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.

Goodbye B'ys!

Hello everybody! So due to a new transfer schedule week, every six weeks my P Day will be on Wednesday from here on out. So that'll be fun! :) Anyhow, it's been quite a long time. I honestly don't fully remember everything that happened last week, mainly because of how long and slow this week has been. However, I can tell you what transfers are happening! :)

I am leaving my beloved Newfoundland home, and flying on a plane tonight to go to Halifax! My new area, is going to be New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, the newest zone leader area. My companion is going to be Elder Hunt, who has only been there for a transfer! :) It's going to be a blast, although I'm going to miss my friends here in Newfoundland. 

I had a goodbye dinner yesterday, and I was with Sister Borden and Sister King. They knew I was leaving on Monday because we told them, and they cooked up a delicious "feed" with traditional Newfoundland cuisine. It was awesome! :) They also got me a couple of presents that will be posted in videos :) It was really sweet of them and I'll always remember them all the way up here in Grand Falls.

Anyway, other than that, Elder Kelley and I just worked ourselves like dogs the past few days. :) Easter was good, had a delicious meal that Sister Borden made too.

Aside from that, I don't have anything else to say. I will have more coming next week. :)

Love you all!

Elder Wanlass

**Here is in excerpt that he sent to his mom.**

Well, this is it, I'm getting transferred!  I'm going to New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, which is a city of about 20,000 people! So it's a fair size. :) It's actually going to be my biggest area and I can actually street contact people too! So that's pretty exciting! We had a very long and slow week (usually the week before transfers always is.) Easter was fun. :) I have been running, and I'm doing pretty well. The weather was super snowy last night, but otherwise it's been good. :)

Easter was pretty exhausting for me. The members here were in the van when President called to tell me where I was going, so the following day they made me a Newfie Dinner and bought me presents and wrote me cards. It was super sweet. It was also probably one of the funniest dinner appointments that I've ever had, because they were saying every Newfoundland saying in the book! What odds! Shocking! I'se the B'y! I sent the videos and pictures over, so you should get them anytime. President called me and said "Well, I still need you to be a zone leader, so you're going to New Glasgow with Elder Hunt. 

So, New Glasgow is going to be fun. :) Elder Hunt is a really cool guy.  Anyway, today I'm driving 4 1/2 hours to get to the St. John's airport to fly out today. So that'll be fun. I'm excited to be serving in Nova Scotia North! I know a lot of missionaries in my zone already, like Elder Bate, Elder Heimonen, Elder Hovey, and there are also quite a few that I'll get to meet for the first time. Elder Taufer, a missionary that went to Layton High, and was in a few of my classes, is serving with Elder Bate right now! So cool! :)

Love you!

Elder Wanlass

My Newfoundland Family

Around the Mission in 2 1/2 Days

Hello everybody! Elder Wanlass here! I hope that everybody is doing okay. It's been a rather uneventful week in Grand Falls itself, but mainly because we have been out of province. That was kind of a big deal. To start, our week consisted of us doing Family Home Evening on Monday, which was fun. We watched the Testaments with Will White and Sister Borden. Classic.

Tuesday was pretty fun. We are starting to put posters around the town for the #hallelujah initiative. It was fun. Then we did some work! Nothing too exciting!

Wednesday was a different story. We were about to start District Meeting, and we get a call from the Assistants telling us that we were going to have a leadership meeting with all the zone leaders and sister training leaders, and that they needed to fly us down for it. So...that's what happened!

Thursday morning we woke up at 3 am and drove to Gander to make it to the airport by 5:45. We then drove from the Halifax airport to Moncton, New Brunswick, and place I haven't been to in a couple of transfers. We had awesome leadership training focused around the Doctrine of Christ and baptismal invitations. It was very instructive.

Friday we spent the day with the Assistants in Halifax. It was pretty fun! I liked it a lot. Hopefully I'll get to serve in a city at some point. :)

Anyway, on Saturday we didn't get back to our area until 4:00 pm. So we planned a little bit and had Fish and Brews, a delicious Newfoundland food Sister Borden and Sister King had made!

Anyway, that is all! I hope you all have a fanTastic Easter!

