Getting in the Groove

Dear Family,

To clear up some doubts raised by certain persons, this island currently has 4 missionaries. 2 Elders and 2 Sisters. we share.

This past week has been interesting. We were able to work with a lot of members again showing that our first week wasn´t a fluke. That´s a relief. I´m working on leading out strong while my companion is dying on me. He goes home on Friday.

Last monday we had a branch FHE on temples. It made me think of something a companion I had used to say, "The gospel makes me trunky." Which when you talk about temples and being with your family forever, it´s hard not to think about your family. Speaking of which, I had an idea. We should do a family temple trip this Christmas. That would rock. Oh, and I´m still waiting to hear if the ward will be doing a Thanksgiving temple trip this year. The possibility of my attending, if they have it, is quite good. As far as my information shows.

I woke up in the middle of the night sick. That´s unpleasant. If you don´t get an email from me next week it means I died. If you do, it means that sicknesses in the mission are mere annoyances. That don´t feel very good. And when you stay home sick there´s not really anything to do so you´re not only not feeling well, but bored out of your mind. Not to mention your companion. The nurse recommends I follow the BRAT diet. Bananas, Rice, Applesauce (which isn´t available here), and Toast. Oh goody.

Anyways, I´m tired but I´m doing all right. It is good to hear from the siblings. It´s good that Bonnie got such a good job which happened to fit her specific training and education. So yay. It´s also good that she wrote about it.

Love,

Elder Peterson

Ok

Dear Family,

Cape Verde is made up of 10 islands. I am on the island that is situated on the most north east called Sal. I am serving in a town right in the middle, next to the airport, called Espargos. FYI.

Sal is awesome. The weather has been amazing thus far. It´s got a fresh breeze that comes through. My house isn´t that big, but for 2 missionaries it works quite well. I am a little saddened at having to go back to cold showers, especially when there is low water pressure. No bueno. That´s Spanish for "not good". My companion is from São Tomé but lived in Cape Verde for several years before going on a mission. His name is Elder De Oliveira. We get along fine. We´re not exactly besties but we don´t have any beef. It works for the work.

Speaking of work, since Sal is almost completely flat, walking around all day isn´t nearly as bad as it used to be. The branch here isn´t as big as my the last one I worked in but it isn´t terribly small. The last weeks frequency was about 88. What I´m going to try working on is finding more leaders to baptize. That´s always something the Church needs. And my mission president wants to get a chapel built here so we need to show the Area that this place needs a chapel. So now I´ve got a goal.

Oh, and fortunately there is more than one computer place. So instead of using the piece of garbage internet place this week, I´m using a more decent one. I´m attaching pictures. One is of this little boy riding a huge bike. I´m not exactly sure how he managed but he did. Then the next day (I didn´t have my camera with me) I saw two girls on one bike. The girl in front was steering while the girl in back pedaled. It was quite the sight. There is also a picture of a salt deposit I saw as my comp and I walked by a beach today. One of the members was showing us a different beach we could use for baptisms instead of the one they normally use. Apparently the normal one has all sorts of dips and rocks and stuff and this other place doesn´t. We´ll see. The other pictures I also took while on this little walk.

Anyways, I´m doing well. Thanks for asking.

Love,

Elder Peterson