) does the pause…implying ‘my turn, and it was at the part where Joseph Smith sees God the Father and Jesus Christ. so I burst out the First Vision.. Something i have not recited in a while. Man the Spirit was so powerful and Elder S afterwards came up and was like “Man Elder, that was amazing! (Shannon here: Assistants to the President – or A.P’s – are other missionaries like Chase who serve directly with the mission president in a leadership capacity.)

Then yesterday we had a miracle…We were showing some Mormon messages to a recent convert. And one of his flat mates M, who never sits in, decides to sit in…and throughout the time we end up teaching him about the Book Of Mormon. We invited him to pray and ask if the book was true and read him the promise in Moroni chapter 10 v 4-5…and as he read it.. something in him looked like it clicked.. And he was like…Yeah i will do that… MEAN!!! What an amazing week!!!

Well I love you all:)

ka kite ano!

Elder Gish

MENEMENE

Kia Ora my whanau:)

Kei te peaha koe? That means how are you(we) doing in Maori!

This has been such a great week its crazy! First let me start with a funny story. SO on Friday Elder Gutke and I get this impression that we need to go out tracting in a place called Inglewood. Its about a 35 minute drive for us.. and about as country as Taranaki gets. So houses are like 1K apart.. No fun. The weather was really nice.. not too hot. But that didn’t last long. Once we got out of the car, we felt the heat of 35 degrees C just hit us. Door knocking in this?? Crazy!  We end up spending about 3 hours knocking on doors with sweat on our brow and our pants sticking to our legs we kept going!! We get to this house and we are dying. We felt like Kung fu panda when he came to the stairs. So sit down on the Grass and just die. Elder Gutke says "Elder I HAVE AN IDEA" and when it comes to Elder Gutke and ideas, it gets dangerous.  He says " just lie on the grass there, I’ll go up to the door and say " uhh sorry to bother you.. I’m not here to talk about the gospel, but come here...does it look like my companion has heat stroke?? Oh he does? Well if he dies, would you like to learn about where he will go?" and Man we started busting our guts!!! It was so funny!

Anyway! This week has been full of great murracles!! On Fridays we go to a Recent Converts house and read the Book of Mormon with him. When we get to the door, he isnt there!! But his son answers the door and we just talk for ages! Then up comes his cuzzy who is 15 and loves America, so he loved talking to us. He asked what we are doing here, so we tell him. His eyes light up and asked if he could serve a mission like us one day! SO we invite him church and HE COMES! Now here is the cool part! During the Second hour he sees one of his cuzzies walk by and he makes a run for him. Thinking that he ditched  us, Elder Gutke and I got a tad sad.  But we went out to see where he went. AND THERE HE IS talking to his cuzzy.  He says, “Oh Elders this is my cousin.. Is it cool if he comes in as well? NO WAY!!!! This boy is already a missionary!! It was such an amazing sight to see!! I couldn’t believe it!! So they stay and we teach them both about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the Gospel…and they just soaked it in.. 

The Lord always has a plan!! and man it’s the best plan!!

That’s all for this week:) 

ki kate ano!!! keep a big MENEMENE on your face this week:) (that means smile)!

Elder Gish

Standards of Excellence!

Kia ora Whanau!!

I hope you all have had an amazing week!!

This week has been INSANE IN THE MEMBRANE!! So i will shoot right into this!! This just goes to prove that Heavenly Father really knows what He is doing! So on Friday, Elder Gutke and I get a call that our senior couple is cleaning the chapel and they need some help!! So of course we are keen az to clean the chapel…after all cleanliness is next to Godliness haha. So as we are cleaning, man the Spirit is just building because the building is clean! Then we get this call from our Branch President that he wants us to type up some notes from our last Branch Council meeting (since there are not a lot of members, we are like his secretary). But we had heaps of work to do, but we do it anyway. So we had to drive to get the keys from the clerk then begin.

We finished and that was that.. we get back to work!

