Dear Shanell,
I am doing wonderful! Things are looking great here. Being an AP is a busy job. I understand now what it is actually like to have an office job. My companion now is Elder Jackson. He came out at the same time I did. We were in the MTC together. He is a super companion!
President Gray caught some of the elders playing cards at midnight and he was not at all happy! It apparently has been going on for a long time. I really don't find myself being to impressed with some of the elders, but I don't want them to get sent home, either. Elder James has been struggling and is living in our flat now. I'm going to try to help him.
We still haven't seen General Conference, but we will on October 26. I'm excited! I'm looking forward to hearing the General Authorities speak! I am super excited to hear what Ezra Taft Benson has to say on behalf of the Lord. Elder Jackson and I are excited about tomorrow. We get to teach our member missionary lesson to President Sonnenberg! A General Authority!! Is that cool!! It could be a nervous situation, but it will be worth it! It will definitely be a journal writing experience! I'm looking forward to it! I'll let you know how it goes.
We went tracting last night and it was fun! We are going back to teach a man named David next week. I'm excited!
On Saturday, September 18, I read the entire Book of Mormon! I started at 8:30 in the morning and finished at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday. That is 16 hours and 48 minutes.
I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support, especially in extending my mission to January! It made me feel good to know that we both asked Heavenly Father about it and felt like it was the right thing to do.
I'm thankful for you!
Elder Wallentine
Wednesday, October 22, 1986
Wednesday, October 15, 1986
Dear Shanell,
I thought I would drop you a line and let you know how things stand in the land down under. Being in the office is really good, but it sure is tough at times because I would rather be out doing some tracting or something of that nature, but it is not always possible. I guess that is one of the sacrifices I have to make to be in here working with President Gray. I find the time going very fast and I can barely keep up with it sometimes.
President Gray asked me who would make a good assistant for when Elder Jackson goes home and I suggested Elder Adams. I may get to serve with him at the end of my mission! That would be exciting!
I think the toughest thing about being an assistant is that we are trusted with a lot of information that we are not allowed to tell anyone about and sometimes you almost bust because you can't tell any other missionaries about it. I realized the other day that I have 1225 pages in my journals. I love writing in my journal! It will give a detailed account of my childhood and also a good detailed account of my mission. I love keeping a record and writing down my personal triumphs and failings. It really helps me grow, too.
On Saturday we got up at 5 a.m. and packed our stuff and Elder Parker and I took off in the car at 6 a.m. and showed up in Berri at about 8:30. We visited with Sisters Thomas and Burwell until about 11 and then we went to Monash which is a huge playground. It was cool! We got to ride on a river ferry in our car across the Murray River. We then left Berri and saw the "giant orange" outside of Berri.
Then we drove to Mildura and completed some business with Elders Chapman and Nielsen. Before driving to Broken Hill, we stopped at the hospital to see Jesse Mott who had a heart attack. She is a member and a super lady! We left at about 6 p.m. and Elder Parker and I stopped in the desert to open our special mission-wide fast. The sun was setting and it was beautiful! As we drove, a kangaroo jumped about 20 ft. in front of us. It scared us to death! I know the Lord was with us. With some effort we found the address of the Balleys, the missionary couple we stayed with. I slept on a flat air mattress in a state called New South Wales in a city called Broken Hill on Garnet Street.
On Sunday, September 12, we attended the church in Broken Hill and the counselor in the branch presidency asked us to each speak for 10-15 minutes instead of our original plan of just bearing our testimonies. Elder Parker spoke on feeling good about yourself and I spoke on charity and serving others.
We drove back to Adelaide after the meeting and saw many frilled and blue-tongue lizards on the roads! We also saw heaps of beautiful purple flowers everywhere in the hills as we got closer to Adelaide.
I love the gospel with all my heart! Thank you for always supporting me.
Elder Wallentine
I thought I would drop you a line and let you know how things stand in the land down under. Being in the office is really good, but it sure is tough at times because I would rather be out doing some tracting or something of that nature, but it is not always possible. I guess that is one of the sacrifices I have to make to be in here working with President Gray. I find the time going very fast and I can barely keep up with it sometimes.
