The Reason I Am Where I Am.

July 5

Kia ora whanau!! Tena koe friends,

Well let me tell you something, this has been quite an awesome week! 

SO first and for most I sent heaps of pictures in, so I guess I will need to explain them. 

The first bunch of us at the church.  THAT'S D's ENTIRE FAMILY! MOM DAD HIM AND HIS SON AND PARTNER!  

The second bunch is at the church again. That is after district meeting. The islanders wanted me to jump in with them, so I thought a horsey back ride would be perfect. Then I'm holding Elder Koi...the biggest missionary in our mission.. 6'6..270lbs... big Elder.

Then The wood chopping one was a service. Everyone here runs off wood burning stoves and many of the members here don't have the funds to get wood, so the Elder's Quorum went out and chopped some wood. There is a picture there of two guys in highlight jackets. THATS D. AND HIS DAD they came!!

Then the last bunch was of an exchange. Elder K. is the Elder I am with on the beach. YES WE CAN GO TO THE BEACH. President Rudd (our mission president) said "we live on the most beautiful island, enjoy the beach you just can go past your knee line." Then the last picture of the beach is at 5:00 am.  New Zealand is the first place the sun hit in the world so you have to wake up early to catch a sun rise.

OKAY SO HOPEFULLY THAT HELPS A LITTLE BIT WITH THE EXPLANATION.

The pictures are worth 1000 words. D. and his entire family came to church this Sunday. It was AMAZING to see them there! They are doing so well. In fact D. and his Dad helped us with service so that they could get closer to the ward! I think the pictures explain enough! 

Love you all!

-Elder Gish

August 23

Kia ora whanau, tena koe e hoa!,

Well my family its been another crazy week! Sorry I have been pretty slack on my emails! 

Nothing super spectacular happened this week.. a lot of appts. fell through which is hard when its so flipping hot here right now. I swear I'm on the verge of heat stroke. 

Thursday was an eventful day. My companion and I were having a very hard day knocking on doors. When we went to knock on one door, we had to open up a gate and out of no where a pitbull comes after us and my companion hides behind me.... a flipping Tongan! That's like a bear hiding behind a rabbit. NOW before we go on you must know that my patience fuse and been used up and my side back wasn't on my shoulder, I was carrying it. So when the dog looked like it was going to bite, in comes Babe Ruth with a home run swing...knocked this

dog out.  Luckily the person that lived there wasn't home to see this White guy knocking his dog out...probably not the best first impression! But the dog is okay! 

But on to more spiritual sides to the mission! D. is doing great. It was stake conference this weekend, and he really wanted to come. Which was exactly what he needed. The main focus was on the importance of families, and the Restoration! He loved it and  it reproved me a bit. As a missionary we want people to take to us, so we share usually The Plan of Salvation first...answering the questions of the soul like, Why are we here?  Where are we going? Was I somewhere before? It talks about how families can be together forever which everyone wants to hear! But The reason why we are different, the reason I am where I am, is because of the restoration. God has once again called Prophets to the Earth, and along with it came Scripture, and Authority. It took a new spin for me and D. and so it was exactly what we needed to hear at the time. 

He and is family are great. His parents moved out and want us to bless their home because, they were there when we blessed D's. and they said they loved how the house felt, and they want that! 

Well that's all for now! 

Arohanui!

-Elder Gish

They Could Not Deny that they had Received a Portion of a Testimony of the Reality of Heavenly Father.

Kia ora whanau! 

Tena Koe.

 Well what a week it has been for sure. The week just flew by!

A lot has happened this week and I hope to share what happened in the short time I have left to email today. #timemanganmentproblems.

Elder D (My Soa) and I had the opportunity to give blessings to our 4 main investigators I've been talking about the last few weeks. We taught them about the authority that God has allowed us to have and how we can bless others through the priesthood. Just C., D's wife was keen at first to get a blessing to help her overcome her addictions. But then the Mom and Dad jumped in and asked if they could get one as well. What was super amazing about the Dad, was he was a serious gang member...the head, big scary guy. He has a beard that could probably bite you. When he wanted a blessing, he shaved...and are you ready for what he said next?  I know you are. He said, if he was getting a blessing to clean his inside, he needs to be clean on the outside. WHAT!!!!  They had come to know for themselves that we have the authority to bless them according to their faith!  Darwin then joined in getting one as well. Holy cow! It was indescribable the Spirit that was felt during those blessing.  Every single blessing that was given touched their hearts in some way, and they could not deny that they had received a portion of a testimony of the reality of Heavenly Father. After, they just told us thank you for helping them understand the importance of God.

