Cavendish and Muslims

Sept 5, 2016

Hey everybody. This is a little bit a poignant emailing session. I can't believe it honestly is my last real one. The time has flown so fast. I remember the beginning of my days in Caribou just like it was yesterday. And now the journey has eventually led me here in PEI, where I've been fortunate to meet so many amazing people. The Atlantic Provinces in Canada are such pretty places. I love it so much here.

Today we are emailing a little later than we usually do, but that is because we had the chance to go up to Cavendish this P Day with the other PEI elders. It was a lot of fun. We had a lot of missionaries there, so we just had a great time seeing some of the beaches and touring a couple of neat places. For those who don't know, Anne of Green Gables takes place on Prince Edward Island, and because of that there are a few neat little tourist areas where you can see the Anne of Green Gables house, walk on a few trails, and even talk with Anne. It is a pretty simple place, but it was fun in our group. :) After that we also checked out a few beaches, and that was fun.

This week was also pretty cool, because with September coming up again, we have the chance to talk to a lot more university students. Elder Ashby and I have been able to street contact and knock some of the college housing, and with that brings a lot of diversity and a lot of interesting lessons. We picked up two new investigators, and both of them were Muslim. It's pretty fun, because my whole mission I've been teaching exclusively white people, and now that I'm in PEI in the fall, all of these people from Nigeria, China, and other places all over want to be taught, and so we have to adjust our approach a little bit. It's been a good learning experience.

Other than that, the ward is great here. I love Charlottetown so much, the members are so fun and they are very helpful with missionary work. I've come to appreciate the work that the members do to help us out.

Anyway, I think that is all that happened of crucial importance this week.

I want to let you all know that I know that this church is true. I've been able to learn and experience the Doctrine of Jesus Christ for myself, and help it to impact other people to any degree that they accept it. I know that this can change people's lives. I love this gospel so much!

Have a great week everybody. :)

Elder Wanlass

Mountains to Climb...but we are on PEI, so they are Hills

August 29, 2016

Good day everybody, it's been a good week here on the island. I'm loving the work, and we continue to talk with many people each day about the gospel. We even found a new investigator this week, so that was nice! His name is R, and he is a born again Christian, but he questions it sometimes. It was pretty interesting. He met with missionaries last year at Victoria Park, and that's what we did on Friday. He wants to give the Book of Mormon another chance, which is super exciting. We plan to teach him again on Tuesday. 

This week, aside from that, we've felt a lot of adversity. I don't know what it is, but as we've gone out to talk with people on the street, they just haven't been as nice as they used to be. It's quite interesting. The Lord is definitely trying us at this moment.

I love this gospel so much. I'm grateful for everything that it has given me and for all the opportunities I have in life and after to be able grow, learn, and improve. :)

I love you all!

Elder Wanlass

Just a Strange Week with Unexpected Visit

August 22, 2016


Well everybody, we're still working hard and stuff. Good things are happening, and I'm loving missionary work. :)

Angelica Creager and her mom appeared for pre-District Meeting. So that was fun. And random.

President interviewed me and talked about my life and plans and everything. :) So that was fun too.

That's what's going on in Charlottetown!

We are Working!!!

Elder Wanlass

Elder Wanlass and the Multicolored White Shirt

August 15, 2016

Hello everybody! Elder Wanlass here in cloudy Charlottetown this week! :) I'm serious, it has been rainy and cloudy pretty much this whole week, it's crazy! Summer in the maritimes just isn't the same as it is down in poor Utah, that's for sure. At least it's only like 19 degrees Celsius here.

Anyway, this week was pretty good. We taught a lot of crazy people this week, and a couple of the investigators that we picked up last week we will no longer be teaching because they are a little odd/they've moved, so that's fun. For starters, one investigator we tried to drop by and his brother (who was unaccountable) answered the door and said that he was drinking a quart of vodka each day for the past four days, and that he was moving to Alberta to find work, so that was kind of odd. 

Monday was a sweet day. We taught three lessons to different investigators, and two of them were brand new! One is named M. We met him at Tim Horton's and taught him the Restoration, and he was super grateful to have a Book of Mormon. After that we taught a lady named T (who isn't able to meet anymore due to health) but she was really cool and we shared how the gospel could help her and her family, and then we taught another guy. It was just a really cool to just have three lessons in one night. I felt like a Utah missionary or something.

Tuesday was a pretty good day, we had a zone conference where we learned about different planning skills and different tools that we can use to help our members get more involved in missionary work. It was pretty good. I got to say hello to several missionaries I know one last time, and we got to bear our "Final Testimonies." It was super weird, because I remember some of the missionaries when I got in the field bore their final testimonies, and I thought it was forever away. The mission is such an amazing experience to grow and really get yourself on the right track in life. I've loved learning about the gospel continuously. It's so important to me.

