This is Elder Wheelers letter from today June 22, 2015
So a little bit ha ha or a lot that's gone on since i left the MTC. So we left the MTC around 2:30 and i was up all night packing like til the last second and i still wasn`t ready i hadn`t really even weighed my bag. So my room mates had to help me weight them and one of them weighed it wrong so i had to get rid of some stuff to make it weigh below 50 lbs. so anyways we leave the residence head down to the travel office and check out and load up on buses and say good bye to our MTC family it was a sad farewell.
We traveled about 45 minutes to the airport and my companion elder Schoenfeld talked the whole way there to this other sister named sister wright who was in our district i think he really likes her so i couldn`t really get like one ounce of sleep which was horrible. But anyways we arrived at the airport and waited in front for the longest time we finally went in and waited for a long time and i was so confused to what it was we were doing. after a half an hour or forty five minutes of waiting around we finally check in on these computers i was the last to check in they said we could call home when we were done but they had me convinced that if we waited til later we would get more time to talk if we waited til we got to Minneapolis for the layover. But anyways we go through security and i saw the spot where we tore out an old restaurant when i worked for TID demolition so it kind of brought back memories. After i admired my work i headed down to the gate and a little after that we boarded turned out my carry on was too big but a tender mercy was they were checking bags for free because of the limited amount of room. The way there was cool i got a window seat which made me so happy. looking out that window over the earth just tells you how good god really is its so amazing how beautiful he made this earth! so we flew for five hours and then arrived in Minneapolis st Paul.
I was desperate to call home ha ha not really but i wanted to try so i had bought a card at the MTC store for calls for 10 bucks turns out the card didn't work so i was out of luck there. So turns out we didn't have much time to call so i was very disappointed. But thankfully one of the elders let me use their prepaid cell phone for one minute and that's when i called you mom! It was really good to hear your voices for the last time in who knows how long!?!?!
shortly after that we boarded and made our way to Milwaukee where we met the mission president and rode to the stake center where we had lunch. The rest of the day we learned about all of the things we`ll use and need here. By the way i hadn`t slept in like 36-46 hours so i was tired!!!! Afterwards we ate dinner which was amazing sister cutler is an amazing cook we`re very lucky. We slept at the mission home that night and then we had an amazing breakfast that morning after talking about good advice we had received for our missions. And also the elders in the other room saw a really weird looking bug or spider like thing in their room so they have a lot of weird insects here! anyways we go back to the stake center and then we received our new companions and area calls. So i guess you know where i am according to the email you sent.
But yeah i`m here in escanaba and for some reason i keep wanting to call it Escanada but that's just me! But yeah Escanaba Michigan the good ole U.P., OH and how could i forget my new companion is Elder Arnold hes awesome and really hilarious like really hilarious no joke he has til September so im probably his last companion he`s from sandy if you were wondering. So more about the journey we traveled from Milwaukee to green bay and then up to Escanaba we arrived here at around 8 pm.
I got settled in and my companion made us fettuccine Alfredo ha ha freaking made my day i was so happy. Fun fact there are a ton of spiders here freaky looking ones too and it turns out a lot of people rarely use their front doors unless of course that's all they have but every door we go to when we go tracting have big webs going across there front porch and doors. Alright so Thursday we went out tracting kind of by the beach and approached a girl and and told her a little about the restoration but she was not interested like every other person here but its exciting teaching people i love it so much! Our apartment is about five to ten blocks from the beach which is cool and we do have a mission vehicle which is another tender mercy im so thankful for that.
