Well, we got a few emails back from Elder C. this week. A lot of fun information!
Email to Dad/the family
yo fam! hows it in l town?
it's all good here. the language is still so hard and i pretty much know absolutely nothing but i try my best. ha. but it was sweet, we taught an amazing lesson last night to this 17 year old kid, named celsio. he has a baptism date marked for the 9th of january but he has some doubts so we taught about baptism of course. we brought one of his friends, gracide, who is a recent convert. he bore his testimony it was soooo powerful. ah i love teaching these people. i just cant wait til i can actually say all i want and completely communicate with them.
i dont think i told you, it is a mission rule that we teach only in portuguese - unless they don't understand portuguese, then we can teach in creole. so i really gotta get portuguese down first. ha but its all good. im really enjoying it, i dont think i can express that enough. its seriously the best thing in the entire world....i wouldn't wanna serve anywhere else.
but anyways the city i am in is called Pettim, i think thats how you spell it. but there are no street names so....haha but yeah look that up. its a little village about 30 minutes from sao filipe. we have to ride in a van that they fit like 15 people in every time we need to buy something. and we come down to sao filipe on p days to email, and on wednesdays we have district meeting here also.
i dont really eat that much fish because we are told not to eat at the members houses...so its cereal or cookies for breakfast...then me and my companion make lunch, once a week spaghetti and then the other days i make chicken, he makes fish. but i did try it...not so good haha. and then for dinner cereal or roman noodles. its a good life, really healthy. ha and for lunch we eat soooo much food its seriously ridiculous how much they can put down. our house is fairly new so we dont have any problems with bugs yet.
i would attach pictures but i dont have enough time or a way to do it cause i didnt bring my usb plug for my camera.
merry christmas to everyone back at home.
love yall
peace
elder coleman
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Email to Mom
what up ma
my stomach is good. food really isn't a problem. you can eat two ways...
1. eat all of it as fast as you can and the food hits all your taste buds but its gone really fast then chug a whole liter of water or...
2. eat it slowly put it where you want in your mouth it hits only a few taste buds but then everyone is done eating and you still have a plate full so i just go with the shoving it in as fast as i can..its crazy ha
language....haha dont know anything! its so tough but some of our investigators are helping me out but they do it mostly just so they can make fun of my pronunciation haha its fun! but i teach just a little part every lesson and it is all good.
no mosquito net. its not really necessary. but i don't have a pillow. haha i'll be getting one next week i hope.
church was amazing! one of the recent converts, leila taught the lesson. soooo good! it was super cool. and we had 7 of our investigators come so that was way exciting! on saturday we helped one of our investigators who is prolly 17 with his work, cutting down corn stalks for about two hours so he didn't have to do it on sunday and could come to church...he showed up it was awesome! yeah so sundays are the test to see how your week went and 7 is pretty darn good, so it was a good week!
i never knew what it felt like to be the minority. but now i do. haha i am the absolute only white person here. its so funny when they look at me with that weird face then i start speaking creole then they smile and talk back, i don't understand then i smile and it is all good! ha its sweet!!
anywho....i miss yall very much. praying for yall and i love you.
i go on a division with the zone leaders tomorrow for two days, it should be interesting. i'll let you know how it goes! stay sweet....
much love
elder coleman
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Email to Travis and Whitney:
manera...tudo feixe go!
what up, first off, merry christmas is "boa natal" but nice try in spanish hehe. next i will answer your questions...
1. (What is your favorite food so far? Least favorite?) so they make this banana things. so good! they just cut them up in like 5 and then roll them in some sort of brown sugar then cook them. its crunchy on the outside but soft and delicious on the inside. oh so good! i still dont like fish. ha
2. (Do they have any interesting Christmas traditions there?) not that i know of but i know that they party hard! ha christmas and december 31!
3. ("How do you say "Hello, my name is ...") manera, n tchoma e....
