At least this time he has pictures...

Dear Family,

This last week was crazy.

I´m just saying. So, As I said last week, I´m now financial secretary and District leader. What little extra time I once had to do personal study and such has disappeared. Here in Cape Verde instead of taking one hour for lunch and one hour for dinner, we take 2 for lunch and no dinner. Here in the office, that 2 hours often becomes one as we chop time out of our lunch to finish things in the office so that we can do our proselyting in the afternoon. Needless to say, I´m a lot more tired now than before.

Also, my language study block got the chop as well. Normally missionaries will have 8.00 personal study, 9.00 companionship study, and 10.00 is language study. We have to be at the office at 10.00. So.... yea. I really need to focus so that I don´t start losing my Portuguese, especially because my companion is American. Also, working with numbers and money and computer screens is nice sometimes, but sometimes it feels like i´m in school again, and I start to get a headache. It´s a different life here in the office. We stil proselyte in the afternoon, but often times I don´t even feel like a missionary. I´m trying to stay on top of things, and I know that whom the Lord calls He qualifies, so I will trust that He knows what He´s doing and just keep working.

As for the interesting things that I have observed...

The other day I saw the movie Anastasia playing on someone´s tv in Portuguese. It was pretty funny, It also made me think of Megan and how she would always watch that movie. Good times...

Every so often, we´ll see ladies going down the streets sweeping up trash. Little sanitation crews I guess. Hey, if it gives someone work, and it really does need it...

It´s also kind of sad how often I´ll see someone with a physical deformity be it a hump back, missing a limb, a defective limb, or something else. I rarely saw this in America, whether it´s because of the medical care or what I´m not sure, but it´s a daily thing to see someone walking down the street with crutches because he is missing a leg, or some such thing.

Also, although the missionaries here all of indoor plumbing, many people here have to fill up water jugs every day so they can have water. It´s a different world out here.

But they do have a grocery store chain out here called Calú e Ángela which is basically the walmart out here. It´s primarily a grocery store, but you can find most anything else out here you need. And it´s cheap. that´s something really nice about Praia. When I leave here Í will miss that. but it´s still funny sometimes to eat off brand Ramen noodles. that´s right, off brand ramen noodles. think about that one.

Sometimes when we are walking down the street we´ll hear someone yell `Elder!´ We´ll turn and look, but they are talking to someone else. Apparently, parents here have started naming their children ´elder´. It causes some confusion for us, but it´s also kind of funny.

What´s also kind of funny is how well drunk people here speak english. We´ll often be walking in our area and be approached by a drunk man and he´ll start talking to us in good english. We generally don´t talk long, but it seems that drunk people here speak better english than sober people. Crazy!

Well, my time is about up. Hope this was a good update for ya´lls. Keep it reals and keep writing.

Elder Peterson

Wait, today´s not monday...

Dear Family,

Last week I was a part of an emergency transfer. I was not involved in any way other than that I was moved. And man, was the move a big one. I am now Financial Secretary in training and District Leader. I am currently in the middle of my second transfer here. I´ve been in Cape Verde all of 2 months today. So needless to say, I have a lot to learn in not a lot of time. With this move came some changes. For example, my P-day is now on Saturday which you may think would be cool, only a lot of other things happen on Saturdays such as Baptisms, Baptismal Interviews (which I will now be giving as District Leader), District Conference, and General Conference. These are all good things, but I would prefer them not to happen on my P-day. What can you do?

Also, It appears that you fellows are now on Daylight Savings time which is Spring Forward right? So 5 is now 6 and such right? We don´t have daylight savings time here. Because of our relative latitude our days are generally from 6-ish to 7-ish pretty consistantly throughout the year. I´ll leave it up to you fellows to figure out our new time difference.

Oh, and my new apartment is sweet. Most important thing here is we have hot water. So yesterday I took my first hot shower in 2 months. It was glorious. Also, shaving with warm water is a touch more comfortable than cold shaving. We have more room and it´s over all just nice. We also don´t have cockroaches in this apartment. So I know that I only recently sent those pictures of my old apartment, but those are already old news. Like my computer. I don´t have any pictures of the new place yet, but I will probably next week. Also, I managed to get some pictures of my old area last week which is good, because if I hadn´t, I wouldn´t have the chance because of this change.

