1/9/12

Well another week already went by again and my sealing to elder cuestas will be canceled because I´m going back to Sao Vicent to die. Fernando Po is the name of my area and I´ll be serving with E. d. Palmer. He only has six weeks in the field so I´ll be his step father. But I´m not there yet because TACV (the airline company) fails at life because they are a monopoly and can do whatever they want. They canceled my flight this morning so I´ll hopefully be leaving later today to get there. The weather is back to hot here in Fogo but Mindelo is a lot cooler so that will be good. And as for jobs most people just try and sell stuff it seems like. Theres car drivers, a lot of people fish, people will just sell stuff on the side of the road. Anything they can do for money. School is like normal. The kids have grades but it´s not by age how they divide you its by if you passed last year or not. And yes there is CVU cape verde universtity and I think there is another one in Mindelo but I don´t remember. And I honestly have no idea how people afford to leave this country. I think a lot of people get help from relatives in america to get out. And of course there are sister missionaries still in this mission. But non of them are older than me. So this week was pretty good. At the begining of the week we didn´t have anyone marked for baptism. On monday we passed by one of our older investigators that we hadn´t taught for a while and he said that he´d been wanting to talk to us for a long time. He said he´s been going through a difficult time in his life (I think he broke up with his girlfriend so not really that difficult just drama) but he had found solice in the book of mormon. He was kind of a flaky investigator but when we talked to him that day we found out he had almost finished 2nd Nephi and it had only been like 2 weeks since we talked to him. So we marked with him and talked to him about baptism and marked him for the 7th and then we left. The next day we went back and he was kinda feeling iffy about the 7th so we asked him if he wanted to get baptized the 14th and he said that would be a lot better. We went back the next day and he´s like Elders. I´ve been wanting to talk to you since this morning. I think I want to get baptized this week. So we prepaired him and he had is interview and everything on Friday and we find out afterwords the chapel doesn´t have water but we were like ok whatever we will just go to the other chapel that is up top like 10 min away. Saturday morning (baptism day) we find out the chapel uptop doesn´t have water. Guess where we did the baptism. The OCEAN! It was wierd. I already knew (since tuesday actually) that I would be leaving this area and the guy asked for me to baptize him so I felt like I was in the best two years doing a baptism in the ocean my last day in the area. It was neat though. My first ocean baptism. Oh also this investigator on thursday afternoon (day before the interview) got really sick and we still had to teach him a lot so we gave him a blessing. I really think satan didn´t want him to be baptized. But he did (take that satan) and confirmed so that was really cool and the story of my week. We also had to get a car to get everyone to the beach and of course on saturday we couldn´t find a car. We finally found a small one and when we were like this is not going to be big enough because it will only fit like 11 people max and none of the cars we know were answering their phones or here in sao filipe so we were sitting outside the church with 31 people that want to see this baptism including the investigator us and other missionaries and we were like what are we gonna do. And we see parked like 20 feet down from the church a huge empty bus. I said to elder cuestas. Lets go ask this guy and we rented the bus to take us all down and the bus had exactly the amount of seats we needed. So Satan really didn´t want this guy to be baptized but God really wanted him to and gave us a bus we needed to take everyone. It was really cool. But yeah that was our week and hopefully I´ll be able to make it to my next area today but we shall see. It will probably be like 10 at night when I get in finally. Wel love you all and hope you have a good week.

love
e.weiss

Pictures

Elder Weiss' baptism in the Ocean!

1/2/12

I have not laughed that hard in a long time. I wish I could have been there to see the whole deer incident. I think I might print that part off and read it again and again. Well I'm glad sean gave a good home coming talk. Does that mean andrew is the last to come home before me? Not to make you trunky or think about things like that though. Just a thought. Don't remeber who is still on there missions and who isn't. And so transfers haven't happened yet. This transfer was extended by a week because of new years and it would have been impossible to get flights for everyone today because of holidays and everything. So we had an ok week. New years isn't exactly the best time for missionary work because everyone wants to go out and get drunk and stuff like that. But we still had 3 baptisms on friday and the mission in total had 130 baptisms this month so thats good. But yeah I forgot to tell you that for christmas we bought a gift for a family in our area because they invited us to dinner. We bought them monopoly and they love it. Board games aren't exactly common here so it was nice to give them something they'd probably never be able to have themselves. And they've already played it a lot. We had to translate the instructions into portuguese and play the first game with them to teach them how (and they didn't even end up reading the instructions) and now they're playing it almost every night as a family. Board games are awesome for the gospel. Then on new years we came hom early for obviouse reasons and I made ice cream and cookies and we made pizza and our neighbor gave us a cake and all that stuff. Over all it was a good haven from the madness outside. And the location of our house is just outside of the madness as well so it was nice. And our landlord catholic neighbor isn't exactly the party type so she didn't make any noise. Although we do imagine her playing rock band upstairs sometimes though. So Dad said that he sent out the cards and I'm thinking that should probably be the last package you send out just incase it take forever and a day to get here. like normal. I still haven't got my christmas package because nobody has island jumped in a while. So you want to hear something crazy. There's only one Elder here in the mission that goes home before me haha. I'm old. And moldy. And I can almost legally break the word of wisdom and Gamble! Well that's about it for this week. Just full of partying and us trying to avoid said parties. Well love you all and have a good start to the year and make it a good year because this is the year the world ends!
e.weiss

