June 27, 2010

We are thinking about July 4 and that most of you will be at
activities, celebrations, and firework next weekend to celebrate the
signing of the Declaration of Independence. When you are in another
country, you realize how blessed we are to be Americans. Other
countries are a delight to visit, but... We have heard others tell
that when they arrived back in the U.S. they wanted to kiss the ground
upon which they stood. We are indeed blessed to be Americans.

We are having very busy weeks and the weeks are flying by. We have
had some sick Elders that have needed us to get them to doctors and
others that needed unusual paperwork to travel between countries.
There are quite a few local missionaries that have been called to
serve here in the West Indies Mission and their paperwork is more
complicated than the missionaries from the States. We sat in front of
the Dominican Republic embassy for three hours waiting for them to
open and they never did. We were quite concerned that he would not be
able to get this Elder into the DR for MTC training and then we
finally found out that he did not need the Visa we had been told he
needed. His name is Elder Hoepel and he is from Suriname which is a
Dutch country and he is a fine young man.

We attended Church in Chaguanas again today and their numbers are
small but they have the "very elect" as members. The Sacrament
meeting talks were excellent as were the classes. Alex is East
Indian and gave a talk about paying tithing. He joined the Church and
decided that he wanted to keep all the commandments especially keeping
the Sabbath day holy and paying tithing. His job would not allow him
to have Sundays off so he quit. His landlord noticed that he was home
and asked him about it. He told him that he was looking for work and
that he didn't want to work on Sundays because he wanted to go to
Church. The landlord had a pharmacy and called him the next day and
hired him. This job didn't pay as much as his previous job but he
would probably get a raise after six months. He worked for a month
and he received a call from his boss saying he wanted to see him. He
was nervous that maybe he had done something wrong; but, no... he gave
him a raise. Then in another two weeks, he got another call... and he
was nervous again... and he got another raise in pay. About two weeks
later, he got another call and it happened again. He knew he was
being blessed for his obedience in paying his tithing. When the Lord
says "prove me here with", he keeps his promise if we keep the
commandments. He began to help people at the pharmacy with their
nutrition and losing weight. The boss gave time off on Sunday to go
to Church but insisted on him coming to work on Sunday afternoon. So,
he took another leap of faith and quit that job and started his own
weight loss business. He has a good clientel and baptized Dalison
Moore yesterday, who is one of his clients. All along the way, he has
been blessed because he was willing to make the changes needed to be
faithful member of the Church. He is one of the "elect" that we have
met here. We can see that there are many whose heart have been
prepared to receive the Gospel and build a strong foundation for the
Church here in the Caribbean.

Our thoughts are with you this week of celebration!!! We need to be
grateful everyday for our blessings. We are thankful for such a
wonderful family and great friends.

Much love,
Elder and Sister Wheeler