Elder Nathan Wanlass: KV Ward: President Pratt's First Talk

Hello everybody! This week was really great. :) Elder Taylor and I continue to work as hard as we can to bring souls to Christ. I love life here in the Kennebecasis Valley! We've seen so many miracles and we've had such great luck meeting so many great people! :) This week has been a little crazy, I hadn't even been in Hampton for a couple of the days. To start, we had zone training with all of New Brunswick West :) It was a lot of fun, we got to practice our teaching and became better teachers and learned what we could do to improve ourselves. I love going to zone meetings because they help me reflect on my purpose and what I can do to do even better in my work.

I spent a couple days in Fredericton this week. Fredericton is a nice city in the middle of New Brunswick. It is actually the capital city, and there are always a lot of people walking around. Definitely a different way of life than Hampton, that's for sure. We met a few pretty nice people, and met a lot of not as nice ones. :) Regardless, they are children of God, and I'm glad I got to work with Elder Heimonen (one of my Mtc friends) for a little bit.

We had a lesson later on this week with a man named Penrod. He is from the Caribbean. He was a really nice guy, and he had investigated the church a year ago. When we began to meet with him, he was very standoffish and didn't really want to meet with us. However, as we resolved his concerns about what our church believed, he had a change of heart, we could see that within him as he talked with us. He said that we could come back, and he wants to continue to learn more about the church. :) I have a strong testimony that God will change people's hearts.

President Pratt also came to the Kennebecasis Ward this week, and it was really good to see him. He is so kind and genuine. He spoke about how we need to retain and get more involved in helping people come to Christ. We got to talk with him about how the work in this area is going, and we told him that we've been pretty successful in finding people to teach as time has gone on. We felt really good about everything. :)

As a personal challenge I am reading the Book of Mormon once again, with the thought: "How can I have a stronger focus on my mission? How can I find real intent within myself?" As I've read, I've been able to find so much from the Book of Mormon to help me. I have such a strong testimony of its truthfulness! This is the truth! In 1 Nephi 6:4, it reads: "For the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved." That is the whole purpose why the Book of Mormon was written! And surely it does this. I've felt it. I know that you can feel it too! :) I've changed so much on my mission from the experiences I've had and from the things I've learned.

I love this gospel!

Love you all!

Elder Wanlass