The Spirit at Church

Kia ora whanau!!! 

Im so sorry that this will be short, but thank you for all the birthday wishes. Seriously everyone it meant a lot more then you think you know. It was great seeing all theses emails. During the week two bros of mine had a birthday Ty Mcdouglad, and Cameron Jarrett. Happy Birhday my bros!

It's been a great week though. Sunday was the greatest day. Miracles happened on that day. So we have had a hard time getting people to church. So this we week we really focused on that. On Sunday A. comes to our place at 9:00 pm...and walks up and says, "Guy we need to talk," which for all of us that have been in relationships know the words "we need to talk" are like hearing "I'm done." BUT NO!! HE TELLS US ABOUT HOW HE KNOWS WHAT WE ARE TEACHING IS TRUE!! AND THAT HE IS REALLY THINKING ABOUT BECOMING A MEMBER!! WHATTTTT!!!!!!! He has made such amazing leaps of faith to get where he is. He walks into church with just light in his eyes.

But then Sunday gets better.

We have an investigator named K., and she has been pretty keen and told us that she would come to church.. Well she didn't...HER ENTIRE FAMILY CAME! Husband and 5 kids!!!!! 7 people!!! After church she comes up to us and says "Elders this is us from now on we are staying here."  MAN what a great blessing!! 

I am so grateful for the spirit at church. I know that it is the Lord's house...and to those who are seeking for God, can, and will, find Him there. 

I love you all! 

Elder Gish

A Very Special Person Turns 13

Kia ora whanau!!! 

Okay so i totally slacked and didn't get this started soon enough! 

FIRST OFF a very special person in my life turns 13!! WHAT THE HECK!?!? Happy birthday Gage!! I love you little bro! Thanks for letting me be your older bro ( i cant say bigger bro much longer with you getting so tall, so iI might as well start saying older bro now.) Hope you have a great day off from school * cough mom* cough dad*

So quite a bit has happened this week. LET ME START WITH AN EXCHANGE!. This week we went on Exhanges with the APs which is always fun because they are such hard workers. Elder M. and I were doing our thing when I received a prompting to go to the house of an investigator named M. So we go. Sometimes these promptings work out and sometimes they don't. THIS ONE DID! SHE WAS HOME! So we taught her the Restoration again for some reason...I dont think I have ever had such a unified lesson such as that one. Elder Matthews and I have the same teaching style! At the end of the lesson, we invite her to be baptized! November 28th was the date we had discussed...but thanks to inspiration...or a really bad memory we set her for the 14th...AND SHE ACCEPTED!!! She is preparing herself to be baptized! I know that was the working of the Lord.

Fast forward to Friday We have a new investigator named K. She was found street contacting and said we could come back on Friday (two days later). Now normally when that happens, something happens and things fall through, but when we stopped by she had been waiting!!! She thought we were going to come by at 12, but we said 1! We go in and she has read everything. She told us that she knew that this was the place were she needed to be. That God lead her to us on that day. As we taught, the Spirit did all the work because all we did was ask questions.. And she wants her entire family to join!! 

Now let's fast forward to Sunday! We have been really struggling to get people to church. We invite, but they don't ever come because the chapel is ' too far' . BUT WOULDNT YOU KNOW IT IN WALKS A!! All dressed up. HE CAME TO CHURCH! As we went through church he kept telling us.. " I really like how it feels here, I feel like i belong here". I know that that was the Holy Ghost speaking to his heart!  

NOW! of course I have to have some humor somewhere in here!  It was super crack up! It was Halloween on Sat. and so we decided to do some door knocking. We were getting no success so we decided to have some fun! WE went up to a door that we saw gave out lollies. When they answered the door, we were like "TRICK OR TREAT!!" and they thought we were in costumes! They were like "Oh wow what are you guys?" 

We said: "We are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!' 

Them: "wow that is such a good costume!' 

Us:" No, we really are missionaries from the church.....' 

AND THEY LET US TEACH THEM!

Well hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Gish

"Find the Mormons. They have the Truth." (Oct 18th and 25th)

October 18

Kia ora whanua! Tena koe e hoa!


Monday again.. i think its funny most people when Monday comes around are like.. " Trauf.. its monday" But as a missionary its like ' WOOO ITS MONDAY!!!!!" 

This has been a pretty Crazy awesome week! We had a lot of really cool stuff go on! 

We an awesome miracle happen with our set K. Her mom loves having us over because we share uplifting things.. but she never really sits in and listens to us.. but the other day we gave K. some scriptures to read before we come over next. The mom decided to read with her! and so when we came over she was telling us how she really wants to learn more about what her daughter is learning, and to start from the top!!! AWESOME!!! 