12/26/11

Well I don't know what more to say since we talked yesterday. um after you hung up we made a pizza and then went to bed. Exciting christmas eh? new years will be even better since we have to be in the house at 7:30. So Dad wrote about your gift that you opened. Sounds kinda creepy to me but whatever. Does the bracelet also get angry at you if you try and eat something you shouldn't. Like it will shock you or beep really loud. "QUIET BRACELET I'LL EAT THIS DONUGHT IF I WANT TO!" That would be me if I had one of those. And I never said I was using my second pair of shoes. I'm going to save those untill the end of the mission. Then I'll have a pair that will last me for the rest of my life. I'll just need new insoles for them when I get home. And yes my friends and I have a group email but there all lazy and don't write anymore because there not on there missions and they don't like me. Anywho, I guess that's about it huh. And I'm not exactly sure why you were so surprised by the number of baptisms I had. Haven't you been on facebook and looked at the photos? Well I got nothing else. Have a good new year and avoid the achole and stuff like that.
love
e.weiss

12/19/11

I don't think you sounded trunky in last weeks email. I know you were. and are. And maybe I didn't give you our phone number because I didn't want you jumping the gun. Speaking of guns. Were doing secrect santa and I got dart guns for a sister in our zone. And a little plastic wand that lights up. YAY CHINEESE STORES! And please do not shower with you iphone. That is too expensive. Maybe if your using your old phone go for it. And speaking of phones do you still have my phone? And since I never upgraded with verizon does that mean I get like 300$ off whatever phone I want when I get home? well 500$ now if you count the 2 years I've been gone. Oh and I do believe you are 6 hours behind. Acording to the internet and I do believe the internet is quiet accurate most of the time. when you know where to look. but either way call like 6:30pm our time. So this week we went to Brava again. They have a new house and that house just happens to have a water heater. That was the first hot shower I've taken in 1 year and 9 months. I miss water heaters. Is there one in my christmas package? I guess it wouldn't matter anyways because we didn't end up going to Praia because we couldn't get flights so nobody has there christmas packages in our whole zone except for one missionary who got his like 2 weeks ago. So maybe I'll see that package before I go home. Anywho lifes good, we had 2 baptisms this saturday and were having 1 more this saturday and thats cool because she gets to be confirmed on christmas. Well I'm going to try and upload pictures but no promises. Love you all.
E.Weiss

12/12/11

Mom, I have a feeling you are trunky. Like really really trunky. Anywho So on the 25th you can call at like 6:30pm my time which would be noon thirty your time I believe. That would probably be the easiest. And Cuestas was planning on calling his mom on the 24th so you don't have to worry about inturuption. And that is really unexepected that mrs. Overholt died. And I didn't think I needed to tell you what was in the package you sent to me. I'm talking about the package that had berry kix (that were very stangely colored) and light up rubber duckies and another white shirt with a pocket. And you really think we would be emailing from a sports bar? You think a sports bar even exists in this country? And starbucks? First off I hate the smell of coffee beyond all reason and second off, No. We email from the chapel actually. And when I said that we baptized 4 melkezidic priesthood holders I ment that we baptized 4 excommunicated members... NO. People of that age silly. Obviously they won't have the priesthood before they are baptized. And speaking of baptisms we had another one this week. It was the brother of one of our baptisms last week. We didn't have enough baptismal suits for both our branch and the branch up top so first E. Cuestas thought it would be a good idea to give him white pants and a white shirt. The problem is he is 13 and like 2 feet shorter than me and was wearing pants and shirt that would fit me. Then we ended up finding a baptismal suit in the chaple and we had him put that on. It was a little tight on him and his ankles were showing but it worked. Less clothes to float up when he gets baptized. I can't think of too much else to write. life is going good out here full of blessings and blessing others. Have a good week!
e.weiss

12/5/11

Wow mom, maybe you should decided to write a little earlier in the day so you don't fall asleep while writing. And those people were without power for 48 hours? only? That's a walk in the park. Try and make it a week and get rid of your running water as well. So Brian went to vegas the same time Jake went there on "Buisness". I think there is a conspiracy going on in the family. so YES i recieved my package. And remeber I told you before you don't have to ask every email because I'm going to tell you if I got it or not. And I'm confused as to why you sent me another t-shirt. I already have 9. And Yes we will be going to praia before christmas but unless you sent that package speed mail and from the airport I doubt it's going to be here before christmas. And yes I have been reimbursed and I was already planning on keeping that money. Also if you remeber I wrote about african suits for all the men. I do happen to be going to praia in a few weeks and if you would like me to get suits for the men I can. Anywho we had a good week. We had a "specialized training" from president oliveira this week and it was good. He also gave us some exciting news.You said you hadn't been blow away yet but get ready to be. April 2012 the first stake of cape verde will be opened! It will be in praia which is so awesome but is TERRIBLE timeing for me. It could possibly be the week I leave that it is opened. LAME! But also in October 2012 another stake will be opened in Fogo! my island! It was the most exciting thing to hear. And we also had 4 baptisms this saturday. all priesthood holders and 2 melkezidec. Go team Fogo! It's just crazy to know that were so close to our goal as a mission. I'm so happy I get to be here to push that along and to help them get this great blessing in their lives. What we've been working for as missionaries is no longer some distant thing but it's real and tangable. Well keep being an awesome family and find me a job as soon as possible so maybe I can fly back out here to see a stake opened in Fogo.
Love
Elder Weiss