My soul hath been redeemed‍ from the gall of bitterness and bonds‍ of iniquity

Well, Christmas was absolutely amazing. It was definitely weird opening my presents up all by myself, while my companion was regretting opening his a few weeks earlier.

Christmas was definitely different, but it was nice to see all the different traditions that people had.

It was also 60 degrees here. Really quite warm! We got to play a little football with a family! That family is pure aggie fans! What was the weirdest was when I found there was a rivalry between BYU and Utah State all the way out in Oklahoma!

A few days after Christmas we got snow finally!!! Yep, snow's still cold.

Last night was a unique experience. We got a call from one of our investigators, and he was saying that he doesn't feel worthy. He was just saying that it was nice to know us, and that he doesn't want to take the lessons, but we were able to talk to him. My companion and I both bore our testimonies over the phone, and we read a few scriptures with him. The mistakes of his past were in his mind. While we read a scripture with him about Alma the Younger, one of my favorite scriptures of the Atonement, which reads:  29 My soul hath been redeemed‍ from the gall of bitterness and bonds‍ of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked‍ with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained‍ no more.

That scripture rings so true in my mind. The changes that the atonement can bring in our lives are wonderful. That's our message to the world. God loves us. He knows us. He shows that love.

Love you

 

Elder Wheelwright

Merry Christmas y'all!!!

Merry Christmas y'all!!!

Missionary work is amazing during Christmas! Everyone has their mind turned toward Christ, especially in Oklahoma. People are not afraid to declare their moral standards and what church they go to... Especially what church they go to!

I got a new companion this last week! His name is Elder Stephen! He's from the Marshall Islands. (If y'all don't know where it's at...., look it up:)) I think President wants me to learn Marshallese or something. My last companion was a Marshallese speaking missionary, and now I just got a native speaker. There is only 4 Marshallese speakers in our mission! (by the way, the Marshallese people came here because we nuked their island as a testing ground, and slowly came to Oklahoma and Arkansas.) Bit of a history lesson, but it's cool! So, apparently this Christmas, it is not going to be a white Christmas! It's supposed to be 60 that day!! crazy, right?

Well, this week has been amazing! I finally got to drive a car!!!! I haven't since I've been on my mission, so when I hopped behind the wheel, I felt like I was 15 again learning how to drive. But, it turns out it's like riding a bike.

Hey, I have run out of emailing time. Sorry! A  guy was just talking to me for a while about the Gospel, and we only get an hour on the computer. I'll talk to y'all more on Skype. I love you all. This church is true. (The guy I was talking to a few seconds ago was a minister. Ha, ya, sometimes we agree to disagree with people, because all they need is that calm assurance that the spirit provides in each one of our lives.)  People here are amazing.

Love you

Elder Wheelwright

Tornado!!!!

Well, Ya. Tornado!!! :)

So, all missionary apartments have a carbon monoxide detector. We were sleeping nice and peaceful, and suddenly Elder Bess woke up, which of course woke me up. Apparently the alarm was going off! At 4 in the morning!!!! So, we're like, oh no, we got to leave. So we go outside, call our mission president, and luckily there was an empty apartment we could go to to finish sleeping the night. We go there in our pajamas, blanket, and pillow at 4 in the morning and it's soooooo cold outside! We wake up in the morning, go back to our apartment, and test the carbon monoxide alarm. It's still beeping, so we call the housing management. They then proceeded to tell us to the utter astonishment of us that that just means that the alarm was out of battery! Ha!

Well, This week has been an absolute wonderful week!! Yesterday we were out knocking doors, and it started to hail like crazy! Then it started to rain really hard, and pretty soon the streets turned to water! It was amazing! Then the tornado sirens started to go off! I got soooooooooooo excited! We called our zone leaders and asked them if the sirens were supposed to go off (because it wasn't windy at all) on a Sunday at 5:15. They said "nope" so we proceeded to walk back to the church. When we got about 100 feet from the church, the tornado sirens started to wind down. Darn! So close! Turns out it was waaaayyyyyy east of us, and Edmond never gets tornadoes! But during the siren time, you could just see people coming out of their houses like "ooo, where's the tornado!" I was surprised no one had a lawn chair sitting outside watching. Well, gotta get going! Sorry the letter is so short! The Lords blessed us with many a miracle this week!!!!!!!!!! Amazing!!!!!!!!!

Letters are not a scary thing to write ;)

So this Christmas we are very blessed because I can Skype!!!........the problem is, I don't know how to. But, It's still awesome! We have three meals that day with members, and I can Skype at any one of those places. Whatever time is convenient for you, I can do. Just maybe send some instructions on how to Skype. Also, remember we are an hour difference. So when you give me some times, do it according to Oklahoma time, I'll email you what time to do it, and we'll arrange all of that.

I am transferring to another apartment in our same apartment complex on Wednesday.But ya, tell everyone that letters are not a scary thing to write ;) I loved the letter from Rachel and am planning on writing her back today. Also, I am getting a new companion this next Wednesday. Elder Stephen. He is a Marshallese speaking elder, just like Elder Bess, except Elder Stephen is a native. Apparently president wants me to learn Marshallese...? I don't know. Any word of Ipads for our mission yet? I figure they'd tell you before us. We were promised them by the end of the year. So we asked president Walkenhorst "have you heard anything about the ipads". His reply was "Nope, I have not." Ha, so yep!