President Gray asked me who would make a good assistant for when Elder Jackson goes home and I suggested Elder Adams. I may get to serve with him at the end of my mission! That would be exciting!
I think the toughest thing about being an assistant is that we are trusted with a lot of information that we are not allowed to tell anyone about and sometimes you almost bust because you can't tell any other missionaries about it. I realized the other day that I have 1225 pages in my journals. I love writing in my journal! It will give a detailed account of my childhood and also a good detailed account of my mission. I love keeping a record and writing down my personal triumphs and failings. It really helps me grow, too.
On Saturday we got up at 5 a.m. and packed our stuff and Elder Parker and I took off in the car at 6 a.m. and showed up in Berri at about 8:30. We visited with Sisters Thomas and Burwell until about 11 and then we went to Monash which is a huge playground. It was cool! We got to ride on a river ferry in our car across the Murray River. We then left Berri and saw the "giant orange" outside of Berri.
Then we drove to Mildura and completed some business with Elders Chapman and Nielsen. Before driving to Broken Hill, we stopped at the hospital to see Jesse Mott who had a heart attack. She is a member and a super lady! We left at about 6 p.m. and Elder Parker and I stopped in the desert to open our special mission-wide fast. The sun was setting and it was beautiful! As we drove, a kangaroo jumped about 20 ft. in front of us. It scared us to death! I know the Lord was with us. With some effort we found the address of the Balleys, the missionary couple we stayed with. I slept on a flat air mattress in a state called New South Wales in a city called Broken Hill on Garnet Street.
On Sunday, September 12, we attended the church in Broken Hill and the counselor in the branch presidency asked us to each speak for 10-15 minutes instead of our original plan of just bearing our testimonies. Elder Parker spoke on feeling good about yourself and I spoke on charity and serving others.
We drove back to Adelaide after the meeting and saw many frilled and blue-tongue lizards on the roads! We also saw heaps of beautiful purple flowers everywhere in the hills as we got closer to Adelaide.
I love the gospel with all my heart! Thank you for always supporting me.
Elder Wallentine
Wednesday, October 8, 1986
Dear Shanell,
I received your letter on the 7th and was so excited to hear from you! I have been very busy. Being an assistant to President Gray is rewarding and enjoyable, but is also very demanding. That is fine with me though. We get to help with transfers every month and he really lets us in on everything that the General Authorities tell him in meetings and it is real neat to help him keep this mission running smoothly. It sure is tough sometimes.
We have introduced a program here in Adelaide that is practically fail proof! It is called the "Crossing the Bridge" program and it is a member missionary program to help introduce members' friends to the gospel. It sure beats some of the other programs we have seen. We taught it last night to 3 members and committed them to ask 5 people to hear the discussions. The program also helps in such a way that it sows members a very good way to share the gospel with their friends and it isn't even hard to do. I would love to show both of our families this presentation and know that it will work! I know that it is an inspired program and am so excited about it!
I have made the decision to extend my mission to January and feel very good about it. I don't feel like I will have any regrets coming home then. I am coming home in January because I already fulfilled my call to it's fullness (18 months) and I am now going the extra mile by staying out longer because of my love for the work and the Lord and for President Gray. I have asked myself many times if I will ever regret coming home in January and I have come up with the answer that I won't every time. Here is something that I have thought a lot about: There are 2 kinds of pain--the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. The pains of discipline weight ounces, but the pains of regret weigh tons.
If there is one thing I have learned on my mission it is that I will always try to do my best today so that there will be no regrets tomorrow when I contemplate what I did or didn't do. Here is another quote that is really good: The best possible way to prepare for tomorrow is to concentrate with all your intelligence, all your enthusiasm on doing today's work superbly today!
We just received the conference tapes in the mail today from Sydney and we will be viewing them soon. I am excited to hear the prophet of God speak. I was studying about Joseph Smith just recently and I learned something very neat! When Joseph's father gave him a blessing, he told him that he would help administer the gospel to other civilizations of other worlds that have been created. I guess it makes sense because Moroni came back and administered part of the gospel to Joseph Smith. I thought that was interesting!
