Cidade Velha

Dear Family,

Today we went to Cidade Velha, the oldest settlement in Cape Verde. Cidade Velha means Old City. I went there expecting to see all sorts of old buildings and historic sites and stuff. But the houses and stuff all looked like everywhere else here. Which doesn´t say much about the development here. But we did see some pretty interesting buildings. And there was a 3 legged dog that followed us around. We saw banana street. and then went to the beach. Because as you know, no activity is complete without going to the beach. If only we could go swimming. Ah....


Also this week, one of our taxi drivers had Joker scars on his face. It was interesting and also kind of sad. Maybe I shouldn´t email home about all the disfigurations I see.

Maybe I could talk about the crazy people instead. There is one guy we talk to sometimes that is absolutely nuts. He´s a less active member who the Branch asked us to help so we pass by sometimes, but after he went inactive he got into some pretty bad drugs. So his mind is pretty gone. Among the stuff he has said are such things as that he was an angel. He said that he didn´t have a spirit, and when we explained that without a spirit the body is dead he came to the conclusion that he must be dead. He then told us that he had already died several times. He also isn´t sure how old he is. When we asked him he told us that he wasn´t sure and it changed depending on the story. He claimed to be 44. He said that other people said he was 27. We checked his teaching record later and it says that he´s 27. Crazy...

Anyways, my time´s about up. It was good hearing from all of you. When I have more noteworthy items I will try to write more. But day by day it becomes more routine and things seem less interesting to me. Maybe I should bring my journal with me when I do emails so I can write more. Hm...

Loves,

~Elder Peterson

I Had Things to Say, I Just Forgot

Dear Family,

I had all sorts of ideas of things to say to the family. And then I started reading emails and responding to them and totally forgot what I was going to say. But that´s ok.

Oh yea, one thing was that Grant is in Alaska. Since he´s out there he has seen several cool looking totem poles and he suggested that I design one for our family. Ok, that sounds like a fun little thing I could work on during P-days. I plan on using the different animals to represent the members of the family. What I would like to know from you is if you have any requests on what animal I use to represent you. I don´t want any hurt feelings. Although, I think Mom will be a goat by default. Unless you have any objections Mom. And me being crazy like I am started thinking that it would be neat for us to have a Peterson Coat of Arms. Now if we happen to already have one and I am merely uninformed, someone let me know and send a copy. If not, I think I may design one of those for us as well. Strictly on P-days of course. But with that if any of you have any ideas for symbols I could use, or if you know what different colors symbolize or anything as far as that goes, my resources to that sort of thing are limited.

This last week President told me that he will be opening a new area on the island of Brava this next transfer. That will be cool. There haven´t been missionaries on that island for at least a year or so. It will be interesting to see who reopens that island. It will be quite the challenge. I hear you can only get to the island by boat and the boats only go to the island every few days or so. Exotic, exciting!

Early on in the mission I used to write interesting things in my planner so I would remember things to say. That is a practice I haven´t used in a while. Maybe I should start using it again to keep my emails interesting.

For example, one of the youth in our branch reminds me of Peyton Walker. It´s uncanny. And the other day I saw a little girl with no arms.

Well, unfortunately I have nothing else to say. Which is kind of fortunate because my time is out anyways.

Thanks for all your various updates!
Love,

~Elder Peterson

Letters

Dear Family,

Last week I wrote a short letter and attributed it to having received a lot of emails. This week I received a lot less which wasn´t what I had hoped. Maybe I´ll just start writing shorter letters so you don´t expect as much from me. Or maybe I´ll just write less because I have less to say. Or maybe nothing will change.

Last week on P-day we went to Sucupira and all the secretaries got these cool looking African suit deal things. Then we went to the office and took pictures. They are attached.

Also, when I first got to the office I went through a long and strenuous process of getting a Cape Verdean drivers license. Really. I´m not kidding, it was the most ridiculous thing ever. It is so ridiculous in fact, that President has started having the Secretaries just get their international drivers permit because even with the crappy post system and stuff it is faster and easier than trading your American Drivers license for a Cape Verde one. But I still think it´s cool that I have a Cape Verde drivers license. Picture attached.

This past week has been pretty slow in the office which is pretty nice. We haven´t had any emergencies or huge projects that have required us to go back to the office all day. In fact we only had to go back to the office after lunch once this week. But that´s only because our office phones haven´t been working for the past week. In fact, we are here doing emails in the office, and the phone company is working on the line right now. We got some pretty sweet pictures of him climbing up the phone pole. Pictures attached.

In other news, there really isn´t any other news. Well, I did get some random pain in the middle toe of my right foot. The mission nurse thinks it was an infection of some kind. The toe just got red and swelled up a little bit. It started on Sunday, but it didn´t hurt that bad. On monday I could hardly walk it hurt so bad. That´s when I talked to the nurse. Tuesday the pain had gone back down to barely noticeable, and it´s stayed there since then. So there is still some residual pain and if I move the toe around too much it hurts as well. It is such a random thing though, because I didn´t stub my toe, I didn´t step on it or cut it or injure it in any way. It just started to hurt one day.

But that´s ok. I´m doing well. I got a package from home the other day which was sweet. If you see any of my friends, tell them to write me.

