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.

KV Ward: President Pratt's First Talk

Hello everybody! This week was really great. :) Elder Taylor and I continue to work as hard as we can to bring souls to Christ. I love life here in the Kennebecasis Valley! We've seen so many miracles and we've had such great luck meeting so many great people! :) This week has been a little crazy, I hadn't even been in Hampton for a couple of the days. To start, we had zone training with all of New Brunswick West :) It was a lot of fun, we got to practice our teaching and became better teachers and learned what we could do to improve ourselves. I love going to zone meetings because they help me reflect on my purpose and what I can do to do even better in my work.

I spent a couple days in Fredericton this week. Fredericton is a nice city in the middle of New Brunswick. It is actually the capital city, and there are always a lot of people walking around. Definitely a different way of life than Hampton, that's for sure. We met a few pretty nice people, and met a lot of not as nice ones. :) Regardless, they are children of God, and I'm glad I got to work with Elder Heimonen (one of my Mtc friends) for a little bit.

We had a lesson later on this week with a man named Penrod. He is from the Caribbean. He was a really nice guy, and he had investigated the church a year ago. When we began to meet with him, he was very standoffish and didn't really want to meet with us. However, as we resolved his concerns about what our church believed, he had a change of heart, we could see that within him as he talked with us. He said that we could come back, and he wants to continue to learn more about the church. :) I have a strong testimony that God will change people's hearts.

President Pratt also came to the Kennebecasis Ward this week, and it was really good to see him. He is so kind and genuine. He spoke about how we need to retain and get more involved in helping people come to Christ. We got to talk with him about how the work in this area is going, and we told him that we've been pretty successful in finding people to teach as time has gone on. We felt really good about everything. :)

As a personal challenge I am reading the Book of Mormon once again, with the thought: "How can I have a stronger focus on my mission? How can I find real intent within myself?" As I've read, I've been able to find so much from the Book of Mormon to help me. I have such a strong testimony of its truthfulness! This is the truth! In 1 Nephi 6:4, it reads: "For the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved." That is the whole purpose why the Book of Mormon was written! And surely it does this. I've felt it. I know that you can feel it too! :) I've changed so much on my mission from the experiences I've had and from the things I've learned.

I love this gospel!

Love you all!

Elder Wanlass

 President and Sister Pratt visiting our Kennebecasis Ward.

 

 The new updated St. John's District.

 

Canadian money

 



Elder Taylor











We Are at Your Service!

Good day everybody! It's been quite a fast week! We did a lot of work and ended up finding more people to teach that want to get baptized! It's been great! :) On my birthday we ended up teaching two lessons and getting 5 referrals from members. It was so great! My birthday was definitely a successful day, and I couldn't have asked for anything better. Not too many picture worthy things happened this week, so I don't have any pictures to give...plus it might be a little shorter as well.

I convinced the sister missionaries to make me another planner. I told them to make me an adventure planner, so they made it a treasure map! Check it out!

Aside from that, we had some other fun things happen. The Bishop's kids invited us over for a game night at their house, and they invited three non-member friends for us to teach a lesson to. It was good, none of them were interested, but they were all friendly and we had a good time at the game night regardless of that. Sometimes people aren't always interested right out of the gate, but it will take time before they will show interest.

I suppose I could explain the title of my email. We did quite a bit of service this week. More than we usually get to. We helped do some weeding for the town for the "Communities in Bloom" Event for Sussex. We also helped out at the Food bank on Thursday and met a few people who said that they were interested in meeting up with us, so that's good! Other than that, we've either been knocking, teaching, street contacting, or calling people..so that's pretty much been our week. :) We also had a couple miracles happen.

So we were searching for a former investigator because we found out that they had moved. So we asked some members where to go and they gave us instructions to go to church street. We went over there and asked around for this person, and we were told she moved to Main street...so we went over to main street and started knocking. As we did, we ran into Vanessa. Vanessa is a lady who has never been religious, but she had a desire to learn more. We went over on Saturday night to meet with her, and it turns out that her boyfriend and their two kids were also there, so we taught them all together. We invited them to be baptized, and Vanessa enthusiastically said yes, along with her 8 year old son. Stephen isn't sure quite yet, but we are meeting them throughout this week, so hopefully we will see good things happen.

