What a great week.
So my companion has been sick in bed since Thursday:( So that is where my week has been spent.
But of course awesome miracles happen!
In particular on Sunday. Sunday was such an awesome day. 20 minutes before Church starts, we get a phone call. It was our bishop. Some people had dropped out of giving talks and needed to fill in the space. He called and asked if I could fill in the time. But what was amazing was he said "I called because I need you". What powerful words. We have been working like crazy to build up the trust of these members and it is working! I loved the topic I was given, "Sacrifice". So I have a question I want to ask everybody (and i asked this during my talk). "Are we willing to sacrifice who we are, for who we will become?" The Gospel has been, and always will be about progression. But sometimes we become comfortable. We stop growing. We stop working on ourselves. We aren't Continually " coming to Christ and being perfected in Him". There are things in our lives that hold us back from becoming better. There are things that we need to sacrifice to reach our goals, at home, work, callings, whatever it may be, they hold us back. Can we sacrifice those things to become better? Sacrifice is a refiner. Its not easy, but we know at the end of the day it will be for our benefit. That was a the basis of my talk!
ON TO THE NEXT SUBJECT.
So on Sunday I woke up and was thinking about an investigator of ours named A. who had moved away. So I prayed and asked if he could come to church, which he usually doesn't if we dont invite him. As I was sitting working on my talk in the chapel, guess who rolls in? A. I knew that the Lord had answered my prayers. Not because it was for my benefit, but because it was for A's. I know the Lord answers our prayer...
...Which leads me to an awesome quote my Brother Sam told me. Now I don't know if you know this, but my brother Sam...he's Batman...don't tell anyone though.
But he said this "Man I'll tell you what, there is nothing like being able to drop to your knees and with all the sincerity of heart plead with Heavenly Father to help you and those you love. For you that may be your investigators. There is nothing like opening your scriptures in the morning and reading with the intent of actually learning for a specific purpose so that you can be blessed and bless the lives of the people you love so dearly. It happened to me on my mission and it's happening to me now. Chase make sure you develop the testimony of the power of prayer and the words of God. It will bless you and all those around you for the rest of your life. I can promise you that"
I know that what he said is so true! That as we come to know our Heavenly Father more, we ask Him to bless others, rather then ourselves. It's never about me, its about them. It's not about we, when its about Him. My Brother has showed me that time and time again. THANKS MY BRO! GO AND KILL 'EM YOU SKUX!
Love you all! thanks for reading!
-Elder Gish
Shannon here: Not sure how this happened, but Elder Gish's last weekly update did not make it on the blog. (I have a complete memory that I posted it. #menopausemoment.) I am posting it below.
KIA ORA WHANAU!!!!
SO GUESS WHAT !! ITS MY DAD BIRTHDAY!!!! Now I know this is a shocker but my dad is a time wizard.. He is turning 35 AGAIN!! WOW!!! amazing, stupendous! Here are some facts that you may have not known about my dad.
1. Alexander bell invented the telephone.. he had 3 missed calls from my dad
2. Bigfoot.. believes in my dad
3. My dad is the reason why waldo is hiding
4. My dad can cut through a hot knife with butter
5.He can also slam a revolving door
6 Lastly.. he can win a game of connect four in only 3 moves
Love you dad hope you have a happy birthday!
It was a great week. Long, but great!
I received a package this week from my Mom ( because she is awesome!) She put in some pumpkin spice cookies.. because she is awesome. Now Something happened that I cant explain. I was baking these cookies.. and it says cook for 11-13 minutes. Now the metric system here does not change time. So I cook them for 12 minutes. ( to be safe). Buzzer goes off. and the cookies are still soft! Not cooked yet. So i say " oh maybe just a minute or so then they will be done" a minute goes by and THEY ARE TOTALLY BURNT! I do not understand how this happened.. But burnt cookies taste really good when you destroy the taste with some frosting!
The work this week was interesting. our investigator, A. moved unexpectedly this week and we dont know where he went.
So this week we really focused on finding new people to teach. So all week we have been knocking on doors. On Friday where weren't having any success! So we decided to go back to the area where we lived, and we see a guy working on his car! So of course...me...cars...life. So we go over and start talking to him about his car and stuff, and we were very casual about our conversation, and it turns out he has been looking for a church to go to because he doesn't think the one he goes to at the moment is right. So we will be seeing him this week.
I learned something interesting, that the gospel needs to just be something we are able to bring up casually. If it is truly ingrained in our life, then it is as much a part of us as sports or whatever is. It's easy to talk about sports casually, but the Gospel...we seem awkward at times...and if you're feeling like your being awkward...then they will think the same thing!! DON'T BE AWKWARD!
I just want to finish with a quote. "If you ever feel like your just a number, remember you are number one!"
Love you all
-Elder Gish
Ps. this pic is for my dad!