Also basically everyone here are missing teeth smoke or something of the sort. EVERYONE has at least one dog its so crazy, intimidating a lot of the time though! oh i forgot to tell you about my first tracting experience when i first arrived at the stake center in Milwaukee. so story goes i was with elder fry so we choose this street just in front of the library it was shaped like an L and was a dead end so we start on the right side of the street and everyone i swear said the were busy and it turns out the Jehovah's witness stopped by a couple days earlier so they thought that was us but any ways we head right toward the dead end and there was a very nice guy just like everyone else but just weren`t interested anyways this guy said he was catholic but said he had LDS friends so he talked to us for a second but told us he wasn`t interested so he said he didn`t want to wast our time by trying to teach him. So we move on and arrive at the house on the end of the street at the dead end and apparently a 100 year old lady lived there so the neighbor who happened to be there said shes not interested and that we`d be putting her out if we taught her our beliefs. so we moved on to the next house which was on the opposite side of the street. a lady answers the door and says were just leaving and her two daughters were out playing so we start leaving and the daughters say hi and my companion for some reason asked their names and so they told us and then shortly after invited us to see some baby birds. My companion obliged and i was like what in the world are you doing so they start to lead my companion towards the backyard and the mom yells out "STRANGER DANGER" so i was like wow elder fry you`ve really done it now but we kind of just hurried away from the house nothing happened thank goodness
Then we start rounding the bend and go up to another house and a guy answers the door and says can you please take us off your list. And were just like huh? we thought to ourselves we don't have a list but because of the situation we said yes and left laughing to ourselves because we didn't have a list but said we would take him off of it! with no one interested in hearing our message we come to the last house and knock on the door but no one answered so we leave but all of a sudden we hear the door break open and a lady comes out with a dog and listened to our message but was not interested sadly. Definitely good stuff but just remember the last door can quite possibly be the winner which was cool because we felt like we had failed on that street but sharing with that one lady was so cool!
So anyways i thought i should share that. Back to life here in escanaba so something that has really been bothering me is the atmosphere here it just feels like something is really missing here its so weird i cant even explain. But im pretty sure its because the gospel is so sparse, there's a very small branch here there's about fourty to fifty members that are active definitely not what im used to. There`s basically only 4 Melchizedek priesthood holders here which i have no idea how they survive just count your blessings guys they sure are there just unnoticed is all! The church is very small but surprisingly they have a baptistry the chapel or meeting room doesn't have pews and your kitchen and living room are probably bigger than it which is kind of weird to me and sacrament was so loud yesterday it was nuts. kids screaming and yelling everywhere it was insane!
Alright moving on so Friday we had someone request a bible and so we went and visited and she was solid, and yes 'was is the fact she sadly called us and told us not to come back because her pastor said something about us so you know the struggle is real but we had offered to mow her extremely long grass and said we could so we planned to do that Saturday but it rained which really sucked and so we called here and that's when she told us that she didn't want us to come over it was so sad my heart just broke when i heard that i have a feeling that's going to be happening a lot out here.
:( Another good story though so we were at one of the members homes who is inactive and she was telling us about how she has bad vertigo so she is going to need a wheel chair soon. After that story she told us about how she was going out and apparently there was a hostage situation going on in one of the neighbors homes so she was told not to come back for a while and so she came back later that night and they told her again that the problem was still not resolved so she went to the police station and she was talking to the police about the situation and one of the cops was standing behind the one talking to her kind of snickering. And then finally says "nice shirt" turns out she had a shirt on that said if you see DA police warn a brotha. And it was a Warner brothers t shirt and she was like oh my goodness i am so sorry and they were just cracking up about it but yeah some crazy stories here for sure!
We were in another members home on Saturday and the kids were just crazy trying to hug us and sit on us but were not allowed to let children hug or do anything of the sort but they just kept doing it oh and before i forget to tell you it was so cool we were in this older members home and he had some sick guns from the Korean war he let us hold them and check them out. The guy really reminded me of grandpa he was so nice and he has so many stories its crazy but hes my favorite member so far but don't tell anyone hahahaha just kidding. but yeah i have pictures with the guns ill probably send those to you next week!
Last but not least yesterday Sunday we went to a guys home he`s a paraplegic he was so cool i loved him so much he loves hugs and if you know me i do too!!! It made him happy when we gave him a hug and they had this dog it was so cute and i was playing with it for the longest time he was fun to play with yes life gets boring out here especially when you don't have pets. But we also gave them the sacrament which was an exceptionally awesome experience and we get to see them again this week on Wednesday so im very happy about that!
speaking of pets we have a pet turtle and a fluff ball that the primary made for their fathers for fathers day and for us "future fathers" haha i thought that was so funny! And no not a real turtle ha ha i wish you have no idea its a wood turtle that a member made for my companion! I didn't know i was capable of writing a novel but turns out i did i love to the stars and forever after that! And im so thankful for all your prayers just know i pray for all of you like a lot. keep smiling everybody if you don't smile well now is the time to start. keep me updated with all that's going on! I have to tell you my favorite thing out here is looking out over the lake its just like an ocean i don't know why its just one of my favorite things. By the way my address is:
806 S 16th ST #1
Escanaba, MI 49829
