Just to let you all know!! I had a wonderful birthday here in the azores!!! The American members took real good care of me! I had 2 different birthday cakes at different members houses and I have been full all weekend!! I don't think I will ever eat again haha!!!

Well, I have news for you guys. There will only be one elder that is staying in our tight group of 4 on the island and that will be my comp Elder Wiseman!!! He will also be the only American in the house, funny huh? Two African elders are coming over and one from Belgium!!! Elder Wilder will be branch president in Angra on the other side of the island, and me and Kessler will be flying back to the continent to work. He will be a financial secretary and I am going to serve in Vasco DeGama with Elder Banks!!! Im excited. I think Vasco DeGama is part of Lisbon and its down by the big Rio Tejo!! So I've been going through some mixed feelings right now!!! I was really shocked to hear I would be leaving, but it will be good and I'm glad to go wherever the Lord wants me!!! I'll miss these members so much!! I have made some really good friendships here on this island and it will be really hard to leave, but I will never forget them. So tonight I bid my goodbyes to them and tomorrow me and Elder Kessler get on the plane and leave. So I will send you guys my new address next week when I get it!!!

It will also be a little tough because we are finally coming around with our investigator Nelson!! He actually has a desire to come to church now and he reads the Book of Mormon every night!! He told me on Sunday that Saturday night, he had a friend over and Nelson was reading to his kid outloud, and when he finished, his friend overheard and said "wo, read that again" and he did and the friend said "I like that" and they read another chapter and he said "I like that, how can I get one?" So Nelson took him to church on Sunday and he really enjoyed the testimonies!! We will be going by his house this week, well, not we, but Wiseman and his comp. So I'll be praying for him. We were going to mark Nelson for the 18th, so I'll be praying for him!!!

Testimony meeting was great!! The branch president, President Eves' brother and his wife are vistiting for a while and they don't speak a lick of Portuguese but they wanted to share their testimonies to the congregation so they went up and pointed at me to translate!! It was actually a really cool experience!! Their testimonies were very strong and I was able to help translate that message to our branch!! Nelson loved the meetings!!!

So thats how the work is, and I hope it continues and I hope this branch grows. I will really miss these people!!

Random story of the week, it's summer now, so the bull fights in the streets have started everywhere especially on the weekends. Well, I was walking with my comp to our next appointment and we turned the corner and there was a HUGE crowd in the street!! I thought "hmmm, must be a bull fight" but I couldn't see the bull and there were a bunch of children in the street so I could see they had not yet let the bull out of the box. Well, me and Wiseman were just kind of pushing our way through people when we ran into the Praia Elder's investigator's children. They yelled "ELDERS" and gave us a big hug like they usually do, when one of them looked at us and laughed and said "Elders, what are you doing in the street, are you going to run with the bull?" After she said that, I looked behind me and noticed that none of those children were in the street anymore and that it was just a bunch of guys getting ready to mess with this bull. Immediatley after, I heard one firework go off, which means they let the bull out and out runs this huge massive bull!!! So me and wiseman hurried and got out of the street and climbed up on someone's yard so we didn't get slaughtered by the beast. But we were trapped after that because the only way we could leave the bull fight was to get on the street and go to a backstreet where there wasn't the bull fight. So, when the bull was really far off, we got down and went to our next appointment!!! These bull fights are CRAZY!!!!

Well, thats about all I have for you guys this week!!! I hope you all have an amazing week!! I love you all. You're the best family ever!! I'll be leaving my family here on the island and I don't know if I'll ever see them again, but I know I always have you guys!! I love you all so much!!! Talk to ya next week!!!

Elder Willes