Chillin on the Beach

Dear Family,

This past week has been relatively calm despite my initial fears. But I still have worries about this just being the still before the storm. My future Mission President gets here on Tuesday. My current mission President leaves next Wednesday. And then all the meetings and conferences and stuff start. But I´ve enjoyed the opportunity up to now to be able to go out and work in my area just like every other missionary. We´ve done pretty well in finding new people to teach all the while continuing to help our current investigators progress.

Recently I´ve also had the opportunity to share my talents with others. It´s never been a secret in the mission that I like to draw. And after seeing a few examples of the envelope art I´ve sent home (I take pictures of them before I send them) the senior couple here decided to have me draw something for the newsletter. And my mission President had me draw a graphic for one of his last firesides. And I´m not sure if you remember the picture I emailed home about Christmas time that I drew of Cape Verde, but everyone that sees it requests a copy. Here, I´ll attach it again for easierness sake. Speaking of sending pictures, trying to send pictures at the beginning of my mission was a nightmare. But Windows 7 has made it easy as a dream. So, thanks Microsoft for all you do for the missionary community.

Today, being P-day, we did our office activity. I don´t know if I ever mentioned that there are now Sisters in the office, but there are. I sent a picture of the other missionaries that I took in the tunnel we walked through to get to the black sand beach in Tarrafal. The Elder second from the right is my companion. I attached another picture of him sitting in the sand. He´s Brazilian. It was really nice to just sit on the beach and chill. We didn´t have to worry about any office work or anything. We played a little frisbee and then we made a sand castle on the shore and made walls to try and protect it from the waves. It kind of worked. But now I´m all covered in sand and grit which is no fun. We came straight from the beach to here. The Hiace (van) rides to and from Tarrafal were long and I didn´t fit very well with my long legs. And the tunnel to the beach was short and I am not so that also provided for some back acheage.

There´s another picture of me at an FHE doing a line of shoulder leaning starting from tall to small. The Elder in that picture is not my companion.

Thanks for your love and support!

Elder Canute

Like Mommy

Dear Family,

Today I used something I learned from Mom. I woke up and started cleaning. I started with the general stuff and the other Elders cleaned their stuff. Then I started cleaning the kitchen. I started by myself, wiping down cupboards, cleaning out cupboards etc. Then one Elder walked in and I asked if he wanted to help. He said sure so I gave him a job. Another Elder walked by (I live in a house with 4 Elders) and he didn´t look busy so I asked if he was busy. He said no so I put him to work as well. Whenever they finished one thing I got them working on another thing. The last Elder walked in about halfway through but I didn´t have anything for him to do in the kitchen so I had him clean the bathroom so he could feel useful. Of course this whole time I was still cleaning, not simply delegating. But we got that kitchen cleaner than it has been in quite a while, in just a short time. Many hands make short work.

I was going to send pictures, but I forgot to bring my camera to the internet place. Next week.

I don´t know about you guys, but this whole Friday p-day thing is messing with my groove.

This week was actually quite normal for the most part. The only really crazy thing that happened was that a new senior couple showed up that no one was expecting. Well, we were expecting them, but not for a few more days. So we had to pick them up, book a hotel, and buy their flights. That was Saturday. Then on Monday we woke up at 4:30 to take them to the airport. That was crazy. And made me very tired. I don´t expect I will catch up on that sleep during my mission.

Thanks for the emails and letters and stuff.

Elder Canute

Sleep? What's That?

Dear Family,

First of all I´m sure you got my point on my last heading, but just to make sure I wanted to clarify it. I didn´t mean destiny in the sense that I was destined to be AP. More in the sense that sometimes the Lord has things in store for us that we aren´t really hoping or planning for.

As far as the last week (before transfers), it was pretty chill. Elder Smith and I went to Praia for a Zone Leaders´ Council. I got two more packages, 1 from America (through mom) and the other from Cookie. Both were very gratefully received. So I brought those back to Mindelo with me to enjoy. And then I had to bring them back to Praia because I wasn´t able to consume 20 lbs of goodies in a week. (possibly exagerating on the amount, but I can´t be sure. Those boxes were chuck full and heavy) So funny enough, those became a part of my weight problem for the flight back to Praia. Luckily I made it through without having to pay despite being way over the weight limit. Bonus!

So the week before transfers Elder Smith and I made tacos (with the tortillas and taco mix I got in the packages), ate many Ice-pops (otter-pops for you Utah types), and the night of transfers we had root beer floats with rootbeer made from concentrate stuff sent in packages. So, thanks to you my beloved family for making my last week in Mindelo a very happy one. At least as far as food goes.

