Be a MAN!

Yes, i am singing Mulan in my head right now!

this week was really fun, but really slow and actually....the end was hard. (sorry for lack of capitals and stuff...i can't use this dumb keyboard)

Our zone in the end had a really hard time, a lot of companionships are struggling. which makes my comp and i super sad. we are working super hard and praying super hard to help...we need your prayers too! I went on two exchanges this week. one with Elder Hamula (from NEW ZEALAND!!! THATS RIGHT CHASE!!!) he is brand new and it was so fun! we did hakka stuff!

and saw a huge miracle! the big miracle was this guy that we ran into on the street. he was smoking and so naturally i started talking with him, found out that he has a family and wants help. we talked, listened and testified. after about 15 or 20 min he agreed to be baptized and set a date with us and agreed to meet again. it was incredible. it was our first time ever seeing him. HUGE miracles. the Lord totally takes care of his servants.

The other exchange was with a champion missionary named elder ward. he is super awesome and we talked a ton about our potential and about who we wanted to be. we both decided on what it was...we wanted to be MEN. to be in control of ourselves in every aspect at all times and to just be who the Lord wants us to be. we talked forever about it and about his issues and thoughts. We had a great exchange! yet...with all these exchanges and missionaries and investigators that i am trying so hard to help...my sleeping has gone right down the drain. so not much sleep...but the miracles we see are so worth it. #icansleepwhenimdead :)

Oh yeah! THANKS AGAIN TO SISTER WILSON! I love getting those letters you sent and you have sent them almost every week! thank you so much! I know that your sons and family will be sooooo blessed because of your love for the servants of the Lord! Truly thank you so much!

we will be going on a temple trip next week so i am not super sure about when I will be emailing....hopefully I can get to it all still...if there is missing emails next week, don't worry, i will get them to you asap!

We are helping a young man prepare for his mission, so we went out a few days ago to play and teach football to them...today we are going to just go hang out and encourage them so I gotta get going soon but i love you all so much!

thank you for all your support!

invite today: bury ONE weapon of rebellion this week...that means change ONE thing about you that keeps you from attaining your true potential as a child of God. just one thing :)

love you all so much!!!

shine bright!!!!!!!

elder gish

oh and there is a pic of an empty baptismal font (look to blog) that is when we went to baptize jianwei and we realized that a member saw the full font and thought it was too full...(what the...) and so he unplugged it and forget to plug the thing back in the drain...so it was empty and we had to refill it super fast #coldwater

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Ge Sheng Long ZhangLao

葛勝龍長老

A Ton Happened This Week

alright, let me just tell you how flippin excited I am! So Lin Ping Huang (mario) got baptized last week, and now has the priesthood. #FoundTheTruth

So if I seem overly excited in the email it is because...I am ;) And a TON happened this week so I am going to try to squeeze it all in with what time i have!!

We switched apartments with the sister missionaries and I feel SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO bad....but also so good haha. Their old apartment is SWEEEETTTTT...and our old one....well....it was okay too I guess. :) So basically we got the really good end of a really unfair deal ;) haha

We also got a short term missionary to stay with us. (長老). He was super awesome...I miss that kid! However maybe now I can finally sleep! he is used to it being super hot and so we couldn't use the AC at night or he wouldn't be able to sleep....so basically for a whole week i was sweating all night and just couldn't sleep at all. AC IS A HUGE BLESSING haha. And on top of that, in the morning about twice I hopped in the shower and get PELTED in the face with hot water...#That'llWakeYouUp.

On Sunday we attended the English branch...I didn't like it...it was weird and it is going to be weird being home....haha.  But what WAS cool is that after that i got to use my ASL sign language skills to talk with a deaf family!!! The Mom and Dad are deaf but the twin daughters can hear. So we would speak to the kids and they could translate...it was so cute! I tried to use my own skills and realized that one semester at BYU-I of ASL does not make you a pro....#AnotherWakeUpCall.

I wanna ask for everyones prayers for three amazing people.

1)chen zhao hong 陳昭宏-

2) chen jian wei 陳建維

last it 3) Raymon, his wife is a member and they just had a baby boy. He teaches jeet kun do...yup...Bruce Lee status, so I might being going down there to take lessons this week ;)  I love him so much and want to help out there family. So please really pray for him!

Over all, this week was BUSY!!!!!!! We went on a ton of exchanges (Shannon here: exchanges = serving with other missionaries who are not his companion)...but i finally got to go to missionary work with Elder Noll (he is one transfer older than me which means we were in the MTC together!) We saw a TON of miracles! You know why? Becuase we prayed a ton and we asked the Lord to sanctify all our time and when we worked super hard afterwards we saw a TON of miracles!!! TOTALLY LOVE IT!!!!

