Jan 13, 2010

Dear Fam,
So, I had my email written with 5 seconds to spare and the window closed so no email. Sorry. But if you could type this up and put it on my blog, that would be pro..
So I got my flight plans the other day. I fly out the 19th at 9 am and I fly to Boston where I have a 5 hour layover. yay. Then I fly straight to Cape Verde where I will arrive roughly 10:00 am the 20th. I fully expect to get right to work, so I hope I am able to sleep during the travel.
I also anticipate not being able to understand anything once I get there because I'm learning Portugues and they speak Creole. I'm planning on meeting with some teachers here who served in Cape Verde and getting a little orientation so I'm not 100% lost when I get there.
Last Tuesday I got to see Grant, which was really cool. We only got half an hour, but that was still awesome. It stink that it's going to be 2 more years before I see anyone again, but Grant did give me some more white shirts and his mission triple combination. That's sweet. I plan on taking full advantage of those.
It's a shame my email died, because I can't remember all the things I said. Sad day.
But really, this week wasn't terribly eventful.
Irmao Paries came back from break which was cool.
Oh, I'm sending pictures. Yea, but you should know that. In fact, you knew that before you read this. hmmmmm.... but as I was saying, I am planning on sending more before I leave so you know everyone in my district and all of my teachers. I'm having to acquire picture from the other Elders from before I got my camera. That will be neat. I also got pictures of Grant while he was here. The card you sent was huge, which is cool. If I ever fill it, I'll just send it home.
America, sorry for dropping the ball on Christmas. I'm glad Mom was able to take care of that. Also, it's nice to hear about what's going on with your family...keep writing!
Cookie, thanks for the update.. I'm sorry your children are sick and difficult. I'm sure those moments when they are cute and happy make up for it.
I hear the farm got a new stove. I'm sure yo find Christian curled up in front of it often. Where I'm going, yo don't need a heater. Ever. It'll be interesting to go from Utah winter to Cape Verde winter. Or in other words, cold to hot.
Thanks for writing. Keep it up. Don't worry about me, I'm on the Lord's errand and He'll be watching over me.
I love you all,

Elder Canute Peterson

P.S. I will call home during my lay over some time during the hours of 4 and 10 pm EST. PPS Forward Josh's letter to him, please.

Brigham Young V Pirates

Neal's envelopes from Elder Canute-

Jan 2, 2010

Christmas was good. I hope you have all received the letters I sent by now. This week has gone by pretty quickly. The language is going well. My district is pushing to stop speaking English until we leave. Of course there will be situations that we'll have to speak English, such as when speaking to people that don't speak Portuguese, obviously.

I'm pretty excited for Grant to head out to BYU. I haven't heard from Christian in a while. You alive bud? If you write me I'll write you. That's the rule. What do you think of my envelope art? I have to concentrate a chunk of P-day to pump those out. It's a little difficult because I make an effort to make every one different. It's quite the exercise in creativity.

It's dry here. My knees crack because of this and the constant prayer. Vaseline saves knees. My companion's knees actually started to bleed at one point. Visas have started coming for missionaries going to Brazil.

Elder Arnett was temporarily assigned with his district to Salt Lake South until he gets his visa. Tough to believe that I'm heading out to the field in 2.5 weeks. My zone leaders went to Mozambique just last Monday. Crazy! I remember a statistic that only about 1% of all missionaries called go to an African mission. What are the odds?! Well, 1 in 100 I suppose.

Anyways, nothing really exciting happened this week that I didn't mention in my email. I love you all! Keep writing.

Elder Canute Russell Peterson

Addressed "The Goat Farm" 12/26/2009 Picture of our Home-

It's Christmas morning and right now I'm waiting for the devotional. I don't know who is speaking but in anticipation of it being a General Authority, namely an Apostle, I've been waiting in line for quite some time. Certainly has given me opportunity to write letters. So after the devotional I will write who spoke.