Wednesday was a pretty hardworking day. We just went out and talked with people. We had one guy who we dropped by that the sisters had given us as a potential, and when we went by he invited us right in. He was pretty religious, and seemed pretty open to start, but as we started teaching some of the message of the Restoration, he got really weird with some of his opinions. He kept comparing his relationship to God as a marriage and wasn't really making a lot of sense. So that was a lot of fun! I learned we need to have a strong personal relationship with God. :)

Thursday was just NOT my day. It was super rainy outside, and that made it really hard for us to street contact. As the day went on, we decided that we needed to grab rain jackets, now, I don't have a rain jacket, but there have been several missionaries who have left rain jackets in our apartment since they've went home. So I took one of them and put it on. It was a pretty nice jacket...then we went out into the rain. As we were knocking, Elder Ashby asked me why there was blue on my shoulder, and I didn't know what he meant, so I took off the jacket and my whole back was a colorful mess. I was not happy...but I dealt with it. :) haha!

Friday was our planning day. Fun times! We also got a new investigator who is super solid and is planning on coming to church this next week. So that's exciting.

Saturday and Sunday were just great days for the work. We found several potentials and have a couple lessons set up with them this coming week. It's a good time. I love doing missionary work so much! :)

Thanks everybody for reading my entry this week! I love you :)

Elder Wanlass

Don't Call it a Comeback!

August 8, 2016

Hello one and all! This is Elder Wanlass here in beautiful sunny Charlottetown. The weather is perfect, the sun is shining, and the ocean is beautiful. This week was pretty good. We've only had a few days since we had P Day since it was on Wednesday last week, but things have been going really well. 

When we got to Charlottetown, it turns out that all of the investigators we had either dropped us or the Sisters took... So we needed to start from scratch. We've been working so hard the past few days to try and find people to teach. We have a few appointments set up for this upcoming week, including two for tonight. The real miracles came yesterday though. We were visiting a couple of less active members when we got a call from a recent convert. It turns out that it was her nonmember husband who wanted us to come by and help him quit smoking. He was so humble and open to learning more about the restored church. It was really neat.

Immediately after that lesson, we decided that we needed to stop by a former investigator whose house we had parked right in front of without thinking about it. I knocked on the door and asked if we could share our message with him, and he let us in so that we could! :) So that was pretty sweet. He and his brother were asking a lot of inspired questions, and they both want to meet with us again next week. It's so cool :)

Anyway, I love you all! I'm enjoying my time as a missionary in this mission, it's so amazing. I love it!

Love you all!

Elder Wanlass

My Week in Montague :) I'm Glad I'm Going Back to Charlottetown

August 3, 2016

Hey one and all! It's been a rollercoaster of a transfer, that's for sure. This week I stayed in the Gue all week, which was interesting. It's such a small place with a lot of farmland. Very good people, there are just more cows to talk to ;) haha I'm just kidding... kind of.

We did have a really cool experience this week though. We were teaching this former investigator who has always talked with missionaries before. She was Bahai, and very set in her ways. We didn't really get to teach her much because she was trying to teach us. After the lesson, we left and her twenty year old son who we had met came up to us and shook our hands and handed Elder Raveneau a note that said he would like to talk with us, and to follow him while he rode his bike. So we rode out and talked with him. The Montague Elders are planning on meeting with him next week.

So other than that, we did a lot of trail contacting, "street contacting", etc.

Anyway, onto exciting news! The Transfer Table was unveiled yesterday, and I am indeed returning to Charlottetown, PEI :) My companion is going to Elder Ashby, who is actually already on the island in Summerside, so that's pretty cool. :) He is all the way from Bountiful, Utah, just 20 minutes away from Layton, so that's pretty cool. :)

I'm excited for this transfer!!

Elder Wanlass

Serving in the 'Gue

July 25, 2016

Hey everybody! :)

This week has been pretty hectic, but it's fun. For the rest of the transfer I'm going to be serving in Montague, PEI, which is a small retirement town of 2000 people. :) It's going to be a blast. :) I'm in a trio with my former companion Elder Dooley and another French missionary Elder Raveneau. Thanks everybody for taking time to read this email. :) I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for me in this area. :)

Love you all!

Elder Wanlass

A Teen No Longer.....

July 18, 2016

Hello everybody, as the title of the email says, I'm now officially 20 years old! That's super weird. It doesn't honestly feel that I'm that old. I still feel 18 sometimes, and according to people on the street, I look no older than 14... but that's okay, it was a pretty good week. :)

We started out by having the Summerside Elders over for exchanges from Monday to Wednesday. It went pretty well, and we had a good time. I took Elder Warren out on Tuesday, and we did a lot of finding, and found some pretty solid potentials. One of them was a lady named Velma who had ordered a media bible from our church a few years back. She was thrilled to have a copy of the Book of Mormon, and she found our church so she could come prepared to meet us. She's super solid, and we were able to teach her a couple of times this week. She is cool, and plans on rearranging her schedule so she can come to church next week.

Aside from that, we went out to a restaurant called Maid Marion's with a friendly man named Earl for my birthday. It was really sweet of him. He's in his 90's, and loves us missionaries. However, he doesn't want to join the church, but he's a really good guy. He's a legend.

The rest of the week has been up and down, we are finding a lot of people who are interested. We are trying to maximize our time here because there are so many tourists it can be hard to sift through everybody. :) Things are pretty good though. I love the work. I love Charlottetown.