4. (Do you have any contact with the other missionaries on Fogo?) we have district meeting every wednesday we have two other elders, one from pennsylvania and one from brasil both speak perfect english. two sisters, one from portugual and the other from tonga (she speaks perfect english as well) and then we have a couple missionaries so i talk to them once a week but also we see my companion from the mtc and his companion when we use internet on p days...his companion elder gomes is tight he also speaks fluent english ha sounds like a lot of them speak english good no eh haha but not my companion! and we are having a party on christmas with all the missionaries in fogo!
well there ya go...i hope all is well there sounds like it. have a fantastic day. love,
elder coleman
Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
First email from FOGO!
yo ma! tudo fiexe
umm all is well here. i love it! its seriously way better then layton utah. haha the people are so nice even though they laugh at me because i'm white, unfortunetly. i know its sad. but anyways all is good, no worries here. my bags are safe. it was a little difficult getting the bags to be 44 pounds to head to fogo, but it all worked out. my companion is native from praia...he speaks very little english but i am teaching him so he can get a good job after the mission. and of course he is helping me learn portuguese. we always teach in portuguese unless it is someone really old so it's really important to speak that before creole. the language is prolly the hardest thing for me. do you remember in st george there was that pool we called the cold pool and you had to build yourself up to jump into it.....yeah thats what the shower is like. thats seriously the worst part of the entire day! haha anyways right now i guess you could call it winter here so it actually gets pretty cold, prolly only like 45 at night but it feels like 7 degrees because during the day its like 85 haha but no its good. i am loving it! its so sweet just to walk and teach people everyday. yesterday was church...a little different than America. ha we leave our house at 9 to be able to walk there in time it starts at 10 plus we swing by some of our investigators houses to wake them up. then church is only 2 hours but everyone just stays and talks for like an hour then we all walk home together and so we got home at like 2 ha it was sweet and while we were walking home a little boy prolly 5 held my hand and was spitting creole to me, didn't understand a single word...i love it! the area i am in is brand new i am only the third missionary to serve there so its really good we have a lot of success. right now we prolly have somewhere around 25 investigators but its a small village away from the big town so everyone knows who we are. its tight. there have already been 5 baptisms and we have 6 set up for the 9th of january hopefully they are all ready. i don't speak the language at all but i just put a smile on, and the days are fantastic but when i try to speak is the funniest because they reply and i have no idea what they say! its so funny haha i just embarrass my self pretty much every time i talk its the best!!!! ha well anyways i prolly should get going. know that all is in good hands here. love y'all
elder coleman
umm all is well here. i love it! its seriously way better then layton utah. haha the people are so nice even though they laugh at me because i'm white, unfortunetly. i know its sad. but anyways all is good, no worries here. my bags are safe. it was a little difficult getting the bags to be 44 pounds to head to fogo, but it all worked out. my companion is native from praia...he speaks very little english but i am teaching him so he can get a good job after the mission. and of course he is helping me learn portuguese. we always teach in portuguese unless it is someone really old so it's really important to speak that before creole. the language is prolly the hardest thing for me. do you remember in st george there was that pool we called the cold pool and you had to build yourself up to jump into it.....yeah thats what the shower is like. thats seriously the worst part of the entire day! haha anyways right now i guess you could call it winter here so it actually gets pretty cold, prolly only like 45 at night but it feels like 7 degrees because during the day its like 85 haha but no its good. i am loving it! its so sweet just to walk and teach people everyday. yesterday was church...a little different than America. ha we leave our house at 9 to be able to walk there in time it starts at 10 plus we swing by some of our investigators houses to wake them up. then church is only 2 hours but everyone just stays and talks for like an hour then we all walk home together and so we got home at like 2 ha it was sweet and while we were walking home a little boy prolly 5 held my hand and was spitting creole to me, didn't understand a single word...i love it! the area i am in is brand new i am only the third missionary to serve there so its really good we have a lot of success. right now we prolly have somewhere around 25 investigators but its a small village away from the big town so everyone knows who we are. its tight. there have already been 5 baptisms and we have 6 set up for the 9th of january hopefully they are all ready. i don't speak the language at all but i just put a smile on, and the days are fantastic but when i try to speak is the funniest because they reply and i have no idea what they say! its so funny haha i just embarrass my self pretty much every time i talk its the best!!!! ha well anyways i prolly should get going. know that all is in good hands here. love y'all
elder coleman
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Now in Cape Verde!
Elder Coleman had a long day of traveling yesterday and we just got word that he arrived tired, but safe, in Praia! He's been assigned to his first area and companion. He'll be serving with Elder Fernandes on the island of Fogo. Here we go!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Friday Emails
{Elder Coleman has been able to email home on Fridays! Here are some of the latest emails}
Friday, OCT 30, 2009
oi familia! Modi que boo sta!
Eu faco come que chuva! Eu falo muito portugues! Eu sou grato pelo oportunidad servi a missionario!
