MIRACLES ALL AROUND!

Once again this week has gone by so quickly! I really don't know where the time goes. But things are going good here! We had a very big miracle happen yesterday which I will write about later!

On Tuesday the 5th, I went with Sister Lehman and Sister Filimoehala again while Sister Davidson was at her Zone Council. It was such a fun day! I just love those Sisters! But it went really fast. It was sad because all their appointments ended up canceling all at last minute so that was hard. But we were able to get other things done in their area! When we went to pick up Sister Davidson though, she was super sick! She was sitting in Sister Becerra's car and when she walked not even two feet from her car to our car, she about passed out. So we went inside to get President Becerra to give her a blessing. He came out and talked to her for a few minutes and then he had us come over to his house to get her something to eat. We had snacks in the car but she wouldn't eat those and President had some medicine at his house. While we were there, this is the funny part, there was a picture out of all the missionaries from last December and Sister Davidson was looking at it. All of a sudden she said, "Oh, there's that attractive Elder." And we started to laugh. President Becerra asked which one and then said, "Well, I'll make note of that so you don't ever get put in his area..." It was really funny. She was so sick, which is sad, but everything she said was kinda funny because she couldn't really think. But after getting something to eat and taking some iron supplements, she was feeling better. It was just sad to see her not feeling well. Turns out she has felt like this before. A couple Zone Conferences ago she had the same thing happen to her so President was joking around saying that she probably shouldn't be a Sister Trainer and shouldn't come to conferences and things because he is just too spiritual and all the knowledge and spirituality is what makes her not feel well, it was funny. We ended up going to Glendale on Friday to see Dr. Lew, who is a member of the Mission Presidency, and she got some blood tests done. There were about 10 things they are testing her for so hopefully they will find something wrong. It's one of those things where you don't want something to be wrong but at the same time, you hope something's wrong so that you can figure out why she keeps having, what Sister Davidson calls, weak spells.

On Thursday the 7th, Sister Davidson and I went and did a lot of tracting. As we were in this one area, Sister D felt strongly that we should go to this one home. Turns out that the lady who lives there, her mom's family are all members of the church! She also told us that she's friends with Stacey Campbell, who is like one of the sweetest ladies in the ward, we love her! So that was cool that she knew so many members. And Sister Campbell told us later that Lori would have let us in but she didn't know the rules. So we went back yesterday but she wasn't available so we talked to her husband for a minute instead. Hopefully we can go back sometime and see her! She was super nice!

Speaking of knowing members, in that same neighborhood there was a house that we had been eyeing for a couple weeks and we decided to go see them. This family is good friends with the Mautz and Howe families in our ward. Sister Davidson and I have really come to find out that the best missionary work is through the members and their examples. We have known that all along but these experiences have just made such a difference to how we look to members! So things are looking up for our area. Most people we meet know members so that's incredible!

Well, on a more sad note, Saturday the 9th, we went to a funeral for a man in the Carbon Canyon ward, Brett Barnard. I wrote about him about a month or so ago and how we went to visit his family and he was living with cancer. Well, he passed away this week. It was sad to hear but at the same time, everyone knew it was coming and it's also a happy time because he doesn't have to suffer anymore. On Thursday we got a phone call from Sister Barnards sister who asked us if we would mind standing next to a table with a lot of information about thechurch being displayed. One big request that Brother Barnard had was that everyone at his funeral know what he believes. He had a big box of The Family: A Proclamation to the World pamphlets and many other church pamphlets. So we were able to be there in case anyone there had questions. It was really slow before the funeral and not many people took things but once Sister Barnard said something about it during the service, tons of people came and got things. There weren't many questions asked but at least we were there just in case. And the funeral service was beautiful! Each of "his girls" as he called them (he has four daughters plus his wife) got up and had written letters to him and shared those with us. It was very touching. I couldn't stop crying throughout the whole thing. It was amazing to see the love his family had for him. And also all the people showed up, it was incredible. They ended up having to add a couple extra rows of chairs because so many people showed up! He was an attorney so he knew a lot of people but not all of these people were from work, they were just associations he has had throughout his life. And so many of them were not members of the church. He was a great missionary throughout his life, you could tell. The funeral was such an uplifting experience. There were so many tears but at the same time there was so much laughter! We were talking to members of our ward after about how different LDS funerals are from other religions and I'm so thankful for the knowledge of eternal families and life after death. I can't thank my Heavenly Father enough for that knowledge in my life!

Then yesterday after church, we had a lesson with Rose Alva. I've talked about her before but she's been investigating the church for about 6 years now. Well, turns out that the time we were going to teach her, there was also a baptism for another ward. So we decided to take Rose. I guess she has been to a baptism before but the spirit is always so strong there that we decided to go anyway. After the baptism, Sister Davidson rushed out and we followed and she said she just had this strong feeling to go up and see President Gutierrez, who is also a member of the mission presidency. Sister Davidson asked him a question about what he would say to someone who knows the church is true but is having a hard time accepting it (or something like that.) Then he asked who it was for and we said Rose and from there, we let President Gutierrez just talk. We ended up walking a few feet away because we had a phone call and other people were talking to us but we would look over and at one point we saw Rose wipe tears from her eyes. Then about five minutes later, she came over to us and said the President Gutierrez said that she needed to pick a baptismal date and work towards it because without a date, nothing would ever happen. So she then told us that her date would be September 20th, her birthday! That is a long ways off but he said to pick one of importance, not just to pick, so that's what she did! It was such a happy time! She smokes so that's one reason she chose to do that date because she wants to be completely clean. So we're going to help her as much as possible to quit smoking! It's a very incredible miracle that she is getting baptized! It is such a blessing as well! I really firmly believe in miracles! And I'm so thankful to President Gutierrez for all that he said! I wish I had been in the conversation but I know that it just needed to be Rose, President, and the Holy Ghost!

Well, that's about all for now! It was a good week! I'm so thankful for this chance that I have to be on my mission. It was not something I wanted to do, as many of you know, but I know that I'm supposed to be here. I have already grown so much and I've only been in California for two and a half months! It's incredible! The gospel of Jesus Christ is true! It has been restored again on this earth! If I didn't know this, I wouldn't be here right now! I wish that everyone would know this! And that's why I'm on my mission, to help all those searching for the truth!

Love always, Sister Wheatley

PS - Happy Birthday to Aunt Liz and Whity J! I hope you both have wonderful birthdays! And to anyone else with a birthday, anniversary, and any other kind of celebration this week :)

PPS - Transfer calls will be this coming Saturday. I'm a little nervous! Things are just starting to look up in the Carbon Canyon area, I'm not ready to leave yet haha But when the Lord calls me somewhere else, I'll go and do! :)