I love you all!

Elder Wanlass

Moncton Memories

July 11, 2016

Hello everybody, this week was pretty interesting. We've been working hard, and this upcoming week will be pretty cool because we are going to be hosting the Summerside Elders for exchanges tonight and tomorrow. It'll be a lot of fun, and I'm excited to be able to work with more missionaries.

This last week we had the opportunity to serve in Moncton on Tuesday with our zone leaders. It's pretty weird being with missionaries whom I talked to on the Zone Leadership meetings now being my leaders, haha. The exchange was pretty fun, and I did enjoy myself. I had a chance to teach a couple of lessons, and one of the women we taught actually just got baptized two days ago, so that was a really neat experience. :) 

Other than that, we have been working really hard. Talking with a lot of different people. It's pretty cool. On Tuesday we went to a Bahai community meeting (we were invited by a potential investigator) and we met a bunch of people from different cultures. The next afternoon we were street contacting and we bumped into this Japanese girl who we met at the meeting, and she was super excited. She wanted to meet up with us. We taught her the Restoration at the library, and it was pretty cool. Unfortunately, she said that she wasn't interested a couple of days later, but hey, at least we taught her.

We have had a bunch of 15 year old girls chase us around as we've been walking downtown lately. Girls are crazy. That's what I've learned on my mission. Anyway, we also talked to a really cool girl that is from Toronto originally but is performing in theatre here in Charlottetown. There are a lot of swing dancers that we meet on the streets here, which is so cool. :) We are meeting with her tomorrow.

Anyway, that's pretty much our week! I love you all!

Elder Wanlass

I'm Now Definitely Serving a Foreign Mission....

July 4, 2016

Hello family, friends, and associates and strangers!! :) This is Elder Wanlass. Happy Canada Day and 4th of July for all of you North Americans out there. It's been a busy day here in the paradise of Charlottetown :) I love the atmosphere. We were able to briefly see some performers acting on the street. It was so cool. :) Anyway, other than that today we had some really good fish and chips. We have definitely been working hard, and we've seen good things happen. We taught 4 lessons this week, which isn't bad. We were able to find three new investigators, so that was pretty exciting! :D

We decided that one night we were going to knock at 6 pm. Unbeknownst to me, and Elder Von Trapp forgot, that we had a correlation meeting at that time. Anyhow, despite that, the first door we knocked on let us in. They were a Syrian family that spoke Arabic and very little English. However, Elder Von Trapp knows a slight bit of Arabic, so we were able to get in the door. Their daughter who is 20 spoke English, and so she translated for us as we taught the Restoration very simply. It is pretty cool.

I'm still getting used to how many immigrants are here in Charlottetown. It is my first area where a significant amount of people do not speak English whatsoever, so it's definitely been an adjustment. When we go street contacting we talk to a lot of Chinese people, Middle Eastern People, and French people. It's pretty cool. We also run into a lot of tourists, but I guess that's what you get when you are serving in paradise. :)

Aside from that, we worked really hard this week. Elder Von Trapp and I gave a training in Zone Training on Becoming a Consecrated Missionary, and what we need to do to make that happen. We both felt really good about it, and the zone leaders and STL's were happy with us, so that's good. :)

I love you all! that's all I want to share, it's really hard to type on this tiny keyboard. 

Elder Wanlass

Charlottetown!!!

June 27, 2016

Hello friends, family, and every other person who is reading this! It has been quite the eventful five days. :) After emailing last week, I packed up all of my stuff and we drove to Truro that night so I could be picked up by the transfer van. After that, I was swiftly taken over to Moncton, and then we drove to Charlottetown from their. It is so beautiful here. The drive was pretty scenic, and I loved crossing the Confederation Bridge. It took about twenty minutes, and their wasn't any traffic. :) It was pretty cool to look out and see the ocean all around us. I definitely wouldn't want to drive on it during a storm. :) 

PEI is pretty neat. The dirt is red here for whatever reason, and the grass is super green! :) It makes for a beautiful contrast. I love it so much! It feels like I've stepped back in time as we drive through the countryside. It's so neat because even though Charlottetown is the capital city of PEI, it still doesn't feel super big, except for in the downtown. We street contact a lot, which is kind of a novelty for me. I am not super used to it, but it's growing on me. Usually we have to find people to talk to in the first place, but now people are just appearing everywhere.

It's pretty cool because a lot of people are immigrants from other countries here as well. My companion Elder Von Trapp is something of a language enthusiast. He is assigned to be a French missionary, but speaks English, and a number of other languages. He always speaks to people in their native language, which is pretty cool.

Right now we are teaching a Chinese family. It's pretty interesting, because the ward here has some members from other cultures here too. There is one member from Taiwan that speaks Mandarin who translates for us when we teach Chinese people. It's pretty interesting. We would teach a point of doctrine super simply, and then the member would expound on what we were teaching in Chinese. It is different, but pretty cool. :)

Anyway, that's been our week! Hopefully we will be teaching more this upcoming week. We will work hard and make it happen! :)

Love you all!

