Another Week Has Flown Away...

Dear Family,

Is it just me or does time disappear? There is always just too much to do and not enough time to do it. And it doesn't help when people miss their appointments for whatever reason. Blah. That's not cool.

What's also not cool, but it's kind of funny, is when parents use their kids to screen door approaches. You''ll knock and a kid will open the door. You'll ask if their parents are home and they'll go inside and ask their parents if they are home. Then they'll come back and tell us that they aren't home. What's interesting is when you knock and hear an adult yell ``who is it? And you call out "Elders`` and then a kid opens the door and says no one is home. Man, people here.

But at least we are teaching. I hear about other missions that you only teach 5 lessons a week which is crazy. If we teach less than 20 we're slacking. And that's in the office. Well, there are some areas here that are a little more tough, but man I can't imagine. The challenge here is to get people to realize that we have something they don't that will drastically improve their lives and get them motivated to do something about it. Here we can teach almost anyone, but it's a lot more difficult to get them to make changes in their lives.
The two biggest problems here are Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. And they are huge here. So, that's something we have to work with a lot. Man it's crazy how many drunk people we run into on the streets every day, and weekends and holidays are worst. It's interesting the missionary handbook says that weekends and holidays are the best days to find people at home with their families. Here it's almost the opposite. The weekends and holidays everyone is out partying and getting wasted. And that's another thing, we really have to watch the recent converts and even members because sometimes they'll fall into temptation and do those things during holidays too.

But the work is progressing. And I'm still in Africa. Just in case you forgot.

Christian- Write me you bum.

Bonnie- Write me you bum.

Cookie- What's up? How's life? Id like to hear from you.

America- How are the kids? What's your housing situation? I'd like to hear from you.

Sarah- That superhero game packlett I got a few weeks ago was sweet. Emails are sweet too.

Neal- Thanks for the email.

Josh- Write me you bum.

Mom- I'm doing fine, but I haven,t gotten any letters or packages from home in the last month or so.

Dad- Tell me how the Fathers and Sons camp out goes.

Grant- Good luck in Alaska

Merilee- Don't eat or drink anything that looks iffy, no matter what anyone else says.

All of My Other Friends- Please write your poor suffering (for information about your lives) friend in Africa. I really don't have as much contact with the real world as you probably think.

Loves and Kisses to all.

Your Favorite
~Elder Peterson (of the Canutey deliciousness variety)

Oh and the pictures.
So, obviously I spend a lot of time drawing. That's what much of my lunch time goes to these days. I really should be taking naps.
I also got a real haircut last P-day. I was so excited I took pictures. I really honestly don't like the buzz cut look on me. Missionary standard is more my style.
And I just had to include a picture of our magical Narnia key. That's the key to the Mission Office. oh yea.
Then there's my lovely desk space. See anything you like?

Transferencia Tres

Dear Family,

That means transfer three in portuguese. In case you didn´t catch that right off.

So this week has been doid própi. Or ´really crazy´ in Creole. Since Elder Isaacson went to São Vincent, I am the man. That means that every thing financial goes through me. That also means that I´m supposed to know how to do everything. Yea... we´re in trouble.
Well, it´s actually not that bad. But we have been staying in the office a lot more than usual. Kind of. Ok, so with Elder Isaacson, we would rush or chop our studies and lunch so we could get to proselyting more quickly. With Elder Shelhamer, my new companion, we´re taking it a little more slowly. This is also due in part to the fact that we no longer have as much access to the Hiace as we used to. With Elder Isaacson the Hiace stayed locked in the church´s parking lot. We live 10 seconds from the church so we had instant access to a vehicle if we needed one. For example, we would drive to and from the office every day. Sometimes we would give other elders rides to things they needed. Because of our access to the Hiace we used to be #1 on everyone´s call list if anything happened or needed to happen.

