The PreBaptism Week

Hello everybody! This week was all over the place! We've had an insane amount of lessons fall through and quite a few that have happened. 'Tis the life of a missionary, I suppose. :) Anyway, we've had quite a bit of success as a district, this week we had 4 people come to sacrament! :) Sandra included! Sandra is doing so awesome right now, and she is progressing towards baptism. She only has a week and a half! AH! 

Aside from that, we've had a few other teaching experiences, one of them cool and the other kind of funny. The first one is member's boyfriend named Craig. We are teaching them the missionary lessons and they both were interested in doing that. It was pretty neat because we met at a ward activity, and now he is interested! :)

Anyway, the other teaching situation was supposed to be a guy in his 40's, but it turned into us teaching an 80 year old woman the Restoration. Our potential Brian wasn't around, but his mom was, so we taught her with Seb Sanford, one the Priests in our ward. It was a hard lesson for my voice, because every single time I spoke, she could barely hear me. After what was quite possibly the least spiritual recitation of the First Vision, we told her we would come back when her son was around. :) It was quite funny, but she was interested, she knew who we were and our purpose. 

Anyway, I love you all!

I'll have more to say next week I think. Also, one of the members here read their talk off of a Nintendo 3DS because they left there iPad at home.... so that was EPIC.

Have a fanTASTic Week Everybody! You better believe that I will!

Elder Wanlass

 A "Maine" party!  This included Moxie soda, Whoopie pies, ketchup chips and red hot dogs.  All things Maine.

 Elder Gardner

My parents sent me some new shoes!

A Baptism is Coming!

Hey all!  It's been a pretty good week up here in St. Stephen, we continue to work hard to find more of God's children who are interested. We've been meeting a lot of different people, now we just need to sit down in lessons with them. We have a few good ones set up for this coming week, so we will update you on how that goes :)

The main thing I wanted to talk about this week was Sandra! She is doing so well! She has been reading "Our Search for Happiness" by M. Russell Ballard to help her with understanding of the doctrine we teach, and it's worked for her. We've been teaching her very directly, and she's taken it very well. She's come to church 2 times in a row now, and she is working towards her baptismal date on November 6! She is planning on getting baptized, so there is no issue there :) I just can't wait! It'll be fun!

The rest of this week we had some pretty fun experiences. We got let in and we taught the restoration to this older couple, they were both super interested and willing to learn about the church... they even wanted to come to church this Sunday. So we gave them the church address and set up another meeting the following day. We called them the next day, and they didn't even remember who we were, and they told us they had their own church... It was pretty weird. :) You get all kinds of things like that up here in the Maritimes. It's nothing new.

We talked with a few people just in passing who seemed pretty interested in learning about the church! A few of them we set up times with, and one lady I called sounded like she was crying and told us we needed to talk to her son. We set up an appointment with them next week too :)

Work is happening here in St. Stephen. It's a fun place to be, that's for sure :) 

My Ponderizing scripture is D&C 50:24
"That which is of God is light, and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light, and that light groweth brighter and brigher until the perfect day."

I hope you have a fantastic week :)

Love Elder Wanlass

 Busy working!

 Elder Gardner!

 Check out the beautiful fall leaves!

 We are seeing a few frosty mornings!

Harvesting Souls with Elder Gardner! (and Sebastian)

Good day everyone! It's been a pretty interesting week this week! :) We had transfers, so that was pretty eventful, my new companion Elder Gardner is with me now. :) We had a lot of fun this week, and we talked to a lot of interesting people. Not much happened at the beginning of the week, but now things are all good. I really enjoyed this week overall, but I'm super tired. :) Today is actually Canadian Thanksgiving, so we are eating tonight, and then next month as well! Benefits of Maine I suppose :)

Anyway, this week we taught Sandra, and we had a really spiritual lesson with her on Hope and the Restoration. She wants to make it to baptism. The Elders before didn't really commit her to do too much, so we are building from the ground up. This will be good. She is committed to be baptized and she came to church this Sunday and LOVED it! It was so good! After one of our lessons she even took us out for a lobster dinner! It was delicious. She's going to get baptized!

This week we also had the opportunity to go on splits with some of the members here in St. Stephen. After Church we split off and Elder Gardner went with the Senior couple and I went with a Priest in the ward. We went out and talked with so many people and got 8 potentials. We also got a neighbor referral, and we walked over and the guy let us right in. We taught him about God and the Book of Mormon, and he wanted to have us come back! It was such a neat experience. Most people that we talked to initially weren't interested, but as we started to speak with them, their hearts were softened and they invited us back. It was so cool. :) I love the gospel.

My ponderizing scripture for this week is Helaman 10:4-5

"Blessed art thou Nephi, for those things which thou hast done. For I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but has sought my will, and to keep my commandments. And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee FOREVER, and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, and in faith and in works, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will."

I love this scripture, I must give it all I've got! :)

Love you!

Elder Wanlass

 Elder Gardner

 Look at the fall leaves!

 Sebastian serving with me for the day.

I love the McAteer's!  

A General Conference Transfer Week....That doesn't happen too Often!

Hello my friends and family! It's been an amazing week, and an even better weekend, nothing can beat listening to our modern day prophets and apostles, and this conference really touched my heart so much. Some of my favorite talks were from President Nelson, Elder Ballard, Elder Cook, and President Monson's, and many more. I think that this was one of my most memorable conferences I've had on my mission.

Aside from conference, we've been really eventful because of transfers! As it turns out, Elder Bate is leaving to be with one of my previous companions in Truro, Nova Scotia, Elder Dooley. I am getting a new companion: Elder Gardner! Elder Gardner is from Idaho, and I've served around him quite a bit before. I'm really looking forward to working alongside him. :) He is such a fun guy and we'll have a good time and work hard.

We had the opportunity to teach a new investigator this week. Most of our investigators have been sick or busy, so we haven't really gotten to contact some of them. But we met with this lady named Celeste in Eastport, Maine. (The place with the lobster pizza.) She was a Catholic, but she wasn't really ever solid in a particular belief, so she believed in reincarnation....it was an interesting lesson, but when she understood the doctrine of the Plan of Salvation, she understood things much clearer.

I am so excited to be staying in St. Stephen, it is such a beautiful place and a great area! I'm going to have a blast!

Love you all!

Elder Wanlass