Day 41 on the Mission Front

Hiyah family and friends!

We did not end up moving, so we're still in the same house. We'll be moving in August though. Also, its transfer week. And guess who's not being transferred. Me. Which is great! I don't want to move yet! Only one elder in out district is changing out. But Sister Goodman thinks next transfer I'll be training since we have 30 new missionaries this month and 30 next. Which is crazy! We don't have enough people for that!

It has truly been an amazing week! I hope you have all had an amazing Independence Day! I definitely did! Our ward had a float in the town parade, and our Bishop ordered like 500 or so pens with Mormon.org written on them, and we had countless pass-a-long cards and pictures of Christ. And the biggest miracle, we gave everything out! It was amazing! To think of how many people now have the church's contact information! Afterwards, we also had a nice cream social too, which not very many people went to, and we didn't stay long enough for ice cream, but the hot dogs were good. The rest of the day was almost painful though. There was nobody out! We had one lesson and then nobody else wanted to meet and so we tried to go finding and it started pouring! So even less people were outside. And, well, no fireworks for us, obviously. But it was still a great day! Pictures will be coming soon!

Temple Terrace Ward, Brandon Stake

Sister Wheeler, Sister Howard, Sister Goodman, Sister Miller

We also had three baptisms yesterday for our zone! (And they weren't a family). One has been waiting a year, and the other two were just contacted less than a month ago. It was really spectacular. We also
had eight investigators at the baptism. Seven are from one family, (and that's not the whole family... There's twelve of them) and the other was a single man who's ssoooooo getting baptized. The family is iffy because they speak Arabic... And I don't. So there's a small communication gap, but we did just find a member who speaks a little Arabic! Yay! And one of our investigators from Egypt speaks Arabic.

They're a really great family though! We just have to teach in the simplest form. I had an inspiration to teach them, I am a Child of God, and they really liked that. Other than that though, they need a lot of activity in the lesson, which is fun because I have to be creative. Five of them have a baptismal date, but in our lesson with them on Saturday, the one boy who seemed the most set to be baptize backed out. So.... We're going to try to get a Book of Mormon in their hands before we stop teaching them. We'll see though.

Also, guess which mission just beat their all time baptism record! We beat 66 for the month! And our goal for this month is 84! Which we are sooo going to beat! Our zone goal was 10, which we only got 9, but this month looks more promising. Sister Goodman and I will hopefully have two, but definitely one.

We had another encounter with an anti. Well, two actually. And that's a lie as well, apparently there's a group of them. When I first got here, some of the elders told us not to waste our time with Bob (obviously, I changed his name). Well we met this girl, Rachel (that's her actual name, haha!) who flagged us down and wanted to meet with us and asked if she could bring a friend. Turns out they wanted to bash. We found out who they were before hand and gave them to the other sisters in our area and they met with them and threw down! It was great. I mean, awful, but great. And then they tried to go bother some other elders and they threw down too! They've apparently met with six or seven sets of missionaries to try and sway them, but we will conquer! Haha! They don't seem offended at all or anything. They tried to friend Sister Goodman on Facebook, so they're fine.

Other than that fun jazz....

Happy Birthday Jacob!!!!!!

And...

Happy Birthday Riley!!!!!! I'm glad you got my package in time! And I'm glad you shared, I figured you would. :)

And....

Happy Birthday Mommy!!!!!!!!!

I love you all! This has been an amazing week! Thank you all so much for keeping me in your prayers! Something I want to challenge you all to do; when you pray this week, only thank Heavenly Father for what you have. Don't ask for anything, just be grateful. As a companionship, we've been only saying gratitude prayers and we've been blessed tremendously!

Also, write me about when you gained your testimony, and how you first grew your faith. :)

Again, I love you!

Day 33 on the Mission Front

This week has been a long week, but it has been better than last week! Yay! Which is saying something, considering we had a baptism last week...