Elder Wheelwright

HMM, My week

Hmm, my week. I will start forwards! Well, if I can remember it. That's the problem. I have such a bad memory that I literally forgot what I did most of the week. Good thing I have a journal, right? I'll try to bring that next time so It'll spark my memory. 

Hmm, Monday............... I'll just keep pushing period till I remember....................... Oh, ya! We played basketball for pday! That was fun! I'm still not any good at basketball, so no one passes it to me, but I'm starting to prove myself. Tuesday.........we taught some lessons......we biked..... we ate some food......ha, that's sad, but that's basically all I remember. On Tuesdays a service missionary in the area comes out with us. He's fun, but rather quiet. Reminds me of Will, the kid in (i think it was fifth grade) that was my friend but didn't talk to me, or anyone else. But, the missionary here does talk, and is getting out of his shell. Ah, yes, I remember a little more! On Tuesday my companion went with the service missionary while I went with a member on splits. As it always happens whenever we get a member with us, all the appointments cancelled, but luckily the member was pretty cool about it. Wednesday........... We did service for a place called the hope center. It's a lot like the DI in Utah, just not LDS. Maybe we'll get it baptized one day. If only it was in the time of Noah again. I got sick with a pretty good cold that day, but we had appointments all day already, so we endured and went to them. Our catholic priest we are teaching, Michael is his name, is finally starting to connect some dots! It's awesome! Before, he was creating a hybrid religion. Protestantism, Catholic, and LDS. (don't know how he did all three of those mixed, but somehow he has.) He said he was going to use the Book of Mormon in his Parishes (I think that's what it's called). Reminds me of "How Rare a Possession". By the way, that's a good church show. I recommend it! Hmm, Thursday we went and raked a guys yard. It was rather foggy that day, and everything was wet because of that. A good sick day to be sick, but we still worked. We were raking a yard after being armed with a members rake, we went to someones house that good use a good raking and we started raking. As we were, the guy that lives there pulled up and thanked us, we shared with him that we go around praying with people, and he said he would love that, and that we should pray for his wife because she has stage four cancer. He went inside, came back out, and said his wife could use a prayer right now. We went inside, told them about an anointed blessing, and she said that would be fine. It was the one day I forgot my oil at our apartment, so we consecrated some right in front of them, and gave her a blessing! It was amazing! We told them we have a message to share about Christ and they welcomed us back whenever, but that they would be going in and out of Tulsa for cancer treatments, so if they're home, we're invited in. It was amazing! Then, Friday, the sisters referred a person in our area to us, and we had a combined lesson. It was amazing. Shaday was the lady we taught. She accepted a baptism date, and she came to church on Sunday with her family! So amazing!!!! We also got a random call from someone named Chris (who we don't know) that wants to get baptized, and we have an appointment with him tonight! We'll see how that goes! Saturday we raked more leaves, and Sunday we went to church. People here like leaves raked, especially in Edmond, as it has a lot of trees everywhere. And a lot of hills! Weeeelp! I love you all! That's awesome Lizzie got her mission call! I gotta go

Happy Thanksgiving

Turkey Trot

Well, the week of Thanksgiving was wonderful even though I feel 4 pounds heavier :)

So, Thursday morning we were able to do a turkey trot. It's a 5k run! I think it's so people feel less guilty when they stuff themselves as much as they possibly can. I certainly felt that way! So, the 5k, it was an awful cold morning! I unfortunately did not plan on that, so I wore shorts and a t shirt, and later realized my mistake! It was a good run, even though I could feel that 10 extra pounds that I had packed on! The Thanksgiving day was crazy! We went over to someones house expecting about 10 people, and there were about 40 people all eating!

The next day the sisters in our ward had a wonderful baptism. Michael, our investigator was able to come, and the whole time he kept yelling out AMEN! Gotta love it! :)

Teaching my Comp how to play Tennis (By osmosis)

Miracles

How have things been this week? This week has been awesome! It's been a little harder with our investigators, as only two of them could meet with us, and the rest are either avoiding us or are busy. It makes me worried about one of our investigators, because for about two weeks we've been trying to contact her (one of my favorite investigators) and her friend (referral from her) texted us and said to leave Julie alone... Sad day. But the work moves on. 

What kind of miracles have you seen? A finding one. We found two people in this one neighborhood. One of them got antied very hard core after we left, and she doesn't want to meet with us, but that's not the miracle. Right across from her house we taught a lesson to the girl that was living in that house and she knows the Stake President and baby sits his grandchildren. She accepted the BOM and asked for a couple weeks to read through it. Awesome!

Who are you teaching? Well, we are teaching Michael, Trey, Julie (well, was) , Dylan,, Amber, Bro Gilbert,Jenna, Daniel, Paul and Betty, just got married this last week and Betty is Jehovah witness and Paul is a Less Active. Yep, I think that about covers it.

