Lovin' Conway

Good mornin Momma!

First of all I have to say, "ZIGGY!!!!" That's sick! I can't believe it! Well I can but... ZIGGY!!! I'm stoked to hear he got picked up by a semi-decent team. The Lions "D" is gonna be sick! Suh and Ziggy! Watch out!

Anyway, back to missionary work....

Conway. Yes. It's great! It's super nice here-- I like it so far. And the members in this ward are great! Yes, I said ward. It's weird saying ward again. I kinda like the homey feel of a branch family. There are two wards here and 3 sets of missionaries. Only one set in our ward. Thank heavens! And the people here are legit! A lot more open to listening to us. A lot of Catholics but instead of insulting us they just say, "Thank you but i'm comfortable with where i'm at. But thank you!" So I like them. haha

My companion is Elder Mortensen from Hyrum. We work very well together and we get along great and I think i'm startin to sound like him now. haha

So the coolest thing so far was, Alan, that had gone to church last sunday, we only taught him for the first time two days ago, and he has a baptismal date for this coming saturday (the 4th). So cool! You can really see how the Lord has prepared him for this time. And I know that i'm supposed to be here at this moment. It's great. Alan, (30 years old), is a triathlete and really cool. He reminds me of my friend Shumway in how quite/ humble he is but at the same time he is very chatty and receptive to everything we have to say. He's just way cool. He said that he had been praying about religion and what church to join and he said that that night he had a dream about Indians. So when we read through the intro to the Book of Mormon with him and read the part about how the Nephites/Lamanites are the principle ancestors of the Native Americans he about fell out his chair. You could see it in his eyes that he instantly knew this was "it." It was an awesome experience and i'm so glad I was here to witness this life changing moment.

A greatest reassurance was that at church yesterday he was tellin everyone he knew that he was gonna get baptized on Saturday. Wow.

The members are pretty great. They are willing to go out with us a lot which is a big help. We have baptisms planned for each of the next three weeks. I like the pace of this place. We are here to work and that's what we're doin. I like it.

Wish I could stay here and write back and forth but we have a full plate today.

Talk to ya next week. I'll get on to set up a time with you for skype.

Love you more Momma!

-Elder Bubba

Conway, Arkansas -- Ready or not, here I come!

Hey Momma!

Sorry about not bein able to write yesterday. As you know, I'm getting transfered and leave tomorrow. The only problem was we had no way to even get up to transfers! They took away our car and then when we asked how we were gonna get up to North Little Rock, in a nut shell, told us, "we don't know" and to, "figure it out." haha. Not kidding!

So yesterday mornin we had to hitch a ride up to Bismark where we could catch a ride with Doug up to Hot Springs, played ball with the Elders until we could get the car from the Sisters who just so happen to be the ONLY missionaries within 90 miles of us who are not being transferred and won't NEED their car. So we have their car now for two days. The sisters are awesome! I am so happy to have a car! It took a lot of anxiety away knowing that I would be able to go say goodbye to Doug and Bridgette and Georgie and Bianca.

Packing sucks. haha. I have WAY tooooooo much stuff. haha. At least I don't have to worry about the weight limit this time. It's actually not that bad. I started a couple days ago cause I figured i'd be leaving. So the stress of packing has been absent. Thank heavens. Really.

My friend just got called back to his first area again were he was, "a punk" and is scared about what the members will think of him even though he says he's changed so much and, "isn't that kid anymore."

I was and am so happy to have been able to stay in this area after my first companion cause I wanted to gain the trust of the members so bad and show them who I really was and that i'm not my companion's mini me.

It's been great and i'm so thankful for the time i've been able to spend here, the growth i've made (spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and unfortunately physically), the lives i've had the opportunity to affect, and the life-long friends i've made.

I really love the people here with all my heart and have mixed emotions about leaving but I love the Lord more and trust in his guidance for where I need to be at this time.

I learned another lesson the other day when we were walking the streets. We saw this guy working around his truck. His ridin lawn mower on his trailor-- I think he was fixin to leave. I went up to him and started a conversation. I didn't get too deep cuz in my mind I stereo-typed him and just saw him as every other person we had met this week and didn't have any faith that our conversation would go anywhere-- even though it JUST started and we hadn't even discussed gospel principles or doctrines. Stupid I know! Even worse, I thought the guy was cool and classy in the way he accepted us and talked with us (listening to instead of telling us) but I still just handed him a card and was about to just walk away.