So speaking of pictures, I will be posting some. Mom wanted some pictures of gross dogs. Unfortunately, I only came across some of the better examples while I had my camera. It´s a little hard to see the dirt and disease on these particular piles of flesh, but it´s there. I´ll keep my eyes out for an example that really shows what most dogs here are like.

Oh and because of the transfer I started a new planner and totally forgot my old one at the apartment, so a lot of the neat and interesting things I wanted to say will have to wait until next time. I still managed to get notes in my new planner though.
For example, many people here keep their electronics in the plastic as long as possible. Especially keyboards and remote controls. This is because of the dirt here. There is a lot of it. And with the ocean breeze blowing it everywhere, it gets everywhere. It´s ridiculous. The breeze is nice, the dirt is not.

Also, something that I thought was funny is that the secretaries have chosen Star Wars characters for us in the office. I´m Han Solo, Elder Isaacson is Luke Skywalker, Elder Balls is Chewbacca, and Elder Duarte is Jar Jar Binks. All of us except Elder Duarte are American. Elder Duarte is Cape Verdeian. Oh, and because of the nature of our work we have a Hiace which is our Milennium Falcon. I´m pretty sure I´ve explained Hiaces before, but it´s a van that is used everywhere here. I´m pretty sure they´re made by Toyota. They´re sweet.

And yesterday we taught an investigator that looks like the Actor with glasses in Bringing Down the House. I think that´s the movie anyways... With Steve Martin and Queen Latifah. Anyway, in the movie that I´m thinking about, the actor with the glasses starts dating Queen Latifah´s character and he gets corn rows or something at the end. It´s funny, but what´s more funny is that the investigator that looks like him is black and female.

So, I´m doing great here in Cape Verde. The work is moving and the Lord is helping me tons. Stay firm. Follow the Prophet. I love you.

~Elder Peterson


Oh, and merilee mentioned that either I forgot to add my muscle/tanline picture or maybe she just didn´t get it. Anyways, i´m adding it again just in case.

Freak, it´s taking forever to send, so I´m just gonna send a few pictures now, and some more in the office because we´re not constrained to a time or megabyte limit.

Tell Mom I Finally Got a Real Job

Dear Family,

So I finally learned how to use a camera and took many pictures during one lunch period. Mom as far as getting much more than this, it´s difficult because we are not allowed to take pictures during proselyting. At least we´re not supposed to. So you´ll have to be content with what I can snag on P-days and during lunch. As far as the pictures here, I know you all really enjoy the one with me flexing. I´m not sure what i´m really trying to show off, my muscles or tan line. You can admire whichever you think is more impressive.

So here are some more things about Cape Verde that I´m not sure I´ve shared yet. For example, it´s rather common for people to bath in the street. Really all they need is a bucket of water, a bar of soap, and a scrub brush. Also, nothing here has seat belts. So whenever we take a taxi or anything like that I tend to be afraid for my life. You will understand if you´ve read my previous emails detailing the traffic here.

Africa makes you appreciate things more. For example, a cup of honey costs about 5 dollars. I bit the bullet and got some. I use veeerry sparingly, but it is sooooo good. I also wish they had Tortillas, sour cream, refried beans, shredded chedder cheese, and microwaves. If you can guess what those ingredients make you get a cookie. Merilee will make it. The only cheese they have of any reasonable price is gouda. Which is ok when you have nothing else.

If you can´t tell from the pictures, we made chili the other day. It was pretty good, but I couldn´t help but think that it would have been a thousand times better with shredded chedder and sour cream. go figure.

So every P-day in the morning we play soccer, or as it´s called here, football. This isn´t good for me. The first week I broke my right big toenail in half and today I cracked the nail on my left big toe. I also have received various scratches, scrapes, bumps, and bruises. But it´s fun.

Also, the other day I met a Cape Verdeian with a lisp. I thought that was incredibly funny. it´s also slightly less noticable in Portuguese than it is in English as Portuguese tends to mush their S´s anyways.

