Serving the Lord in the Land Down Under: Letter #98 from Australia

June 6, 2017

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, the time has come to write my final words as a full-time missionary. Seeing that I won't have the opportunity to email next week before coming home, this is it. I have so much to say, but with the time constraint and with the time that it will take you to read this, I won't take too much time. I will just say everything that I want to say in about a month when I report in Sacrament meeting! The exact date and time of the meeting will be July 9th at 1 p.m. The chapel is the same one that I gave my farewell at. The chapel on Hwy 89 in Pleasant View! More details will come when I get home, but just so you have it now.

Well this week has been an emotional roller coaster and has been all over the place! I have had some really amazing experiences this past week and a couple of not so favorable ones. I had to bear my final testimony in MLC, the mission leadership council, and that was pretty hard, but I made it through. The work has been really good over the past week, but sadly to say, Bobby and Nahid won't be being baptized this weekend. They have some more struggles to over come, but they are doing so great with them right now and are really looking forward to their baptism here in the next month or so! Fernando and Jun are doing so great too and are eating the gospel up so fast! They hopefully will be baptized here in the next few weeks and I can't wait! Although I won't be here, it will be so comforting to know that I was able to help them! We found a new investigator though, Matthew and he is so great! He is 18 and has gone through a lot over his life and is just looking for God again! We invited him to be baptized on the 15th of July and he said yes! So all in all we are working with 5 investigators total and all 5 of them are working to be baptized here in the next two months! The Lord has blessed us so much and we are so grateful!

As I come to the end of my mission, I am so sad to see it pass by and so amazed and shocked at how fast it went by! I have pondered this week about how I could describe my mission, and have come up with this analogy. Serving my mission is like giving a dandelion to my Mum or Dad when I was little. But the only problem is, half of the pedals on that dandelion are squished because I carried it in my hand. When I give it to them, they smile and accept is and say thank you for it, but in all reality, they don't need it. But because of the thought and act of love that I showed towards them, they love my half squished dandelion and me. My Heavenly Father didn't really need my service. To be honest, He could have done this great work all on His own, if He really wanted to. But instead, he allowed me, as imperfect as I am, to serve this mission. I know that my mission isn't that extravagant or beautiful to some people. But only I know just how much my mission has meant to me and to the people that I have been able to help. Soon, I will offer up my imperfect little dandelion to my Father in Heaven and I know that He will smile, accept is and thank me for it. He will love me and my little dandelion for the rest of my life and oh how grateful I am to Him for that!

I am so grateful for my mission and the way that it has shaped and molded me into the man that my Heavenly Father wanted and needed me to be. I will be forever changed because of my mission! I know that I have been able to teach others and help them come closer to their Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ! I have loved seeing the Atonement work in my life and the lives of others! This Gospel is true. This is the only true church on the Earth! Joseph Smith did in fact see God the Father and Jesus Christ. They did commune with him face to face and through the prophet Joseph Smith the Everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the Earth again once more! We are led by a modern day prophet, Thomas S. Monson and through him, we can know what God wants us to do to find true joy in this life! The Book of Mormon and The Bible are the true words of God! I love them both so much and I know that if we will read, ponder and pray about them both, we can know for ourselves if they are true! God lives, His son Jesus Christ did live, die and now lives again! I know these things to be true and I bear this short and simple testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen!

I love you all and hope that you have a great week! I will see you all soon and can't wait!

Love,

Elder Bryce Paul Wheeler