Hola Familia!
This week has been super awesome! First of all because I got to skype you guys! That was awesome. Everything worked with Nikki and Alisha too. So I got to see everyone!!   (from Travis's Mom - this picture is a screen shot that we took when we were skyping with him - it was so good to see him!)

We went and caroled to one of our investigators who has cancer that day too. We got to come back later and talk to them. It was a really nice almost teary eyed conversation. He said that we barely know him, but he feels that we care about him a lot. He also said that when he gets better, he wants to come to church immediately! Legit!!!
Also this week we found an awesome pre prepared family. They were a reference from another set of elders or a family in another branch. Not sure. But these guys own one of our hymn books and they love playing them on their piano. They love the Mormon Tabernacle choir, they have seen conference before on their own, online. They have a Book of Mormon too. These guys are legit. They have really looked into the church and love that it is family oriented. We taught them the first lesson and have accepted baptismal dates. There is a mom and a dad and a 9 year old daughter. Supposedly right now, they are only searching for a church for their daughter, but I know they will jump on board. This Sunday the daughter attended!! It was legit. This was our first person that has come to church here in Olavarria. FINALLY!  We were worried about her making friends and fitting in. Because shes been to other churches before and she never feels included. This Sunday though, literally everything went perfect. This other primary girl came up to her and they like instantly became friends. They are the same age too. We checked on our investigator every hour secretly by walking in the halls haha, and everything was going great. When her dad came and picked her up later and he asked how she liked it. She told him that she loved it!!! YES!! Everything was perfect! It literally couldn't have gone any better.


So like everyday this week, we've been having asado, which is basically really good steak. I'm starting to get sick of it though haha. Some people probably think I'm crazy, but when you have a ton of it all the time, its not as good. I'm good with eating pasta every day haha.







Last night we came home to a dark house. Our power was out, with like half of the city. We had to plan in the dark and everything. It was so terrible. I used my alarm clock light to see things. Also without power, we have no fans. So our house was incredibly hot.




 I got a lot of mail today!! It was so awesome! I got a sweet letter with pictures from Grandma and Grandpa Wheelwright. I got 2 packages! One from the Kauers and one from Grandma and Grandpa Garlick!! THANKS! Everything I got today was way awesome and it totally made my day! Also everyone in the house was really jealous too haha.

Well I think that's it for now. Everything is closing down early for the new years. Apparently its a really big deal here. Well Chou! Love you guys! I hope I didn't forget anything...haha.

Elder Wheelwright

Helllo.
The  cyber we are at today is terrible. Everything is super dark and I cant see anything haha. So please excuse the errors haha. So I am using the computer starting at 4pm my time. I think that is like 12 your time. But just make sure to be sure. I already have a skype account like you said. I added you yesterday as a friend or a contact. Hopefully you saw that. I'll try both accounts to see which one is going to work. But I'm going to try the one that I sent a friend request on yesterday. Were going to be in the church using the family history center computer, complete with AC!! How awesome!
The weather down here has been so terrible. I haven't sweat or been this hot ever in my life!! Gahh. It won't go away either. Its just miserable to work in. I miss snow and cold weather!!! haha
This week has been okay. Nothing too special. The lamb I ate on Monday was pretty good. haha. We found out this week that one of our investigators found out he had pancreas cancer. He is about 65 or 70 years old. Its pretty sad. His wife came out and told us when we knocked on the door and she started crying when she told us. I didn't really know what to say except that we would pray for him. It doesn't help that my spanish is terrible either. We came up with this idea. Today we bought some stuff to put in a gift bag for them. Some time tomorrow afternoon, were going to go ring their doorbell and carol for them plus give them the gift bag. We are also going to share a Christmas themed message. Its going to be awesome. Hopefully it can boost their spirits or give them hope. Definately put some joy into their Chirstmas. Im exited for it!!!
What else. This guy stopped us on the street to speak a little English to us haha. He learned this stuff from a movie so not a lot of it made sense. But I was impressed. He said he had talked to missionaries before too and that he has read the Book of Mormon before too!! We're meeting with him today, so that should be awesome.
We saw a miracle yesterday. This inactive lady in our branch had a family member die the day before. She didn't tell anyone. We showed up to her house just to visit her. And we had no idea what had happened. She needed comfort and we were sent there for a reason. We made plans for her for a divine reason. I have no doubt about that. Things just work out really cool sometimes. Its amazing.
Well I think that's all for now. I don't really have any time left. And we'll get to talk tomorrow!! YEAHHH!!!! Remember 4pm my time. Pretty sure its 12 your time. Double check though for sure. Be on like 10 minutes early to be ready. Hopefully everything will work out! I bought a special tie just for this too...haha. Get ready to seee it. Its epic. Chou! See you tomorrow!! Love You!!

