Salutations to St. Stephen!

Hello one and all! This week was quite the adjustment, and I'm still figuring everything out, but I'm doing pretty well. :) St Stephen is a great place. There are a lot of tourists around this place, which makes for an interesting dynamic. Most of the towns around here are for tourists, which is pretty sweet. Places like St. Andrews, St. George, and Deer Island. :) I haven't been able to explore too much around Maine yet, but I'm actually in the states right now. I'm very excited to serve here and help the members and nonmembers come closer to Christ. 

This week was pretty bittersweet though. I loved the Hampton area, the people were so nice, the ward was awesome, and I got to meet so many amazing people. :) I'm especially going to miss our investigator Mike Durley, who has been making leaps and bounds. I'm also going to miss my companion Elder Taylor. He was a blast to serve with.

Anyhow, here in St Stephen we have a couple of investigators. We have one in Canada and the other is in the states. The hardest thing about serving in a bordertown is that your investigators have to be able to cross the border to come to church, which unfortunately, Our investigator Warren can't right now. We are meeting with him pretty consistently though, and we have a lesson with him later tonight.

Our other investigator named Sandra is doing pretty well. She has some health problems that keep her from coming to church sometimes, but she really does want to learn more about the savior and come closer to him.

Other than that, not much has happened! Just trying to get used to a new area with some new people and new missionaries to talk with :) It's gonna be a fun transfer!

Love you all!

Bye!

Elder Wanlass :D

Saying goodbye on transfer day with Elder Taylor.

More wonderful families I said goodbye to in Hampton.

Welcome to New Brunswick from Maine.

The above four pictures Elder Bate and I our on a ferry headed to Deer Island.  Part of our area where members live.

I MADE IT TO CANADA 3: The Revenge of Maine

Good day everybody! Elder Wanlass here. Well, transfer week has come, and with it some exciting news. I'm getting transferred! :) I'm going to St. Stephen, New Brunswick from Hampton :) I'm going to be very sad to leave this ward, but I think that it will be good for me to go out and to see other areas. I know that the Lord needs me in St. Stephen.

St. Stephen is a border town and is right next to Calais, Maine. We serve on both ends of the border. So that means that I'm right back in Maine again! And to make matters even better, Elder Bate, who I started my mission with in Caribou, is going to be my companion. He's from Kanab, Utah, and is 6' 9". So that's pretty exciting to see him again. St Stephen is also considered the Chocolate capital of Canada, so look forward to that. :)

Hampton has been doing pretty well too, we've been finding a lot of people lately, just not many are available due to the last month of summer being upon us.

Speaking of which, I can't believe I've almost been out a year. That literally is the strangest thing. I'm going to spend nearly half my mission in or around Maine... fun times :)

Anyway, other than transfers, nothing much has been happening. We've been visiting people all over the place and saying goodbye.

I'm going to see MPH signs, Fahrenheit, the American Flag...wow! 

Love you all!

Elder Wanlass

This companionship has been one of my favorites.  Elder Taylor is a great guy.  He will now be taking over as the District Leader in the St. John's Area.  Below are a few of the many wonderful families in Hampton that I will miss.

I'll miss this guy too.  He is awesome!!

Where Did All of the People Come From?

Hey everybody! This is Elder Wanlass :) It's been a pretty good week this week. Unfortunately, same as last week. Progress has been a little slow with everything right now, and this next week could be my last week in Hampton. We will see! I'm going to try and work as hard as I can so that we can find people who are interested. I've seen a huge change in the people here in Hampton from the time when I first started here, and it makes me really appreciative of the doctrine that as we are anxiously engaged in a good cause, miracles and changes of heart can happen.

Mike is doing pretty well. He is progressing slowly, but surely. He still wants to come to church and get baptized, but he just needs to conquer smoking, and then everything will be fine. We also met another lady named Sandra. She met with missionaries in the 60's, and invited the Pentecostal missionaries, Mormon missionaries, and Jehovah's witness's over for "Bible Studies". We taught her about reading the Book of Mormon, and answered some of her questions on the Restoration. She seems pretty interested, and we will definitely see where it will go.

