Good old Taiwan!

This week was again...of course....SO MUCH FUN! If you can see from some of the pics...we had one of our RC's [Shannon here: Recent Converts] G. go to the southern most tip of Taiwan (a big tourist spot) and but us some fun little things haha. He is so awesome! I love the amazing friendships we make out here!

So I think the biggest thing this week is how sick Elder B. is! That poor guy! He got these sores all over him and they itch and burn a little...it even spread into his mouth....ahhh...it is literally all over! It doesn't seem to be communicable but that doesn't keep me from trying to stay a safe distance. He is still such a hard worker and it is so good to see an Elder with such faith! Of course our work this week has been affected by it a little which was tough. But maybe this is just that little drop before the HUGE pick up. It is really funny walking around with Elder B. while he wears his mask. Lots of Taiwanese will wear masks all the time because of the bad air! Pretty much NO missionaries will wear them, but because of his sickness and the sores he wants to be able to talk to people and not have them be grossed out so he wears the Taiwan masks! So lots of people actually like it because it looks like we are trying hard to be the same as them.

I want to let my best friend Gary write about himself for a second. This is him, "Hello, this is Gary. I am from Taiwan"

That is all he wanted to say, he is scared about his english. It is actually pretty good though.

SO this week ne? :) One thing that is insane is the CRAZY RAIN!!! It will just out of nowhere start POURING absolutely pouring! IT was super crazy! Then it will just stop and then 5 min later start again! So needless to say we have taught a few lessons soaking wet this week haha.

I am sorry if my thoughts seem a little scattered this week. I have not gotten a ton of sleep and it has been hard trying to help Elder B. He is such a trooper.

So as a little funny story...I have apparently found my master here in Taiwan. There is this old man named Mr W. We were in a lesson and he told me this..."I pick you, will you be my apprentice?" Of course it was all in chinese...but immediately my mind jumped to how I am going to become a ninja/ kungfu master!...but no...he is just wants to teach me all his crazy thoughts so that I can start a "religion revolution”. oh gosh. He is so funny, and I gotta say, I was a little sad when I realized that I was not going to be learning to be ninja...haha

Okay ready to hear a miracle? YEAH! So we have this amazing RC named J. It is hard to get him to church though because his mom doesn't want to take him. BUT recently we have been praying for him and trying to teach the family and then out of nowhere...BOOM! The Grandpa tells us that he wants to go to church and get baptized because he believes it will bring his family happiness! Well of course we said...well I believe so too haha. So it was amazing! The Lord is so good to us!

I am sorry this letter is a little shorter, but I had to help Elder B. get to Taibei this morning so I am short on time! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!
I WANT YOU ALL TO KNOW THIS IS ALL TRUE!!!!!!!

Ge ZhangLao

葛長老

Hello my Friends!

So I have started to start almost all of my sentances as "hello my friend!" haha. Some people here will understand and they LOVE IT! I have had a recent convert that I love start saying to to me all the time. It is so funny! I love hearing people here speak english to me! Although I am sure it is the same way when I speak chinese to them haha. And the jokes in chinese are HILARIOUS...but only in chinese. For example. When I walk up to a group of younger people they will ALWAYS say..."oh ni hen shuai" which means you are so handsome (this is not me being prideful this is me showing you how nice people are here haha) and then I will respond and say "no wo jiu shi xishuai de shuai." Which means no, I am a cricket. Then they all crack up and say "ohhhhh nide zhongwen jiangde hen hao!" Which is your chinese is so good! So here it is...ready?

"hey"

"wow you are handsome"

"no im a cricket!"

"oh man you are so funny and your english is so good!"

hahah...yeah...sometimes translating doesn't work haha. 

So this week I have started to focus a lot on reading characters. I figured that the WRITING of the language will always be the most accurate and if I can read perfectly then I will be able to speak even better. So....WATCH OUT CHARACTERS! HERE I COME!!!

Oh my Gosh so here is going to be the BIG update because last week was short! (This week will be fast and maybe short but PACKED with info okay?) It is because I got to skype my AMAZING family so time was shortened today!...it was so worth it! They all look so amazing! PLUS ITS MOTHERS DAY! HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!!!!!!!

So this week Elder Baxter and I got stuck in an elevator for quite so time....why you might ask? Well I was thinking....how strong am I? So I slipped my fingers into the door and pulled it open...yes while it was moving! Dangerous...not really....dumb?...YES! haha I was so embarrassed having to call the RC we just visited and telling him what happened then asking him to help haha. Oh gosh... [Shannon here: I am guessing RC is “recent convert”…? And, um, as for the elevator thing – not sure what to do with that.]

