Letter #38 from Australia

April 10, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

          What a great week it has been! General Conference was amazing and I loved every single minute of it and did not want it to end. This week wasn't the best when it came to the work because we had a lot of lessons, almost all of them, fall through and when we went finding, no body was interested. It was really tough because we had hoped that this week would be a great on and that we would be able to continue working with our investigators, but most of them couldn't meet this up. We are continuing to work with the Fulton family and Mark. They are all doing great and we reset the Fulton's baptismal date to the 30th of April. So both Mark and the Fulton family are set for that day. We are praying and hoping that all goes well and that they will be baptized on that day. Because the work wasn't too spot on this week, I will be sharing a lot of thoughts and feelings on General Conference.

          What an amazing Conference weekend it was! It was so great to be blessed to hear from our great Church leaders and from the Prophet of God. I had been looking forward to this General Conference because I have been in the need of some answers and guidance in my life, and knew that I could gain what I needed by listening to the sessions with the right mindset. I always like to think of a theme or questions to have in mind for conference and my themes this Conference were the Priesthood and Conversion. I had been praying really hard the days leading up to Conference that I would be able to learn what I needed to learn from the speakers and more importantly the Spirit. And I am so happy to say that I was able to receive answers to my questions. It was amazing to see how every speaker said something that I felt was said for me to hear. I know that when we pray, Heavenly Father will answer our prayers.

          I cannot pick out a favorite talk and I won't even try too. I loved them all and they were all so amazing. I really felt like there were some overall themes to the Conference. I felt that they were Marriage, Families, The Priesthood and Temple Ordinances. What better themes to have especially living in the day and age that we live in! It definitely made me love and appreciate more the family that I have and the knowledge that we have been sealed together forever. It also made me really excited to have a family of my own in the future! I cannot wait to be sealed to my eternal companion one day and to have my own children! I leaned so much this General Conference and I too, like Elder Holland, did not want tomorrow to come!

          I am so grateful for General Conference and for the opportunity that we have to listen to, learn and sustain the leaders of our church! I want you all to know that I love and sustain our Prophet and his councilors, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and all of the other church leaders that we have. In these latter days it isn't just enough to know that we have a Prophet on the earth, we need to also sustain him and trust that he is leading the church in the way that Heavenly Father directs him to. I love you all so much and I love this church! I hope that you all enjoyed General Conference as much as I did. Have a great week and keep up the great work that you are all doing!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

After the Priesthood session, they provided pies for all of the Priesthood
holders attending...I thought it was apple or peach pie...nope Australian
meat pies! I was honestly disappointed! haha​

Zone picture in front of the temple with the Assistants to the President! 

Oh, by the way, one of the assistants right now, is the grandson of 

President Henry B. Eyring! Elder Eyring is the tall one standing behind all 

of the Chinese missionaries on the right side of the picture! Pretty cool huh!?​

I am practically a professional photographer!;) Perfect picture for a
quote about the temple to be inserted into the cloud space! ​

The Melbourne Temple during the beautiful Autumn weather!!​

Letter #37 from Australia

April 3, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

          What an amazing week it has been! The Lord's work is continuing to hasten and move forward! It is such an amazing experience to be on a mission and I love it more and more everyday! I hope that you all enjoyed General Conference this past week! We, the Nation of Australia, get to watch it next weekend, so the 9th and 10th of April! I can't wait to watch it and to learn from our great leaders in the church as well as from the Spirit! Now an update on how the work is going here in the beautiful area of Yarra Valley!

          This past week was really good. We are continuing to work with Mark and he is still on date to be baptized at the end of this month! Is has been able to kick a couple of addictions to the curb and continues to move forward with great excitement and promise! The Fulton family has been on a holiday this past week and is getting back this next week, so the work with them will continue! They too are still set to be baptized in a couple of weeks and they are so KEEN!!! They all have a desire to follow Jesus Christ and to be baptized in the correct way! I am so excited for them! We also started to teach a German couple this past week!

