SORRY!!!

I apologize for neglecting the blog for three weeks.  Life is crazy trying to juggle normal life and plan a wedding and keep up to date with a missionary .

I am now up to date and hope you enjoy the letters and pictures.

Lisa

Letter #19 from Australia

November 29, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

"Big Happy Birthday shout out to my Grandma Jones!  I love you so much!!!"

          Exciting things are happening in the bush and especially here in Wangaratta! First off, we got transfer news and I am staying in Wangaratta for another transfer (6 weeks) and will be companions with Elder Solomon. We are so happy and excited to stay together and can't wait for the amazing things that will happen in the coming weeks. A lot of things happened this week and I will try my best to condense them down into a short email.

          First off, our investigators are doing so well! We have been able to continue to help them progress and work towards baptism. Roberta, Max and Laurence, who all have baptism dates, are doing great. We haven't been able to meet up with Max in a while, and he won't be ready for his baptism on Saturday, so we will have to push it back another week. Laurence will still be baptized thought this Saturday and we are all excited for that. Roberta is doing so well and is so excited to be baptized next weekend on the 12th. She really is ready and has been working really hard to find out if this is the true Church. She knows that it is and she is going to be an amazing member!

          We have a lot of work to do and this past week in our weekly correlation meeting with Elder and Sister Murray, we decided that we want to baptize 10 people during this next transfer. We have the faith and we have the people to teach and baptize. Two of the people are from part member families and the rest are our investigators. We will be teaching a lot of lessons and will be working very hard to reach our goal! I am excited about this next transfer and all of the amazing blessings and miracles that will occur. 

          I hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving! I definitely did. Karyn and Steve invited us over for an authentic Thanksgiving feast and thanks to my Mum corresponding with Karyn, I was able to enjoy my aunt's pumpkin pie for dessert! It was amazing and I was stuffed and tired after dinner, so it felt just like home. Karyn and Steve will also be taking us out to dinner on Thursday to celebrate my Birthday as well as her son's. Twin Birthday's! I am so grateful for them and all that they do for us!

          Have a great week and know that I love and miss you all individually. I am so happy to be staying in Wangaratta and serving the people who live here for the next 6 weeks! Be safe and pray often!

Love,

Elder Wheeler 

Elder Soloman and I for Thanksgiving Dinner at Steve
and Karyn Wright's.

Thanksgiving dinner at Karyn's and Steve's! So good!!

My plate!!

Really getting into the Holiday spirit!! haha

Letter #18 from Australia

November 22, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

          It has been a good but very stressful week here in Wangaratta! We had a lot of work to get done and it was all on the shoulders of us missionaries so we all were pretty stressed. But we made it through the week and are celebrating with a great P-Day filled with relaxing; emailing and watching approved church movies! So overall you could say that this is a much needed and much anticipated P-Day.

          Our investigators are all doing so great and they are all really progressing, which is always, a good sign. We had to move Laurence's baptismal date back another week because he will be out of town this upcoming weekend. His original date was last Saturday, but he wasn't ready. So now his date is the 5th of December, which is the same date as Max! Roberta is doing amazing and in just one week has read two thirds of the Book of Mormon. She is so excited for her baptism and has truly been prepared by Heavenly Father. When we first met her at Steve's baptism, back is August; she didn't want anything to do with the church. But now she is really progressing and will be such a great and strong member!!

          We will find out transfer news this Saturday and I will let you all know next week who is leaving and who is staying! I am hoping to stay in Wangaratta at least one more transfer so that I can be here for my birthday and for Christmas!! 

          Thanksgiving is this week and I am sad to announce that Australia doesn't celebrate it...? Weird I know;) But Karyn (One of our recent converts) has come to the rescue and invited us over for a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday! Even though she doesn't celebrate it and I had to tell her what kind of foods we have for it, she is going to make it for us! I am so excited!!! I am so thankful for this gospel in my life and for my Savior Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. I am so thankful for the amazing opportunity that I have to serve a mission and to help people accept this gospel into their lives! I am also so thankful for the wonderful family that I have! I love them all so much and am so grateful for the support that they are giving me and continue to give me! I love you all so much and I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and let the people in your lives know how thankful you are for them! 

     "God doesn't give us what we can handle, God helps us handle what we are given." 

Sincerely,

Elder Wheeler

Ping pong on P day with the Albury Elders!!!

New tie for only $1.50! Loving the Op Shops here! (Like the DI back home) 

Letter #17 from Australia

November 15, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

          Miracles are coming from every direction here in Wang. This week has been so amazing I have no idea where to begin. We have done a lot of work this week and have been smashed after everyday from either service, long days, or even longer drives. I love it and I wouldn't want to have any other feeling after coming back to the flat each night. 

          So the miracles were all throughout the week, but the big ones didn't start to occur until the weekend. Background info...Elder Solomon and I tracted a street last Sunday and met a man named Max. As we were talking to him at his doorstep, I realized that I had seen his name before in our Area Book. (A book with records that missionaries keep on the people that they teach and the work that they do in their assigned area.) We asked him if we could come back during the week and teach him a lesson. He agreed and we planned to come back on Thursday. All right now that you are all caught up, let's continue the miracle story. So we came on Thursday and he invited us in. After getting to know him, we taught him a lesson on the Restoration and on baptism. At the end of the lesson, and after discussing how we should be baptized by immersion, we asked him if he would prepare himself to be baptized on the 5th of December...he said yes! End of Miracle one!:) 