We also found another family who wants to learn more about the church as well! things are going so good! :) The work will always move forward, it is comforting to know that. :)

I love you all, we will continue to work as hard as possible, to bring people to the knowledge of Jesus Christ :)

Elder Wanlass

My planner that the Sister Missionaries made for me!

Serving in the community.

I'm 19! It Only Took a Year....

Well everybody, it finally happened! I'm 10 months out and I finally turned 19! It's about time! :) Before I talk about my birthday, I'll start by summarizing this last week:

We had a really good week this week to top it all off! We hit all of our goals and are finding more people that are interested. The ward is really getting excited for the work that it is going on. We've had many people help us out in the ward and we are teaching more people than Hampton has seen for a while. It's so good!

We spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday on member missionary work. Elder Taylor covered the "How to" part of the missionary experiences, and I covered how we need to have the hope to make those experiences happen! It was really good and I hope that our talks inspired some of the members to look for ways to serve the Lord.

We found a couple new investigators! One of them is named Mike Durley. He is from Sussex and we met him street contacting. He has a few grandkids, and loves his family. We talked with him and he had a strong desire to find God once again in his life and come to church. We taught him the restoration, and he accepted it! So cool! We are trying to get him to come to church now. He has minor word of wisdom issues, but nothing major. He shows a definite desire to come closer to Christ.

Aside from that, we've been finding a bunch of people who are interested, we were able to see the Reversing Falls in Saint John and it's just been a good week!

My birthday plans are pretty exciting! We got subway for lunch, donairs for a snack, and we are eating at a member's house and teaching two lessons tonight! It's so good! :)

I love my mission so much!

Love Elder Wanlass

Here are some pictures of Elder Taylor and I visiting the Reversing Falls in St. John, NB.

Elder Taylor admiring the scenery.

Our Mini Learning Center

This week was quite the change for sure! We had the chance to meet our new mission president, President Pratt. He is such a great guy, and he's already impressed me with some of the things he's said. I know that he is called by God. He's already helped me out personally :)

This week we've seen a LOT of stuff happen. We've had at least 6 lessons this week, and we've seen a lot of success in terms of finding people. Elder Taylor and I walked outside and got 4 potentials in an hour street contacting, which doesn't happen too much :)

This week was Canada Day, which was pretty fun. Our ward had a BBQ the night before, and we ended up teaching a couple people during it. We were just handing out copies of the Book of Mormon, and I talked with this lady for a few minutes. She had a question about our view of heaven, and I explained to her, (as well as the table of women) how there is the Celestial, Terrestrial, and the Telestial kingdoms. I showed her a few scriptures in 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 13 about the third heaven. :) She was blown away: "My pastor hasn't said anything about that! You are the only church who believes it? But it's so clear in the Bible!" I showed her one of our boards about the restoration, and she said she believed it! We got her information and should hopefully meet with her this week! :)

We also taught a pastor...she was super nice! :)

Aside from that, one other exciting thing that happened was I went to Saint John on an exchange! Saint John is an interesting city. I might've mentioned it in the past, but it is the oldest city in Canada. 1/3 of all people who live in the city of Saint John are unaccounted, so it makes street contacting a little interesting. Tons of people there are very poor too, so we see a lot of people struggling. It can be tough to see sadness, but the gospel is meant to help everybody! We had some good experiences teaching in Saint John, and we also met many people who were interested, so that was good! :)

Yesterday evening we also set some lessons up with a family of 5, and a couple guys that are both interested in learning about God! So cool! I love when people are so willing to meet.

Also, this week was Elder Taylor's Birthday, if you want to see a funny video, check out Elder Taylor's profile that sister Downey posted! It's hilarious! :)

I love you all! I hope you have a great week! Enjoy the 100+ degrees!

Elder Wanlass

Here is my awesome St. John's District!!

Happy Birthday Elder Taylor!

Birthday celebration for Elder Taylor

School has come in handy!

We are prepared to defend the Faith. :)

First Zone Meeting with Pres and Sister Pratt