I figured this out. In the sketch it was getting stuck on the following line since writeEthernet is a callback and was getting called but is not initialized yet.
gw.begin(RF24_PA_LEVEL_GW, RF24_CHANNEL, RF24_DATARATE, writeEthernet);
I switched the order to initialize the Ethernet shield first and it works like a charm now
Ethernet.begin(mac, myIp);
// give the Ethernet interface a second to initialize
delay(1000);
// Initialize gateway at maximum PA level, channel 70 and callback for write operations
gw.begin(RF24_PA_LEVEL_GW, RF24_CHANNEL, RF24_DATARATE, writeEthernet);
and now have no need for them. I am looking to sell a stockpile of these these things if anyone is interested. Most are bought from china from links provided here, some from amazon because sometimes I didn't feel like waiting a month for them to get here and some casings from home depot or radio shack. Everything works 99% and majority of the stuff has not been opened and is still in sealed packaging. I am not looking to sell 1-2 items at a time but everything at once that is perfect for something who is considering mysensors and this has enough parts to build numerous sensors. This will be shipped from United States.