This computer is terrible

8 February, 2010

Dear Family,

Oh for the days when I had my own computer that functioned correctly. It takes about 5 minutes to upload a single picture on the computer so there isn´t much chance for me to get one sent in my limited time. I´ll keep trying and I´ll develop pictures every so often and send them home, but as far as in emails, tough luck. Also, if you ever get around to sending thumb drives that would be pro.

This week was pretty cool. We had a zone conference. It was all in portuguese so I only got 70% or so. But I guess that´s better than nothing. The lunch we had was also very good. I had steak. I also drank a lot of soda. I´m not sure whether it was the soda or the steak, but the next day my stomache was punching me and Montezuma was exacting his most glorious revenge. Which may have been a good thing considering the frequency, or rather infrequency, in which I had previously been recycling my food. Gotta love it.

Also we had a division on friday. I went to Assomada with one of the Zone leaders while the other came to Praia to work with Elder Rodrigues because he is the District Leader. Assomada is pretty cool. You might consider googling it. And Praia. Assomada is cooler, temperature wise, than praia. It´s also greener. And there are some sweet mountains. I´m not sure how many of you were aware, but I´m kind of a big fan of mountains. The drive to assomada was about 45 minutes and it was a lot of winding mountain roads. You could see the volcano of Fogo in the distance from assomada. So that was pretty neat.

Also, we had our first baptism on saturday. Well, my first. The ward mission leader did the actual baptising, but he was the first of my investigators to be baptised. It was freaking awesome. We have another one this coming saturday which I´m really excited for.

This past sunday we took 2 of our nigerian investigators to church. Because they don´t speak english I had to translate for them. the whole 3 hours. I was totally exhausted after that. There are other american missionaries in our branch, but they don´t like translating and avoid it at all costs. I´m not a big fan of translating, but these people come to church to be edified and if they don´t understand what´s going on, how are they going to be edified? What´s going to motivate them to keep coming and eventually make that convenant of baptism which is required for their salvation? It´s hard to translate, but the Lord supported me last sunday and he will continue to do so as I exercise my faith and continue to help these Nigerians to hear the word of God despite the difficulty.

I love you

Elder Peterson

P-day is the best way to start the month

February 1, 2010

Dear Family,

I usually check my email around 10.30 here. Which is 5.30 in missouri and texas, 4.30 in utah and idaho, and 3.30 in california and washington. So yea. Also, I did send a letter last week in the mail but I don´t know how long that will take to get home. I sent it last wednesday, so just judge from then. After a few letters we can get a rough average estimate of how reliable, or unreliable, the post really is.

I´ve been making a list of interesting things to tell you so you actually read these. so here I go.

First off, the buses here are totally crazy. You know the bus in Harry Potter? it´s either 3 or 4 I can´t remember, but yea same exact thing. Minus the shrinking and growing. But these things careen around cars, people, and corners. It´s kind of ridiculous. I´ve only ridden in 1 bus and 1 hiace. that´s pronounced ´yawss´ A hiace is a 15 passenger van. That thing was jam packed with 20+ people in it. talk about a crazy ride.

The toilets here are kind of odd. They don´t have a handle, they have a button on the top that you push. but other than that it´s actually pretty similar. I just thought the buttons were cool.

We are supposed to shower every day. I do, but sometimes I wonder how effective my shower is when the water is roughly the color of urine. That´s what soap is for right?

The doors here are all metal and they don´t have knobs. Some of them have handles, but they don´t turn to open the door, they are just to assist you when you use your key. That´s the only way to open doors here is if someone inside opens it for you or if you have a key. Also, a lot of the windows have bars over them. Yea...

Sometimes I´ll see Michael Jackson and Barack Obama shirts and I laugh.

The contrast between technology and poverty here is odd. You´ll walk into a house that´s falling apart, the only furniture is a few plastic chairs and a foam pad as a bed, and you´ll have a tv and dvd player in the corner. There is one less active member who is really into computers and computer games. It´s kind of funny. He´s just got a small apartment with his bed, a small closet for clothes, a couch and his computer desk. And it´s a nice computer, much nicer than Grant´s is, even after his recent upgrades. How about them apples?