We are staying busy up here! I hope you are staying busy wherever you are! 

invite....hmmmmm: just read something in Preach My Gospel.that book is flippin’ sweet!!!

I will email pics next week.

Shine Bright!!!

elder gish

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Ge Sheng Long ZhangLao

葛勝龍長老

Love Everyone Around You

Okay...this is wicked embarrassing but i totally did not do good at my time today!!

here is a quicky

first, the shift here is broken so forgive the lack of capitals.

we had interviews with president and he is so wise!!! he called me out and it was awesome! SUUUPPPPEEEERRR humbling and i love that.

I am super exhausted. elder baker (the new bestest comp ever) works me to death and it is flippin awesome! i love working that hard! we talk to everyone and it is awesome because most of them dont live in our area so we get to help out our zone a tone!!! I love it!

I now live in the same apt that i stayed in on my first night in on island....SUper sweet!

The book of mormon is true. period. read it.

the kid mario from donggang got baptized!!!! thank you for all your prayers!

We are super busy up here so i am really sorry for my lack of email time to write this huge email! i will do better next week but i love you all!

miracle: this week there was this dude on the road and when we drove by he started cussing at us and said he hated christians and was being incredibly rude...so what did i do...contact him DUH!!! (that is a bit of my dad in me :)) so i started talking to him and he was being super rude. so i apologized to him and gave him a mango that we had just got. well that turned everything around and he decided that he was down to meet with missionaries. he doesn't live in our area but it was a sweet miracle. charity is the best ever! love everyone around you, that is what i mean when i say shine bright!

so with that. SHINE BRIGHT!!!

i love you all so much!

elder gish

oh and we have a short time missionary serving with us and he is soooo funny. i love the new 16 year old short time missionaries that are scared out of their minds! love you all!

bye!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Ge Sheng Long ZhangLao

葛勝龍長老

Saddest Day Yet

 

Oh man today was a rough one!!! Dang. I received a call from President on Saturday asking me to come back up to Taizhong for a bit....well of course I complied however that means that I am about a 3 or 4 hour train ride from my other home!! 東港! I love that place so much, I can't even explain it. For those of you who know me I am TOTALLY not a crier...except for some movies...and some songs...haha but really I hate crying and I feel like I have gotten better at not crying on my mission...but dang, when I got that call...as soon as I hung up, the tears started comin and it didn't really stop till that next morning! It is amazing what happens when you POUR your heart and soul out every night for a place and a people...you really love them. I didn't want to leave. However, here I am back up in Taizhong writing this email home. Please keep DONGGANG in your prayers, it is like my home away from home.

But flippen hilarious!! The day before I left the small branch threw me a tiny party and it was so fun and one of the games we played was everyone had to say something to me for 3 to 5 min and then at the end I had to say something to all of them but the whole time we couldn't use the words "me, him, her, you, we, them, yall" (i think that is how it would translate over...) It was SOOOO funny. and since we ALL messed up we all had to eat a spoon full of wasabi!!! oh man it was nasty...oh gosh it was trrible! all of us felt like throwing up!

I love that group of people so much! We really grew so close!! So close that one of the members called the mission office and got mad and started complaining....uh oh...maybe we were TOO close hahaha. No but really i love them all so much! It gave me a big testimony of the power of prayer! So my invite now, set a goal and for one full week pray everyday sincerely for someone else...just watch your love for them grow OFF THE CHARTS! It is incredible! I pray for all of you, friends, family, people in and out of the mission! I love you all!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!!....I love America.

I want to be a champion, kinda like Nephi and Lehi in the 3rd book or Nephi. They had people to look up to like Ammon and Alma...do you know how insignificant they must have felt....but still, look at what they accomplished! I know that we all have people that we look up to, but don't look down on yourself! You are a son or daughter of God and have all the power that his child should have! So go out and be great, go and be a champion!

The girl Caroline that just got baptized might go serve a short term mission in the next week or two...AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #TreeOfLife

Time flys you cannot they go to fast.-----think about that one #PapaJim

But really, where did the time go! wasn't I just in the MTC totally lost? How do I only have 4 months left...that seems like nothing.....what am I gonna do!

I really appreciate everyones love and support!! thank you so much! It would be nice to get letters and hear about your amazing lives (cough cough family!!!! cough cough I didn't hear that BRENNEN got his call till today!?!?!?!?!?!!?!? Thats you Uncle Merle ;) jk.,.....but really :) )

Shine bright!!!