Elder Wheelwright

Hola Family!
So yeah Christmas is coming up! haha   We WILL be skyping...so we need to pick a time. Because we both have to be on at the same time. I wrote down your account number. But you will need to make me a skype account and then send me the details next week for the account. Also add your account as a friend in the new account you are going to make for me. I hope that all makes sense! haha   So we could do it at like 12 or 1 your time or another time. Just let me know ASAP.
Guess what! I got my package today!!!! YEAHHHH! It was awesome. I was going to wait until Christmas to open it, but other people kind of (rudely) opened it up a little bit and then they read me what was on the custom declaration...FAIL. There is no such thing as respecting privacy of peoples things here haha. But yeah I love everything in it! Its awesome! And yeah, I already bought my own Chirstmas present. 3 Brand new fresh to death ties hahaha. They are super classy. Don´t even worry about that. I also got 2 letters too!! My very first in Argentina!! About time!! haha syke. Shoutouts to the Bullock family in Colorado yup yup! And Teresa James in Federal Way! Gracias! You made my day!!
Yeah, I heard fireworks are huge here on Christmas, so were going to party on our roof top. Because we have one of those. Its sweet. On our patio thing, there is this ladder connected to the house that I found. One time I wanted to see where it led to, and I discovered we had a legit roof that we have access to! YEAH! Sicknesses are not fun. I finally got over mine. But I am left with a little cough like I always get. Dang. It sucks. Thats lame that Nikki and Scott can't go to Utah. I wanted to see them and talk to them! Maybe Mothers day or Christmas haha. Or in a letter? Sweeet! Another house! But still in puyalllup? Un pcco lejos... a little far still. But all is well. What is happening to the pool table? Are they taking it with them? Hopefully. Hey maybe you guys could work out a 3 way skype call? Hmm... look into it haha.
 I'm super excited about Chirstmas! I gotta say though, the season is not the same without movies and music and cold air. When its hot, the only thing you want to think about is dying. hahaha.
I'm glad things are moving with Langley. That's lame that he got stuck in the cracks... dang those cracks. I just want to see where he´s going to be going!!!! haha
 This week was like my worst week as a missionary. Bleh. Nobody wanted to talk to us. None of our investigators are ever home. So last Tuesday, we got dropped by our investigator. (the one that we gave space to because of his family issues.) We talked to him on the phone and he hung up like mid conversation when we asked if we could meet with him in the chapel. It was really sad. This guy is so legit. It sucks! We saw him on the street during the week and he tried to avoid us on purpose..ugh.   Missionary work is hard. You rarely get to see the fruit from your labors. They should call us seed planters hahaha.
Anyways. I think its time to go! We have an asado (an awesome bbq) to go to tonight for family home evening. We are cooking like a whole lamb or something. I'm not sure how I feel about this. hahaha. Oh well, we will see! I love you guys! Talk to you next week!
Maybe sure you talk about the skype time! AND make me an account!

Elder Wheelwright

Also the picture is of me hating weekly planning - haha.

Hola Familia!!
First of all, I'll answer all of the questions in your email. We should be able to skype using the family history computers in the church. So yeah. I guess we should start talking about what times I can call and chat. Basically any time works. I'm not sure of our Christmas schedule yet, but I'll know soon. probably early afternoon would work best since you guys will be 4 hours behind me in Utah. 'Im excited to see all of y'alls pretty faces! haha
Sadly, we haven't been in contact with out investigator. We've decided to give him a little space so the air can settle. This week we will for sure contact him. I really hope he can get past these little road bumps. He is super solid and an awesome guy!
Elder Forkey is from Snohomish, WA. He left a couple days ago. I'm gunna miss him! We talked a ton, just because were from the same place and we have a lot in common. I'm not going to lie, I got a little trunky when I saw him packing/us talking about things in Washington that are awesome. But I'm good now. So Satan didn't win! haha. All is well.
For the insoles, I only need one pair. I'm loving these shoes that I have. They are holding up decently well and still look as classy as ever haha. The leather is starting to crack a little though. Soo I don't really know what to do about that.
 Its almost Christmas time! Even though it doesn't even feel like it. Because its so hot! I don't even know how many degrees, but I just know its hot. I hate not being able to know things because everything is different here! Gahh. Oh well. I'm sweaty all the time, its nasty.
This week we found this husband and this wife who we are going to start teaching. They were really nice to us and I think they are interested. Last Tuesday, while we were walking, this girl stopped us and asked us if we could help her with her English homework. So we did, and we found its a super inactive part member family!! Awesome! So we are going to try to reactivate them and teach the parents! Also this guy A....  is someone were teaching now. We met him like the 3rd day that I got here and we haven't been able to talk with him since last Sunday. He is super awesome. He said he felt something when we talked to him and that made him want to change some things in his life. For the first time ever on my mission, someone was actually looking forward and waiting for our appointment! It was awesome. I cant wait to keep teaching him! That is about all that I have time for! I love all of you guys and I hope you have an amazing weeeeek!

Also the photo is of me modeling my rain jacket, classy huh?

Elder Wheelwright

(This little note explains the above picture and the picture that Elder Wheelwright sent last week (see previous post) )

haha one of our crazy investigators thinks he can actually fly. I asked him if he would show me how to fly. So look, I'm flying!!! Hahahaha. This dude is seriously crazy, But he has a baptismal date...sooo he´s legit! ...well kind of.

This week has been interesting. Kinda good and kinda bad. I learned a lesson this week. Bad moods aren't good for anything. Its just Satan trying to mess you up. To be a successful missionary, you have to be on top of your game all the time. You cant afford to be mad or anything like that. Because you aren't going to have the spirit with your..aka you aren't going to be successful. So one of the days this week, I was kinda mad. And I was just like, yeah I gotta shake this or today is going to be terrible. So I tried my best to forgive and be happy. And we found a really solid person like 30 minutes later. It was awesome. I was glad I was back to being happy again, or else who knows if we would have been able to talk to this person we found, who knows how the lesson would have gone. By the way..the lesson went awesome! haha. She is our new investigator and has a baptismal date!! Yay!
 I experienced an evangelical prayer this week too. It was with another person we found. We asked him to say the closing prayer (after we taught him how). He like put his arm around me and the member we were with, and he like massaged our shoulders and necks. It was the weirdest thing ever. I wanted to leave haha. The awesome solid investigator we have been working with is having problems...His family is not supportive at all and is giving him crap for talking to us. ugh...we tried to go by his house but he told us not to come back for a couple weeks..dang. I was sad...Like this guy is awesome. So we are going to try to slowly get back in with him, so we can continue to teach him.
 Its almost Christmas! Well...kind of. Its so hot here that its not even funny. I haven't been this hot in my life. I'll keep an eye out for some nativity stuff. I might wait until next Christmas so its a little closer to when I come home so I don't have to carry nativity stuff with me everywhere I get transfered haha. But if I see something legit this Christmas, I'll snatch it up.   Keep an eye on the mailbox. A surprise is coming....dun dun dun.
I was informed today that Ill be going home April 8th now. I'm not sure why..but all the missionaries lost 3 weeks. I'll forward you the email I got. Its in Castillano, but you can use google translate to help you haha. Well my time is up! I love all of you guys! I hope everything is going awesome and you guys are having a wonderful Chirstmas season. Full of Delilah and Christmas trees, and coldness, and maybe snow? I don't know haha.
My friend in the house, Elder Forkey is going home this weekend....noooo! Who am I going to talk washington stuff with?...lame. Oh well.