Speaking of televisions, everyone here has one. And they are always on. And either there are only 4 channels or there are only 4 good channels because everyone here watches the same thing. Yesterday I kid you not every house we passed was watching the same thing on tv. It was something with, oh, that guy from grease. I can´t seem to remember anything from before. Also, there´s almost always a soccer game playing. Every day there´s a game. it´s ridiculous. I´ve watched more soccer here just from what´s on before we start our lessons than I watched any sport in the whole year before the mission. well, that might be an exaggeration, but there is a lot.

The food here isn´t bad, but I´m in the biggest city in cape verde. I´m sure this is as good as it´s going to get. The bread here is amazing though. It´s all fresh baked and I could just eat it forever. In fact, I think I just might.

Also, the taste of anything from america is like mana from heaven. If you ever get the chance to send a package, send anything. I don´t even care. If it´s american, it´s good.

Well that´s about it for now. I´ll try to send some pictures this week.

Elder Canute Peterson

Not in Kansas anymore...

January 25, 2010

Dear Family,

Right now I´m in Praia. My area of Praia is Vila Nova. I´m in the Praia 2 branch. This has been one interesting week.

So I just tried attaching pictures but it didn´t work. We´ll probably end up having to transfer to a flash drive, and I´m not even sure if that will work. I´ll see if my companion can help me next week.

My companion is Elder Rodrigues. He´s brazilian and speaks less English than I do Portuguese so communication is interesting. He´s cool though.

There´s so much I don´t even know where to start, so I´ll just go for it. I hope this makes sense.

All the showers are cold. We have filtered water. Our apartment is about as larger or larger than most of our investigators houses. I thought I would be done with stairs after the MTC but I was very wrong. My area has stairs like you wouldn´t believe. And sometimes, there aren´t stairs. After culture day last week when Irmão Paries told us about Porto, Portugal I was kind of sad that I wouldn´t get to explore castles. But if your definition of castle is a big structure made of stone and cement, falling into disrepair, with winding passages and narrow stairways, then my entire area is a castle. There is literally broken glass everywhere. Most people where flip flops. A lot of the cildren go barefoot. There are also dogs everywhere. I have seen maybe 2 that didn´t look absolutely disgusting. The weather is warm. In the afternoon it gets pretty hot. This is Africa in every sense of the word. Seeing a white person who´s not a missionary is like seeing a black person in utah. No, that´s not true. It´s less common and more strange.

On sunday I had to try to translate sacrament for a Nigerian who doesn´t speak Portuguese. English is the official language of Nigeria. It´s interesting how many Nigerians there are here. But it was really hard for me to translate for him when I´m just barely trying to understand what´s going on myself. We had dinner with a member after church. We ate rice and chicken. My companion told me not to drink the water so I didn´t. He did though. I guess he was willing to take the risk.

I got my first african haircut today. It´s pretty much the same haircut that most black people get, but it looks a little different on me. To say the least.

During our proselyting we don´t carry anything but our scripture cases. We don´t carry anything in our pockets and we hide our money in our white missionary handbooks. Every building here is made of cinder blocks and cement. well, there are a few that are made of whatever planks of wood and sheets of metal they could find. There is a dry river bed that runs through the city. We cross it to get to some of our area. A lot of people dump trash in there. It smells really bad.

There´s dirt and dust everywhere.

I´ll write more next time.
The Atonement works. We have a living prophet today. The Scriptures are the word of God.

~Elder Canute Peterson.

Guess What?

January 20, 2010

Dear Family,

I'm in Africa. Yea, that's pretty sweet. Right now I'm at the mission home and I have a few minutes just to let you know that I arrived safely here in Praia this morning.

Just by way of recent update for me, of the 10 islands here in Cape Verde, only 5 have missionaries: Fogo, São Tiago, Sal, São Vincent, and Santo Antão. There are 62 missionaries: 49 elders 12 sisters and the nurse, Sister Palmer. I will be serving my first transfer here in Praia with my Brazilian trainer Elder Rodriguez.

P-day is monday so I will write more then.

And this is the weirdest keyboard I've ever used. Grant knows what I mean.

Elder Canute Peterson

Insert Witty Title Here

Dear Family,

I hope my blog is still being updated. I can´t remember what the site is either. that´s ok, it´s not like I´m reading it.

