Finding, Service and Tornado's

Area:  Lenexa, Kansas      
Companion:  Elder Bradley

Hello Everyone!!

This has been a really great week!  We were able to find several new investigators and actually teach some lessons this week which is always nice!  Their names are Lexi, Mahogany, Wolfred, Edgar, and Larry.  We have been taking out the priest age young men in the ward here with us for a couple hours during the week so they can experience a little bit of all missionary work and they seemed to really enjoy it and because of that we were blessed with a lot of finding and teaching opportunities.

We have been trying to find new ways to talk to people in this area and one of the ways we are trying is to go and walk around at the parks that are in our area.  There are always a lot of people fishing and it is really easy to talk to someone about fishing and the conversation usually quickly leads to why we are dressed in a white shirt and tie and out walking around at a park, works pretty well! There are some really cool structures around this part of town, I'll send some pictures and videos.  We also saw a herring catching some fish which was pretty sweet!  Then we got down poured on out of nowhere which tends to happen out here quite a bit because the weather is so unpredictable.

There was a pretty sweet funnel cloud that formed right above where we were driving.  We got out safe, but it was pretty sweet to see the clouds spinning so fast and how dark it got.  The closest tornado that has touched down was about 20 miles away.

We had a fun couple service opportunities this week.  One was singing in a nursing home with several other missionaries.  During the opening prayer an old lady snuck up behind me and started hugging me from the back and I didn't know what to do...  I just had to pry her off of me because even as I walked away she latched onto me!  Then after I got her off of me she started to go for another missionary but the lady in charge was able to get her before that happened. Haha!  I also got kissed on the hand by a lady that wouldn't let go of my hand...  But other than that the singing went really well!

The other service opportunity We had was helping a guy clean up his duped so that he could sell it this week.  We painted, cleaned, and did a little demo to get some old stuff out of there.  It was a nice break and also nice to be able to get my hands dirty.  Not to many people in this area have us help with anything because they are all pretty self reliant and don't want to ask for help, or they just pay someone else to come do it for them.

That's about all that happened this week!   Transfers are this Thursday and we find out on Tuesday if we are leaving or not!  I may or may not leave, who knows?!

Love you all!

Elder Shoemaker

Missionary work requires patience....

Area:  Lenexa, Kansas      
Companion:  Elder Bradley

Well, yet another week in Kansas and the work continues to move forward.  Sometimes slower than at other times, but it moves forward.

These past couple of weeks have presented a challenge while here in this area.  The ward is great, the weather in nice, the people are nice, but no one seems to want to listen to what we have to say...  We haven't been able to find new investigators for the past two weeks and the ones that we do have are really busy with graduation right now or being sick that they haven't been able to meet.  We have spent a lot of time trying to contact unknown people on our ward roster, walking around parks in the area, and talking to everyone we see.

We did have a really cool experience on Saturday night as we were driving back to our apartment, we saw Mauricio with one of his friends out and about playing basketball at a park next to our apartment.  We went over and had a good time with them and played some basketball. It was a really good opportunity to build our relationship with him and to also put a good taste in his friends mouth about us missionaries.  We have an appointment with him this evening so we will see how that one goes!

We had an awesome ward counsel on Sunday!  The bishop is really gung ho about missionary work land is trying to get the rest of the ward counsel on board with it all.  We don't really get to see him much at all, but he is helping us out a lot in that regards.  The bishop has a lot of faith that if the ward is doing all that they can, then the Lord will bless the ward one way or another with someone to start being taught.  This ward hasn't seen a convert baptism in just about 2 years so their hopes are a little down right now.  We have been trying really hard to raise everyone's vision and to instill some hope and faith in the ward members.  We have some good things in the works and also a ward party on Memorial Day so hopefully some things will get rolling there.

That's about all I have for you this week!!

Love you all!

Elder Shoemaker

The Mission is Wonderful!

Area:  Lenexa, Kansas      
Companion:  Elder Bradley

Hello Everyone!

This has been a pretty great week!

We were able to teach our new investigating couple that we found a couple weeks ago.  We taught them on Sunday and it went really well. We were able to have a young couple come with us to be a fellowship for them.  The couples names are Lucas and Kelsey and they are in their late 20's.  We are hoping to get them to our ward party on Memorial Day so that they can get some more fellowship and some integration into the ward which will eventually lead them to come to church is the hope.  :).

