Letter #83 from Australia

February 19, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

Well this past week has been a great and a sad week for my companions and myself!

I don't have too much time, so I will just give you a bullet list of what happened! 

-Elder Shreeve went home on Thursday to get the surgery on his knees. Pray for him!

-Elder Wiser and me found some investigators to start working with and we committed one of them to baptism on the 18th of March! 

-We had a zone conference with the whole Missionary Department from Salt Lake City!

-We began working with a lot of part member and less active families in the ward!

Sorry that this email is so short, but we have to go!

I love you all and know that this work is true and I am so happy to be apart of it!

Have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Elder Shreeve, Wiser and me...one last time!

Zone Conference with the Zone!

Went bowling last Pday and here is Elder Wiser dancing!

It was a really old and creepy bowling alley! Haha
Just look at the score screen!

Letter #82 from Australia

February 12, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

So this week was both a hard one and a great one! So hard because I finally had to leave my Greenvale Family! Monday was my last full day in the area and so it was hard to go around visiting the members and saying my final goodbyes! I will miss that area and the ward! It is such a great place to serve in and I will always hold it dear to my heart!

Well Tuesday brought transfers and some unexpected news! Not only am I companions with my Best Friend from back at home, Elder Wiser, but we are also companions with Elder Shreeve! He has been out for about 6 months and he is from Idaho! But bad news... so the main reason why he was put with Elder Wiser and me is because he is going home this week for medical reasons! Because he is 6'8" he has a lot of knee problems and on the mission he hurt his knees playing sport. Well they have gotten so back that we will need surgery to fix them, so he will be coming home to have the surgery! It has been a great week with him and Elder Wiser! We all were moved to the area, so we have no idea for anything! So we are all starting from the beginnings here in the Doncaster area! We all get along so great and we are always laughing with or at each other! haha 

It will be sad to see Elder Shreeve leave us, but we are praying that he will be back soon! 

Elder Wiser is the man and being his companion is the biggest dream come true! We get along so well, of course and it is so cool serving with one of your best friends from back home! We have slipped a couple of times and called each other by our first names haha, but that is just expected when that is all I have known him by since we were little. Getting moved into a new area is always a scary thing, but it made it better by having a friendly and familiar face as your comp. 

Now, let me tell you a little about the area and ward! Doncaster is the name of our area, but we cover other areas like Ringwood, Box Hill and Nunawading. The area is very close to the city and super close, like 5 minutes away from the Temple and the mission office. There are no Samoan people my new area...haha so all of the Samoan that I know, doesn't help me at all. I now need to brush up on my Chinese because there are so many Chinese people! Like SOOO many! Ha. It is really cool and I am excited to be able to be in a new area and experience new things and meet new people! The ward is an Aussie and Chinese ward. There are about 100-150 members that actively come to church each week! The members are really cool and they have welcomed us into the ward already! The work here in the area is at a stand still. There are about 2 investigators that the past missionaries were working with, but they aren't really progressing, so we have a lot of groundwork to do in the area. This past week was filled with cleaning the flat, organizing all of the area book records and meeting all of the members on the Ward Council! (You know, just the basic things you need to do when you get transferred to a new area) All in all it was a great week and we are so excited for the work that we will do this transfer! 

I hope you all have a great week and keep up the great work that you are engaged in! I miss you and I love you all so much! Stay safe, stay happy and remember to read your scriptures and say your prayers! 

Love,

Elder Wheeler 

Perks of living 8 mins away from the Temple! haha

Selfie with Elder Wiser, Albrechtsen and Chappell! All of us
from the same MTC room and intake! Now we are all grown up!

So the flat that we live in is made out of concrete! So this past
week when it was 38 degrees celsius  (100 degrees Fahrenheit)
outside, it was 43 degrees celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit) inside.
So we went to Macca's for our weekly planning session and we
all drank a lot of shakes...hahah

Elder Howell went home this past week! Back to North Ogden!
But here is a picture that we took before he left...WEBER!!!

