Monday, July 28, 2014

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)

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

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

Monday, July 21, 2014

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)

Monday, July 14, 2014

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

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Drop Off

Today is the day Elder Wheelwright has been waiting for for years!!!
He is now serving as a full time missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Good luck Elder

He will be missed!!!
T