Meeting the Rastelli's

Hey fam,

How is everybody doing this week? I am happy mom that you got to meet the Rastelli`s they are such a great family. And they all speak english very well no? I am amazed at how well they all speak the kids especially. Jonathan the youngest that just got home learned from music and tv and has a huge vocabulary and its just really cool. I am glad you got to meet them and chat. Was the whole fam there or just the parents? 

Well this week has been a little easier. I have been getting into the flow of things as a district leader and my companion is a cool kid so that is good. He is really helpful about calling all of the other people when we have to set stuff up if I am verifying..which has been good. The members in this area are just great. We have a family that recently got baptized I don`t know if I told about them last time but they are a younger couple and they have two little ones.  I had an instant connection with them because Elder Sheridan was their first missionary who was my mtc comp. So since I knew him I was instantly their best friend haha. It is great to have connections.We get to see them quite a bit because we have a standing appointment on saturdays to go re teach them the lessons that the other missionaries didn`t do and she comes to english class so it is nice to be in an area and instantly love the people and feel it back. I have always loved the people, but the return feeling isn`t always there. Here it has been great.

We are in a huge neighborhood, supposedly the biggest neighborhood in Latin America so that is cool. I don`t know how true that is because more times than not the claim to fame is false, but it is really big and the majority aren`t active This is the good thing about us though we can help the ward to bring some of those members back. In the mean time find the people that they have around them. For example, those that have spouses not baptized and also just friends.  There is so much potential here it is incredible.

I have had so many great experiences so far and learning how to be district leader has been interesting. I think just doing it is the only way that you can learn how to fully do something. So that is what I have been trying to do just learn how to do everything that I need to do and help the missionaries that I am in charge of the most that I can. It has been pretty fun so far just getting to know more missionaries and just getting to work with them on a more personal level. I worked with tons of them in the office, but it wasn`t on a personal level at all. It was calling them to tell them to send stuff in always. I am just happy where I am. We have transfers this week because these are when the real transfers are, but we are both staying in the area so that is good. We are going to be able to figure out how to take advantage of all of the potential and help this ward grow. I know we will have to be working hard to get everything done that we want to this transfer. It will be a great time and I am loving life. Thanks for all of the letters(emails) and all of the support. I LOVE YOU ALL and hope that you are all doing great as well.

Until next week,

Elder Wheeler

P.S. I have some requests from some members if possible the next package you send. I need some jolley ranchers and some marshmellows (small ones I think), and a hawaiian shirt (adult large I would guess) haha. If you can`t don`t worry about it but just things that would be fun to give. They are all for great people that I have met along the way and I would love to be able to get them for them so if possible in a package I would love that. Also I would like more pictures if you have time... like printed ones becuase the email ones are great for me, but I want to show people pics and I can`t really print them off too much. 

DL in Estanzuela

Hey Everybody,

Well there have been some huge changes this week. I have left the offices. It has been a long time coming about seven months haha. But it has been a great time. I am also very excited to be out right now and having the opportunity to serve the people as well as the other missionaries. As you have heard I am now a district leader so I am in charge of a few peoples now. I have two elders that live with us that are both from buenos aires and also two sisters in my district so it is interesting. I am now in the area of Estanzuela, that is what it is called. And I got here last wednesday and already the members are just so great. We have a great ward mission leader that actually served the mission here like two years ago. He was the first person yet that has known where Kamas was. And you want to know why. It is because he knew Bill while he was here. He said he was his Zone leader and that he had the most fun with him while he was here. So we were talking all about that. It is just so cool to have that connection. He is a really cool guy. If you see Bill ask him if he knew Elder Gonzalez from Chile. First name Andres I think it is. So that was just really cool to be able to instantly have an in with the ward mission leader. And then the rest of the members are just great. There are some recent converts that Elder Sheridan my mtc comp found when he was getting trained here so that was also cool. So ya I just was supposed to come to this area to get to know some of these cool people and hopefully help some more to come to know this gospel.  It has just been a great week. 