          Some missionaries taught Hubert and Marion, the German couple, in the past, but showed little interest in the church. Well like I said last week in my update, they showed up to church wanting to get married and baptized! Which is a huge step for them cause they have had no desire in the past to do either of them!! We are so excited for them and their great decisions! Their wedding is set for the 7th of April and we are hoping to set a date for their baptism shortly after that. This past week we had our first lesson with them and it was really funny! When we got there, Marion had cooked a huge German feed! So we sat down and started to eat. She kept telling us that we need to eat more and that she wants clean dishes with now food left on them. We ate so much food, and every time we finished a plate of something, she would bring more out of the fridge. Like we ate the entire lamb roast that she made and then once the serving plate was empty, she ran to the fridge and pulled out a beef roast! haha   Let's just say that I didn't eat dinner that night. Luckily we didn't have a meal appointment that night. It went great though!

          The work is great here and I am really excited for the next couple of weeks! This transfer is an 8 week transfer so we will have our transfers in two weeks! I hope that you all have a great week and continue in the great things that you are involved in! I love and am so grateful for all of you and the support and love that you give to me! Be safe and remember to pray and read your scriptures!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Me, Elder Angar (we were on exchanges that day), Hubert, Marion
and Am. He is a from Thailand and is living with them while he
goes to school! Crazy part is, Am is a member of the Church!!!
It was an awesome lunch, I got to speak the little German and
Thai that I know!

Temple trip this past week was absolutely amazing! It felt so good to be i
n the house of the Lord. I really felt close to my family and was
so grateful for the chance that we had to go!​

Me with the temple! 

My District in front of the temple! I love these Elders!​

April Fools Joke - Not funny

​April 3, 2016

Dear Everyone,

So I am not sure how exactly to tell you this, but here I go... So this past week on Friday, Elder Zimmerman and I were walking down the road and a guy bolted out in front of us and grabbed Elder Zimmerman. We are pretty sure that his motive was to rob us, but without even thinking, I swung and punched the guy in the face. He let go of Elder Zimmerman and took off and we were both okay. But here is the big news. Because of legal complexities and past experiences the mission has had, there is a zero hitting policy for us missionaries. Even in times of self defence. Because I hit the guy, even in self defence, I am being sent home. Please read the attached file before you all freak out. I will talk to you soon and see you soon.

I love you all!

Elder Wheeler

The attached file was this:

APRIL FOOLS!!!

Hopefully you all didn’t freak out or start crying. 

I love you all and hope you can forgive me!

-Elder Wheeler

Mike responded stating that it was April 3rd not April 1st.  Bryce said that he couldn't email on the 1st so he did it in his email today.  He sent his sister, Shaelyn and brother in law, Colten ass well as his sister Nicole in a state of panic.  Mike and I kind of wondered if it was a joke.  So grateful it was.  

Letter #36 from Australia

March 28, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

          Happy Easter everyone! I hope that you all had a great Easter and enjoyed the time that we had to reflect, remember and honor the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ! And if you did, enjoy the chocolate bunnies and eggs too!:) I had a great Easter here in Australia and it was filled with great spiritual experiences and just a tiny bit of chocolate! The Savior’s final week on Earth was a week filled with miracles and a lot of blessings and that is how this past week was for us. It was a week of many miracles and couldn't have happened during a greater time of the year!

          So I will begin with the news of my area. This past week, we were able to meet with the Fulton family and teach them a lesson. We committed Sister Fulton and her daughters Taneille and Sarah to baptism. Her other older daughter, Chloe, wasn't home when we visited so we didn't commit her, yet! But we will when we visit with them next! We were so happy with this miracle but it didn't stop there. We met a couple of times with an investigator named Mark and continued to help him with his addictions. He was scheduled to be baptized on the 9th of April, but we rescheduled it for the 30th of April because we feel he needs more time to prepare! He came to church on Sunday and had a really spiritual and great experience! We met up with Jeremy finally last night and talked with him. He told us that he has been busy working from 8-9 every single day and that his phone is being fixed, hence why we couldn't get a hold of him! He is still very interested in learning more about the church and being baptized, so we were very happy to hear that!