We are so excited to go see our new Investigator Tawhio. So we drive to Tate road (the road name will be of significance in a bit) where Tawhio lives. AND HE’S NOT THERE!!! AH PUNCTURE TO THE HEART!! But the good thing is that his Dad is there, so we just talk to him.but for some reason we don't share anything with him. So a little bit down, we head back to our flat wondering what to do.

So we get this idea about praying to find a street to find where we get an investigator who will be baptized, so we place the map in front of us and pray over a letter and a number to match a coordinate. BOTH OF US get Q2…and there is only ONE road in that square... TATE ROAD. So we go back thinking man we are going to share an awesome lesson with Tawhio’s Dad! So when we get there, guess who just got back!! TAWHIO!! So we talk to him, and we decided to go play some ball next to the church were a court is.

As we were talking and playing ball, the thought comes to me "You have the church keys, take him on a tour of the Chapel" HOLY COW so we asked if he would like a tour of the chapel, and man his face LIGHTS UP!!!

We go inside and explain to him about the chapel and theSpirit just fills the room. And he looks at us and says "There is something different about this chapel. I don't know what it is, but it feels safe here, like i am home". WHAT NO WAY!!! It was crazy and He keeps saying," it feels so good here". seriously... the Lord knows what He is doing and always has a plan!! 

So here is the story with this food.(yes, that is food.) It’s Called Paua. The shell of it is super pretty, in fact that small one is worth like like 30 dollars. Anyway, how you eat it is you fry it…then you bite the meat (the black part) then the white part is its guts and you suck that out like a straw. Kind of gross…but super yummy.

Next little bit fun stuff is this.. This week our mission released a new " Standards of Excellence" and what that is is a work pattern set up by our Mission President, of goals we want to reach. It got me thinking. Why don't we have Standards of Excellence back home? Are our Standards truly Excellent? We have a great potential to become anything we want.. if we make our Standards. our goals. Excellent..why go for anything less? So as a challenge. I want you all think about your Standards.. and make them Excellent. ( yes mom you can use this:P ) 

I love you all!!
Hope your week is amazing 

Ka kite ano!

Elder Gish

The Lord Puts Us in the Right Place No Matter What

Kia Ora Whanua!

I can not believe that it is 2015!! This year just seemed to have gone by in a blink of the eye!! I hope you all had a great year, and have made some great goals for the year to come! Hopefully we can stick to them as well!

Luckily for us we had transfers right on new years so, we get to start off the Year with everything new!!! I am still down in Waitara , I have the privilege of being called as a FUTDL -- Follow Up Trainer/District Leader! What a honor it is to have this calling. My Trainee is the man! He is hilariously funny and really wants to learn and grow. He for sure has the faith and action to do amazing things!

So this week has been full of so many miracles.  I have been introducing Elder Gutke to all the members…and we just had this feeling to go see a recent convert. So we stop in to say hello and share a message, and out of no where his son comes out with a friend. So we just say hi, and they take off and we don't see them the rest of the day.

Well, yesterday (Sunday) Elder Gutke gets this impression to walk to our dinner apt ( a 45 minute walk) instead of drive (we have car!) At first, I was a bit apprehensive but something just told me to say yes and go.

As we are walking downtown, Elder Gutke asks if I can show him a way how to not be awkward when talking to random people on the street ( which btw, there isn't one.)  But we see this young man walking and the Spirit says “Him.” So, we walk up.and guess what – it’s the son’s friend of our recent convert! So we just talk to him for a little bit, and share a small bit of what we have to share and he just asks "Do you want to sit down so you can tell me a bit more?" “OH YEAH WE DO!” comes from behind me, haha! Elder Gutke is just the man. So we sit down and talk. After we finished, this young man looks at us and says "Man, this is an awesome message, could I learn more?"  Both Elder Gutke and I were just blown away! It was a true testament to me about how the Lord puts us -- where ever we are -- in the right place no matter what!! I truly am grateful for this time to Serve the Lord. I am humbled by the love He shares with us everyday!

(Southern Cross Constellation)

I love you all like crazy!!

Ka Kite ano!
-Elder Gish