I'm a MISSIONARY!

Area:  Kearney, Missouri
Companion:  Elder Anderton

Hello family!  It's about 5:30 am here in the beautiful state of Missouri with partly clouded sky's and about a 110 heat index.  Over there is some road kill on the side of the road, don't mind it, you will be seeing that every day of your life out here!  Over there you will see a guy with only one tooth walking his dog.  Oh!  There he is right on schedule!  The guy with the 12' lift on his pickup truck!  

Can you tell that it's 5:30 AM?  I'm in a fantastic mood right now!  Why wouldn't I be?  I'M A MISSIONARY!!

Sounds like y'all are having some fun experiences with the cabin.  I hope the guests will be more respectful about others property.

Well, great news for this part of town!  We had an amazing lesson with Dillon and Daylin yesterday at the Historic Liberty Jail.  Dillon is solid for this Saturday!  We talked to him about receiving the Priesthood and that there is a possibility of him baptizing Daylin in a week or two and they both liked that idea.  Daylin is coming right along and progressing very quickly.  This whole situation has been a little stressful with the time crunch of Dillon leaving for college and same with Daylin, but the Lord has a bigger plan for them.  It has been amazing to see the Lord's hand in Dillon's life.  When we first met him he had didn't know how to pray and he had no idea what repentance was.  He was 20 years old and had not repented before.  He always told us about all this guilt he had and that ever since he started praying it was leaving him.  Elder Anderton and I know that we didn't make this change in him at all.  We were just the vessels for the Lord to bring this message forth.  At this lesson we learned that Daylin was praying for Dillon to be in contact with Godly men and her prayer was answered the next day with Elder Anderton and I coming across him working on his Jeep.  There are about 10 others in the ward as well who have become good friends with Dillon.

Kristin is moving to California for sure and might drive through Utah.  We will find out for sure probably tomorrow so I'll giver her your number Mom and maybe you guys can meet up for lunch somewhere!

We had a fantastic ward party on Friday!  That is where those pictures of the four of us missionaries with the hats on came from (by text).  We led the groups of pioneers around the field.  That was really fun and we also had one of our investigators show up to it!

This week I was studying in John 6:5-14 about Jesus Christ feeding the 5,000 and had a completely different outlook on what it means to me.  We read in there about how they only had 5 loves of bread and 2 fish but there was 5,000 to feed.  Rather than telling them to go and buy more, Jesus takes what is there, blesses it, then gives it to the people.  The moral that I learned was Andrew gave 100% of what he had, which he know wasn't enough to feed the whole multitude, but he gave it all to Christ and through Christ it was magnified to feed 5,000 people.

Here is a story that our mission president sent us today.  As a mission we have been studying the Atonement in depth in the Book of Mormon.  

From President Vest: 

While studying and pondering our atonement initiative, I came across the following simple story that was shared by President Hinckley. It is something of a parable. I hope it will be a reminder for us all.

“Years ago there was a little one-room schoolhouse in the mountains of Virginia where the boys were so rough that no teacher had been able to handle them.

“A young, inexperienced teacher applied, and the old director scanned him and asked: ‘Young fellow, do you know that you are asking for an awful beating? Every teacher that we have had here for years has had to take one.’

“‘I will risk it,’ he replied.

“The first day of school came, and the teacher appeared for duty. One big fellow named Tom whispered: ‘I won’t need any help with this one. I can lick him myself.’

“The teacher said, ‘Good morning, boys, we have come to conduct school.’ They yelled and made fun at the top of their voices. ‘Now, I want a good school, but I confess that I do not know how unless you help me. Suppose we have a few rules. You tell me, and I will write them on the blackboard.’

“One fellow yelled, ‘No stealing!’ Another yelled, ‘On time.’ Finally, ten rules appeared on the blackboard.

“‘Now,’ said the teacher, ‘a law is not good unless there is a penalty attached. What shall we do with one who breaks the rules?’

“‘Beat him across the back ten times without his coat on,’ came the response from the class.

“‘That is pretty severe, boys. Are you sure that you are ready to stand by it?’ Another yelled, ‘I second the motion,’ and the teacher said, ‘All right, we will live by them! Class, come to order!’

“In a day or so, ‘Big Tom’ found that his lunch had been stolen. The thief was located—a little hungry fellow, about ten years old. ‘We have found the thief and he must be punished according to your rule—ten stripes across the back. Jim, come up here!’ the teacher said.
“The little fellow, trembling, came up slowly with a big coat fastened up to his neck and pleaded, ‘Teacher, you can lick me as hard as you like, but please, don’t take my coat off!’
“‘Take your coat off,’ the teacher said. ‘You helped make the rules!’

“‘Oh, teacher, don’t make me!’ He began to unbutton, and what did the teacher see? The boy had no shirt on, and revealed a bony little crippled body.

“‘How can I whip this child?’ he thought. ‘But I must, I must do something if I am to keep this school.’ Everything was quiet as death.

“‘How come you aren’t wearing a shirt, Jim?’

“He replied, ‘My father died and my mother is very poor. I have only one shirt and she is washing it today, and I wore my brother’s big coat to keep me warm.’

“The teacher, with rod in hand, hesitated. Just then ‘Big Tom’ jumped to his feet and said, ‘Teacher, if you don’t object, I will take Jim’s licking for him.’

“‘Very well, there is a certain law that one can become a substitute for another. Are you all agreed?’

“Off came Tom’s coat, and after five strokes the rod broke! The teacher bowed his head in his hands and thought, ‘How can I finish this awful task?’ Then he heard the class sobbing, and what did he see? Little Jim had reached up and caught Tom with both arms around his neck. ‘Tom, I’m sorry that I stole your lunch, but I was awful hungry. Tom, I will love you till I die for taking my licking for me! Yes, I will love you forever!’”

To lift a phrase from this simple story, Jesus, my Redeemer, has taken “my licking for me” and yours for you.

Welp, gotta go cut my hair! 

Love you all my wonderful family and friends!

Elder Shoemaker 

Ward  Pioneer Day Party 

{nice pony...elder}

 We also painted this house this past week.  The far right are the Johnson's, one of my favorite family I have met out here!

(AwEsOmE shirt Elder Shoe!!) 

Elder Anderton ,Dillon, Daylin behind him, Bro Job, Sister Job behind him, me at the Liberty Jail!  The Jobs are Dillons Cousins and have been a huge help in Dillons conversion.