We had a good lesson with Patty this week as well!  She is the 80 year old investigator that we have been teaching for awhile.  It was a really good breakthrough lesson where we found some really good
concerns that she had.  It was a good eye opener for us to know how to help her.  We are hoping to be able to get her to the independence visitors center in the next coming week or so to help her feel the
spirit and to address her concerns.

We had a wonderful stake correlation this week that went nice and smooth.  :).

We came across some pretty drunk guys this week!  They were a hoot. They had some very interesting things to say... :D

Elder Bradley and I are doing great!  Loving it in Lenexa and enjoying who we are with and where we are at.  I also just had a temple recommend interview from president that went well.  It was really cool to see how much my testimony has grown and those topics of the questions that are asked.  The mission is wonderful!

That is about all I have for ya'll this week.

Love you!

Elder Shoemaker

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 Saturday.  On 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!

Transfer Week!

Area:  Lenexa, Kansas      
Companion:  Elder Bradley


Hiya!

Transfer week brought some great surprises!  My new companion is Elder Bradley from Howell, Utah!  It is a little town by Tremonton, so not to far from us!  What is really cool is that Elder Bradley and myself served in the Kearney ward together for 4 months but with different companions.  Actually, while we were there, Elder Monroe (My companion in Fleming Park) was Elder Bradley's companion.  Small missionary world!  :D. We are way to similar and are having a ton of fun together.  We work well together and we feel that we will be able to accomplish a lot together this transfer and hopefully in more transfers to come!

Elder Torrico and myself had an amazing lesson with a guy named Mauricio that we are now teaching!  He is 21 and is newly engaged. His questions were right on point with our topics and it was really cool to see how the Holy Ghost was leading the conversation.  It is always really great when the investigator can grasp the concepts that we are teaching, it makes things a whole lot easier!  Mauricio understands it logically, our next step with him is to help him understand it in his heart, that is when true conversion will take place.  We taught the restoration and he was amazed with how it all
was put together, he said that it helped him put things into perspective and that things were starting to make sense in his mind. That was a good sign!  The lesson was stopped abruptly when he got a call from his fiancé because he was 45 minutes late to picking her up... But for some reason the Holy Ghost had us talk about prayer and how important that is at the beginning of the lesson instead of at the end, it was amazing to see the lesson unfold.  Probably the best lesson I have had since I have been in this area.  We have a return appointment with him tonight!

This has been a great week getting settled in again with Elder Bradley and trying to get thing flowing here in Lenexa.  This week we found three new investigators, their names are Patty, Lydia (Patty's 10 year old daughter), and Wyatt.  We are pretty excited to go back and teach them come this week!

That's about all that happened this week!  Sorry it's not too long.

Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Shoemaker

Elder Bradley (New Companion) and Elder Shoemaker

Posterity Picture!  Me, My son, My grandson, and Great grandson

The zone just before Transfers!

A Baptism....and bye bye Elder Torrico

Area:  Lenexa, Kansas      
Companion:  Elder Torrico

What a crazy busy week full of news that caught us off guard...  Elder Torrico got a trainers call this past Friday so that means we will be splitting up!  We were only able to be companions for 4 weeks which wasn't enough, but it is what the Lord needs right now.  I am anxious to see who my next companion will be, I'll let you know next week who I am with!

This week we were able to contact two referrals that our investigator that dropped us gave to us.  They were also theology majors and both worked at the same catholic school.  They were really cool!  They are in their mid 20's so we got along really well.  We were able to be really open with each other and they understood everything that we taught which was nice.  They weren't really to interested in coming to church or taking the lessons on consistent basis, but they were grateful for us talking with them and helping them understand more of what we believe.  They were really interested in the Book of Mormon and wanted a copy for themselves.  I also learned a lot about Catholics and what they believe so that was interesting!  We are hoping to be able to go back and teach them sometime soon.

We weren't able to contact Michael this week, which we were bummed about.  :(. We will keep working on trying to get in contact with him.

This week we were able to go on exchanges with some elders in our zone.  I was with an elder who has been out for about 3 months named Elder Christensen.  Great guy and really positive about the work!  We had a couple really cool experiences together while out and about.  We came across this group of young high school kids who all looked an awful lot like Will Smith...(the actor).  We got to know them a bit and then they really started asking some sincere questions.  By the end of it we had been there for an hour and what had started out with 4 kids ended up being 7 kids!  They all wanted copies of the Book of Mormon and we're all interested in learning more about the gospel because they saw how happy we were and how we weren't much older then them.  We are going to continue to try and keep in contact with them.  We also made contact with a new less active family to start working with!  We were really excited about that!