Haha just made that up prolly didnt make sense. well anyways...all is good here. i am getting sick of it though. i just wanna be out in cabo verde. it feels like im in an ant hill with tons of ants running around. i cant take it much longer ha. only a few more weeks! thank goodness. so i am super stoked to see daniel.
umm so what has happened this week....not a whole lot. Elder Rasband came to speak. is he the one who came to our stake conference? the name sounds familiar so i was just wondering if thats what it was. he gave an amazing talk and so did his wife! i love sundays and tuesdays, sunday fireside, tuesday devotional. the best. So pretty much being a missionary is number one. haha.
me elder roundy (he is from arizona, not related to becky) and elder watts have some killer good times! we all make the best out of serving a mission and we all get along really well which helps a ton.
im loving the weather, i havent really needed the jacket, i thought it was gonna start getting colder, it sure seemed like it at least but all of the sudden it was beautiful weather again....works for me!
so i am now in mosiah chapter 6 in my bom reading. i have an hour to read it every day. i seriously think that hour is what keeps me going every day! i love it, its the best. dinner is at six and by that time it feels like its midnight and i just wanna crash. and i still have 4 hours left of the day. days are long. weeks are short.
i had a really cool experience on thursday, i dont know if i told you about the TRC but it is every thursday. it is what we prepare for the entire week. so far there has just been 15 minutes in portugues then teach a 35 minute lesson in english. well yesterday i was teaching and i had no idea what i was saying. i was just spitting the gospel. it was my first experience of doing something i had no idea i could do. this guy was asking questions left and right and i was answering every single one of them with a scripture to back it up. it was legit. it really showed me the power of the holy ghost if you work diligently he will help you out in that desperate time of need. i am trying to focus all of my work on Christ. it helps so much! and when i read in the book of mormon christ is in like every chapter its crazy i never saw that before. i can already see that my faith has grown so much stronger already. i love it. i cant wait to see how strong it is after two years!
so my teachers are speakin all portugues i think i already said that but i wanna expound on it a little ha. if we ask a question in english they just say "como" until you speak portugues. ha its funny but it really is hard. the language is sorta coming but not really. we have a thing called FSL "falo sua lingua" speak your language and we have to rate how much portugues we spoke during that day, manha e tarde e noite. muito triste haha its all good though i know it will come eventually if i just keep up the hard work.
well i gotta go get my clothes out of the dryer! i love y'all and miss y'all very much.
FALO!! (literal translation, SPEAK, my translation, PEACE!!!)
love ya fam! hope to hear from you all again sometime.
LOVE ELDER CARSON MICHAEL COLEMAN :) :)
dont have to much fun without me
seja feliz, todos dias!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Friday, OCT 23, 2009
Hey fam.
everything is good here. i am having tons of amazing experiences. i cant wait to share them all with you. having the spirit with me 24 7 is def better than i ever imagined. so many miracles have already happened and im still at the mtc. its muito bem (very well) haha portuguese is awesome but hard to learn. its way better than english in the sense that it is way more beautiful (mutio bonito as my teacher would say, he went to cabo verde i dont know if i told you that so he is really helping me, he said they speak creole there its different then portuguese so i basically have to learn two languages.) oh well haha he still wears the pants that he had on his mission, you can tell because where his leg pits are it like purple because of all the sweat. so i am super pumped for that. i cant wait to sweat so much my clothes start changing shape, form and color. muito bom. i miss you all so much. but this place is awesome. i would serve my entire mission at the mtc, actually no i wouldnt. i am actually really sick of this place i just wanna go to cabo verde. ha its like the world is 5 steps away but i am stuck in this prison. nao bem. i am making tons of friends here. elders and sisters. i have two sisters in my district. my district has ten people in it. our zone is now about 100 people which is the biggest zone ever because of all the visas that arent coming through so all the kids that are supposed to go to brazil mtc are coming here. so kyle cooper is in my zone thats cool. i talk to him quite a bit. there are two elders and a sister in my zone that leave for cabo verde on tuesday. so i have been talking to them alot. in two more weeks our teachers wont speak anymore english to us. only portuguese. its hard to learn sometimes cause we have us trying to learn continental portuguese and others trying to learn brasil portuguese in the same room, same teacher at the same time. but its super fun. i love it. i miss you all.
love elder coleman. hope all is well at home. write often love ya
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Friday, OCT 16, 2009
Hey whats up a familia!?
How is everything? i hope life in layton is treating yall well.
