Monday, May 2, 2016

The Power of Imaging!

Area:  Lenexa, Kansas      
Companion:  Elder Bradley


Hello Everyone!

This has been a wonderful week.  I had a lot of fun, interesting, and great things happen to me this week.

This week we also had a big funnel cloud that was forming right over our apartment!  It was pretty sweet!!  We are entering into tornado season and I have yet to see one while out here; I wouldn't mind seeing one!  :O.

We had an amazing lesson with Mauricio this past Monday.  He has so many questions that he wants to ask so it gives us a good opportunity to answer his questions with a gospel principle and teach him that way.  We invited him to be baptized but he still has some questions about that and isn't quite ready to commit to that next step.  We have another appointment with him on Monday that we are very excited for!

I was able to go on exchanges this week with Elder Anderton again.  It is always a great experience and a great time reflecting back on the times that we had while we served in Kearney.  We also were able to find a new investigator named George!  He is in his 60's and had so many good questions about the temple, families, missionaries, baptism, and many many more things.  He has met with missionaries before about 7 years ago and knows some members of the church.  We are excited to see where he goes from here.

This Saturday was a great day of service!  Elder Bradley and I have really been trying to get some good service opportunities here in this area.  It can be pretty hard because most of the people here are well off and very self sufficient.  This Friday we received two texts from different people asking us to help them move on SaturdayOn Friday we also made contact with a less active family who needed help setting up for a garage sale on Saturday!  All three of those service projects lined up just right.  We literally didn't take off our service clothes all day because we were going from place to place, it was great!  We were able to build a lot of member trust and some great relationships with those individuals that we helped.

Sunday we had an amazing ward counsel that was completely centered around missionary work and the efforts within the ward.  This ward has not had a convert baptism over the age of 9 for about a year and a half.  We have really been trying hard here to just get someone to church, but the struggle is real.  Things are starting to spark with the members and we feel that converts will began coming to thins ward and the ward counsel sets this example.  We are really excited to see what happens!

I have been thinking a lot about the power of imaging this week.  As I was learning how to play on the drum line as a snare, we were told to imagine ourselves playing in perfect unison with perfect form in our brains before we started practicing and rehearsal.  We also watched videos of those we really looked up to and wanted to be like and tried to imitate them.  This week, every night after my prayers and before I fall asleep, I have been imagining each one of the people I am teaching entering into the baptismal font dressed in all white walking into the water towards me.  I then recite the baptismal prayer in my mind with their name and imagine them being baptized.  I also imagine the lessons that we teach them and how they will go.  While doing this I have felt a greater love for those I am teaching and also a greater desire to want to help them.  The spirit is entering into my life more fully as well.  It is amazing!  Imagining who we are and where we want to be will create a pattern of success in our brains that in turn, turns into the way our brain begins to think and the way we see individuals and ourselves.  Having this eternal perspective will help us be successful in life in anything that we do, spiritual, physical, work, academics, social, political, and anything else you can think of!  The power of the mind is real!!

I love and appreciate you all and the support/love that you give to me.  Keep going strong!

Love,
Elder Shoemaker

PS.  Mom,  6:30pm Utah time for Mother's Day Facetime!  I'm excited!

Hairless Kitty Cat



Funnel Cloud



The New District!

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