Email from 6/7/10

Happy Cape Verde Independence day! well at least it was on... Mon. I think idk whatever day was the first. So here´s something really random. IDK if she told you already but I met dads cousin here in CV. Sister Simonsen or however you spell it. Apparently her husband is the mission doctor for several places including here and they came by our apt and we met. Other random things from this week: People shake hands like fish here and its gross, I saw a poster of a Rapper that was being held up by a picture of the last supper and I didnºt know what to think about that, dogs here are proud of there gender if you know what I mean, mom you would probably die here from first heat and then claustrophobia the autocarros (minibus´ like E. Gledhill's van) can carry anywhere from 1-17 people in them at a time probably more and the buses are bigger but carry even more people, People here are never in the same house twice. We go teach at a house make an appt to come back return and someone else is living there its really strange, I had my first mango here nothing too impressive and I miss fruits and vegetables since there A) really expensive here and B) IDK if there sanitary and were supposed to soak stuff like that in bleach before we eat it and we don't have bleach so good thing I have vitamins, I could work in an Internet cafe here. All they do is give you time on the computer then watch youtube or movies or TV all day. Everyone here listens to American music and its really weird because they don't understand it. Here's a random fact for Portuguese. In English we call this "!" an exclamation point and "?" a question mark but they call them " the point of exclamation and the point of interrogation" Other random things. I saw a Portuguese TV show and there was yogurt rapping on TV and IDK what to think about that. It was weird. Its good to know the enjoyments of bubble wrap are universal, I thought I escaped Twilight here but apparently not I saw some people watching new moon and I almost threw up, If there was snow here children would pop out of the snow like daises because they are EVERYWHERE. And apparently to people here in CV America is just another word for Boston. I saw my first doorbell here yesterday it was weird it was a light switch that you turn on then off to make it ring. Anyways that is about how my week has been going. Its still hard for me to understand people and to help my companion teach lessons but this week we got 6 commitments for baptism so that was good even if there baptismal date isn't for another month. But it was a mother and 3 of her sons even though 1 isn't old enough and then we committed 3 women that live together. You know one rule that is really annoying here in cv? We can´t as missionaries enter the house unless there is a man there (for obvious reasons) but men are NEVER home so we either have to teach outside which doesn't happen too much or send the sisters there or come back another time and hope a man is there. Oh and I came really close to throwing a chicken off a cliff side to see if it would coast like cuckoos (ask Jake to explain). Um Not much else to write but I miss you all and love you and appreciate emails.

-Elder Weiss

Email from 5/31/10

Yeah we don't get much time here since we have to pay for it but to start here is a list of things to be grateful for in America: running water, safe water hot water microwaves pasteurized mild stores bigger than 7-11 English cleaning supplies traffic laws napkins food alone time cars Google texting news flushable toilet shower Sunday as a day of rest and shower mats. So here’s my list of random thoughts and then ill tell you other stuff: People like to honk here IDK what the dealio is but they honk when they see people they know, people they don’t when people are in the road when the busses want to pick someone up or just because they feel like it. I also wrote a song based on what do you do in the summer time. It goes as such: oh what do you do with your mission time when all the field is white? Do you look at the grass and sit on your ___ and watch as the cars go by? Is that what you do? Neither do I. Since I’ve been here I’ve only seen 2 other people with glasses and it’s weird. I also saw some guy get arrested yesterday and some militia walking around which was weird. I´m surprised I still am I man after being squished into the autocarro (bus) with 30 other people if you know what I’m saying and it is soooo hot here but the wind kind of evens it out when your outside. So the first day they lost my luggage so that was fun. I didn´t have new clothes other than the ones in my backpack until Saturday. So here are all the fun things I saw on my first day here. 12+ goats 9+ cows too many dogs 4-6 pigs 3ish roosters a woman breast feed in our lesson 3 naked children more cleavage than I´d care to think about a drunk man talk about the devil and the apocalypse in criolo and a partridge in a pear tree. More randomness I hadn’t showered in 4 days until today because our shower was broken and I got to have a bucket shower this morning. We wash our hands w achole sometimes and one investigator said it was cold when the wind blew in her house and I almost punched her.
So yeah life is good here. It’s defiantly challenging to be here and away from all of you and away from all the normal things in America. My first day here we got off the plan didn´t get our luggage and then went to the AP´s house and took a nap and everything. Then we went to Pres and Sis Neves house and Sis neves made us lunch (there big meal here) and then we had our orientation and met with the pres and then I emailed you and then we drove around and dropped everyone off with there companions and I met elder Morreira and I´ll tell you what I know about him. He is from Brazil and is engaged and has been here for 17ish months (if I understood him correctly which I probably didn’t) and he barely speaks any English and it’s really difficult for us to communicate and he probably hates me because I don’t say anything and I’m basically useless in lessons. But he’s a hard worker. But anyways we went to bed and then in the morning we had "breakfast" and then we went out and taught then lunch then taught then dinner. We ended up teaching 8 appointments so that was pretty cool. Well elder Morreira taught 8 lessons I sat there and didn´t understand. It´s really tough to accomplish my purpose as a missionary out here and I hope to understand this language(s) in at least 22 months but I know I´m supposed to be here and that I´ll be blessed for it and if I were serving an English speaking mission I don’t think I would be challenged at all really because its easy for me to teach in English so in order for me to have growth I needed a struggle right? Oh and FYI I hate these Portuguese keyboards. Yesterday was kind of neat though after one of our teaching appointments fell through (even though we ended up teaching someone else who wasn´t from this island) we walked up to the actual chapel they are building really close to our apartment and even though it isn´t finished yet it still has the spirit there and we walked around inside and it just felt peaceful and even though the chapel isn’t close to being finished we walked by the baptismal font and I heard that I would one day baptize someone in that font and that there would be many baptisms there so that was pretty cool. So what is going on with the family? Are you enjoying your "hot" weather yet or did it decide to snow again? Anyone have any big plans for the future? Or little big plans? I think 6 am your time is usually when I´ll get my actual email time but it´s really dependent on when we want to so yeah don´t wake up early just for that. First church was weird and I didn´t understandI like prez neves and he seems like a hard workerYes they took a picture of all of us but IDK if they are sending it out or anythingthe food is food for my first breakfast I had a mini loaf of bread because that was all we had but we went shopping again so were good.Irma lords stayed here in Praia. Yes they have stores and I haven’t even seen a market well I think that’s everything and my times almost up so I´ll just say Tchou e Eu amo voces -Elder Weiss

