I am the Light and Life of the World......

Area:  Kansas City, Missouri (Fleming Park Ward)  
Companion:  Elder Monroe

We have a member of the ward who is a news broadcaster for channel 9 in
Missouri and we were able to use his studio to make a broadcast for
the Kansas City Zone!  The missionaries will love it.  We had such a
fun time making it.  I'll send you a little snippet.

(Hummmm....maybe Elder Monroe and Elder Shoemaker have found their profession?) 

Hello Mom and Family!

Yes, I did get Tanners gift!  We have been having an on going competition with free throws and I was winning, but now Elder Monroe is up by two wins.  I also have not had cold feet this week to the help of some wool socks!  I really appreciate it Tanner, your awesome!

Thank you for the videos and picture updates!  Looks like ya'll had some fun this Christmas break.  The cabin looks like such a blast, I can't wait to have some fun for myself up there.  The snowmobiles are always a fun toy to have.  The upstairs room to the barn looks completely different!  I am excited to see what it slowly becomes.

This past week we had some good adventures and also some amazing teaching opportunities.  On one of the nights this week, I can't remember which one because they all mash together, we got a call for the sisters in our zone.  They said that someone had slashed their tire and now they had a flat and didn't know how to change it.  They are in the most ghetto area of the mission so it wouldn't have surprised me if  their tire actually did get slashed but we I was wondering why they only slashed one tire?  Who does that?  Se we drive the half hour down there at 8pm and changed their tire in the 20 degree weather.  Turns out they they were exaggerating a little and they had just ran over a screw so they had a slow leak in their tire. On the bright side those sisters now know how to change a tire! (Shout out to my Papa for teaching me that one!)

We had a really cool opportunity this week with Darcio and Angela the part member family.  Darcio is the non member.  When I first got here and was teaching they Darcio had a little interest but not really to much.  He would dilly dally the house as we taught and wouldn't answer questions and what not.  This past week the atonement played a huge role in his life!  We just stopped by their house one night and they just out of the blue said they had been talking and they want to start the lesson from the beginning again and that Darcio really wanted to learn!  So we were able to teach them 3 times this past week and we also got them to fast on Sunday!  We invited Darcio to be baptized and he said he would but there are some legal family issues they are waiting on so it may be a month or two before that happens, but we are so excited to see this change in him!  He was so involved in the lessons and answering and asking questions, it was so fun to teach someone who wants it so badly in their life.

On Sunday evening we were able to take Spencer and Angela, another part member couple, to the visitors center to what is called the Presidents Devotional.  All the recent converts that want to come and bear their testimonies and at the end President and Sister Vest give some great remarks.  We were able to get Amey to come and bear her testimony ad she did such a great job!  She is going to be such a solid asset to the church, we are excited to see where she goes from here.  Angela and Spencer really enjoyed it as well.  It was really good for Angela to hear the testimonies of people from so many different walks of life and who all were searching for the same thing. The Book of Mormon was hit on so hard while we were there which is what we are trying to help Angela overcome right now, so that was an answer to prayers.  We are excited to see where they go from here. Also, while I was there I ran into one of my favorite families from my first area in Independence that I served in, the Hawkins family!  It was great to see them.

3 Nephi 11:11
"And behold, I am the light and life of the world..."

The Savior is literally the light of the world!  He is who puts sunshine in our souls today.  When he was born on the earth there was even a day of complete darkness before he came which helped everyone realize how much they needed the light in their everyday life.  When we don't have even just a little bit of the Savior's teachings in our life day to day our spiritual light goes a little more and a little more dim.  As we feed that light we can become a light to the world!

Here is an excerpt from President Monsons talk this past conference: "May I say to all of you, and particularly to you young people, that as the world moves further and further away from the principles and guidelines given to us by a loving Heavenly Father, we will stand out from the crowd because we are different. We will stand out because we dress modestly. We will be different because we do not use profanity and because we do not partake of substances which are harmful to our bodies. We will be different because we avoid off-color humor and degrading remarks. We will be different as we decide not to fill our minds with media choices that are base and demeaning and that will remove the Spirit from our homes and our lives. We will certainly stand out as we make choices regarding morality--choices which adhere to gospel principles and standards. Those things which make us different from most of the world also provide us with that light and that spirit which will shine in an increasingly dark world."

I love you all!  The gospel is true.  Learn it. Live it. Love it. Teach it!

Elder Shoemaker

Ps:  will you send me Justin Braeggers email?  :)

I graduated high school with her!  Sister Wilkey.  Kinda weird to be out at the same time.  There are actually 3 missionaries from Sky View High School out here right now.