I know that we are privileged to have the authority of God giving us the power to bless others. It is real. It Is as real as that food on your kai plate. 

Thank you for reading! 

-Elder Gish

P.S. In order to protect the privacy of Elder Gish's companion and those they is teaching, initials are used in place of their names. 

As We Teach, We Are to Use Doctrine.

Kia ora kia ora Whanau!!

Its been a pretty awesome week. We saw an amazing miracle as we taught one of our most keen investigators that just brings so much joy to me. 

First our current investigator, D, ...He was a very scary man.. long hair.. sort of beard.. tattoos.. would come to church looking like he may beat someone up before.. So this Sunday we are waiting for him to come in. It hits 12:00 (when church starts) and he still didn't show! So we get sad. and go and find a place to sit. We decide to sit next to this man we haven't met... nicely trimmed... looks like a flippin RM... AND IT WAS D!!... HOLY COW!! (Shannon here: RM = Return Missionary.) If I could describe what he looked like...an RM is the only word I can think of..He says to us... "Well my bros.. if I'm in the house of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the least I can do is look like I am going to be meeting Him here...... JAW DROP.... Everyone kept asking "Where did you come home from serving"? He totally shaved, put on a suit...and dang! 

But it gets better... 

We go to his house to teach later on that day. When we got there both his parents sat in as we taught them about the importance of families using "The Family: A Proclamation To The World."  (link added.) The Spirit was amazing there. Afterwards the Mother (who was not at all keen on us coming by) asked if she could have the book we got all this knowledge from. So we gave her The Book of Mormon and committed her to read it. And she said she would! How great are the joys! 

Now more then ever have I understood that as we teach, we are to use Doctrines. You can not deny what Christ and his Prophets and Apostles have taught. The Spirit will be there every time you teach from the scriptures, and then more importantly applying what you have learned into your life. 

I love you all so much!

ki kate ano

-Elder Gish 

Catching Up

Shannon here: Chase's blog was hacked with malware and disabled my ability to post his updates. Thank you for your patience while I've been trying to resolve it. Hopefully, there won't be any more issues. 

Below are his updates from the last few weeks starting with the most recent.

June 14th

Kia ora Whanau! 

Wow this week has gone by so fast. I feel like I just did this last week. I feel like that scene from Tangled ( geek moment). "No no, I specifically remember P-day being last week". BAH TIME SLOW DOWN!!

SO its been a great week. I just want to tell you about one experience. We have like the Most amazing investigator. He came to church on Sunday. and asked if we could come by his house again. Thats nothing new. But here is the great miracle. His Dad who is a EX gangster moved in with him. His Dad wants to learn from us!! his Dad said that he has seen such a great change in his son, and he wants to know why! SO we go over and his Dad is kind of a scary dude. But we pray and ask for the Spirit to be there as we teach. OH MY LANTIS the Spirit was so great there. His Dad....you could just see in his eyes that what we were teaching was affecting him. After the lesson, he tells us " I now see why my son has changed" "you are nothing like I thought you were".

That only happens if the spirit is there. 

I NEED TO MAKE A QUICK SHOUT OUT. It's fathers day next week, but I don't know if you all knew this, but I don't have a Dad.. I have a SUPERDAD. I think you knew this but my Dad has been the first to do many things.

1. He was the first man to beat Medusa in a staring contest

2. First man to Gargle Peanut butter  

3. First man to beat Hulk in an arm wrestle

4. He doesn't cut his grass... he dares it to grow

Many more things has my Dad done. I don't know where I would be without my Dad. He has always been there on my mission and back home. If I can be 1/3 of the man my dad is. I will be an amazing man. When people ask me about one of Favorite memories. I tell them the day my dad woke me up at 6am on Christmas vacation, to go shovel someone's roof.. WHO SHOVELS ROOFS!? But I went, and after we finished, we just sat on the roof and talked.. I love you dad! Happy Father's Day! And happy fathers day to all you fathers!

Bye for now

-Elder Gish

June 7th

Kia ora whanua! I hope you all have had a wonderful and awesome week! 

  Man crazy week. This story is a testament to me that God loves all his children, and that we can be Angels to others. If we listen to the Spirit, we can answer someone's prayer.  So check this out.. 

On Friday, my companion and I were getting really discouraged because all of our appointments fell through. and so honestly we were just going to head to the flat around 7:30 and just study...kind of throwing in the towel. Right as when we get to the flat, the Spirit hits me like a ton of bricks, saying "No. Someone still needs you". So I'm thinking, "well who then!?"  ( starting to murmur) But then this feeling came to go see our new husband and wife investigators, the former drug dealer and his wife. And so I couldn't deny it so we went! It's a 40 minute. We walk there and I'm thinking, "Was it really me or the Spirit?"  You know that constant battle we all have. But we kept going. 