How is the ward coming along? It is going awesome! The sisters in the ward are having a baptism. They are baptizing an eternal, and it's getting the ward pumped because they haven't seen a baptism in about a year or more. We just got a new ward mission leader Sunday. Sad to see our old WML not being one, but Bro. Taylor, the new one, is a man full of many ideas and faith, and I can't wait to see what he'll direct us on next. The ward feels more and more like my family every day. I look at them and it feels like I have known them my whole life, even when I see new faces (I'm bound to because we have 400 active members), but I definitely see a lot of new faces. They have taken me in and made us feel like family. They are a good ward. Even my first week in the ward, I felt like I had known them all in the pre-mortal life or something, because I just fit right in with them :) I'm coming up on 4 and 1/2 months with the ward, and I don't want to leave. I hope I can stay in this area longer. 

Elder Wheelwright

My week

This week was very fun! We got to go to a Catholic Mass yesterday! Our very nice Catholic Priest escorted us into the mass. There are so many churches in Oklahoma! We were looking in the Yellow Pages and there were 27 pages of different churches! Wow! This is definitely the bible belt! 

So, for Preparation Day last week, we went to the zoo! It was an absolutely perfect temperature day! 70 degrees during the day! Then, later that night we went to an appointment. An hour later when we got out of the appointment, it had dropped what felt like at least 20 degrees! So cold! That was the quickest we've ever biked home. The next day it was about 20 degrees! Gotta love Oklahoma! And the rest of the week has stayed like that! Yesterday, about an hour before church it started snowing pretty lightly. People started asking if church was still on. Ha, funny Oklahoma! At church, we had about half attendance, and everyone else was at home avoiding the snow. By the time we got out of church, about 1/2 of an inch of snow was on everything, and traffic dropped to a slow crawl! So many people had spun out and were on the side of the road. The person driving us, as he was pulling out onto the road, started sliding and did a complete u turn on accident and just kept driving and went out the other side of the parking lot. Whew, it was hard not to grab the wheel and start steering for them. 

Elder Wheelwright

Praying in the Bible belt

Sooo, this week has flown by!

It's been a wonderful week of perfect temperatures all day. 

70 degrees all day! Feels like Hawaii... or what I would imagine Hawaii feels like... if it were a landlocked state.

But anyways, you get the point :)

Yesterday was amazing! Michael, showed up to church! He's awesome. He's a bout sixty years old, small and delicate man. We showed him a movie about Joseph Smith, and While showing it to him, he started crying when Joseph died. He is truly passionate about our 

religion. Every lesson we have with him he reminds us that it is his "second time reading the Book of Mormon", and that if he didn't believe in what we believe he would not be reading it. He wants us to bury Joseph Smith under our temple in Salt Lake, just as the Catholics did with peter (I think). He's created a weird hybrid religion with LDS and Catholic. I didn't know you could mix the two, yet he somehow has :) 

I love Oklahoma! They are very proud to be the buckle on the bible belt, and the people here sure are! On Monday, all of our appointments fell through and we didn't know what to do. So... tracting! We biked down a random road and some drunk people yelled at us, so we stopped to go talk to them. Of course, we got a bit side tracked and knocked on this door, and the guy let us right in. He was about 30, had 3 kids. We offered to pray with him, and he rounded up all of his kids. It was soo cool! He invited us into his kids bedroom to get ready for bed, and we all stood in a circle holding hands with his children, and we offered a prayer. After, the children gave each other hugs and then came over and gave us hugs. They were all under the age of about 6! It was so very inspiring that people can have a family like that in this day and age! We then went back to their house another day and the dad let us and we taught them about Joseph Smith. He said he had been praying all week for us to come back (good sign, right?) and then continued on to tell us that he had some things he would like to tell us (uh oh) and then commenced a long sermon about how we are going to be condemned. Nice man... till it comes to religion :)

Well, sorry this letter is not so long. My wrist hurts, and this is probably not long enough to be on the blog. Ah well, do with is as you will.

Come Unto Me and I will give you REST

I feel like the over arching message of this last conference was to "come unto me". They said it many times, and I got the feeling many other times. I've been pondering about that. "come unto me and I will give you rest". For a while, I felt like that never applied to me. I was thinking about how hard this mission is, and that it's not very restful to me. And at church yesterday, I received revelation about that. He has given me rest. We were talking about addictions and weaknesses, and I was told by the Holy Ghost that that is how I am receiving rest. As members of the true church, sometimes we take for granted many doctrines that bring us true rest. During gospel doctrines, we were talking about the law of chastity, and I came to the realization that that is such a wonderful law. We put away the grossness of Satan, and embrace God with our full heart. It holds families together, it keeps you free from addiction. And it's so specific in what it teaches that you don't have room for question. Also, with the Word of Wisdom. Because I've never done drugs, they can't hold me bound. I am receiving rest from the Savior. The commandments aren't a burden, they are a blessing. And thank you so much for raising me in such a wonderful example of that. 

This week, one of the people we are teaching, a Catholic Priest, talked about how he would get an-tied and he would offer a Book of Mormon to anyone who would speak bad about the church, and then he would offer for them to meet with us. He was talking about how a minister of one of the churches was mad at him for taking the lessons from us, and the catholic priest, said that our church was true, and that he would do well to listen to us also. He then offered a Book of Mormon to him. I love Him! He's read the Book of Mormon all the way through already, and he is on his second time. He said that there is no way he would read it a second time if he didn't believe in it already. I asked him what he was going to do about his knowledge, and he said that he was going to use it as a reference material when giving sermons. Not quite what I was looking for, but I don't see anything wrong with that :) 

A death, endowment, wedding, baptism, and funeral

HA, yep, its been a crazy, fun, sad week!