Besitos para todo!

Elder Wheelwright

Hello Family!
This week has been awesome. It was weird that Thanksgiving doesn't exist here. There are 3 out of 6 Elders in our house that are American so we had our own feast!  Of course we invited the other elders haha. We had pollo asado which is just like barbequed chicken but way better, mashed potatoes and tang. haha. It was awesome.   I made post it note signs all over the house that said happy thanksgiving. We needed to get pumped about it. All the others Chilean elders were confused and didn't know what it was. One of them said it was a holiday of the devil.   haha. We have some America haters. He was joking though of course. It was sweeet. So we had our own little thanksgiving in Argentina. whooo!
 My zone leader, Elder Forkey is from Seattle Washington too. So we always talk. But yeah. This week we were baking brownies haha, and he used the wrong type of flour. Its one that rises or something. But the brownies caved in and it looked dumb. So I was like, lets fill it with flan! So we did. haha. It still looked super sketchy, so Elder Forkey fanned a frutilla (strawberry) on the top of it.  It was super classy and elegant. For sure. He was giving this to the branch president of his branch. So it had to look good.   Today we also made chocolate chip cookies for someone else too haha. Cooking in Argentina is weird. The oven we use is all gas and it doesn't have a temperature indicator. Just a high and a low heat.  Also all of the ingredients here are different. So it doesn't turn out very good. I've decided that I'm not going to try to cook anything else here dessert wise. It will always fail haha.
We actually have some investigadores right now. 2 of them are fairly solid and I think they were pre-prepared. One guy is like 30 years old, Fernando. He met with the missionaries 7 years ago and decided it wasn't for him. While going through the area book, we found him. And visited him and he is now taking the lessons again! He is super interested too. Were just having a hard time because his family is super against it and doesn't want him joining any churches..Lame. But he still has desires to go! He just hasn't made it yet. Our other investigator is named Roberto. We found him tracting. We had a lesson with him and he told us that he is willing to try this out. He has a super open mind about everything. He accepted a baptismal date and liked the first lesson. He didn't make it to church.   I'm finding that this is the HARDEST thing ever. I mean it was the same in Colorado and Kansas, but still. I'm re-learning that its hard haha.
Mom, can you check how much is my checking account. I've had to pull out some personal funds recently because I suck at budgeting here right now. + I bought a soccer jersey. De Boca. Its awesome by the way. Just in case you wanted to know. Anyways.
 Its okay if I don't get my package on Christmas. Its not going to feel the same anyway. Its literally going to be like every other day, except we don't work. If you have already sent the package, that's okay. Here are things that I need maybe in another package: Cleaning wipes for my glasses, new insoles for my slip on shoes. They are size 44 and it says extra wide under the sole. Official replacements would be cool. Umm Socks. I need more socks haha.   I had a list of stuff I was going to write, but I totally forgot to bring the sticky note..ugh haha. I'm so dumb! Oh well.   Oh Dad, about this show that you are watching haha.. the district. I have seen those videos so many times. We get trained on those videos. They are super good. Now we just make fun of them haha. There is 2 series of them. District 1 and District 2. They are really good. The first one seems super fake, so number 2 is my favorite. I have learned a lot of stuff from those videos. It definitely should be a requirement for all members to watch those. It just makes you want to go do missionary work. It pumps me up.
I found out that we have a roof! I mean one that you can go on top of and stuff. All houses have roofs, duh. haha. I went up there at night and It was kinda scary. I need to do it during the day next time. Something 'Ive learned pretty quickly here, is that native south Americans steal your stuff! Like my food and anything I have on my desk or soap or yeah. Basically anything haha. So Ive had to start hiding things. Its not that I don't want to share, its just that I'm poor! haha   They have money too! You still gottta love them though. but just keep a closer eye on your stuff   haha. Or else it will be gone.
I think that is everything that has happened this week. Nothing special, but just your regular Argentina mission stuff. Oh yesterday I hit 7 months..haha. Crazy! Time literally flies by so fast. I've already been in Argentina for almost a month now! My spanish is still pretty terrible. I get compliments here and there about my accent and how fast I'm learning, but I'm still really bad. Sometimes I get frustrated and I don't want to speak spanish anymore.  Oh I almost forgot, this week I had my first Argentine Bash! It was with this guy that knows way too much about our church. He was talking about the temple and quoting the D&C and talking about the priesthood. It was crazy. He said we complicate things. I didn't really know what was happening since I can barely understand people, but I got the gist of what was going on. He was crazy. Anyways. haha That is it! Have an awesome weeeeek! Love You Guys!!

Elder Wheelwright

random photos

 

Hola family!
So this week has been kind of nuts. Tuesday and Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Rodriguez. He is a native from Uruguay and cant speak any English. Holy cow that was so hard. 2 days without English! I was asking him what things meant at least like 50 times a day. It ended up being really fun and awesome though. I had a good time. We found some new people (in their area) to teach. While on exchanges, the other elders working in my area found a couple people to teach. Sweet! One of the people that has potential is named Fernando. He told us that he would come to church, but he never showed up. He still has potential though!
The language is really tough still. I know I am learning stuff every week and every day, but it doesn't feel like I'm progressing at all! Its really discouraging. I found a quote in my old MTC notebook. "Satans greatest tool is discouragement". I put it on a post it note on my wall. Its a good quote, no? haha.