Elder Wanlass

My Little Sister's Birthday Present....For Me.....

Well everybody!!! I'm sad to say it, but I'm leaving New Glasgow! My memory doesn't really remember this last week too well just because it's been nine days since the last P day, but we had a lot of fun!

I'm being transferred to Charlottetown, PEI! :) I'm super excited to go there, it is a beautiful place, especially in the summertime, so I'm very excited to serve the Lord there. It's going to be fun, I'm finally serving in a city rather than a town, so that'll be cool! :D Transfer letters came out on my sister Reagan's birthday! Happy Birthday to her! :)

Anyway, we went on a couple of exchanges in between today and last Monday, so that was fun. I'm so happy to be able to serve the Lord. :)

Sorry this letter was so short! Just know that we are teaching and finding people! :) It's going well! See ya next week on the island!!

Elder Wanlass

Who Knew That's All it Would Take!!!

(June 13, 2016)

Well, everybody, it's been a pretty fun week. We had a lot of good things happen in our area, and all we needed to do apparently, was be in our area for the week. It was a pretty good time today, we had some miracles happen, and we have a lot going on for this next week. :)

Monday was a nice relaxing day. We went knocking out in the country. Thorburn, NS to be exact. It was a pretty nice place, people would let us in to talk because none of them had ever seen missionaries before. We met one family out there who we hopefully will be able to teach. :) Here's to hoping!! Other than that it was a pretty simple P Day.

Tuesday was where things really started to get exciting. We started out the first hour of the morning by getting a new investigator, who was a referral we got while knocking. He was pretty cool, he is a jack of all trades kind of guy, he used to live in Alberta, and he works a lot. We are excited for him. He had learned that our church was the fastest growing in the world, and he had to figure out why. So cool! Later on that day we went to Antigonish to work there, and it went pretty well, we taught a lady who we knocked into on her patio. She was pretty nice and we are going to teach her tonight as well. She wants to know how she can be with her family forever. It was a really good day! We also taught a man that used to investigate the church, but was too busy at the time. His name is Ozzy, he is super funny and we feel like he will be a pretty good investigator to work with. He is seeking for additional purpose in his life.

Wednesday was District Meeting day in New Glasgow, so that was a relief. After that, we went park contacting because it was pretty sunny outside, and went to a dinner appointment with a member. She is just starting to come back, and her husband and her were so cool. I'm glad we got to meet them. :) after that we had a lesson with a kid that the Sisters had found in Thorburn. He is a pretty cool guy, he is very simple, and he is a pagan, which is pretty interesting. We are going to meet with him tomorrow. But he was pretty cool! :)

Thursday was another great day. We had exchanges with the Truro Elders, and they came to our area. We split off and Elder Lerminez and I went to Antigonish while Elder Hunt stayed in New Glasgow with Elder Alger. It was a good time. We learned a lot on the exchange, and we ended up teaching a really solid YSA age girl! She's so cool! She's loving the Book of Mormon and it's good to hear that she is enjoying it.

Friday was a little scattered, but it was still a good planning day and we worked hard in Trenton for a while.

Saturday we helped a family with their insulation and ceilings, so that was fun. I got to put insulation into the walls, since I'm a little shorter, but it was fun. We also had a really successful primary activity that was a blast too, and we had a lot of less active members come.

It's just been a very fulfilling week this week. I'm so glad I get to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. I love the gospel, and I love how much it has helped me in my life. I love being a missionary. :) I'll talk to you next Wednesday! :)

Elder Wanlass

New Glasgow....I think that's our Area....Right?

(June 6, 2016)

Hello everybody! This is Elder Wanlass! :D This week has been absolutely crazy. We've traveled so much it's not even funny. Elder Hunt and I have had less time this week to proselyte in our own area than we had outside of our area, so that's pretty insane. A lot of it was due to the meetings that we had, as well as exchanges with the assistants, so it's been pretty interesting.

I'll give you the lowdown:

Monday was our P Day, but around 7:30 we left to go to Halifax (1 1/2 hour drive) and we stayed the night there. It was a pretty good P day, we worked hard with what time we had, so that was fun. :)

Tuesday was a fun day. We spent it with the Assistants making travel plans and then working a little bit. There was a lot of rude people we met street contacting, but we had a few good conversations with people. At the end of the day, Elder Hunt and I drove back to New Glasgow at around 8 pm.

Wednesday we drove all the way up to Sydney, Cape Breton for District Meeting (3 hours) we met there and afterwards we drove back and got home at around 5pm (3 more hours), then we drove to Sackville, Nova Scotia and stayed the night there for a meeting we had with the Mission Leadership council on the following day. (1 1/2 drive)

Thursday we spent the day with the other zone leaders and STL's. We got to go to the temple, and it was amazing! :) I love the temple and the feelings I have when I go there. :) We had a meeting in Halifax for a good few hours (until 3:30), and then we got home at 6pm.

After that, we had a couple of regular work days, but it wasn't as spirited as it could have been due to the week just being so crazy. 

