Letter #89 from Australia

April 2, 2017

Dear Family & Friends,

I don't have a lot of time left before we have to head off and keep the work continuing, so this might be a little shorter than most of my emails to you all. But I will send lots of pictures and will try my best to include a lot of short cool information for you all! So this week went by really fast and we found a lot of success in the work! On Tuesday, while we were street contacting, Elder Wiser talked with and eventually taught a Chinese gentleman by the name of Charles. Well Charles is going through a divorce right now and came down from Darwin, a city in Northern Territory (so not in our mission boundaries, but at the top of Australia!) to get some things taken care of for his divorce. Well he has been really struggling and loved what Elder Wiser talked with him about, so he asked to meet up with us the next day! Well long story short, we taught him Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then twice on Friday! He is so keen and loves the gospel and all that we have taught him! Sadly, he is heading back to Darwin tomorrow, but will be meeting with the missionaries up there and will be baptized!:) It was so cool to see him progress so quickly! 

We also met another new investigator named Manashe who is from Sydney! We taught her a lesson on Saturday and she loved learning about the Gospel as well! Overall, we are finding more and more success and more and more people to teach in our area! The work is going so well and I love my mission so much! It is crazy how I still love doing this work even after doing it for almost 22 months! Crazy how fast the time goes by! I love this work, I love my companions so much and I love this Gospel and the change that it has on others as well as me! Elder Watanabe is doing really well and is adjusting to the new life as a full-time missionary! haha

Stay safe and enjoy all of the great things that you are all doing in your life right now! I can't wait to watch General Conference this next week and hear all of the great council from the Prophet and Apostles! Have a great week and know that I love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Haha and we are working Elder Wiser to death too! ha

So this is a picture of the home screen for the Easter Campaign
on mormon.org. So the Chinese girl that is in the second circle
from the left, she is in my ward here in Australia! Her name
is Amelia Wong! How cool huh!?

Train track selfie!:)

Just hanging out by the train tracks! Where all the cool
missionary kids hang!

Haha he falls asleep whenever he gets the chance!

The Zone at Zone Conference! #MightyMaroondahZone

Haha we are working Elder Watanabe to death! haha

When you hang out with your Mission President on P-Day,
you see a different side of him than usual!...haha
#HeIsAnOlympicGoldMedalist

Letter #88 from Australia

March 26, 2017

Dear Family & Friends,

I don't have a lot of time left, so if I don't email you back personally, don't get offended! I am really rushed today! Anyways, this week has been a really fun one for my companions and me! We were officially joined with Elder Watanabe (Wa-ta-na-bae) this past Thursday and he is the man! He is 21 years old and is from Japan! His English is really good because he studied at BYU Hawaii for 1 year before he came out on his mission! He is a great missionary and is really good at everything! Honest! He is a break-dancer and a boss at everything that he does! We are so excited to be with him and know that we will all be able to find great success serving in the Lord's vineyard! This week has been a lot of fun though and it is scary how fast these weeks keep going by! Hard to believe that we are less than 100 days right now! I don't like thinking about it so that is the last about that! 

Anyway, we had a really cool miracle this week. So in my last ward, Greenvale, a sister left on her mission to California, serving in the Oakland-San Francisco mission! Well this past week we got a call from a random number and it ended up being from the Church's referral department! And on the other line was the same sister! She told us that she had been teaching a girl online with her companion for the past couple of weeks due to the investigator being to shy to meet with us in person! Well the investigator is finally ready to meet in person and so that is why the Sister missionary called us! It was cool to talk with her and so crazy how it all worked out and that the investigator just so happens to live in our area! We are hoping to meet up with her soon so we can begin teaching her! 

Just on a spiritual side, I wanted to end my email today with a thought that I have been studying about a lot lately! It is this, Do you know about Christ? or Do you know Christ? I have been thinking about my personal relationship with Christ and how I want it to be a lot stronger! In 1 Nephi 2, Lehi talks to Laman and Lemuel, and tries to teach them about Christ and His doctrine. But in verse 12 it says that they did not listen, nor believe, because they KNEW NOT!!! I would ask you all to ask yourself, is my relationship with Christ a Personal one? or just a knowing about Him? Please begin now, if you already haven't, to grow a personal relationship with him! Because at the end of the day, "this is life eternal, that they may KNOW thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent." Please come to KNOW Him! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Elder Babneau leaving the mission! One last photo before he goes! 

Me, Elder Wiser and our new son...ELDER WATANABE!!!!!

It has been a long first week for him! Hahaha

Letter #87 from Australia

March 19, 2017

Dear Family & Friends,

What a great final week of the transfer it has been! I have loved serving in this area for the past 6 weeks and have greatly enjoyed serving with Elder Wiser! But we got transfer news yesterday and ELDER WISER AND I WILL BE STAYING TOGETHER!!!!!!! We are staying here in the Doncaster area and will continue to serve as companions! But wait, there's more! As if it couldn't get any better...WE ARE TRAINING A NEW ELDER TOGETHER!!!!! We are so excited to be having a mission "son" together and we are such proud parents! Our son is due this Thursday and we will pick him up then!!!:) Haha I can't believe it still, but we are both so happy! It was really weird starting a new transfer and realizing that we both only have 2 transfers left, 12 weeks, on our missions! But it just drives us and motivates us to get out and do the best that we can with the time we have left! Let's SMASH IT!!!!!! 