So yesterday I ate something really crazy. An... ARMADILLO!!! Haha the shell of it is in the photo. It actually wasn't that bad. The thought of what I was eating was terrible, but I got it down super easy. By far, its the weirdest thing I've eaten on my mission. I saw the body of the armadillo before I knew we were eating it. I was like, this looks super nasty. And the the dad of the family brings out the meat on the bones... holy cow. haha I was like oh heck no. But I did it! Whooo. Only 2 out of 4 of us ate it.
One of the missionaries I live with, Elder Muñoz knows someone in our stake! He is from Chile. The Bustamante family in our stake used to be in Elder Muñoz´s stake in Chile! What a small world haha. He said his family was pretty good friends with their family. I'm going to write Jorge and include a picture of us haha.
Nothing else really happened this week. Well... hmm. Elder Henry has tendonitis in his foot, so we have had to spend a couple days this week in the house. That has been pretty boring, but I´ve just been studying Spanish. So its been good for me. 
Thanksgiving is already this week? Wow!  It doesn't exist down here at all. So yeah, no one has mentioned it. Super strange. And a super hot Christmas!? Dang. I'm not looking forward to it. Coming home from the day covered in sweat isn't that great.
The ties...hmm. Probably not. I think Im good on ties. Umm things in the package. Gatorade powder, maybe some franks red hot sauce? haha I don't know. American things. Ill try to expound on that more on my next email.   Hopefully it wont be too late? Well I love all of you guys! I gotta run. Have an awesome week!!

élder Wheelwright

random photos he sent - with no explanations:

 

Hey Family!
This week has been overwhelming and crazy! I am adjusting pretty well to things, just little by little.The language is getting a tiny bit there. But not really. Understanding people is getting a little bit better. But I'm still so confused when people talk. haha.

 

Today we went to WALMART!! It was so flippin awesome hahaha. It was like a 20 min. walk from our apartment but it was so worth it. You can see how excited I am from the picture haha. They were playing Christmas music in English the whole time. It was the best p-day ever. We spent a couple hours inside of Walmart. Going down every single aisle. My mind was blown!  
For packages and letters, ALWAYS send it to the mission office. We get packages and letters once a week from the zone leaders. So it will get to me. Also don't put any medicine or pills in the box. Because customs will open it and hold it. For medicine you have to get written permission saying that you have reason to take it. So I want to avoid that. Also don't put anything sketchy in there. I know that´s vague but still. If customs has to check it, I have to pay for the value of everything in the box to get it. And I don't want to do that'  haha.
Dear Elder is a big thing down here and I'm pretty sure its free. So if people want to write me super easy, tell them to use dear Elder. Fast and free. 
One thing in the package that I want is gatorade powder. Any flavor is good. Gatorade is way expensive down here. Also maybe a bottle of ranch? Hidden Valley of couse hahaha! It doesn't exist down here. There is a type of ranch that the Argentines tried to copy, but its terrible. Don't send me candy either. If I want it I can get it down here. Plus its bad for you and for your teeth. I'm trying to eat good stuff here and keep my teeth from rotting haha.
So this weeek I got kissed twice!! Hahaha soo funny. On the cheek of course. Its custom to kiss on the cheek here, but people usually know to not do it to missionaries. But some random people we came in contact with did it to me really fast. I was like, what just happened?? hahaha.
Also Im sick.  Its like a full on cold and a sinus infection too I'm pretty sure. I'm coughing a ton and yeah. It keeps me up at night. I cant afford to lose sleep! My teeth hurt when I jump or step down from a curb. Its wierd. So we went to a faraceria here. It was sketchy. Trying to describe what was wrong with me with a SUPER limited vocab was impossible. I used a lot of hand signs...haha. It was super embarrassing. But I ended up getting the right thing I think? Well at least I hope. It was pretty expensive too! So I'm taking some sketchy Argentine medicine right now. Hopefully it works. I hate being sick. Just like walking around in the scorching hot humid weather doesn't help either. I just want to fall over and die haha. But other than that...I'm doing pretty great.
 I've drank the water already here. Because members always make us tang with tap water..Tang is huge down here. Maybe the tang disinfects the water? haha probably not. But it hasn't really effected me that much. I still use my filters though.
We had some investigators this week finally, but over half of them have already dropped us. They just say they aren't interested. I don't get it.. Its lame working super hard without seeing anything come out. Were just planting seeds though I guess. There is no such thing as wasted time as a missionary. Unless you´re being disobedient! Well I gotta go! I'll try to think what I want in a package and tell you next week. I love you guys all!

Elder Wheelwright

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more.....

Hola!!!!
Holy crap there are so many things to say! But not enough time haha. So p-days are today, and we email at 5pm my time.
Right when we landed in Buenos Aires, the language switched over to spanish..It was so intense and is still so intense haha. I don't know what is going on at all! I'm starting to pick up words here and there, but I can't understand anything. It´s super frustrating! The travel down here was way crazy. I felt so dirty and gross when we finally got here and got settled. It had been like 4 days since I got to change my clothes and shower...gross. The area I´m in is called Olavarria. It´s pretty close to Buenos Aires. And about 4 hours away via bus from Bahia Blanca.
 I never got the chance to call Alisha or Nikki. So sorry guys! The plane was boarding!!
So my trainer is Elder Henry, he is from Spanish Fork, Utah. (So he´s white..haha. Dang.) We speak English which is bad for me, I think I´m going to give it up 100%. That's the only way that I will learn faster! He is a nice guy and we get along well. We live in a pretty small house that 6 elders in total live in. Its crazy. We have 1 washer that is like way tiny.
Tracting here is so weird. To knock on a door, you clap outside haha. When my companion, Elder Henry first did that. I was like why are you clapping...haha   Super funny!
Dinner doesn't exist here! There is only a big lunch and breakfast. So that's pretty weird.  Everyone eats pasta here for lunch, pasta with meat sauce and super good cheese. Its awesome. Fancy foods all the time...heck yeah!
The members here are awesome! Well I think they are awesome. I don't know what they are actually saying haha. Argentina is such a beautiful place!! Especially Buenos Aires. I love it!
We live next to a pizzaria, its sweet.
PESOs!  Its like 5 pesos to 1 US dollar. I'm getting used to it already. I love them!
 I love everything about Argentina. I thought we would be having more success here. I thought baptisms were super easy, haha. But they are hard! Nobody here in Olavarria wants to listen to us. They always just say they are busy! On Sunday, I had to go up and bear my testimony since I am new. It was sooo scary!! But members said that my spanish is really good for being here for such a little amount of time. I think they are lying! haha. It´s so hard. It literally seems impossible to learn this language. I don't think I´ll ever get it down to be honest. Gahh. Oh well, I guess I have a lot of time to learn haha.