OH (these might all start with OH since for me it is like I am remembering haha) so we have this RC and we FINALLY met his mom! She was really great EXCEPT....suppppperrrr creepy. She kept asking to see my abs and trying to flirt BIG TIME. Then as we left she grabbed my hand and tried rubbing it and saying "please come back anytime"....well obviously that was the GET OUT OF THERE cue haha so we took off! But then Elder Baxter made the mistake of turning around...yeah...SHE JUMPED HIM! She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a HUGE hug and just squuezed haha he was stuck in there like a stick. I could not stop laughing the WHOLE ride back :)

This week was actually fairly boring and rough. We got dropped (what else is new) and we did a LOT of finding. Everything seemed to be going on this down hill and I was so confused because I felt like we were doing everything so right. But we continued to have faith and work hard....well let me tell you....IT WAS ALL WORTH IT! The lord blesses you the most when you are at your lowest and you continue to have faith! As I was contacting I ran into 3 amazingly prepared people! Do you know how far I had to move to find all three of those? About 10 feet! They were all so close to each other and I contacted them one right after the other! the Lord picked our companionship up so much and helped us to keep moving forward in faith! It was an amazing blessing and we are so exited to move forward in the work!

I also didn't move this move call which means I will probably be here for another 12 weeks are more! I am excited to really establish the church here! I feel very blessed to be able to spend so much time in xiao gang with so many amazing people and amazing leaders!

For those of you that are wondering...I am getting more and more used to the food and the chinese is coming easier and easier. I heard that this usually happens around this time and then all the sudden it gets really hard again, so I am nervous but ready to hit the ground running! Oh and mom...I am loving vegetables more and more. So you don't have to be worried ;)

Todays Pday has nothing big planned but I will try to get some pics today and make it great so that NEXT week we can have an even better longer email! Sorry these last two weeks have not been AS good!

So I think I will leave a short testimony in Chinese. This should provide some good entertainment to wrap this all up!

我是耶穌基督的代表. 我愛他. 我真的知道這個事工都是真實的. 由於我們的救主我們都能夠在此與神永遠的住再一起. 我愛你們.你一直可以信賴天父. 加油.

發光吧!

[Shannon here: This is what Google Translate came up with: “I am the representative of Jesus Christ, I love him and I really know that this ministry is true because of our Savior, we are able to live with God forever together love you have been trustworthy all days. The Father is refueling. Light-emitting!]

-

Ge ZhangLao

葛長老

This IS real! :)

 

I want to start off with something today that might seem kind of small but made a huge diffrence for me and has really touched me. So recently I have been really struggling with thinking about if the Spirit is REALLY with me. Am I teaching and finding by the spirit? Do I even have the spirit with me? How can I tell....It is a hard question to answer somtimes. But this week we went out and in this specific store I heard songs (in english), songs that I might have listened to before or atleast been okay with listening to, and saw somethings that I really didn't want to see (nothing really bad, just small things I would rather not see) and as it happened I litterally had this slight sick feeling start to develop inside me! And I knew right away that my spirit was litterally uncomfortable in that kind of enironment! It was a little weird because it hasn't really happened before, but I think it counts as an answer to prayers! God saying "yes, you do have the spirit with you!" I hope that doesn't sound too wierd haha, it is getting harder and harder to phrase what I want to say in english so I hope things don't come out tooooo weird! :)

So I am gonna be honest...I TOTALLY forgot my book that has all the fun and more spiritual experiences that I record! AND genghao....my camera card is ALSO back at the apartment...:( Sorry everyone! I will get on that next week! I hope I will have full time next week! There is a chance I won't be staying in xiaogang (小港) so I might have a lot less time from the transfers. But we will see! I hope that I stay! I love it here! Everything is so great and so much fun! Plus I have really come to love the people here! But I am sure I will love the people no matter where I go! That has been one of my biggest goals this move call, to develop more charity and love for everyone! It really makes a HUGE difference in peoples lives when they can feel that you love them! It can be the changing factor for them! My Mom was always such a great example of loving people! I am sure you have all felt it :) Another example is my amazing companion! Elder Baxter is so humble and loves everyone! He would never say a mean thing about anyone!

So I am gonna be super honest....I am having a hard time thinking of things to write...I am just tired out of my mind hahaha :) I LOVE THIS WORK!!!!!!! Oh and sorry if this is a little shorter as well, I am trying to set up the mother's day skype with my mom! So I am trying to move in between emails!

Oh wow...I am out of time...I AM REALLY REALLY SORRY! Forgive me! Well atleast now you can all get a break from my overly long emails and be excited for next week with pictures AND a good email :)

I LOVE YOU ALL! And I really am sorry! SHINE BRIGHT!!!!!!!

-

Ge Zhang Lao

葛 長老

The one, the only...Elder....B!

