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

I Am Your Host- Elder Wanlass! (and the lamest email ever.)

Hello everybody! This week not much happened to be honest. Just finding and talking with People. This quite possibly might be one of the shortest letters I will ever write, to be honest. 

1. One of our recent converts named Al is a taxi driver and he talks to a lot of people about the gospel who need it. He came to us last Monday and gave us literally 40 names of people to go and stop by who might be interested! It was a neat experience! :) 

2. We had a google translate door conversation -  We had one pretty cool story. We were knocking and we found this one guy who couldn't speak any English. He was really friendly with us though. He didn't know who we were, so he ran over to his phone and got google translate. I had to type in what I wanted to say, and it translated into Romanian for him to read. Once he found out we taught about Jesus Christ, he let us right in and pointed to pictures of Jesus. He invited us back later. We are now friends on Facebook. :D

3. We had really good interviews with President Pratt and we talked about Charlottetown and things. :)

4. We got blue suits that we wore for a ward activity. They were donated to us by a member.  :) it was a lot of fun!

Thanks everybody, I promise this is going to be the shortest email I ever do!

Elder Wanlass

 Ward Party!!

 Elder McAteer and his wife are the Senior Missionary couple serving in our ward.  We love them!!

Zone Conference and a Week of Finding!

Hey everybody :) This week has been pretty good. Not too many exciting things happened, but we are working hard and trying to find more people to teach. Sorry I've been really bad with pictures, we just haven't had much happen. I'll try and take some today at the Chocolate Museum or something :) Anyhow...

This week we actually had a pretty good week, because we had a Zone Conference with Elder Perkins come! :) Elder Perkins is in the Seventy, and he spoke to us on how Preach My Gospel is so necessary for us in the mission field, as well as how to teach the Restoration more directly and with more purpose. It was really good and helped me reflect on what I could be doing better to teach the restoration with more boldness.

This week we found a few different people from all sorts of ways. We knocked into a couple people in St. George, New Brunswick. One is named Joy and she is Filipino. She let us in right away and just talked to us for a little bit. We asked her if she wanted to meet for a lesson and she gave us all her contact information, so that was pretty cool.

We also found a new investigator named Courtney in Calais. She let us in and had talked with missionaries before, and she was willing to have us come back. We taught her the restoration with one of the priests in our ward, and she really liked it. She's been reading the Book of Mormon, and wants to know that it is true. I think that she will have a lot of potential.

Other than that, not much else to talk about, I will get you more pictures soon enough. :)

Anyway, Bye!

Elder Wanlass

 President Pratt giving me a much needed massage.

Zone Conference with some of my friends.

I'M ON THE EDGE! Of the Mission!

Hello everybody! This week was a pretty good week overall. We've seen some good things happen, and we had some fun this week too :) Our investigators are doing well overall. We weren't able to meet with as many people because our investigators were sick...but they are still reading the Book of Mormon, so that's good. We had some pretty interesting times this week as well.

I actually got to go to Fredericton this week for a little bit. We went on exchanges to Fredericton with the zone leaders. It was a great exchange, and I had a lot of fun :) A stake activity was actually going on, so I got to see members from Caribou and Hampton and St. Stephen! :) It was so good to say hi to some familiar faces :) I love them all!

We also had the opportunity to go all the way down to Eastport, Maine, which is on the very bottom boundary. Remember that time when I said that I was on the Northern boundary in Edmunston and Fort Kent? Well, now I'm on the southern boundary. We can literally see the end of the mission from one of the member's houses here. Crazy! :) 

In Eastport we were able to try out an amazing Lobster Pizza. :)

Anyway, moving on to actual missionary stuff, we picked up a new investigator this week named PJ Barnard. He is a really cool guy that we found in our records. He is very soft spoken, but wanted to meet with us. He doesn't really have a religious background, but he had wondered about prophets and about the purpose of life. Our first lesson with him was a little scattered, and he didn't talk as much as we were expecting him to.

Afterwards though he wrote a comment on our facebook saying that he was grateful for getting to learn from us. We are meeting with him again tonight. It should be a good lesson. :)

Sandra is doing pretty well...she still hasn't come to church, which is a little concerning...if she doesn't come soon we will have to drop her :( 

Anyway, the area is beautiful! We have talked with a few people who want to meet this next week :) so that'll be fun! :D

Anyhow, that's all I got this week. Thanks everybody! :D

Look who I ran into?  Sister Rebecca Stepp from my Caribou Ward.  She was at the Stake Activity in Fredericton.

Lobster Pizza!

What Do You Get When a Bishop, 4 Missionaries, and a Jehovah's Witness Meet Together?

Hey Everybody! It's been a pretty great week here in St. Stephen! We've seen some pretty good things happen and the work is moving forward! We've been able to meet with a few of our investigators, and we are finding people who want to come to church! So that's good. 

Right now we have three investigators, but we were only able to meet with 2. Sandra Beaumaster is a very nice older woman who really does want to come closer to God. We ended up putting her on date for October 3, and I really believe that she can make it. She just has to have the strong, firm testimony that will keep her active in the church. We are working towards that, though, so that will help a lot. Sandra introduced actually to her cousin Reid, who is also wanting to investigate and come to church. Unfortunately, neither one of them were able to make it because Reid had an allergic reaction to some medication he took, and Sandra was sick... but they will get there eventually.

The area of St. Stephen is really pretty. I'm so blessed that I get to be here in the fall. Between the trees, the scenery, and the ocean, it's something out of a dream. Next Monday we are going to go exploring in St. Andrews, which is a tourist town right on the beach. So pretty!

I'm really grateful for the members here. We got to have a corn boil in Calais this Saturday, where many of the members gathered and played ball and ate burgers. It was so fun! :) 

Another cool thing that happened took place at the local food bank that we do service at. (Here in St. Stephen we do a lot of service.) We got to talk with people about the gospel as we carried things out for them. One guy we met taking his groceries out. When I first saw him, I wasn't sure how interested he would be, but I had an impression to ask him about his life. He recently moved up from Bangor and wanted to find hope in his life. He wants to meet with us this week with his 8 year old son! So cool! :)

I definitely know that this church is true. I've been able to witness so many amazing things, and feel the promises God makes with us come true. I know that there are prepared people out here, and I'm so grateful for my chance to serve. Most importantly, I know that our Heavenly Father loves us, and he shows this love through are ability to change through the Atonement. How amazing is this gospel?

So I guess I should elaborate on the title of this email. Last night we had a fireside at the Bishop's house that us, the sister missionaries, and some of the members and the Bishop were a part of. It was really great, and we had an awesome discussion on how to do missionary work. Randomly, there is a knock on the door, and Bishop answers it. It was a Jehovah's Witness missionary that had been talking with our Bishop. He was invited in, and he taught us a whole bunch about his beliefs...so that was fun. All of us were very quiet and just listened politely. A couple of the members though were questioning things he was saying. He was a really nice guy though. :) Fun times!

Anyway, that was my week this week!

I love you all!

Elder Wanlass

Some of our Zone Conference pictures!!

My favorite!  Milk out of a bag.

Another beautiful view where I serve.