The bathrooms here are interesting. They have badai´s. I dont think that is spelled right but google it. (correct spelling "bidet".)   I don't want to describe it. So that was a new experience..

I feel like everything is cheap here. Like shopping, I feel like I don't spend a lot of money. The food I'm buying is like super nice too. So I don't understand haha. I´m buying like fancy cheeses and meats and bread and pasta and all that stuff. That's pretty much my diet. Cereal for breakfast, pasta and bread and cheese and meat for lunch. And nothing for dinner. The no dinner thing is still foreign to me.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me them. You can google earth exactly where I´m at. The address is 2988 9 de Julio Olavaria, Buenos Aires Argentina. Yup! Cool stuff.

There are little corner stores everywhere called kioskos. You can buy drinks and stuff and food. Those are super popular here. We stop by them on a daily basis. Also panaderias too. Those are on every corner. Soo good! yummmm!!   I have so much more to say but I have no more time! I have to write President Perreno...in spanish... It will take me forever! haha. Ahhh....wish me good luck. Also its about to be summer here..its so hot! I hate it haha! I love you guys all! Even though we're so far away!! haha

Elder Wheelwright

This post is from Travis's Mom.

Yesterday, Monday, October 29th was Travis' day #1 travel day!      He arrived at the Colorado Springs airport around 12 noon-ish and flew to Dallas, Texas, arriving there at 4:20pm.   He boarded another flight there at 7:50pm heading for Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Day #2 - He arrived in Buenos Aires, at 7:35 am.   He will then board a bus for a 13 hour ride to Bahia Blanca. (arriving there Tuesday night)   Thats a lot of traveling!!!

We got to talk to him several times during the day, and it was so GREAT!  He is very excited to get there, but nervous about the language.  He said he has been practicing his "airport" spanish words for the Buenos Aires airport.   He will miss Kansas and the people there.

We were able to track his flight and watch where he was.  

                                                He made it to Buenos Aires!!

Now we wait to hear from him or his Mission President that he made it to Bahia Blanca.

Hola!

Hey so i think i have the phone numbers to call still. I don't think I'll be able to go on the computer on Monday  since we have to be at the mission office at 10.30 in the morning. So I'll probably just call. I have to be at the airport at 1.30pm I think. I'll have many opportunities to call throughout the day though. I'm not sure of the actual traveling routes. But from what I've heard from other people it goes like this:

Colorado Springs (30min?) ----> Denver ----> Texas (or Salt Lake) ------> Buenos Aires (14 hours) -----> Bus to Bahia Blanca (13 Hours)

So its going to be a crazy day! So I guess I'll talk to you guys on Monday! Since I probably wont be emailing again here in Colorado.

I'm super stoked! It's going to be a long journey, but it's been long awaited!


Elder Wheelwright

P.s. I hope you liked the birthday pics haha.

Helllo family! :)

I got a ton of packages and cards this week! It was awesome! The vans that you sent me were the right ones! Thanks! It's so nice to have regular shoes again..haha. I have like a ton of food/junk right now. And I'm leaving super soon, so I either have to eat it all WAY fast haha (which I don't really want to do) or I have to leave most of it here.. LAME! I don't think I'll have enough room or weight in my suitcase for them. Oh yeah speaking of leaving so sooon.....

 I LEAVE ON MONDAY!!!! :) :) :) :) :) YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! Argentina here I come! haha

 I'm super excited! President Anderson told my yesterday during interviews. I had to act surprised since I already knew...haha. I think I pulled it off really good. He didn't suspect a thing!   (Rick had called Salt Lake last Monday to check on the status of his visa.  They told him they had it - so Rick wrote Travis a letter telling him the good news) 
But yeah, I'm leaving Kansas on Sunday and then staying in Colorado springs and then yeah! It's so crazy!!! I'm going to miss this mission so much. I've learned so much here! The friends and people I have met are so awesome, I'm really going to miss them. Part of me wants to stay here, but the other half of me is so stoked haha. Spanish 1000% percent of them time!! Gahhhh! I'm so excited + scared! It's going to be an interesting experience. I have to start packing now...bleh. That's the worst part haha.
So my birthday yesterday was kinda lame. Haha We had meetings and interviews in Garden City. So all day was spent sitting in a chair! I didn't get to take pictures or even make a cake. I'm probably going to do that today though!! Thanks again for everything you guys sent me! It's so awesome! I also got a card from grandma! It was awesome haha. "to our favorite elder" haha! sweet! After interviews, my district did go out to dinner though. So that's cool. It ended up making me sick in the middle of the night last night though...haha. So that kinda was lame!
I have so much going through my mind right now, I can't think of what I want to write! haha I hate this!
This week has been kind of lame. We haven't been finding any success. Well, we have had some success I guess. All of the investigators we have right now are kind of sketchy. Nothing real solid, but we are trying to work really hard with them. The investigator that ran away, probably isn't going to get baptized. It turns out that he really never had a a testimony :( .