So, to start off, an endowment.

So, in Edmond, a convert of a year was able to go to the temple! So amazing! Her name is Susan! We were not sure how to get there, and all other resources exhausted, we were about to take the car from the sisters (to the complaints of them :)), and they must have said a prayer in desperation! Because at 9:30 pm the night before, a name of a member popped into my head out of nowhere! So we called and immediately they said yes! And what's also awesome about that is, they took us to a Chinese buffet after, which, by the way, is my first one I've ever gone to. It was cool! As I was eating the slightly strange food, I could only imagine what Wheelwright Choro was eating right then :)

 And to make it an even better week for her, she got sealed Saturday! So, in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma temple, it is literally the smallest temple in the world, and Susan has met with many a missionary. Fortunate, yet unfortunate, all of those missionaries were planning to go to her sealing. So that turned out awesome! And we went to her reception that day, and glorious food was arrayed everywhere. My favorite, mashed potatoes and gravy! Surprisingly enough, we hardly ever have that here. When I thought of Oklahoma, I thought of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and country gravy.

An hour after the reception, in the same building, the sisters had a baptism.

 For a church meeting right before church, our bishop read a quote from Brigham Young about service, and that that is his religion, and said that we were going to prepare for the funeral. The funeral was going to be held that day, and they estimated 600 people showing up in our chapel. Whew, kind of daunting! It was amazing to see all the men, elders quorum, young men, and high priests work together to prepare for the funeral. We set up every chair in the whole church in as many places as we could. The time of the funeral arriving, us missionaries were the ushers. 6 vans full of flowers came and were put in the chapel. The funeral, with it starting at 6:30, and people started showing up at 5. At about 6, our chapel was full, and the gym also, and 700 programs were all given away by then. At least 1000 people showed up, if not more. Every hallway was lined with people, the gym had all the walls lined with people standing, and many other rooms that had speakers in them were full. Many fire-code hazards later, the funeral started. It was absolutely beautiful! So many people gained comfort from the plan of salvation, and so many gained a testimony of it that night. It was a wonderful funeral, celebrated with joy and sorrow. See, as members of the church, there is a knowledge that families are forever, and that there is life after death. Such a glorious doctrine that Heavenly Father has revealed to us, and I'm so glad he has.

 

This week has gave me a perspective on many things! I was able to see all major points of peoples life (except birth, thankfully). A baptism, starting an eternity of commitment to God. An endowment, another step along the stair way of life. A sealing, being paired with a companion of your choice for all eternity. A death, passing on to the other side. And a Chinese buffet to fit all in the middle of that:)

 

So many doctrines benefit us in life. The full and restored truth of it all. So many others could benefit from the knowledge we have been given. Given freely, freely shall I give.

Elder Wheelwright

Elder Wheelwright at the reception

 Michelle and Tom Russell with Elder Wheelwright

Chillin' with brilliance

 

So… Mannequins?

This week was pretty good. It flew by! 

So… funny story. I crashed my bike!

Well, kinda funny. :) So my companion and I were at an intersection and we both decided to go the perfect way so that we could both crash into each other right in the middle of the intersection! And so as we crashed, I tipped over immediately, but my companion is solid. Throughout his mission he's learned how to build his foundation on a rock…especially during dinner, and so he just kept pedaling while I was hanging off his bike. 

Yesterday I would say was the most fun day!! We went to Sunday school for the 16 year olds in our ward. The youth are sooooo funny! One of them, right in the middle of the lesson look over at his neighbor, pinches his skin, and asked if that was a cause of dehydration! It doesn't sound that funny till you hear his voice! That kids family is so hilarious! But anyways, after that we got to go to primary because we didn't have any investigators at church! The kids absolutely love the missionaries here!…probably because we give them candy! Depending on how well they are in primary, they either get 2 pieces of candy or 1. Right after church, while we're going to go get the candy, a line starts forming right behind us of hungry kids! I feel like a mother duck leading them along as they are all screaming for candy and asking us where we hide it at church. I think they've found our latest hiding spot, so we're going to move it again. :) In primary yesterday, there was this kid, Joe, that kept making me paper airplanes and bending the nose in different ways, giving each of them a new name. He reminds me of Mike Yagoobian off of Meet the Robinsons. But when we finished handing out candy and we were talking to the adults, he walks by our bag and just grabs and started walking away. I was just watching, not even thinking about it till my companion noticed. We've got some smart kids in our ward.

One of the people we're teaching has a bunch of these mannequins, and yesterday as we rode by their house, the mannequins were outside, just standing in their front yard, watching all the cars drive by. I think their planning on putting one on the roof as a look out, and another hanging from a tree. They're funny people! They absolutely love sitting outside because on the corner that they live, a lot of people speed, so a cop is there, and they love watching the cop pulling people over.  

It finally got really cold this week! It feels soooo nice! It was around 60, and both Elder Marsh and I completely froze! I can't wait till an ice storm! 

