Serving the Lord in the Land Down Under: Letter #64 from Australia

October 9, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

What a fantastic week it has been here in Melbourne Australia! I had a week full of inspiration and received so much personal revelation straight from my loving Father in Heaven. This past week we had our monthly Mission Leadership Council meeting and it was great. President Vidmar is the man and he is trying his best to make the work a lot more successful in the Melbourne area. He has a lot of great ideas and has implemented a lot of great things that have already helped the work move forward! It is such a blessing to be able to serve with him and to be in these leadership meetings with him. I have already learned so much and I can't wait to continue to learn even more!

We also had the amazing blessing to be able to watch General Conference this weekend and I can't even begin to describe how much I loved it!

General Conference is the best and the way that I would describe this General Conference for me is like this. It is as if Heavenly Father just dumped a huge bucket of personal revelation right on my head for 10 solid hours!!! haha I not only learned heaps from the speakers but also from the Spirit, which is the most important teacher of all. I can't even begin to decide which speaker or talk was my favorite, but what I will do is just share a couple of the thought and notes that I took. Because I don't think all of you would like to sit here and read all of the notes that I took during the conference sessions, especially because I took over 20 pages...hah! So this will just be a couple of the main topics or points that stood out to me the most.

- Sometimes, we may not pay attention to His voice, but He will always pay attention to ours.

- The Book of Mormon is the Keystone to our religion, but is it the Keystone to my testimony and main source of strength?

- I must make the Savior a more real part of my life in order to have more joy.

- "We come to know the Lord as we serve in His kingdom and labour in His vineyard."

Overall, the main topics of this General Conference, at least I thought, were the importance of The Book of Mormon, the first three lessons that we teach as missionaries, (The Restoration of the Gospel, The Plan of Salvation, and The Gospel of Jesus Christ) and repentance. I loved all of the sessions and learned so much for myself. I would highly recommend that we do exactly what we all agreed to do when we said "amen" after the closing prayer; hopefully all of you were listening to what you said "amen" too. What was said in the final closing prayer was, "we all commit to review these talks and the thoughts that were shared over the course of the next 6 months." I challenge and remind all of you to do this because this is now our most current scripture! So read them over and over again so that you can continue to receive revelation and guidance from our loving Father in Heaven.

Like the quote that I shared above says, I too, as I have been serving in His Kingdom and Vineyard, have come to know my Savior Jesus Christ. Before my mission, I knew about Him and knew of Him, but I did not truly know Him. I do not truly know Him now, but as I have served my mission up to this point, I have come to know my Savior Jesus Christ. I hope that all of you have a great week and keep up the great work! If you missed any of the sessions, go online and read, watch or listen to them, and even if you viewed all of them, go back and do it again! I love you all and wish you all the best for this week! Stay happy, stay safe, and know that Heavenly Father loves you personally.

Sincerely,

Elder Bryce Wheeler