But starting this transfer, the Hiace has to stay at the mission home at night. So that means, first of all, that we have to take a taxi to and from the office every day. We get reimbursed for it, but it´s kind of a pain. Also, we don´t have the mobility we once enjoyed. Also, we haven´t been getting as many calls, which is nice. Also, our house is the best house in the mission. Technically the Assistants´ house is nicer, but ours is nice and we are very nicely situated. We have the church around the corner, the barber down the street, the internet across the block, the grocery store within quick and easy walking distance, an ice cream shop next to the internet, the bank across the street, the post office next to the bank, and pretty much anything else we need. So technically we really don´t need the Hiace. But that little extra mobility was nice.

Anyways, where I was going with this was that we no longer chop our studies, except for language, we still have to be in the office at 10:00, and we no longer chop our lunch. So that means that we have to go back to the office after lunch to finish anything that we didn´t get done before. Of course this cuts into our proselyting time a bit, but I feel that because we´re not rushed all the time, and we get sufficient time to prepare every day, our lessons are of better quality. Quality over Quantity right?

But the work in the office is going pretty good. There were only a few things that I didn´t get to see or do when Elder Isaacson was here and those few things I just call and ask him about. In the course of our work we have found some holes in our records and other discrepancies so we´ve begun work to fix that. So I´ve got my waders on because we will be swimming in paperwork. Ah, the life of a Financial Secretary.

Something funny that I´ve noticed here are the ice cream trucks. You know how in the US the ice cream trucks all play happy music to attract children and such? Here all the ice cream trucks play rap. It´s hilarious. Just picture that in your mind.

Also cereal here is somewhat expensive, so something that we do is we buy a big cheap box of cornflakes and just mix that with our other cereal. It doesn´t really hurt the taste and it adds a good bit of cheap filler.

Regarding Aunt Amy´s inquiries, the temperature here is pretty much the same. The only real temperature differences are hot and hot with a breeze. The ocean wasn´t that cold. I think part of it might have been because I took cold showers so I was used to it. But it was really sweet. That´s definately one of the highlights of my mission so far.

Pants- Ok, so I´m a little more out of the loop than you think, so you´re going to have to give me the scoop on why you would have stayed for spring term, why you might not, and what eventually happens. Also, you will only study 36 hours? isn´t that normal? heh. Another question, are you ever really not stressed? I´m not sure that´s healthy. Just as long as you actually relax during summer break I guess it´s ok. Keep me posted.

And all you other boogers out there, write me. My email is canute.peterson@myldsmail.net. My blog is elderpeterson.blogspot.com.
I love you!

~Elder Canute Peterson

Pictures are as follows:
Barbecue we had for Elder Isaacson before he left.
A picture of most of the missionaries in Praia at the end of last transfer
Elder Isaacson and I at the airport before he headed out
A sweet view of Praia and the sea that I found

Friday P-Day

Dear Family,

Today is Friday and also p-day. that is cool. Also, today we are having a Barbecue. That is because some of the Elders in the Office are leaving. Turns out, after only 3 weeks of training as a Financial Secretary, I am now the man. My companion, Elder Isaacson, is headed for Mindelo as a Zone Leader. I´m getting another American, Elder Shellhammer as my companion. So yay, I not only get to continue to try and remember everything that I´m supposed to do, but I get to train someone while I´m doing that. Yay. Oh, and keep this under wraps, the other Elders won´t know about transfers until Saturday night. We get advanced warning because we have to do payments and buy tickets for Inter-Island travel and such. So we have known about transfers since Wednesday. Working in the office isn´t all bad.

Also, this past week we haven´t had a whole lot of water in our apartment because the one Water/Electric company here has been having problems with their pump. There was a period where all of Praia was without water for several days. It got pretty bad. we didn´t have any real problems, but a few days I ended up bathing and shaving with less than 2 liters of water. It was quite the challenge. One thing is for sure, this mission will make me appreciate so much more living in a country where you don´t have to wonder whether you will have water or power when you wake up.

also I´ve been pretty tired this week. It all kind of started when we played soccer monday morning. We only had the two teams instead of the normal 3, so we played without subs. Also I played pretty hard. We´ve been working in the office a lot this week as well, trying to do all the things that we hadn´t done yet, including many things that would normally have waited until next week, only Elder Isaacson is leaving and he wanted to make sure that I knew how to do everything. Well, I´ve seen just about everything, I´ve just got to try to make sure that I can remember everything. Yea...