So, as we were knocking doors, we went up to a door, knocked on it, and the guy slammed the door in our face, and as we were walking away, the door popped open and this lady started chasing us and telling us to stop! Happy to oblige, we stopped and she asked us if we were Mormons, and then she invited us inside, to the bewilderment of her husband. The Lord is truly in this work!

I love it! And I would encourage all y'alls to share the gospel, because I know the Lord will help you as you strive to. 

Elder Wheelwright!

So....Chiggers

My zone

Chiggers are... :P . I thought mosquito bites were bad, but chiggers pass it up. They're really cool insects though! We were doing a service project for this lady that hadn't cleaned up her yard in about 5 years and the next morning I woke up with bites everywhere on my leg. No bueno.

Pizza is everywhere here. We've had pizza the past 4 days for almost every meal. I think the members are trying to fatten us up even more than we already are. I love pizza, so I'm totally fine with that! 

So, our weeks been really nice and busy. We are doing a major youth activity with our ward where all the youth are going on splits with the missionaries for this Wednesday activity. So we pulled all the missionaries in our zone and some from another zone. 19 appointments :) Unfortunately we don't have that many investigators, so we've been contacting other members to have a lesson taught to them. It's going to be a fun youth activity. There's about 35 youth attending that activity. I don't think we realized how big it would be till we were too late :) But ya, that's all we've been doing the past week. Preparing like crazy for that activity, which has been really fun. Transfers are this Wednesday and Elder Marsh and I are staying in Edmond, which I'm so glad for. Sister Koyle, a sister in our district, is being transferred out. I can't believe a transfer is already gone! It's crazy!

My Zone at the Temple

Temple trip!

My District at the Temple

Whew! What a week! I absolutely love the temple! I wish I would have gone a lot more before I left on my mission. I can feel that it is definitely the house of God. Well, we started out the temple trip with a testimony meeting as a zone in the stake center across from the temple. It was so powerful. It was so great to start out the temple trip like that.

This week has been so busy. I never realized how awesome the Priesthood is. I have the authority from God in me! It's been a week full of priesthood blessings and tracting. The sister missionaries were teaching this lady, and she asked for a blessing. It was so crazy to see the change in the lady from that day and the next day. The priesthood is real.

The weeks are starting to fly bye. It's awesome because Edmond has come alive now. All the college students are here, and the roads are so busy.

Well, Justin Skinner is leaving on his mission to Cali, Columbia on Tuesday. He's been very fun to take to go teach lessons.

So, bashers. For some weird reason they seem to all be from Utah. We were just at the store and I went to go talk to this guy and he started bashing us. He even pulled out a list of scriptures from his front pocket to try and bash with us. I kept trying to leave from talking to him, because we bore our testimony and it was time to leave that guy alone, but he wouldn't let us. I understand, he's trying to save us and whatnot, but he's just got lost in his knowledge.

Service is so fun! We got to cut down quite a few trees! Problem is, we can't use the motorized saw (I forgot what it was called), so we got good old saws. It was actually pretty fun! Elder Marsh was cutting down a smaller tree and it was heavier than he thought it was so it scraped up his hand pretty good. 

I love reading the scriptures! Coming out on my mission has helped me realize that not only do we need physical sustenance, but also spiritual food too. Even more so than physical.

Elder Wheelwright (dos)

HEY Ya'll

Even though I've been resisting saying yall, I still end up saying it all the time! 

Well, this week was crazy! With basically next to no investigators we did a lot of finding! I enjoy tracting, and trying to help resolve their concerns. 

Life is good here in Edmond! We've been teaching this couple about the word of wisdom and the lady that we were teaching started getting mad at me, and all I did was bear my testimony. I was like whoa lady, calm down. It was kinda comical, because later I realized that the Holy Ghost pricked her heart and she just didn't want to change, so she got defensive, but luckily it all got cleared up by my awesome companion. We've been playing guitar at their house to kind of let them know we are real people. It's crazy, because my companion plays guitar, cello, and piano, and I play those too, yet our personalities are different, but he's awesome. Well, now that college has started up, the traffic from UCO has increased so much that now we are able to talk to a lot more people.

It's awkward when we run into a Spanish person, and they can't speak Spanish. We just pull out a card and point to the website and say to visit it :) So I decided to learn the first discussion in Spanish. Here it goes: el Libro de Mormón es verdadero. Jose Smith es verdadero :) How'd I do Austin? 

There's this old lady that we did service for, and she came to church with us. Whoo, talk about nerve wracking. I was worried she was going to shout hallelujah or something like that. We threw a lot of her stuff away because she likes to keep stuff... no bueno.

We went to another church on Sunday because someone wanted us to. It was pretty weird. We sang a lot, and then the minister called me and my companion out of the congregation. Weird. He yelled a lot while preaching. It kinda hurt my ears, but it was still very cool to see other people trying to pursue Christ also. We invited some people to our church while at their church. It was pretty great! Our church is in the fullness of the gospel, and is so true. 

With the spirit and trying to listen to it, I always was wondering that too. Then we watched a talk in the MTC by Elder Bednar and he said to not worry about if it is the spirit or just you, because the spirit is sometimes very hard to detect and if it's good, then it cometh from God :) It's still very hard for me to do it, but I'm working on it. That's awesome your doing missionary work. I can tell you from experience that the missionaries really really really appreciate it, so just imagine how much God appreciates it! That's awesome! 