This past week has been pretty cool i guess. So, let´s get started.

First off, the other day I learned that my companion, Elder Rodrigues, is a male nurse. Due to some misunderstanding on my part I had always thought that he was an IT guy or did something with technology and computers. Nope, he´s a nurse. There´s nothing wrong with that, I was just a little surprised. Not expecting that at all.

Also, I saw a little child the other day that reminded me of Caleb brown. He did this thing with his face where he opened his eyes and mouth really wide that just made me think of that Brown boy. Over the course of my time here I have also seen 3 different children who reminded me of Bradley Morgan. If any of my high school friends that know Brad read this, I know they will laugh out loud. That´s why it´s important to update my blog and tell people that it exists, so little jewels like this can be appreciated.

So yesterday we ate at a members house again. Every week we eat sunday lunch at this member´s house and it´s always rice and beans with some sort of meat. This week´s meat was deep fried tuna. I didn´t eat tuna a whole lot back home, but since I´ve been here I´ve realized that I really like tuna. I never disliked it back home, but it´s good. Maybe it´s just the whole africa deal. Also yesterday we ate some soup that had goat liver in it.

Oh yea fam, I haven´t escaped the goats here. I see goats around the city. In fact, yesterday I saw a herd of goats running down the street. It´s funny to me. I also saw a woman carrying her purse on her head and another woman filing the bottom of her foot. I guess walking around alot gives you some nasty callous.

It´s also funny to see things that remind me of home. For example the other day I saw a shirt that said ´I gotta have more cowbell!´ the dude with that shirt probably had no idea what it said or meant, just that it had english on it. I laughed out loud. Also, they play american movies here all the time and I saw a glimpse of Home Alone 3 and recognized Scarlett Johannsen.

I realized last week that some of the pictures I sent were very large. I also realized that they were old pictures of my apartment, so I´m sending a more comprehensive group. Also some of the other elders here. Maybe next week I´ll send some of me.

Shoot, out of time.

Elder Peterson

Jan 13, 2010

Dear Fam,
So, I had my email written with 5 seconds to spare and the window closed so no email. Sorry. But if you could type this up and put it on my blog, that would be pro..
So I got my flight plans the other day. I fly out the 19th at 9 am and I fly to Boston where I have a 5 hour layover. yay. Then I fly straight to Cape Verde where I will arrive roughly 10:00 am the 20th. I fully expect to get right to work, so I hope I am able to sleep during the travel.
I also anticipate not being able to understand anything once I get there because I'm learning Portugues and they speak Creole. I'm planning on meeting with some teachers here who served in Cape Verde and getting a little orientation so I'm not 100% lost when I get there.
Last Tuesday I got to see Grant, which was really cool. We only got half an hour, but that was still awesome. It stink that it's going to be 2 more years before I see anyone again, but Grant did give me some more white shirts and his mission triple combination. That's sweet. I plan on taking full advantage of those.
It's a shame my email died, because I can't remember all the things I said. Sad day.
But really, this week wasn't terribly eventful.
Irmao Paries came back from break which was cool.
Oh, I'm sending pictures. Yea, but you should know that. In fact, you knew that before you read this. hmmmmm.... but as I was saying, I am planning on sending more before I leave so you know everyone in my district and all of my teachers. I'm having to acquire picture from the other Elders from before I got my camera. That will be neat. I also got pictures of Grant while he was here. The card you sent was huge, which is cool. If I ever fill it, I'll just send it home.
America, sorry for dropping the ball on Christmas. I'm glad Mom was able to take care of that. Also, it's nice to hear about what's going on with your family...keep writing!
Cookie, thanks for the update.. I'm sorry your children are sick and difficult. I'm sure those moments when they are cute and happy make up for it.
I hear the farm got a new stove. I'm sure yo find Christian curled up in front of it often. Where I'm going, yo don't need a heater. Ever. It'll be interesting to go from Utah winter to Cape Verde winter. Or in other words, cold to hot.
Thanks for writing. Keep it up. Don't worry about me, I'm on the Lord's errand and He'll be watching over me.
I love you all,

Elder Canute Peterson

P.S. I will call home during my lay over some time during the hours of 4 and 10 pm EST. PPS Forward Josh's letter to him, please.

Brigham Young V Pirates