These are a week late, but here's (in order) Trayston, Jolene, and
Shanneil. Super cool family :)

Week 13

Not a ton of time today, sorry. We spent the morning eating pie, going
out to lunch with some members, mini golfing with the zone, and having
the most intense air hockey tournament of my life. Too much fun, oops
:P

Real quick overview of my week!

SERVICE. Our mission is trying to build a "culture of service", so
we've been doing a ton of it! Pics to come :)

A ton of work. Our mission president says he will take our zone out
for "a lunch...a GOOD lunch" if we contact over 1000 people this
month. WE'RE SO GONNA MAKE IT. Plus, it's leaving us with more lessons
than we have members willing to help with, haha. I guess it's a good
problem to have :)

We have a new roommate, Elder Stott. He makes pies. But not just any
pies. Like, really really really good pies. *huge smile*

Spiritual thought: it's amazing to see how much I've learned already.
One of my all time favorite scriptures is Ether 12:27, and I have
gained such a testimony of that principle. My Heavenly Father really
does have a plan for me. As I patiently and prayerfully try my best,
and don't get discouraged, I can feel myself changing into a better
missionary. More importantly, I feel myself becoming the missionary
that HE wants me to be, even if it's different than what I expected.
He knows what's best for us :)

Ok, gotta go! Love you guys!! Have a great week!!!
-Elder Wheeler :)

I got tired of not seeing any grass down here- there are hardly any lawns- so I decided to grow my own lawn.

Week 12

Hi everybody :)

This week was awesome! It's been 12 weeks, and now I'm done with
training! I'm a real missionary now!! Aaaaaaaaaaaah it's crazy to
think I only have 7/8 of my mission left! It makes me just wanna go
baptize everybody right now!! Haha :)

This week was transfers, and I was totally nervous about switching
everything up, but we found out last night that I get to stay with
Elder Flynn for at least another 6 weeks! Which Is awesome! He's one
of the most dedicated missionaries in the mission, and just a solid
guy :)

The work this week was pretty uneventful, just a lot of it. A lot of
contacting new people and some really good lessons!

The weather this week, however, was CRAZY. we had 105 degrees and dust
storms and rain and hail and flooding and wind and knocked over trees
and all sorts of crazy stuff. Storms here are weird, they come out of
absolutely nowhere, rain harder than I've ever seen for 5-10 minutes,
then completely clear up. 30 minutes later there's not a cloud in the
sky, just flooded streets everywhere. Those are fun to bike
through...haha. Nothing like Idaho weather that I'm used to!

Highlight of the week: Trayston and Shanneil recieved permission from
their dad, so we were able to baptize them and their mom Jolene on
Saturday!! I personally baptized and confirmed the girls, and it was a
really cool spiritual experience :)

Other news: our roommate Elder Ogden headed home yesterday. He was a
great missionary, and I looked up to him a lot :) that's the funny
thing about missionaries. when one of them goes home, it's like a
feeding frenzy over their old stuff. A bunch of broke teenage boys
fighting over clothes and shoes and food and hair gel and who knows
what else...haha it was a first for me. I did ok though, I got a cool
speaker system and some workout gear :D

That's about all I have time for, we have a dinner to get to.

I hope you all are doing good! Have a fantastic week :D

-Elder Wheeler :)

Week 11

Hi guys :)

This week was cool. Literally. Haha it dropped below 85 once and never
got above 95, it's sooooo nice by comparison :D

It's been a good week though, I'm almost done with training and Elder
Flynn is starting to put more responsibility on me. According to the
12 week training schedule, I get to lead everything starting tonight,
so it's really exciting! I'm almost a real missionary :P

Super good news, we should have 3 baptisms this Saturday! Jolene, and
her two daughters Trayston and Shanneil are ready and excited!! :D
notice I say SHOULD...the only problem is the parents are divorced and
Dad lives on the Navajo reserve and doesn't exactly love the idea. I
don't really understand the whole situation, but there could be some
nasty legal issues if they don't get signed permission from him first.
Sooo we are waiting to hear back from him. But, with a little luck
(and lots of prayers) it should work out! I'll keep y'all posted :)

The work here was slowing down a little bit, but it's picking up
again! Also, transfers is next week, and I feel like change is
coming...
P.S. Next week, my letter will come on Tuesday :)

Cool stories this week:

We were biking home last Monday night, and we passed a hay field.
Which was totally normal, except we looked and the huge stack of hay
bales was on fire! So that was kinda cool! We got to watch the fire
department come and put it out. Also got to teach a guy while we
watched. Not a ton of promise, but it was a good lesson :)

We stopped by this place, Rainbow Donuts. OH MY GOODNESS that place
was life changing. They had the best maple bars I've ever eaten, and
these super good apple cinnamon rolls and this weird strawberry fruity
pebbles donut and both me and Elder Flynn ate way more than we
probably should have...

We had zone meeting Friday and me and Elder Flynn got to teach
everybody about loving the people. Probably the best lesson I've ever
taught! ...in the humblest way :P it's cool to recognize that I'm
starting to learn my stuff, and grow more confident in teaching it :)

Other than that, just doing my best to work hard and be exactly
obedient. There's a lot of rules, but the days where I set goals and
really focus on obeying rules, I feel the spirit so much stronger and
I don't feel as shy or homesick and it's awesome how much of a
difference it makes! :)

Last thing. Something that was brought up in conference, and also zone
meeting, that I thought was really cool.
Smile :)
Go on, do it right now. A big cheesy grin!
"I just like to smile. Smiling is my favorite" (name that movie)
Smiling while you work is so important! It makes it easier to love
people. It builds confidence. If you do it enough, without fail, it
makes you happier. I think it shows God that I really am willing to do
whatever he wants, and I feel the spirit more because of it. That's
something I've been focusing on this week :)

I hope you all are doing great! I love you guys!

Until next week,
-Elder Wheeler :)

Week 10- General Conference

Hi guys!!

Conference was amazing!! Probably the best one yet :) (of course I say that every time...haha) unfortunately, we weren't allowed to watch at a member's home this time, we had to travel to the dark, relaxing, sleepy, stake center :P haha just kidding, I think I was more awake than any of the other missionaries there. So many good talks and notes to take! oh goodness it's so hard to pick a favorite...I got a lot out of Elder Hales' talk.  I also loved Elder Holland's talk and Elder Foster's! But I think if I had to pick the talk that stood out most to me, the talk by Larry R Lawrence. Asking "What lack I yet" is something I feel will really make me an even more effective missionary and member for the rest of my life!

This week was a ton of contacting! We're trying to add people to our
teaching pool, because we've either baptized, put on date for baptism,
or scared away all of our investigators...haha. Finding some really
cool people with some good potential :)

So today me and Elder Flynn had a little fun today. We bought a hair
cutting kit from Walmart and cut each other's hair. We look FABULOUS.
haha actually turned out really good. I'll send pics today or soon.
 

Crazy to think I've been out almost 3 months! I love it here a little
more every day :)  I'm learning all sorts of new things, and I only have 2 more weeks until I'm done with training! Then I'm a real missionary :D

I hope y'all are doing good! Have a great week :)

-Elder Wheeler :