Elder Wanlass

#Hallelujah Initiative

Well, I'm a Black Guy in Newfoundland!

Hey Everybody! Elder Wanlass here! Good things are happening here in Grand Falls. We had a pretty good week, and we found a new investigator. :) A., who I believe I mentioned last week, is her name. She is super cool, and is sincerely desiring to find truth! We taught her the restoration, and she was super sincere and wanted to know everything we taught. I have high hopes for her! 

Anyway, this week went by pretty quick. Not too much eventful stuff happened, but it was just a very well rounded and fun week.

We had a pretty good family home evening on Monday night with Sister King and Sister Borden. We played trouble and watched a few videos on lds.org. It was a fun activity.

Tuesday was an alright day. We worked hard and talked with a lot of people! :)

Wednesday We had District Meeting and found a couple of referrals that Sister Borden and Sister King had given to us. It was a lot of fun! :)

Thursday we had an exchange with the Paradise Elders. It was pretty good! I went with a newer missionary: Elder Julian, and Elder Kelley went with Elder Dudley. Elder Julian is a funny guy. He is from Ontario, and is a visa missionary who is leaving next week to go to Anaheim, California, as in Disneyland! So that's pretty neat. He is loving it out here in Newfoundland. We were able to talk to quite a few people who were interested. I felt like we should walk down a particular street when we were together. Tucker Ave. Tucker is considered to be "Sketch Row" by past missionaries because of some of the people who live there. As we walked through, a guy yelled: "Are you the men who give the free money?" then when we said no, he said: "Oh! You're giving out salvation!" His name was Orin, and he was a black guy. The conversation led to God and how he had helped him in his life and his answer was priceless: "Well, I'm a Black Guy in Newfoundland! That's how he's blessed me." For those who don't know, I've seen like 5 black people since I've been to Newfoundland, so it's not very common. :)

Otherwise, Elder Julian and I taught A., which went well.

Friday was an interesting day, not much happened, but it was a good day.

Saturday was a pretty dramatic day with members, but it's all been sorted out, so that's good. Being the two Priesthood holders in an area is tough sometimes!!

Sunday we had a smaller day at church today. Only 11 people were there due to sickness, but hopefully this next week we will be able to see success. :)

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Wanlass

Throwback Thursday with Elder Dooley

Hey everybody! Elder Wanlass here, nothing too crazy happened this week. We haven't been able to teach anybody in a while. But we continue to work. This week we started out by having family home evening, as any other Monday.

Tuesday we didn't have anything super fantastic happen. We knocked, and took Sister B. to ARP. She's doing well and hasn't had a pill since last Sunday! :) Progress!!

Wednesday we had District Meeting which was pretty good. Nothing else to say there.

Thursday was a fun day. We had exchanges here in Grand Falls, and the Corner Brook Elders came up for the day. Elder Dooley and I were working together the whole day, which is fun, because we were companions together last spring. Elder Dooley and I were able to find 6 people who were potentially interested in learning about the church, which is really exciting. :) One of them we had a pretty cool experience with. We were knocking, and the very last door that we came to was a young single mom with a couple boys. It was pretty windy, so she said that we could come in and she had two chairs prepared for us. We sat down, and she said: "I'm just looking for truth. I was baptized as a baby, and I didn't feel right about that. I have a couple of friends who are 7th Day Adventists, and they want me to join their church. But I don't feel like they're right." We asked her why she was asking about baptism, and she said that she needed to find God more in her life. What the heck?! This stuff happens very rarely!! :) We left her a Book of Mormon, and are teaching her next week, so that was AWESOME!! :D It gets even crazier though, because Elder Kelley and Elder Balle were at Sister King's house, and she gave the same girl as a referral! But we didn't know about that until that night as we were planning! The Lord definitely works in mysterious ways. :) I have a testimony that he can and will help us in our work! :)

Friday and Saturday and Sunday we had a huge storm hit, so church was cancelled here... too bad!!!

Anyway, That's my week in a nutshell. Sorry there aren't many pictures, there wasn't anything really to take a picture of.

Love you all!

Elder Wanlass