Thanks for the package. I like both ties. The ugly one was perfect. I could not imagine a more revolving tie. I plan on wearing it tomorrow, I haven't eaten the chocolates yet but they will be enjoyed.

Oh, and Elder L. Tom Perry just walked in, Awesome! So..that was legit. I'm just saying. But now I'm doing laundry. Yes, laundry on Christmas. That's what happens the year Christmas stole P-day. At least my laundry is going to be cleaned. I would not want to go stinky for a week.

My companion Elder Brown has a ton of goods, Metric ton. He got a prayer doll from one of his buddies. It's pretty hilarious. I'm working on sending pictures, but there are only two machines in the book store and there is always one broken and the other has a line roughly the size of Texas. And I can't upload pictures to email. I am getting plenty however. Don't you fret yourselves.

Anyways, Merry Christmas! I love you! Keep writing. Elder Canute Russell Peterson

Enclosed note cards: Deist- The belief in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it.

Revival- An energetic meeting intended to revive religious faith. Characterized by preaching and singing.

Enlightenment- The philosophical movement characterized by belief in the power of human reason.

Picture of Snowman attacking New York City-12/25/09

Loving the pink stationary? Thank Dad. How's life? I like getting your letters but it's a little strange getting them a week later after I've read your emails, I like it though. Keep writing.

One of the Elders in my district is taking a few days of medical leave. We will miss him and hope he gets better soon. He's keeping all of his stuff in our room while he's gone so we're anticipating he's back and better soon. Christmas is next week. It is also on P-day. I hope it doesn't interfere too much, because I really like my P-day.

The temple will be closed for the next 2 weeks so today was my last visit for a while. Lame... I did a puzzle today. It was a weird puzzle but it was refreshing.

Today was a pretty crazy P-day. We've been running all over today. But, I got my laundry finished, I went to the temple, I had 3 good meals, I got letters and I wrote letters. Pretty much as good a P-day as any other. Next P-day is Christmas. Bring it.

The lines for pizza are long so I'm writing while I wait. Elder Nunez is eating salad with cottage cheese. Never dressing for that guy. He's pretty health conscious. Might be because he used to weigh 40 lbs more than he does now.

I'm tired a lot these days. 8 hours of sleep never seems to be enough. Hopefully I adjust before I die of sleep deprivation. Which doesn't make sense because I get 8 hours. Why am I always so tired? No matter, all is well. Keep writing.

Elder Canute Peterson

Death Star drawing- 12/12/2009

Here's a letter that I didn't also send as an email. Woot. Elder Brown in my district is a quote master. He's also Hilarious. Actually, all the Elders in my district are pretty funny. But I get the feeling that Elder Brown and I would have been really good friends if we had met before the mission.

I got a haircut today. I think it looks pretty good. I've heard a lot about Cape Verde in the last little bit. A few teachers here went there on their missions. It sounds pretty awesome.

So I clicked send on my email with five seconds to go. I hope it sent. If it didn't, I'm including the written version. I wrote it first knowing I would have to kick it in gear to plug a letter out in the limited time I have. I'm doing laundry right now. Fun. I would write more, but I'm practically already sending a novel.

Elder Canute Peterson

Clarifying Dear Elder. It's a website. You sign up for it. It's not complicated. My mailbox is #170 same as my regular address in case you forgot. My email address is canuterp@myldsmail.net. I get dear Elders the same day they are sent except Saturday and Sunday. I can only reply on P-day.

I don't have a set time to check emails on Friday, my P-day, but I usually do so between 1 and 6. Ok. If you have any other questions, Dear Elder them to me. Or mail me.

Christian- Are all the girls still chasing you? Why didn't you send me the addresses in my phone? Has it snowed yet?

Mer- How are the mish papers coming? I got your letter with the tree but I couldn't read what was still intact, regarding baldy and the Hair. Please elaborate.

Sarah- Thanks for the update and cute pictures of that cylon baby of yours. And that was a pretty weird dream.

Bonnie- Write me.

