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!