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