It was a great week and we had lots of miracles happen. So first off, just a little more info on Natalie from my email last week! She was an investigator that I taught in my last area with Elder Lawler and Levaci. She was baptized last Saturday and she invited me to come! It was so cool to see her make that sacred covenant with her Heavenly Father and she told us afterwards that she shouldn't have waited this long to be baptized! It was a great day! Well this week we had two members from our ward call us up and tell us that they would be bringing their non-member friends to church on Sunday, yesterday. Well we were so happy and pumped to be able to meet them and they both are so keen! Bron and Stephen are their names! Bron is an older Aussie lady who just ate up the Plan of Salvation when we taught it to her at church. And Stephen is a Chinese university student who loved church and said his first prayer in Elders Quorum class! We have appointments with both of them this week and we can't wait to teach them more about the gospel!

On Saturday, Elder Wiser and I attended the baptism of some investigators within the zone to support the missionaries in their great efforts! Well for one of the baptisms, the Sister missionaries decided to ask us to do a musical number for the baptism and sing, "When I am Baptized" from the primary hymnbook! Well we said yes, still don't know why, and we did it. We were both so nervous, even though there was only like 25 people there, and we did terrible! Haha, everyone told us that we did good, but my voice was shaky as but Elder Wiser carried us for the song, so it was good! haha Overall, we learnt a valuable lesson, when the Sisters ask you to sing at a baptism, say no! haha

I hope that you all have a great week and keep up the great work! I love you all so much and miss you heaps! Take care and keep reading your scriptures! 

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Here is a picture of me and Elder Wiser with Elijah and Nora Costigan!
He is the member of our ward that went out Street Contacting with us
last Sunday! They are the best and we love them so much! They are always
so willing to help us out with anything!

Here is a picture with the Rode-Bremanis Family!
A great and super fun family in our ward! 

The sisters pranked us this week...ha not funny...

Letter #86 from Australia

March 13, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has gone by so fast and it seems like it was just yesterday that we were emailing home. First off, I just wanted to explain why I didn't email you all yesterday. It was Labor Day here in Australia and just like all of the public holidays here, they all land on a Monday! So the libraries are closed and because of that, we can't email home until today, our Tuesday. So that is why none of you received an email from me. So don't think that I am ignoring you or that I am dead. I am very much alive and am doing just great!! Elder Wiser and I are finding a lot more success in the area and are so happy about the work right now! I have a lot of cool miracles to share with you all, so hopefully I have enough time to tell them all to you. 

So like I said the past couple of weeks, we don't really have any investigators that we are teaching right now in the area, but we have been keeping our expectations high and our work effort even higher. We have been fasting and praying so much that we would find people to teach. Which is a great thing because we not only are showing the Lord our desire to find people to teach, but I am also loosing a lot of weight with it as well. haha Well on Sunday, we decided to fast again for the opportunity to find people to teach. Well after church, we had no set appointments until 6:30, so we decided that we would go street contacting for 4 hours straight! It was so much fun cause one of the members in our ward, Brother Costigan an RM, asked us at church if he could come out with us for the whole day. Well we worked our hardest and talked to everyone and in the 4 hours, we found 17 potential investigators! It was a huge miracle and it was so amazing to see that they Lord truly helped us and blessed us so that we would be able to find all of those prepared individuals! It was a great day! 

We have been helping a lot of less active members in our ward too and we had another great miracle. On Sunday, a member who has been less active for 3 years, came to church for the first time in that 3 years! She said that she really felt the spirit and she even decided to stay for the full 3 hours! We were so happy and we are really seeing a lot of success with the less active members that we have been working with! I love this area and I love being able to serve with Elder Wiser. Transfers are next week, I know, it went by so fast huh? And we are really hoping that we will get to stay together for one more transfer, but we have a feeling that one of us will be transferred, but you never know, so we will just have to see! But at the end of the day, "We will go where you want us to go dear Lord." ha I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Also, I saved the best of all for last...A HUGE HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO MY BEST FRIEND AND SISTER NICOLE!!!!! I love you so much Coley, and hope that you had a great week and a great birthday! 18 years old and now an official adult!;) haha 

Love you all,

Elder Wheeler

Zone P-day! Laser Tag!!!

Elder Wiser and I decided to be a little more unified with each
other and make companion t-shirts! Reppin the Pleasant View
and the 801!!! #PVPride

So it was $1 Bring Your Own Cup at 7-11 this past week 

for Slurpees! We went hard and crashed even hard! 

Sugar overload! But it was worth it! ha

President gave us a new car since our old one wasn't "cool" 

or "fast" enough! Ha I guess this one will have to do for now...;) 

haha Audi R8

Oh yeah, Btw, Natalie, the one in the black dress, was baptized
this past Saturday! She was an investigator that I taught with
Elders Lawler and Levaci in my past area! Got to go back
for her baptism on Saturday and it was so great to see her
make this covenant with her Heavenly Father! Great to see
 Elder Lawer and Levaci too!