Letter #14 from Australia

October 25, 2015

Dear all of you,

          What an amazing week it has been. As you all know from last weeks email, Elder Kelsch has been transferred and I am staying in Wangaratta. But here is some news that I didn't mention last week. Elder Kelsch is serving as a Zone Leader in Tasmania and his companion is his trainer!! So cool! Usually you are asked to be a District Leader and then a Zone Leader, but he went straight to a Zone Leader. And you usually don't serve with a missionary twice, especially your trainer, but he is. So that is all some pretty exciting and cool news. My new companion is Elder Ariki (Adiki) Solomon. He is from Hamilton, New Zealand and he is Moari (Moadi), which are the native people in New Zealand. He has been out for 6 months and thought his last area, which was in the city, was bush;) haha. So he has now learned what is really considered bush:) He is a great missionary and a great guy and I can't wait to get to know him and to serve with him!!!

          So a little sadder news...we had to move the baptism to this Saturday, the 31st. They had a family party early on Saturday so they were not able to make it all work. So we will be holding the baptism on Halloween!! That will be a pretty cool day and definitely one to remember!! The girls are so excited though and they can't wait for Saturday!! We also talked this week with Jason and Reagan about holding the wedding at the church for free. We had mentioned it before but they hadn't made a final decision so we thought we would bring it up again. We also talked to them about being baptized!! So we might be holding a wedding/baptism some time soon, which would be so cool!!! We will keep working with them though and I will keep you all updated on how it is going. 

          We went tracting on Thursday with Elder Murray (the senior missionary working in our area) because his wife has gotten a knee transplant so she can't walk and do any missionary work. He has asked us to let him come with us these next few weeks because he hates sitting at home and doing nothing! While we were out tracting we met this boy named Seth. He was just walking home from his friend’s house and he started talking to us. He told us that he is 12 and that he goes to church at 'Enjoy Church'. He told us that he lives with his older brother and his fiancé because when he was little, his parents left him. He told us that because his brother and his fiancé aren't too religious, he walks to church every Sunday. Which is crazy because 'Enjoy Church' is all the way on the other side of town from where he lives!! We told him a little bit about our church and gave him a Book of Mormon. We invited him to church on Sunday and then he had to go. Sunday morning came and around 9:15 (45 mins before our meetings start) he showed up and starting knocking on the door. Luckily Elder Murray was there and let him in. He is so keen and already believes in God and Jesus Christ. We are going this week to start teaching him and to see if we can teach his older brother and his fiancé!! 

          Miracles are happening here in Wangaratta and it is so cool to be right in the middle of the work! I love being a missionary and love all of the challenges and blessings that come from serving. I hope that you are all having a great week and have an even better week. Enjoy Halloween and don't eat too many sweets;) I love you all and miss you heaps!!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Last crazy selfie with Elder Kelsch. On the way to transfers.

Me, Elder Kelsch and Elder Solomon at Transfer Meeting. 

The MTC crew is back. (minus Elder Porter) All of us are now in Australia.
This was at transfer meeting.

Brother Shore was baptized this weekend. He is the man that Elder Porter
and I helped out about two months ago while I was on exchanges up in Albury.
What a great day!!

Absolutely beautiful sunsets in the land down under.
This is like a regular nightly thing for us in the bush:)