Neal- Thanks for writing me. Even those small little nothing notes keep me going. As far as the green gravy, that's the Giant and the Beanstalk in Mickey's Christmas Carol he says "Yogurt" Look it up. Sally will love it. Also, I did indeed have a rootbeer float in your honor. It was delicious.

Cookie- Thanks for the update. Send pics.

America- How be your clan?

Grant- How's home? Have they put you to work yet? My teachers are Irmao Paskelt who went to Brazil. I Porto haven't seen Irmao Marriet. The schedule is rough. The food is good if you're smart. Portuguese is coming along. And yes I'm DL. and have been.

Anyways, this week was cool. Fast Sunday was unique. Part of it was because I had never prefaced it with three solid meals/day before. Also it snowed. Hah! I love watching snow fall. It made the mountains look really awesome. The first Presidency devotional was good. One thing I love about Sundays is that they play movies Sunday night after the devotional/fireside.

Augh! I hate sweaty hands. And recently my hands have begun to get sweaty every time I pick up a writing utensil. Anyone know why? Or how to fix it?

Also, my comp leaves for Canada on Tuesday so I will be put in a threesome with another companionship in my district. Sad day.

Before I arrived at the MTC I almost never dreamed. Or if I did I never remembered them. and rarely remembered having them. Since being in the MTC I have dreamed every night. I still only rarely remember what happened but the fact I recall having dreamed every night is odd to me. Most of them are bizarre. I wonder why this is.

Elder Arnett is still here and I see him about every day. He's supposed to have left already but he's still chilling because of visa issues.

My days are full of studying. Sometimes during missionary directed time I'll blow off a little steam with my district but it's a pretty intense schedule. Writing on P-days is nice. Writing letters has gone from one of my least favorite activities to nearly my most anticipated. Who knew? Well, other than everyone else who has served a mission.

Also, I wish I had played more volleyball the MTC. That's pretty much all I do during gym time and it's awesome. And no one else in my district likes going to choir practice so I have to persuade, plead, and guilt trip someone into going with me. Yay.

I can't wait to open my birthday present that has been stashed in my closet since I got here. Oh, and if you write me genuine letter I get it in the mail, I will write back an actual letter. Win!

That is all for now. Keep sending letters and emails and dear Elders! Thanks for everything so far I got the tree and candy. Thanks mom. I love you all. Keep it real.

Elder Canute Russell Peterson

Happy New Year

Dear Family,

First of all, sorry that i wasn't able to get back on last week when I said I would. Second of all, thank you to everyone who wrote me. Third of all, did you recieve the letter in the mail that I wrote in the stead of a full and complete email? If so, did you post it on my blog?
Yes I did receive all the dear elders and such. Only I got them on Monday. As far as my life...

It snowed here all tuesday and wednesday which was pretty dang sweet. I'm just saying.

Wednesday morning is when my district does our service. We clean the building where most of the classrooms are. Normally we have to clean the bathrooms so last wednesday we got there early so we could get a better job. Unfortunately, they didn't give us a choice and we got stuck with bathrooms again. But, we finished early and got to clean the elevator which was pretty legit. Then we dusted; which you know they have nothing else for you to do when you're dusting pictures and stuff.

The also, wednesday is ice cream day which is great. I decided I would capitalize the situation and make myself a couple rootbeer floats. It then came to our attention that Elder Nunez in our district had never had one. So we told him he should try it but he didn't want to. We had to practically force this elder to even taste a Rootbeer floot. I never thought I'd see the day when I had to force someone to try a rootbeer float. He didn't even finish it. I guess it just goes to show. What it shows i'm not sure...

Oh yea, Happy New Year. I hope you keep all of the resolutions I know you made. :)

But other than that, nothing really different really happened. We have had a sub for Irmao Paries the past 2 weeks. The sub's name is Irma Olson and she rocks. Irmao Paskett has been here the whole time. He's awesome too. I just like my teachers, and whenever they have to be gone they get good subs. Woot.

but yea, not much else to report.

Elder Canute Russell Peterson

Christmas!