So i can write emails every friday. its my p day. i have so much to say but i am gonna try and shorten it up as much i can. my companion is awesome. we are starting to get along really well. my district is awesome. as well as my zone. we have so much fun together. one of our requirements is that we smile. so we are always happy. it makes everything so much better when you dont really have to worry about anything but the lords work. i really do love it here. its hard most the time but its so worth it! i am learning so much. The food is good. our main focus is using the preach my gospel. i wish i would have dominated that before i came cause we use it so much. its crazy. i am constantly learning so my brain is constantly going so i dont sleep much but i dont let it get to me. you guys know that. i just keep plugging along and am making sure i am having a good time. its killing me that i dont get naps. ha im used to taking one every day now im lucky to get one in the whole week. i am playing some basketball about 4 times a week. then on saturday we play softball. i love doing laundry here. its so easy. they have a color button and a white button. they should make them all like that. connor and trey i miss you a ton. i hope you guys are doing good in school. sydney i am really enjoying all the letters. its keeping me going. i loved the scripture you put with it. there is so much to tell you but i have so little time. i know how to pray and bear testimony in
portugues. mo di que boo sta is cape verdean language. it means whats up. i cant wait to learn creole it sounds way fun. 'yes' in portuguese is 'sim.' 'no' is 'nao.' its crazy but these spanish missionaries bore their testimony to me and i understood all of it and they have been here for 4 weeks so that awesome. i am loving my new first name. elder. it sounds so good. umm i am trying to answer all the questions. but i cant really think of anymore. i love you all. and i hope you guys are having some good times without me. stay sweet.
dont worry all is well here.
elder coleman
aka elder baller: thats what they have been calling me ha
Friday, OCT 30, 2009
oi familia! Modi que boo sta!
Eu faco come que chuva! Eu falo muito portugues! Eu sou grato pelo oportunidad servi a missionario!
Haha just made that up prolly didnt make sense. well anyways...all is good here. i am getting sick of it though. i just wanna be out in cabo verde. it feels like im in an ant hill with tons of ants running around. i cant take it much longer ha. only a few more weeks! thank goodness. so i am super stoked to see daniel.
umm so what has happened this week....not a whole lot. Elder Rasband came to speak. is he the one who came to our stake conference? the name sounds familiar so i was just wondering if thats what it was. he gave an amazing talk and so did his wife! i love sundays and tuesdays, sunday fireside, tuesday devotional. the best. So pretty much being a missionary is number one. haha.
me elder roundy (he is from arizona, not related to becky) and elder watts have some killer good times! we all make the best out of serving a mission and we all get along really well which helps a ton.
im loving the weather, i havent really needed the jacket, i thought it was gonna start getting colder, it sure seemed like it at least but all of the sudden it was beautiful weather again....works for me!
so i am now in mosiah chapter 6 in my bom reading. i have an hour to read it every day. i seriously think that hour is what keeps me going every day! i love it, its the best. dinner is at six and by that time it feels like its midnight and i just wanna crash. and i still have 4 hours left of the day. days are long. weeks are short.
i had a really cool experience on thursday, i dont know if i told you about the TRC but it is every thursday. it is what we prepare for the entire week. so far there has just been 15 minutes in portugues then teach a 35 minute lesson in english. well yesterday i was teaching and i had no idea what i was saying. i was just spitting the gospel. it was my first experience of doing something i had no idea i could do. this guy was asking questions left and right and i was answering every single one of them with a scripture to back it up. it was legit. it really showed me the power of the holy ghost if you work diligently he will help you out in that desperate time of need. i am trying to focus all of my work on Christ. it helps so much! and when i read in the book of mormon christ is in like every chapter its crazy i never saw that before. i can already see that my faith has grown so much stronger already. i love it. i cant wait to see how strong it is after two years!
so my teachers are speakin all portugues i think i already said that but i wanna expound on it a little ha. if we ask a question in english they just say "como" until you speak portugues. ha its funny but it really is hard. the language is sorta coming but not really. we have a thing called FSL "falo sua lingua" speak your language and we have to rate how much portugues we spoke during that day, manha e tarde e noite. muito triste haha its all good though i know it will come eventually if i just keep up the hard work.
well i gotta go get my clothes out of the dryer! i love y'all and miss y'all very much.
FALO!! (literal translation, SPEAK, my translation, PEACE!!!)
love ya fam! hope to hear from you all again sometime.