Do you know what's so crazy!? Pride is almost always the root for sin! It's crazy! I read a talk about it, and ever since then, whenever I get annoyed at my companion for a lecture or something, I tell myself that that's just my pride being hurt, and that I need to get over it, and that pride is no bueno. I need to work on that :) I love you mom! You are so awesome!!! I love you also dad!!!! Write me :) I love talking to both of you. Choose the right!!! The LDS church is so true!! Love you

Elder Wheelwright (dos)

Life! Love it!

How are your investigators doing? Well, we came to a realization that all of our investigators like us over because we're fun to talk to, and we serve them, so we've dropped every single one. They just don't really have a desire to learn. We've tried to instill in them that desire, but it's something we can't do. That takes away agency, so for now, we've dropped all of them, and hopefully they'll gain a desire to once again listen to the words of life.

Lou, how was cleaning her house? It was good! We had to reschedule cleaning her house because of the rain, but we cleaned her outside on Tuesday. I think she's to the point where she wants to investigate the church. When we cleaned her yard, my companion found two gigantic black widows, a snake, and a frog. We didn't tell her about the snake because she would probably have a heart attack, but we told her about the black widows and she freaked out about that... oops!

Aaron. Have you met with him? Nope! He has not contacted us yet and he said he's not going to contact us till he had his life in order.

Bro. Gilbert? We went over a few days ago, and that's when we tried to figure out personally his reason for needed the gospel. Both me and Elder Marsh got the feeling that he doesn't have a reason for investigating the gospel, and that he also has no desire to learn. But we both believe one day he will come to the truth that he needs the words of the Savior just as much as any one else. He's in a good environment of the church. His wife just went through the temple her first time, he goes to all three hours of church, and he prays to God and see's the goodness and charity of people, so I believe we can't do anything for him till he want's it.

So by Sunday, yesterday, we had dropped all our investigators, and we were not sure what to do. So we went on our way to go see some part member families and our way over there, my companion got a very strong prompting to go talk to this lady on her porch. It turns out she was really prepared. We taught her about the Restoration and we all felt the spirit, and she accepted the Book of Mormon and said she'll pray and read about it, and the baptismal challenge was almost out of my mouth and then the conversation got a bit random at the end, and I wasn't able to invite her to be baptized. But that's alright. God has prepared her, and we have an appointment with her on Wednesday.

 School here at UCO is about to start, and we're basically on the campus, so it'll get busy here, and most people we'll find, we'll probably have to refer to the UCO Sister's here. The lady that we talked to and taught the Restoration yesterday will have to be referred to the UCO sisters, unless she is over thirty. 

Ya, dad definitely showed me how to work hard, even out on the mission field my companion grew up on the farm and it sounds like you taught us how to work just as well as he was taught, although he woke up a lot earlier to go milk cows than we ever did. :) 

 This week when we went to see the Gilberts it turned out that their fan in their bedroom overheated, and so they had to replace it, so while we were over there, they had someone replacing it. The fan, it turns out, was built and broke building code violations and was attached to the sheet rock and not a beam. I think God made their fan overheat because it might have fallen. But that's just personal opinion.

Whoa?? Derek is going to Alabama?!?! That's awesome!!!!!! Tell him good luck and that he should write me.  That's awesome Jason got married!! 

I love you! Thank you so much for raising me in the gospel and always being an example to me

Elder Wheelwright

Swimming While Biking???

This week was so nice! A cold front moved in and it rained LIKE CRAZY here! And apparently that's not even bad, but whew! I have never seen so much rain! We went biking in it after a service project at the hope center (basically the DI in Utah) to the chiropractor and it was like I had gone swimming, which I thought was against the rules but hey, I guess swimming while biking is ok :) After a while of biking in it, cars would hit puddles on the road and a giant wall of water would just come at you at hit you! Very fun though! Especially when we got to the chiropractors office and we were soaked all the way through. Which during that time I was on exchanges because my comp is District leader so he needed to go to district leader conference, so after that, we went back to the elders apartment I was with and everywhere I walked in the apartment, he'd follow me with a mop :) It was so funny to just walk around acting like I was doing something, but really I was just watching him clean up after me :) It rained like crazy all day though :)

Also, we found this old lady, the one that prayed with us on the phone, and we went to see her, and so we went to the trailer park where she lived and taught her a lesson...well, tried is more like it, because she'd discuss a concern of hers and we'd address that and before we even got through with that she would start talking about her carpet in her trailer, so we're going to clean her house tomorrow,  :) The work is going great here though.

I ran into my first basher :) He started trying to bash with us and how he was concerned for our salvation, but as soon as he started, we listened to him chastise us about how John Smith made up the Book of Mormon and that he is fine with the one he has, so ya, John Smith...:) It was interesting to say the least :) We did this thing called the power hour, where we share a spiritual message with the members that we eat with and then we ask them to pray for us for the whole next hour and while they are doing that we go and tract their neighborhood out, and I can tell you, God definitely listens to prayers! A little background story; the day before, we tracted for 3 hours and prayed with about two people in that whole time, but no one wanted to listen. During the power hour though, we prayed with 6 people and gave out a Book of Mormon and they said they would read and pray about it. The change between those two days was such a big difference that God had to have been listening to prayers.

