你們都看得懂嗎?

 

It's okay...I can't read Chinese either! ;)...Too bad I am in TAIWAN!!! 台灣!!!!! I am loving it more and more out here! Yes things do get harder and harder but that is what makes you love every second of the work! We literally can not waste a single second! This week has been a little more crazy so I have a lot to share! :) I hope I can all get it out in time! :)

I'll start out first with...SUMMER VACATION!! You know what that means? More time to write your favorite missionaries! I don't want to throw anyone under the bus for not writing but I would love to hear from you all **cough...CHASE...cough cough** :) haha. Just kidding. But really, Summer vacation is here which means all my favorite investigators go back home far away and Taiwan gets SUPER hot haha. I thought it was hot before...well wait till the day after a mini Typhoon when its about a BILLION DEGREES OUTSIDE!!! Haha.

So it is going to be a really fun next 6 weeks. I am still down in good old XiaoGang! I have been here forever! I am loving it! I killed off good old Elder Baxter.  Elder Pudding (as the Taiwanese like to call him). I am going to miss that Elder. But life goes on and ELDER FURMER COMES IN! YEAH! Can you guess where he is from! You get one guess...Kentucky? No....UTAH! :) haha. He is super awesome! His Chinese is also really good which is going to be great! I am really excited to work with him! I will let you know all the miracles that we see together! :) So today is a crazy day! Not only does Elder Baxter leave me but Gary also takes off! UGH! He is going to Intern up in Taibei! That stinker! I sure will miss those two.

So some happy news! Elder Baxter and I were able to see some cool miracles in this last week because of our dedication even in the depths of Trunkiness haha. We found two amazing families! One of which used to attend the temple regularly and then because of Ward relations left the church! But they invited us in and we are now working to bring them back and remind them of the happiness that they used to experience! Another is this dad that used to work SUPER hard to make money but because he never saw his kids he decided to quit and just take care of his children. I can see his sincere love for his family and his desire to do what is right is incredible! We are excited to be able to serve and help this family find the happiness in a family that only this gospel can bring! The truth of Eternal Families is the one truth that I treasure more than anything! The fact that our Savior suffered for us so that I could be with my amazing brothres (Chase, Gage, Dane...Ryker? :)) And with my INCREDIBLY AMAZING FANTASTIC PARENTS (Wonderwoman and SuperMan :)) forever is the very best ever!!

So I was pondering some things lately about missions. I had a close friend talk to me recently about debating going on a mission or not (uh-oh...Elder Gish..not again...no listen!!! :)). I was thinking about it and it was brought up that this person might reject their mission call.....WHAT!?!? REJECT A MISSION CALL!?!?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! For those of you who don't know this is how it works. We freely submit our name and one of the 12 apostles will take our name and prayer over us SPECIFICALLY! THEN after sincere prayer by the Lord and his servant (one of the 12 APOSTLES) we are sent to a place where the Lord has prepared people for us specifically (YES THIS IS TRUE!). How can you turn that down? No matter what is waiting for you on the other, no amount of money would keep me from serving this mission! NOTHING could EVER STOP ME from serving my Lord and my God. Not after all that he has done for me. And then to turn down a mission call is just to tell the Lord that you know better. I trust in my Lord as should everyone. I will tell you what...there will be times when you just have to take that next step totally blind or where you just have to jump. But as his servant I am telling you...just jump. Trust him. He WILL NOT LET YOU FALL.You may even feel like you are falling for a second. But then you land. On your feet, and if you start to stumble our savior puts his arm out to steady us. It is kind of like that demonstration I love where you blind fold someone and have them stand on a plank and lift them about two feet of the ground but they feel like they are SUPER HIGH. Sometimes we just have to jump :). Now trust me when I say....jump! This is all true. I know it is true and I can not deny it. I know it enough to leave behind everything else that I loved and to come out to Taiwan to share it with every person, every stranger that I see!

Really....I have to get this time thing worked out..this is a struggle haha. YOU ARE ALL AMAZING!!!

I love you all so very much! ADD OIL! (Thats what we say in chinese ;)) haha 

Ge Sheng Long ZhangLao

葛勝龍長老

Aloha!!..Wait....I'm not in Hawaii...:)

 

大家好!!!我超級想念你們!!! This week has been super crazy! Today is Elder Baxter's LAST preparation day! How crazy is that! It really is driving me wild haha. I keep feeling like I will be going home next week too! It really isn't good! This week has been FILLED with prayers to help keep me focused on the work and to help me serve as the best servant/warrior for God that I can! And I will tell you what....it brought miracles! :) We got a bunch of investigators to come to church! It was so great! And we had about a 80% Recent Convert attendance! Which may sound like...Elder Gish...you aren't at 100% what the heck are you doing!?!? But when the mission average is closer to 40%...well yeah. I am lucky to have such a wonderful companion that can love people so well and can draw people back to church simply because they can feel his love!