LOVE ELDER CARSON MICHAEL COLEMAN :) :)
dont have to much fun without me
seja feliz, todos dias!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Friday, OCT 23, 2009
Hey fam.
everything is good here. i am having tons of amazing experiences. i cant wait to share them all with you. having the spirit with me 24 7 is def better than i ever imagined. so many miracles have already happened and im still at the mtc. its muito bem (very well) haha portuguese is awesome but hard to learn. its way better than english in the sense that it is way more beautiful (mutio bonito as my teacher would say, he went to cabo verde i dont know if i told you that so he is really helping me, he said they speak creole there its different then portuguese so i basically have to learn two languages.) oh well haha he still wears the pants that he had on his mission, you can tell because where his leg pits are it like purple because of all the sweat. so i am super pumped for that. i cant wait to sweat so much my clothes start changing shape, form and color. muito bom. i miss you all so much. but this place is awesome. i would serve my entire mission at the mtc, actually no i wouldnt. i am actually really sick of this place i just wanna go to cabo verde. ha its like the world is 5 steps away but i am stuck in this prison. nao bem. i am making tons of friends here. elders and sisters. i have two sisters in my district. my district has ten people in it. our zone is now about 100 people which is the biggest zone ever because of all the visas that arent coming through so all the kids that are supposed to go to brazil mtc are coming here. so kyle cooper is in my zone thats cool. i talk to him quite a bit. there are two elders and a sister in my zone that leave for cabo verde on tuesday. so i have been talking to them alot. in two more weeks our teachers wont speak anymore english to us. only portuguese. its hard to learn sometimes cause we have us trying to learn continental portuguese and others trying to learn brasil portuguese in the same room, same teacher at the same time. but its super fun. i love it. i miss you all.
love elder coleman. hope all is well at home. write often love ya
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Friday, OCT 16, 2009
Hey whats up a familia!?
How is everything? i hope life in layton is treating yall well.
So i can write emails every friday. its my p day. i have so much to say but i am gonna try and shorten it up as much i can. my companion is awesome. we are starting to get along really well. my district is awesome. as well as my zone. we have so much fun together. one of our requirements is that we smile. so we are always happy. it makes everything so much better when you dont really have to worry about anything but the lords work. i really do love it here. its hard most the time but its so worth it! i am learning so much. The food is good. our main focus is using the preach my gospel. i wish i would have dominated that before i came cause we use it so much. its crazy. i am constantly learning so my brain is constantly going so i dont sleep much but i dont let it get to me. you guys know that. i just keep plugging along and am making sure i am having a good time. its killing me that i dont get naps. ha im used to taking one every day now im lucky to get one in the whole week. i am playing some basketball about 4 times a week. then on saturday we play softball. i love doing laundry here. its so easy. they have a color button and a white button. they should make them all like that. connor and trey i miss you a ton. i hope you guys are doing good in school. sydney i am really enjoying all the letters. its keeping me going. i loved the scripture you put with it. there is so much to tell you but i have so little time. i know how to pray and bear testimony in
portugues. mo di que boo sta is cape verdean language. it means whats up. i cant wait to learn creole it sounds way fun. 'yes' in portuguese is 'sim.' 'no' is 'nao.' its crazy but these spanish missionaries bore their testimony to me and i understood all of it and they have been here for 4 weeks so that awesome. i am loving my new first name. elder. it sounds so good. umm i am trying to answer all the questions. but i cant really think of anymore. i love you all. and i hope you guys are having some good times without me. stay sweet.
dont worry all is well here.
elder coleman
aka elder baller: thats what they have been calling me ha
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
MTC Curbside Drop-off
[Whitney] Today we dropped Carson - err, Elder Coleman, off at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah. The car ride there was quiet, and a bit surreal. Mom drove with the new Elder sitting in the front seat. Me, baby Luke, and Connor were in the middle, and Dad and Trey were in the back. We stopped at Wendy's for a quick lunch and met two boys and their families who were also headed to the MTC. One was from California and had been called to serve in Wisconsin, the other was from Iowa and was going to serve in St. Petersburg, Russia.
We drove through Provo and came upon the BYU campus and soon, our destination. We knew we were there because we saw a group of dark suited young men walking towards the temple which is nestled perfectly at the foot of the canyon. Mom drove right on past the MTC... claimed she wanted a picture of the temple... but maybe just wasn't quite ready to drop off her boy. We took a quick picture of the temple, it was a pretty sight. Then turned around back towards the MTC.
We wanted to take a picture in front of the entrance, but Elder Coleman just wanted to get in and get on with it. So I snapped a picture as we drove past...
We pulled in and it was like Disneyland traffic control for missionaries. We were directed and guided by elders through the entrance and right up to the curb. Cars were lined up and young men and women were unloading. It was weird pulling up to the curb and saying our quick goodbyes that we've been prolonging for the last 5 weeks. Elder Coleman unloaded his luggage, advised us all to "Stay Sweet" and was on his way... We hope he gets settled in quickly. And hopefully he updates us often!
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