I mean it is for sure hard to learn how to be a district leader, but it is fun. I get to talk to all of the missionaries about their areas every night and get to know their investigators. So it has been awesome to get to do that. But I am so much more tired now...we are up doing stuff making sure everyone is good and ready. I have just been exhausted all week long. But it has been so much fun...I love my area and they have already baptized four in this area for this month so we met the goal before I got here and there are a ton more people that we are finding that are going to be ready to be baptized soon so it is just great and I am enjoying my time so much. 

How is the weather there? It is starting to warm up down here I think. We have some cold days, but for the most part it is pretty warm. So I think the cold is pretty well done, well there wasn´t any cold to begin with. These people would die in utah. Nobody understands what 7 months of winter means

. 

Alright mom to answer your questions I am now out of the offices yes. But not by much. The area I am in, I can see my old one from up on the hill. I look over and can see were I just was. So I am like fifteen minutes from the offices by bus or twenty to thirty walking. Still in the same department of the city, but it is a good area. The members take very good care of us. And now p day is back to monday..so the letters will be back to mondays.

Anyway thanks for everything, I am doing great, just loving my new area and being too busy to think about anything else. But I love you all and hope to hear from you soon. Hope you all have a great week and that you´re having some fun still. 

Love your favorite Elder,

Elder Wheeler

P.S. Tell josh Congrats from me and also give cory a hug for me because he is home this week too. Tell everybody hi for me as well. 

New pics

Missionary Moms!

Hey Fam,

How is everybody doing? We have had a great week here and just trying to make the best of the time that we have been given. It is great to be so close to President and his family. Tomorrow we get to go over for dinner and have some fun with them, so that will be great. I am really excited for that and the opportunity to be able to do stuff like this. It has been great so far and I can´t wait to experience all that this mission has left to offer me. It is crazy to think of how much I have grown so far and how much my testimony has grown from all of these things and that I am only half way so I will only be able to gain more in this next time that I have. I love being here so much and everything that I have learned I know is for my benefit and that i couldn´t have learned anywhere else. So that is a comforting thought, to know that I am here where I am supposed to be at this time in my life. 

So yesterday we had the opportunity to go to a families house that we have been trying to help get reactivated. And they invited us to eat lunch so we asked for permission because we can´t just leave the offices without. And then after we had a service project to help them. We ended up moving the entertainment center and the fridge. So that we could rewire the whole house. The wires are all outside of the wall and have little plastic covers as they run along the walls. So that is the method they use. But I was amazed at how much I knew how to do by just watching dad do stuff at home. We were just re-wiring and it was just natural to do the stuff. There wasn´t anything different to me because it wasn´t anything I hadn´t seen dad do before. So we helped him move the outlet to the other side of the house and we put the fridge over there as well so they could have it arranged the way they wanted. Also we had to move the switch to the fan on that side. So it was a lot of moving wires, but it was good to be able to get to know them better and be able to give service for once. Because it is almost never that we are able to do that. But as we were talking he was telling me all about his coin collections that he has so he said next time we go over he will show me what he has. But he says he has coins from all over the world. It will be really cool to see it. And he was telling me what ones I should get from here to take home and which ones are good and not. So that was really fun to have something like that in common. 

Other than that it has been a pretty normal week. Well except for the fact that an Elder´s Parents came to get him this week and the mom of Elder Passantino to me was like, is your mom on missionary moms. And I was like, well I think so. So she was told me that my mom told her to give me a big hug haha. But obviously mom she could not. Against the rules, but she was really nice and it was cool to hear that. Because then everyone was asking what is missionary moms, I think that is what it is called. But ya then they took a picture and were going to send it to you. So I hope you get that. I am standing right next to their son, I think he is on my left in the picture and then I don´t know where everyone else was standing. But it was really cool to meet them and they brought jello and koolaid and seasonings and stuff to give us all. As well as a big bag of reese´s so those are just great. Something that Argentina has yet to replicate. But it was fun to meet them and have that connection that they talked with my mom. Crazy how things workout but it is great. 

I am so thankful for everything that I have been given, for all of the wonderful opportunities that I have had so far and will continue to have in my life. It will only get better from here. And it has been pretty great so far so I am excited to see what comes next. I am so thankful for all of you and the wonderful family that you are. So thanks for everything that you do for me and all of the things that you send me. I love you all and hope you have a great week this week. Hope to hear from you all next week. 

Love,

Elder Wheeler