Letter #40 from Australia

April 24, 2016

Dear Friends and Family,

          What a great week it has been here in my new area of Greenvale! I absolutely love this area and the new ward that I am in! So a little about our area. We cover quite a small area, geographically wise, but we have like 7-8 small suburbs in our area! Basically short and sweet, the area is the ghetto! It is basically the Bronx of Victoria, not even joking! We drive around and all we see is rubbish on the side of the road, old abandoned warehouses and run down homes! But it is great and like I said, I love this area! The ward here is amazing! It is a Samoan ward! The whole ward, well 95% of it is Samoan! And then there are the 4 other people, an Italian couple, my companion and I! So we are pretty much the only "white" people in the ward. Hah. But it is great because the ward here is so keen and willing to help us missionaries out! It is one big family and they welcome everyone into the ward with open arms! 

          I have already started to learn some Samoan and yesterday in church, I introduced myself in Samoan! Which was really great because as soon as the ward heard me speaking Samoan, they all got a huge smile on their face and were really happy! Quite a few members of the ward came up to me after sacrament meeting and started to speak to me in Samoan! I then had to explain that I only knew the basic phrases! But it is so awesome to be able to learn a language, cause that was the one thing that I wanted to do for and on my mission! The members here feed us soooo much! Just in my first day here, we got fed 4 times and got offered to come inside their homes and have a feed like 3 other times! They eat a lot of great food and I love Samoan food! I am hoping that I don't get fat, but I am not sure how well that will go, seeing that the Samoan people just feed the missionaries so much, because that is how they help us out! They just prepare all of this food for us and then they just tell us to keep eating! haha It is so great!

          My new companions name is Elder Halsey! He is from Baltimore, Maryland and he is the man! He has been out on his mission for about 18 months. I am so excited to serve with him and to learn from his great example! I love being Zone Leader and being able to serve all of the missionaries in the Zone! This past week was stressful at times, trying to learn all of the responsibilities that a Zone Leader has, but my companion is so great at helping me out! We get along great and we are already having a lot of success together! We have a baptism this weekend and we have set dates for mid May with three other investigators! The area is on fire and we are so excited for this transfer! The Samoan people are the "believing blood" as Elder Halsey put it! 

          I love you all! Have a great week! Fa Soifua! (Goodbye in Samoan.)

Love, 

Elder Wheeler

Me and my new companion Elder Halsey! He is the man and I am so happy
and excited to be serving with him! 

Elder Kelsch, who was my trainer,and I finally reunited after not seeing each
other for 6 months! He was serving down in Tasmania as a Zone Leader, but is now
serving as a District Leader/Trainer in the Craigieburn Zone! The Zone that I am a Zone
Leader over! So it is really weird being the Zone Leader to my Dad, trainer, since
he has been out for a lot longer than I have! Oh well! It was great to see him again!