Oh my goodness...yes, that is how I am starting off this letter...OH MY GOODNESS! A mission is SO AMAZING! I have this week spent the entire week with such an amazing soul! I LOVE HIM! Elder B. He is from Ogden Utah, a huge nerd (just like me) and can't sing (just like me haha). BUT he loves people, EVERYONE and he is so so so so so so so so humble! I have so much to learn from him! I love serving with him so much! For those of you who know my past or know my friends you will know a shuai ge (handsome boy) named A. Curtis! Elder B is just like Alec in so many ways! It is really cool! I think that is one of the reasons we get along so well! Becuase it is just like being with one of my best friends! They even look alike! The only difference I would think is that one loves singing and one loves physics. Oh man it is so great! One thing you have to know about Elder B is his hilarious name! It is Bu(4) Zhanglao which is the bu in buding (Pudding) so people call him elder pudding sometimes haha. He is so funny! Gosh I love my new comp! In fact, one of the funniest things happened last week. SO Elder B is on his last move call...(oh no!), which means he is EXHAUSTED having spent the last 2 years in missionary service. He still works super super hard, but it is easy to see that he gets tired easy. It is easier to tell when we kneel to say a companionship prayer and when I say amen I don't hear the usual echoing of the amen...I look up just waiting...and there he is, kneeling and in the usual tired prayer shape, eyes closed...and then comes the heavy breathing....he fell asleep in the middle of my prayer! Oh man it was SO FUNNY! I stayed there for maybe 2 min. waiting for him and finally shook him awake. He sure is a funny one! I am super grateful that I am able to serve with him! But as with anything there seems to have to be opposites in all things...

With all the good of an amazing new companion comes all the stress and hurt that Satan can put on you as investigators begin to drop or new investigators aren't found. I will have to say this week was much harder for me. We had a few investigators that I loved pretty much break up with us. It is tough everytime! But what usually makes it better is being able to go out and find new investigators that help to strengthen your testimony. The only thing is that this week THEY all rejected us too! Dang it was tough! We got fanged a lot this weeks (meaning they set up and don't show up), I guess thats just the life of a missionary though! I will say though that we had a lot of success with connecting more with ward members and Recent converts! Elder B is amazing at loving people and helping them to feel that love! I can't stop smiling and laughing when we have time to chat, it is so much fun! In fact, one AMAZING idea he had was to take over these brownies to a part member family and teach them how to make brownies! It was an amazing idea until....we found out they have no oven...UHOH! what to do? Well they had this little thing that is more like a toaster oven. Well...Mom you would be so proud, I decided that we could still do it! All it would take was making a bunch of smaller brownies! It sounded so good and smelled so good until the smoke started pouring out and we looked the WHOLE top was burnt and the inside was all gooy! Well luckily I had a similar kind of experience in college with this oven that was pretty broken! In college we didn't really know what to do, but with this little oven I figured it out! We just made layer brownies! Put a little in, bake it, a little more, bake it. I felt like a real baker! haha. And the kids and mom in the family were loving it! It was a really fun time and then of course nothing was better than having brownies and milk to seal the deal! They invited us back next week and the Mom said she would try to make it to church! WHAT A MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry there is no pictures from this week...we can only take pictures on special occasions and P-day and last week was so busy I wasn't able to get any. But I will try to get some for next week! (J, the boy in the part member family took some pics and stuff and said he might put some on facebook though so maybe you can look there??).

So one other miracle story is that this Sunday we were in a HUGE rush and so I was trying to pack up my stuff and my bike and get going. I set my suite jacket on a scooter next to me and started packing. Of course I forgot and just took off. I completely forgot until I got to the church (about 30 min away by bike). Well I quickly called a nearby member and asked him if he could go look. He said it would take him a bit but he could try. And so I said a little prayer. Well....he got it! it was still there after about 40min of sitting there! I was so thankful! I have had a lot of stuff stolen but that coat wasn't! I was so happy! I love how the Lord cares about all our little worries!

A mission is the perfect example of how much the Lord will take care of us if we put our trust in him. So go on a mission! Some could say, but Elder Gish I am too old or too young or don't know enough, or other worries...well...I am here to say...(Here comes a President Watson Quote...) "so what!?" [Shannon here: President Watson is our Stake President here in New Hampshire. Our stake, like most, comprises eight congregations.] We can be, should be, and are ALL missionaries! Go forward and work! Just be a missionary! :) Go out and work, serve the Lord!

I love this work! I love you all!

FaGuang! (Shine Bright!)

Love

Ge ZhangLao

Elder Gish

P.S. Sorry this email is a little shorter...our email time got cut by 30min and I am still trying to figure out how to distribute my time. But I love you all! :)

NO MORE TRAINING!...Kinda...