As I was making a 180 to head back to the street I heard my companion start asking him if he had heard of the Book of Mormon before. My 180 turned into a 360 and I listened as he started to describe what the book was.

As my companion spoke I saw an interest starting to grow in this guy's eyes. I got excited and joined in. The guy, Ronnie, was understanding every word we spoke and he seemed so stoked about the book. He even said, "I want to read that! Can I get one?"

Awesome.

Lesson learned. And you can bet i'm not gonna just give up on someone ever again just because of what others have done.

Well.... 6 months down. 18 to go. Lovin every minute of it.

Love you more than food. haha
-Elder Wheatley

 

LOVE YOU MORE!

P.S.!!!! I know where I am going!!! I just found out on the computer as I was reporting numbers. It looks like i'll be heading to Conway. That is on "this side" thank goodness! And my companion from what I hear is a good one!

Short, but weekly letter

So this week my letter is short (probably always is ha ha) but it's how I am feeling...

New glasses picked up today

This week we were able to talk to a lot of people. Now... good and frustrating things came from it. It was good to be able to share what I know to be true with others. What a testimony builder it is. I become stronger and stronger in my beliefs every time I am able to share what I know. On the other hand, it is very frustrating to try and share with people who think they know more about this gospel than I do (when what they say is absolute nonsense) and to those who I see progress SO MUCH..... and then get antied or upset over one little thing they read and misunderstood.

Now I don't want to make it sound like I am unhappy-- because I'm not. I'm actually quite enjoying this experience. Yes it may break me down, even into tears sometimes, but I know that when that happens I can become stronger.

New glasses -- closer up.... looks like spring has sprung in Arkansas (look behind him)
 

It may be getting hard right now but I know that, "ye receive no witness until AFTER the trial of your faith."

So I'm looking forward to that.

With love from Arkansas,

-Elder Wheatley

I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE!

Conference was great! And you aren't kiddin when you say it goes fast. I just loved having the opportunity to hear the words of the Prophet and the Apostles. It sure was a HUGE spiritual "upper." My favorite speaker was L. Whitney Clayton. He spoke on Marriage. That hit really hard even though marriage is two years or so away. I just thought it was awesome and I wanna frame that talk and put it in my home when I get married.

District Meeting and Elder Clouse's last District Meeting

I also enjoyed my boy Boyd's talk about needing to protect our nest and his warning to be careful of the tolerence trap.

We were, however, able to watch General Conference at a member's house on Saturday. So nice to watch in comfort and with the advantage of DVR to rewind and pause when interuptions occur. We slept over the night before (with permission from El Presidente of course) because we taught their friends the night before and it was too far to drive us back. Oh yeah.... we don't have a car. It finally got taken. The Elders in Camden said they had a baptism so that's why they needed it. But of course, it fell through. So we've been biking and bumming rides. I love biking but not if I have to do it inside a toaster oven. I'm sweating after putting my helmet on. Ridiculous....and it's not even July yet..... :/

After a very long day of biking!

I think our investigator, Fabrice, liked conference. He was only able to make it to the Sunday morning session. But I think his allergies got the better of him.

Other than that, Arkadelphia is doin well. We are able to talk to a lot of people on the street but a lot of people just wanna tell us what and who we are and what we believe. But I don't let it bother me. Good experiences I guess. We are hanging onto the few investigators we have and trying to work with them while trying, while we can, to expand our investigator pool. Seems like they are heading in the right direction-- towards baptism. I just need to practice patience and, "trust in His timing" like Richard G. Scott said.

I wish I could remember how the rest of the week went. General Conference was just so awesome that everything else pales in comparrison.

On Wednesday we had the blessing of Brother Haygood being generous enough to drive us down to Gurdon to help teach Kenny.

Today was cool. The Bocks brought over their rake and lawn mower for us. Our lawn no longer looks like a jungle. Believe it or not we found a turtle under all the leaves! And it was alive! We gave it to our next door neighbors who just moved in. Speaking of the neighbors, after he saw us mowing another neighbors lawn (she offered us money but obviously we can't accept so she agreed in exchange to continue taking lessons) he came over and asked if we were a lawn service and asked if we could mow his next week. After a brief explanation that we were missionaries and couldn't accept money he offered dinner in exchange. I agreed and we talked for a little bit about who we are. I think we'll have a new investigator soon! He's really cool and is familiar with the church.

