Letter #62 from Australia

September 25, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

          This past week was an all right week with not too much to report on yet again! Sorry about that. Ha We were doing a lot of the same work and weren't finding too much success with it, but all is goods and we are staying happy and upbeat! We know that the Lord is preparing lots of people for us to teach and help out, but we need to do our part and find them! As in any situation, it just takes some faith and prayer and eventually, we will find the success that we hope to find! 

          This week we did find two new investigators who are actually quite keen on learning about the church. We of course found them through members! Which is the most effective and successful way of finding people to teach! All of the baptisms that I have had in this area have all been member referrals! It is so true that members are the KEY to successful missionary work! Their names are Freda and Andrew. Freda is the cousin of a family in our ward and Andrew is her husband! They have come to church the past two weeks and we talked with them yesterday at church and they told us that they are really interested in learning more about the church! It was a huge miracle and we feel so blessed to begin teaching them! 

          We find out transfer news this weekend, so next time I email, I will have some news as to where I will be serving for the next transfer (6 weeks). I have been here in the Greenvale area for 4 transfers already (almost 6 months), which isn't common at all, but for some reason, I have a feeling that I am going to stay! But you never know for sure and so I will let you all know next week! Have a great week and keep up the great work that you are all doing! Stay happy and safe and continue to trust God! I miss and love you all!

Oh and before I go, HUGE shout out to my best friend in the whole world Sister Brittney Henstra who just got called to serve in the North Carolina Charlotte Mission! I am so happy and proud of you Britt! You are going to be a great missionary!

Love you all so much!

Sincerely,

Elder Wheeler

I love the spring weather and I love to see our chapel!

Went to the temple this past week and it was great! This is a
really cool pic that I took with the rain clouds in the background!

Letter #61 from Australia

September 18, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

           This week was really good and once again we were blessed to have a couple of new investigators! We have done a lot of door knocking and street contacting and it was really successful. We were welcomed into a couple of people’s houses to teach them and we were even fed by one family! Overall the work in our area in going really well and the investigators that we are teaching are awesome! We are still teaching a couple of Nepalese families and we had a great experience with one of them this week!

          So because we do not have any teaching materials in their language, we have to try our best to teach them in English! Well we have only learned a couple of words in Nepalese and so we try to teach them with their language too. Well this past weekend we taught one of them and it went so well! We prayed really hard that he would be able to understand and that somehow and someway, we would be able to have the gift of lounges in order to teach him! As the lesson began, we started to teach him in English and broken Nepalese, and it worked! He understood it so well and we were able to invite him to be baptized! It was so amazing to see how the spirit was with us and was able to help us during the lesson! 

          I love my mission so much and it has been the best decision that I have ever made! I am sorry that I don't have too much to report on this week, but overall the week was good! I hope that school is going well for everyone and that all of you are safe and happy! I really appreciate all of your love and support for me and for all of the other missionaries around the world! Keep up the great work and know that I love and miss you all! Remember to pray, read your scriptures and trust God!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Me with three of the cutest kids ever! Pharrel is the boy, and the
girls are Lyrah and Shae! Super cute!!! 

Helping a family prepare for Sunday dinner! 

​President & Sister Vidmar surprised us this past week by randomly
calling us to tell us that they are taking us out to lunch! It was
super fun to be able to spend some time with them to get to
know them better!​

Letter #60 from Australia

September 11, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

          We were so blessed this past week in our missionary efforts and I know that it is because of all the prayers that were said by all of you and us! We are in this work together! Just over the weekend alone, we found 3 new investigators and 2 less active families that want to learn more about the church! They all invited us back this next week and we are super excited to begin teaching them! We also found countless new contacts that are semi-interested in the church and with learning more. I know and now have a strong testimony about specific prayers! This whole past week we have been praying for specific things such as, a new investigator on the street that we were about to door knock. Or for the Lord to guide us to exactly where he needs us to be! We were able to be apart of so many miracles and we are so grateful!

