Week 50

Hey everyone!  

This week was pretty stinkin' great! We saw a lot of miracles! This area is really booming right now! We have 5 people on date for baptism in August!

The best thing that happened this week was meeting Cassidy! So ever since we had our car fast day (the one where we tracted all day) we have been blessed with tons and tons of referrals! On Friday we got a referral for Cassidy. She went to high school with a kid who tried to raise funds for his mission and the school got angry at him. She was confused because they had let people of other faiths raise money. Later in her life she decided that she wanted to look into the church to see if it was really as bad as people say. So she looked the Book of Mormon up online and she read the WHOLE thing. Then she was celebrating her 21st birthday last week and she knew if she stayed in Greeley that she would have peer pressure from her friends to drink. So instead she went to Temple Square. She met with the missionaries there and they taught her the restoration. Then they referred her to us. We just met with her yesterday and I honestly was baffled at how prepared she is. We asked her what she thought about the Book of Mormon and she replied "It's the word of God. What else can I say?" We then asked her what she would like to get out of meeting with us and she replied "My end goal is to join the church!" We talked about the Plan of Salvation and she expressed the peaceful feelings that she felt just being on the temple grounds. It was honestly one of the most spiritual experiences I have ever had on my mission! We put her on date for August 18th! We will be passing her off to YSA, but it was amazing to even get to teach her a little bit! The thing that struck me the most was when Cassidy said "I didn't even know this was something I was looking for." Preach My Gospel says it best. People are "kept from the truth because they know not where to find it." I think sometimes we underestimate the influence we have. When we are living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are filled with light. We need to share this light with others by inviting them to come unto Christ. So be bold and share the gospel. There are truly elect people that do not realize that they are searching for the truth.

This week has also been very humbling. One of the hardest/best things about a mission is that you realize all your weaknesses real quick. I love 2 Nephi 4 17-20

17 Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.

18 I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me.

19 And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.

20 My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.

I am so blessed to be a part of God's great and marvelous work in saving souls. I am also thankful for the lessons that I have learned. I still have a lot of improving to do in the next 7 months, but I trust in God. I trust in my Savior. The more I learn about Him, the lest content I am with staying as I am. I would definitely encourage all of you to read chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel and take the Christlike attribute acitivity. Then pick an attribute and strive to develop it. I know that Christ consecrates our every effort when we strive to become more like Him. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Gish

Sister Zundel, Sister Green, Sister Gish, Sister Kehoe, and Sister Zitting all enjoying some froyo!

Sister Gish and Sister Walker on mini-exchanges!

A rainbow after a hail storm

Sister Gish came across this cute kitten!

Sister Gish's selfie ft. a cat!

Week 49

Hello Family! This week was so fun!

I got to go on exchanges with Sister Zundel! It was a blast! That girl is just a ray of sunshine! She is always smiling and just radiates positivity! She is just a good example to me of seeing the bright side of everything!

We have a new person that we are teaching! His name is Pete! We met him on car fast day! We taught him the Restoration! We put him on date to be baptized on August 11th! He is just so sweet and wants to turn his life around!

We had a really special sacrament meeting this week! People got up and shared what their favorite hymn was and why they enjoyed it and then the congregation sang it. Hymns just brings such a powerful spirit, especially if you really ponder the words. In Relief Society we watched a talk from Elder Uchtdorf. He talked about a bumper sticker that read "Don't judge me because I sin differently than you do." I just love that quote! It is such a good reminder that everyone has room for improvement. We should always assume that others are trying their best. The Savior showed compassion and tolerance to those who had different standards than Him. 

Yesterday we began teaching Oralia! She is so awesome and was exactly what I needed to remind me that there truly are elect people searching or the truth. She had requested a Bible and Sister Zitting and Sister Zobrist went to visit her on exchanges and gave her a Book of Mormon too. She said that she would love to have us come back and teach her. We taught her the restoration and she said that it all made sense! It reminded me that everyone heard the message of Jesus Christ's gospel before they came to earth. We rejoiced in it. When we are teaching people, we are not telling them anything that they haven't heard. As it says in Preach my Gospel, we are "making contact with the Spirit of Christ already there. The gospel will have a familiar ring to them." I love when we see that connection being made! I am excited to continue to see Oralia grow closer to the Savior!