So I´m doing good here. The work is progressing. We had a baptism saturday which was awesome. I baptised the one on the right in the group picture. He also had me confirm him yesterday. I was pretty surprised and not really prepared for that. Fortunately I have been reading my missionary handbook in Portuguese which has all the ordinances in it. I hadn´t read it recently but I remembered enough to get through the confirmation. so that was cool.

Right now we have so many people we are trying to teach that our week is almost already full of appointments. The entire week. And that´s with one lesson per investigator. We really need to do some splits or something. It´s hard to focus on the investigators that are really going to progress with this many people to teach. And at the same time we want to make sure that we don´t miss someone who will accept the gospel. What can you do? Work hard and follow the spirit is really all you can do. Pray for us.

I love you.

Elder Peterson

Transfers

March 1, 2010

Dear Family,

I´m staying in Praia, same area, same companion, heck our whole district is staying the same. So that´s good. I don´t have to pack or worry about luggage weight. I got another haircut today, my second here in Cape Verde. It´s pretty good. I was going to try for a more traditional hair cut, so I told him longer on top. Apparently, longer on top means 2 centimeters on top instead of 1. So, my hair is still ridiculously short. But that´s ok.

I started keeping a tally of people I see using the restroom in public. I´m at 10. I also had a lot of other neat observations and cool things to say that I had written down in my other planner, but I left it in the apartment, so you´re going to have to wait until next week to hear them.

As far as the pictures I´m sending, mom wanted to know if I had taken pictures of my apartment, which I had. So here they are. And a picture of a potato that was in the shape of a gun. Also, uploading pictures uses my time on the computer, so this email will probably be a little short. I hope these pictures are worth it for you. They say that a picture is worth thousand words. So this should be a wordy letter.

Oh yea, one thing that I noticed is that my scripture case has become somewhat of a purse for me. Considering the fact that I don´t carry anything in my pockets for safety reasons, i have to put everything in my scripture case. It was an interesting and kind of saddening realization. I don´t plan on continuing like this when I get back. I will continue to wear scarfs. And by continue, I mean start wearing scarfs again, becuase it´s way too hot to wear scarfs here.

It was cool to see pictures of the new addition to the Peterson family. Welcome Austin Cornelius!

Oh also, i recently was informed that I can receive emails from anyone, I just can only send emails to immediate family. So if you can tell all of my friends to email me, I might actually hear from them.

Mom also wanted more description on the disgusting dogs and what made them so. And what breed. And other such ridiculous things. Mom, the dogs are dirty, diseased, have open sores, and are gross. Also, i never was very informed on different dog breeds, but even if I was, i´m pretty sure it would be impossible to find a breed in all the mutts and inbreeds here.

The creole here is difficult. Portuguese is fine. I can understand that, but Creole is pretty dang tough. It´s like lazy portuguese with random words thrown in. And when someone talks with a mumble, pretty much everyone here, it´s close to impossible to understand what they are saying. Makes me glad that I have a companion who understands what people are saying. But I didn´t expect to understand everything after one transfer. Oh, but i was hoping.

I´m continuing to teach in english to the Nigerians here. And translate in church. We did start a Gospel Principles class in english, which is nice. One of the Nigerians who has been here a while and understands Portuguese pretty well is teaching it. That should help our english speaking members and investigators have a more spiritual experience at church.

Also, another thing I just remembered that I think is kind of funny. the people here in Cape Verde don´t think they are african. They don´t consider Cape Verde part of Africa. I think they almost consider themselves part of Europe, but I´m not sure where they get this idea. Maybe it´s because they watch so much Portuguese soccer, or they receive so much help and welfare from Europe. I just thought it was funny.

Anyways, that´s it for this week. I´ll try to remember more next week.

I love you all. keep writing.

~Elder Peterson

Scout camp anyone?

February 22, 2010

Dear Family,

The bugs here really like me. I counted the other day and I have 48 bug bites on my arms, legs, hands, and feet respectively. It´s not fun.

Also, there are no pictures this week because the internet place we normally go to doesn´t have power so we went to a different place and their computers aren´t recognizing my camera. So, next week. Also I had a video of my bug bites that I was going to send with my blurb about being eaten alive, but that will have to wait as well.