So the other day I saw two puppies fighting. It was funny.

Also sometimes we´ll see people sweeping the dirt from their dirt floor, or the sidewalk, or the road. I´m not sure how effective that is.

And the other day I was thinking about how we used to listen to the Saturday Night Program on the radio as a family and how I missed that. that was a loooong time ago. And all of our funny little Family Home Evening games like ´Water in the Face´and ´Beat the beater´ Man, good times.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed General Conference, I certainly did even though our internet connection was a little weak and we missed a lot of the Sunday Afternoon Session. And we missed the Priesthood Session because it was playing at roughly 11 or 12 at night here in Cape Verde. Fortunately they already have it up on the internet, and being in the Office I have constant internet access, so when we´re waiting for a payment to go through or for a fax or a bill or something, I can catch some of that.

So, keep it chill.

Sarah-- I got your package with the spiderman game-lettes. They are funny and cool. Also the pictures of Luke are way tight. Also, your blogs are always a welcome addition.

With regards to the Pictures that I attached--

A few weeks ago (remember last week I forgot my camera cord so I couldn´t attach pictures) we had a baptism in the ocean. I think I may have mentioned this, but if not, IT WAS AWESOME. so I attached a few pictures from that. The picture with me and two guys is me and Frank and John. I didn´t baptise either, because at this point I had already made the emergency transfer so they were no longer my investigators, but I had been teaching them up to that point. So it was cool to be at their baptism even if I wasn´t directly involved. The other picture is of me and one of the Sisters´ investigators who I did baptise because the Sisters couldn´t. But yea, baptism in the ocean, all right.

I also attached several more dog pictures so you can see more examples. I figured i shouldn´t be overly biased and show only the nastiest dogs, so I put some more healthy looking ones as well.

The picture with the orange and yellow house was kind of a funny story. Elder Isaacson and I saw these houses and we thought, man this is a perfect representation of the Kingdoms of Glory. The big, brightly painted, well kept one in the middle is the Celestial Kingdom. The medium, whitewashed, less well kept one on the left is the Terrestrial Kingdom, and the small, unpainted, stone, sheet metal, and board shack on the right is the Telestial Kingdom. think about that.

The one with all of us in shorts and t-shirts is after soccer. The guy under me in the blue shirt is some of the other elders´ investigator but the rest of us in the picture are missionaries.

The one with us and the Sisters is our District, the Assistants (who are technically part of our district), and the Zone Leaders.

The big city view is the view from the top of my apartment building.

Then an old gutted van that we pass every day on the way to lunch. I just thought it was funny.

And Elder Isaacson and the member family that feeds us throughout the week. It´s not a thing where they just feed us out of the goodness of their hearts, we pay them, but we still like to eat there. They´re a great family.

And yea, other dog pictures scattered throughout. Enjoy.

Keep writing. Love you all!

Elder Peterson

I Have Bad Luck With P-Days...

Dear Family,

yea... General Conference is happening on P-day. Conference is cool, but I´d prefer it to not interefere with the one day during the week that I´m not working my butt off. Oh well, it´s always good to hear the words of living prophets.

So mom wanted a run down of a ´Day in the Life´ so I´m going to give a schedule of the average day.

First, I wake up at 6:30 every morning. Every morning. Then we say our prayer as a companionship. After that I´ll usually have to go to the bathroom. I feel like it´s a sign of good health that I´m passing bowl movements regularly. Then after that I´ll say my personal prayer to start the day. Then I´ll do my exercises for the day for 30 minutes. Monday and Thursday I work on my legs and hips, Tuesday and Friday are arms, chest and shoulders, and Wednesdays and Saturdays are abs and back. So, woot for a personal exercise program.

