Elder Braxton Shoemaker

Week 35: LA CONFERENCIA GENERAL

Wow! What a dang good weekend! 10 hours of just awesomeness! I hope everyone found time to listen to the words of a Prophet and others from this weekend. General Conference as a missionary really is a special thing, but I know it really can be special for anyone who is listening with the Spirit and desire to learn!

I saw lots of themes and takeaways from this weekend...probably more than anything, the focus on the family and home! I hope we all take a minute now that we've heard these talks, about how we can strengthen our families and homes. The conference serves us nothing if we don't take time to change ourselves from it and become better!

One of the talks that I truly loved was from Tad R. Callister. He spoke concerning the Atonement, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us. His analogy was perfect...that a foolish man jumped from an airplane, and as he was in the air, he began to regret it. He began asking the law of Gravity to change for him. He said he was scared, or regretted it, or promised he would never do it again.,,but none of that mattered. The law of Gravity would stay in effect, and he was going to fall to his death. But then he realized his friend had slapped a parachute on his back...he pulled the string and safely fell to the ground unharmed, and the law of Gravity was still intact and had not been broken. It is the same with all of us. There is a law of Heaven, that no unclean thing can stand before God. All of us have erred in our lives, and because of that, we are unworthy to return to our Heavenly Father. But God, being perfectly loving, prepared a plan...a parachute...to save Us. The plan stays intact, we will not stand before God until our sins have been wiped clean from the Atonement of Jesus Christ. And thus, Christ is the mediator for us, and answers the end of the law on our behalf.

I know the Atonement is real. I have felt it and used in my life...and I have never experienced that kind of happiness from any other source in my life. I would invite everyone to take advantage of the Gift that Christ so painfully gave to Us, so that you may come to taste of the pure joy that comes from repentance. Im so grateful to represent my Savior for two years and carry His name wherever I go and invite others to come unto Him through the power of the Atonement. Que aprovechemos el don de la Expiaciòn.

Braxton with his mission buddies Elder Weed (from Wisconsin)
and Elder Moser (from Arizona).
He captioned this picture "Starstruck thinking about our
lives after General Conference."