Miracles happen every day

Hey!!! This week was awesome!
We had a training meeting on Monday down in Enid, so that was a long
drive! But, for pday it was super awesome! We went to the Gloss
Mountains on the way to Enid and hiked them! Ah, it was so great to
hike and go up in elevation. :) (It was probably only about 600 feet
higher, but that's a lot in Oklahoma) We did what normal people did
and threw gigantic rocks off the cliffs and watched them bounce! It
was crazy! I could see all of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, and Arkansas!
(not really, but that's how flat Oklahoma is) I'll send some pictures
next week! 
We slept over at the Zone Leaders apartment in Enid, and that was
super fun! Some missionaries made some yeast root beer, and it was
terrible! It smelled like sewer and root beer! And you'd take off the
cap and it would sound like a gun went off and smoke would come off
the bottle!
Anyways!
Tuesday we drove back to Alva and my companions both packed up while I
cleaned up the apartment! Then we had a lesson with S___ real quick
(more of a goodbye) and then we left for OKC for transfers on
Wednesday! We slept at some missionaries apartment in OKC and I knew
both the elders, and so it was great to see them again! Wednesday I
got my new companions! In the meeting where I got my greenie, you
could just see the shock in his eyes, and then his eyes kinda glazed
over because of the shock! His name is Elder Hoyle!  Then my other 

companion is Elder Morgan! He's also pretty awesome! He's been out for 3 months! Ya, poor
Elder Hoyle! The whole day Wednesday he was just in shock! We were at
transfers and about ready to go, then I saw some other missionaries
that we're going home that I've served around my whole mission, so
naturally I had to say goodbye! And I kept getting distracted talking
to other missionaries I knew. Anyways! We went and got Little Caesars
and realized we needed a park to go eat it at! So we drove to Mustang
where I knew a park was and ate there! Then the drive back to Alva!!
Yay! Elder Hoyle was so tired! He knocked out an hour into the drive,
head leaned all the way  back against the window, mouth open and
nothing could wake him up! It was pretty funny! We dropped off some
other missionaries in Watonga, then stopped in Carmen! It was way fun
there! Super small town! Got Elder Morgan and Elder Hoyle unpacked and
Elder Hoyle I think went back into shock when we went shopping for
food and he realized he needed to cook for himself and that it cost
money for food! It was fun! Helping him along though :)
At Walmart a member stopped us, and asked if we wanted Pizza Hut, so
we met him there! That was a blessing!
Thursday it rained a lot! Then we decided to go see this Inactive
family in the middle of nowhere, and so we were driving and we missed
the turnoff and it was a dirt road, but I wasn't sure if we were still
going the right way! Dirt+water=mud...Mud+truck =a lot of Fun! I
didn't intentionally go mudding, and we tried to be nice to the truck,
but man, we were sliding everywhere and got a lot of mud on our truck!
We got to the Less actives house finally and super nice big house and
we knocked on the door (I had never met them) and it opens up and a
full blooded German Shepherd ran out and barked, and looked like it
was going to bite my face off! Luckily, it was nice, but instead of
Elder Hoyle in shock, it was me, and I stood there for a second
frozen! I really don't like dogs on the mission!  At the persons house 

I shared a scripture talked about church,
made a few comments, and then we left!  She fed
us dinner though! Grilled chicken and stuffing!
We had some amazing lessons though! But here I am out of time! Next week :)
I love y'all! This work is the Lords, and he seems to be doing it all
:)! Miracles happen everyday! We committed quite a few people to
baptism!

Elder Brandon Wheelwright

The Lord places the prepared in our path

This week we were teaching this guy, and he was progressing pretty well, and so we went to go teach him, and things changed. He was sleeping while we were there and he was drunk, so definitely pray for him. 

We got to help someone move this week. They moved over one house to their aunts house. We are actually teaching their kid, and he is set to be baptized this week! I'm excited! 

I got to go back up to Edmond and Saturday and watch the baptism of Brother Gilbert, a man that I'm sure I told y'all about. He finally decided to be baptized! The elders up there worked some magic or something! It was really neat! I also got to see a lot of people there that felt like family! 

My companion is doing a lot better. We had to stay in Thursday because his back was hurting, but we were able to work later that night. Whoo, I need to dry clean my suit. It's raining outside, so it got wet. It smells like Treasure when he's wet, so it stinketh! I don't want to smell like wet dog.  This week President challenged us to always carry a book of mormon with us so we could flood the Oklahoma City mission with BOMs! Every time we go out, thinking we have enough Book of Mormons, we end up handing out so many that we have to go back to our apartment to grab even more! It's amazing! I didn't ever think that we could pass out so many BOMs, but the Lord places the prepared in our path so that we can help them come closer to Christ. 

