January 26, 2010

Well, are y'all excited to find out where I got transferred to? It's basically like I got a new mission call........I got sent to the Azores!!!!! I'm on the island Terceira in and area called Praia da Vitória! It is way awesome! Last Monday, we got our transfer calls. As I said in my last letter, I was pretty sure that both me and Elder Ronson would be staying. But nope, we got the calls, and they told me that I would be going to the Azores. I had to pack my bags in about 3 hours, and leave my area that same day to go spend the night at the mission office. Then the next day, they sent me on a 2 hour flight with another Elder going to the same island. I got here, and met my new companion. His name is Elder da Costa. He is from Portugal, but is actually from the boundaries of the Porto Mission. He is way cool. Definitely the coolest portuguese person that I have met so far. He actually just seems like he is American, but he speaks portuguese perfectly. This is his 3rd transfer on the mission, so I am actually older than him and am now the senior comp. We live in this way huge house! 3 stories! Supposedly it's the best house in the entire mission. It has a dishwasher, and a dryer! And three toilets! We are actually without a fridge right now, because Elder da Costa broke it before I got here. We use the fridge at the chapel. We live there with 2 other Elders. Elder Dastrup, from Lindon, Utah (he says he doesn't know any of the Hills.) And Elder Barbosa, from Cape Verde. Elder Dastrup is one transfer behind me. He was in the MTC with me for 3 weeks before I left, so I knew him before getting here. He is probably the hardest working missionary in the entire mission. He is awesome and is always way excited about the work. He actually trained Elder da Costa 2 tranfers ago. That's how hard of a worker he is, he trained a native in his 3rd transfer. He is now training Elder Barbosa, who just arrived into the mission this week. He is cool too. We all live in the same house, but the other 2 Elders work in another area called Lajes. Terceira is a lot different than Portugal. I am basically re-learning how to understand portuguese. The accent here is ridiculous, and way hard for me to understand. It is probably the equivalent of a really strong southern accent in the states. But I am already sort of getting used to it. Luckily, Elder da Costa speaks portuguese perfectly, so no worries. It's really cool having a companion that doesn't have any language difficulties. He is a very effective teacher because of it. He is awesome. Although I am the senior comp, it sort of feels like am getting re-trained. It's good though. Elder da Costa is a really hard worker as well. I am learning a lot. We had 28 lessons this week! That is the most I have had on my entire mission so far. The people here are really, really, really Catholic. It's supposed to be one of the harder areas, but we are doing better, at least lesson wise than most of the areas in the mission. It's definitely because Elder da Costa and Dastrup tore it up the last couple of transfers and found tons of investigators. But me and Elder da Costa found some this week as well. We actually just had a baptism on Saturday. It was a guy named Chris. On Terceira, I think you guys already know, but there is a US Air Force Base, supposedly one of the biggest in the world. So there are a lot of Americans here. Chris is an American from North Carolina. He is in the Air Force. They found him only about 2 weeks ago. He is kinda nerdy, but one of the coolest guys I have met on my mission so far. He is way funny. He quit drinking and smoking and was baptized, all in about 2 weeks. The baptism was awesome. We have other investigators that we have found, and others that they already had. Almost all have problems with the word of wisdom and the law of chastity, mostly just because they live together without being married. It is hard to get them to progress. It is really crazy being here in this area. My trainer, Elder Markarian told me all about this area. He served here for about 4 tranfers about a year ago. (By the way, he went home this transfer.) Also, my greeny-breaker, Elder Dean served here right before me and him became companions. So I have heard all kinds of awesome stuff about the area. We have 2 branches here. There is the Portuguese branch or Praia-Lajes branch, and the American branch, or the Air Base 4 branch. There aren't very many active portuguese members. There were probably only about 20 portuguese people at church this week. Elder da Costa is the counselor of the branch presidency. There are a lot more active american members. It is cool being around american people. I'll admit it makes me a little bit trunky, haha. We ate at an American member's house yesterday. It was so good! Basically my first american food in 7 months! They also have rootbeer here! Anyway, I am almost out of time, so I will have to tell you more next week. It was good to hear from you. I love you all! Tchauzinhos!

Elder Walker