Work on the Azores....pretty tough

Hey guys. Our time is limited today because we only get 35 minutes before this internet cafe closes for lunch uggggg Stupid Séstas!!! But things are going pretty good here on the island. We have been finding new people to teach slowly, but surely. The island is a little bit different than my last area. I have a lot more responsibility in the ward. But as far as the actual missionary work goes, its quite a bit harder here just because its so Catholic and the population is very tiny. Anyway, yesterday was a pretty good Sunday. I stayed busy with a talk in Sacrament meeting on top of teaching primary. We taught them about when the vendors were selling in the temple and Jesus drove them out. It was a good lesson to teach these kids in particular because we hit the principle of respect very hard. They behaved a lot better until I made a huge mistake at the end. I had brought a candy bar to a girl in our class because she had a birthday and the whole class flipped out and started fighting and screaming for it, completely forgetting the lesson I gave about respect hahaha. Anyway, we are kind of worried about the Portuguese branch here. Once all the American families leave, if we can't find any good worthy priesthood holders, the brach is most likely going to close down. So we are really focusing on bringing families into the church right now, especially families with a father that can be a priesthood holder.

The week went pretty well. We knock a lot of doors here and the doors are spread out pretty far apart, so we walk our faces off here, but its good. Some random news is now we have started finding big fat nasty cockroaches in our house. Yipee. You guys all know how much I love cockroaches. Elder Levitre was too scared to stomp on one the other night so he put it in a plastic bag and stuck it in the microwave. EWwwwwww gross. Other news, this is kind of disturbing and really sad, but there is a village in our area called Santa Rita and this is pretty much the Ghetto of the island. Really poor, and a lot of not so good things go on there. Well, we were going to pass an investigator that lived there that I still haven't met. He is about a 40 year old African guy that supposedly is really nice and cool. It would have been my first time meeting him. Well, we knocked on the door and no one answered. We didn't think too much of it so we just left. A little bit later that day we were told by other investigators that he made a big story on the news. Poor guy was murdered inside his house and dragged down the street and tossed over into the ocean. I feel really sorry for him. Thats just not right. He had told a member that he had planned on going to church on Sunday too. They still haven't found his body apparently. Needless to say, I think me and Elder Dalton are going to kind of avoid that area during the night hours.

Baptism wise, we are still working with Pedro. Pedro is super cool, and he is doing everything he needs too, he is just being lazy. We are also working with a man named Carlos. He is having a rough time here on the island. He calls it the "Island of lies" haha. I don't know why, but he seems pretty elect. We just have to get him to stop smoking. He has been online dating some Brazilean member for over 5 years now, so that has been rough on him still not meeting her.

Well, the work goes on, and I'm really loving it here. I really miss you guys. I love you all so much. Im so thankful for this Gospel and for the amazing family I have. Keep it real guys. I love you all.

Elder Willes