So I want to take a little time out of todays email ( So I might have to finish up next week haha) to write about one of the most important people in my life, the man I look up to the very very most!...SUPERMAN!!! YES! I AM TALKING ABOUT MY DAD! HARVEY GISH! For those of you that know him, you really do know that he IS Superman. Yes he fly's he jumps buildings for morning work outs and he often races bullets!  As for the Ice breath...thats only after gum...and the laser vision...you should see those eyes after you back the car into a tree....laser vision is right haha. He truly is my hero! I have looked up to him my whole life and I am so sure that it will never stop. He has taught me more just by his example (let alone the million and 5 lectures he has given me :)) than I could ever learn from the studying of anything else! I truly love my Dad more than anything! I will actually often read the letters he sends me to keep me going out here. I am always able to laugh and smile whenever I want because all I have to do is think about our countless memories together. Memories I will always always treasure. From workout/messages to sitting on the bed watching Psych to going out and tossing a lacrosse ball. From him beating my ENTIRE 7th grade lacrosse team running backwards!!! To carrying incredibly large bags up a ladder onto a roof with no hands (impressive I know). To say the least, he is the most INCREDIBLE man and DAD on the planet and I love him so much! I am so grateful for the amazing blessing I have of being his Eldest Son! I LOVE YOU DAD! HAPPY FATHERS DAY! 你真的是我的英雄. 我希望你知道我非常的感謝你的榜樣.我非常的愛你!!!加油!!

So anyways!! I have a SWEET STORY TO TELL YOU ALL!....But it will have to wait till next week...hahah just kidding!

So in Taiwan there is one day every year where at Noon you can stand an egg straight up and it wont fall over!...It is true!! It was so cool! I am trying to get pics as I type but I don't think they will be here this week :( It was super fun to do though. 

This shortened time is really killing me...I am going to say...just be obediant and good! Some missionaries that misuse the comp make it harder on the rest of the mission...:(

Remember who you are are, why you are here on the earth, whats important and that your Heavenly Father Loves you! SHINE BRIGHT!!

-

Ge ZhangLao

葛長老

P.S. Pics are from Elder Baxters birthday last week! Like the glasses? The other Elder is Elder Stark when he was killing my box...which is now gone haha.

中文有沒有進步?

 

I hope that the computer there doesn't get confused when I throw in a TON of Chinese! I was debating just writing in all Chinese...;) haha. Just kidding. But I do have to say, it is amazing what we can do with the Lord on our side is it not?! If the Lord could help Joseph Smith translate old Egyptian and Hebrew scripture into English, and if the Lord could help Nephi learn how to build a boat from scratch that could sail all the way across the ocean...then he can FOR SURE help me to learn Chinese! :) I have big goals for myself when it comes to my Chinese, and I'll tell you what..."step by step i'll climb the steepest mountain, step by step I'll cross the raging sea." Sometimes we all have those moments, or even days or weeks where we feel as though we are truly climbing the steepest mountains or crossing a raging sea! "But there is nothing I can't do, doing it with you [the Lord]." (For anyone wondering these quotes are from those old Book of Mormon videos! My mom sent me the music....such good memories! :)) I am so grateful for the Lord and his Atonement. The Saviors atonement reaches so much further than we can possibly comprehend, it covers everything we have ever needed and will even need, it is littlerally everything to us and I am so grateful for that amazing gift!

So on to some good stories! :) First off, from last week! last week we had a party! It was so fun, Gary brought a friend. He is so good! He has also helped a lot of our investigators! I love seeing him helping so many people and progressing so much in the gospel. And then, of course...WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!!! It was amazing! That is all I can really remember from last week :( haha.

But this week was really cool as well! One thing I want to share real quick is a Scripture...Alma 6:6, when I read this all I could think about was how we are all missionaries, every member is a missionary and we all have our part. We should ALL be praying and fasting for opportunities to share the gospel! Some brothers and sisters really have no idea about their eternal father and about who they really are! It is such incredible knowledge that all need to hear!  I want to issue a small challange for everyone to have these opportunities throughout the next week! These is nothing better than this gospel, nothing more important, nothing more special. I love it with all my heart and I want to share it with EVERYONE I see!

So this week we also went to go play basketball, and I got so humbled....haha. I was watching all these short guys trying to shoot the basketball and missing and I thought....oh man I am going to tear these people apart! It was so funny...but then we started playing...uhoh....I was just a teenytiny bit better than them..I was so humbled...I STUNK at Bball haha...but what else is knew....they need to give me a lacrosse stick...then we will see ;) haha. Oh man I miss lacrosse so much!

Haha gosh dang, it is getting harder and harder to type in only english...ahhhh...well atleast it is helping me to accomplish my goals! I have some seriously awesome goals! :) haha

Well I love you all We have to go set up for Elder Baxters Suprise Birthday!!! LOVE YOU 

,-

.Ge ZhangLao

葛長老

Another Week, another baptism!

WOW TODAY WILL HAVE TO BE REALLY SHORT!!!!! I AM SUPER SORRY! I lost track of time super bad when doing all the other things I needed to do!

Well let me get out what I think you will want to hear! :)

YES WE HAD ANOTHER BAPTISM! His name is Y-Q-M. It has no meaning in Chinese but it seems to sound a lot like YU-Gi-OH haha so maybe there is something there? I don't know :) Well he is a great young man with a huge desire to spread the gospel!

I think that my favorite thing about this week was this awsome party that we had! We had a bunch of investigators there and it was a huge blast!

Oh wow I really have no time. I am really really sorry....

I love you all so much.

I want to leave with a testimony of the Savior. I know this is true, I know he lives. He can and WILL help us to do all things that we need to do. WE can depend on him!

I love you all!

-

Ge ZhangLao

葛長老