Never knew Aaron Sabins was here. Maybe I'll get to see him.

Anyway. I'm doin great!

Tell Durrell to get better and that he doesn't need to take it so hard when Barca loses in the Copa Del Rey to CR7, the 19 year old French sensation Raphael Varane, and the Mighty Real Madrid.

(info thanks to Aaron Malpica).  Ha ha 

I love you all! (y'all)

Elder Bubba

More pictures....hopefully.

Boys will be boys!  They took some old suits they found in their closet and, after taking pictures wearing them (see below), they ripped the arms out of them and posed for this pic above.... enjoying their missions, it looks like!

Glad to see them having fun too....

Cute picture....glad they get along so well

Crossing the Platte River

Work wise this week was slower than normal so it felt. But it went by super fast and that's how I judge whether or not it was a good week. haha. We saved up a lot of miles so we were able to drive a ton this last week so I think that is why it felt different. Didn't have to walk a billion miles every day. haha. But it was still very productive.

We had the opportunity to talk with many different people on the streets this week but it was kinda frustrating because of how ignorant, naive, and closed they are. They say that they know the bible but they really only know what their preacher said. We'll show them what the bible actually says but it doesn't help cause they just come up with some foolish rebuttal.

I may not know the bible like others do but when i'm trapped i'm not gonna act like I do.

Just funny. Really, in the end, i'm not mad, I just feel bad for them.

Now for the funny stuff.

Monday night we went to the Light's house. Guess what's for dinner??? --Zuppa Toscano. Yeah. haha. How bout that?! Freakin good fyi. But you already know.



Sister Bock dropped off breakfast for us one morning.  Been over five months since I've had a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios!

 

Next, we followed up on a guy we found contacting. His name is Nathan. Cool guy about 45 years old. He was outside smoking a brisket and it smelt SO GOOD! I stood right next to the smoker the whole time breathing through my nose of course. We talked for a while and in the middle of our discussion, which was goin great by the way, he ask us if we had seen the show about us. I'm like, "Uh-oh.... What show?"

He went on to tell us about how we have a show about us and members of the mob and how our women wear bonnets and how we used to drive buggies but now we drive Cadillacs and all that jazz.

We started laughing and told him that that was the Amish. Not the Mormons. But he didn't believe us! haha. He was sure it was Mormons. And no matter how many times we told him he wouldn't believe. He said that we were probably just to young to remember. haha.

So finally he just called his friend who watched the shows with him and his friend told him that it was the Amish and not the Mormons. Haha. So we were able to finish the discussion. He said he loves to pray and that he'll read the Book of Mormon. He had beer laying around but he said he knows it's bad so that's a good start. He sure is a fun guy to talk to. Super nice and willing to meet with us. He said he saw us walking around a few times and as he passed he said to the people he was with, "Those are my boys!"



Elders Wheatley, Anglen, Kowalk and Clouse sporting the "cool" old school suits that were hanging in their front closet' having problems posting the other two, so will post them in a separate post.
 

On Tuesday we had district meeting in Hot Springs. We take the Elders from Hope with us. Cool guys. But before we left they noticed the old suit coats in the front closet and as you would expect, we HAD to wear them to district meeting. haha. I'll attach photos. (You're welcome. haha)

What my feet looked like after being soaked from the rainstorm on Easter Sunday
 

We eventually tore off the arms and again we HAD to now take boy band pictures. haha.

But everything went great this week. We even had the opportunity to perform service by helping people into the building Sunday morning when a suprise storm hit and poured rain hard. We held umbrellas over them as they got out of their cars and into the church. We got soaked! It was like I jumped into a pool in my clothes. But it was totally worth it. The people compared it to the Platt River crossing in fast and testimony meeting. Kinda funny and cool. Fun experience. Sister Bock told me again to tell you that you raised me right. So thanks Mom and Dad!

Well I think that's all. Maybe I sould tell y'all that I now have the same reputation as dad has.... I eat tons! They don't know how I do it or where I put it. It's funny. They always joke about how I eat so freakin much. haha

Elder Dan Wheatley