Letter #43 from Australia

May 15, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

          This update is going to be a short one cause I don't have that much time and not a lot to report on this week! The work is going well, but we had to drop quite a bit of our investigators this past week because they were not willing to progress towards baptism or keep any of the commitments that we would leave with them! So this next week Elder Halsey and I will be focusing on finding people to teach and trying our best to work through the members! The past 4 investigators that have been baptized in this area have all been friends and family members of members in our ward! So working with and through members to find investigators is the best way to get more people to teach!

          We had a ward activity on Friday night and there were 15 non-members that came to it! The members did so well with bringing their friends and family members! We will be going around to the member’s homes this week to teach lessons and then ask them for any friends or family members that we could teach! Hopefully we will be able to find a lot of investigators this week! 

          I love you all and hope that you have a great week! Have a great last week of school to all of you students and good luck to all of you parents who will now have a house full of kids for the next three months!;) hah I miss you all and am so grateful for the amazing support that you give me! It really does help! I can't believe that I have been out for 10 months! It is so crazy how fast the time goes by and It is weird to think that I only have just a little more than a year left! I love being a missionary and love being apart of the work of The Lord! I love you all! Be safe and remember to say your prayers and read your scriptures!!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

The view of the city of Melbourne from our area! We are actually pretty close to it!

There was probably about 200+ people at the ward activity! It went really well!

Ward activity went well! This is just the table line for the food! There
was so much of it! haha! 4 tables full!!!

On Saturday morning, we were able to witness the Uili family get sealed for
time and all eternity! It was such a great experience and such a beautiful moment
and day for them! I have never felt the Spirit that strong! There was not a
dry eye in that sealing room that morning! I love eternal families!

Letter #42 from Australia

May 8, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

          What an amazing week it has been! I know that I always start my emails like that, but it really is always a great week! Right now we are in the library escaping from the crazy thunderstorm that is going on outside. The wind is blowing really hard and the rain is coming down and flooding the streets! Hopefully it will pass soon, but if not, then that is okay because I love thunderstorms! To be completely honest, there isn't that much to report on, but I will try my best to think of some things to tell you all.

          The work is going good and we are still just trying to prepare the investigators that we are teaching for baptism. We were able to find quite a few new investigators this week with the help of the ward members! They are so great at giving us referrals and we are hoping that all of them work out and that we start teaching them. This week was pretty slow, work wise, because we had a lot of zone issues to take care of. We were able to get some work done, but we weren't able to visit our investigators because most of them cancelled their appointments with us. This past week we had a lot of meetings and also did a lot of travelling to the mission office and all around our zone. But all in all, it was a great week! 

          Earlier this morning, Monday morning, I was able to Skype with my family for Mother's Day! It was so great to see all of them and to be able to talk with them! I even got to talk live with my brother, Elder McKay Williamson. Our families planned it all out when they found out that we would be calling around the same time! It was so great to see him and talk to him! I also had my best friend Brittney come over too. She is so great and I am so happy that she was able to be there when I Skyped. Being able to Skype with my family, McKay and Brittney was such a great blessing and I am so happy that they were all there to see me! They are the best support and motivation that I could ask for! 

          I just want to take this time to wish all of the mothers out there a Happy Mother's Day! I am so grateful for the amazing, saintly and Christ-Like women that I call Mum. She has helped make and mold me into the man that I am today. I thank my Father in Heaven for her in my life. I don't know where I would be without my Mother and I don't even want to think about not having her in my life. She is my best friend, my biggest support, gives me encouragement, she is my everything, but most importantly, she is my Mother. Happy Mother's Day Mum. I love you so much! 

          I hope you all have a great week and keep up the great things that you all are doing! I love hearing from you all and for all of the words of encouragement and support! Thank you for everything! 

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Elder Howell, me and Elder Wiser. All Zone Leaders here in the mission
and all from the Pleasant View, North Ogden area. ​

​Trying to take a companionship selfie, but this is the only face that I got! haha

Mother's Day Skype Call

May 8, 2016

Skyping with Bryce for Mothers Day!!





Best Mother's Day gift ever!!!

Love my missionary!! 

Letter #41 from Australia

May 1, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

          What a great week it has been! The work is really hastening in our area and Elder Halsey and I are really happy with all of the amazing miracles that we are being blessed with! The ward is helping us out so much and it is great to see the members get excited about missionary work! I am so happy to be serving in this area and to be serving with the man, Elder Halsey! I love him and this area and all of the members here! Okay, so let me tell you why my week was so great!

          So the week itself was pretty basic. Nothing to big happened except for the usual teaching, finding, more teaching and more finding! We did have a lot of work to do this week with the zone and the missionaries in it! Trying to figure out some emergency transfers that had to happen and trying to help the missionaries out in any way possible! The work that we do the most is the work for and with the other missionaries! Our work during the week is about 60% helping the missionaries in the zone and the other 40% is working in our area with the investigators that we have! But the Lord blesses us so much! He helps make up for the work that is lost in our area, by really preparing our investigators! It is so amazing to see His hand in the work! 

          So I thought I would tell you just a little bit about the area that I am now serving in, as I failed to do that last week! Sorry! So our area is extremely diverse! There are a ton of people from the Middle Eastern, Persian, Indians and Iraqi. A ton of Islanders, Samoan, Tongan and Maori. And then the occasional Aussie! And I really mean that! Our ward just got its third full white person yesterday because an Aussie gentleman moved from Sydney! haha So now it is him, me and Elder Halsey! There are about 10 different languages spoken in the area and it is really cool to hear them all throughout the day! 

          Now onto the highlight of my week! Our investigator Sina Tiatia was baptized on Saturday! It was such a great day for us and more importantly for her! She has been waiting for this day to come for months and was counting down the days, hours and minutes leading up to her baptism! It was great to see her enter into the waters of baptism and to know that we were able to help another one of Heavenly Father's children come unto him! It was a great day and such a happy one for everyone involved! Of course there was a huge feed afterwards. And I mean HUGE!!!! Four huge tables filled with Samoan food! The ward was so happy for her and so excited to continue to help us missionaries out! Just on Sunday alone, we had a bunch of members come up to us and tell us that they have a friend or family member for us to start teaching this week! They are all so great at helping us!

          I hope you all have a great week and stay safe! I love you all and appreciate all of the support that you give me! 

Sincerely,

Elder Wheeler

Sina, me, Elder Halsey and Elder Jeramia - before Sina was baptized.

All of us again with Sina's Uncle (on the left by me) who baptised her. Destiny is
Sina's daughter and the one standing in front of her. And then Brother Savea and his son
Luconious, who is helping fellowship Sina! Such a great day for all of us!