 

So finally out of the training phase! Well sort of. My new companion
is Elder B! AND HE IS AWESOME!!!!!! He may not be my trainer but
I am sure that I will still be getting trained, he is incredible! I am
so excited! We are still in XiaoGang and we are going to set high
goals and really go for it! I am so excited to work with him! His
first two steps into the new area he made a miracle happen! He is
clearly a miracle maker and has the spirit with him...AHH I AM SO
EXCITED TO WORK WITH HIM! Plus since we are finished training we are
going to have an extra hour each day...you know what that means? MORE
KNOCKED DOORS, MORE CONTACTS, MORE LESSONS, MORE BAPPTIISSMMMSS!!!!!!
I have 100% faith that the Lord has prepared the hearts of his
children. And they are out there, no matter where you are, there are
people. You just may have to look. And maybe it is someone you have
talked to a million times, but this time, you dig just a little
deeper, and there it is. They are ready to hear the gospel! I know
this is true! So don't be afraid to talk to your friends or refer them
to the missionaries, everybody NEEDS this gospel. So go share it!

So on a kind of off note...I heard about Boston! It is big news out
here, is everyone from home okay? What is it like back in the US?
Especially in New England....Can you say last days?!
OH SHOUT OUT!!!!!! MY AMAZING BROTHER CHASE!!!!!!!!!! CONGRATS ON YOUR
EAGLE!!!!!! THAT IS SO AWESOME MY MAN!!!!!! You are so incredible!
Keep up the hard work! How cool is that, my Greek God brother is now
an Eagle Scout! I told my whole english class about it! I think they
didn't understand cause they thought you were something kinda like the
president of the United States haha...but chabuduo! (difference not
much)! :) You rock my man! Keep preppin for your mission! I'll tell
you what, I wish I had prepared better (I think you will say that no
matter what because there really is ALWAYS more you can do...so do all
you can man!)

So what happened this week? A TON! First off it was my first Zone
Conference! It was amazing! Our district got picked to sing in it too,
which was...well actually it went amazing haha. I love seeing all the
missionaries get together and even better is hearing the power of
their voices combined in singing song and praising God. I got so fired
up to go out and work! I love it! We focused a lot on obedience and
the blessing of obedience, as well as a big training on new rules and
new methods of doing things. Over all it was a really great
experience. One thing I pulled away was the importance of being
obedient to the laws of God. When we obey, our "freedoms" may seem to
get less and less, but I promise you , just try it, and watch as all
the sudden life feels so much more open and free! When we choose to
disobey we may think that we are having more freedom, but just watch
as life because dark and dull and you feel trapped. Thats just how it
is. Gods "rules" (if you can even call them that) ultimately bring us
happiness! We also did a 'zone scramble' before the zone conference
which means that we all got assigned random companions to go and work
with. I got assigned to stay in my area with a native named Elder
Chen! It was so much fun! I wasn't too worried about communicating and
everything ended up working out really well so it was great! We talked
and laughed and got a little lost, but no worries! haha. He also knew
some pretty funny camera tricks, I'll send some pics :).

So today before we actually switched companions we had to wait so I
was companions with Elder W. (our awesome Zone leader) for about 5
or so hours. So yes, I got my 5 hours as zone leader :) haha. It was a
lot of fun. We went to the Dream Mall (pretty much the only real mall
in this area of Taiwan). It made me think about America so much haha.
We went to try to go shop for some stuff, but us poor missionaries
just can't do it at a mall haha. Everything was pretty expensive!
Especially cause it was all imported. But it was really cool to see
and go play around there for a bit, especially with someone as cool as
Elder W.

So other than that nothing really happened...oh wait....other
than...OUR FOUR BAPTISMS!!!!!!!!!! Elder E. and I worked really
hard and finally it all payed off. This XiaoGang area is amazing! I am
telling you...if you look, people are prepared ALL OVER! I love it!
These people are amazing! I love the Lord and I love this work. I am
SO GRATEFUL for the chance I have to be here and serve!
I love you all so much! Don't forget to send letters :) hehe. Love you!
Ge Zhang Lao!!!

Oh and Mom you awesome amazing mother you! I didn't notice in that
most recent letter how you put all the big words together to make a
secret phrase until I was reading and saw that you spelled the word
Fourth, Forth. And I thought...what? Mom? no way....and how the FOR
was the big part....then it clicked :) You are so creative and so
cool! THANK YOU SO MUCH! Your letters keep me going so much! Thank
you!

I love you all so much! Don't forget to send letters :) hehe. Love you!

Ge Zhang Lao!!!