This week was pretty good. It´s always interesting to see or hear things from home here. For example Celine Dion´s hit song ´my heart will go on´ is playing right now in the internet place. The other day we had a lesson with an investigator who had a Barrack Obama bag, and barack Obama belt buckles abound. Not even kidding.

Merilee, I heard that Miley Cyrus song the other day and thought of you.

Cool is not a word you think an old person would say. But I hear old people say it all the time here. It´s hilarious. The greetings here consist of ´tudo´ and any of the following, ´fixe, cool, bem, bom, and really anything else you wanted to slap on. for example, I heard an old woman say ´tudo cool´ the other day. I laughed on the inside.

I also laugh a little every time I see a car backing up in the middle of the road, which isn´t that uncommon believe it or not. It´s mostly hiaces or taxis that pass someone and go back to get them. Not the smartest idea to straight up back up in the middle of the road, but they do it and the other cars on the road just do whatever. It´s all part of the crazy traffic here.

Mom, you wanted a map, but I don´t really know where to get one. Cape verde isn´t a place easily mapped with the organization more random and hectic than Grain Valley. I´ll keep looking though.

The other day I ate my first whole fish straight up. We had a bowl of fish and rice and a plate of fish. Fortunately, the fish had been fried. It was pretty good. I had to watch out for the fish bones though. Those are quite annoying. I also ate a fish eye at the encouragement of another elder. It was al ittle strange, but not as bad as I was expecting. It kind of tasted like egg.

The work is coming along here. It´s hard to have lessons with members because there´s really only 5 members that will ever teach with us, and with 3 companionships in the ward, the members would almost have to be full time missionaries themselves to be able to teach any significant time with us. So we get a few lessons with members here and there.

I translated again on Sunday. It always seems to get easier until the last speaker or so. Then I barely understand anything. I still have a lot to learn. But I´m still in my first transfer so I´m not sweating it.

That´s all for now. Love you. Keep writing.

~Elder Peterson

Finaly Some pictures. Thank google.

Feb 15, 2010

Dear Family,

This week we Myldsmail.net made an upgrade. To Google. So my new email address is canute.peterson@myldsmail.net. If you happen to mail anything to my old address it will be forwarded, but just for your information.

Also, with regards to snail mail--

Packages-

Elder Canute Peterson

Cape Verde Praia Mission

17 Rua Povoacao Velha

Palmarejo, Praia

Ihla de Santiago, Sao Tiago

Cape Verde

Regular Letters-

Elder Canute Peterson

CP 420

Praia

Ihla de Sao Tiago

Cape Verde

The postage usually takes from about 2-4 weeks. Depending on whether I´m in Praia or not, I will receive my letters every 2-4 weeks. These 2 windows may or may not overlap, I´m not sure.

Also, I received my first package from home chock full of taco seasoning. Score! Also there´s a flash drive. So I have copied all of my pictures up to now onto it and will be sending it home.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. Google does the upload a lot faster. Also, I like google. Also, this letter might be a little shorter and more scattered because of the picture and new email situation.

As far as my week, it was good. I got 2 letters from friends and a package. The letters were from right after christmas and new years, so that was kind of funny and strange at the same time. We had another baptism which was really awesome. The work continues to be hard, but it´s rewarding. I translated for the nigerians again. I was starting to get into a groove and of course as soon as that happens a speaker gets up and starts speaking very quickly. It was difficult. But that´s just the Lord pushing me. Heaven knows I need the push. I never was very self motivated.

Did anyone get the new Liahona magazine? We did. It´s really neat. You should check it out if you get the chance. Also, now that you mention things I need, I did acquire speakers for my cd player so I can now listen to music. The only problem is that I have only 1 cd. And listening to MoTab is awesome, you can only listen to the same songs so many times in a week much less for the rest of my mission.

The pictures are me and my companion chilling with the scriptures at a lighthouse we visited last p-day, pictures of me and our baptisms, a picture of me, elder brown, and President neves, and I think a picture of the city of Praia from one of our investigator´s houses. I need more time...

Write more! I love you.

Elder Canute Peterson