Peter Hollow is a really good friend of mine and is the member that got me thinking about extending. He is super cool and he served in the Melbourne, Australia Mission and he knew the missionaries that I knew in the MTC. He is a cool guy!
Thank you for all your support!
Elder Wallentine
I received your letter on the 7th and was so excited to hear from you! I have been very busy. Being an assistant to President Gray is rewarding and enjoyable, but is also very demanding. That is fine with me though. We get to help with transfers every month and he really lets us in on everything that the General Authorities tell him in meetings and it is real neat to help him keep this mission running smoothly. It sure is tough sometimes.
We have introduced a program here in Adelaide that is practically fail proof! It is called the "Crossing the Bridge" program and it is a member missionary program to help introduce members' friends to the gospel. It sure beats some of the other programs we have seen. We taught it last night to 3 members and committed them to ask 5 people to hear the discussions. The program also helps in such a way that it sows members a very good way to share the gospel with their friends and it isn't even hard to do. I would love to show both of our families this presentation and know that it will work! I know that it is an inspired program and am so excited about it!
I have made the decision to extend my mission to January and feel very good about it. I don't feel like I will have any regrets coming home then. I am coming home in January because I already fulfilled my call to it's fullness (18 months) and I am now going the extra mile by staying out longer because of my love for the work and the Lord and for President Gray. I have asked myself many times if I will ever regret coming home in January and I have come up with the answer that I won't every time. Here is something that I have thought a lot about: There are 2 kinds of pain--the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. The pains of discipline weight ounces, but the pains of regret weigh tons.
If there is one thing I have learned on my mission it is that I will always try to do my best today so that there will be no regrets tomorrow when I contemplate what I did or didn't do. Here is another quote that is really good: The best possible way to prepare for tomorrow is to concentrate with all your intelligence, all your enthusiasm on doing today's work superbly today!
We just received the conference tapes in the mail today from Sydney and we will be viewing them soon. I am excited to hear the prophet of God speak. I was studying about Joseph Smith just recently and I learned something very neat! When Joseph's father gave him a blessing, he told him that he would help administer the gospel to other civilizations of other worlds that have been created. I guess it makes sense because Moroni came back and administered part of the gospel to Joseph Smith. I thought that was interesting!
Peter Hollow is a really good friend of mine and is the member that got me thinking about extending. He is super cool and he served in the Melbourne, Australia Mission and he knew the missionaries that I knew in the MTC. He is a cool guy!
Thank you for all your support!
Elder Wallentine
Wednesday, October 1, 1986
Dear Shanell,
Guess what?! I am now Assistant to the President! President Gray called me into his office on Monday, September 29 and called me to be an assistant. He told me I must be beyond reproach and a few other things. I really began to feel the responsibility and I became quite overwhelmed! I thought being a Zone Leader was tough! Ha! It is really cool! I am looking forward to the challenge.
The other two assistants are Elder Jackson and Parker. Elder Parker is going to get moved out of the office at the end of this month so Elder Jackson and I will be President Gray's assistant then. Right now there are 3 of us. I am in charge of re-doing all the statistic sheets for the mission and I am in charge of 1/3 of the mission. We help President with transfers and it is really neat! After we prayed today and again and again, etc. we finally decided where the new missionaries would go and who would be their trainers. After we announced it, one of the new missionaries said, "How did you know w were supposed to be together?" Apparently he felt he knew his new companion was going to be Elder Norris.
Elder Vladusic is a new elder and when he joined the church at age 19, his dad gave him a broken nose, withdrew his inheritance (thousands of dollars) and kicked him out of their Catholic home. His father is very high in the Catholic church and he doesn't even believe in God, but he does it for the money. Isn't that sad! Elder Vladusic is cool! He is from Melbourne, Australia and he knows two of the missionaries that were in the MTC with me that went to Melbourne on their missions.