I will just end with my testimony. I know that Heavenly Father is aware of each and every one of us. We have all been given spiritual gifts, given to us to bless the lives of others. I know that if we focus our efforts on the service of others, that we will be able to understand how Heavenly Father feels about his children. It will help us come to a deeper understanding of how he feels about us. I know that Jesus Christ truly is our friend. He is there when we are lonely.

I love you all and I would invite you to be a friend to someone this week. Pray about someone who might be lonely and serve them. When people feel the Savior's love, it makes them love the Savior!

Love,

Sister Gish

Sister Kehoe, Sister Gish, and Sister Zitting

Sister Gish and Sister Zitting

Alpacas!

Sister Gish, Sister Kehoe, and Sister Zitting all with Sister Jantz

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Week 48: Sister Gish Hits Her 11 Month Mark!

Hello Everyone! This week was great! Time sure is flying by! I hit my 11 Months mark this week! I didn't believe people when they said that missions go by fast, but every month just gets faster and faster!

On Wednesday we had zone conference! Sister Zitting and I gave a training on focusing on the things that we can control and turning the things that we can't control over to the Lord. We shared an excerpt from a talk by Jeffrey R Holland. He said:

" I shared with the missionaries in Sao Paulo yesterday the story of Moses 

leading the children of Israel who had to ask that question saying, “Lord, 

I’ll do this. I’ll take on Pharaoh, I’ll face the soothsayers, witches and 

doctors and the serpents, and we’ll get blood running in the river, and 

we’ll part the Red Sea, but I can’t do it alone. I couldn’t even try. I’m the 

least adequate man alive. I can’t even talk. I need a companion to 

translate for me. I can’t do any of this, but we’ll do it, parting the Red Sea 

and crossing the River Jordan and claiming our inheritance, but I have to 

know that you will go with us. I have to know that you’ll be the divine 

comforter in this missionary service. Otherwise, we can’t go. We’re not 

even going to leave Cairo. We’re just going to stay here. We’re just going 

to stay here and stack bricks. We can’t do it. There is no way that we can 

fight Pharaoh or fate or sand dunes or water unless the very power of 

heaven, unless the power of Almighty God is resting on our shoulders and 

in our hearts. 

That is a legitimate request to make of a missionary, and it is a legitimate 

answer that God gives saying, “You’re on! That’s a deal! You don’t have 

to wonder about me. Worry about yourself. Don’t worry about me—I can 

do it!” And He can! And He does! You will succeed in this work. You will 

succeed at this work because it is God’s to do, and all you have to do is 

say, “Here, use me. Take me. Just point me in the right direction. Where’s 

the tape and I’ll head for it? I’ll give you all I’ve got for two years.” And 

that’s all a missionary has to do, and technically all a missionary can do. 

And that’s all that God wants and He’ll do the work and He’ll give you the 

words to say and the language to say it and the testimony to bear and the 

places to go and the doors to knock on and the people to inquire of on 

the street. He’ll do all of that if you will pledge to live by the Spirit and be 

obedient and testify by the Holy Ghost and do the work His way."

I know that when we increase our efforts on the things that we can control. God will take care of the rest.

On Saturday we had a pass off lesson with the Zone Leaders. We started teaching Chris! He is on date for baptism on August 4th! It is exciting to see him grow closer to the Savior. 

Yesterday was my 11 month mark and I got to go on exchanges with Hermana Garza! She is so amazing! She is so bold! I also just love listening to her speak spanish! I just love her! 

I am just so thankful to be a missionary! Every time another month passes, I can't help but think that I need to make every moment count! I am forever changed by the experiences I've had and I am so lucky to have 7 more months to be on this errand of angels! I hope you all have a ton of missionary moments this week! I love you all!

Sister Gish

Sister Gish hit her 11 month mark!

Sister Kehoe, Sister Gish, and Hermana Garza

Week 47: Happy 4th of July From Sister Gish

Hello! I hope everyone had a great week and a fun 4th of July!