First Letter from Africa! 5/26/10

Hi! i made it here to africa but look out because i´m typing on a portuguese keyboard so this is really strange because some of the keys are out of place. Our flight landed and we were 7 of 11 white people on the entire flight so that was fun and everything was written in portuguese on the plane and all the instructions but it was good and I slept for a good amount of it. I´m meeting my first companion in a moment and he is from Brazil but I don´t remeber his name and so I dont break my typing skills anytime you see a "º" that is going to be an apostraphy since itºs annoying to type that. iºll be staying here in a praia for my first area and elder madsen is getting sent to fogo with elder liddle and elder ryan elder calderwood is staying in praia and elder vance is staying on this island but is going to assomada so those are all our assignments and my p-day is monday supposedly but that might just be elder vance im not sure I guess youll find out then. Well I need to go so I´ll just say I love you and bye!

New Pictures

All the missionaries going to Cape Verde

Typical missionary pointing to their mission on the map

Elder Weiss and his Country's flag

Companions Elder Vance, Elder Weiss and Elder Madsen

April 9, 2010

Portuguese is dumb sometimes. You would probably know from Spanish but why do words have to be masculine and feminine? Can't we all just get along. You still didn't say what you want to know how to say in Portuguese but maybe that's in your letter IDK I haven't gotten it yet. Irmao Campbell (CV teacher) taught us the real way to use Preach my gospel this week so that was good. Yes I like my companions. Elder Vance kinda sounds like Napoleon Dynamite when he talks and elder madson reminds me of Tyler so its awesome. Apparently they think I'm really funny IDK where they got that notion. Um what else. I'm not sure exactly where my Pat. blessing is but I think it might be on my nightstand on the lower part. Um oh some sisters bore their testimonies to us in Italian and we could understand most of it which was strange. Hurray for latin based languages. I'm not sure what else to write. Um *coughcaffinecough* but shhhhh be secretive about it.

-Amor Elder Weiss

April 2, 2010

Our schedule is wake up class or gym then breakfast, then class or gym (the one we didn't do before) then lunch then class then planning then sleep, Food is fine I eat it so there you go and our district motto is I'm going to Africa so I can eat what I want, No gas, only had cereal like 4 times, only been to the copy center once and hailee wasn't there.
Jeez your going to tire my arms out just from answering questions. Oh and you asked where my companerhos are from. Elder madson Lives 5 min away from the MTC in orem and elder Vance is from Oregon. The other two elders in our district are from Alaska (elder Ryan) and I can't remember (elder liddle). Oops. Oh well. The sister going to cape verde is with the Portugal missionaries so she can have companions. Um I think that's everything you asked. I took some pictures so you'll be happy and right now were waiting for our laundry so yeah. Um what else. I don't know. I still do stuff in gym and you can't stop me!!!!! Mostly ball with my district but occasionally volleyball or run upstairs. And the field will be open after G conference so we can play soccer and stuff. No Frisbee though which I think is safer than soccer but whatever. So whats everyone doing. Uh oh the giant red clock is telling me my time is almost up AHHHHHHHHHH BOMB -lkasdjfkl;sdajgl;kjsadg;ljsdatgl. That was the internet exploding. Well I guess I need to wrap this up so what do you want to say in Portuguese. I cant really type the accent marks or the actual accent on how you say stuff so I guess you'll have to ask Nic about that. But he's Brazilian so watch out for that cause they are crazy people. We are Portugal Portuguese so it's our language even though I'll be learning kreol (?) well 2 types depending on if I serve in the north and the south. Well I only have like 2 min so I'm just gonna say bye. Oh and my teachers served in Portugal Lizband and Mozambique but there are 2 teachers that served in cape verde so we talked with one of them but I wont tell you what he said so bye! Tchou!

-Elder Weiss

Email from March 27

Things are great out here. We have a mini p-day today and our actual one is on Friday's but I wont always be able to check email it depends on how many people are using the computers. And we only get a half hour from the time we log on so we get this big red number in the corner of the screen constantly taunting me with its evil red glow. Ahhhhhh. Ok well anyways send me stuff! I need snack foods or I might die. So how are things at home? I can pretty much already read Portuguese even if I still cannot spell it. Well read and decipher what it means. Hurray for Latin based languages! Don't tell mom but I haven't taken any pictures yet. SHHHHH! you told her didn't you? well fine. Um I like my teachers. One served in Mozambique and the other served in Portugal, Lisbon and we make fun of Brazilian Portuguese all the time. So I get to make fun of Nic when I get home so that will be good. Um what else that's not written in my letter... I've seen a few people from school here already like elder Jackeman and elder Outsen. Sorry but no one has a first name anymore and we're proud of it! Were also proud of the other name on our tag Jesus Cristo. *whispers* that's Jesus. Well I don't know what else to report so I'll just say goodbye
-Elder Weiss