Letter #71 from Australia

November 27, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

          This week was an all right one for us and it was again full of some great miracles! We spent a lot of days out of our area helping some missionaries, but the Lord still blessed our area nonetheless. We were able to spend Thanksgiving Day in the Temple here in Melbourne because it just so happened that our assigned temple day as a zone, fell on Thanksgiving Day! I was so thankful for this small and tender mercy from the Lord. I was able to have an amazingly spiritual experience while in the temple. I decided to pore out my heart to my Father in Heaven and give him thanks for everything and everyone that I have in my life. It turned out to be so uplifting and probably one of the most amazing experiences that I have ever had in the temple! 

           Our investigators are all doing fantastic and I know that all of your prayers are helping them so much! So thank you to all of you for that! We had to move Michael's date to the 24th of December, because of him not being able to make it to church yet. So nobody is set to be baptized this weekend, which is okay! We are still working with Dyon for the 10th and Gabrielle for the 17th and both of them are looking really promising for those days! So hopefully all goes well and they can be baptized! My companions and I are doing great too! Elder Lawler is teaching me some Aussie slang phrases and words and Elder Levaci is adjusting well to his new life as a missionary! Overall, the Lord is with us in this work and I am so glad and grateful to be apart of it!

          I hope all of you enjoyed your Thanksgiving and were able to give thanks for everything and everyone that you have in your life! I know that if we are thankful to our Father in Heaven throughout our life, He will continue to bless us with whatever we stand in need of! I am so thankful for the knowledge that I have that comes for being a member of Christ's church! I love this gospel and I know that it is true. I am so grateful for my family. For everything that they do for me, for being my rock and my support, and for helping me to get to where I am today! I don't know where I would be without them in my life, but I do know that without them, I have nothing, but with them in my life, I have everything that I could ever need! I am grateful for the knowledge that I have that my family is forever and that no matter what happens here on Earth, nothing can separate me from my family. I am grateful for my friends and all that they have done for me and all that they continue to do for me! I am grateful for my Father in Heaven and for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that they live, they love us, and they know us all by name! 

          I love you all so much and hope that you have a great week! Stay safe, stay grateful, and remember to read your scriptures and say your prayers! 

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Me, Elder Levaci and Elder Lawler at the temple!

My zone in front of the temple!

This is T.J. who is a member in our ward! He is a barber and has cut some
really famous people's hair throughout his life including, Bruno Mars, T.I., and a
whole lot more professional singers, athletes and actors. Well this is a picture of us
with him after he cut our hair last Monday! Pretty cool huh?

Letter #70 from Australia

November 20, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

          It still amazes me how involved I am in the work of the Lord. This week we saw so many miracles and were able to accomplish a lot of work! It seemed like every time we turned around, Heavenly Father was blessing us with a new investigator or someone accepting the invitations to be baptized. It was a truly amazing and blessed week! So thank you to all of you who have and continue to pray for us missionaries around the world! You too are involved in this great work! 

          Elder Wilson left the area on Tuesday and for the rest of the day it was just Elder Lawler and I. It was weird at first because it has been over a month since I was just in a regular two-person companionship. But that didn't last long at all cause on Wednesday we picked up our son! Ha. So in the mission field, if you are a trainer you call your trainee your son or daughter, depending on if you are Elders or Sisters. His name is Elder Levaci (Le-va-thee) and he is from Suva, Figi. He is 20 years old and is such a gun missionary! All he wants to do is work hard and teach people, which is great because we did a lot of that this week! There is a saying in the mission field that new missionaries, or Goldens, as they are called here, bring miracles, and I now have a testimony of that! 

          We were able to find so many new investigators this week and all of them are really solid when it comes to them wanting to learn more. We were able to invite three more of our investigators to be baptized this week, they said yes, and so we now have 7 of our investigators preparing to be baptized in the coming weeks and month. We have Michael preparing for the 3rd of December, Dyon preparing for the 10th, Gabrielle preparing for the 17th and then we have Moni & Bhim and Ganga & Bir preparing for the 7th of January! We are really excited for all of them and can't wait to keep helping them all to prepare to make this sacred covenant with their Heavenly Father! I am so excited for this transfer and for the great work that the Lord has in store for us! 

          I hope that all of you are having a great week and keep up the great things that you are all doing! Keep looking for opportunities to share the gospel with those around you! I miss and love you all and hope that you enjoy Thanksgiving and remember all that you are thankful for! Have a blessed and great week!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Here is a picture of our district! Elder Levaci is the one in between me and Elder Lawler! 

Walked in a pretty cool alley that is known for its graffiti art!

Went to the city last Monday! Had a fun time walking along the Murray River!!

