Lazy Sunday

Dear Family,

the title of my email is a misnomer. Because on a mission there is no such thing as a lazy sunday.

This week was pretty eventful and uneventful at the same time.

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference. It went pretty well. Elder Tom and I gave a training and President Neves gave us a few more. Over all was long, but we got some good stuff out of it.

On Friday Elder Tom got sick. That was unfortunate. When you are in school staying home is cool because you can watch movies or get on the internet or do other stuff. On the mission, staying home is worse than going out and working because there is nothing to do at home except read scriptures which we already do all the time. I read a lot in the Old Testament. Fortunately I got past most of the really boring stuff in Numbers and started into Moses' discourse in Deuteronomy which is pretty interesting. But it got old fast. I slept a lot. Which was nice at first because missionary work is tiring, but after a while it got old as well. Later we got a member to lend us a guitar. That helped. But due to his sickness we weren't able to work all Friday or saturday morning. And we've been kind of taking it slow the past few days as he has been recovering.

The party you had for Grant, Dad, Luke, and Megan sounded really cool. I'm sad I missed it. Also, happy belated birthday to all related parties. I remembered last week that those birthdays would be happening but I forgot to write a note about it. Oh well, the email would either have been early or late since none of the birthdays fell on my P-day.

I attached pictures of the beach we run on in the mornings. But I forgot to change my camera settings so the pictures are roughly the size of Texas. Sarah can relate.

Tomorrow I head back to Praia for a Zone Leaders' Council, so I'll let you know how that pans out.

Dang, my time ran out too fast today. Well, thanks for all the letters and stuff. Until next time,

~Elder Peterson

Long Walks on the Beach

Dear Family,

I really like Fogo. It's chill here. Being a Zone Leader isn't that bad and I really like my companion, Elder Tom. Picture attached. I also attached some pictures of my new apartment. Here in the next few weeks I'll get some shots of my area and stuff.

Basically the subject of the email references the fact that we run along the beach 3 times a week for our morning exercises. Running on sand is hard, but it's good exercise. And I'm going to want to be in good shape for when we go to the volcano because I hear that it's a tough and tiring climb. I've gotten to the point where my thighs are no longer burning all day, but I still am out of shape and breathe like an 80 year old smoker. But our area is literally all hill. You are either going up or down, there is no flat here. Which is a lot different from my last area which was all flat. Oh, and I worked in the office in the mornings. But the work here is going well.

Also, I got here at a pretty good time, the rainy season has started. The thing with the rain is that it is cool in the rain during the rain, but if you are under a roof when it's raining, it's really hot and muggy. And after the rain has stopped, it gets really hot and muggy. It feels like I'm being steamed like a vegetable. Speaking of which, it's a lot more difficult here to get a hold of fruits and vegetables. We've been trying to get a member to buy some for us because people would charge us more, but so far no dice. I'm trying to eat fruit flavored yogurt, but I don't know if that counts. At least I have my multi-vitamin pill to help me stay regularized. But without fruits and veggies and some kind of fiber boosted cereal (cereal is super expensive here) my bowel movements have become irregular. But I'm still ok.

I really like my new companion, Elder Tom. He's only got this transfer and one more after this so I will probably be his last companion. As they say in the mission I will ''kill'' him. Kind of morbid, but if you look at a mission as an allegory of life or something like that it makes sense. If you don't get it, ask someone who's served a mission. But we talk a lot and we get along really well. He's got a brother just younger than him so for the time being we kind fit each others 'brother' roles. Which is cool. He's the kind of Elder that I definately want to look up and chill with after the mission. I've also got high hopes and expectations for our proselyting and stuff too.

Fogo is cool. And by cool I mean hot.

Oh and Mom, I am still sending letters but I don't know how long it will take to get there from Fogo. So just let me know when you get my letters.

But thanks for all of the updates from you people!

Loves,

~Elder Peterson

The Shire's That Way...

Dear Family,

I'm using an American keyboard for the first time in 7 months, so if my punctuation is a little weird in this letter, you know why.

Also, I'm in Fogo! I got here this morning. I'll be the Zone Leader here with Elder Tom. He goes home in 2 transfers. But today is P-day so that's chill. I still have to buy food and stuff since I don't have any. Also, my new house doesn't have hot water. Lame. The house is a little smaller but that's ok. Elder Tom seems pretty cool. He lived in the same apartment as Elder Shelhamer, my recent excompanion, for a few transfers. So that's cool.

My new area is Sao Filipe. It's the biggest city on Fogo, but isn't as big as Praia. Also, living in Fogo is more expensive than Praia. And the shopping selection isn't as good. It will be interesting to see how I eat here. I don't want to revert to just rice, but we'll see what's available. I'm still not a huge fan of fish so we'll see how that goes.

One cool thing is that Elder Tom said that he likes to go running on the beach in the morning for his exercises. So that sounds really cool. We'll probably do that a few times a week. I'm also super psyched to have my full array of studies every day once again. Nor will I have the responsibility of the mission's finances. Woot! However, I'll still receive my fair share of phone calls being a Zone Leader. But this is also an opportunity to help the other missionaries in a way that isn't possible in other positions. I know that Grant was at one time a Zone Leader, but I don't know if Neal or Dad ever were. If so, how did your experience as Zone Leader differ from that of a regular missionary? Or did it?