HoooHoooHaaaaHaaa (Huozi shan :))

 

Hooohoohaahaa! That is Monkey for "GET OFF MY MOUNTAIN!" We went to
Monkey mountain last week! AHH IT WAS CRAZY! Those monkeys were mean
as heck! The other Elders I went with stayed as far away as possible.
But of course.....because I have my Dad's genes in me I thought "Come
on, it can't be that mad, they are all bark and no bite...I'll bet I
can give one a stick"...

well let me tell you how that thought turned out...it ended up with Monkeys following us in the trees and yelling
at us and growling bearing their teeth and 4 Missionaries screaming
and running haha. Oh gosh they were so scary! I think what really made
it bad was this Baby monkey. So he and I...we had a connection, I was
talking monkey with him and we were making faces, it was so funny. And
then we got to close...Mama monkey didn't like that, she gathered the
other mama monkeys and Papa monkeys...I felt like a scared little girl
haha they are freaky!!! And loud....and brave. So we ran away.

BUT then...I guess I have not quite matured yet because then I
thought"....well maybe they well yell but won't come after me...I
mean...i'm bigger than them...It cant be THAT bad." So...yes...silly
Elder Gish went in for round two...THAT is when we decided to leave
haha. The monkeys started really coming after us! THEY WERE INTENSE! I
was scared out of my mind haha. Of course it provided for a good laugh
for all the Elders and a few of the natives around us as they saw this
white boy leap away from these monkeys and start sprinting to get as
far away as I could!

Now want to know where the REAL Gish in me comes out?

It is when I give my camera to Elder W. and say..."hey
that was crazy!!!!! I want to remember it, try to get a picture of
them coming after me"....yeah....well luckily I am still alive!
:) Not too many bruises or bit marks. Haha Just kidding it didn't get
to that point, but I sure was freaked out that it would haha. Now what
REALLY tells me how I haven't matured is that I know if I go back...I
am gonna want better pics of the same thing haha. Oh well, we will
just see if that time ever comes haha.

Something really funny about getting to monkey mountain too is that
Elder Erickson and I didn't know you had to buy a pass to take your
bike on the MRT so we just walked on like normal and no-one stopped
us. When we met the other missionaries and they told us we were all
cracking up. Of course we stopped and paid as we got off but it was so funny to just think about what
they must have been thinking as we walked through the handicapped gate
with our bikes instead of the "pay for your bike gate" haha.

 

Oh so I have something funny that I think was actually from the week
before but I hadn't talked about yet.

So at Church when they did the
CPR night they also had us all practice the Heimlich. So I LOVE our
ward mission leader. He is a great guy.  SO he got this boy named D.L. and had him
practice the Heimlich on him haha. Oh that poor boy, it was SO FUNNY
watching him all crazy trying to help this poor boy! haha. Picture Max
Eastman (thats how big D.L. is) Now Picture a really old man
(bishop....brother soucy? THATS CRAZY) size and with the energy of
that wild Elder Dane S.) haha. That is the only way I can think to
relate to you who these people were, now picture them practicing the
Heimlich...haha oh gosh, this might not being coming out as funny in
an email as it was haha. Now I feel like this might have been one of
those 'you had to be there' moments haha, oh well maybe some people
will get a kick out of it :).

So I told you that we planned for the H. families FHE [Shannon here: FHE= Family Home Evening,] well let me
tell you how funny that was!

So it was all good and spiritual and
serious up to the game. Haha, we blindfolded H.D. and told him
that he had to put the Plan of Salvation together (on these little cool
card things) And H. J. could help but could only use her words,
no touching or anything. It was HILARIOUS to see him placing these
things upside down and backwards and us being Born into the celestial
Kingdom haha. FHE was really fun, but it really made me miss home FHE.
Take SERIOUS advantage of it while you can! Even if you aren't
members, just set aside time each week to have just family time! If I
was back home right now we would have FHE every night :) I would
almost never be out! I would just want to be with my fam. That is one
thing I am so grateful that I have really learned and experienced out
here is the importance and value of the family. I love my family so
much and I feel so blessed to be with them! I am so grateful that I
have the privilege of being out here and serving a mission and being
able to help other families and individuals have the same joy that I
have experienced!

Let me take a small second right now (for those of
you who just skim this, this is the part to read :)) GO ON A MISSION!!
If you are home, are worthy and are of mission age GO ON A MISSION! Of
course I don't claim the right by any means to be able to tell
individuals to go on a mission, but did you hear conference!? Have you
seen the world today? GO ON A MISSION! The world needs us, the Lord
needs us! Even if you feel unworthy or unprepared or like you won't be
able to do it, JUST GO! Get in to see the bishop and Go! I can promise
you that the Lord will give you exactly what you need to serve the
mission! He will stand by you 100% of the way and will make sure you
get through it! You will grow so much and not only that but you will
see others grow and that is the best, when over the course of three or
so months you see someone COMPLETELY change their lives! Please just
trust me and go out on the mission! There are a few people I am
thinking specifically of :) but this is aimed at the Young Men and
Women! Heed the Call of the prophet, Arise and serve! :) Gosh I love
this work! I get so fired up about it :)