I had a great 4th! We celebrated by wearing red, white, and blue, and we even added some glitter. It was very tasteful, but I definitely saw glitter flying off of me the rest of the week. I read the talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf 'Behold the Man!" It made me think of all the important days in history. My heart was filled with gratitude for the soldiers that have sacrificed so much to fight for our physical freedom. My heart was also turned to my Savior and for all he sacrificed to allow all of us to be free from sin. I also got to go on exchanges with my girl Sister Walker on the 4th of July, so that was a blast! All of us wore red, white, an blue! We had a lesson with some new people! They had us over for lunch and we taught them the restoration! We also had a lesson with Robert! Sister Walker is an amazing teacher and she really is a great example to me! She has true grit! 

On Thursday we had trainer's meeting, and it was so great! I had my interview with President McMurray! He never ceases to amaze me! He is a great example of ministering! At trainer's meeting I was thinking about how Satan tries to tear us down. Me and my companions have already seen so many miracles in the first 2 weeks of this transfer. Satan knows where power lies and he is doing everything he can to discourage our companionship, but this has not stopped us from working hard. 

On Saturday we had our car fast day. We didn't schedule any appointments for that day. It was a true car fast. We tracted from 8:30 am- 9:00 pm. We had a 30 minute dinner and minimal breaks. Between the 3 of us we carried 47 Book of Mormons and snacks and water. We knew that it was going to be hard, but it was amazing to see how the Lord blessed us. We managed to laugh the whole day through, despite the soreness of our feet and the blazing heat. I was amazed at the kindness people showed us. We only had 1 person yell at us, but we had countless people offer us water. I know that we had angels helping us carry our bags. We ended up knocking 640 doors, we passed out every single Book of Mormon we had, and we made countless memories. It was physically the hardest thing I have ever done on my mission, but it was so worth it. We have seen so many blessings in the 3 days since. The enabling power of Christ's Atonement is real. He can help us do things we never thought we could. 

Yesterday we had dinner with Laura Richardson! She shared her conversion story with my new companions. I had one of those moments of pure joy when she said "Sister Gish is one of the people who brought me back!"  I just love her! Moments like that make every single hard day worth it! I just love being a missionary!

I love you all too! Have a great week!

Sister Gish

Sister Gish, Sister Zitting, and Sister Kehoe

Exchanges on the 4th

Sister Gish, Sister Kehoe, and Sister Zitting

Sister Gish, Sister Kehoe, and Sister Zitting

Week 46

Hello everyone! 

This week has been amazing! This transfer is already off to a great start! My companions are Sister Zitting and Sister Kehoe (key-ho). They are both amazing missionaries and they are super fun! Sister Zitting is from St. George and Sister Kehoe is from Las Vegas. 

On Thursday we were at the library and we saw a guy on ancestry.com so we told Sister Kehoe that she should talk to him. She asked him if he enjoys family history and then we exchanged info with him so that we could show him the church's resources! It's truly amazing how the Lord puts people in our path.

I went to a lot of meetings this week! We had district council on Thursday and missionary leadership council on Friday! We set goals for the month of July! I love goal setting! I left both meetings feeling very inspired to reach the goals we set! I love how when we set good plans that the Lord consecrates our efforts to help us reach our goals! Our companionship has also recognized that Satan really wants to bring us down. He knows that we are capable of reaching the goals we've set and it seems like everyday a new obstacle is put in our path. I keep saying to myself "the only thing that Christ and Satan have in common is that they want us to become like them." I know that when times are hard, that I can choose the right and because of the enabling power of Christ's Atonement, I can accomplish anything.

On Saturday, I finished the Book of Mormon! I love that precious book! We read it as a mission and we highlighted all the titles of Christ! It is amazing how much the Book of Mormon testifies of Him. I have to say, at times I was confused if the Book of Mormon was talking about "God the Father" or "God the Son" but at MLC Sister McMurray made a great point. She said something along the lines of "I no longer need to question if it's God the Father or God the Son, because Christ always did the will of His Father!" I am thankful for my Savior! One of my favorite scriptures is John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." I prayed about the Book of Mormon and I got the answer once again, that it is true. My testimony is reaffirmed that Christ is the Savior of the world, he is my advocate with the Father, and he is my friend. I love him. I have almost been out for a year, and I can honestly say that I don't just believe in Christ, I know Him.

I love you all!

Sister Gish

Harambe...Gone But Never Forgotten

Sister Gish's new trio: her, Sister Zitting, and Sister Kehoe

Transfers

STL pic

Sister Gish and Sister Zitting

Missionaries catching Z's whenever possible