Happy Halloween

Dear Family,

Happy Halloween! So today I dressed up as Grant (p-day clothes) and went Trick or Treating at the Sisters house. They gave us homemade mango flavored popsicles. That was good. Then we dropped off one of Elder Hutber´s ties for them to sew. After that Elder Hutber and I went to Santa Maria and walked on the beach. It was cool. We found some random seats set on the beach. Which at first doesn´t seem too strange until you realize that they are seats like you´d see in a waiting room or something. The weather was very pleasant and we got out early enough that the tourists didn´t start invading the beaches until we were ready to leave.

This past week has been full of finding new people to teach. And it looks like my next few weeks are going to be busy busy busy. Which is good.

So... Yea. I really can´t think of anything else to say. Pictures!

Elder Peterson

First Full Week

Dear Family,

the first complete week with Elder Hutber has been good. We ran out of water for a few days so we were stuck taking baths out of a bucket. Termed bucket banhos. or baños in spanish. I suppose. But there were a few days that our sink was full of dirty dishes because we didn´t have water to wash them. And I won´t even go into the state of our toilet.

It rained a little bit this past week. Which was good because it was the second and third time it had rained in Sal this entire year. It wasn´t very heavy rain, but it was moisture which was good. And also on the plus side, it cooled the area down quite a bit. Cloud cover is very nice.

Elder Hutber is doing well, picking up the language and getting familiar with the lessons and whatnot. Training is quite an interesting experience. I see just how unfamiliar he is with a lot of the things we do. Even the more common stuff like shopping and using a gas stove. Then I remember how clueless I was when I got here. That was a long, long time ago.

We had an integration night the other day and we played a game where you pass something in a circle while someone outside the room tells a story. When the person finishes the story, whoever has whatever you passed around has a "punishment." Basically the person telling the story chooses something slightly embarrassing for you to do. Like shout "I´m crazy!" 3 times or something. So i lost but the guy telling the story was nice to me so he just told me to sing the National Anthem. Which for me wasn´t really a punishment. Then I thought about Elder Hutber who´s English... That ended up being kind of funny.

Anyways, things are going good. I´m cooking regularly because my newbie is useless in the kitchen. Basically I cook and he cleans. But I think I´ll start teaching him how to make a few things so he´ll be able to survive on more than toast and rice when I leave.

I attached a picture of Elder Hutber and me in the interent place.

Love,

Elder Peterson

English

Dear Family, Last week I believe I reported my trainee´s name incorrectly. This I blame on hearing on odd name over the phone. His name is Elder Hutber. Not Rutder. my bad. I went to Praia on Monday afternoon like my email stated and I stayed at the mission home that night. The mission home has air conditioning. It was the best sleep I´ve had in a looooong time. Tuesday I had a Training on how to Train. That was good. After that I basically just chilled with some other trainers who had been pulled from their areas for this training. Wednesday morning I woke up normal but about 15 minutes later I had really bad stomache pains, similar to the ones I had a few weeks ago. I suppose it woulde have come from one of the several iffy meals I had Monday and Tuesday. That morning I basically just laid on a mat rocking back and forth trying to feel better. Somehow it worked. Well, that or the pepto bismal I took. That afternoon I received my new missionary. We stayed the night at the mission office and then headed back to Sal Thursday afternoon. During this time with a proper Englishman, I´ve learned several interesting things. For example, in England you would call your pants "trousers" and "pants" are what you would call your underwear. A trash can is called a rubbish bin, a flashlight is called a torch, and toilet paper is called Loo roll. Your mom is your mum and your butt is your bum. But you all knew that. I finally learned why the word "bloody" is a curse word in England. Apparently it means "by our lady" and saying it is actually a curse by the Virgin Mary. So, fairly blasphemous. And if you give the peace sign with your palm facing away from you it means victory. If you give it with your palm facing towards you it means the F-bomb. Apparently back in medieval times the French would cut off an archers first two fingers if they caught him, so he could no longer shoot. So the archers started giving this sign to the French saying "we shoot on! F- you!" Well, they wouldn´t actually say it but that´s what they meant. Anyways, lots of random tidbits learned from the English. And Elder Hutber did say that my British accent wasn´t half bad. He said it was about a 7. I´ve got time to improve that. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we studied and worked. Time flies. Random fact for the day, the movie "A Bug´s Life" has the same plot as the movie "The Three Amigos" Love, Elder Peterson p.s. Random picture taken while i was in Praia.

