Monday, February 7, 2011

Ah...the beautiful Azore Islands!!!



Oh this week has been great!! Quite the change, but really great. In fact, a huge change. The Azores are the complete opposite from Cacem. It is so weird to hear peace and quiet everywhere instead of cars and trains and people constantly. Very different.
Well, just so you all know, I am on the Island of Terceira. Super cool Island. Me and Elder Kessler (my trainer in the mission) slept over in the office on Monday night and early the next morning, we caught our plane and it was only about a good 2 and a half hour plane ride. The office elders were late getting us there so we barely caught our plane with only minutes to spare, but it was good, at least we caught it right!!!!
Well, the Azores are in the middle of the ocean, so just so you guys know, we are now only 6 hours ahead of you instead of 7.
When we got off the plane, I met my new companion Elder Colby Dalton, and he was waiting with Elder Levitre. Elder Dalton is really cool. He is from North Ogden and went to Weber and played hockey in high school (just like Kelly) ha. But he is a really great missionary and we have been working really hard.
The island of Terceira is beautiful. So So So so green here. And its so great to see mountains again. There are some good sized mountains in the middle of the island. It is very rural here. There seems to be forest everywhere on the inside of the island and when there is not forest, there are fields full of horses and cows, and yes, it does smell a little bit like Tremonton. haha. The houses here are ridiculous. I have never seen so many purple orange and pink houses in my life. It looks like Disney's Toon Town ha. Elder Levitre said something very funny but true, he said, the island of Terceira is like Toon Town meets the Shire meets Hawaii hahaha. Its very true though. Its absolutely beautiful here.
The climate is amazing. Its a little bit more humid here, but the good news is, its so much warmer than Portugal was. I can totally walk around outside during the day with just short sleeves and not get cold until night. Then I'll wear a light jacket.
We have the best house in the mission...3 stories tall and great appliances. We have a dryer as well. That's crazy because most people in Portugal have to hang their clothes up on a clothes line. Great house. And the house is about a 15 second walk to the beach. Me and Elder Kessler have been running on the beach every morning to the sunrise for exercises. We have a balcony outside that has a great view of the ocean. I have attached some pictures from our balcony of the ocean.
So far, the work has been tough. Right now we don't have too many investigators, but we have been busting our buns to find some. We are working with 2 guys right now for baptism. Pedro and Carlos. They are both so close, but while we work with them, our hunt continues for the elect that are ready to hear the gospel because we know they are out there.
There are 2 branches in our area... an American branch and a Portuguese branch. We are on the island with the American airbase, and so we get to associate with them. We actually ate with Americans last night!!! Wow its so different. I love it though. Apparently the Americans feed us a lot more here than the Portuguese. Anyway, usually we will go to just the Portuguese branch because that is where most of our investigators are, plus I have a calling there. I got news for you guys. By going on a mission, I didn't leave my primary calling behind, it just followed me over here. hahah. That's right, I'm the primary teacher... ages 8 to 12. It was crazy. I was a little nervous because the first thing Elder Dalton told me about my calling was "Those kids are little demons" ha it is true in a sense. I was crammed in a small class with about 11 kids all screaming. Elder Dalton helps me of course. He is the law in that class. He takes kids to their parents when they won't behave haha. It was good though, yesterday I taught them about baptism and spoke a lot about Jesus's baptism. Like back at home we give them candy when they are good too. I'm going to love it. Oh I also showed them the picture of our primary class in Brigham when we watched the Prince of Egypt. They loved it.
Well, that's about all for this week. I'm running out of time, but I have the address for you guys. Its:
Elder Coulton Willes
Rua Do Hospital N17
9760 Praia Da Vitória
Terceira, Azores
Portugal
I love you guys. I will talk to you all next week. Tchau
Elder Willes

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