          Want to hear about some more miracles? Well you're in luck cause I have some more! Last Sunday, some former investigators, a German couple, showed up to church out of the blue. We talked to them and introduced ourselves and they told us straight up what they would like. They told us that they would like to be taught again and married by our bishop so that they can be baptized! It was so unexpected, but we told them that we would be more than happy to help them accomplish that all! Well they came to church again on Sunday and we are going to start to teach them this week! Heavenly Father has prepared them for this throughout the years of investigating the church!!

          Last one and probably my favorite! Last week, our zone had 3 investigators with a baptismal date! For the whole zone...3. That isn't that good at all and so we decided, the District Leaders and Zone Leaders, to set a goal to get 14 baptismal dates by the end of this month, so that we could accomplish our goal of baptizing 7 investigators in the month of April. In less than one week, we went from 3 investigators with a baptismal date to 15 investigators with a baptismal date! It was so amazing to see all of the missionaries in our zone work hard and be blessed with the investigators who are prepared to be baptized! It was such a huge miracle and it happened during the week that we celebrate the biggest miracle that has ever happened. I was so happy and proud of my District because we got 8 out of the 15 baptismal dates in the zone! Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers and I can bear my testimony of that!

          I hope that you all have a great week and enjoy the sunny weather that you are having! We are just beginning to experience our colder temperatures and I am honestly excited for winter weather! It will be a good reminder of home! I love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Wheeler

Found this little guy on the roof of our car this past week! haha Baby Hunstman spider!​

See, it is a "baby" one! Not even that big. haha​

Letter #35 from Australia

March 20, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

          This week has been a great one but there is not too much to report on. We have had an up and down week with trying to contact our investigators Jeremy and Mark. From the brief visits and conversations that we have had with them, they are doing well and are keeping their commitments to read and pray! They haven't made it to church yet, which is really disappointing seeing that it is the only thing that is holding them back from being baptized! We are doing all that we can with them and we are praying that all will work out with them!!

          We have made some progress with the family that I talked about last week! After helping them move, we called them a couple of days later to just check up on them and see how they were doing. Well when we called them and talked to the Mum, Cassie, she said that they were doing well and that their girls had actually been asking her when we could come over? When we were talking to her on the phone, we asked her straight up, how interested her and her girls would be in taking the discussions and hopefully being baptized. She said that she and the girls are actually really interested and would like to meet up when we can! We were really happy when she told us that and we have scheduled some times this week that we can come over and start teaching them!

          As we approach this Easter Sunday my thoughts and heart are turned towards the Savior, even more than they are during the other times of the year. As I reflect on His final week and what He did during it, I am so grateful that he spent it serving us. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and for His resurrection. Because of it, we have the blessing of being able to be resurrected too and to be reunited with our loved ones who have passed away. As I have had two of my close family members pass away in the past two months, I have had the blessing of being able to pray, study and think about the message of the Plan of Salvation. As I have done this during these trying times and trials that I have experienced over these past couple of months, I have had my testimony strengthened so much. It is now not a testimony, but knowledge that I know it is true. I know that because of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and His triumphant resurrection, I will see my Uncle, my Great Grandmother and all of my other loved ones who have passed away again. I know this too be true.

          I would invite you all to go online to FollowHim.mormon.org and watch this years Easter video! And for those of you who want to take it a step forward, I invite you to share it on your Social Media pages or with a friend or family member who may not know of this great message that we have. Share it with them and then bear your testimony and knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and Jesus Christ! I promise that this Easter Holiday will be a special one for all of you, if you will do this!

          I love you all and hope you have a great week! Enjoy this time of the year and the time that we have to celebrate the Saviors Atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection! Be safe and love one another!

Love,

Elder Bryce Wheeler

​Selfie so you can all see how chubby I am getting...I hope I'm not!

Made a pasta bake for tea! The process of becoming a man and husband material is
occurring! hah Shout out to my amazing Mum for teaching me how to cook and not
burn the house down! ​