Willing to Sacrifice Who We Are, For Who We Can Become

Kia Ora Whanau! Tena Koe e hoa! 

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!

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