Lights, Camera, Action!

Dear Family,

Sorry for my late email, but it is a situational thing, not an area change or pday change or anything drastic like that. Basically, my companion and I received an interesting and unique assignment this weekend.

So last week we learned that some people would be coming to Cape Verde to do some filming for a project the Europe Area Presidency was working on. Yes, Cape Verde is part of the Europe Area, at least as far as missions are concerned. So we didn´t know a whole lot of details, but we knew when they would be coming and that they wanted to be filming some members. So President asked Elder Shelhamer and I to set up an itinerary for them for their stay as well as set all the appointments and make the arrangements, etc. so everything would run smoothly. Also, we were asked to be at their disposal during the day to be translators and to get them around and such. So this past week we met with the first councelor in the Cape Verde mission Presidency as he is the mission PR representative and he gave us a list of families and their numbers that they recommended we use for our filming. So we spent a good bit of time scheduling everyone, and we ended up having more time, theoretically, then they had given us people. So we came up with another list of recent converts and other members with strong testimonies that would fit the bill as it were and scheduled them as well.

The idea behind the project is to film interviews with the members in a style similar to Mormon.org for a website the Europe Area is going to make for Portuguese speaking areas. However, it´s not going to be a Mormon.org site, only similar. So we have been filming them in short little segments just asking them simple gospel based questions that they can respond to and the Area can use in the website for nonmembers and investigators and such.

They flew in on Wednesday night. They got in on Thursday morning. They were expected at 9:50 so President said that we could go pick them up and give them a good welcome, but if their flight was too delayed we would contact a member that usually does late night pick ups. Well, the flight was delayed. So we called the member, but got kind of a nothing response, he appeared a little, disoriented or drunk. So we called President and he called the member and he got kind of the same impression. There was really no one else for the job, so we ended up coming back to the airport at midnight to pick them up and take them to their hotel. Their flight was even more delayed and then they had to wait for backage and stuff. Long story short, we didn´t end up going home until 2:30 in the morning. Yea. the next morning I remember waking up on my knees finishing my morning prayer. So, if nothing else, I´ve got myself conditioned to at least get up on time, even if I´m not fully awake.

That morning, Thursday, we had Zone conference, which was pretty good. After that though, we started our filming. The people who came were Brother and Sister Hatch and Brother Wills. Brother and Sister Hatch are American, but they work for the church doing similar filming type projects and the person who was originally supposed to come got sick so they were drafted to come along. Brother Wills is a proper English bloke. He´s really a hoot. So we filmed Thursday afternoon after which they treated us to dinner. Man, it was good. The next day, Friday, as you know was our pday. We were still completely wiped from staying up so late the previous night, so Friday morning we awoke, said our personal and companionship prayers, and went straight back to bed. After all, it was Pday. We got up around 10:00 which doesn´t seem like sleeping in too much outside the mission, but here it seemed like forever. We got up, cleaned our house and went grocery shopping. Then in the afternoon we started filming again, which is why we weren´t able to do emails yesterday. Again after the shoot they treated us to dinner. Way too kind. They really are great people.

So this morning, we did our normal morning routine but started filming a little earlier, at 10:00. We got a lot done in the morning because we didn´t have a lot of the noise and interruption problems we´d had in previous days. So we took lunch and got started again at 2:00. We´ve been filming interviews pretty much all afternoon. We ended a little early today because we went through our interviews fairly quickly and one wasn´t able to come. So after dropping them off at the hotel, Elder Shelhamer and I came here to the mission office to do our emails.

The whole filming and interview process is really fascinating though. It´s got all of the behind the scenes feel. Brother Wills does the filming, Brother Hatch does the sound. They have a reflecting sheet to help with lighting that Elder Shelhamer and I would trade off holding. We eventually rigged it up with some chairs so we didn´t have to hold it. But basically we´d brief the members a little about what we are doing, have them sign a contract stating that we can use the video for whatever purpose we find necessary and they won´t be paid for it, then go in and interview them. Since they church people don´t speak Portuguese, Elder Shelhamer or I would give the interview. We´d ask the questions in English and in Portuguese for the benefit of both parties, and then they´d respond in Portuguese. Elder Shelhamer and I would act as quality control to make sure the content was all kosher. Oh, and I also got to do the clapper board. Joy!

Anyways, this has certainly been the most interesting assignment I´ve had yet in the mission. And we´ve got one more day of filming tomorrow and they return to England.

Also, tomorrow is Fast Sunday, so don´t forget. I almost did.

Thanks for all the letters and such. Snail Mail may take a while to get here, but it is also much appreciated as are packages.

Much love,

~Elder Peterson