Sunday we had an amazing opportunity to go to Sackville, NB to hear Dale G. Renlund speak to the saints in the two stakes! It was so cool! I had an opportunity to see members of the church in all 5 of my areas that I've served in! :) Even from Grand Falls! It was such an amazing experience. Not only that, but I got to see most of my companions on my mission. (the ones who aren't home or in Newfoundland anyway.) It was pretty weird, it felt like a yearbook day in a way. Haha! :)

I love you all! It was good to see so many people I love this week! Next week will only improve things! :)

Elder Wanlass

Reap What You Sow, and Sew What You Rip and The Cabot Trail

Hello Everybody!!! This has been a decent week for me and for the NSN Zone! We had a pretty cool experience this week. Elder Hunt and I got to go on the Cabot Trail, which is an 8 hour scenic drive in Northern Nova Scotia (Cape Breton). It was so cool to drive and see the sunny places and the rough Atlantic Ocean as the day got later. Super sweet. My mom will no doubt have posted pictures of it at this point. I'll let the pictures do the talking for me.

Anyway, we got to serve in Sydney, Nova Scotia for a day, which was super cool! The atmosphere just feels really cool, and stuff is busy there. The area is made up of several decent sized towns and a city, so there is a quite a lot for two missionaries to handle by themselves. I worked with Elder Taufer, which was pretty cool since we went to Layton High together. It was a pretty good exchange and we got to know each other a lot better.

We also had an awesome district meeting and when we returned to New Glasgow there were bright green leaves on the trees! Up to this point the area had been full of dead looking trees, but as soon as we left they all bloomed! It's so gorgeous right now! 

I felt that I should also bring up that I taught myself how to sew this week! I have had several pants bust open in certain places, so I decided that I needed to make them last, so I learned how to sew. It doesn't look all that bad either, so I'm excited to get better over time. 

Other than that, we taught C. this week. She is doing pretty well, but due to a meeting we had with other missionaries we weren't able to get to our appointment with her in time. It was a little disappointing, but we were able to follow up with her reading and she has read 7 chapters since last week! It was so cool! She seemed a lot more interested in coming to church as well!

Anyway, that's pretty much all! I love you, stay strong and have a fanTASTic week! Bye!

Cabot Trail in Cape Breton

Standby...Cabot Trail

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! Sorry everybody for the inconvenience. Due to Elder Wanlass being temporarily unavailable, there will not be an extremely long or meaningful letter this week. Elder Wanlass is in Cape Breton currently, under President Pratt's request, and he will be going on the Cabot Trail, a really cool scenic drive. :) He loves you all!

Elder Wanlass

Hey Mom!

I'm actually still on Cape Breton, and I don't have long to email, so it's perfectly acceptable that you letter is shorter this week. Mine probably will be a little shorter too. I don't even know if I'll get to do a good weekly email for everybody. Give them my apologies. Anyway, C. is doing well. We met with her this week and established some follow up. She is awesome. She seems very willing to come to church, and I'm excited for her to develop in the gospel. We met a new investigator named J., I messaged dad about her. You can ask him. We also met with T. and had an awesome lesson with him on faith. He has been lacking in purpose and has wanted to find more in his life, and we had an amazing spirit filled lesson. It was so simple, but we testified of how we came to know that the church was true, and he felt it. It was so cool.

Right now, the weather is pretty rainy. Cape Breton is usually like that, but it's been pretty warm this week. We got to take our suitcoats off.

As for funny things, we were street contacting in Antigonish and this lady who I stopped was WAY too happy to talk with us. She was in her late twenties and was really klutzy. But she said that she "Was a single mom with one child and that she was really cool." She also told me that her religion was based on a level up system. She was a Level 4 Healer...(a nurse) I was pretty surprised that that was her level, because she had been talking about it like she had been doing it her whole life, so I was expecting her to be like Level 80 or something...anyway that was really funny. We also talked with a former investigator who took the Bible very literally and was going to take a plane that week to hike the deserts of Israel without food or water because Jesus did it. That was odd. Elder Hunt and I got out of his house and he said: "D.'s freakin' weird!" It was really funny. :)

I have indeed been loving the people more. :)

Cabot Trail

Elder Bennett and the Newfie Subway Card

Hello everybody! It's only been five days since the last emailing session due to last week being transfer week, but quite a bit has happened in the past few days, so I suppose I'll be able to share all of it!

First of all, on Wednesday, it was a pretty fun day. We went bowling with the Sister missionaries, ate lunch, and relaxed. It was a long P Day, but it was a good one. That Wednesday night we had a few area meetings on what we needed to do for our area, which was quite a lot of fun. :) Good things are happening here in New Glasgow!

On Thursday, we worked hard. We knocked quite a bit in Northern New Glasgow (Trenton) which was a lot of fun! Elder Hunt and I decided to knock a street that had been knocked within the last six months, and as it turns out, we picked up four potentials of all young families! It was amazing to see that the Lord puts people in our paths that are interested. We have an appointment tonight with one of those people! It'll be sweet! Other than that, we prepared ourselves for Friday. Elder Randall K. Bennett of the Seventy is planning on doing a mission tour this week, but before he did that, he wanted to meet with the Mission Leadership Council (Zone leaders and STL's and the Assistants) and talk to us all.

