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