THEN we have an investigator A. who IS THE MAN. While at his house his Partner A. was there ( who is an AOG which is kinda like a odd Catholic/ baptist mix) as we were sharing the Restoration she was asking HEAPS of questions. and amazingly.. we were able to answer everything without getting to side tracked. But at the end she told us " that was so simple and it makes perfect sense! When can i learn more"!!! JAW DROP.. it was a real testifier to me that when the Gospel is taught simply but clearly, that leaves more room to have the Spirit work on them. The Gospel is not confusing.. but we make it confusing for some reason. 

Im so grateful for this time i have had to share this Gospel. I know that as we apply the things we know to our lives we are more able to serve the Lord with our full heart!! love you all!

a kite ano!

-Elder Gish

October 25

OKAY OKAY OKAY!!!! Here we go with another weekly update! 

Man there is heaps I have to write about.. But it was quite a crazy week.. like heaps has happened this week. We had this awesome lesson with an Investigator named Mania. She is a young mother who would like to get her Children Baptized. We went over and taught her the Restoration. And as we got to the part about how the Priesthood had been restored today.. She just says! " THIS IS WHAT IM LOOKING FOR! I knew that we need authority to be baptized"! So we invited her to be baptized and she accepted!!! She is praying about a date of when she gets baptized!! AND THERE IS MORE!!! We went to see our awesome Investigator A. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation... It was such an awesome lesson! WE invited him to baptized as well! AND HE ACCEPTED!! He is set for the 21 of November! The Lord is really blessing us in this area. We are really trying as hard as we can to get the work moving.

Later on in the week something amazing happened. We had received a referral to go see someone, so we go by. No one was home, so we think to ourselves.. " well we are here for a reason so lets find out why.. so what do we do.. we start knocking on some doors. We came up to this house and this old lady answered.. She just looks at us and. and starts to tear up.. ... So we ask if she is okay. She invited us in and told us her Husband had passed away a month ago. and was looking for support.. Her mother who had died years ago said, before she died "Find the Mormons...they have the truth." C. ( the old women whose husband passed away) said she wanted missionaries to come by and teach her about where her husband was.. but didn't know how to find us. I know that the Lord guides us in all that we do as missionaries and when we ask " what are we doing here", when we are lost.. he will guide us to the reason. 

The Next day I was asked to teach seminary. I wont stay to much on that. but i am always remninded of my Seminary teacher Sis. Hansen. and how much she sacrificed to teach us a 40- 45 minute lesson at 6 am in the morning. but luckily these youth i taught where so cooperative! 

THE LAST THING THAT HAPPENED this week was on Sunday.. So i got sick Sunday. 10 minutes before church started our bishop franticly came up to me and said that 2 of our speakers dropped and they needed to fill a 30 minute gap.. now i didnt receive the gift my dad has to be able to talk for ages ahahah ( love you dad) But i accepted the call. Having no idea what to talk about.. i felt that i should talk about obedience.. and wouldnt you know it.. the person before was talking about that as well.. The Spirit truly guides us if we are willing to listen.. and yes i did take up the 30 minutes.. and actually went 10 minutes over! So hopefully I bored bishop to never do that to me again.. 

Later on in the day our Primary president and EQ president asked my companion and I if we could take a class.. knowing that there was another set of missionaries. They still asked us. So it was quite hectic trying to get both classes done.. but we did it!! and it was an amazing experience! I am so grateful for the direction of the Spirit in my life! 

Love you all!! thanks for reading! 

Ka kite ano!

-Elder Gish

Soggy Oreos, Joyful Enduring and Prayers Answered During General Conference

Kia ora my whanau!! Tena koe e hoa! 

What a great week it has been. There is so much I could write but i dont want to bore you too much. 

So i was thinking recently about an event in my life that really makes me smile. As most of you know i have the coolest parents in the world! Who, since they are so awesome, they brought forth two awesome extremely handsome brothers of mine. Before we lived out east, we lived in Denver. (Which for those of my New Zealand friends who are reading this, that's about the same distance as Gisborne is from Sydney) We were heading to the Eastern states to see my Superhero Grandfather. On the way there, we decided to get some snacks. My younger brother Gage, like the man he is, makes a great choice and buys Oreos. While we were driving, we were loaded into a car that makes a mini cooper look big, and went no faster then half the speed of smell. And that was an experience I would not like to relive hahaha.