Friday we spent the morning in Dartmouth with Elder Bennett. Elder Kelley, one of my previous companions in Grand Falls, gave me a Subway Card from Sister Borden! It was so nice!! Anyway, on to Elder Bennett. He talked about a LOT of things. I learned MANY things. One thing that stuck out to me was that He felt like our mission didn't love the people as much as we could in our mission. There is a feeling of hard work, but without charity, or the pure love of Christ, we wouldn't be able to be as successful as God intends for us. It caused all of us to reflect on what we needed to do better, and I admit, that sometimes I am not as sincere as I should be in our missionary work. That night, Elder Hunt and I decided that we were going to focus on loving the people. We went to Pictou, Nova Scotia where we had a lesson with a potential investigator named Sara. We talked with her for a while about the church, and began teaching her the Restoration. In the middle of it, her younger sister named Tina came out. Tina was going to smoke, but when she saw us, she put out her cigarette and listened to the lesson. They both have been reading the Book of Mormon. I have a testimony that sincere love is what will make a difference in the work.

Saturday was a very rainy day. It just so happens that the one hour that we decided to knock was the rainiest hour of the day. Aside from that, we also helped one of our GatorAid families move some stuff from their basement. We also watched Stake Conference. :)

Sunday was a nice day, we were able to have a good correlation with Brother Mackinnon and the Sister missionaries. We sang for the people in one of the homes here in town. It was a good time. 

Well, thank all of you for reading this far. :)

I love you! (and I do mean it!)

Elder Wanlass

A Well Deserved P Day

Hello everybody! It's been two or six days since I last emailed! It's transfer week, so P Day is on Wednesday instead of Monday, so I'm glad nobody was super alarmed at the lack of writing.

This week was quite fulfilling. Elder Hunt and I have been working hard. We've found 3 new investigators in the last week and a half. The work has been moving so amazingly in this area. Even though it's not a big town, it's got so much potential, and it continues to amaze me how the Lord blesses us as His servants here with people to teach.

With the success of finding people comes the chance to teach, and Elder Hunt and I have been working really well together to make these things happen. We taught two lessons yesterday - and both of the investigators we taught are now both on date for baptism, which is amazing to see. Jonathan is continuing to do well, and he's planning on coming to church this Sunday to see for himself if this church is true. 

I don't really know what to say. It's been fun, the work has been paying off, and we continue to work hard. Last night Elder Hunt and I went knocking in Trenton, the northern part of the New Glasgow Metro. Unbeknownst to us, the street had been knocked not too long ago, but we went for it. We talked with four families that wanted us to come back and teach them more about the gospel! It was so cool. I definitely know that the Lord is putting people in our path to find them. 

We went on exchange with the Truro Elders on Monday. We went to their area, and it was a lot of fun! I went with Elder Alger, who is a great missionary! He has served in Caribou and in Grand Falls, so we talked a bunch about those areas. Truro is a fun area. It is very similar to New Glasgow, however, people in Truro are a little bit more city kind of people. It is called the "Hub of Nova Scotia" so a lot of traffic goes in and out. It's the same size as New Glasgow, but New Glasgow is more spread out, so it doesn't feel like it is the same size.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun, and we had a good exchange!

I love you all, it's been a great week! I'll email you next Monday!

Love,

Elder Wanlass

My Days in the Metro

Hey friends, family, and acquaintances reading this right now!!! It's good to hear from all of you! (Not enough of you write me, sadly.)  :( But things are going well here in Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, because me and Elder Hunt had to go on two exchanges in the city this week, we didn't really get to work as much in New Glasgow as we would have liked, but it was fun all the same.

We started this week by going to Halifax on Monday night. We didn't do much else on that day.

Tuesday though was great! We had an exchange with the assistants and I spent the whole day in Halifax. ACTUAL Halifax. It was pretty neat. Halifax in actuality isn't really THAT big compared to other places, but for our mission, it is definitely the biggest area to serve in for sure. There are so many people just walking around. We street contacted for three hours straight, which was a lot of fun, but it was a little insane to me how many people we had talked to. I was with Elder Argyle, who was my zone leader when I was in St. Stephen. He is from Kaysville, and went to Davis High, so that was kind of cool. After the street contacting, we went to see a recent convert named Wayne. He was baptized a month ago, and I met him the day before his baptism. He is super strong in the church and he fed us spaghetti with carrots in it! (It was really good.) The whole day we had a member with us named Brandon, and he is a really nice guy and wants to do good things. He street contacted people with us! That was neat!

