September 26,2010

We hear that potato harvest is fast approaching. We have so many
great memories of "Spud Harvest". Hard work, great family and
friends, long hours, patience and a sense of humor recommended,
cinnamon rolls for the crew and whole lot of gratitude for our
blessings. We hope that you will all be kept safe and that the
harvest is gathered in a timely manner.

We want to share two accounts this week. We have been telling you
about Elder Vaea. Last Monday, Elder Vaea had appointments with some
specialists in SLC. He was waiting in the hall for a test to be
taken, when a door opened and President Monson and his doctor came
into the hall. Elder Vaea stood up and Pres. Monson asked him if he
was a missionary and some other questions. They shared a wonderful
hug and then Sister Vi took their picture. It is a great picture and
we will send it along with this e-mail. The experience was such an
emotional boost for Elder Vaea. We have the picture on our Return
with Honor board in the Mission Office. There are no such things as
coincidences!!! One of those "tender mercies" that we all have from
time to time.

We attended the Chigaunas branch today and heard a wonderful story.
Brother George, a member of 20 months, gave the Sunday School lesson
without any notice. He began with his conversion story. He told of
his mother dying when he was 6 years old and her asking him to take
care of his three sisters as she was dying. His dad was an alcoholic
and they had a tough growing up. He became an angry young man and an
angry adult who was involved in a lot of bad things. He is about 65
years old now. He said that he decided he needed a Church and began
to look. As he was searching, he knew in his heart that he was
looking for "a book" and as he was walking the streets of Chigaunas
he saw the small sign "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints" on a building. He immediately knew that he wanted to go to
that Church. The first of the next week, two white boys came to his
door with a message from "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and he gladly welcomed them into his home. He found that they
had "a book" which they would share with him on their next visit. He
was so excited and began to read as soon as he received his copy of
the Book of Mormon. He could not lay it down. There are three other
churches within a two block area of the Chiguanas branch which have
lovely chapels. The Chiguanas branch meets above a business and he
still knew he would find what he was longing for there. He is a
strong member and loves the Book of Mormon which he has read three
times. The subject of honesty came up in the lesson and he shared
this experience. After becoming a member, he had the feeling that he
needed to pay a debt to a friend and that he needed to do it very soon
because the friend was going to die. He called his friend and asked
him to come to his house within the next couple of days. He paid his
debt and his friend died on the following Saturday. He was so taken
back by the experience that he didn't come to Church for a couple of
weeks. He says he is so grateful for the Spirit that guides him
everyday. We love it!!!

We have been preparing for transfers the last few days. It is always
a hectic, challenging time for all of us who serve in the office. We
have one Elder coming from French Polynesia and a Sister coming from
Nepal who is the first missionary from her country. There are 4
missionaries from Guyana and 1 from Trinidad in the Dominican Republic
MTC who will be here in the West Indies Mission on October 5. It is a
miracle what has happened to have so many local missionaries. We will
share that story in person when we return home.

We are looking forward to General Conference this week. I listened to
the Relief Society meeting and loved President Monson's story about a
couple moving into a new neighborhood. The wife noticed that the lady
next door didn't have very clean clothes on her clothesline and made
comments for several weeks. One day she told her husband that the
lady must have done something different because her clothes looked so
much cleaner. Her husband told her that he knew what had
happened....he had washed their windows. Moral of the story, don't
judge. We love Conference!!! We will be thinking about you all as we
watch from the chapel in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Much love,
Elder and Sister Wheeler

Elder Vaea.JPG 2198

Sept. 19,2010

Good afternoon this beautiful Sabbath. How are you all in the
Mountain West? We become more and more grateful for news from home
and those we love. The miles that separate us don't change how we
feel.

We had Zone Council and Leader training this week. Zone Council was
for all the Zone leaders (24) throughout the mission and it was on
Monday. Then the Zone leader from the islands went back and the
district leaders and the trainers came in for training on Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday . They were from Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname,
French Guiana and Guyana. It was quite a feat for us to arrange
housing, food and transportation for all of them. The office Elders
and the Assistants to the President were on the road constantly when
they were not in meetings getting missionaries back and forth to
embassies for immigration, airports and apartments and a
bed-and-breakfast. Making sure they were physically feed was the
office's responsibility-Sister Mimi, tickets and accommodations-Sister
Ellison and Sister Childs, funding-Elder Wheeler and furnishings for
apartments-Elder and Sister Wheeler. Sister Mimi asked us all to help
with some of the food on Sunday night and that meant that we added
baking goodies in the mix. Sister Ellison hates to cook so she came
to our apartment Monday night and Sister Mimi came to our apartment
Tuesday for assistance with her assignment and then Wednesday night
kinda fell through as Sister Mimi was not feeling well. I still made
a chocolate sheet cake so there was some sweetie at the end of their
main meal that next day. We bought 10 twin size mattresses for the
apartment we vacated last week and filled the fridge with drinks and
fruit and bought rolls and cereal for breakfast. It came together
quite well with few miscalculations. They have all returned to their
assigned countries and areas and are fired up and ready to work.
President Gamiette is a wonderful teacher and blesses the lives of all
who hear him. I asked the Elders who passed my desk to share one
thing that impacted them from the meetings and they will hand me a
written note this coming week as they come to the Mission office for
mail etc. It was also fun to talk to some of their parents this week
as we were facilitating immigration requirements and needing documents
from home. It brought back great memories of letters from the
missionaries in our family and the blessings that come to the whole
family when there is a missionary in the field. We took a deep breath
yesterday and had a great nap this afternoon and are ready for another
week.

Our lesson in Sunday School today was on the prophets. We are looking
forward to General Conference and are ready to listen intently to
their messages. Isn't it wonderful to be members of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? We hear this wonderful affirmation
when we talk to those who have joined the Church or who are
investigating. Their lives are forever changed. May you each be
blessed this coming week. We love you and miss you.

