Week 9 on the Mission Front

Hiyah Family!

I hope all is going as well with you as it is with me!

It has been a wonderful week! To start, Saturday we had two baptisms! Brother C and Sister F were baptized! Yay! They were both miracles! To say the least. And the Elders had two at the same time too! Our district rocked baptism this month and we passed our zone goal! Yay!

On top of that, we passed our max lesson! We got 40 lessons this week! I can't believe it! And we had zone conference one of those days, which took up the majority of the day. It's so amazing to see the miracles we have seen! Heavenly Father is just the best! Sister Goodman and I have a lesson goal that we have to get before the next transfer in three weeks. We don't think we'll be staying together, so we have to - have to - have to reach this goal! So, hopefully, our lesson count will only be increasing! :)

There's this other woman that will be getting baptized soon, Sister D. Ah, she's just amazing! Every time we see her, she has to spend ten minutes talking about how much she loves the Book of Mormon! Its great! Its so amazing! She'll be baptized in two weeks and she's already offering to bring meals to members. Its so amazing!

We had 5 investigators at church yesterday! One of them, Sister T, we had to go by her house to wake her up. And she didn't get up! So we thought there was no way she was going to make it! And then, low and behold, she walks through those double doors! It was a miracle! And she loved it! As did Sister D, as well.

Also, I chopped my hair off. It was too hot! And I want to get it even shorter, but we'll see. Maybe in a few weeks. :)

Zone Conference was great! I got to see a bunch of missionaries that came out with me, which I loved. Oh! And President bought a big metal sword and told us that, if we were willing to commit to serving the Lord as a warrior, we should sign it. Which was apparently really creative for him. :P Hehe, it was great though! We got to take pictures of us holding the sword in warrior like posses! Haha!

I'm out of time, but I love you all! Thank you so much for your support!

Week 8 on the Mission Front

Howdy family and friends!!

I don't even know where to begin with this wonderful and blessed week! There has just been too much!

Okay, lets begin with baptisms. We have two coming up this Saturday; Randi, and Eric. Eric we met a few weeks back while finding and the first thing we said was, "Do you want to be baptized?" and he said he already was (typical) but it couldn't hurt to do it again. Well, lo and behold, he's being baptized and he's great! We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he went home and got rid of all of his coffee the day of and has only touched it once since then. He has never missed a day reading either! He's just great!

Randi walked in to the church and asked to be baptized. Seriously. Last week too. She said she met with the missionaries a year ago, and decided it wasn't for her, but she hasn't been able to stop thinking about it. So she's being baptized this Saturday! And she's a miracle. A straight miracle. She's teaching me more of Christ's love and the Spirit than we are teaching her! Its amazing!

Also, our district leader has two baptisms this Saturday as well, which will make it a quadruple baptism!

And there's more to that. Our Zone goal this month was to get 12 baptisms. Our district, yes, district, already has 6. That was our goal and we still have the four this weekend! Its so amazing to see the Lord literally hastening His work!

We also surpassed our record for lessons this week! Which I didn't think was possible!

And we met a girl who was baptized a month ago and wants to be baptized again! Her date is for the middle of August. And another lady who finally committed to be baptized, but won't set a date quite yet. AND someone that Sister Goodman met before I was here called us this week and now has a baptismal date as well.

It has been crazy busy here!

The worst part of the week though; I have about four or five spider bites. At least, that's what we think they are... they're huge and a deep red. I don't know where I keep getting bit either. Possibly in bed? Ew...

Big bugs - EW!

Anyway, it has been a miraculous week! Satan is trying his hardest to combat us though. One of the dates set in our zone was in a serious car accident and is in the hospital (she was the last time I checked at least) and another one either tried to commit suicide or was poisoned. She's okay now, but... well, not great. But I also know that Heavenly Father is on our side, and He's better and stronger than Satan could ever be. We just have to have faith, trust, and a little pixie dust. :P

I love you all, and I miss you!

Week 7 on the Mission Front

Hiyah family!

Best. Week. Yet.

To start, and I'm not saying this to brag at all, because I know it's because Heavenly Father has helped us to beat our lesson record! 34 this week! I honestly am still shocked that we made it! We had to
start getting a little creative. For example: we taught a lesson whilst speed walking with two investigators. And we do phone lessons and Facebook lessons occasionally too.

It was transfers week! Which is absolutely crazy! For one, I've been out that long. For another, we got 27 new missionaries in!!! And we're getting the same amount next month! So many missionaries are training now! The APs each have a trainee!

Sister Goodman and I were able to help train the newbies on church tours, which was really amazing! The newbies are so spiritually strong, I took notes on them. But, that took more than four hours out of our day, which is a lot of finding or teaching time. But, The Lord took care of us. People are now walking up to us and asking to be baptized. You think I'm joking, but I'm not. During our training, a girl walked in to the church and told us she wants to be baptized. She used to meet with some missionaries, but stopped because she didn't feel ready and now she is. She is the coolest person every! She's from Caribbean and is making us dinner tonight.... :)

Sister Wheeler, Sister Howard, Sister Miller, Sister Goodman

Okay, crazy story for the week. We were visiting a less active/ recent convert family. The wife was baptized two years ago and the husband is less active but while in foster care, was baptized. We already knew that the father was a little bit... Well, somewhat crazy. We've visited them before and he's asked us to leave. Anyway, in the middle of our lesson, the two start bickering and then arguing and then! He threatened for a divorce and walked out and told us to call someone to get him a ride. We scurried away. As of yesterday, they're still together, but it was bad.

Okay, another crazy story. So multiple appointments had canceled on us, so we traveled back to the church to have an early dinner. While we were eating, one of the APs came in and told us there was a woman looking for us. We walk out into the lobby and there was one of our former investigators, having a seizure. One of the senior missionaries was already calling 911, but it was kinda crazy. It happens a lot to her, though. That's why she's a former investigator now because she was always in the hospital. Anyway, it was nuts.

Also, some of the senior missionaries are going home, and so the Online Elders won't be able to handle all of the work that their supposed to do. They're the ones that assign missionaries referrals and such. Anyway, each companionship now has to take four three hour shifts a week working online. Crazy, right?

We have three investigators with a baptism date in the next three weeks. And they're all solid. Yay!

Alright, final item. Yesterday, I was studying in Alma when I came upon a rather mind blowing verse. Chapter 40 verse 3, it says, "inquired diligently of God that I might know..." And then he begins
to talk about his revelation with the Resurrection and the Spirit World. If he hadn't asked, we may not have had that piece of information. Interestingly enough, I've also been reading "Our Heritage" which is about the pioneers mostly. But early on in the book, it also talks about how Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were translating the Book of Mormon when they came upon some verses about baptism. And so they asked Heavenly Father what it meant. And because they asked, they were given the priesthood and were able to baptize. If they hadn't asked, where would we be? Okay, I'm sure Heavenly Father would have had someone else ask, but my point is that so many things have been revealed because people asked! Isn't that great to think about?! Anyway, food for thought.

I love you all!

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