 I really can't think of anything else right now though! So this is going to have to be it I guess.   Dads fish looks insanely big and nasty..haha Miracle looks so skinny too! Are you guys not feeding her? hahaha The pics are just random stuff. The one with all the tractors is at a members house. They have a ton of vintage tractors that they restore. So it was pretty cool stuff. Well I love you guys! Have an awesome weeeeek! oh! so I'll be sending home a box or two of stuff that 'Im not taking with me. So look out for that! It will include my journal too! It's all filled up! 6 months worth!!  oh also thanks for the ipod! it's sweet! This one will work just fine! Bye! :)

Elder Wheelwright

Hello family!
This week has been interesting! There is a dentist here in the ward that does work on missionaries for free. So we signed up for appointments to get our teeth clean and checked and all that fun stuff. I ended up having 4 (cuatro!) cavities!!! What the heck!? I brush my teeth and floss several times a day! I was so bummed. The dentist is a lame place. Gah. So that same day I got 2 cavities filled! Ouch! Something went wrong with the numbing and I was only numb in one place. So it hurt SUPER bad. haha. I just took it like a champ though.. This dental office is pretty cool because they use like this super updated current technology. It was cool. Probably about as cool as a dentist office can get..which isn't that cool to be honest haha. I have to go back soon to get my other 2 cavities filled. Right when I got my fillings, we went straight to work. I was super numb. I looked and sounded dumb. I wanted to just go back home and lay on the couch until I could properly talk haha. Nope, didn't happen. I didn't say much that day. It was embarrassing! Eating for the next few days was difficult. I like lived off of spaghettio's haha. My jaw was way sore. But I'm doing amazing now I guess. Back to normal for me. Hmm..
Saturday was a super rough day. Like way hard. We had an baptismal interview set up for our investigator who was supposed to get baptized Sunday. Our district leader is serving in Liberal, Kansas (which is an hour away) and he has to conduct the interview. Okay, so let me back up. We stopped by our investigators house earlier in the day before the interview to make sure that everything was okay and good to go. We got to talk to him and for some reason he seemed super sketched out. We asked him if everything was okay and he said yeah. He was acting completely different than how he was the previous day. Something was up.. The previous day, we went through the practice interview with him. That was cool. I got to do it, but we only had the questions in Spanish  So I had to translate them to English. It was cool that I could actually do it haha. Anyways, back to it. So we told him that we would be back soon to pick him up. Right after that we went to the library and made up the baptismal program and we called up people to give talks and stuff like that. Everything was set. We went back to get him a little before the interview. We knocked on the door..no answer. My heart starting beating super fast.. Finally his brother answered and said he just left to go on a walk with his brother. Hmm... Strange. Elder Wilde and I started getting worried.. We needed to find this kid ASAP. Our district leader was about 10 min. away too. It was crunch time. So we said a quick prayer on the side of the road so that we could find our investigator. We went frantically looking down the streets for him. Nothing. So we went and got the car to look for him some more. We couldn't find him. Our investigator ran away. :( When the district leader got here, we went over to the investigator's house and we waited for him. I asked his mom where he was and she said he was at the store and that he would be home any time. Well we waited there in the front yard for about an hour and 20 minutes.. in the pouring rain...underneath a tree. He never showed up. His dad at one point came out and told us that he has been acting weird around the family recently and that he thinks we're pushing him to do something that he doesn't want to do. He basically told us to back off and to give him some space. I've never got the vibes that he feels pushed..? It was odd. And this all happened with our district leader right there with us. It sucked and it was super embarrassing. We apologized to him, they drove out an hour for nothing. Elder Wilde and I just went home really really depressed and confused. We still don't know what happened. We haven't talked to him since. So yeah the baptism didn't happen. :( It's really hard working super hard with somebody and then nothing ever happens with them. It just makes you want to stop working because you don't see any results. This weekend was definitely a learning experience for me. I'm still bummed out about it. That was pretty much everything that happened this week.
 My birthday is coming up in a week! Dang. I'm old! Also I'm coming up on my 6th month mark too. Time flies! Have a great week everyone :) I miss you all!


Elder Wheelwright

ps  Haha that is a sweet picture of Dylan. It made me laugh. People probably looked at me weird at the library... Yay for Nikki and Scott! That's way awesome! Congrats! :)

Hola family! 
This week has been awesome as ever! The baptism that we were supposed to have this week didn't happen.. :(    We went to visit our investigator on Thursday and he said he was going to Colorado to visit his grandpa on a last minute thing. So there was nothing we really could have done there. Bummer. So this Sunday is when it should be happening. He is way solid and I have no doubt that it will happen! Yay! :) 
So yesterday was Columbus day. Aka not p-day and we don't get mail. Haha. Who even celebrates Columbus day anyways? He didn't even discover America first. The Jaredites did. But how come they don't get a holiday? Anyways..haha. Christopher Columbus prevented me from getting mail yesterday. Grrr... 
Yesterday we went tracting in old mexico. And I found a $20 bill on the ground, it was sweet. I'm saving all of the money I find on the ground and putting it into a little bag. So far i have like $24?   It's pretty crazy..haha.   We didn't really have any success while tracting. We did get to practice our spanish though.. so that's always good! When we were walking around the trailers, like a million dogs came our of no where and they were going to like jump us haha. They like made a circle. And then they they started attacking us haha. It was so crazy. One of them bit Elder Wilde's shoes and then a huge dog tried to bite my butt..no joke haha. It was an intense situation. So we just hurried and got out of there. haha. Looking back it's way funny just to think about how it all went down. Also when we were walking, I found a full can of beer, so I started kicking it around... a bad decision haha. It hit a rock and then exploded everywhere, including on me. So I smelled like beer for a little bit haha.   Probably not the best thing to smell like as a missionary... Old Mexico was really fun, even though we didn't see any success from it. 
Conference was way awesome. The announcement about the mission age is crazy! There are definitely going to be a lot more sisters coming out. Which is awesome! We watched a little bit of the press conference after and they said that they talked about changing the duration too, but decided against it for now. Crazy Stuff. We were the only ones watching conference in the church building for the Saturday sessions. So we put the projector on the ceiling and we watched it on the benches in a comfortable position...haha. I actually can stay awake during conference! Watching conference as a missionary is so different, because you feel like all of the messages are directed at you and the work. You feel a lot more connected to it.  It's sweet. 