This week we ran into a lot of not very nice people! This week in Sussex there was a flea market going on, and people from all over Canada visit. Needless to say, where there is a gathering that huge, you know that it would be a good place to visit. Unfortunately, we ran into a lot of people that were vulgar, rude, and honestly, just not very nice. It was fine, we still talked with some people, but it just was interesting. We also were knocking this week in some pretty sketchy areas in Sussex, and some people were threatening to call the cops and stuff.  All in a week's work :)

Anyway, I love you all! Talk to you later!

Elder Wanlass

Yes, this is the beautiful place I serve.

Elder Taylor and me!

Elder Taylor and I with the sister missionaries.

Elder Taylor

The Week Everybody went on Vacation...Even Elder Taylor

Hello everybody! I honestly don't have as much to write about this week, to be honest. Not much happened! A lot of people around here are on their last few days of vacation, so everybody we've been meeting with has been pushing us to next week. However, we have talked with a decent amount of people, so that's been good.

We have one investigator, Mike, who is doing really well and is progressing towards baptism by the end of the month, so that is good for sure :) We taught a few really powerful lessons to him this week about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Word of Wisdom, and obedience. I wasn't sure how he would take the lesson on the Word of Wisdom, but it was so miraculous. He said "Yes," without hesitation, and then when we got him started on the stop smoking program. He crushed his cigarettes! So cool!

Other than that, it's been a slower week. We've had to drop a few investigators, which has been tough. I have found a lot of people to teach here in the Kennebecasis Valley, but I've also dropped a lot of people... However, I know that even though people aren't necessarily always going to accept my message, I am fulfilling the work of the Lord! :)

Elder Taylor and I weren't even around each other for most of this week either, we were on exchanges for 3 days this week! Elder Taylor got to go to Saint John, and then Fredericton. :) So good for him.

Sorry for the shorter email, but I have to get going! :) I promise this next week will be a little more exciting! :)

The Most Exhausting Week of My Mission (so far)

Hello everybody! :) It's been a great week! :) We have been seeing so much success and so many good things happening in the Kennebecasis Valley. We found 4 new investigators, had nearly 10 lessons with the investigators we have now, and had one of our investigators come to sacrament meeting. It was so good :)

One of our investigators is named Mike. We found him street contacting in the middle of Sussex, which has never really been done before. He is a family man, and came to church this week. He wants to be baptized, and feels that this church is the true church. It's so cool to see how the Lord helps people to guide them in the right direction. I feel like he will be baptized, and I want to help get him to that point.

A couple of our investigators just aren't getting anywhere right now, so we will probably have to drop them unless they start keeping their commitments. We will see though.

We had a really cool miracle happen this week though. We ended up getting 23 referrals (names of people to go stop by to see if they are interested) which is insane! One of the members gave us one for this obscure and hidden house. He said that missionaries probably have never knocked it because it is hidden from the street view. We went to the apartment, and started knocking looking for one of the people he told us to. Literally, the first door we knocked on was this guy who was super interested. He wanted to read the Book of Mormon, and he started it as soon as he got it! He talked to his girlfriend, and she is interested too! :) It was so cool!

We returned for an appointment two days later, and he wasn't home, but his girlfriend was! We taught her about the restoration and she really wanted to read the Book of Mormon too! They have a car, so they can drive to church too. They are prepared! We will be teaching them a few times this week. It'll be another successful week next week as well! :)

Otherwise, we've just been super busy. We run into a lot of interesting people here in the Maritimes :) this week we street contacted somebody who called himself Kirk. As in Captain Kirk. He was really crazy and said his religion was in the jungle. :) so that was interesting.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Wanlass

"Nathan Drive"

Visiting with the Bursey's!  They are a great family in our ward.

Elder Taylor being funny.