Training

Dear Family,

This last transfer I will be training Elder Rutder from England. That´s gonna be crazy. That also means that I need to catch a flight to Praia in half an hour for a meeting. So this will be short.

We had a baptism this Saturday which was good. Pictures attached. She is an investigator that I found with Elder De Oliveira a month ago. Her brother is a member. The gospel pretty much rocks.

Also attached is a picture of a bird that was stuck in our stairwell that I caught. Cool beans.

Hey Neal, did you ever get that letter I sent?

So yea. I´m psyched for this next transfer. But just because I´m gonna be home in 6 weeks doesn´t mean that I´m not still here until then. (mom, dad you got the itinerary right?) So keep writing plz.

Elder Peterson

This Week

Was awesome.

Dear Family,

What Neal remembered from his mission about Conference is in fact still true in the mission field. General Conference is very much anticipated. But some things have changed since Neal´s time. Like the internet for example. But some things don´t change. Like me having to watch it in Portuguese because we didn´t have another computer to watch it in English on. I understood the Portuguese, but it´s not the same.

I´m kind of confused about daylight savings, has it happened yet? because my atomic clock seems to think it has (it´s set to Missouri time because it doesn´t cover Africa). So my alarm didn´t go off when it should have. Fortunately I had already woken up.

So apparently this internet place closes earlier than it used to so I´m getting kicked off. Until next week I suppose. But real quick, we helped a member put up part of a house he´s working on. Made of sheet metal and two-by-fours. I´d attach more photos but I don´t have time.

Elder Peterson

Santa Maria

Dear Family,

This morning my companion(still a temp) and I went to Santa Maria to check it out. Santa Maria is on the south end of Sal. It is a tourist town, mostly because of the beaches. And seeing the photos that I sent you´ll see why. The beaches are really nice. We ended up only staying on the beach for like 5 minutes because I didn´t want to torture myself looking at really clear water and not be able to go in. I also took some pictures of this pirate looking place cuz it looked cool.

I will be with my mini missionary for 2 more weeks, until the transfer.

I´m excited for General Conference and we´re waiting on some scheduling issues to be resolved to know if we will be having baptisms this weekend or the next. Because the week after General Conference is District Conference in Mindelo and the branch leadership will be going. So we don´t know if we´ll have anyone here to do confirmations and whatnot that week. We´ll see.

I hate rice. I´ve been trying to stick to the BRAT diet to clear up my digestional problems, but I can´t handle the rice. And it hasn´t seemed to help anything anyways.

I found a shop here that has a few American odds and ends, so I bought some Kool-Aid, peanut butter, green beans, and a cake mix. When I was back home I wasn´t much of a peanut butter guy, but since being on the mission I love peanut butter. strange how that works.

If you are planning on sending something to me, keep in mind that it generally takes a few weeks to get here so do so soon or simply hold on to it to give to me as a welcome home whatever.

I love my family. (you people)

Elder Peterson

Mini Me

Dear Family,

My companion finished his mission and went home last friday to study. So that means I didn´t have a companion. Or rather, I wouldn´t have had a companion, but I received a short term missionary companion which are commonly called ´Mini´ missionaries. Basically he´s a member from a different island that is my buddy until transfers happen and i get a new companion to finish my mission with. He´s a cool kid, but it´s challenging. I´ve never served with someone that doesn´t know how to teach. So I´m really working on helping him learn and teach and stuff and i´m working really hard not to go out of my mind. Ok, it´s not that bad. But I just really really hope that I don´t have a mini missionary companion my last transfer.

This past week We were planning on wokring hard and taking names. And stuff. Then we learned on Tuesday that we would be leaving Thursday to go to Mindelo for a Zone Conference that would be happening on Friday and we wouldn´t get back till Saturday. So that kind of flushed our plans down the toilett. But the Zone Conference was good. It focused a lot on working with the local leaders to help our investigators. Much needed. The sisters had a baptism on Saturday. And... yea.

So that´s it.

Elder Peterson