Elder Nathan Wanlass: Happy Twenty Fif-Dean! #believe

Ha...Dean puns. Hey everybody! It's been a good week in Caribou! We've been able to get in contact with a few more referrals, some don't want to learn from us, but a couple do! :D So that's good! As of late we have really been able to use Facebook as a tool to help get members involved in the work, as well as get in contact with teenage potential investigators. It's really cool to see how the Lord is having us utilize technology for the good of the work.

New Year's was fun! We had to be inside our apartment by 5, however, we still had some fun. I drank some sparkling cider, we played Nerf gun wars, etc. It was a good time. We also spent quite a bit of time cleaning on New Year's, so our apartments could be fresh and look clean :) It was set aside specifically for that! So that's good! :)

This week we got to teach one of our investigators named K. She is one of the young men's girlfriend, and she seems to be pretty serious about the church. We talked to her about the restoration of the gospel, and she learned a lot from the lesson. We also got to teach A. for a bit. Both of them have pretty strong support in the church from family and members in general, we just got to help them commit. It can happen! I believe it will!

That leads me to my motto for this year! One thing I think hinders missionary work (as well as anything in life) the most is the negative outlook we all sometimes carry with us in our hearts. I've definitely been able to see a difference in my life when I have faith and when I don't. It can lead to discouragement and depression. However, I know that we look up and have Hope through the Atonement of Christ, and as we carry faith with us, we will be able to succeed. That's why my motto for this year is #believe. If you believe something can happen, for a righteous cause, then it can happen.

One other highlight of this week was our ward mission leader, Brother Dean, took us on an adventure to a couple of the towns we don't go to as much because they are pretty far away. The funniest part was by far the adventure to Perth-Andover in Canada. We were looking for a few members with the last name Bear. (Brother Bear?) We drove around town a couple times, and we realized that they lived on a national reserve. We stopped by one of the houses, and it was a dead end. Elder Knowles decided he would go and talk to a random person to see if they knew where we could find their house. As it turned out, they did! When we went to go talk to them, Brother Dean said: "We are looking for Bears." and the guy mentioned something about seeing a grizzly bear down the street. So funny!
We also stopped by somebody's house and on their garage was written: "Don't Open. Dead Inside." Hmm...creepy! We ended up talking to one of the guys that lived there. Super nice, but I don't think they were interested.

Anyway, I hope you all had an amazing New Year! It's good to hear how all of you are doing! Love you all!

Elder Wanlass :D