Let me just pause here. When ever you get the impression and it is something good, DO IT. It's of God and it can change not only the person's life you are helping, but it will also change your life. 

ANYWAY ONTO THE STORY! 

We get there and knock, and when they opened. We just said, "Hi we felt like we needed to be here, the Spirit prompted us" and they look at each other and say "I Swear they know." They had been praying for us to come over, but didn't want to be annoying and text us  (which we would have loved if they did that!). We get there resolve some concerns and BOTH of them end up coming to church!!! And Loving it there! She even found out that a lot of her family and friends go to our church! And so that just made her feel so much more welcomed, which is exactly what we had been praying for! 

Heavenly Father truly loves all his children!

Well I love you all! THAT IS MY TIME! 

-Elder Gish

May 31st

Kia Ora Whanau! Tena Koe? 

I hope this finds everyone in good health and in Joy! 

WHAT A WEEK THIS HAS BEEN!! Unfortunetly my companion and i are little bit sick. My companion and I got caught in a DOWN POUR of rain 4 TIMES this week while we were out tracting and talking to people. But we had to do a ton of work so we pushed Forward. We are both sick from it though. But we are seeing so many miracles. It was actually awesome.

So on Sunday we had an appt  that was about a 40 minute walk away, that WE COULDNT MISS. But it was down pouring.. and we were already sick as! But we had a prayer in our heart that we would be able to do the work. As we walked outside, the rain stops, and then it remains like that until we get to our Appt, and right as we get inside, the RAIN STARTS!! WHAT!?! How awesome! And we end up having an awesome lesson! It was with our latest investigator, who was the Drug dealer.  His wife told him it was either her or the Gospel. Which was really gutting for him. So he invites us over, and we just answer some of her questions and concerns. Seriously, during the lesson we had achieved totally Unity! LIKE DRAGON BALL Z GOGETA UNITY (sorry nerd splurge) Whenever I mentioned a Principle of the Gospel, my companion was right there with a Scripture, and when he mentioned a principle I was right there with him with a Scripture. It was amazing and the Spirit was so strong. At the end we said to her "God has never left or forgotten about you, But carried you." and then read her "Foot Prints in The Sand" and she just looks up and asks. "Can I come to Church?" and her husband just couldn't Believe it. He said how grateful he was that he could have both his wife and the Gospel in his life. 

The Lord will ALWAYS Provide no matter how much we feel that he has forgetton about you

I know that to be true! 

WELL THATS ME!

Ka kita ano!

-Elder Gish  

P.S this is my area

Transfer to Greerton

ALRIGHT EVERYBODY!!!!! ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!! I am out of Frankton. I am now serving in an area called Greerton in Tuaranga. OH MY LANTIS IT IS BEAUTIFUL! This place is such a honor to serve in, we have seen so many amazing miracles this week! There is two in particular that I would like to share with you.

One is this. On Saturday me and my companion were asked to give a training on talking with people in the streets at a prospective missionary conference. First off, what a pleasure it was to be able to speak to the next generation of missionaries. I have never seen so much potential in a body of youth then the ones here. So here are the miracles. When we were asked to train, we were asked to do so for only an hour. When our stake President saw how well it was going, he asked for us to keep going FOR ANOTHER HOUR! WE HAD ONLY PLANNED FOR ONE HOUR! But right as my companion and I where humbled by our fear of not knowing what to say…our minds where rushed with what to say next. Afterwards, everyone was saying how real and helpful the training was! BUT IT DOESNT END THERE!  Right as we leave and we are feeling so uplifted by the Spirit we felt, we saw this lady walking towards us, so we stop to talk to her... turns out her car had broken down and she was walking to get gas. As we shared with her the Message of the Plan of Salvation... her eyes got huge and asked if we can take her number and address to come teach her more!! SHe said yes! THAT NEVER HAPPENS!!

Last week we had an unexpected visitor come to Church. He is a drug dealer and was walking past our Chapel when he felt like he should come in. He left his backpack at the gate and walked in. When he walked in he said he just felt this feeling like he was home, but never knew that he had lost my home. We invited him to be baptized this week and has accepted! I love the metaphor of leaving our "backpacks" at the Gate in order to feel the Spirit more. 

I am so grateful for this Gospel!!

Until next time!

Ka kite ano!
-Elder Gish