Fogo is considered the hottest island, so we'll see how I stand up to it. I will probably be drinking a lot more water. But even though I've only been here for a few hours, I already like it. We'll see if I have the same opinion next week.

This past week, Elder Shelhamer and I received a bunch of calls from other missionaries trying to get us to divulge what we new about the transfers. But we kept or mouths shut. There is a lot going on this next week. And even this next transfer. For example, this transfer there will be a companionship of "Training Sisters." Right now Sisters really don't do divisions, but the training sisters will be going to all the islands and doing divisions with and training all the other sisters in the mission. Also, President Neves is opening the island of Brava once more for missionary work. One of the other office elders, Elder Coleman, is opening Brava and he's training a Cape Verdean there. I'm pretty pumped because as Zone Leader, I'll be going over there for divisions.

The Creole here is a little different from the Creole in Praia. It's more similar than other islands, but they use some different words and the accent is different. Elder Tom said that it is kind of like the Souther accent for Cape Verde because they draw there words out more here and I've noticed that that's true.

Freak though, my eyes have been itchy and irritated for the past week or so. It really stinks. I guess I should probably talk to the mission nurse about it.

But yea, I'm in Mordor. Mount Doom is on the other side of the island, and in a baby and 2/3 I will take the white ship to the west. and by ship I mean plane. Don't worry about it.

Loves all, Keep writing!

~Frodo (i.e. Elder Peterson)

To Mordor!

Dear Family,

We got the transfer list and I´m headed to Mordor. I mean Fogo. Fogo is an island west of Santiago, which is the island I´m on right now. Fogo is also a really big volcano. So, that´s really cool. I will also be Zone Leader. Hmm... out of the frying pan and into the fire or so they say. Did I mention that "fogo" means ´fire´ in Portuguese?

I´m headed out on Monday. The cool thing is that I will have P-day again on Monday. So today I will focus more on reading emails and I will write a bigger more in depth letter on Monday. And I will be able to tell you a little about my journey to Mordor. Another cool thing is that on Fogo they often take a Zone Activity to climb the volcano. So I will climb up to Mount Doom! And destroy the ring of power once and for all. Ok, I know I´m a Lord of the Rings nerd. And now you know too.

Also, Monday will now be my normal P-day again and will probably stay that way for the rest of my mission. Just letting you know.

Oh yea, and I´m attaching pictures. One picture from the baptism we had last Saturday. One is of an investigator we have been teaching for months and only now marked for baptism on September 4th. Which I´m going to miss. Dang. Another picture of one of our recent converts and his family.
And some drawings. Spirit Prison should speak for itself. For the floor I was trying to go for a look like the floor was the sky. Or something. Then there´s The Office. I´m Kevin in accounting if anyone asks. I figured out that this picture is kind of funny if you work in the mission office but don´t know the show. It´s pretty funny if you get The Office but don´t work in our mission office, and it´s only really funny when you understand both. So, go me for an inside joke that only I get. But I guess as far as a picture goes it´s not bad.

Well, until Monday-

~Elder Peterson

Dear Diary

Dear Family,

Due to the incredibly weak nature of my previous emails, I brought my journal with me to help me remember some of the things that happened in the past week. Now we'll see if my journal writing is any better than my letter writing. Because if I just wrote “today we worked again” it won't really help. Actually, I know my journal writing is better than that. However, I recently filled my last journal and my new journal only has entries of the past 3 days. So... I'll see if I can't fill in some of the blanks.

So, last Friday there was a wedding for a member in the church in preparation for their trip to the temple. Some of you might wonder at this thinking "why would they get married civilly? Now they have to wait a year before they can go to the temple." That may be in the US but that' not how it is here because in the US a temple marriage is legally recognized but in Brazil, where most people here go to be sealed, a temple marriage is not legally recognized so you have to be married civilly first and then get sealed. We didn't go to the wedding but it happened. So I just thought I'd mention it.

Sunday was fast Sunday. I ate a delicious break the fast. I'll try to attach a picture.

Monday we worked and stuff.

Tuesday was the Zone Leaders Conference. That didn't affect us directly in the morning, but that night we housed 2 of the Zone Leaders. Interestingly enough, the Zone Leaders we hosted were my first 2 companions. So my trainer, Elder Rodrigues, and my office trainer, Elder Isaacson, are now companions. So Tuesday night, I had all 3 of my companions up to now in the same apartment. It was pretty cool. Also, earlier that evening, Elder Shelhamer and I had a little birthday party for one of our investigators who turned 18. We made cupcakes. I also got thinking about how Christian turns 18 this year. That's Crazy! I remember turning 18. Man, time goes by.

Wednesday morning we took all the Zone Leaders to the airport. We made 2 trips, one for the Zone Leaders going back to Mindelo, and one for the Zone Leaders going back to Fogo. So that took all morning, robbing us of our precious study time. It also took away our morning preparation time for showering and eating, so we did that after taking the Zone Leaders to the airport which made us late getting to the office. Fortunately, that didn't matter too much as we didn't have very much to do. Then we had district meeting. After District meeting we all ate lunch together. It was yummy. The Sisters made it. We supplied dessert.

Also, Wednesday it rained. It was the first real rain of the year. Unfortunately Cape Verde doesn'treally have the best smell, and it smells even worse wet. Yesterday it rained again longer and harder. That was really cool though because I got to drive through some heavy rain and semi flooded streets to the office.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy my picture of food and rain. And I'm out of time.

Loves,

~Elder Peterson

New Letters from Toots