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

11/28/11

So I'm guessing that we are staying in boston the night A) to not arive in utah at 3 am and B) because Delta probably didn't have a flight to Utah that day and the church gets cheaper tickets with Delta. And I think we stop in Minneapolis for refueling but who knows. just delta and God. So I've had 4 areas (this being my fourth) and our house is an appt but it's still big enough to be a house. Just the fact that our landlord lives above us makes it an appt. And yes we have stayed in the same area. Anywho sounds like midnight madness was both at midnight and madness. Probably just like walking down the street in praia though. Just no street venders trying to sell you fish at random moments. And yes I was actually going to right you about the money thing. I took out some money to pay for some things i've been needing for a while. Then we've been moving lots of houses and paying for expensive stuff so I had to use my mission money on that so when it came time to buy food the secretaries still hadn't (and still haven't) rembursed me for all the other stuff so I had to pull out personal money to pay for food. Now I have no mission money, no personal money and the secretaries fail at doing their job so we have no food for this week. We SHOULD get money tomorrow but who knows. Maybe I'll start my fast of 40 days this week (actually it probably would have been better to start it last week). so here's what happened this week that lead to us being broke. Well actually we started being broke the week before but like i said lazy secretaries. So since it was transfer monday last week we had to pick up people from the airport. We had 4 sisters come in on tuesday and one of the companionships is opening a new area here so they needed to buy things for their house. They didn't have enough money for that so we had to lend money. Then we had to pay for a truck to take them about 2hrs to the other side of the island where their area is. That cost us about 70$ We also had to do that last week to take what we already had for them to that house and go to a house who's area was being shut down so more money. We had to buy a washing machine for the elders in brava because theirs broke (luckly we had a check from president for that). Then on thursday we had 2 more elders arrive so we had to send a taxi to pick them up from the airport (and we still have not payed the taxi driver whom we owe 40$ish.) And then on friday we had to go on the other side of the island to do baptismal interviews and that was more money. So yeah that is what happened. We also had another baptism this week even though we didn't initially know who was going to be baptized this week so that was good. He is also going to america in a few weeks which is cool but not so cool for us because we need more melkezidec preisthood holders so we can have a stake here in fogo. Last time we had a meeting about it we were missing about 60 on the island in order to have a stake. So we either got to baptize some more or reactivate inactives. Some of the sisters were even sent here just for that purpose. Their mission ends in a few weeks and president sent them here to work with less actives so hopefully that helps us out. Well I'm tired and broke and need to write president still so have a good we everyone.
love
e.weiss

11/21/11

11/21/11
Well transfers came and passed. Nothing exciting. I´m staying here with Elder Cuestas the other 2 elders that live in our house are staying. another companionship is staying and we get 2 new elders. Not too exciting. And no we probably will not be having thanksgiving dinner. Our island is without a senior couple which means Christmas will probably be really boring as well. oh well maybe we will have a dance party in my gigantic house. And I can´t say I´ve seen any live turkeys here. Oh so if you didn´t figure out by the email I forwarded to you I got my travel itinerarymabob. So looks like I´m going to Boston then spending the night then I´m going to Minneapolis and then salt lake. so technically I won´t be home until the 28th of march. Does that make you angry mom that not only do I have an extra day in my mission because of leap year but it will also be 4 more days until I get home. So does that mean the first Sunday I get home is general conference? or will it be the week after? You better tell bishop not to schedule my home coming talk on the same day as elder Vance. Oh and those flight plans also apply to elder Vance because his family moved to Utah (a long time ago) so you´ll get to meet my spirit brother. We share the same liquidy substance that makes up spirits. Like getting the chili ready for a bake sale. Anywho sounds like your having fun with your new calling while I´m still in the exact same calling I have been for the past 6 months. Yay. So this week we had quiet a lot of success. Lately the focus of the mission is finding Melchizedek priesthood holders and we found 5 this week. We were told by a general authority that we need about 60 more Melchizedek priesthood holders in Fogo to become a stake so were really working on baptizing people of that age or reactivating people that already have the priesthood. And no I haven´t gotten my package yet but people are coming from praia on Thursday so maybe they will have it. And as for the baptism goal 14 weeks running. And no Mike hasn´t written me from ghana but he wrote me before. I´m sure he is busy. Anywho our week wasn´t that exciting. We stayed almost the whole week in our area. I actually got to kill my Pai E. Moreira. He spent his last teaching day with us because he had to fly out the next day. He´ll be in Brazil 11 pm my time. And we had a baptism this week. She´s a friend of our baptism last week. Then we had a member teach apostasy over the pulpit on Sunday so that was fun. and yeah that was our week. Oh and Mike is getting dresses for all the women so I might have to get suits for all the men when I´m in praia. I already have my own. I´ll have to send a photo of it. Well love you all and hope you have a good week!
love
e.weiss

Email from 11/14/11

HELLO!
Sorry did I scare you? hope so. uh I mean not. So as to having a lovely day... sure why not. I had to close a house down in another area and I messed up on the one and only check we had so now we have to do an electronic transfer and we also had to open a house about an hour and a half away from our house by car (doesn´t sound far but remember an hour and a half by car means on the other side of the island) and get back here in time to do all the stuff we need to. So that´s how my day is going. And how big were you thinking that boat is like a row boat? It´s actually really big. And we were going to another island not on p-day because we needed some vacation time. Just some time to get away from the kids. And I´m trying to translate this phrase "So out of sorts". And his family is from Dallas Texas. ok fine I guess I´ll remind you that his parents are Colombian. And we didn´t call president. We actually told him about it at dinner. President got rid of the stupid idea to call in every night to say that you´re home. He has to trust us when we say it so why not just trust that we are home? It´s actually REALLY nice and causes less problems. And I think I might be all cleaned out by the time I get home. And if you really want to wait until next October to clean the house I guess you can invite cuestas... We might have a really dirty house by then but go for it. And the restaurant we ate at was part of the hotel and I had really expensive spaghetti that I could have made at home for a fourth of the price. And guess you get to be in young women's again. HA! Just kidding I´m sure it will be a wonderful uplift experience full of..... And don´t ask me what to do about your counselors that´s between you and God. You pray look through names until you feel something on certain people then pray again. Just like using shampoo. Pray lather repeat. Já stá. Anywho I´ll try and upload photos today and I need to send some contract stuff to the mission office so I´ll summarize my week quickly. We had a General authority visit us this week. Elder Gerald Causé of the 1st quorum of the 70. So Tuesday night E. Cuestas translated a fireside for him. Wed we had zone conference with him, Thurs me and cuestas flew to praia to have a meeting with him on Saturday (and after the meeting a bought a sweet suit) and sat we flew back and had a baptism. And Sunday was the only full day we had in our area. Yay for summaries.
Love you
e.weiss