Oh and for those of you that ask..."what is the weirdest thing you
have eaten lately?"...I got it....the fish eyeball....I guess it is an
honor to be the one to eat it...well let me tell you...I had already
been stuffed and on the verge of puking...when they pulled the eye
from that fish and put it in my bowl, all big and gooey...I almost
went over the edge (kinda like the time Chase and I ate the fish heart
haha). But being as respectful as I could I rolled up my sleeves (with
a little encouragement in the form of "don't be a baby" from Elder
E. haha) and put that sucker down! Now what was SUPER funny is
OFCOURSE I wasn't about to sink my teeth into that gooey mess! I just
put it near the back of my tongue and tried to take it like it was
medicine haha. But then I swallowed it whole and everyone started
getting a little frantic and at first I didn't understand because
everyone was mumbling and talking really fast. But then I started
catching words as they started to speak up and I guess that in the
middle of the eye is the Lens which is poisonous or something and so
you are supposed to take that out before you swallow. Well I didn't
know! Everyone started talking to me like I was going to die haha.
Elder E. of course is just laughing, but then he realized it
could be serious. Eventually things calmed down and I tried to crack a
few jokes about being immune to poison because of my super human
abilities, and things were okay. Haha, it was pretty funny though
watching people going crazy thinking I was
going to like die on the spot haha. And for anyone wondering, if there
IS poison (which I am still not convinced there is) then it didn't get
to me at all and I am 100% fine haha. But man...that eye...that was a
killer. :( haha   [Shannon here: You knew this insert from me was coming right? Yes, I did check it out, and Elder Gish should be just fine. Don’t even get me started on the monkey story above.]

Okay so on a more serious note, I really enjoyed being able to see
amazing miracles this week. The number 1 BIG miracle happened
yesterday. We went to go pick up the D. kids to take them to church
and the Dad said to stop calling and not come back. Obviously Elder
E. and I were hurt...and I was nearly on the verge of tears, I
felt like everything was going down hill, but we stayed strong, prayed
and had faith that God would give us a miracle (we had been praying
HARD for these children that we love so much!) So we went throughout
our day and with about an hour or so left in the day we decided to go
back and try to find the D. family and clear things up (a make it or
break it attempt).

Now things had gone a little sour that day, things
were falling through and we were a little scattered in our lessons and
plans which was weird because we are always really on top of things
and really strive to keep to our schedule. But anyways, we were on our
way back and feeling a bit down and as we biked past a members house
(y.j) We noticed...well we didn't notice, we saw her outside
and she called us over. She was talking to Dong mama! The mom had
actually gone to her house and called her down to talk about things!
Now the amazing part is that if everything from early had not happened
the way we did then we very well might have missed seeing them
outside! And as we talked to her we discovered some of the Dad's
problems. We talked with her and she told us that she would sneak us
into the house and back us up (she is not a member but I think she is
starting to feel the love and peace that the gospel and the Savior and
Heavenly Father will bring into her life). So we went over and things
were tough at first but we got through it and because of Gods hand in
our lives we were able to keep that family and save our relationship
which will help us to help them continue to come unto Christ! I LOVE
IT!

And as a last testimony, FASTING WORKS!!!!!!!!! JEFF IS GETTING
BAPTIZED!!!!! THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!!!!!!! I love that
guy so much and I am so happy for him! I hope that things will
continue to go well for him! You all are so amazing!

Don't forget what was talked about at conference and that I LOVED!!!!!
Even if you feel you have no faith (this is for everyone members, new
members, less actives, non members, EVERYONE!) if you have a desire
that is good enough. Just know that the desire will grow and will
eventually become faith and that will eventually become a knowledge.
Start out simple with something like a desire and let it grow into
faith and take that and go out and act. THEN it will become a
knowledge. How can I say to people now that I know this is true?
Because I started with a desire. I HOPED that this was all true, that
Jesus Christ's Atonement was real, that I really could live with my
family forever. Over the 20 short years I have lived I have had a few
experiences that have turned some of those desires into faith. And
through acting on that faith I have turned some of that faith into
knowledge. Now I am not PERFECT like my wonder mom and Dad are. I am
not as strong and firm as Chase or as smart as Gageroo ;). I still
have a lot of things that are only a faith, and I have even more
things that are still only a desire. But those things, and the things
that I DO KNOW, I hold precious. I hold truths such as, Joseph smith
was a prophet, The Book of Mormon is true, Jesus Christ lives, and
that I can live with my family forever, so precious and close to my
heart. I hope that one day I will be able to share these truths with
ALL around me.

I love you all!
SHINE BRIGHT!
Elder Gish

You mei you ban fa bian de yi ge chao ji sai ya ren?

What?!?!? What does that title mean!?...Well....I would just let
everyone try to think about it haha but i'll just tell you because it
actually has a hilarious and awesome story!