Wednesday we then went across the bridge to Dartmouth, which is part of the Halifax Metro, and is the section that is in our zone, and we did an exchange with the Dartmouth Elders. It went...interestingly. I liked it actually. :) The Dartmouth Elders don't have a car, but we do. Elder Hunt and Elder Hovey took our car and went around town contacting former investigators in the area book. Elder Marcelino and I talked to a TON of people it wasn't even funny. We went street contacting, we went trail contacting, and we even bus contacted! It was neat being able to take a bus around the city. I was getting the hang of it. Elder Marcelino and I taught a lesson in the sketchy area of town, which was funny because for me, I didn't realize it was going to be sketchy until we got off of the bus. The lesson went really well. We taught a mom and her two kids, and we all said a kneeling prayer in a circle. It was amazing. After we got out of the lesson, it was nigh around 8 in the scariest part of town. There were plenty of hooded men walking around, but we ignored them and walked to the Bus Terminal. :)

The rest of the week was kind of a blur, mainly because a lot of our lessons we've set up have fallen through, but things have been really solid otherwise. Elder Hunt and I are doing well together, and I'm loving the missionary work. :) I can't say that enough!

Love you all!

Elder Wanlass

Halifax City

Elder Hunt

Moncton Once Again!

Hello everyone! This email might be a little shorter than my other normal length ones, but we'll see. :) I personally have had a really quick week. It's been scarily quick. Anyway, we have been doing pretty well here in New Glasgow. Unfortunately, we weren't able to meet with any of our investigators this week, and we didn't find anybody to teach. But a lot of that Elder Hunt and I attribute to the fact that we weren't able to work in our area for 3 days! So that was interesting.

Monday was just a regular P Day. We started out by knocking a fairly long street as well as contacting a few people who are interested in learning. We set up some appointments for this upcoming week, so that's something to look forward to! :)

Tuesday was an Antigonish day. It was a little slower, but we street contacted and knocked, so that was a lot of fun. :) Many of the young people are starting to move out west for the summertime, which is disappointing...but there are still a lot living here still. :)

Wednesday was funny. After District Meeting, we had a really good opportunity to serve a nonmember named Donald. He wanted help with his wood cutting, so Elder Hunt was able to use the chainsaw and I split some wood. It was a good time. We aren't even close to finishing, and we probably won't help him much after this for the sake of time, but we are trying to get the Priesthood to help out with it. We shall see.

Thursday was our trip to Moncton, which lasted the entire day.

The rest of the week was simply working! We did our best to try and find new investigators, and we are set up for a strong week this next week. :)

I loved Jeffrey R. Holland's talk from this recent General Conference. It really rang true to me. We must continue to look forward and God will always bless us. I know that this is true. I love this gospel, it's helped me out so much!

I love you all as well!

Elder Wanlass

Happy Spri-Are You Serious?! It Snowed Again!

Hellllllloooo everybody! :) It's been a great week here in New Glasgow! Things are happening, people are listening to us, and we are having a good time. :) I've very much enjoyed Nova Scotia since I've been here. We found 3 new investigators this week and taught 8 lessons, which is a fantastic week for us! :) I've sincerely enjoyed my mission. It's meant so much to me to be able to serve my Father in Heaven in this marvelous work. I love Him.

On Monday we had a decent day. We went to an appointment that we had with a man named David. He was a member referral, but we weren't able to contact him. His house is so big and we can't knock on the inner door because his outer door is always locked...so we are going to try again this week. It could be pretty promising. He wants to come to church! :)

Tuesday was a great day as well, we had exchanges with the Truro Elders, and they came here to New Glasgow. I went with Elder Smith for the day, and Elder Hunt with Elder Alger. Elder Smith is awesome. He is a new missionary who just came from the MTC a few weeks ago, and he is a great missionary and ready to work. We had a blast going to Antigonish, (one of my favorite places) and teaching people. We ended up teaching two lessons while we were up there. We found a young couple who are really promising. They are getting married in June, and both agreed to be baptized two weeks after their wedding if they know that the Book of Mormon is true. It is very promising! We've just had very solid lessons this week, and we were able to hit most of our goals. After we taught them, we taught Fred, the native investigator, once again. We read 2 Nephi 31 and taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He seemed to understand that baptism is important.

Wednesday we had our District Meeting, and it turned out to be kind of a weird day. We had a lot of plans fall through, which was pretty disappointing, but we still had a blast, and it was a lot of fun to find.

Thursday we went out to Antigonish again. It is always so fun. We taught another lesson to the young couple, and tried to teach a lady who wanted me and Elder Smith back, but she lied to us twice about moving to two different imaginary addresses..so we decided not to worry about her at the moment. :) We then drove to Pictou for another lesson with a new investigator. She is an older woman who loves the Elders. When we invited her to be baptized she said: "Well....Probably!" and then she said yes. :) So that's good.

Aside from that, the rest of the week was snowy, cold, and not as fulfilling. People shut down when the weather is bad, I'm convinced of it. 

Anyway, that was a general synopsis of my week. Things have been pretty solid. It's been fun. :) I've enjoyed this week, and I love the work of the Lord! Have a fanTASTic day everyone! I love you all!

Elder Wanlass

Different pins for the different areas served.

Antigonish.....The Dream

Hello Everybody! It's been quite an amazing week, if I do say so myself. We started out with a pretty strong P Day. We made some bold goals and set some plans on how we would achieve the goals we had set. We also cleaned the apartment and got prepared for the rest of the week (how fitting, I suppose).