          A highlight of the week was being able to see all of my missionary friends at the monthly MLC meeting! I saw all of the missionaries that were with me in my MTC district because practically all of us, except for 2, are zone leaders or sister training leaders! I of course saw my favorite person of them all, Elder Stanton Wiser! Every time that I see him, it feels like I am seeing my family! I love him and we always greet each other with a big hug! He is the man and is smashing it out here in Australia! haha, in a good way! He is actually currently serving with my former companion, Elder Halsey! It was a good little reunion and a much needed one!

          A cute little miracle for this past week was being able to meet the coolest and cutest Nepalese kids! So it all started Friday night when we went to visit a Nepalese couple that we are teaching. Well we got to their court, cul-de-sack, and talked with them on their doorstep for a little while. Well they couldn't meet with us then for a lesson, so we set up another time and left. Then as we were leaving we saw all of these Nepalese kids run out from all of the houses in the court to play soccer. (Apparently all of the houses on the court have Nepalese families living in them! Well they all begged us to play with them so we did. We played soccer, tiggy-tiggy (tag in Nepalese) and had running races! It was a lot of fun and they were all so cute! They would run up to us and pull on our arms and clothes and say "Mista, mista". They were saying Mister, but because they have an accent it sounded like mista! All in all, it was a lot of fun! 

          I truly am grateful to my Father in Heaven for the amazing work that we were able to do, only with His help! I know that if all of us pray for something specific, then He will be able to bless us with exactly what we need, if it is according to His will! I love this church and this gospel so much! I love how the spirit is able to work through us to be able to bless the lives of others! It doesn't matter if we speak English, Samoan, or Nepalese, we all speak the language of the spirit and that is the most important one of them all! It is the one that can unite us with our brothers and sisters here in this life! Have a great week and pray for the opportunity to share the gospel with someone in your life! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Wheeler 

And now, here is the sunset! HOLY BEAUTIFUL!!! haha

A BEAUTIFUL rainbow right above us! We must be serving in the pot of gold!

Me and one of the Nepalese kids! His name is Mushum and he
is the cutest kid ever! He has a laugh/giggle that will melt your heart!

Me and Elder Wiser trying to be attractive. haha

All of my intake at MLC! More and more of us are becoming
leaders! It is so crazy!

Letter #59 from Australia

September 4, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

          This week was a little slow and hard when it came to the work. It seemed like everyday this week, we had a small little trial that we had to overcome. At the first of the week it was appointments with investigators being cancelled and then at the end of this week, it was a couple of our investigators dropping us. It has been a hard week but we are doing well! As I have continued to pray and study about the work, I realize that this is just another growing period for me. The Christ like attribute that I have been studying lately is "patience". So far it has been going great and I have already been learning so much. This morning, I read three talks on patience and how we need to develop it in order to have other Christ like attributes. Here is a little bit of what I learnt.

          In one of the talks it mentioned how Moroni said, that if we don't have charity, we are nothing. Well then it went on to say, that in order to have charity, we need to first have patience. I then began to think that maybe the Lord is once again teaching me something. I just continue to pray that I will have patience as we try to continue with the work, especially on the days were we do not see the immediate success of our labors. I do not understand everything in this work, and I do not know what the Lord is trying to teach me, but I, like Brigham Young said, just pray for patience until I do understand. 

          The Wharemate family is doing so well and they are coming to church each week as a family! It is always so great to see them walk into the chapel together every Sunday! They are beginning to work towards the temple so that they can be sealed as a family! We are trying our best to find more people to teach and didn't find that many people. But it will be a lot better this week because we fasted and prayed yesterday for new investigators and I know that fasting and praying works!! If I could just ask one thing from all of you, please remember all of the missionaries world wide in your prayers and even more, remember the investigators that we are all working with! The power of prayer is true and I know that you all pray for the missionaries. Thank you so much for all of the support and prayers! It is because of them that we are able to find people!

Have a great week and be safe! Trust God, be patience and all will work together for your good!

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Went up to a town called Seymour this week for exchanges
with some missionaries and we found this street! What a cool name...if only I could have a name like that...wait a second...;)

Exchanges with the one and only Elder Cook!
Made some burgers for tea!

The crazy Craigieburn Zone! Being able to serve around all of these great missionaries is such an amazing part of the mission!