This is actually quite late, I am just now getting it posted... but you all understand, I'm sure.

Dear Family,

It's P-Day!!! Happy P-day! cough, I mean, Merry Christmas. The devotional this morning was by Elder L. Tom Perry and on Tuesday we saw Neil L. Anderson. It was pretty legit. My companion right now is Elder Brown. My original companion was Elder Teilor, but he went to Canada early because he speaks Portuguese already. I was in a trio companionship for a few days, but last week one of the elders went home. It was sad. So now it's just me and Elder Brown. He's a riot by the way. He quotes Nacho Libre, Napoleon Dynamite, Hot Rod, and pretty much every other awesome movie out there. He is a man after my own heart.

I will try to be on later tonight, but there are no promises. When I next get on I will have but 15 minutes. I'm going to say i will try to get on at 1:30 Utah time but I make no promises.

Christmas here is nice because it is all so Christ focused. Not many places can say that these days. I enjoyed the ties, especially the really ugly one. I will wear it tomorrow. The chocolates will be enjoyed.

be on later

elder peterson

(and an addition sent via snailmail...)


This is what I would have written if I was able to get back on my email. So, the talent show today was awesome. There were funny missionary song parodies, good music, a group of elders were human bagpipes, one elder made road runner with ballons, and another elder did a techno dance to a primary song. It was legit. One Elder took the song Santeria by sublime and parodied it calling it Santa Maria and talking about getting his visa to Brazil. A couple elders sang "Tracting in a Winter Wonderland. All in all it was pretty sweet. And I did manage to get my laundry done. Woot.

Also, my socks have been rubbing the hairs of of my legs so I have huge patches where the hair is shorter than the rest of my legs. Its obnoxious.

There is an elder who looks exactly like Matt Damon. Ill try to get a picture to prove it.

This next question is for Sarah or anyone else who is familiar with Battlestar Galactica and time to check IMDB.com. Its the actor who plays Admiral Adama the same actor who plays the teacher in the calculus movie 'stand and deliver'?

And the picture on page 107 of Preach my gospel looks kind of like Kevin Spacey and one of the Cylons on battlestar galactica.

Grant will get this one maybe. Street fighter named Akama. If you aren't familiar google it or ask Coleman, Pearce, David, or Aaron Marshall, cause they know. But like I was saying, street fighter character named Akama, almost the Portuguese word for bed. Its probably not as funny to you as it was to me, but I had this mental image of Akama in the bed that's way too small for him and he's just scowling. Maybe I'll put it on one of my envelopes. We'll see.

It's dry here, vaseline saves lives. And by lives, I mean hand and knees and elbows. Especially knees cause we pray a lot here. Last night we had a special Christmas devotional. The best part was when we sang the 12 days of Christmas MTC style. 1- Rock Solid testimony 2- free haircuts 3- new companions 4- chocolate milks 5- hours of gym (we went wild for that one) 6- thirty wake up 7- lukewarm showers 8- hours of rest 9- outbound calls 10- new commandments 11- Loads of laundry 12- hours of study

Tonight, or just now, we had a fireside by Greg Olson, who is a painter and did several of the pictures of Christ in Preach my gospel. Look him up, his stuff is good. his devotional as also good.

I don't know if any of you are aware, but I went to the dentist the other day to check out one of my teeth which was particularly sensitive. It felt like a part of the outer covering of my tooth had come off somehow. Turns out, it had. Apparently I grind my teeth. i dont now if its subconscious when I'm awake or when I sleep like Merrilee, but apparently this causes micro fractures in my teeth, and part of the outside fell off. But, and this is important, its not serious. The dentist gave me some special toothpaste to strengthen my teeth and reduce the sensitivity, but my tooth is fine. There is no decay or anything. The tooth will be fine. aHe said even if I did nothing my whole mission it would be fine. But, I'm still watching my sugars and acids more carefully than before. And I'm working on reducing stress and not grinding my teeth. Hopefully this will come to pass and my teeth will survive in Africa...

I'm doing well, love you all!

Canuters