 Here is a section from an email what my friend in Mexico sent me regarding my visa and me:

"Well keep it strong bro, keep working hard and don't sweat the visa. There's definitely a reason why you are where you are at. If the Lord wanted you in your country already, trust me, a small piece of paper couldn't hold him back from that. You are in Kansas and Colorado for divine reason, make sure you find out why that is before its too late."

Dang. It's awesome. It has really helped me out. Along with everyone else's words too of course haha. I think that is all for this week. It's starting to get cold here! It was 44 degrees a couple of days ago! Brrr.. I got out my jacket finally, it's pretty warm. Well I love all of you guys! Thanks for the emails and all of the support, I really appreciate it!

Elder Wheelwright

Family!
 This week was really awesome. A lot happened! At the beginning of the week, it was just alright. We were just doing what we regularly do. Nothing special. Wednesday/Thursday we were going on exchanges in a different city called Hugoton. It's this even smaller city than Ulysses. But this place was like way nice and seemed rich haha. They had speakers on the main street playing music all the way through the town. Crazyyy. It was really boring there and honestly not much work to do. So we went back to Liberal to finish our exchanges. For the first part, I was with Elder Warr, who is also a Visa waiter for Argentina. He has been out for 7 1/2 months total..and is still here. It was really cool being with someone who is in the same boat as me haha. Then for the 2nd half I went with the district leader. On this one ITL (Street contact) that we did, we shared the first lesson with them and then then the first vision. After we share the first vison, we usually asked them how they felt during it. So I did this. And they responded: "to be honest I felt nothing.". DANG! This is the first time that that has happened to me.. I didn't know what to do for a second haha. It was funny. So I just told them to pray about it.

On the way home that night, we found a turtle in the road. Skippy! so we picked it up and brought it back home! (Well, to the other Elder's apartment haha) technically pets are illegal..dang. So yeah, it was an evil turtle. It's eyes were red.. But it started freaking on out me. When I was holding it in the car he came out of his shell and was like swimming in the air! His sharp claws were digging into my skin haha. I tried moving my hands where I was holding the shell, but he could reach me anywhere.. :/  Noo. haha The person I was on exchanges with was just laughing at me. Then the dumb turtle starting peeing on me and all over my pants! :/ And maybe poop too, i'm not sure haha. It was just really gross. The person I was with was like, throw it into the pond! (this pond he was referring to was a street gutter full of water..) I wasn't about to do that. That would be mean. So we stopped on the side of the road and I let him out in the grass in this park. Gooodbye Donnnnny! Haha yeah, we named him donny, from the Ninja turtles.

Saturday was an epic day. We had this service called the Numana project. I think I talked about this a little bit earlier, but we were being some of the volunteers in charge. We got to wear these green staff shirts haha. It was awesome. So before the event started, we had to be there early to set up all of the stations/get the food ready in bins. Then we had a meeting with this speaker from Columbia. It was a really awesome speech. She had a continuous slide show of pictures from her orphanage. She told us how poor the kids are down there. It was really sad. So I was stoked to be helping at this event, so that the kids can eat! Everybody loves food haha. So the event itself was putting some rice, soy, beans, and wheat + a vitamin packet in a bag and then sealing it and them boxing all of them up. Each bag will feed 6 people. On saturday, we filled our goal of 20,000 bags! It was so awesome. There were a ton of people there too helping out. It was a really good experience. The BEST service by far on my mission.

 Literally right after the numana project was our baptism for Damien! It was crazy... we had to go home and get changed super fast and then run over to the church. The baptism itself was really great. The spirit was there totally. There was quite a turnout too. We did the confirmation the same day too, so I got to participate in that as well. That was an awesome experience too. Saturday was just a REALLY awesome day. Sunday morning our
investigator (that likes to sleep in and then misses church) was waiting on his porch for us!! AWESOME! That means next week we will be having another baptism after conference! :) This guy is so solid! Then our recent convert Damien, went up and bore the most sincerest testimony ever. It was so great :) . This guy is so strong in his beliefs. He has so much faith in the gospel. He definitely is an example to me. It was the highlight of the sacrament meeting! Everyone was talking about it.
 Yes, so today we got transfer calls and.... i'm staying! Yesss! haha I was so nervous last night. I'm glad i'll get to be around for another transfer here. There is still so much potential. And I would never want to miss our investigator's baptism!
For conference, we are going to the chapel to watch it with our investigators. Nathan... man haha. It sounds like it was fun, but you got owned! haha Maybe take it a little easier. You need to be non-broken for the upcoming snowboard season! Stay focused man! haha  Congrats nikki and scott, thats so epic! I'm stoked for you guys.

 You can start sending letters to my Ulysses address again! So feel free to post that up again! Well I think that's it! I love you guys! Have an awesome week!

Elder Wheelwright

Hello Family! :) 

 

This week was pretty awesome. We have been working with this guy for awhile now. I wrote about him in my journal. But we had a dinner with them and we got him with a baptismal date! He is going to be baptized this Saturday! It's pretty much a for sure thing too. I'm sure excited for that! He has been to church like a million times and we are going to teach him the last lesson tonight at dinner. So yep, it's going down haha. Brett was doing good. He is still progressing, which is good. We went to go pick him up for church and he got super sick out of nowhere the night before. :( It was a bummer. So his date got pushed pack to the 7th, which is next transfer. I really hope I can stick around for that. We have been giving him reading assignments every time we see him. And when we ask him what his favorite parts are and what he learned. He always says that it's all good and that he cant remember what happened...hmm. So we don't know if he's actually reading. Yesterday we gave him 1st Nephi 2:15  (And my father dwelt in a tent.) This is a test to see if he's reading or not haha. So we will see on Tuesday if he says anything different! 