 Anyways! Life is good!

Elder Brandon Alan Wheelwright

Sick Miracle

Gotta love Oklahoma! Last week it was super warm, this week church was cancelled because of the snow!.. Of course, we only had about 2 inches of snow when they cancelled it, but hey, if driving is hard, alright! :)

Well, this week we had a zone conference! A zone conference is where a few zones meet up and our President teaches us missionary skills! During it, the heating was broken, and so a company came, and started cutting the metal pipes or something really loud, louder than even our 7 foot tall President Walkenhorst! Ha! 

So this week was really a sick miracle! On Saturday, we started to leave the apartment after lunch, and I made it about 100 feet from our apartment and told my comp that I felt really sick, and we should go back! So we did, and I got feeling better, and we went out to work and then went to dinner, and after, I felt like I was going to throw up, so we cancelled our appointments, and I stayed in. I got a blessing that night from the other Elders in our ward, and in the blessing they told me I would be fully healed by next morning! Right after the blessing, I ran to the bathroom, and threw up, and I was perfectly fine after that! Of course, food didn't sound good to me until dinner last night, but I wasn't sick! It was a sick miracle!! :) 

We are teaching this amazing family right now in our ward! The mom and great aunt haven't been to church in 8 years, and we finally contacted them, and her kid, Kyle, is 9, so we started teaching him! It was amazing what Kyle did and is doing for them! The next Sunday all of them went to church because of him, and he had read 16 chapters in the Book of Mormon! We met with him again, and he said that he plans on finishing the book of Nephi by Tuesday. He also is super genius, if y'all hadn't figured that out yet! He blames that on his being 1/2 Chinese! He showed us an excel spreadsheet that he made all by himself of who in his class would get the most gold stars if they passed out gold stars! He also decided by himself that he wanted to get baptized on pi day because it's going to be 3-14-15. He wanted to get baptized at 9:26 a.m. but that's going to be a tad harder to do :) Ha! Gosh, he's so smart for a 9 year old! Little kids really can do more than you think they can! 

Elder Brandon Alan Wheelwright

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

A week of Miracles

Well, this week has been a week of miracles!

The weather has been 50's to 60's all week! And this next week is supposed to be in the 70's. Today is supposed to be a high of 69! This has been an amazing winter! The warmest for sure that I have ever had! The nights drop down quite a few degrees, that even to a point, we had snow when we woke up, and later that day it was in the 50's! 

That was a miracle in and of itself! But a few others have happened this week!

One day, right before dinner we had a little time, so we decided to walk in the park to talk to people. It was one of the colder days this week so we didn't think too many people would be outside, but luckily there was one guy! We decided to talk to him, even though he was sitting all creepily with his hood on in the middle of the park. When we walked closer we decided it would be ok because he was reading harry potter! We sat down right next to him and taught him all about the restoration of the gospel. He loved it and we set a time to go visit him. We went to go see him later that week with a member that we had with us, and after knocking on his door a couple times without him answering, the member yelled to the door "It's the missionaries" and the door opened! Well, ok, Chris (that's the guys name) didn't seem to sincere, but we still taught him! And this Sunday he came to church! Ah, it's so amazing to have him come! There's something about that coming to church that just shows the interest and sincerity of someone! :) 

Well, my companion has to go to the chiropractor three times a week now! But there's a story to that! Let me back up!

 So in December (I was currently not Elder McGlothlins companion) Elder McGlothlin got in a bike crash, and three weeks later a member sent him to the ER because he didn't want to go. They diagnosed him with a concussion and said that he would have post concussion headaches and migraines for a few months, and that he was not able to do anything physical. Well, the same member that sent him to the ER asked if he had gone to a chiropractor yet to help his headaches, so we then talked to another member in our ward (a chiropractor. Really, members are amazing!) and we got my comp to see him! Turns out he has a compressed fracture (I think that's what it's called) and a bulging disk because of the bike crash, so yep! Thus the three times a week! 

So, because it is basketball season, every single tv (or at least it feels like it) is constantly turned on watching basketball! For some weird reason because of that, everyone is a lot happier than when watching football! Ya, in Oklahoma they don't classify the seasons by the weather. It's "basketball season" "it's football season". Yep! 

Elder Wheelwright!

Sunsets in Oklahoma