On Saturday I was able to go back to my previous area and see one of my investigators get baptized!  He is a 9 year old boy named Michael who is the nephew of another lady (Amey) that I helped baptized while I was there.  It was so great to see all the ward members and to see him take the next step in his life.  There was a lot of non member family that attended the baptism and some other investigators were brought as well.  It was a very spiritual time for the family and it made a big impact on a lot of the people that attended the baptism.

Saturday as well we were able to make contact with some former investigators that were in our area book.  Their names are TJ and Brianna.  They have a young family and have been taught almost all the lessons before but then just lost interest.  We have a young couple in the ward who knows them so we took them with us over there and it went great!  Our first really lesson with them will be on Wednesday and we are pretty excited about that!

That is pretty much all that has been going on this week!  We are anxious to see what transfers bring.  This time with Elder Torrico has just flown by so quickly!

Peace out, love you all!

Love,
Elder Shoemaker

Being a Missionary is the BEST!

Area:  Lenexa, Kansas      
Companion:  Elder Torrico

Yet another week zooms right on by!  This week his full of adventures and miracles as always, being a missionary is the best!

We had a miracle happen this Tuesday with finding a new investigator through a referral that we received through the church website.  He had entered his name into the church system saying that he wanted to learn more from the missionaries and BAM!  We showed up on his porch. His name is Michael and he has a big family of 5 kids with one on the way with his "baby momma" as he would put it.  When we walked in he was right away interested in what we had to say.  We taught him the restoration and he was very intrigued  with the message that we shared with him and was eager to read from the Book of Mormon.  At the end of the lesson we invited him to pray and he said that he didn't feel comfortable because he felt to weighed down by what he had done and he didn't think that God would want to hear from him.  I walked him through the section in the pamphlet that talked about praying and showed him how easy it was.  We also emphasized how God loves us and does not want to condemn us, we are his children and he wants to hear our prayers.  That seemed to help and he said that he would close our next lesson and he wanted to hear us pray a couple more times before he would try.

Our investigator Kirsten, dropped us last week. :(. That is always a sad text to get, but we move on from that seed planted and try and find the next one that is ready to sow.  We asked her if she had anyone that she knew who would be interested in taking lessons from the missionaries and she came up with two people that she knows who said they wanted to meet with us!  That was an awesome miracle to have.  We are a little concerned however, because her two friends are theologist and we are not quite sure what their intentions are...  We have a meeting with them this Tuesday evening, so we will see what happens there!

This Wednesday we had MLC again!  It rolls around so quickly every time!  I can't believe that it was my 11th MLC that I have had.  There was a really big emphasis on how we need to not just be doing missionary things, but that we need to be becoming a missionary.  It may start with just acting like a missionary in the beginning but as we progress on in our mission it needs to become who we are and who we are becoming.  That is what the 8 hours of training was put into a really tiny nut shell.

We had our zone training the next Friday after MLC and that went really well!  It was such a different experience with these missionaries as they all really wanted to be there and listen and get something out of what we were saying.  It was a nice breathe of fresh air!  We have had multiple companionship's talk/text us about how grateful they were for the training's and that the spirit was so strong for them to learn and absorb what was shared.  They are always a little grueling as we train these missionaries for about 3-3 1/2 hours straight.  Overall, this experience went really well!

We are really struggling with finding solid investigators here in this area.  It seems that most missionaries that have been here in the past really liked to tract and we have little to no results from that.  We are really trying to get this area organized and put back together as far as getting to know each ward member, finding less actives and part member families to work with, and eventually gaining referrals from them!  It is fun mashing all the things I have learned in each one of my areas into this ward and really try and get things rolling!  I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in this area as we work diligently.  :).

That is about all that happened this week!  I am excited to see you all in a month on FaceTime for Mother's Day!  I can't believe that is already sneaking up on us so quickly.  I also can't believe that this will be my last call home before I will be home!  Time is flying by so fast right now it's insane!

Thank you all so much!

Love,
Elder Shoemaker

 One week old puppy....

Couldn't resist holding this Gecko...........

Here is some of our zone, some left early from zone training so they missed the picture. 

Can you spot me?