So Jason was confirmed yesterday! Hazzah! It was great and I had to write it down so he could read the blessing later since he only speaks a little bit of English. When we asked him how he felt, he said that is was a secret... so we assume that's good! We're so excited for him! But he goes back to China in three weeks, so... We're going to be busy getting him to the temple and everything. He received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday as well so he'll be passing the sacrament next week. He's worried he's going to spill the water. Haha!

I don't know if I mentioned this, but we met a family of 12. No, that is not a typo. 12. 10 children. And we were able to teach them this week! They're so hard to teach though! That father is at work all the time and the mom speaks zero English! They all speak Arabic. But the children we think understand. At least the two 16 year olds do. And they want to be baptized, but they kinda said that before they knew that we're Christians and not Muslim... We don't know how to fix that. But they still want to meet with us so that's good.

Our Zone got 9 baptisms this month! Yay! Our goal was 10, but we'll take 9! And next month looks even more promising! For example, there're two baptisms next Sunday, in just our building. Hazzah! None of them are ours, but still. We had some planned for the week after, but one was crazy and is supposed to moving to California to press charges against her ex who hit her seven years ago, and the other just broke up with his fiance. So... They probably won't happen. But, the week after that we'll have a few. Yay!

The beautiful missionary with her Black Badge of Courage (name tag)

Okay! One more story! So we were having a phone lesson, a lesson over the phone, at the church and in barges  one of the senior missionaries and he starts explaining, while we're still on the phone, that a boy just hit his car and wants to know more about the church! Well, like you, we didn't know how those two connected but we hurriedly finished our lesson and went to meet this boy and he had accidentally bumped in to the senior missionary's car and they started talking about church and whatever so he decided to stop by. Also, there was no damage to the car. Also he committed to baptism. It was a miracle.

I lied, one more story. We met a 'prophet' this week. He chastened us for having 'graven images' of Christ and when he was four he saw Him and that is not what He looks like. It was terrible! We meet so many people here that say they're prophets... its so weird...

I must go now, but I love you all! I pray about you all the time and I'm so thankful to you for the support you give me. I wouldn't be able to do this without you or without my Heavenly Father. He is real. I was making a list of things that I know. And I can't deny that He's with me and this is His work.

Again, I love you!

Day 27 on the Mission Front

Hello family and friends!!!

It has been an amazing week full of countless miracles!

To start, yesterday, Jeff was baptized!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh! I almost
can't believe it actually happened since even last week, he wasn't
sure if there was even a God or not. But it happened! And he liked it
and said that he had a really special feeling. That's great! He's from
China, and only speaks a little English, so Bishop had someone come to
translate the prayer for him and some of his friends. It was really
special. I'm so glad I was able to be a part of that.

On Saturday, we did exchanges, so I went down to Brandon for the day.
It was really a miracle, because I was just out of energy. Sister
Goodman and I realized later, that it was because we fasted three
times this week. Anyway, I was just done, barely moving and Sister
Young and a few if her investigators really got me moving. And then,
on the way home, we were able to talk for a long while about the
stress of being a missionary. It was really good. She's only been out
a few months so she understood everything I'm going through and gave
me some advice on how to help it. It was really an answer to my
prayers. And she's amazing! I hope I get the chance to be her
companion sometime. (Cool fact, she's a direct descendent of Brigham
Young and her dad works with Greg Cook and helped start DoTerra. Did I
also mention that Sister Goodman's mother's maiden name is Cook?)

Sister Young and Sister Wheeler

Our zone is also starting something new. In contacting, we say, "hi,
we're missionaries and we teach about Christ and prepare people to be
baptized in three weeks. How does that sound?" Or "do you want to be
forgiven of your sins?" It sounds crazy and bold and you would think
people would turn away, but it's working miracles. They started it in
Taiwan and their baptisms per month shot up to, yes, 35!!!! Per
district!!!! Ours is barely pushing four! So we're trying it. Already,
we've set two baptismal dates, which is great!

Day 21 on the Mission Front

Hello family and friends!

I hope all is going well at home! I miss you all! Happy belated Father's Day! Yes... I forgot... shame face!