I love you all! have an amazing week!!

Elder Gish

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Ge Sheng Long ZhangLao

葛勝龍長老

This week...pretty serendipitous actually

I am typing this from my super good friends I phone...forgive any mistakes haha. Everyone thank Ryan Chen for letting me use his phone!! The Internet cafe here...well it stinks. Not just stink of smoke and pee smell....it stinks as in totally lame haha. 

Well on to happier subjects!! This week was super wicked fun! Okay...more like a roller coaster, a roller coaster of emotion and success and....everything!

First off look at the picture of the guy cutting hair!! It is super crazy!! His name is zhong and he is crazy good at cutting hair. Usually hair cuts here are like 100$ in new Taiwan dollar which is like 3 dollars American. Well this guy is like 1000$ new Taiwan which is 30$ American. It is crazy!! That is incredibly expensive here. But he gives it to missionaries for free cause he loves us :):) awesome member! :). He uses 5 scissors at the same time in one hand to cut our hair!!! Super dope. He is super fun and a really cool guy. I got a super cool haircut....sorta. Curly hair is a little harder to cut super cool. (Mom Comment here: There wasn’t a picture attached of this, but will ask for one next week.)

We had a baptism this week!!! It was super awesome and totally a miracle!!! Her name is Caroline and she is awesome!! I got her off of face book, so everybody use those awesome tools god has given us!!!! :):) Her testimony of the power of the atonement is awesome and she is going to be an awesome member!! 

This week was a little slow...it is hard sometimes to see the results of all the crazy hard work that you put into an area....especially with crazy people in your branch....that guy that started the fight last week...yeah he came back haha. Frustration brings blessings?? ;) haha. Hopefully.

I don't have a lot of time this right now, gotta go! Love you all!!! Shine bright!!! 

Don't think I forgot an invite ;) this week I want everyone to start a computing with me:):)mwahahahaha I am reading the Book of Mormon in Chinese again and I want to read it in two weeks! It's time to race :):):) keep me updated where you are!

Love you all so much!!

-

Ge Sheng Long ZhangLao

葛勝龍長老

 

Some kind of skin irritation that Elder Gish has contracted.

Zone Conference

Its all about the hair.

This week was...well it was a Roller Coaster, and you know how much I LOVE roller coasters ;).

We have had some of the most DISSAPOINTING moments so far, some of the HAPPIEST moments so far and BY FAR THE FUNNIEST!! I am excited to tell you about this adventure!

So we were biking down the long lonely roads of 東港 when we both have a feeling that we need to go down this one road...so of course we follow the spirit and do it. Well...this road is CRAZY! It honestly looks like a zombie town, broken down shacks everywhere and it is like a forest and glass every where and....oh man...it was sketch. But anyways we need to see what road we are on to make sure we don't get lost, so I turn into this ally and look at a sign while my comp turns in with me and keeps going forward to see if anyone lives in these shacks...well someone...or something does haha. We hear this..."Grrrr RUFF RUFF!!!!" Then one big dog walks out from the left side, another from the right. We start backing up slowly and before we know it 10 dogs have walked out from these shacks into the ally and were growling and barking! All the Sudden I hear "GET OUT OF HERE!" And My comp is BOOKIN it towards me with 10 dogs at his heals yapping and barking! I flip around faster than a herding cow in a tornado (like that metaphor? ;) thank you chinese....) and start a B-Line straight for the exit! Both of us are going SUPER fast and these dogs are bitting at our heal in ZOMBIE TOWN! Oh man it was super sketch, but it was also SUPER fun hahaha. I really love those experiences! Especially when you and your cmop just bust up laughing when you get onto the main street and start having a hard time breathing cause you are laughing at each other so hard and at the same time trying to catch your breath from bookin it out of death, zombie ally! #Psalms:23:4

We are wroking CRAZY hard down here and for some reason not seeing a ton of results so far. That is the low of this week. It was the worst I have done (numbers wise) my whole mission, but it was one of the hardest working weeks of my mission so far too...frustrating! haha. But like I said, that just means BLESSINGS!

Leon, one of my favorite people EVER, just left to go do his missionary service! He is a TOTALY BALLER! I hope he has a good time and stays safe!

