Letter #28 from Australia

January 31, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

Another week has come and gone and this one was slow! Which is great because I hate it when the weeks just pass by fast!!! So to update you all on the work that is going on here, we are continuing to tract and do our best to find people to teach!! We haven't had much luck, but we keep pressing forward because we know that we will find someone!!! We have found about 12 New Contacts, which is someone who accepts the invitation to meet with us again, but when we have gone back to meet with them, they haven't been interested! At least that is the case for 9 out of the 12 new people! We hope that the other people will work out, especially this one family that we found. They seem very interested about learning more about the church so we really hope they work out!

We have had some really funny experiences while door knocking and talking to people on the street. We have talked to drunken people in front of pubs, about very interesting and very PG-13 topics. We have door knocked into bible bashing Grandmothers, who seem so cute and nice, but are so rude and vicious!! But all in all, I wouldn't change the experiences that I am having here! We wish and pray that we will be able to find someone to teach, but we trust in Heavenly Father's plan and in His will! Because it is His kingdom that we are building up!

We had an exciting P day last week! We went to the Healesville Sanctuary for the day and that was really fun! It is a sanctuary not to far from our flat, just about a 20 min drive, and it is a really cool place! It only has Australian animals in it, so it is not like your regular zoo! We saw some kangaroos, a platypus, some very dangerous snakes and much more! Which reminds me, we saw the #3, #2, and #1 most venomous snakes in the world at the sanctuary! Because, yep you guessed it, they live here in Australia!! Cause hey, there aren't enough things that could kill you here in Australia, so why not more?;) But it was fun and a great day!

I hope you all are doing well. I just wanted to share something that was given in a talk at our ward yesterday! The speaker was talking about setting goals for 2016, and gave a study that shocked me! It was this, the average child will laugh about 300 times a day!! But the average adult will only laugh about 15 times a day!!! Think about that! 15 times compared to 300! We live in a day in age where people are caught up with the things of the world and the many, many stresses that are thrown at us! As we grow older we forget to take a break once in a while and to relax or just laugh about something! Think of the world to a child. Not too many worries and a lot of time to laugh and have fun. Now I am not saying that everyone should just not worry about things, but take the time to enjoy life! We are only here for a short time and so we should take some time to laugh, spend time with the spouse or family, or just take a break to relax! I guess what I am trying to say is, laugh more often. Hah.

To conclude this email, I just wanted to tell the worlds best Mum, Happy Birthday! I just want all of you to know that I have an amazing Mum in my life! She has always been there for me and always been so supportive of the decisions that I have made in my life! She has always helped me with anything that I needed help with. Whether it was school, church, girls or just wanting a snack. She has always helped me and has been the best! I thank Heavenly Father for sending me to her and for having such an amazing person to raise me, and to not only bear me, but to continue to bear with me throughout the years! I love you Mum, and Happy Birthday!!

I love you all! Have an amazing week and know that people care about you and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do as well!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

We had some Strawberry cheesecake on Wednesday, to celebrate my
Mum's birthday! It would have been so much better if it was Raspberry White ​
Chocolate Truffle cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, because that is our
favorite kind (my Mum and mine) but they didn't have any here! Oh well!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM! I love you so much!!

It was sanctuary selfie day, so we had too! Me with my District!!​

​This is the Costal Taipan! The third most venomous snake in the world!!! Ahhh.