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!

Hello Family!
Nope. Nothing on my VISA yet :(   I legit think it's alphabetical now haha. Because the only people I'm seeing get them are in the beginning of the alphabet. Hopefully it will come soon. There is this guy I think I told you about, he's in my district. His last name starts with a W too. And he has been in this mission as a VISA waiter for 6 months already. So yeah. My theory is that because there is no W in the Spanish language, they don't like bringing people over that have W's in their names. Haha. that's the best I got so far.
This week was pretty cool I guess. We had 4 people with baptismal dates that looked SUPER solid. 3 of them are these kids who want to get baptized. The mom is a member and she owns this big restaurant down town. She works like 80 hour weeks so she cant ever come to church. Anyways, she said she really wants them to go to church and let to get baptized. She said she would bring them for Sunday. And it was like a sure thing. But when it came time to start sacrament meeting, they didn't show :(    It turns out she did bring them to a church. Just not ours... She knew it wasn't ours too. We're not fully sure what happened there, but we are definitely going to find out!  Also every time we teach them lessons, we have to do it in the restaurant haha. The mom always gives us menu's when we come.. mmm bomb mexican food. They let us go in the back room and grab food too..haha it's wierd. But cool.
This other guy, said he would come to church too. We were going to go pick him up (aka walk to his house) and we were going to walk with him to church. Church is at 10am here in Ulysses. So we went to his house, and his dad answers the door half naked...cool. Haha. He was like, yeah it was a late night. He won't be able to make it today. NOOO.    And then another investigator didn't come either. Dang. 0/5 at church. It's so defeating and makes you really discouraged sometimes. BUT there was actually an investigator at church, not to our knowledge at the time. He was a referral that we couldn't make contact with. He liked church and says he is looking for one to join. So major potential there. This is his 2nd time going to church too. So one more and he can be baptized!
So this Sunday was way busy for us.. We both had to give talks on church callings. Basically, the message that was given to us about the talks, is that they wanted us to chastise the ward...haha what the heck. Also we were in charge of a missionary presentation for priesthood during 3rd hour. So busy busy! haha. It was kinda stressful, but whatever. I'm glad it's over. Now we can get back to being missionaries... haha

What else? Hmm this guy we talked to this week told us that the reason why there is so much oil in the middle east is because that's where the garden of Eden was. Baghdad, Iraq is the center of the Garden of Eden. According to him haha. He told us that everytime we fill up on gas, we should think about how we're filling up our car with the garden of Eden..haha. It was so funny. I tried not to laugh when he told us that. It was hard! Also he was telling us about how he has seen ghosts before. I love talking to this guy! He's awesome. He loves mormon music, like mo-tab. I think he's actually going to watch conference with us too! This guy like lives on his porch of this condemned house. He's epic.
What else.. hmm. Walking miles around in 100 degree weather is still as fun as ever. We had a dinner/service this week with this less active family. The service was helping pick produce. It was soo fun haha. We picked watermelons and cantaloupes and things like that. best service ever. The guy would like throw the melons to the ground ( I guess that's how you test them?) and they would break open. So we got to taste a lot of it. It was so awesome. I tried a yellow watermelon and an orange watermelon. I didn't know those even existed! He also sent us home with a ton of stuff too. Everyone does. We have so much produce at home right now that it's going bad.

I think that's everything that happened this week. I'm sure I forgot a ton. But I love you guys! Thanks for everything! :)

Elder Wheelwright

Random photos he sent:

                                                                              ?????