I don't get to do much work as a missionary because we're always busy working in the office. We are very busy! That is okay, though. As long as we can help others baptize. I love to see others have success. It gives me a good feeling to help other missionaries get baptisms! I've already seen a lot of success so now it is time to help them. I feel like I've grown so much out here!
Love,
Elder Wallentine
Guess what?! I am now Assistant to the President! President Gray called me into his office on Monday, September 29 and called me to be an assistant. He told me I must be beyond reproach and a few other things. I really began to feel the responsibility and I became quite overwhelmed! I thought being a Zone Leader was tough! Ha! It is really cool! I am looking forward to the challenge.
The other two assistants are Elder Jackson and Parker. Elder Parker is going to get moved out of the office at the end of this month so Elder Jackson and I will be President Gray's assistant then. Right now there are 3 of us. I am in charge of re-doing all the statistic sheets for the mission and I am in charge of 1/3 of the mission. We help President with transfers and it is really neat! After we prayed today and again and again, etc. we finally decided where the new missionaries would go and who would be their trainers. After we announced it, one of the new missionaries said, "How did you know w were supposed to be together?" Apparently he felt he knew his new companion was going to be Elder Norris.
Elder Vladusic is a new elder and when he joined the church at age 19, his dad gave him a broken nose, withdrew his inheritance (thousands of dollars) and kicked him out of their Catholic home. His father is very high in the Catholic church and he doesn't even believe in God, but he does it for the money. Isn't that sad! Elder Vladusic is cool! He is from Melbourne, Australia and he knows two of the missionaries that were in the MTC with me that went to Melbourne on their missions.
I don't get to do much work as a missionary because we're always busy working in the office. We are very busy! That is okay, though. As long as we can help others baptize. I love to see others have success. It gives me a good feeling to help other missionaries get baptisms! I've already seen a lot of success so now it is time to help them. I feel like I've grown so much out here!
Love,
Elder Wallentine
Wednesday, September 17, 1986
Dear Shanell,
My new position keeps me busy serving the other members of the zone. President Gray and his assistants went out of Adelaide to the Northern Territory to visit the other missionaries and he left my companion and I in charge of the 3 city zones. It was a big responsibility! Do you know what I find hardest about being in a leadership position? You can't always have the zone members like you and still tell them to obey. Some elders in our zone are upset with me because we told them to get rid of a TV set that they had in their flat! Oh well. We did what we were supposed to do. It was hard, but I guess it was right.
On Saturday we met a guy and his wife that came to the door and said, "Are you Mormons?" We said, "Yes". He then said, "We want nothing to do with you! I've seen how you wreck families!" We ten just smiled--which was hard to do--and told him to have a nice day--that was even tougher! He then came out and said, "I will have a nice day because I have God with me" and his wife said, "You boys are bad news." They were such jerks about it and it got me so mad that it almost ruined my whole day. We then tracted out a man who smiled and said, "Come in". We were shocked! His wife just died recently and he is interested in the pioneers. We are going to get him a book about it and he said we could come back. It would be so neat to baptize him so he could be with his wife forever.
There are times on my mission that I would give it all up for $.10. And there are other times that I wouldn't sell a moment for a million dollars! My mission has not always been the happiest time of my life, but it has always been the most rewarding time of my life up to this time. I love my mission! It scares me to think about leaving the gits I have received specially for my mission. I love these gifts! Only the gospel of Jesus Christ could turn a selfish boy to a man who wants to serve others! I know that I have grown so much out here!
The work is going better and better! We are teaching a family of four and also a couple and two single mothers. It is excellent o be teaching again! One of the single mothers wrote my name in the Bangoli language. It looked cool! We are helping her learn English. It is fun!
Thank you for your letters and support.
Love,
Elder Wallentine
My new position keeps me busy serving the other members of the zone. President Gray and his assistants went out of Adelaide to the Northern Territory to visit the other missionaries and he left my companion and I in charge of the 3 city zones. It was a big responsibility! Do you know what I find hardest about being in a leadership position? You can't always have the zone members like you and still tell them to obey. Some elders in our zone are upset with me because we told them to get rid of a TV set that they had in their flat! Oh well. We did what we were supposed to do. It was hard, but I guess it was right.