Much love,

September 12,2010

How are you all doing? We are wondering about the harvest, school and
the weather. We miss the change of seasons even though this green is
beautiful. It is still the rainy season here and the foliage is lush.
We sometimes have water ponding in the streets which makes it
difficult to get around but amazingly it disappears into the ground
after a short time.

We have had a great week! President and Sister Gamiette have been in
the Dominican Republic at a Mission Presidents Seminar for the past
week and we have been staying with their children. They are a great
family. They have five children. Coralie is 15, Jennifer is 14,
Terry is 10, Tom is 6 and Amy is 5. They started school this week so
it was a bit hectic but it brought back a lot of a memories and some
homesickness for our own grandchildren and family. We would start the
day with the commute to school. We would leave the house at 7:15 am
and take the older girls to their school which is a private school
just for girls. Then we would take the three younger ones to their
school which is a private Catholic school. The traffic is unreal as
they do not have school buses and everyone either takes their own
children or they us the vans (taxis) to get the children to school.
The morning commute can be over two hours. We would leave the Mission
office at 2 pm to pick them up from school and that commute was even
worse. We would arrive home about 4:30 pm and have the rest of the
evening to get homework done, have dinner and then scriptures,and
family prayer and then tuck them all in about 8:30 pm. We had a great
time. We also met the housekeeper, Doris, who works at least three
days a week and she is a delight. She has been the housekeeper for
the mission home through 4 or 5 mission presidents. The Gamiettes are
the first to have a young family. She had such great stories to
tell. She is originally from Guyana and is an Amoran indian. We hope
to stay close to her as well as the children the rest of our mission.
Sister Mimi (She was called to help the children make the change from
French to English and has spent a lot of time with them.) from the
office came to stay with them on Saturday while we came home to wash
and get ready for the coming week. We had shopping to do to prepare
for the training that the President is so anxious to give to the
mission leaders. He was so spiritually fed at the Seminar and is on
fire to share it with the mission. This coming week will be very busy
with many missionaries coming to Trinidad for Zone Leader Council and
now other leaders will be coming also. This mission is complex and
interesting.

Elder Wheeler had quite the experience this week with funding the
missionaries. There are two Elder Jordans. One is Michael Jordan and
he is in St. Maarten and the other is Christopher Jordan and he is in
Guyana. St. Maarten uses the U.S. dollar and the Guyana uses GYD with
an exchange rate of 200 to 1. Well, Elder Wheeler turned them around
and funded Elder Michael Jordan $124,000 and Elder Christopher Jordan
$430 which is $2.15 US. Needless to say, each Elder was very
surprised and Elder Wheeler was "taken back" by what had happened
also. Elder Michael Jordan should have received $430 U.S. and Elder
Christopher Jordan should have received $124000 GYD. It made for some
great laughs after it was all straightened out.

We are so grateful for all of our blessings and for this opportunity
to serve. We pray for you all at home everyday! After reading
scriptures with the Gamiette family each day, we hope that you all are
making time for this important event in your homes. We are so
grateful for the Book of Mormon and the answers to prayers that come
from reading it each day.

We are so enjoying each new experience. What a great blessing it is
to serve! There is so much need for senior couples.

Love and blessings,

September 5, 2010

,

Well, it's Fair week. We hope you all having a great time with the
Fair food and exhibits. We also heard that Kenny Rogers and the
Oakridge Boys will be there. We enjoyed a great fireworks
demonstration here on Tuesday, September 31, as it was Trinidad's
Independence Day. We left work early and went to the Port of Spain
Ward's barbecue and then walked to the huge Savannah Park in the
center of the City. Great fireworks!!! The ward members played
cricket, Dominoes, ping-pong and jump rope. Mormon gatherings also
have great food. Brother Kotiah loves to cook and did a great job
barbecuing chicken and fish. The Kotiahs have been ever so good to
us.

Monday night was a great night. During the day, we had a few doubts
that Elder Vaea would be able to get his passport and visa back from
the U.S. Embassy. We had to wait patiently for a TT Post courier to
bring it from the Embassy in Port of Spain to the TT Post post office
by the airport. He finally got it from a Security guard (the post
office had closed) working at the post office at 7 pm. He was able
to make his flight early the next morning to the States. The Vi
family was there to welcome him and take such great care of him. He
had an appointment with a doctor the next morning. He loves sharing
the gospel and was looking for some missionaries to go teach with in
Salt Lake.

We attended the baptism of Lennax Phillips in the Arima branch on
Monday night. He is a golden contact that Elder Wilkinson and Elder
Morris found and Elder Wilkinson was able to baptize him with a help
from Elder Morris. It was a very tender, spiritual meeting. Elder
Wilkinson is so weak (he can barely walk with someone by his side to
steady him) and we are glad that he was able to return home with his
parents. A Church doctor flew into Trinidad so that he could fly
home with them on Tuesday morning. Elder Wilkinson has extremely
serious heart trouble and we are all anxious to hear how things are
going for them. We are all united in our prayers for these two
Elders.

Today we attended the Chiguanas Branch and we ever so blessed again.
It is wonderful to feel the strength of the members. After Sunday
School, Brother Hussein, counselor in the branch presidency, told me
of being one of six member who started the Chiguanas branch and with
tears in his eyes bore his testimony of the Gospel and love of the
Savior and how much his life has changed since becoming a member. He
also has served as the branch president. Wonderful, strong spirit in
the meetings today. Elder Ence and Elder George a great investigator
at the meetings and we are all excited about him becoming a member of
the Church.

Life is good! The Church is true! The blessings come from living the
Gospel principles and loving the Lord and our fellowmen

Much love,
Elder and Sister Wheeler