So it means "is it even possible to become a Super Saiyan?"

Yes, a super saiyan from Dragon
Ball Z...haha.

Recently because I have learned how to talk with someone about church and have
religion I have to move on to studying other things and that lead me
to learning about super heros and dragon ball z and other nerd stuff
:) haha...uh oh. But anyways, the story! So There is this investigator
named P., he thinks church is too boring so he doesn't like
coming. We had tried all week to convince him to come and he said he
wouldn't. So one day after a lesson I was talking to him and started
trying to study more...fun words haha, so we started talking about
Dragon Ball Z and I told him about how much I liked it before I came
out and as we were talking about it I said "you know, I wish so bad I
could just see a super saiyan again (like a drawing), do you think you
could print off some pics and bring them to church to give to me?" And
he said yes!  he came to church and gave me the pictures and we
got him to stay for all three hours! YEAH! It was totally awesome! And
now I have started addressing some younger kids as super
saiyans...they love it haha. So just so mom knows, there is a reason
we watched dragon ball z before the mission....because it will help us
retain and get investigators :) haha.

Okay so what else happened this week? A TON!!!!!! First off I had my
first real bible bash....oops! I am not really sure how I got lured
into the bash, but it happened. It is a lot harder to bash in Chinese,
but still not so difficult that you can't do it. I got into it with
this younger man. Oh man I got so frustrated, I kept my composure the
whole time but once he left I had to say a HUGE prayer to ask to help
me calm down! Bible Bashing really is not good.... The thing that
makes it so much worse is just that as you walk away you think "how
could they not see?" You share so many scriptures and you share so
much doctrine and bear testimony and somehow they still don't even
have a desire to learn more...It was tough. But I guess I just need to
repent since it DID eventually become an "i'm right and your wrong"
attitude rather than a "This is just truth that I want to share with
you in order to bless you" attitude....TIME TO REPENT AND HUMBLE
YOURSELF ELDER GISH! :)

Another fun thing, IT WAS ELDER E’s BIRTHDAY! That stinker
didn't tell me until the day of! I didn't know at but we were still
able to have fun! One thing that was the best was that it was the day
for teaching english so OFCOURSE I taught my enlgish class how to sing
happy birthday in english and then had us all go out and sing it to
him! YEAH! It was sooo funny! Again, if you have never seen a bunch of
people sing happy birthday in really broken english....you GOTTA look
it up! I bet they have some on Youtube! Go look it up....Oh gosh it
was so funny! Especially watching as they tried to clap and dance so
that we would focus on the dancing and not the wrong words haha

Sorry if this all seems random, but that is just how our week goes,
very random :)  No thats not true, it is organized, it is just
organized by God so my little mortal mind thinks its random haha :).

but anways I have a few more hilarious experiences one is food...uh
oh...food. Yeah so I ate something this week called PiDan. It means
the thousand year old egg. It used to have to sit in horse urine for a
long time to become a pidan but now they have some nasty chemical that
they can put it in for it to become a pidan. But anyways it is a hard
boiled egg but it is 100% black and the...yellow part (shoot I forget
what its called) OH YOLK! Thank you Elder E. haha. Is it
yoke?....shoot....oh well THAT PART, it is all gooy and this
green and black color. Oh gosh it is gross. The rest of it tastes like
an egg, but that part....it is just nasty, it smells bad, tastes bad,
and has a weird texture. The kid that bought it for me even told me
that people here don't REALLY like it haha, at least the kids don't.
haha. Well needless to say it took me awhile to finish and a lot of
struggling and sips of soup inbetween haha. Oh, and that
night we were saying our companion prayer and we heard this big BOOM
in our room. We looked around and saw no-one and nothing was broken,
we both looked at eachother and went back to praying, the first thing
Elder E aid was "please protect us" I couldn't help it and
started CRACKING up. It reminded me of when Dad was praying and
thanked God for the snow in it's....abundance haha. I feel like some
things are just funnier in prayers :) haha. But that over all that day
was super fun. Elder E and I also took a good 5 minutes and set
up a bionicle target and used nerf guns to try to take it out while
thinking about how to help our investigators Mom allow him to be
baptized! So all in all, yeah, a mission is hard work, but it is also
so fun!