Letter #81 from Australia

February 5, 2017

Dear Family & Friends,

What a week it has been! We have been non-stop busy from sun up to sun down every single day and it is so great! I am loving everything about my mission right now and I can't wait to begin proselyting this week! So some big news items this week! So first off, Dale was baptized on Saturday and it was such an amazing day for him! It was absolutely amazing to see how someone could change his life in just two weeks! He was and definitely still is being prepared by Heavenly Father! He is so solid in the gospel and in his testimony of the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ! One of the YSA members in our ward who helped to fellowship Dale, baptized him and I had the privilege to confirm him a member of the Church. It was a great baptism and we had a total of 6 non-member and investigators come to it! But we had a super funny experience with the baptism. So at the end of the program, one of the members of the bishopric welcomed Dale into the ward and then began preaching about the gospel! He ended up taking about 15 mins and then when he closed and sat down, Elder Lawler, without even realizing it, stood up and began giving the closing prayer! We had planned to sing 'I Am a Child of God' as the closing hymn, but I guess Elder Lawler was just really excited to say the prayer! Needless to say, he will never live that moment down in this ward! haha

So here is the other big news item before we have to go! So it saddens me to say this, but I will be transferring to a new area tomorrow...I am so sad to leave this area, as I have been here for the past 10 1/2 months! Half of my mission, practically! I have grown to love this area, the members and the Samoan culture so much! I will never forget this area or any of the members that I have grown so close to here! But my new assignment will help me to grow in so many ways and I am excited for it! Also, we have a little news as far as who my new companion is going to be! So I am sure that all of you who are living in Pleasant View, or who went to Weber High School with me, will remember a Elder Wiser, or Stanton as he was known by back at home! Well, we had always dreamed of serving together ever since we found out we were going to the same mission at the same time! Well on Saturday, President Vidmar called me to inform me that I would be moving to the Doncaster area and ward and would be serving as a Zone Leader in the Maroonda Stake. But then he told me that I would be white washed into the area, which just means they moved both missionaries out of the area and moved two brand new ones in, and that my new companion would be ELDER STANTON WISER!!!! HAHAHA We called each other right after and freaked out together! I am so excited to be serving with him and to be Zone Leaders together too! We had always joked with President about us serving together and now it is actually happening! 

Well that is the big news and I will let you all know some more details next week! Sorry that I don't have a lot of time to email this week! If you emailed me and I didn't get to reply to you, it is not because I don't love you, cause I do! I just don't have any time left! So sorry! Have a great week! I love you all so much!!!

Elder Wheeler

Me and my new companion, Elder Wiser!!

Companionship photo in front of the chapel, one last time!

Dale at his baptism!!!

Letter #80 from Australia

January 29, 2017

Dear Family & Friends,

What an uplifting week it has been for me! I know that last week, I asked all of you to send some prayers my way as I was going through a tough time in my mission and I just want to thank all of you for doing that for me! I really felt like I was uplifted and that my burdens were made lighter! Not only from all of your prayers but from the Atonement of Christ and all that He did for all of us! My burdens were made light! We had a great week this week and I don't even know where to begin, so let me try! ha But a fair warning that it might be spastic and all over the place! My apologies in advance! 

On Thursday Elder S. Gifford Nielsen of the Seventy visited the mission! We had a west side of the mission zone conference with him and his wife and wow it was so good! They focused so much on repentance and it just made me want to become even better! They are such great speakers and the way that they teach in unity with each other just shows me that they are an eternal companionship! It definitely showed me what I want my future wife and me to be able to do! Teach with my companion in unity! So that is now a future goal of mine! Then on Friday, we as the leaders of the mission had an MLC with Elder Nielsen and his wife! It was so uplifting and spiritual! It was cool to be in a meeting where the main focus was on how we as the leaders of the mission can help the missionaries in the mission be and do the best that they can! I loved every minute of it! Over the weekend we had stake conference and we had an area seventy preside at the conference! It was Elder Daniel G. Hamilton and he was such a powerful speaker! He spoke on all of the experiences that he has had in his life where he has heard and followed the promptings of the spirit! He has had some amazing experience and opportunities in his life! He said one thing though that lit a huge fire underneath me! He said, "When God speaks, I listen because I know the voice of my God." It made me think how that is how i want to be! I want to always be able to listen to the promptings of the Spirit so that I can do whatever He needs me to do, whenever He needs me to do it! I definitely made a big commitment with Father that night! 

The week has been great as far as the work goes with our investigators! Dale is doing so great and came to the conference both Saturday night and Sunday morning! We have almost finished all of the lessons and he is soaking it all up so much! He loves the church and Jesus Christ and has gained such a strong spiritual witness that this gospel is true.  It amazes me! He will be baptized this Saturday and so I will let you all know how it goes next week! We also received another referral this past week and when we visited him, Rolan, he invited us right in and we taught him and invited him to be baptized! He and hopefully his wife and kids will be baptized in 4 weeks! The Lord is blessing us so much and I am so humbled and grateful! I love this gospel, I love my Savior Jesus Christ, I love my Father in Heaven and I love being His hands in His vineyard here in Australia! Have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Wheeler

Celebrating Elder Maumau's birthday at our flat! 

Elder Lawler and me with Elder and Sister Nielsen!