Keep Working to the End!

Area:  Leavenworth, Kansas    
Companion:  Elder Tuala


It's kinda crazy that it's come to an end just like that!  Two years of being in Missouri and Kansas and it just ends...  The great thing is that these two years were such a great molding phase of my life.  They have helped me become someone so much greater than I was before and for that I am eternally grateful. :).

My plans for this last week are pretty simple!  Keep working to the end!  We have appointments throughout the days to help keep us busy and my mind off of things.  One of the members I am close with in Kearney is coming up to have lunch with us on Tuesday so I'm excited for that!  

Again, I am so eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father and to my Savior Jesus Christ for this amazing opportunity to serve the people in the Missouri, Independence Mission.  I have been able to cultivate through the spirit, a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Who knows where I would be right now if it hadn't been for this decision.  When you get lost in the work of others, you truly do find yourself (That is a sneak peak into my homecoming talk).   

Love you all so much!!!  See ya in a couple of days! :D

Elder Shoemaker

Feeling Christlike Love......

Area:  Leavenworth, Kansas    
Companion:  Elder Tuala

Hello!  Not to sure how long this will be, my patience with writing emails is very limited, haha!

As far as the Walker connection, we are for sure related!  Haven't found out the details.  They do have the same William Holmes Walker book that we have, a hard bound one.  I'll see if I can find out more!

I'm pretty excited to be returning home, Fast Sunday was a really good day for me in receiving answers about some of the questions that I have about returning.  The Savior sure does work in mysterious ways. :). The missions returning home with me are Elder Michaelson, Elder Walker, and Sister Prior.  There are only 4 of us coming home that day and the rest that I went into the MTC with will be returning home the next week after that.

I have realized what missionary work is truly about this week.  We have been working really closely with this man in the ward who has been a member just over 4 years.  He has a serious addiction problem to various substances and is quite open about it.  We told him that we are more than willing to come over whenever he needs us to.  We got a call from him at about 6:30pm yesterday but we weren't able to get back to him until 8:15pm because we were in an appointment.  He didn't answer his phone and he told us if he doesn't answer his phone it is probably because he is drunk.  So we went over to his house and we found him drunk, just completely plastered.  He has been drinking since his teenage years and he is probably in his 50s or 60s now.  He has a big desire to quit, but he just can't figure out why he keeps doing this to himself.  It was a very humbling experience to see him in this position, we wanted to help in anyway we could.  I think this is when I have felt the most Christlike love for someone while on my mission.  I just want him to be able to work toward the right direction and he wants it to, the addiction right now is his first priority and that's hard to see.  Hopefully over the next coming years he will be able to make the changes he needs to in his life.

I love you all!  See ya in 10 days!

Elder Shoemaker

One of the many prisons in this town. This one has held many famous
people such as, Michael Vick, Al Capone, and the Boston bomber...

The Lorin and Lovina Line....

Area:  Leavenworth, Kansas    
Companion:  Elder Tuala

Well, I had a big email typed up and then it got deleted because my iPad spazzed out so that sucks!  We will see how much patience I have to try and type it all back up...  :P.

We had some good service opportunities this week!  We helped this one guy move and his house was just infested with mice!  When they were moving the couch, two mice came running out of the bottom of it and the owner kept trying to stomp on them. Haha! He was yelling at us to stomp on them too, kinda funny!

We also helped another family move all the stuff out of their house because they were getting their carpets cleaned.  This house was pretty run down and treated very poorly by the people living in it.
There was an older lady that was living their and she was wearing a shirt that was really baggy and to short to cover her stomach, so I got flashed about 20 times by her every time she would bend down to
pick something up...  But! We got the job done and dipped out of there pretty quick.

We also did some service at a truck rally in a small town around here. It was pretty sweet, reminded me a lot of the cache county fair.

We got a new ward mission leader this week!  He is a great guy and is living here for a year by himself because both him and his wife are active duty and his wife is still in Korea with the rest of the
family.  He drive this sweet Tesela that we got to ride in down to the truck rally.  It goes 0-60 in just over 4 seconds.  You will have to go and check them out online, it was like riding in a space ship.

Also, at church today I was talking with one of the members who's last name is Walker.  Turns out she is a distant cousin to us!  She is related to Lorin and Lovina!  Pretty crazy, it's a small world.  She has some relatives in our stake back home as well.  I don't have much information, but we are going to swing by sometime and talk to them a little bit more soon.

Well, that is about it for the week!

Love you all!

Elder Shoemaker