Well I’m here in the Açores on the island of
São Miguel in the capitol of Ponta Delgada. (The Azores are a group of nine volcanic islands spread
over 370 miles in the Atlantic Ocean about 850 miles west of Portugal.) I love it here so much.
We left for the airport to fly out Thursday night and it felt weird
being in an airport and on a plane as a missionary. But on the plane I started
talking with this guy and we are going to teach him later this week! When we
arrived it was pouring rain... I’ve never seen anything like it... a really
nice warm welcome to the island! The Carters (great missionary couple) picked
us up in their car and took us to our house.
I have never seen a more beautiful place in my
life. The colors here are insane--the green mountains with the blue ocean and
sky and the white clouds! Truly, it’s so
amazing! I want to take pictures every moment because it is so pretty. The
island weather is way bipolar. It will be sunny and not a cloud in the sky and
you are loving life then 10 seconds later you are drenched in the rain, and
then it’s back to sunny 5 minutes later. It rains on an average of 3 times a
day but still can be a beautiful sunny day! The Açores are known for their cows
and therefore milk. There are literally cows everywhere so you see these really
big green mountains with white spots all over them because of the cows!
While I was waiting in the mission office
earlier this week everyone was telling me about how the accent on the island I
was going to is crazy... I didn’t really think it would be that different and
boy was I wrong. When I started talking to everyone I looked over at Elder Nogueira
and said, "Are they speaking French?" I have never seen anything like
it... it was so hard to adjust to this accent.
Even my comp who is Brazilian doesn’t know what they are saying.
Our area is really big—like half the island.
There were sisters in our area but something happened with a stalker so they
had to leave the Açores for a couple of transfers. It’s good that we have the Carters
here because without the car we would be walking for hours. It’s really
weird being a zone leader for the Açores because most of our missionaries are
on different islands. For example, this next week we are going to do divisions or
splits with the other Elders so we are going to fly to the other islands. We
will be going on 5 flights this week--feels like we are running a business
always on the plane.
We have a family that is investigating the
church and they live in a place called Sete Cidades. It’s in the mountains next
to these two grand lakes and to be honest I’ve never seen anything like it. Apparently
this site "sete cidades", is known worldwide for its views. While
driving to an appointment the Carters stopped there to show me all the pretty
views and let me take some pictures! Then they stopped next to this big abandoned
hotel and told us to go in a look around--they are such cool missionary couple.
We taught the lesson with this family and it was so amazing. I really like my
companion, Elder Nogueira, and we are already great friends and we teach really
well together. We are both so anxious for someone to accept our message and be
baptized and are working like crazy.
We have this recent convert named Jose who is
16 years old and loves the missionaries. He works with us every day and wears a
white shirt and a tie and one of our name tags.
He is a punk and kind of reminds me of myself when I was 16. He
proselytes with us and is starting to gain a love for missionary work. He will
become a great missionary someday!
On Sunday we meet with our branch in the
morning and we take care of them, then at 4pm we go to a small town
on the other side of the island to an area named Vila Franca Do Campo. There is
a small group of Saints there so we go and give talks and bless the sacrament
for 4 people. One of the guys who always comes is Calros and he is always
hammered drunk, like you can smell the alcohol. He gave the closing prayer and
I was trying so hard no to laugh because it was literally the funniest thing I
have ever heard!
Before we came to the Açores this week, we had
a mission counsel- all of the zone leaders, the AP, and President & Sister
Tavares have a meeting talking about how we can fix problems in our mission. It
was like the Jedi counsel. They are all
so wise and it was a great experience! President Tavares talked about the
difference between faith with hope and faith with surety. He told us how we can
gain this faith with surety.
I already love the Açores and have learned so
much. I am excited to get to work! In this mission there is a saying, “Go to
the Açores as a boy, return as a man." I hope I can really learn here and
become a better person! Today we are going to a place called "Fire
Lake". I am freaking pumped! I love
you all--have a great week! Vamos Batizar!!!
- Elder Herrmann
- Elder Herrmann
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| On the plane |
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| In front of our house |
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| Sete Cidades |
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