On Saturday we met a guy and his wife that came to the door and said, "Are you Mormons?" We said, "Yes". He then said, "We want nothing to do with you! I've seen how you wreck families!" We ten just smiled--which was hard to do--and told him to have a nice day--that was even tougher! He then came out and said, "I will have a nice day because I have God with me" and his wife said, "You boys are bad news." They were such jerks about it and it got me so mad that it almost ruined my whole day. We then tracted out a man who smiled and said, "Come in". We were shocked! His wife just died recently and he is interested in the pioneers. We are going to get him a book about it and he said we could come back. It would be so neat to baptize him so he could be with his wife forever.
There are times on my mission that I would give it all up for $.10. And there are other times that I wouldn't sell a moment for a million dollars! My mission has not always been the happiest time of my life, but it has always been the most rewarding time of my life up to this time. I love my mission! It scares me to think about leaving the gits I have received specially for my mission. I love these gifts! Only the gospel of Jesus Christ could turn a selfish boy to a man who wants to serve others! I know that I have grown so much out here!
The work is going better and better! We are teaching a family of four and also a couple and two single mothers. It is excellent o be teaching again! One of the single mothers wrote my name in the Bangoli language. It looked cool! We are helping her learn English. It is fun!
Thank you for your letters and support.
Love,
Elder Wallentine
Wednesday, September 10, 1986
A Poem for Shanell
Some nights I lay in bed
just staring into space.
And then a special thought
comes to me,
your sweet and loving face!
So sweet and so beautiful
gentle, loving and kind,
You are so very dear to me
and you're often on my mind!
All the love that you have shown me,
through all the strife we've had,
you're always by my side,
whether times are good or bad!
My mission is near to closing,
I've grown a lot out here.
In just a few short weeks,
we shall once again be near!
Wednesday, September 3, 1986
Dear Shanell,
We have been so busy lately running around being Zone Leaders! It is a very demanding calling. It gets hectic out here, but the only times I really remember are the good ones.
On Tuesday we had a transfer meeting. It was sad! It was hard to say good-bye to Elder Dalrymple and Elder Pass! I love them both like brothers. Elders Selwyn and White and Sister Cetner are all going home. After the meeting, we went and picked up 5 bicycles from the bus depot and delivered them. We also visited the companionships Speas/Young and James/Douglass and welcomed them. I also got a bed, so I'm not sleeping on 2 mattresses now.
We have a sister missionary in our zone who was transferred to the mission from Melbourne. She is so frustrating to talk to at times! She asks questions and then when I answer them, she argues and argues the point with me. It drives me nuts! She can be a pain in the neck.
We have zone leader meeting tonight and it should be interesting. They are pretty fun. President Gray is really down-to-earth. We were tracting yesterday and we met a family named the Brownswords. They are cool! We are going to start teaching them on the 15th of September.
I love the Lord and this great work!
Elder Wallentine
We have been so busy lately running around being Zone Leaders! It is a very demanding calling. It gets hectic out here, but the only times I really remember are the good ones.
On Tuesday we had a transfer meeting. It was sad! It was hard to say good-bye to Elder Dalrymple and Elder Pass! I love them both like brothers. Elders Selwyn and White and Sister Cetner are all going home. After the meeting, we went and picked up 5 bicycles from the bus depot and delivered them. We also visited the companionships Speas/Young and James/Douglass and welcomed them. I also got a bed, so I'm not sleeping on 2 mattresses now.
We have a sister missionary in our zone who was transferred to the mission from Melbourne. She is so frustrating to talk to at times! She asks questions and then when I answer them, she argues and argues the point with me. It drives me nuts! She can be a pain in the neck.
We have zone leader meeting tonight and it should be interesting. They are pretty fun. President Gray is really down-to-earth. We were tracting yesterday and we met a family named the Brownswords. They are cool! We are going to start teaching them on the 15th of September.
I love the Lord and this great work!
Elder Wallentine
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