Loves,

~Elder Peterson

Newsies

Dear Family,

It is wonderful to have received a million and a half 3 page emails. I love it. Unfortunately for you unlucky tucks, I have significantly less time to write due to your having written me. But that's ok. You all already know what I'm doing.

Last week I told you about my adventure in Assomada. This week I'm sending proof. I'm also attaching the latest in my series of 'office party' pictures. I am also sending pictures from the baptism we had last week. Woot!

This past week has been really chill in the office which is nice. Our proselyting hours have been pretty difficult though. A lot of appointments have been falling through which has meant a lot of walking. If it's not one, it's the other. Oh well.

Also, something that I don't think I've mentioned before but is interesting/idiotic here is that they put the stop lights (all 2 of them) right over your head instead of across the street. So the person at the front of the lane can't see what color the light is. Not the smartest design choice.

Anyways, most of the exciting stuff happened last week, and they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm sending a really long letter... in pictures.

~Elder Peterson

An explanation of the pictures:
I saw this house that was covered completely in this crazy tile and I thought it was absolutely ridiculous.
I saw this pool of really green water. I hope no one drinks that stuff.
I saw this mule driven something without a mule. But it was cool.
We found this really big tree. So we climbed it.
Then we got a ride in a truck. That was cool.
We heard there were monkeys in the mountains, so off we went.
Then we found this pirate guy. That was pretty funny.
I found a goat and held it for a picture. There you go mom. Goats in africa.
This guy led us up the mountain to where the monkeys were.
We climbed to the top of the peak on the left.
Me conquering the mount.
View from the mountain.
I got a nasty sunburn.
We had a baptism the next day. Yay!

Macacos me Mordem!

Dear Family,

I will be staying in the office this next transfer. It is good and bad. Bad because I'm getting a little tired of the whole office experience but good because my proselyting area is really starting to show promise. So hopefully the latter will make up for the whole. Also I will be staying with Elder Shelhamer for the third transfer. That is something that doesn't happen often, to have 2 secretaries serve 3 transfers together in the office. Generally one will come in and be trained for one or two transfers, then he'll train the next guy for one or two transfers so he'll be in the office for 3 or 4 transfers. But he'll only be one or two transfers with each companion. My situation is a little interesting. I came in the middle of a transfer, so I had half a transfer with one companion and will have 3 with the other. But that means that Elder Shelhamer is guaranteed another transfer or two here in the office. My condolences go to him.

Also, we didn't have finalized official transfers until Thursday. That has to be some sort of record or something. Normally regular missionaries don't know about transfers until the Saturday night before, but the office Elders usually know at least one or two weeks in advance so we can buy plane tickets and make area adjustments to their monthly allowance. The Thursday before though... By the way, that's yesterday and transfers are on Monday.

But today is P-day. We went to Assomada for our office activity. I would attach pictures but I'm not in the office, and this computer is terrible. Anyways, Assomada was awesome, notwithstanding a sunburn greatly deserved. We arose early and grabbed a hiace to Assomada at 6:45. Then we headed out. Our first item of business was to hike down this path to a ginormous tree. It is the stuff of legends. Think the Disney World Tree of Life but for real. And of course we commenced to climb it. But only to a certain point. We aren't absolutely daft you know. We understand that the Lord and His angels only protect us missionaries when we aren't being stupid. But we did get some cool pictures. After that, we managed to catch a ride with a large bed truck back to the top. It was a fun ride. I got video. So when I send the thumb drive back, that will be on it. Then we went to the Sucupira in Assomada, but I guess they only have the full Sucupira on certain days, unlike Praia where you have full Sucupira every day. So that was dissapointing.

But, one of the Elders had heard that you could see monkeys in certain parts of Assomada so we started asking around and were given directions. As we followed the directions we would ask people along the way to confirm that yes, there really were monkeys, and yes they were in that direction. We finally got to a mountain that was called something that sounded to me like 'Machu Pichu' (not the famous one). So of course we asked people where the monkeys were and they said they were on the other side of this peak. So we start following this path around the mountain and we find this guy who is above us and we ask him about the monkeys and he says that there are a bunch just up and around the ridge. So we hike up and follow this guy to where the monkeys were. We weren't among the monkeys, but we did see a few. And we did climb to the peak of our dubbed `monkey mountain.'

Man, I really wish I could send some pictures to try and show better what I am trying to explain. Words really can't convey our trek up this mountain side, or the rest of the area around where we were. We hadn't planned on climbing the mountain, so I hadn't brought sunscreen. As such, I am now thouroughly crisp. Good thing I have aloe vera. But really, prevention is so much better than alleviation.

Next transfer we will be going to Cidade Velha, which is the first area settled in Cape Verde. I hear it's terribly historic. I also heard it was really sweet. We'll see.

Also, we are having a baptism tomorrow which will be sweet. If all goes according to plan, we should be having more baptisms here in a little bit. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks to all of you who have sent me updates and emails and such. I received some real mail from friends that just made my day.
Keep sending real mail, even though it takes a long time to get here. It's better to get news by email, but little fun notes by real mail.

Loves

~Elder Peterson