So, my watch is a thermometer too I guess :) Some cool new feature or something. on the screen, it got water inside of it so whenever it's over 90 degrees, my watch screen fogs up on the inside, and also depending on it raining it also fogs up :)  And also, it's actually a lot easier than I thought to be able to tell the direction here. Also, everyone's been asking for blessing lately, so quite a bit of blessings! The priesthood is true!

This gospel is so true!

Choose the right :)

Elder Wheelwright (dos)

Elder Marsh

MTC District

OH YA! Week one!

Whew! so much has happened this week that it's absolutely crazy. My first area is the Edmond First Ward. Edmond is such a beautiful place, I never expected Oklahoma like this. Everything is green and people are normal here, but I heard that this is the most normal area in Oklahoma.We live right next to a college campus, so the people here are mostly very young, so it feels kind of like a singles ward... except they're married here. :) My trainer is Elder Marsh! He's an absolutely wonderful Elder! He's absolutely hilarious!

Doing Great in Edmund

Yesterday, he turned to me and said "So, did you know Cain is modern day bigfoot?" and I just burst out laughing, especially because I remembered the show Singles ward 2. And the thing is, he actually believes that bigfoot really is Cain. And he says he know's when the second coming is coming too, and it's absolutely hilarious!! He's a very good trainer though. My first few lessons that I tried to teach, I totally blanked so luckily he helped me there.  Also, my trainer is an absolute clean freak, which is sooo very awesome, because I'm not too big of a fan of bed bugs. :) And it's just me and him in the apartment, and I would almost say with surety our apartment is the cleanest, even though I haven't seen anyone else's apartment.

The people here are sooooooo very nice! It's crazy! When we go tracting, if you ask them for water, they'll gladly give it to you, or for anything else. But then when you bring up religion, it's a little bit different of a story...:) Everyone here is totally fine with talking about religion. It's an everyday part of their lives, as well it should be. :) 

The members here are so nice! They have a calendar they pass around during church and everyone picks a day they want to feed the missionaries! :) So every night we have a dinner appointment with the members, and during that time we try to instill in them how important member missionary work is. I wish I had gotten that before my mission, so I could have helped them so much more. It's crazy how much we actually rely on the members here. Also, sometimes the members sign up to feed us, and they live far away in the city (well, far away is very relative, especially because we're on bikes), so we sadly have to tell them that we can't go, but the member's here are so nice that they insist on bringing us food all the way to our apartment.

The biking here is hot...:) It's been over 100 every day this until today, because a cold front came in and now it's about 84 degrees, which feels wonderful! I'll be honest, the hot here isn't so bad. I don't feel like I'm melting in front of the sun, like in Utah. The humidity is nice :) A few days ago it wasn't as humid and just barely 100 and I'd say I didn't like that weather the most. 

The work goes great here. We are getting this area started up again after it lacking for a few transfers, so the first few days we hardly had any appointments. But luckily, God is on our side, so he provided us with quite a few miracles to help us out, which helps me realize that God want's a willing heart before a prepared one, because I'm definitely not prepared. You can definitely feel God's hand in missionary work. People that normally wouldn't talk to you talk to you and want to know more. And I can constantly feel the spirit, and it's such a lovely feeling. I've never been more happy and satisfied in my life with things I am doing than now. Sure, it's hard, like on my first few lessons and tracting all I wanted to do was hide in our apartment because I was nervous to talk to people, but after that, it became much easier to do that because I could see how God helps them out, and all you want to do is help them out as much as you can, and the way that I know best is to let them know of God's love for them. 

So, on my first day with my trainer we were walking around our apartments carrying the Sisters luggage (our district is me, Elder Marsh, Sister Jones, Sister Koyle, Sister Tutasi, and Sister Odem) and we dropped it off and then as we were walking back to our apartment this guy swimming asked us if we were Jehovah Witnesses (there are a lot of those missionaries here, but for some weird reason they avoid us...;)) and we told him that we were Mormons and then he said that he wanted to meet with us, and that he just had gotten fired from his Job, so we set up an appointment for the next day. 

Another miracle was this lady that we tried calling up. She answered and she started praising us for how we act like good Christian boys should:), and then we set up an appointment with her and she actually prayed for us on the phone! It's so crazy how nice people are here. 

One more miracle from God, even though we've had many others. Yesterday we felt that we should visit this man, and we knocked, no one was there, and so we left our card with our number. Later that evening, we got a call from that persons sister, and it turns out that he just went in for heart surgery (he's got congestive heart failure, which is sad because he's about 30). The surgery was supposed to last about 4 hours but it turned into a 16 hour heart surgery, and he's not doing too well and can't see anyone except immediate family, and so when his sister called us up (she's a member of the church) she wanted us to find out the Elder's in that area and she wants them to give him a blessing. 

Also, I saw Austin Russel?? 

Love you all!!

Stay true to the faith, for it definitely is the true gospel

Elder Wheelwright (dos)

I am in Oklahoma

Hey, so this is just to let you know I am alive and well. Very humid and planes are so very cool. The Mission President is cool. Love you

Elder Wheelwright (dos)

President Walkenhorst, Elder Wheelwright, and Sister Walkenhorst

Whew! Almost Oklahoma Bound

I have absolutely loved the MTC! I'm sad to leave, but I'm also very happy to leave. Their ORANGE CHICKEN here is so AWESOME! I wished that I was a cow and had multiple stomachs. (I still probably ate like a cow though).

