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 :

Week 9- Baptism!!!!

Hi guys!

Zone activity today, bowling again! I bowled 4th place in the zone at

a 123 which is a personal best. So yeah, I guess you could say it's

been a good day :) Haha super fun, but it means I don't have a lot of

time...

A few AWESOME things this week!

free quesadillas? Um, I think yes. Haha a quesadilla truck came to our

apartment complex on Friday and gave he first 50 customers a free

quesadilla. Not just any quesadilla mind you, a legitimate, guacamole

and pork and cheese and who even knows what else on a homemade

tortilla quesadilla. And you bet I was the very first one in line :D

MARIAH GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! And I got to be the one to baptize her! :)

She was so excited, like, literally bouncing off walls. They showed up

early to the event so we could explain everything and set everything

up, and we gave her a cordless vacuum and I think she vacuumed the

entire building...twice. Really cool experience though, the spirit was

so strong :) and just as spiritual was the confirmation that Elder

Flynn did 2 days later in sacrament meeting. A mission is a lot of

hard work, but moments like that make it soooo worth it :D

A mission is a lot of proselyting, and a lot of service. We spent

Saturday morning helping a lady move into the ward. Among other

extremely heavy things, we moved a couple thousand beanie babies up 3

flights of stairs into her new apartment. Ouch. Those little guys may

look cute and harmless, but when shoved into giant trash bags and

carried up stairs, they will kill you. No joke x)

So yeah those are the highlights of the week! I gotta go now, I hope

you all are doing well :) have a good conference week!!!

#imreallyexcited

-Elder Wheeler :)

Sent from my iPad

Week 8- Moving apartments

Hello everybody :)

Not a ton to write about this week. We moved apartments, which took a
lot of time. Our old apartment was definitely, um...in better
condition, haha. Something about the AC in this one makes it super
humid all the time, enough so we have to cover our scriptures and
books when we go to bed. It's also cold, like all the time, plus the
humidity means we get to put on sweaters when we study. Which is
AWESOME because I actually love wearing sweaters and hoodies and I was
worried I wasn't going to be able to here in Arizona :D so even though
I help Elder Flynn mess with the thermostat and open the vents and
tinker with everything to try to fix it, I secretly love it :) haha
also it's a nice contrast to the 96 degrees outside! Which is another
thing, it's cooling off! I bought a sweater today, not because I
really need it yet, but because I'm just getting excited for winter :D
haha

Our new address is:

8150 N 61st Ave Apt 1129
Glendale, Arizona 85302-6770

One big thing that happened this week, Mariah had her baptismal
interview!! Josh and Mckenzie decided they don't want to be baptized
right now, but that Mariah was completely free to if she wanted to,
and she was all like "heck yeah I do" and then we were all like "heck
yeah you do" and now she's getting baptized on Saturday!! (not exactly
what was said, but you bet I was thinking it :) haha). So as bummed as
I am about Mckenzie and Josh, I'm just really excited that we get to
baptize Mariah! I'm really impressed with her testimony and her
desires to read the scriptures! We meet with them later tonight to
figure out details :)

One more thing that was pretty cool was that we had zone tour on
Friday. The name zone tour is misleading, because it's actually more
than one zone, and they all gather together in one building, where a
general authority comes and speaks to us. We got to listen to Elder
Foster and Elder Montoya of the Seventy. It was really cool, and I
learned a lot about how to build a better relationship with my
companion, my ward, and my investigators.

Other than that, just a lot of people not home this week :P haha but
you get used to it.

Out of time, I hope everybody's doing good! Have a fabulous week :D

-Elder Wheeler :)

Sent from my iPad

)