After that fun little bit, I´ll take a shower. Even though I have warm water in my new apartment, I start my showers cold to keep myself used to it because I know I won´t have warm water in all of my apartments here. Then after that I´ll shave and get dressed and ready for the day. Then I´ll eat cereal and some fruit. I really don´t have time to eat much else. So then I will have personal study. I start by reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon after which I will study something else usually in Preach my Gospel or one of the other books in the approved missionary list. Yea, there´s a list. After that totally sweet bit of personal study, I´ll get together with my companion and we´ll have companion study. Oh, and every study begins and ends with a prayer. So in Comp study we´ll share some insights from personal study and then plan for our lessons during the day. If we end up with extra time, which isn´t very often since I´ve got to the office, we´ll do some practices or read from Preach my Gospel or something.

At this point, most missionaries would have another hour to study the language. We in the office don´t get such a luxury. We have to be in the office at 10:00. So we hit the office where we do any number of financial and administrative type things to make sure that the mission runs smoothly. We pay for travel, food, housing, utilities, everything. We also give reimbursements to missionaries who have to buy things with their own money that we are responsible for. And also, because the Church is very organized and exact with its money, we have to register every purchase, movement, and anything else that happens. So there is a ton of paperwork. We have to run errands around the city to pay bills, get bills, pick up cargo from the airport and other such things. This past week I began the process to get my own Cape Verde drivers license. The health test was easy. They just asked me how I was feeling that day. I said I was good and they signed me off. The next day I picked up a form that said I was healthy. Things here are... different.

So at around 1 in the afternoon we´ll eat lunch at a members house. Then depending on whether or not we have more things to finish at the office we´ll either head back to the office early or actually take a regular lunch hour at our apartment. After lunch is when our proselyting starts. Oh, and our lunch is 2 hours. We don´t take a dinner break. so lunch is 1-3 (unless we have work in the office to finish before proselyting and therefore have to chop lunch) and we work from 3-9 proselyting. Proselyting includes teaching lessons, walking, knocking doors, and doing contacts. Fun stuff.

At the end of the day because I am District Leader, I will recieve a call from the sisters to let me know they are at home. The other elders in my District are the Assistants so they don´t call in to me. Then I will call the Zone Leaders and let them know that we are all home. We have to be home at 9:00 unless we are in an appointment. Then it´s 9:30. So we have to let the Zone Leaders know that we are home before 9:30. So when we get home we do our daily planning where we review what we did that day and plan what we will do the next day, who we will teach, what we will teach them, when we will teach them, back up plans and such. Then I´ll eat a quick dinner, write in my journal, brush my teeth and hit the sack. Oh and also, every lesson begins and ends with a prayer, every time we leave our apartment we say a prayer, every meal begins with a prayer, every planning session begins and ends with a prayer, and before we go to bed we say personal and companionship prayer. As you can see, we have to rely heavily on the Lord and His help.

So, that´s a day in my life more or less. That´s the basic kind of every day things that happen. And there are always variations that happen because of our work in the office. For example, our morning studies will often get shortened or chopped, as will our lunch. Such is the sacrifice of office work.

Also, I forgot my camera cable this week, so no pictures. Sorry!

~Elder Peterson

Also, totally awesome that so many of my friends have sent me emails and updates since that fateful revelation that I can receive emails from anyone. But I still am not able to send emails directly to anyone other than the Fam, so I will be putting replies and personal tidbits at the end here. So heads up.

Lindsey- Got your email. Thanks for writing! And yes, I did love my life when I heard I was Han Solo. But I don´t remember labeling the picture so it must just be obvious that I´m Han Solo. or everyone just assumed that I made myself the coolest character because I drew it. Oh well, i´m living the life. But yea, I get the emails, I just can´t write back directly.

Preston- Sup dude!? I´m doing good, just chillin on a mish in Africa. Good to hear that you´re still keeping in touch with Grant and CP. Are you playing BF2 with them as well? What are you up to these days?

A2- Hey man! It´s sweet that you did so good in your classes. We´ll have to have a muscle contest when I get back. I am working out daily you know... Lol, probably not as intense as you work out though. That´s sweet that you got the best score on your PT. It´s good to know that our crazy scout trips and jumping off cliffs paid off in the end. Also if you´re close to George you should hang out with him for me. I haven´t heard from that kid in forever. Keep it up dude!