A WOLF????

Wow, it's just a day of snow all around! 

We also woke up with snow on the ground, but it's still snowing here!

It's kinda cold here, but when it snows, there is a lot less wind. Yesterday was really cold! 

It was about 30 degrees, but the wind chill made it feel like 5 degrees. Brrr. But, at least it's nothing like Tyson's mission. I bet he's always freezing. I just get moderation in every thing. Austin roasted, Tyson froze. I'm just here. The weathers not as bad as I thought! When I came to Oklahoma, all I thought it was going to be was super swampy, humid, and tons of mosquitoes. So far its only humid. Something that the Oklahomans brag about though, is that they have more coastline (meaning water touching land) than the United States coastline on the West does. Ha, I don't think that includes Alaska or Hawaii though.

Well, this week was verrrrryyy interesting!

We had a very crazy experience on Wednesday! So, about 7 pm, the clouds started to gather into what looked like the beginnings of a tornado, so we went to our apartment to grab rain clothes and what not. Well, we were about ready to go outside, so I opened the door up, turned around to grab my gloves, and a wolf (or at least what I thought was one) ran right into our apartment and looked like it was going to bite me. So I moved out of the way, and said "oh crap", so my companion was in the entryway to the bedroom and living room, and turned around and yells "what the freak" in a super high pitched voice. Now, there's something you have to understand about my companion. He is almost deathly terrified of dogs, and probably even more so of wolves. So, the dog wolf thing ran over to my companion, and while that was happening, I ran right out the door and shut it behind me. Meanwhile, the dog wolf thing ran at my comp, and he luckily had an umbrella in his hand, and he swung it at the dog and hit it twice, and it ran into the other room, and he shut the door behind it. I found the owner of what was apparently a dog, and sent him in our apartment to go grab the dog. So ya, after getting super excited that a tornado (or what looked like one) was coming, and dog to scare us, we were pretty shaken up! Every time a dog barked at us that night, we would both jump and watch for a dog. But apparently the dog was very friendly, because as it was leaving, it licked my hand. Ha, oops! 

Well, this week we've seen a few miracles. We taught a 9 year old kid for our first time last week, and by the next time we met with him, he had already read 12 chapters in the book of mormon, had set his baptismal date by himself, and had already picked who he wanted to baptize him. So amazing! He's came twice to church and brought his whole family! His family, which were members, hadn't been to church in 8 years! And they all came because of him! I've definitely learned that no matter how young you are, you can make a difference. It's amazing! 

We sadly lost one of our very promising investigators this week. We have been knocking on his door a few times, and he has not been answering, so we thought, eh, maybe he's busy. But then we were walking down the street and as we were, we saw what looked like our investigator, Chris, and he quickly threw on his hood, crossed over to the other side of the street, and looked away as we walked by. As we walked by him, I said "hey Chris", he looked up, said hey, and walked away. Ah, it's hard to see someones potential, and they don't want to know about it. 

I know the Lord will always be there for him if he ever wants it. 

So, the ward i'm in is amazing. Apparently some of the ward is getting into nerf gun wars. They have giant nerf gun wars at the church, and throw out tables as barricades and do that for family home evening! Ha, it's great!

I love you all!

PEACE

Peace is good in life. Jesus brings peace. And what's the opposite of peace? Scared, anxious. Now if it's the opposite of what Christ brings, then for sure it is not of Christ. And if it's not from Christ, who is it from? It's not an emotion of sitting on the fence, of course, because it leads people to do stupid things. So it is of the devil. I think if we all were to feel peace in our life, you'd see a lot more people sticking up for their standards, less people on drugs, and doing other stupid things with their life. It's important to distinguish, though, the peace that Christ brings, compared to the peace that the world brings. The world brings "acceptance". If you want to be accepted by the druggies, you do drugs...etc. The peace that Christ brings is a much more sweet peace. It's an acceptance of yourself. You don't just smile to be accepted of others, but you smile because theirs a joy radiating from you because of that peace and love that Christ brings.

The reason I asked dad what his worst experience on the mission was, was because I was just curious. I've never been happier in my life, and I definitely don't feel alone. I feel at peace. I think that's why I just went on that spiel right there about peace. :) But ya, the mission is awesome! Everyday I look at a picture of y'all, and think to myself, "did I honor them?". Right there, that's peace.:) 

And the work is definitely progressing! We have so many miracles this week, as the last week also! The Lord is helping provide miracles and people to teach. I see so much potential in this area, even though it's 2 by 2 miles. Oh, hey, me and my companion are back to biking! It's great! The work is much faster! More people to see, more time to see them, and whatnot! Love it! :) 

 Have a wonderful week! Be at peace! Love every day, for there's something to be happy about every day, even if it's just waking up another day! 

Elder Brandon Alan Wheelwright

SOOOO COLD

 So last P-day was very interesting. Me and my comp went on exchanges, and he forgot to leave me the keys and phone, and the other two missionaries with me also did not have keys or phones, so we prayed and just drove on. Ha! Fun times.

Tuesday we got a full days work in! It was awesome! What with my companion getting headaches all day, we normally get to work all day, but it was awesome! We took a member out with us for two appointments later that night, and one of them cancelled on the door, and so as we were directing our member to the next appointment, he said no, and drove us to Braums. (Braums is a Texas and Oklahoma restaurant that serves amazing Ice cream) And anyways, the member bought some ice cream for us in the drive thru, and at the window where they take the money they said they didn't have the ice cream he ordered, so he tried to get a discount, then pulled to the next window, another lady gave him his ice cream, and he said "i didn't get a discount". It was quite funny! Then he took us to the next appointment, and we hadn't finished the ice cream, so we tried to eat really quickly at the door, and the person that we had the appointment with opened the door as we were eating the ice cream. Ha, then all the kids (16 of them) wanted us to bring ice cream the next time. Whoo!...Maybe! 

Wednesday we got to clean out a fish pond! Yum, huh! But luckily this week was still pretty warm. It was probably in the 60's! 

Thursday we got to go to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah, I loved it! It was also my companions birthday! When we got home, he got a crazy migraine, then we went to go eat at a members house, and they cooked us ribs for his B-day. 

So, throughout this week we kept going to Jim's house (we're teaching him) and would teach him, and while we were there, people kept showing up randomly! Apparently a ton of people live in his apartment! For a while his electricity was off, so we would go teach him with flashlights, so that's probably why we didn't meet them all. So we'd start teaching Jim, and another person would come in, so we'd teach them about the Book of Mormon, and another person would walk in, so we'd teach them about the Book of Mormon. Ya, that happened quite a few times! I don't know how they all live in there though! They don't have any beds or anything! It's just really an apartment! 

The weather dropped yesterday and today. Yesterday was sooooooooooooooooo cold! Humidity, cold, and windchill. It was 30 degrees plus probably a 20 degree windchill, so it felt very cold! Probably 10 degrees. There was a baptism yesterday, and I was asked to play the piano! I always thought, eh, there's always someone else that can play, but I've played so much lately! So ya, piano is awesome! If you don't play it, play it! 

Elder Wheelwright