Letter #82 from Australia

February 12, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

So this week was both a hard one and a great one! So hard because I finally had to leave my Greenvale Family! Monday was my last full day in the area and so it was hard to go around visiting the members and saying my final goodbyes! I will miss that area and the ward! It is such a great place to serve in and I will always hold it dear to my heart!

Well Tuesday brought transfers and some unexpected news! Not only am I companions with my Best Friend from back at home, Elder Wiser, but we are also companions with Elder Shreeve! He has been out for about 6 months and he is from Idaho! But bad news... so the main reason why he was put with Elder Wiser and me is because he is going home this week for medical reasons! Because he is 6'8" he has a lot of knee problems and on the mission he hurt his knees playing sport. Well they have gotten so back that we will need surgery to fix them, so he will be coming home to have the surgery! It has been a great week with him and Elder Wiser! We all were moved to the area, so we have no idea for anything! So we are all starting from the beginnings here in the Doncaster area! We all get along so great and we are always laughing with or at each other! haha 

It will be sad to see Elder Shreeve leave us, but we are praying that he will be back soon! 

Elder Wiser is the man and being his companion is the biggest dream come true! We get along so well, of course and it is so cool serving with one of your best friends from back home! We have slipped a couple of times and called each other by our first names haha, but that is just expected when that is all I have known him by since we were little. Getting moved into a new area is always a scary thing, but it made it better by having a friendly and familiar face as your comp. 

Now, let me tell you a little about the area and ward! Doncaster is the name of our area, but we cover other areas like Ringwood, Box Hill and Nunawading. The area is very close to the city and super close, like 5 minutes away from the Temple and the mission office. There are no Samoan people my new area...haha so all of the Samoan that I know, doesn't help me at all. I now need to brush up on my Chinese because there are so many Chinese people! Like SOOO many! Ha. It is really cool and I am excited to be able to be in a new area and experience new things and meet new people! The ward is an Aussie and Chinese ward. There are about 100-150 members that actively come to church each week! The members are really cool and they have welcomed us into the ward already! The work here in the area is at a stand still. There are about 2 investigators that the past missionaries were working with, but they aren't really progressing, so we have a lot of groundwork to do in the area. This past week was filled with cleaning the flat, organizing all of the area book records and meeting all of the members on the Ward Council! (You know, just the basic things you need to do when you get transferred to a new area) All in all it was a great week and we are so excited for the work that we will do this transfer! 

I hope you all have a great week and keep up the great work that you are engaged in! I miss you and I love you all so much! Stay safe, stay happy and remember to read your scriptures and say your prayers! 

Love,

Elder Wheeler 

Perks of living 8 mins away from the Temple! haha

Selfie with Elder Wiser, Albrechtsen and Chappell! All of us
from the same MTC room and intake! Now we are all grown up!

So the flat that we live in is made out of concrete! So this past
week when it was 38 degrees celsius  (100 degrees Fahrenheit)
outside, it was 43 degrees celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit) inside.
So we went to Macca's for our weekly planning session and we
all drank a lot of shakes...hahah

Elder Howell went home this past week! Back to North Ogden!
But here is a picture that we took before he left...WEBER!!!