One thing this week too was just the
difference in Church between here and the USA. For example, this last
week the WHOLE third hour was the entire church gathered together to
do a CPR training. It was so funny, it felt more like a Wednesday
activity then church, but I guess if that's what the Bishop wants! It
is just different, in fact a lot of things happen like that that are
different. One thing that I do really like though is that once a month
ATLEAST, the ward sets up a ward service activity, usually it is going
to an old person home to feed them and help out, but there are lots of
other things they do to, it is amazing how much service they do here!
Everyone is SOOOO HARD WORKING! For example, gosh this almost made me
tear up actually, As we were driving down to Soumu (clean
graves...I'll talk about that later) We saw this man on his scooter,
probably upper 70s, we was shaking and had a wrap on his head and this
pad over his ear with blood stains on it, he had a tube going from
this thing on his hip and taped to his chest up into his nose...we
found out he was going to work...with all all those problems he was
STILL going to work so he could support his family. I was blown away
and it was kind of a slap in the face saying, don't complain about
anything. I was able to this week really realize how much I
loved and care for these people, I don't know what it is, maybe it
just clicked or something this week but we were talking to this young
man (Probably my favorite so far) His name is G, L. He is super
cool, but as we were talking and he was talking about his family
hardships and about his girlfriend cheating on him I felt so sorry and
really pained for his pain. The 'mourning with those that mourn' came
to mind. I felt like I just wanted to take this burden on myself and
off him, to help him! I realized that I really love and care for these
Taiwanese people, all of them. But THEN I had an even BIGGER
realization. I love EVERYONE and care about EVERYONE they are all
brothers and sisters, everyone we see and talk to, and they all need
what I have, I have been so blessed and all I want to do is share that
with EVERYONE I meet. Now don't get me wrong, the Taiwanese have a
special place in my heart, but I realized this because we ran into
this white guy this week (I know! what? A white guy!?) YEAH! And I felt
this same love and care for him and desire to help him feel these
blessings! I have to say though...it was so HARD to teach in english! I
started thinking "how would I say this in Chinese?" Then translating
and saying it in English and it just comes out so weird...And it was
weird hearing words again like "oh thats so sick" haha. Anyways, that
was a neat experience!

So for my last fun experience for the week...RAINSTORM! YEAH! IT was
SUPER FUN! It totally came out of nowhere and I had totally forgotten
my rain gear. We were half way to the church so just decided to keep
going. I was SOAKED and then to make it EVEN BETTER, about half a mile
for the church Elder E's bike broke! The tire just broke and
the tire popped and...well it wasn't good. So then we walked the
rest of the way in the rain! Once we got to church the investigator
was already there and I think it was actually kind of a good thing
because he was touched by our dedication (if it rains here people just
don't go outside for some reason they just don't like the rain too
much). I loved the rain though, it was super nice to get cooled off
like that! The outside was super hot but the rain just cool
enough that as you biked the wind would cool you off a lot. I really
thought it was a blessing! It was just a neat and funny experience to
have to teach a lesson in the Church while totally soaked and have to
be out in that weather! I decided to start bringing my rain gear with
me 24/7 though haha.

So ready for something AWESOME that was discovered this week in the
Book of Mormon? It is in 1Nephi 1:20 and Moroni 10:3! The start of the
book starts with Nephi saying “this is so that I can show you the Lords
mercy,” and the END of the book is Moroni saying, “I write this so that
you can remember the Lords mercy.” HOW COOL! The Whole Book of Mormon
is there to help us to learn and remember and study the mercy of the
Lord. I know that as we read we will also recognize his mercy in our
lives and the MANY MANY blessings we have gotten! For example with
me....MY WONDERFUL FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!! This week we planned a Family
Home Evening for the Hong family (recent converts) so that they can
see how it is done. Can I tell you how much I just wanted to sing "the
family" or hear Dad's jokes and Mom's wisdom? (Yes that is how it is,
moms wisdom and dads jokes :)) haha. Or to have Gage climbing all over
me. To have Chase ask some deep questions that make us all think. To
hear the powerful testimony of little Gageroo! Man I miss FHE so
BAD!!!!!!!! I'm telling you, take advantage of it! It is such a great
time! Every second with our family is so precious! I love you guys! :)

This Week I want to shout out to mom and dad! :):)

DAD!!!!!!! Can I just tell you that as Patrick handed me the pictures of the super
saiyans all I could think of was you! For a few reasons, ONE...your
arms are similar size :) haha. TWO You are my Super Saiyan, I am so
grateful for your amazing example and the way that you have protected
and cared for me and our family. I really love you so much!

MOM!!!!!!!! AH!!!!! My wonderful mom! Everytime I get a letter from
you I get that little love bug in my stomach! I don't want to ever
read it because I just want to savor it and have the letter never end
haha. And something you say ALWAYS ALWAYS gives me such strength to go
on and continue to work hard! You are such a light for me Mom, and for
all New Hampshire...ALL THE WORLD! YOU ROCK!!!!! ( And you better not
cut this part out when you post this...I know that you are SUPER
humble and might do that...but don't!!! I want my "brag about mom time"

So today we are going up to Monkey Mountain! I will tell you more
about it next week and will get good pics for you!
Oh and Soumu...well....its grave cleaning...its hard work haha. Sorry
I am out of time...

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!
Love Elder Gish