Letter #69 from Australia

November 13, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

          What a great week it has been! I feel like I saw that a lot in my emails and you probably are thinking that there is no way that every week is great, but you would be false! Every week is so great when you are serving our Father in Heaven and sharing the best news ever! The news of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! Well a lot of updates and changes happened this week and so there is a little bit to inform you all with! First off, Elder Halsey made it home safe and sound this past week! He left on Tuesday and although it was sad to see him off, it was great because Elder Lawler came into the area! He is the man!!! He is a full blown, true blue Aussie! He is from Brisbane, Queensland and is a bogan! For those who don't know what that is, it is the Australia term for what we call a redneck. But like I said, he is way cool! He has been out for about 9 months and was trained by Elder Richard Long, from North Ogden! He is my first Aussie companion and so I am keen to learn all of the Aussie lingo from him! If I have a full blown Aussie accent for my Christmas Skype call, you will know why!

          We found out transfer news on Sunday morning and I am staying another transfer in Greenvale with Elder Lawler. But sadly, Elder Wilson will be leaving us and heading to a new area. I am so keen to stay in Greenvale another transfer, especially with Elder Lawler. This will be my sixth transfer in this area and so by the end of this one, it will be a grand total of 9 1/2 months in the Greenvale ward! I love it here, so it doesn't even seem like that long! We also were asked by President Vidmar to train a new missionary! So that was exciting news! I have never trained before, let alone trained a new missionary while being a zone leader, but overall, I am excited! Our new "greenie", or "golden" as they call them in this mission, will be getting into Australia on Wednesday and so we will pick him up then! All in all, I am so stoked for this next transfer! 

          The work is going extremely well in the area and we have 4 investigators on date for baptism within the next month! We started teaching Gabrielle again this week, and we invited her to be baptized on the 17th of December and she said yes! Michael is really making some solid progress and is super excited for his baptism. All that needs to happen now is he needs to come to church! Moni and Bhim are doing really well and are now on date for the 31st of December. They too just need to come to church! All I can ask is that you pray for our investigators to keep commitments that we leave them to do. I know that that is something that you all already do, so I am so grateful for that! I will inform you all on the new companion and stuff next week! I love you all and hope that you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Bye Elder Halsey!!

Elder Lawler is the tall blonde in the grey suit behind the sisters on the 

right side!  This was taken at a zone meeting we had this week!

How the Australian news feels about Trump...haha​

Another one!...

Letter #68 from Australia

November 6, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

          This week has flown by and it is crazy to think that we are already in November!!! It seems just like yesterday, it was January? Where has the time gone? Well, Elder Halsey had his last week on his mission, this past week, and heads home this Wednesday. It is sad to seem him go, but he has finished his mission and is excited to see his family again. This week we had our monthly Mission Leadership Council meeting as well as Zone Conference. They were both great meetings and I really enjoyed them. Of course seeing all of my missionary friends is a plus to it too! The work in the area is going great and we found a new investigator this week named Michael.

          Michael was a referral from the Samoan-speaking Sister in our zone. They found him and they passed him on to us cause he lives in our area. He is 21 years old and is half Samoan and half Cook Islander. We met him and had a short lesson with him on Thursday, which went really well. Then we visited him again on Saturday and taught him about the Restoration. It made a lot of sense to him and at the end of the lesson; we invited him to be baptized on the 3rd of December. He agreed and is really excited to be baptized. We will continue to work with him and help him to find out for himself that this is the true church. Things are looking great for Michael. 

          We also have been working with a Less-Active family named the Fuentes Family. I think that I have mentioned them before. Well they have been taking the temple preparation classes and have been coming to church the past few weeks. They are doing really well and are making huge strides towards the temple so they can be sealed as a family. Thinks are looking great for them and their family. 

           The work is going really well in the area and I am so happy to be able to be apart of it. Transfers are on the 15th of this month, but we already know who is staying and who is leaving. When Elder Halsey leaves on this Wednesday, I will continue to serve with Elder Wilson, but Elder Lawler will join us. He will be the new zone leader with me in the area. He is from Queensland Australia and is an outstanding missionary. I know him really well and can't wait to begin serving with him. Well at transfer time, Elder Wilson will be leaving the area and will be heading to a new area with his new companion. President wasn't planning on having him stay with us for more than one transfer. It will be sad to see them go, but I am happy to be staying in the area for another 6 weeks! It means that I will be in this area for my Birthday and Christmas! I can't wait! I love this area and I am more than happy and keen to stay in it for 9 months! Haha. All is well and the work continues to move forward! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

P.S. Huge Shout Out to my older sister Shae and my brother-in-law Colten who both celebrated their 23rd Birthday this past week! I love you both so much and am so grateful for the amazing examples that you are to me! 

P.S.S. Another Huge Shout Out to my cousin Morgen who returned home this past week from her mission! Congrats on serving well and returning with honor!!! Love you! 

Found some graffiti in our area! Pretty great quote on the wall though! haha

Hah...my companions...

Love the view from our area!

The Weber High Boys are back together again!

This is what our Halloween consisted of...The sisters in our zone called us at
9 pm saying they needed help at their flat. We drove over there to find it was
all a trap for them to scare us. Yay Halloween...

The boys at a Family Home Evening! Loving FHE!!!