It has been a crazy week. For example, Wednesday evening, it was pouring and our appointment canceled, which normally means that we'd go outside the church and wander along the sidewalk until we found someone. But, we didn't want to go swimming and it was getting to a ridiculous about of water, besides the fact that people tend not to listen to you at 8:00 at night when they're getting drenched.

So we prayed about what to do and where to go. It was one of the most frustrating things ever! Every thing we prayed about was no. Should we go see so and so? No. Should we call so and so? No. Finally, we just said that we had no idea what to do and we both thought of an investigator we have named Jeff. That's not his real name, he's Chinese, but he goes by Jeff. Earlier that day, he told us he didn't want to be baptized, which was pretty heartbreaking because he was sad about it. But that's a long story. Anyway so we decide to go see if we can find him. I don't know why, because we didn't have an address. Instead, we found a girl, we didn't get her information, but we bore our testimonies and invited her to church. I don't know why, but we were supposed to find her.

Also, we ran into another girl a few days later who's daughter had just kicked her out of her house and called the cops on her. So... that happened.

We also have an investigator named Josie who was also kicked out of her house by her brother. And her mom called us asking if she could stay with us. Well, no. But we still have some of her stuff in our trunk. So... that happened too...

BUT! This week has honestly been the best one yet! And I can't completely explain why, because we barely passed 22 lessons this week (which is actually pretty good considering we had Monday and Tuesday off). But we have multiple new investigators, and one is a family! Yay!

And yesterday, was probably the best day I've had on the mission. Sundays are amazing anyway, but yesterday... Okay, so, to start, we had four investigators at church, and one of them it was his first time. He's Egyptian and has a baptismal date for the 29th, and we planned that when we met him BEFORE the first lesson. And he's brought his mom to a few lessons. And then we had a lesson with Jeff, and a Chinese man in the other ward. I guess the reason he didn't want to be baptized was because he doubted and you can't doubt to be baptized... We of course, settled this. And, in our second lesson with him yesterday, he said he'll be baptized next Sunday... I couldn't calm down! I was running around the kitchen trying to make lunch and I was so crazy that my companion told me I was making her anxious! It was rather funny. We also taught Josie, and that lesson went beautifully. She's also set for baptism on the 29th.

The Zone Leaders were supposed to have a baptism yesterday, but he didn't show, which was really really sad. :( But we think that they'll be able to keep teaching him and plan for another day. The sisters we're rooming with also had someone drop them, and he was planning on being baptized too. Someone got to him and used Anit-Mormon stuff. Its sad that we can see Satan hastening his work as well.

I can see so many blessings from the gospel, and I don't just mean in my life. We're doing a lot of work with some recent converts right now and I can't tell you how many times they've said they're happier or things are easier. It really is amazing to see how people grow from this knowledge.

I also asked for a priesthood blessing yesterday. Elder Lloyd, the district leader, blessed me with strength, and that when I don't feel strong, I will know that I should, "run to my knees." I love that. Run to your knees. Prayer has been the strongest tool we've used out here. And I do run to my knees a lot and I can't explain the comfort and love that I feel when I am speaking with Heavenly Father. And I hope you're all running to your knees when life gets hard.

I love you all!

Love,
Sister Wheeler

Day 15 on the Mission Front

I have to apologize! I forgot to tell everyone in my last letter that my P-Day was moved to Tuesday for this week; we had our zone conference yesterday so they had to reorganize our schedule.

This week has been full! of miracles and blessings! FULL! Our entire district is having the greatest... well, I'd say luck, but its not luck. We're all being exactly obedient and we're all being blessed to see this area bloom. It's gotten to the point, that when we walk up to people, they say, "Oh, I just talked to some other missionaries." :) Or we'll be talking to someone and I look over my shoulder and on the other side of the road, I see the Elders talking to someone else that managed to sneak by us. Its great!