The Holland talk this weekend was awesome. The drive wasn't that great though. It was like 6 hours. Road Trip! We stayed overnight on Friday in Pueblo, Colorado. It's a pretty big town about an hour away from CO Springs. We got there super early. So we just did nothing basically. I bought some sick skinny ties though haha. Those are my favorite. They are just so classy... :P Saturday morning we arrived in Springs. YES! I was so stoked to be back haha. We drove through my old area on our way to the church building. It was awesome! I wanted to go visit people, especially my recent convert. But we didn't have time :( The meeting with Elder Holland lasted about 2 hours. He brought people from the presiding bishopric with him too. So it was awesome. Elder Holland can get really into his speaking. He doesn't do it in conference, but he likes to yell and scream haha. It's kind of scary! But he is just passionate about what he speaks about. He also looks really different in person too. Like I didn't recognize him! It was an awesome edifying, uplifting experience. It definitely re-pumped up for missionary work. I just wanted to go out and baptize the whole world! haha We were only in Colorado springs for about 3 hours in total. But it was still fun. 

The drive home was SUPER long. On the way home we saw this tarantula in the road. So we stopped and took pictures of it. It was super gross. Coming back to Kansas was hard haha. Everything is flat. SUPER flat. Seeing the rocky mountains again was epic. Ulysses is home now, so I guess it was nice to be back? haha We came home to an empty mail box too. Lame. About mail.. start sending mail to the mission office address again. Transfers are next week! Holy cow! This transfer flew by! I guess that happens when you work really hard. 

 Yeah my B-day is coming up! Crazy! I'll be 21! Now I can buy alcohol.. sweet. haha  Nathan is going to be a sketchy driver ;) haha You better not let him drive anywhere!   That's AWESOME that they have a date to be sealed in the temple. It's like a 2nd wedding kind of. That's way exciting! Congrats! I'll have to write them. Dang Dad. You struck out haha. It's okay though, just try harder next time. :D

What ever came of the phone cards that I bought? Also I want an ipod. I hate buying CD's. They are so expensive. I want an ipod nano. I don't know which one though. Maybe a 6th generation 8gb ipod nano. Let me know the cheapest you find it before you buy it!  Well I think that is all for this week!

I love all of you guys!

Elder Wheelwright 

The pictures:

  Me standing by road signs. Fantastic. 

Me with the spider and a dead snake. Outstanding. 

 

The bottles are all things that we find everywhere here in Ulysses. This is what we drink. 

It's all stuff from Mexico! Super awesome stuff. Especially the fresca. 

 

 

The meat with the tools..haha. We had the frozen meat log and we didnt know how to cut it. 

We tried sawing through it for like 20 min with a knife. We got sick of doing that, because we were going nowhere. So we used a screwdriver and a sledgehammer.  = Success! Haha.

Hola Family!      
This week has been pretty crazy and pretty awesome. We've seen a lot of huge successes this week! There have been 3 sweet days this week that I wanted to share completely. I don't have enough time to write or explain it all haha. So I just took a picture of my journal. I made sure you can still read it. You just need to zoom in haha. 

 

But yeah, stake conference was this week. And that is in Garden City, which is quite a bit away from Ulysses. So we had to get a ride there. We actually got an investigator to come too! It was awesome! This guy is turning out really solid. I definitely think he's going to get baptized. And it will be this transfer too! The Sunday before transfers actually. Sweet!  This transfer has gone by so fast! People are already talking about next transfer! haha I actually hope I can stay here. I'm really liking Ulysses! 

Yesterday we went tracting in this place that we call Old Mexico. Its a giant trailer park a couple miles out of town. It's like 90% spanish too. So that's awesome language practice! I found $2 on the ground while walking too. Cool. haha One door we knocked on, this super funny mexican guy came outside and set up chairs for us to sit in. haha So we just sat down. Spanish people are SO nice. So we talked to him for a little and then taught him the first lesson. I did a big chunk of the teaching and it was SO hard haha. I would like stumble and think about what I was trying to say. It was embarrassing. The guy helped me with my spanish as we went though. I can definitely understand a ton more than I can speak. For the most part I can tell what people are saying. Except for people with crazy accents from Cuba. That's impossible! We invited him to be baptized, but he wasn't really interested. We did get a return appointment with him though. Spanish people are so nice that they will never turn you down. And if they do, then they do it in the most nice round about way that they can haha. Or in other words, nice excuses? 

It's been pretty cool recently, like in the 70's and 80's. I'm still getting burnt/tanned though. I actually have color to my face! haha it's pretty cool. I've started wearing my contacts so I can fix my glasses tan. Because that looks dumb. 

This week Elder Holland is actually coming to speak to our whole mission. So we're traveling up to Colorado Springs Again on friday! :) The springs are awesome. I miss the mountains and the big population and Walmarts! I'm really excited! It should be a fun time. I'm just not looking forward to the 5-6 hour drive. 

Well my VISA didnt come. Transfer day in Argentina is tomorrow. So.. yeah. I'll be here for a definite 6 more weeks. Lame. I always get my hopes up but when it comes down to it, it never comes. Oh well. I want to baptize a couple of people here that we're working with before I leave anyways.

I think that is all from this week, that was eventful at least. Everything else that was epic is in my journal entries.  I got your package last P-day! Mailing straight here works good. Although now that its getting close to transfers again. Maybe sending it through the mission office would be better now. But the package was awesome thanks! I already had the filter bottle that you sent me. They gave us one in the MTC if we were going foreign. But now I have 2, Sweet! Also the towels look weird. But my companion says they are really good. He has one. Well I love all of you guys! :) Nathan good luck with your drivers ed. You're going to need it ;) haha Well everyone, have a sick week!

Elder Wheelwright

Mosca= Fly in spanish. Elder Wilde is really good at killing them in mid-air. haha so I gave him an award/sticky note. There are SOOOOO many flies here in Kansas. It's not even funny!