We had made a personal goal for ourselves as the Zone leaders that we would try and make our area hit the gold standard this week. The Gold Standard is a model example of what we should be aiming for in our key indicators.

Tuesday was a pretty good day. We went out to a university town that is in our area called Antigonish. (the T is silent). Antigonish is home to St. Francis Xavier's University, and it is a nice mix of old and young people, and you get people from different locations as well. It's a Catholic school, and a religious community. I like it there. The only downside is that it takes about 45 minutes to get there. In any other area I would consider that a long drive, but after serving in Grand Falls, driving feels so short. And it's worth it to go this town. :) We had one investigator named F. He is native and is interested in the gospel. We had a pretty good lesson with him on the plan of salvation. He just needs to come to church, but it's been hard for him. We are going to try and help him understand what makes our church so unique. Other than that, we street contacted (I LOVE IT) and knocked and found a few people who were interested.

Wednesday was a fun day too. We had our Zone Conference in Dartmouth (Halifax). We received some great training from Bro. Cartier, an institute teacher who is impeccable. He taught us about what Faith really is. One thing that I found in myself that was lacking, was that I set goals for myself that I felt we could achieve, but didn't ever consider specifically asking the Lord what He wanted me to do. To make up for that, I've been thinking consistently about what I can do to do what Christ would do in EVERY situation. It changed the course of our week quite dramatically.

Thursday we had another Antigonish day. We had the opportunity of knocking to start. We don't have a wall map of Antigonish quite yet, so we didn't choose where we would knock until later. We drove past a few streets, and ultimately, we decided to knock Hillside. We knocked the whole thing, and found some success, but we decided to knock a small connecting street as well, and two young couples answered the door and said that they'd be very open to meeting with us. We are going to try to see them this coming week, and I'll let you all know how it goes.

After that, we had a lesson with our new investigator D. She is sweet, and very prepared. Within the past few months she has had some family members pass away and wants to become more spiritual. We were able to teach her about what we do as missionaries and shared the restoration with her. She liked what we shared, and we are teaching her this Tuesday! She is great! :D

Friday was another interesting day. The sister missionaries had found this Nigerian man who recently moved into all of our apartment building. His name is J., and he told the sisters that he would be willing to meet with us. So we decided that we would go upstairs and see if we could set up a lesson with him, and it went very well. He is a strong Christian, and he wants to follow Christ. We were able to discuss baptism, but he said he wanted to first read the Book of Mormon, but sounded very optimistic about it all! :D

Saturday was quite the week. We ended up finding for 8 hours. It was a lot of fun though, and I didn't feel like there was anything else we needed to do. We got several potentials who seem open to having us come by! I feel very good about this coming week! :D

and Sunday we didn't have church due to a snowstorm, so I still don't know very many members, but we've been stopping by and introducing them to me, so that's been good. It's just been strange not knowing anybody, really. :) 

This week, all in all, went really well. And this was only my first week in New Glasgow! I can't wait for the weeks to come! :D

Love you all!

Elder Wanlass

 My new companion Elder Hunt from Spanish Fork, UT.

 Donairs!!

My new space!

I'm New in New Glasgow!

Hellloooooo everyone! I'm back, after a relatively shorter letter five days ago, it is nice to be able to have a little more time to send out emails. Things have been fanTASTic so far with Elder Hunt. We are both excited to be working in New Glasgow, and even though things haven't been the ideal the past couple of weeks, we are going to change everything!

Nova Scotia is a lot of fun. :) The church is a lot bigger here than in New Brunswick and Newfoundland, so everything feels a lot closer. I'm still not quite used to it. :) But I'm still a zone leader, and we are over the Nova Scotia North Zone, which covers the island of Cape Breton, the peninsula (Truro and New Glasgow), and the part of Halifax where the temple is located. (Dartmouth/Cole Harbour) So that's neat. The zone is pretty solid. We have some amazing District Leaders and missionaries in our zone are a good balance between skilled and new, so that is definitely refreshing from Newfoundland where everybody was ending their missions.

This week was pretty quick. I mean, it's only been five days since I last emailed, so it was a little quicker. I was able to see some pretty cool sights in St. John's before I left for the mainland, like Cape Spear, the most Eastern point in North America, as well as some lighthouses. It was really windy, but quite a sight!

The work here in New Glasgow has been pretty fun. :) We are both hard working and we both want to exercise more faith and find people to teach. It's going to happen. We've already found some pretty solid potentials, so it's been amazing! :)

Anyway, other than that, General Conference was amazing! One theme that really stuck out to me this time around was a sense of hope. I'm trying to avoid negative and discouraging emotions by looking at what God can do and surrendering myself to his will. I feel that I will be able to do that even more so. :D

I loved Jeffrey R. Holland's talk. The most fundamental principle truth of the gospel is that God will always love us!!! So amazing! :D

Anyway, I love you all! I promise there will be more stories this next week!

Elder Wanlass

Pictures from Cape Spear before I left Newfoundland.  This area is the most Eastern part of North America.