Hello Family! :)
 This week nothing really interesting has happened. We have continued to walk everywhere because of our shortage on miles with our car. Walking several miles a day in 96 degree weather isn't really fun haha. It's actually kind of gross how sweaty you get. I keep forgetting to put on sunscreen too so I'm like way red right now haha. Its not hurting yet, but I'm like putting on aloe vera like none other.
We're starting to find out that this area is a little bit more English than it is Spanish. If you want to find spanish speakers, you have to go to the trailer parks. These areas are honestly the most fun to go to haha. You don't really know what to expect or what kind of people you'll meet. You just know that it's going to be.. interesting. Spanish is getting a little bit easier for me.  I still struggle a lot, especially with talking to natives. It's so hard to understand them because they talk so fast! They push words together too. It seems like I'll never learn but I know I'll get there eventually. I'm learning random new words every day though, so that's good.
The city of Ulysses just got a warning about the water here. Apparently it had e. coli and "may contain animal or human fecal matter". Cool. We buy all of our water in jugs now at the store. haha. I'm not even trying to mess with poop in my water. This week when we were tracting trailer homes, we heard this bell. Elder Wilde yelled out Paletero! haha in English = popsicle man. So we  went over to his little push cart and we bought something. He only spoke spanish so that was cool. These popsicles that he had were bomb. Like mexican ice cream.. yumm! It felt like we were in Mexico, with the surrounding ghetto area and this guy haha. It was so awesome.
 One of the dinners we had this week was with this awesome family, bro. and sis. Wood. They are an older couple, but love missionaries. They are super funny too. I felt like they were my grandparents when we were over there. Anyways, they have this big map of the US, when new missionaries come in, they sign their names next to where you are from. So I went to do mine, and there was a name where Federal Way was. Hmm. Elder Whiting. It sounded familiar, I think Dad knows someone with that last name. So I asked sis. Wood if she knew this guy or had any pictures. And she did. I recognized the guy too. I think his name is Dean Whiting. or something along those lines. Can Dad or someone get a hold of him and tell him Woody and Mary Wood say Hi? haha   It was cool having a little connection in Ulysses.
Also Sherry Dew has been here because her dad just passed away. She is the CEO of Deseret Book. I guess she's done the autobiography of some prophets too. I talked to her for a little bit on Sunday. I got to hear her speak in the MTC when I was there too. She's an awesome speaker. So this Sunday, the bishop has asked us to give talks... ugh. I hate speaking in front of a ton of people haha. Also he asked us to run the 2nd hour meeting too. Sunday will be a busy day for us... should be fun...!
We met with this lady this week about doing service. There is a project coming up at the end of September called NuMana. Its making food packets and sending it to counties in need. She asked us to be in charge of groups of people when this event actually happens. Sweet! I'm excited! The food for this project is actually being sent down to Argentina too! So that's way cool! :) There are actually going to be people from all over the world coming to this event too.
What else? Oh. I'm addicted to Horchata right now. haha It's So Good! Lucky for me, there is a lot of it around town because of all the little mexican stores.
This area has a lot of potential to baptize! It's just hard because no one answers their doors EVER. We had 2 people with bap. dates this week, but no one came to church. They had to go to the hospital though, so it was a good reason. We finally came in contact with this family with 5 unbaptized kids! We had knocked on their door like 5 times since we've been in this area, but never anything. The Mom of these kids owns a restaurant in town. So we went straight there to talk to her. She was really nice to us. She says getting her kids to church on Sunday is okay with her! Yay! Yeah super potential. It's awesome.
I felt sick a couple days ago, like I was going to throw up. Maybe heat exhaustion / dehydration? I need to drink more water!

Hmm.. yeah I don't think I had to do an FBI check. Which is good haha. But I did have to do a police report though. Maybe it's the same thing? I dont know. But yeah, still nothing on my VISA yet. Dang. Yeah summer came and went! I can't believe he is already going back to school haha that sucks. I think I got that package from Alisha? I honestly cant remember though haha. I just got some pictures and other stuff from her with a letter. Is that what she's talking about? I also got dad's letter too. It got here fast, in like 2 days! I think it's because he sent it straight here, not through the mission office. Umm I think thats it!

The pictures: Kansas itself is hot and in the middle of nowhere and yeah, but the sunsets are pretty epic!

Well Love you guys all! Have an awesome week! P.s. p-days are still Mondays. It's just because it was a holiday yesterday. ALSO, can you be on the look out for Spanish/English translator? It's like a little pocket device thing. My companion has one and its pretty awesome. He said they might be a little expensive though.. so i don,t know. Can you check that out for me?? Also in the next package, send AA batteries? I'll let you know for sure. haha Okay Byee Love You!

Elder Wheelwright