          Friday came and Elder & Sister Murray asked us if we could come with them to visit some less actives that live in the outer towns of our area. We agreed and left for Myrtleford at 11 am. We got up there and the less actives weren't home, so we decided to go and visit a non member friend of Karyn Wright, one of our recent converts, who lives up there. We have met her friend Roberta before at Steve's, Karyn's husband, baptism. We tried to go up before and teach her a lesson, but she wasn't interested at all. So as we were walking to her front door with the Murray's, Elder Solomon and I decided that if we were able to teach her a lesson, we would teach her the Restoration. But that was as far as our planning went for her and the lesson. After talking with her for a while, we asked if we could share a message with her about the Restoration of our Church. She agreed and we taught her the lesson. I have never been in a more powerful lesson than the one that we had with her. As Elder Solomon was baring his testimony, I felt impressed to ask her to be baptized. Before this lesson with her, Elder Solomon and I had not discussed even a tiny bit about inviting her to be baptized. We had not prayed about a specific date to set with her or anything. But I felt impressed to ask her to be baptized on the 12 of December...She said yes. It was amazing and the Spirit was so powerful! I couldn't believe it when she agreed to being baptized. End of miracle two!:)

          So as you can tell, this week has been a very good week! Elder Solomon and I have been able to set two more baptismal dates with investigators of ours, bringing the total number of baptismal dates up to three!!! Laurence on the 21st or 28th of November (Depending on when his family can make it.) Max on the 5th of December and Roberta on the 12th of December. I love this area so much and I do not want to leave!! This transfer has gone by way too fast and it is so crazy to think that there are only two weeks left in it and possibly/most likely, my last two weeks here in Wangaratta. I do not want to leave, but it is looking like I will be leaving. 

          My mission is going by way to fast, and it is weird to think that I have been out exactly 4 months yesterday (Sunday the 15th). I love being a missionary and I love putting my nametag on every morning. I can't wait to see what this week will have in store and I know that it will be a great week! Thank you for all of you wonderful people and for the support and prayers that you offer for me and in behalf of all the missionaries serving throughout the World. I love you all. Keep being good and know that He loves you, more than you could ever comprehend. 

Love,

Elder Wheeler 

Me in Beechworth, an outer town in our area!! Breath taking, huh?
The view is nice I guess...;)

The town of Bright. Finally some mountains. Reminds me a little of home,
but they are still hills compared to Utah mountains;)

Lightning storm here in Wang over the weekend. I took this picture at the right
time. This was taken at 10 at night. It looks as though it was taken in the middle
of the day.  That is how big and illuminating the storm was.

The lightening was purple and beautiful!!

Letter #16 from Australia

November 8, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

          What a great week it has been here in the deep bush of Australia, also known as, Wangaratta. We have done heaps of service this week and it has been rewarding, amazing, and exhausting. We have set a baptismal date with our investigator Laurence and are very excited for him and for his willingness to be baptized. Due to the warmer weather, there are more spiders and they are getting bigger and coming out more frequently. (Just a heads up, I do have pictures and I will be including them in this email, so if you are scared or do not want to see them, DO NOT LOOK!) 

          Service has been a huge part of our week and it has been great to get out and do a little manual labor for a change. We planned to do about an hour of service for a member of our Branch Friday morning, but it ended up turning into a 7-hour service project that took up the entire day! But it was so great!! I am not complaining at all! Since he has so much work to do at his property, he asked us to come back the next day (Saturday) to help him out some more. We accepted and told him we would be there at 1 p.m. After getting home Friday night and preparing for bed, we received a phone call from Elder and Sister Murray (the senior couple in our area) and they asked if we could come tomorrow morning (Saturday) and help do some service for a member who lives up in Beechworth. We told them that we could as long as we were back in Wangaratta by 1 o'clock. I will just say that we were completely worn out by Saturday night. I love doing service even if it means I am sun burnt, exhausted and dirty. 

          We set a baptismal date with Laurence for the 21st of November! He was very keen and excited to set the date and work towards that goal. He is doing amazing and continues to keep his commitments for reading the scriptures and praying about the church and what we are teaching him. Heavenly Father has definitely prepared him over the years and I am so happy and excited to see him become a member of the church and make that sacred covenant with his Father in Heaven.  

          The spiders that we have found are a Huntsman, White Tail and heaps of Red Backs. We decided to go look in our garage the other day, because I have never been in it before and have no idea what is even in it. As we opened the door and walked in we saw a lot of dead spiders and a lot of alive ones. We found about 8 Red Backs and they were all very very big because it is nesting season. So pretty much we found a bunch of pregnant spiders...haha! We found a Huntsman too and then later on in the week we found another White Tail in our flat, but it was just a baby one...which is either a good or a bad sign. We haven't decided yet. Hah. 

          I love this work so much and love serving and being in this area. The people are great and the work is really picking up here in Wangaratta. I am so excited and grateful for all of the blessings that we continue to be blessed with by our loving Father in Heaven. Thank you so much for all of your great support and letters and emails of encouragement. I am sorry if I don't reply to your emails for a long time, but just know that I will reply to them as soon as I can. I miss all of your wonderful smiling faces and I love you all so much. Be faithful and remember to serve God, by serving your fellow men. 

-Elder Wheeler

Celebrating Shaelyn's 22nd Birthday with another Twinkie, candles and a
cute sign made by me! Happy Birthday Shaelyn!! I love you so much.

Celebrating Colten's 22nd Birthday with a Twinkie and some(22)
candles! Happy Birthday Brother! I love you lots.

This is the "baby" Huntsman spider that we found. This picture
is zoomed in. He is about the size of a small role of tape. 

We decided to keep him...his name is Helaman the Huntsman.
That is how big he is compared to my hand.  

One of the "Pregnant" Red Backs that we found in our garage we think???

Yes...we kept him?...her?...too. Named it Teancum...but I am sad
to inform you all that Teancum died days after we got him/her...R.I.P. Teancum.