Monday morning (the day of transfers), I woke up at 5:30 to finish packing and then finished off one more rootbeer float and an Ice-pop(otter-pop) before taking my flight. So breakfast really didn´t happen. As soon as I arrived in Praia I began going around town with my new companion and the old AP doing all sorts of picking up and dropping off missionaries for Transfers. I only had time to drop my bags off in my house. We did new missionary orientation and bussed around the missionaries getting ready to go home. We ate lunch in 10 minutes then passed by our house to relax for a few minutes. We had a little time to do some office work but not much. Then after the returning Elders´ Farewell Dinner with President Neves we had to take them to the houses they would stay at that night. So we were up until 11:30-ish. Rough first day.

Tuesday we woke up at the normal time but had to skip most of our personal preparation because we had to take another Elder to the Airport that morning. We bussed some other people around and then I got the chance to buy some food. Did I mention that our house didn´t have water? My comp and I went to the mission home to take showers. I spent a bit of the morning unpacking but we had to go to the office for some other things. We took the returning missionaries to the airport for their flight home at two and were finally able to take our lunch at 3:15-ish. We ate something simple and I took what time we had to continue unpacking. Then we went back to the office where we stayed until 9 something working on stuff. I haven´t been this tired in a while.

Wednesday was more normal. I was able to finish unpacking and arranging my stuff, we did some office stuff in the morning, but then had our District Meeting like normal. And in the afternoon we taught people, like a missionary should. Thursday was 100% normal. Just teaching and stuff. Today is P-day. Yay!

So what it looks like is my schedule will normalize here for about a week and a half or so before we go into a frantic race to do all the last minute preparations for the new mission president who gets here the 28th. Then as soon as the new Mission President gets here, I lose all normalcy in any sense of the word. We will be travelling all over the mission and helping our new President learn about Cape Verde and the state of the mission, etc.

Oh, and my new companion is a Brazilian. His name is Elder Moreira. He´s a really funny guy. His family is all members but his parents have been inactive for a while. They didn´t want him to serve a mission but here he is. It´s been a good start between us two so far so I have high hopes for our companionship.

So, thanks for all your love, support, and prayers. I need them.

Elder Canute

Happy Belated(?) Memorial Day

Dear Family,

This letter was supposed to be written and sent to you on Monday like usual. Unfortunately, after reading several of your emails the power went out here in Mindelo. So I wasn't able to write back. I wouldn't written on Tuesday but I was in Praia for a Zone Leaders Council. And I almost didn't get to write today because today is Day of the Children here in Cape Verde. Apparently they take this holiday very seriously because everything was closed this morning. And they don't even have school today. I kind of got frustrated when I saw that everything was closed this morning because my email time is something I take very seriously. But we found some time to get this taken care of.

So this past week we had some specialized trainings. We had 4 days on Thursday from 10-4 with a lunch break in between then another 4 on Friday from 9-4. Elder Smith and I gave a training each day. The district leaders each gave one training on one of the days and President Neves and the Assistants gave the other trainings. Those were some long days. After the trainings we had divisions with the other Elders who had come for the trainings. That was a good chance for Elder Smith and I to split up with these other Elders and find more people to teach in our area since that is currently our biggest challenge.

On Monday we cleared off our roof because it was a mess and a half and we're trying to fix the water pump. But we need a crescent wrench and we don't have one. We didn't have power in our house all day. When we went to the internet place it had power but it went out soon after starting. We took a plane that night to Praia for the Zone Leaders Council. There we got the last official word from our current Mission President. The new president comes on June 28th and the Zone Leaders will have a meeting with him the 29th or 30th. We have transfers this coming Monday so I'm not sure where I'll be when the new mission president gets here.

I was going to our District Meeting this morning and I saw this really nasty dog so I took a picture for your viewing pleasure. And I got one last picture with President Neves. Good stuff.

Elder Canute

From the Ground Up

Dear Family,

This past week has consisted of doing a lot of contacts and trying to find people to teach. And that's about it. My companion and I have been preparing our training for a big special meeting next week. The picture is of Aldi. I thought that was fun because there is an Aldi back home.

The other day a Jehovah's Witness asked me for my Bible so I gave it to her. She said that wasn't my Bible. I told her it was. Finally she told me she wanted the ''other'' book. Obviously she wanted the Book of Mormon the whole time but apparently she thought that we considered it our Bible. Which we don't. Because we already have a Bible. But she had me read the last verse in the Book of Mormon to try and prove a point. What she didn't realize is that Jehovah is Jesus Christ. But we didn't want to get into a big dispute and we had a lesson to teach so we just left.

Later, a piece of concrete that I was standing on broke off and I almost fell on my face. But I landed it and played it cool. My comp laughed a lot at me for that though.

And I can't think of any other interesting news. So, until later.

Elder Peterson