Letter #92 from Australia

April 23, 2017

Dear Family & Friends,

What an exciting week it has been here in the land of the Aussies! We had a great week as a companionship and we are now in a quad companionship! You all will probably remember Elder Solomon, my second companion in the mission! Well he leaves this Friday to go home, as his mission is now done! Well his companion went home last week, and so he needed someone to be with for his final week! So President put him with us, as we were the closest missionaries to him! So it is now the four of us! It is a lot of fun and we just split up into two companionships and we get to do twice the amount of work than before! So overall, it was a great tender mercy from the Lord!

On Wednesday, just this one past, we had a special visitor from the Church! Elder Steven Snow of the Seventy came with his wife to do a small visit to the mission! He is the Church's History Department Recorder and he came to do a small Church History presentation to us missionaries while he was down here in Melbourne finding out and recording some of the Church's history here in Australia! He only did the presentation to three zones and we were one of the lucky zones to be selected! It was really cool and both him and his wife and Brother Nelson, the assistant church history recorder, spoke to us all about the History of the church! Then we had a Q&A session with him and it was really cool! Got a lot of cool answers on some questions about church history! 

Other than that, it was a pretty normal week! We helped the office clean an old missionary flat, which was the flat in Lilydale, which was my second area! hah So that was fun! We had interviews with President Vidmar and of course the topic of that was, my plans for when I get home! -_- ha It was a great interview though and I love President Vidmar so much! It was a weird and funny interview as well! Usually when you say the closing prayer after an interview with President, there really isn't anything more talked about! You just hug him and then leave his office, but this time President threw a big curve ball...After the prayer, he looked at me and asked, "Elder Wheeler, do you have a girlfriend waiting for you?" haha It surprised me, but was funny at the same time! Of course I told him that I don't, but that my mum and my sisters are the only girls waiting for me at home! haha 

I hope that you all have a great week and keep up the great work! I love you all and miss you so much! This week, I gained a testimony on the power that comes behind being obedient! There is a reason why we have rules and commandments in life! I have always loved this quote, "Commandments are an expression of God's love for us, and our obedience to those commandments are an expression of our love for God!" Keep being obedient to God's commandments and I promise you all that choosing the harder right over the easier wrong, although at the time it might not seem like it, in the end it will be worth it! I love you all! 

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Sunday night dinner with President and Sister Vidmar!
Love them heaps!

Just a sports card of my Olympian Mission President!
haha Saw it on his desk!

Cooked...again...haha We have now over 25 pictures of
Elder Watanabe asleep!!

Just a selfie with Elder Fackrell, well Mckay now! He was a
missionary here and finished in March, but now he is just back on holiday and we saw him while street contacting!

Me with my two mission sons and my two mission husbands! haha
While training both Elder Levaci, to the right of me, and Elder Watanabe,
to the left of me, I was dubbed as the Mum in the companionship! haha 

Letter #91 from Australia

April 17, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

HAPPY EASTER to you all! I hope that you have enjoyed this wonderful time that we have had to remember, honor and give great praise for our Savior, Jesus Christ! I have truly gained a greater love for Jesus Christ while being on my mission and serving Him and the wonderful people of Australia! We have been blessed this week to find two new investigators in our area! I love teaching people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and helping them to find out for themselves, the truthfulness of it! One of our new investigators is a man by the name of Mo! He is from Nigeria and was referred to us from the City Elders! He is so keen to learn more and has been prepared by Heavenly Father to accept our message! He told us that he wants to know so badly if what we are teaching him is true! He is currently praying to know if it is true and if he should be baptized! 

The City Elders taught him once already, before referring him to us and he understood the Restoration so well, that when we asked what he remembered, he began teaching us the whole message! We are so grateful for this amazing miracle and hopefully; all will continue to work out with Mo!

