Note from Kristin, Elder Sampson's Mom:
There was actually one other email that came first: "Power about to be shut down on the island for a few hours. Will try to write next week. I hope this makes it in time.
Not funny to a
mother who has just sent her son to a third world country and gets three
sentences per week! I guess Jared is still trying to let his
personality shine through =).
But, I have learned their computer time will be limited. If you
want to send him something via pouch mail, that would be awesome. His
address is
Elder Jared Sampson
Cape Verde Praia Mission
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130
Remember
that pouch mail means no envelopes or pictures -- just the one piece of
paper folded into thirds with the letter on the inside.
Thanks for your support and prayers!
Hey everyone! I´m sorry to anyone
that thought I wasn´t writing this week. ´Twas a joke. I´m not really
good at portuguese jokes, so this was the next best thing.
For those who don´t know, I left the MTC
tuesday morning last week at
4:30
in the morning after dropping pretty much everything useful and 1st
worldish and taking only the bare nessecitys because of weight
restrictions on baggage. We took the Frontrunner up which was great and
I was in the same train as Ryley Hogan who marched Troopers a few years
back with Brad. Small world. We got up to the aiport and checked in
and got on our flight. I sat next to the head of missionary media who
happened to be going to Boston as well. In Boston, I got to call home
after spending like $60 trying to get the pay phones to work. They
didn´t even have a very good connection at all (those I talked to
probably noticed that). The keyboards are different here and I donºt
want to run out of time trying to figure out this new thing, so if there
is a weird mistake, that is why. That and the spell check is in
portuguese so everything is spelled wrong.
We were supposed to have a 7 hour layover in boston, but we ended
up staying an extra 4 hours because of a fuel fire so all the planes had
to go re-fuel somewhere else. There were about 150 cape verdians on
our flight so we talked with them a little and helped some non-english
speaking portuguese people get help.
For those who didn´t know, most of the people here speak creol
which is not very similar to portuguese. I mostly cant understand
anything anyone is saying except for the people who know portuguese
which is not very many. It is like a super super bad version of
portuguese. Fun!
Our flight finally left at like early o-clock. like 3 maybe or 4,
then we went to rhode island to fuel, then we flew to cape verde. The
flight was okay. We landed in the Praia airport on the island of
santiago and we got our bags (the 12 of us coming out together) and met
the APs and President and sister Olivera. They are awesome. We dropped
off our bags at the APs house then went and ate at the Oliveras. It
was really really good. We had training at the mission home which was
good but we were falling asleep because we missed the nap time they
usually give jet-lagged missionaries because our flight got in at like 1
instead of 9. We then went back to the APs, got some food and stuff,
and spent the night there. While at the mission home too, we got our
assignments. More about that later. Our flight off Santiago wasn´t
until the afternoon the next day, so we just kind of chilled and tried
to recover the first part of the morning before our flight. There were
three of us going to the Island I got assigned to, and so we flew out
together.
I have been assigned to the the Island of Fogo. It is the medium
sized one in the south-west corner next to brava, the really small
island. I am serving in Cova Figueria which is on the south east side
of the island, opposite Sao Filipe which is the largest city on Fogo
which is in the South-west corner. It is about a 45 min ride over some
sketchey cobble stone roads to get there. It is really green right
now. Rainy season which are the only 2 months it ever rains here, is
almost over, so everything is green. This is the wettest it has been in
years and years and years. It is super sweet. I will try to send
pictures.
I spent the rest of the day in Sao Filipe after my flight got in
with the zone leaders. Elder Coleman who came over with me is serving
in sao filipe so he just went with his comp, elder wells who is huge,
and elder rivera who also came over with me went on splits with one of
the zone leaders while I went on splits with the other and taught my
first lesson (ish.). We got up the next morning and played some soccer
and got some bread, and so forth and then we suddied until the hiace
(yawss) which is like a van they cram people into came and took us to
our areas.
My companion is elder Jensen. He is from payson and is awesome.
He knows the Hales and the Pecks and the Brimleys I think. He has been
out for 5 months. He was our for a transfer 2 years ago and then had to
go home for a year and a half and now he is back. He is really good.
There are only 4 elders here in cova figueira. It is pretty small. We
have, elder jensen estimated, 800 people in our area. About half or so
are members, but we don´t have many that are super solid. We had 89 at
chuch
on sunday
which was super huge compared to what we usually have (60 or so) but
most in cape verde usually have about 120 come every week. We have been
teaching lots of people and were supposed to have 2 baptisms this week,
but one didn´t make it to church, so she won´t be baptized for another
week. The other is super solid and will be baptized
this saturday. His name is Tony. Maybe more about him later it I have time, but probably not. Next week probably.
It is a pretty small town here so everyone is related, the power
and water go out pretty frequently, and there isn´t much you can buy
here. Stuff from the US is like gold. It is also like the coolest area
in the mission which is sweet. It was windy yesterday and so I wore me
sweater because it is probably the only day in the only place that
would be cool enough to get away with a sweater. It was still a tad hot
with it on, but at least I used it once.
Today for p-day, we went to sao filipe because we had to get stuff
you can´t buy here which is a lot. It ran into Sister Roberts who if
you don´t know, I went to MVHS 2 years with. There was actually a
pretty bad chance of me ever seeing her but I just so happen to be in
the same zone as her. Because it is too expensive, we never have full
mission conferences. There is a good chance that I could never meet
people that I served at the same time with for 20 months because if we
aren´t on the same island, we won´t meet. You pretty much know
everyone´s names though. Word gets around really fast somehow. We
bought food and stuffs in sao filipe but didn´t get everything we needed
which is okay because we are going back
on thursday
for zone conference which I am excited for. Also, our appartment here
is like the only one in the mission that has hot water which is a
blessing. It is hard going without things and not having access to lots
of different things, but I will adjust and it will get better. We
actually have some food now since we bought some. We were almost out.
We also don´t have a microwave which everyone should not take for
granted. Actually, don´t take anything for granted. We have a lot more
here than most of the africans so we are pretty well off as well, but
those of you in america, be thankful. all the time. :)
There aren´t addresses here so we get mail 1-2 times a transfer
when someone comes to our island and they can bring it. I will probably
get whatever was sent a while ago when president comes
on thursday
for Zone conference. Mail gets to praia pretty quick and then it takes
forever from there. I can send things home pretty easy and fast though
because we have addresses in the US. This is another reason a trainer
that is familiar with the area is important. These african names are
hard to remember, most of them, and all the references, you just have to
figure out where they live based on the houses you already.
I am about out of time but I will try to write more next week. No
time to respond to individuals but I will try to send some pictures
really fast.
Love you all. Send paper letters or short emails or both. Emails are good. Paper letters, also good.
Elder Sampson
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