2nd Letter,,,Wow...he's lovin' it...

Ola familia!!!! Como vai? Tudo bem? Hello family, i miss you all so much!! how is everything back home? whats new? Well life at the MTC is going pretty good!!!! im finally starting to learn some of the language!!! It's great here! I'm finally used to it and my testimony is growing everyday!! I'm being pushed out of my comfort zone but not enough to totally freak me out! Kind of funny, i had to give a talk in church on Sunday!! they chose 2 missionaries in a branch full of 117 missionaries and i happened to be one of the two! so i had the wonderful pleasure of giving a talk for two weeks in a row! it's all good though because i was prepared and it actually turned out quite nice!:) Yesterday our district worked on contacting people in Portuguese. It was really tough but i think we are already getting down the whole introducing ourselves and bearing testimony! After that, we had to practice teaching investigators. We could talk in English but it was still somewhat hard!! we weren't given much time to prepare but me and Elder Bell just went in and did our best. It was a 35 minute lesson and we weren't very organized. We kind of jumped all over the place from topic to topic but we did bear our testimonies and that was good. At least now we know what to work on! Well on another subject, our room looks fantastic now! Me, Elder Bell, Elder Edwards and Elder Thredgold decided we needed to decorate our room a little bit so we went to the bookstore and bought pretty much almost every Book of Mormon story picture there was. They were huge too!! so we took them back to the room and hung them up on the wall in chronological order in a spiral shape with a picture of Christ at the center!! It looks awesome, it covers the whole back wall:D Oh so i guess the Prophet and tons of general authorities have been here this week! it's been really exciting here! there is a devotional tonight and our district decided we were going to skip dinner so we could get good seats! One of the general authorities will be speaking to us but we don't know who yet. So the MTC has been going really good!! no health problems because of the food yet!! our teachers are awesome, my testimony is growing, and I'm learning some crazy Portuguese!! I really miss all of you but I'm finally used to the MTC. We are respectful and try to always invite the spirit but we have a lot of fun too;) I hope everything is going well back home! thank you so much for the package!! that was so awesome. Today was our first official P-day, it's been going really well!! I just barely got back from a temple walk. Since the temple is closed, our district decided to go up to the temple and take pictures during the time we would have been in a temple session! it was really fun. I am really enjoying it here and i can't wait to get out into the field and bring people the gospel!! Woooo:) I miss you and love you all. Keep me updated with everything through your letters! Chao! Eu amo Voces...... Elder Coulton Willes

The very first letter....what a relief!!!

hello papa and mama,

I miss you both so much. How is everything going at home? Well i just wanted to let you know that everything is going great at the MTC. I just recieved the rest of my shirts in a package today and i also recieved the cookies, so thank you very much lemon!!! The MTC has been great. At first, i was like a deer in the headlights and i just didn't know what to think, i was uncertain and i was pretty much freaking out. The second day was a little bit better but it was still kinda hard. The third day was quite enjoyable, i am already getting used to the MTC life. We haven't learned too much of the language yet but id say it's going good so far:) Mostly we have been focusing on caring for the investigator and making connections with them.

Really good news though!! Our district is full of elders going to the same mission, Portugal lisbon. Not a single elder is going anywhere else. It is a huge district too, there are 14 elders in my district and we are all already really good friends!!! My companion and i get along really well, his name is Elder Chase Bell. Lemon i think you talked to his mom on missionary moms. My other two roomates are also really cool guys. Their names are Elder Thredgold and Elder Edwards. We all get along great and we are good friends already. My teachers are awsome!!!! we have 3 teachers and they are all very young. well... i don't know what to think about the food here. It's not the most delicious food but at the same time it's not too bad either:) haha.

Today has been a great day so far!! from 7 to 830 our district did personal study time and then ate breakfast. Then from about 9 until 1 we practiced teaching as companions. We have these 2 elders in our branch that should be in brazil right now but are stuck here because of visa problems, and what we did is we had those 2 elders go into a classroom and pretend to be investigators. Each of our companionships would then take turns knocking on the door, going in the class, and teaching the investigator for 10 minutes. I feel really confident because me and elder Bell had an organized lesson and we thought both of the elders could feel the spirit. We also took time to just visit and get to know them before we started teaching. First we would establish what their relationship was with God and then we would teach them from there!! It was really great. So everything at the MTC is going great:) I think im going to enjoy it here.

This is it....

One last hug and he's off...God speed Elder Willes...

Grabbing the last few moments with Coulton...

Only minutes to go before the last hug and goodbye for 2 years...Such a very big blessing and yet, so difficult.

Fish Face....

Uncle Coulton loves his little nephews. He was telling them all about the fishies...he is going to really be missed by those little boys.

Everybody loved Mr. Moose...

Happy times with Mr. Moose...

Don't look now....

While Coulton and Natalie were hunting and killing the animals....the babies were doing a little bit of their own hunting. They found soft, pinchable and kissable animals....

The Big Hunt at Cabelas...

Natalie and Coulton are great marksmen....they always get their prey! The clock is ticking as we are having fun...it's soon time to drop Coulton off at the MTC...and we can feel the moments ticking by. It will be a long two years before we see this crazy guy again.

Feeding the Fishies

We had alot of fun feeding the fishies at Cabelas....

Before the MTC...Playtime at Cabelas

We had a couple of hours before Coulton needed to be at the MTC so the family decided to go and play around in Cabelas. This would probably be one of Coulton's favorite stores because he loves the outdoors and anything to do with the outdoors.

Family Fun After the setting apart...

We all decided to go have some dinner at El Toro Viejo. It is just lots of fun to get everyone together to eat and socialize. We have a great time when we get together.

Here is the fam just shortly after Coulton had been set apart as a missionary. His Dad was his missionary companion....Let the good times roll!!!

Silliness right after Coulton was set apart...

We took this right after Coulton was set apart as a missionary...Looks like he still has his silly Coulton humor.

The Beginning of the journey...

Here is Elder Coulton Willes just before he entered the MTC. He was extremely excited to be finally here. I will be posting pictures and letters of his mission experience on this blog. So, if you want to keep track of what he's doing, check in here.

test post

Here is a test post. Coulton rocks, and so does Jana. :)