While on this road my older Brother Samantha, oh I mean Sam...wanted an Oreo from Gage. So Gage, only being around 5 at this time, shares an oreo with Sam. Keep in mind we are suffering in car so small and we are a little over tired. 

Gage gives Sam the oreo and Sam partook. Right as he ate it he says " Wow that tasted soggy" Gage with his great young mind says "Oh thats because I licked it"  HAHAHAHAHA!  He just stepped into the battle field of brothers who live on pranks.  When that happened, MAN WE LAUGHED SOO HARD. 

Now that could have gone another way. (A soggy Oreo on a long trip is devastating!) But I learned something that day. We need to find joy in times that are hard. 

The Gospel that so many of us are in, is a Gospel that teaches so often to endure to the end, which means to continually come to Christ and being perfected in Him. Its a hard task to start, but can honestly only be accomplished as we look for moments that bring smiles to our face!

As a missionary this week I have seen that happen. We had a young Girl named K. set for baptism and was hoping to have her brother Join her, but when she saw him...man he was SO RUDE. But he said something that made us laugh, (which is always awkward in a serious moment.) But he saw that we were joyful and asked why were laughing. My companion...he is so sharp...says that this Gospel is one of joy, that's why we are laughing. Which made this young man think. And because of that, we will be seeing him next week. :) 

I know that there are times when we receive a "soggy Oreo," but as we look torwards our Savior, He will show us the Joys in our lives, and will help us through those times! We will become better people as we do.

One last thing!! (I know this long!) But this week was something called General Confernce which is when have the chance to hear from living Apostles and the Prophet. It was Amazing. I had so many questions I wanted to have Answered. And I prayerfully thought about them, and all my questions were answered. I know that these men are men of God and they reach out to us through General Conference. They so often think about the "1 lost sheep rather then the 99" and somehow they Impact All 100. I urge you all to Listen to to the Apostles with Humble spirits and Humble ears, willing to listen and change if needed! 

I love you all!! 

Thank you for taking time to read this!

Elder Gish

Put Ourselves Aside and Say, "Thy Will Be Done."

Kia ora everyone!! 

OKAY SO THERE IS HEAPS TO WRITE!!! SO prepare yourself!

We almost got in a fight with a drunk guy this week! But then after, we had a cool experience.

The drunk guy just ended up walking away after we told him we didnt want any trouble.

So the cool experience was with some young kids, it was super cool. The way it started was this women N is an investigator...she hasn't had the best relationship with missionaries, but her kids like us. We come to find that her oldest son, P, likes playing touch football and so we said we would play it with him later, but not today because we were busy. Then we go back and N. and her sister are there with all their kids. N. was wanting the kids to get off the video games and play outside, so we went to her oldest son and asked if he wanted to play touch football, MAN WAS HE EXCITED. He got all his cousins to come play, then a bunch of the neighborhood kids came to play. So we had a huge gang of kids playing. After like 2 hours of playing, N. told us how thankful she was for us playing with the kids because she needed to get so much stuff done. She said she hated churches because they were just words, but she told us that we really practice what we preach. What a blessing that was for us.

We did alot of service this week too. We helped a part member family out with some gardening. The Mom, E., ( not a member) used to be taught. She is not keen anymore, but her kids  are. Their daughter K. came up to us and asked us if we can baptize people. It was quite a question and one we werent expecting, but we said yes. I LOVE WHAT SHE SAID NEXT. She said "what can i do to be baptized'. This week we will be back preparing her! How awesome, aye?

I thought about diligence this week. My dad would always say a quote, "The Kingdom of heaven is built on the edge of exhaustion." It made me think about my own service in building the kingdom. Am I "exhausted?" And am I doing all I can to build the kingdom? Is my energy really spent trying to build the kingdom? There seems to be a pattern placed that when we have done all we can, when we feel like we can't take one more step, we say "Father, I can't do it alone, but I will do it for thee," and then we make that last step, not for us, but for Him, and Them. That's when the blessings come. When we have done all we can, and put ourselves aside and say, "Thy will be done" and we literally lose ourselves, because all we can do is focus on what Heavenly Father needs from us. I know that is true and as we are diligent in all we do, we can be blessed.

Before i leave i just want to wish a happy birthday to my grandma, I know everyone here will be amazed... but my Grandmother is turning 41!! WOW!!!!!! I KNOW CRAZY!! (hahahaha) She is awesome! and i hope she has a great birthday!! LOVE YOU GRAMMIE!!!!

Love you all, 

Elder Gish.