I got to talk to the MTC president before a meeting, and he mentioned me in a meeting of 600 people... So I'm pretty much the best... Ya, still waiting to get humbled out on the mission field. So, the reason I got to talk to him was because I arrived early to a meeting (that's a no bueno) and I sat on the front row of a 600 person conference (also a no bueno), so with those two super smart decisions I made, I naturally got called to say a prayer. (bueno :)) So before the meeting started I had to go sit up on the stand next to the MTC President, and so we started talking and I asked him when he was giving a talk and he said that he was only conducting. Then, after that, we both came to the conclusion (with our marvelous thinking skills) that my part in the program was much easier, because I could close my eyes and pretend that they weren't there. But the miracle came after. You know how I am absolutely terrified of speaking in front of people, even just to say a prayer? I prayed to God to ask Him if He would help me during the prayer to not be nervous, and right after that, I felt comforted. I didn't even worry about what anyone thought until after. 

Well, it's sad to say goodbye to the people in my zone, for we truly made wonderful friends.

I'll have pictures to send you next pday, but the computers here won't allow us to upload photos. 

So, I'll have you know, I am very clean and neat when it comes to lunch. During lunch a few days ago, I was drinking powerade and spilled all the way down the front of my tie and on my pants. Later during that meal I spilled more powerade on my tie, and the ketchup on my tie and on the chair and my pants. 

Well, I love you all so very much

I will be calling you tomorrow while in the airport for a while, so just be ready for that. I suppose I'll call Mom's phone. I'm leaving tomorrow to the airport at 4:30 in the morning but I'm leaving on the plane around 9:00, so ya... :)

Love you

Elder Wheelwright (dos)

MTC Life

 I only have a very short time on the computer, but I am alive and well. I definitely understand the importance of letters a lot more now, even though its been a few days. I get excited when my companion checks for the mail, so I'd say its awesome that I have letters. My district is awesome, and I love the people at the MTC. You can definitely feel the spirit almost all the time here. Well, sorry this is short, but I love you. My pday is Monday officially, so I'll have more time for emails.

Elder WheelwrightGuess what! I found out that the mtc has a music library, and i can check stuff out to play on the piano! I found that that helps me relax from a day of teaching and lessons. Wow, I am definitely amazed at how long they can have a teacher teach a class here! Sometimes it's goes on for 3 hours. And Sometime soon is our infield orientation, which goes on for the whole day!!! I would like the time to thank you mom and dad for the super long lessons that have trained me for my infield orientation ;) Well, my companion, Elder Moore, is super hilarious, even just his laugh makes you start laughing. Some pretty funny things happened this week. So, we always make jokes about Elder Neves, (from Columbia, not Mexico, which he keeps trying to remind us) (also, he's in my district) generally racist jokes, and so, one time during personal study, Elder Haws, just came over and read Elder Neves the scripture where God caused a darkness to come upon their skin because of their disobedience, and we all just cracked up laughing. It was so funny :) So, back to my to companion, he is basically the opposite of me when it comes to food. All he eats is cereal!! I don't know how he does it! So one day, he was eating cereal and on his Sixth bowl he was done, but we got him to eat another bowl of cereal because of Elder Neves and how his name backwords is seven!! Mindblown. 

It's definitely a different experience here.  So, the DL of our district is Elder Moore, my companion. And then also in our district is Elder McGinnis (Goliath) and Elder Haws (the teddy bear) (we call them the twin towers because they are both really big people and they're companions, then there is Elder Neves (hilarious and sarcastic all the time), and Elder Slack (the first day, we called him Slacker until we realized nicknames are no bueno here) and Sister Taylor and Sister (I forgot the other one's name), but overall, we're a pretty good district.

 I don't know, I'd say that's about it. Everyone here is sooooooo friendly that it's super weird. You can start talking to anyone and they don't mind, in fact, they enjoy it. Our floor is full of Korean Elders so all we hear is chan chow cghs chaol, and stuff like that that none of us understand. Oh, also, the way Branch Presidents berate here is by saying how good of a job we do at the thing they are talking about to us. So our district was bad at quiet time the first few days so the next day, the branch president of the Korean Elders came over and started talking about how it was so nice that we are quiet during quiet time , so it's basically guilt tripping us. Mom and Dad, you two could definitely be a real good Branch President and wife ;) 

Well, I'd say that's about it. I feel like I should be getting home sick, but I don't. I think it's because of the blessing the stake president gave me, because a lot of people are getting home sick. Also, for some weird reason, I have an ear ache. It's not too painful, but just rather annoying, so hopefully it goes away. I'd say one of the hardest things about the MTC is not dwelling on how cute the Sisters are and flirting with them. It doesn't seem that hard, but after about a few days, it gets really hard. Also, we do ten push-ups every time we say man, or guys or other slang like that because we're trying to work on that, so I've got about 100 to do today. Also, sadly enough, the Elders in my district don't really go running so I have to use one of those weird cycling biking things to go running. Well, I love you!

Choose the Right

Elder Wheelwright