The Awesome Adventures of Elder Wheeler

[Editor’s Note:  Because of the difference in P-days between the MTC (CCM) and the field, this letter, which is actually the 5 th real letter we’ve received, written at the end of week 5 is labelled Week #6.  Going forward, the letters will be numbered by what week number is BEGINNING instead of ENDING.  You have NOT MISSED A LETTER! Rhys will actually go out into the field next Tuesday at the end of 6 weeks from when he reported to the MTC.  He will be unable to email home next week.  When he picks up the emails again the following week (on Monday), it will actually be the end of 7 weeks, but the beginning of week #8 and will be numbered as such.  Now that this is all clear as mud, I’ll leave you to enjoy the real reason you’re reading this.] Que lo que from the tropical land of Republica Dominicana! This week has been full of fun and excitement for almost no one! Well... that’s only partially true. 6 weeks have gone by soooooo fast!!!!! I ca...

YOOOOOOOOO! So this Hurricane Maria right?!  Yeah.  Same deal as last time, got a generator, plenty of food and water and we're on a hill top.  Sooo, yeah, todo bien en la Republica Dominicana!  Have a fantastic day and I'll be emailing at 1 pm EDT tomorrow afternoon!  Catch you later! Elder Rhys Wheeler!

Que lo que from the tropical land of Republica Dominica! Upon request, here's a little more info based on what happened to us from the hurricane. WE DIDN'T GET HIT! YAY! However, all the elders that were supposed to go to Puerto Rico got pushed back a week.  There wasn’t much change in our own schedule or what we did except we went to the temple right next door on Wednesday instead of Thursday. I've heard that my last email seemed a little "canned" like a pack of sardines and for that I do apologize but there isn’t really much that’s gone on the last 2 to 3 weeks that’s made them stand out!  It’s much like school.  You come home and Mom's like "How was school today?" and the only thing you can say because it’s just the same day basically over and over is " It was good." ... I suppose that could be my fault for having an outlook on that but there's not much I can do to keep things interesting without sacrificing some line of ob...

Rhys was finally able to find a way to upload his pictures, so I thought I'd share several.  Some of them are a little blurry.  I think he was expecting the camera to be a touch more responsive.  There are quite a few here, so enjoy!  All time stamp dates are in the DD/MM/YYYY format and times are in 24HR clock. Rhys and his friends a couple of hours before he left for the airport.  This group has spent many hours at my house playing Super Smash Bros. Rhys and his travelling buddies in the Santo Domingo Airport, Dominican Republic Elder Chu catching a ride through the airport. This is the bus they all rode to the CCM from the Airport.  Check out those curtains! The desk mentioned in his first letter!  Looks like Elder Chu has his own cubby.  Lets just hope they're not sloppy around the sink. LOL Their study room the day after they arrived.  Check out those stacks of books! Elder Wheeler and his compa...

Que lo que from the tropical land of Republica Dominicana! Trying to come up with stuff to write home in the MTC is very hard to do since we basically do the same thing every single day.   We had an opportunity to go to the University last Friday and talk with people!  It was very fun and very inspiring to try and communicate with other people when all you speak is very broken Spanish.  We tried to place a Book of Mormon, but everyone we talked to already had one.  No surprise really. The experience helped inspire me to reach for higher limits and now I’m even more motivated to learn the language.   Before the Hurricane hit Puerto Rico, our President of the CCM had bought a metric crap ton of food and water to last us all 3 days or more if it were to affect us.  The missionaries going to Puerto Rico are forced to stay here until Monday due to the storm but there’s no issues in that regard. There is this one elder though, named Elder Lal...

[Mom's note:  As many of you know, Hurricane Irma , a Category 5 storm is expected to hit the Dominican Republic tomorrow, September 7, 2017, Rhys' normal day to write home.  I received this note today.  The eye of the storm is expected to be just north of the island, putting most of the severe winds on a direct path.  Rhys is actually in Santo Domingo on the south side of the island, so his effects will be less severe, but still quite impressive.] Hey!  This is just a quick email to tell you that we are safe and sound. Were on high ground so there's no risk of flooding from the storms that have passed by. I've been told we're expecting a tropical storm tomorrow or Friday with 40-70 mph winds. If anything does happen the building is built with a power generator and we have enough food and water stored up to last 3 to 4 days. All is well, I'll try to email tomorrow but with the storm coming in we may lose internet. Also, the mailing address that w...