I saw the most christ-like thing I have ever seen this week...it literally almost brought me to tears. We were in Church and there is this man...no names will be named but for the story lets call this man Lee and the other Zhong. So Lee is CRAZY I don't know what his deal is, but he comes to church with the intent to argue and start fights and it is SO HARD to help people like church and feel the spirit when he is there. Well last sunday was the worst we had seen it. He was screaming and even yelled at me super hard core and told these ladies to shut up...oh man my blood was BOILING! But as a servant and representative of Jesus Christ what do you do?....So this was in the the second hour (gospel principles) and we were just siting there awkwardly trying to get through a lesson. At the end he stands up and walks to the door, blockin it and yells at everyone and tries to call them to repentance. My awesome companion tried to escort him out nicely but it wasn't working. Then Zhong (A super strong awesome BOSS of a man) went to walk by and not say anything then Lee pushed him! Zhong is a super man and so he without saying a word turned and walked up to Lee and got their faces REAL close...oh man I thought stuff was gonna go down so I JUMPED up and got in between them. The Lee starts screaming at Zhong and Zhong really calmly and with a soft voice responds. Lee rips off his bag and puts it down and gets in fighting mode....I am FREAKING out and so is everyone in that room. Then it happens. Zhong LUNGES forward super fast and wraps up Lee in a really tight close hug....he tells him really softly that he is sorry for whatever happened (since nothing happened at all). And just holds him there for about 2 min. Then they separate and Lee shakes Zhongs hand and without saying a word they both walk out. It was so intense and so crazy. I am super sad to say if it was me. Lee would FOR SURE be on the ground. He was being so rude and so awful for no reason and it was insane....but Zhong really represented his savior Jesus Christ and did what was right. It blew me away. That is what I want to be like.

So this week, I invite everyone to find someone that maybe they don't like so much...and do something Christlike for them, you will be blown away at what it will do.

I love you all!

Shine Bright!

Pictures are of Our Zone

Back To the FUTURE!

The craziest thing happened this last week! This old guy ZOOMED up in this car...I think it called a Delorian? Something like that. There was FIRE on the back tires and he called himself doc and then......

Okay....so that didn't actually happen....but I wish it did...

Haha but really this week was pretty fun! I went on a SUPER long exchange and got to go back to XiaoGang/QianZhen! My first area! It was SO FUN! Oh my gosh! The best part was I got to stay for English class! So many people still remembered me! It actually really hit me to see how after ALL THIS TIME they still remembered me by name. As missionaries we represent Jesus Christ and I am so happy that I was able to represent him in such a way that it left such a good impact on people! Just one of the sweet blessings of being a missionary :).

On the Exchange I got to go out with Elder Gummow, I have been waiting for this moment for SO LONG! He is so good and so fun and I have always wanted a chance to be his companion, but exchanges is good too I guess :) We did WORK down in his area. It is so funny seeing the difference. In DongGang there aren't many people so sometimes it is hard to see the fruits of your labor as you go out and talk to everyone! But in QianZhen and XiaoGang it is WAY DIFFERENT! We came home one day with about 20 numbers or so and we didn't even have that much time on the street! It is SO OBVIOUS that the Lord is preparing people to hear his wonderful gospel! So if you have it....go share it! If you don't have it yet...then don't fret, you are being prepared ;) haha.

Last Monday I went out SUPER early to go ice skating and it was a LOT of fun! People hear have never seen snow and hardly EVER see ice. So other than the 8 white missionaries there, basically everyone else was falling ALL OVER THE PLACE! It was freaking hilarious and so much fun! It wasn't really their fault though...that ice was TERRIBLE! Super Bumby and LOTS of water! But it is the experience right? How often do you get to go ice skating in a tropical island? :) #JustAnotherDayInParadise#MissingMyTrainee#ElderRobertsIsABoss

Speaking of tropical islands...why does it rain so much on them in the summer??? That doesn't make sense! It rained so much this week! We were totally soaked ever single day! It was kinda nice though...it feels like we are swimming on bikes! Cool feeling! It also makes people more willing to talk to us when they see the dedication we have to sharing the gospel! Why do you think we come out and share this and work so hard? It isn't a belief system or just any other religion....this is truth and it will effect our eternity...it is REAL!

We have an investigator who wants to be baptized this Saturday! Please pray for him! His name is Lin Ping Huang (leen ping hwang). He reminds me of Mario Rodrigeuze(Spelling? Sorry bro haha). So naturally I love the kid! He is amazing and a miracle so please keep him in your prayers!

I have set some goals an made plans for my future and my role in this work! Do you have goals and plans? If not set them and go get it done! This work is all about progression so start moving forward!

I love you all! Shine Bright!!

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Ge Sheng Long ZhangLao

葛勝龍長老