Hey everyone!
Okay first off...HOLY MOLY!! I AM SO BLESSED! THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT! I feel so lucky to be blessed with such great friends and family!
Okay so I want to start off by saying thank you so much for the emails and the letters! Just incase some people haven't heard of the DearElder site PLEASE check it out! It is amazing! I only have 30 min. to email and that really isn't enough time at all! So I can't really read and write :( (SORRY UNCLE TIM!) I would really like it if maybe I could get a copy of any emails through DearElder. DearElder is free delivery to the MTC so it is SO worth it and I can read it anytime and I can prepare responses before I email OR just write back!
Alright so on to the good stuff :)
Guess who I met today?! ELDER PUCKETT!!! [Shannon M. Gish here: Elder Reed Puckett is the son of Harvey’s best friend, Richard Puckett, who he met – guess where – in the MTC before Richard and Harvey both served in British Columbia nearly (ahem) 30 years ago] He was so cool! What a stud, he is going to be a WONDERFUL missionary!! I hope that we will get to see each other more often.
Oh and for my family....I won't be able to call on Christmas, I am not sure if it is an MTC wide thing or just my branch but we aren't allowed to call on Christmas so I will just call when I depart around the 22nd of January, I will let you know when that gets closer. I also got a letter from my mission president and my estimated return date is actually December 2nd! Thats a whole extra month! I hope it comes through! How awesome would that be to get 25 months!?
So here is a funny story....mom might not want to read on....I know I am gonna get a letter about this one haha. So all the Taiwan elders have to be tested for parasites....Do you know how they do that test? We each had about 3 hours or so to collect....stool..... We had to collect it and send it in tiny little test tubes....yeah....It gave us all a good laugh so it's alright! I better move on before Mom decides to not read on and not post this one up! :)
So just incase anyone is curious about Mao Jiemei , my wonderful companion and I were able to commit her to baptism on the 15th! WOOO!!!!! She even gave us a nickname to call her. So we call her Apple cause that is what her first name in Chinese means in english....but low and behold we discovered the next day that she was our teacher and all our investigators will just be our teachers....the cool thing though is that the spirit still worked through us, I still was able to care about her like a true investigator and everything in the meeting was so real! Even the chinese....which....we struggled through each lesson. What is amazing though is that even if we couldn't talk, we could COMMUNICATE with her. How amazing is the Holy Ghost? SO AMAZING!! But we got two new investigators since we were able to commit our last one. So please pray for them too! Their names are Wei and Dai. One is a young man who has no religious background but is interested in aquiring knowledge and the other is a single mom who has member friends who wants to become happier so chose to contact us. I AM SO EXCITED TO TEACH! (The first is Wei and then Dai). I love the chinese language, it is so fun and I am getting a grasp on it so well! Ofcourse...that is NOT my doing, there is no way I could do this, any of this, without the Lords help. I have tripped and fallen over so many times and every time he just picks me and and walks me along, holding my right hand (Isiaha 41:13).
So the MTC is still fun! But my room is starting to have that....guy smell....one day it literally smelled like a locker-room. I almost liked it for about 2 seconds then I wanted everyone to shower and do their laundry! haha. I love our zone too, all the other elders call me superman cause of my P-day shirt. It is pretty fun, but of course we are only playful when it is appropriate. :). I am also playing volley ball with this HUGE Tongan elder named elder Lotulelie. He is SO much fun, not to mention a killer in volleyball. I really enjoy playing with him. The food here is starting to get a little old....but hey its free and It keeps me going :).
So ready for some AMAZING news? Elder Holland is coming to see us for Thanksgiving! No one else knows this yet but one of the sisters in my district is his niece so she knows! We are going to get front row seats to seeing him! I am so excited to hear an apostle of Jesus Christ in person! We have been able to see a lot of AMAZING talks like Character of Christ by Elder Bednar and the story of John Tanner in "Treasure in Heaven," by i'm not sure. But look up the John Tanner video, it is so delicious to the soul (Alma 32 :)).
I really love it here, I love the Spirit and I love the knowledge I am acquiring about my Savior. I have never been so close to Him and I never want to move any further away. I know that all I have and all I can do is because of Him. I have been blessed with the best of friends and the most amazing family! I thank Him for those bountious blessings!
P.S. sorry if the english is starting to go away....I am trying to talking in only Zhongwen (chinese) and so I am trying to switch completely over. But what stinks about that is now I can't speak english and...well I still can't speak chinese haha so basically I am stuck with a lot of "um's" and hand signs :)
I am so grateful for everyone and all of your support. Thank you so much!
30minutes really isn't enough time...
I still can't figure out how to attach pictures! I am really sorry but I will keep trying! Patience is a virtue right? :)
Ge Zhang Lao ( Elder Gish)
For addresses and other information about Elder Sam Gish visit: http://eldersamgish.blogspot.com/
Photo credit here