Oh! Okay... Amazing story! So we have this investigator who is completely ready for baptism. But she's living with her boyfriend (which means she can't be baptized), and they've been together for 12 years. She wants to marry him, but she won't until he stops drinking. See the whole problem? And every time the Elders have wanted to go teach him, he was drinking and it didn't work. BUT! Guess who came to church on Sunday! Her boyfriend did! And he loved it! He agreed to meet with the missionaries and made a ton of friends and yay!!!

Remember how last week, I said we had 25 lessons? Well... this week... 30 lessons!!! We almost reached 32, but the last two fell through (sad day!). But 30 is great! My companion, Sister Goodman, is amazing! She keeps us so busy! Everyone say I have the best companion in the whole mission, which is probably true since President Cusick brags about her at every single meeting we have. :) Its really great. I hope that I can be just as powerful as she is when I'm done being trained.

I have a bike, and a car, but mostly, we walk. There are so many people walking right past the church and we just nab them and drag them in to the church building. :) We now have 7, yes, 7 baptismal dates set and 6 of them are in June, although at least one of those probably won't be ready to be baptized. And we have one that we're just waiting for his mom's schedule so she can be there for it.

At the Zone Conference yesterday, Elder Clark from the Seventy spoke to us. He said some amazing things and answered a lot of my prayers. But at one point, through the jokes and everything, he put the majority of us (like 120 missionaries) in tears. He told anyone that had a friend or family member that was inactive from the church to stand up. Everyone did. Which was surprising to me. But then he went up to one of the Elders in the first row and asked who was inactive. The Elder said his sister. And Elder Clark asked what he'd pay to bring her back to the church, and then the missionary started crying and of course he said, everything. Elder Clark's point was that the people we teach aren't just people on the street. They're somebody's brother, sister, mother, father, etc. And we need to work our hardest to help them. We're the answer to people's prayers and we have to work our best to help these people improve their lives and to be the best they can. This isn't about how many baptisms we can get. This is about how many people we can help. That's the beauty of what we believe; that the gospel can help people become better than they were, and help them fight these challenges. I've been titling my letters 'Day _ on the Mission Front,' because I know that this is a battle. I've seen it since I've been out here. Its been hard to combat that. But we're winning. And we will win.

Sorry for that tangent there. I'm out of time now, but I know that what I'm doing, is the most important thing in the world right now, and its where I'm supposed to be. Its been hard, and yes, I've felt homesick. But there is no amount you could pay me to back down now.

I love you all, and, like I said, I miss you! Be safe!. (I hear you're having thunderstorms?!)

Love,
Sister Wheeler

Praise

These two sisters speak with EVERYONE they come in contact with and are busy teaching all day every day. — in Temple Terrace, FL. (Florida Tampa Mission Cusick Facebook page)

Sister Goodman and Sister Wheeler

Week 1 in the Field

Hiyah family and friends! I hope all is going well! I miss all of your lovely faces, but I am having a blast here!

I've already seen an alligator. Be jealous. It was awesome.

And I've already been bitten by a spider. Don't be jealous of that. It feels like a huge mosquito bite and itches about tens times that.

My companion, Sister Goodman is great. She's one of those people that run around like crazy though and she tires me out! We pack out lunches and dinners and just eat at the church. She was disappointed that we only had 26 lessons this week! 26! But I'd rather be busy, so I don't mind.

Sister Goodman and Hermana Gillett

Lemme think... It's really hot here. And humid. My hair stopped doing what I want it to when the plane landed. It rains at least once a day, which is actually pretty cool. We had one really good storm already.

I'm in the Brandon stake, Temple Terrace ward, which is itty bitty, and lacking a lot of people. But it's growing. The church building is at the perfect location though; right across the street from USF, a college. So the sidewalks are always busy and we can be those creepy weird missionaries that talk to EVERYONE. I mean it, too. I can't remember half the names and lets not even talk about their faces! But they are such cool people.

We have four investigators with a baptismal date!!! Yay! And there's one that wants to be baptized, but is living with her boyfriend and they've been together for 12 years and she doesn't just want to kick him out. But she comes to church and we visit her all the time. She's a really neat lady.

Okay, that's all I can think of for now. I love you all!

God be with you till we meet again!