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