I just wanted to share a small testimony on Jesus Christ, as we remembered Him this past Easter Weekend. I have had many witnesses in my life of Jesus Christ and all that He has done for me, individually and for all of mankind, collectively. But the most amazing witness that I have gained and seen is the ability that He has to be able to change someone completely. I have witnessed His Atonement heal someone who has been broken, help someone through the darkest nights and enabled someone to have a mighty change of heart! The person who I am speaking of is, myself. I can truly say that I have been changed by my Savior and by His Atonement while serving Him. I know that He can and will help all those who come unto Him! He has given us the promise, time and time again, that if we will come to Him, we can be made whole! Our burdens can and will be made lighter and He will truly help us to change into someone better than we were before! I know that no matter what we are going through in life, He understands what we are feeling and He can help us! Family and friends, the tomb is empty! I know it is! He lived, died, and lived again, for us! So that we too can live again and be made whole, even as He was!

I hope that all of you enjoyed the time to reflect upon our Savior, Jesus Christ and all that He has done for you! I love you all and I miss you all so much! Stay strong and choose now, if you already haven't, to allow the Savior into your life and allow Him to make you whole again! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Dropping off surprise Easter gifts for the members!

Members took us to a chocolate factory for Pday! Yum!

A meter long of chocolate! haha, he is happy!

Free chocolate! :)

Happy Easter!

Fun day at the chocolate factory with the Prentice family!

They didn't see the sign above them that says..."Cars Only!" haha

Letter #90 from Australia

April 9, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

So this past week was a great one for my companions and me and we were able to get a lot of finding in! We are just trying our best to find people to teach in our area and we have had little success, but are keeping our spirits high and our work effort even higher! We did a lot of cool stuff this past week and so I will inform you about all of it! On Monday, last week, after we emailed home, our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Scanlan, decided to take us to COSTCO to do our shopping! They have 3 Costco’s here in Melbourne and the surrounding areas and it is such a great blessing to have one in our area! Well, long story short, we spent a lot of money on a lot of things. Both the ones that we needed and the ones that we wanted!  Elder Watanabe told us as we were leaving the store with our piled high shopping trolley, that he was learning a lot about "American Culture", cause we just bought a lot of stuff! Haha. He is such a crack up!

We were called this past week to go help clean the Melbourne Temple because we are so close to it! It has been closed for the past two weeks for the yearly cleaning time and we were so lucky and privileged to be able to help out! Well, it doesn't end there...we were talking with the cleaning coordinator for the temple and Elder Wiser decided to ask him if they ever cleaned the Angel Moroni on the top of the temple. The guy said that they do and asked us if we wanted to do it...so of course we said yes! They only clean Angel Moroni once a year and we were the lucky few to be able to do it! Basically we had to climb up the stair well to the roof of the temple, then free climb our way up to the bottom of the spire, while dragging a power washer up with us, and then attach a 30-foot long brush to the machine! It was so cool and so much fun, and also a little scary! But overall, it was such a cool experience being able to clean the spire of the temple and the Angel Moroni up on top! 

We had a really fun zone p-day today and spent the morning going on a hike to Olinda Falls in the pouring rain...haha Melbourne winter...and then went to a roller skating rink! Overall it was a lot of fun and my legs are really tired! 

I don't have a lot of time, but I just wanted to put in a little message of my thoughts from General Conference this past week! I LOVED IT SO MUCH AND IT WAS SO GOOD! I love hearing from the Prophet and the Apostles! I learnt so much great things from their words and from the Spirit! I can't pick a favorite, but I loved how the whole conference was so basic with the messages that were shared! There was not a lot of deep doctrine, but there were a lot of the foundation principles that we believe in and I thought that was so good! I love how we can hear what our Father in Heaven wants us to do and how we can improve our lives through His gospel! Overall, I have a lot, and I mean A LOT to work on and A LOT more things to focus my studies on! I love the scriptures, I love this gospel, and I love my Father in Heaven and His son and my Savior, Jesus Christ! I love and miss you all and hope that you have a great week!

Love always,

Elder Wheeler

Beautiful Costco!

Exchanges with the Assistants! All of us came into
the mission together! The time has gone by so fast!

On the top of the Melbourne Temple!!!

Just doing some cleaning on the spire!!

Up and up we go!!!

Giving Angel Moroni a good clean!!!

The zone after our wet and fun hike!

Just some roller blading on our P-day!

You already know that Elder Wiser and I went hard! haha 

Okay, one last one before we go!