{Shannon here: This post includes Sam’s regular weekly email letter plus his final talk to the missionarie – his Reflection.}
Weekly Email
Any starwars fans? yeah....you will know what that title means!....It means I am takin out the Sith aka Satan with my super crazy strong force power aka the Priesthood....its a good thing I have so many midochlorians aka faith! (spelling)? haha
Alright well lets get down to business for this week! Oh actually, sorry I didn't email last week! Like I said these last few weeks will be super busy! I don't know if I will be emailing next week or not (since I will see everyone next week anyways), but if I have time I will shoot over a little email :)
Well last week I went up to an amusment park with Ali and zhong and Ryan!! Oh man it was sooooo flippin fun! I got a picture or two...a lot was closed though cause most things are closed on Monday and our Pday is on Monday...bummer haha.
This week is my last week so I taught my last English class last week (this week is our party). That was pretty sad!
Okay my thoughts are so scattared right now, I'm super sorry. I still have a lot to take care of. I'll shoot out a little list!
A dog bit my bum as I ran by him in the morning...hurt super bad!!
We found some sweeeeeet New investigators and we are going to be baptizing this week and next week and the week after! As my boy Michael Jackson likes to say....dont stop till you get enough!!
I cried for the first time in quite awhile at my last mission leadership council. It was super Sad but also super cool how much I am still able to learn. That is one of the best things about the gospel, no matter how much you know you can always keep learning and progressing. I'm not saying that I know a lot but after two years of being totally involved in nothing but the gospel I still learn new things every day!
I'll send over my reflection in a sec.
I have a lot more to say but I lost my planner so I Cant remember anything....oh man I'm so dead back in America when I dont have a planner.....uh oh.
I'll see if I can get an email off next week maybe.... Love you all!!
This week I want to invite everyone to prepare a testimony to share with me :):) haha. Love ya!!
Elder Gish
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Ge Sheng Long ZhangLao
葛勝龍長老
REFLECTION by Elder Samuel Gish
Taiwan Taichung Mission
11/07/2012 ~ 11/12/2014
I am truly humbled to be at the point in my mission where I am expected to share some of the insight that I have gained over these last two years. I know that this may be my last chance to no stand before a group of missionaries like this and speak, so I hope that something I say will affect someone here today.
What We Have Become
We can become like Christ. Being selfish or disobedient are attributes inconsistent with the requirements of God and will not magically go away by acquiring knowledge or even accepting higher callings. The only thing that changes our state or words, work or thoughts is the atonement of Jesus Christ coupled by the conscience effort and sincere desire to change and become a true disciple of Christ.
What matters is not what we’ve done but who we become... But I promise you that when you become something you will do what is required... you will do what is best. In the parable of the talents Jesus does not tell the good servant that he did slothful he referred to them by their state of being good and faithful servant or slothful servant. I will never forget my first interview with President. He told me of a story about Arabian horses. They are trained with blinders on so that they don't look at other horses... This is how champions are bread. You put your blinders on focuses on your purpose and go go go. You be obedient because you want to be you contact everyone because you want to you wake up on time because you want to you hit the standards because you want to not because of who your companion is or because of the district or zone leaders. We aren't two faced servants of God.
Repent
Now of course we are going to make mistakes, sometimes do wicked, slothful prideful and even disobedient things. The things we have done cannot be changed, yet who we have become and who we have power to help can always change through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith in regards to giving Martin Harris the 116 pages made a mistake that he could not fix. The Lord was angry and lessons were learned. I am also a living testimony of the changing and enabling power of Jesus Christ and I know that he lives and is all of our savior. I have made mistakes even on my mission that can be taken back, but just as Joseph Smith after repenting was, we can still come off conquer and not be afraid for we are still chosen. We are servants of the Lord Jesus Christ our master and we cannot be afraid and we cannot fail him. No mistake is too big, if we repent we can still be chosen and be the means of working great miracles among all the children of men, including companions ward member’s investigators and all others.
The father desires to give us all he has. Are we willing to put in the effort to deserve the blessings and the miracles? We can qualify by conversion and hard work. The time and effort we put into anything is how much we get out. We will get exactly what it is we want. So what do we want? The reason I play lacrosse at the level that I do now is because I would never cut practice time short, I would never waste that precious time, and in fact I would after to shoot or do other practice. So I ask, so we take that extra two minutes before personal study to be on our knees or in the scriptures? During our down time what is it we think about or talk about?
If we are losing our disposition to do evil then we are progressing toward our heavenly goal. I will never forget early in my mission the first time I felt that the spirit had been offended by my actions as a missionary, and the overwhelming desire I had to change and to get the spirit back as soon as possible! I will now always do everything within my power to always have the spirit with me.
What We Can Do Now
I know of two sure fire ways to keep the spirit with you at all times. 1 realize that your purpose is paramount and be resilient in your purpose. 2 be in the book of Mormon and preach my gospel each and every day.
When you are on the street contacting be 100% resilient in your purpose. Don’t forget who you are, why you are here, and what you are doing! One of my role models…you may know him as Obi Wan Kenobi once said, “Your eyes can play tricks on you, don’t trust them.” When we are out on the street don’t listen to your eyes saying don’t talk to him or her and they won’t accept me. Use the force, listen to the spirit and go talk to them! You could save someone’s soul! People all around us are in despite need for what we have. They are weak and calling out, we MUST be ready and willing.
The way we stay ready is be being daily in the Book of Mormon and the Preach my Gospel. I have a small story I want to share about another man I love. I call him Papa Jim. My Grandfather was not a ‘religious man’ in fact I might go as far as to say he denied to existence of a God. However after the invite from a Prophet to read the Book of Mormon and because of my ever so brave Mother’s invite he started to read the Book. He did not live much longer past that but by the end of his life he was so weak from the chemotherapy that he could not gather the strength to life the Book of Mormon, so what did he do? He would set his hand on it for strength to make it through his trials. He realized the power of that book as have I.
My last story before I close is one very personal to me. When I was in 東港 I went through a really rough time in regards to my personal testimony. I decided that I was going to do what every other investigator does and that is take the lessons. Over the next few weeks I studied and taught myself the lessons in Preach my Gospel. I would ask questions and then answer them using doctrine and the scriptures provided in Preach My Gospel. I then followed the commitments given at the end of each section. I stand here now and tell you with all of my heart that I KNOW this church is true and that that book was inspired of God. Please read it daily.
Close
In closing I would like to leave my testimony that I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and all that accept him will enter into his rest and receive eternal life. In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
