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Out and About the Town

Mission Accomplished

Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2015 11:14:11 -0300
Subject: Re: Mission Accomplished
From: william.percival@myldsmail.net
To: mtpercival3@msn.com

Yeah sometimes it feels like it has been a long time since I left. I still remember one of my first weeks on my mission when you told me that I my mission would pass by very fast. This helped me a lot when I was having a difficult time. I would like to write a nice worded email with lots of details but I am rushing to get lots of things done. I will say though that I have always been very grateful for your email that you have sent me every week. I always ask missionaries about who emails them and very rarely both their father and mother write them every week. It has always helped me to read your emails and ponder about the messages throughout the week. It has always helped me stay motivated. I hope one day to do the same to my son. I am  excited to start school again and to get into reading books. I recognize that it was the lack of reading that lowered my test scores on some tests in high school. But that is what repentance is for. Haha

Yeah I would love to have the missionaries for dinner when I am home. I have lots of questions about the des moines Iowa mission. 

Had a good week. Not too happy with my companion but I only have a week left to really should have no worries. So our branch does not have a baptismal font so we baptized in a pool. Her name is Andreia and she is like in love with me and I have no idea why. But she is really cool. We made a contact with her on the street 2 weeks ago. We are also preparing another women and her 12 year old son to be baptized this Saturday so I should end my mission baptizing. Which is nice.  I am excited for the future. I will email you guys next Monday I think. Looking forward to relaxing a little bit. Here are some pictures. 

Lots of love from Fort Lazer (Fortaleza) haha

W

Next to the Last One....

On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 10:51 AM, William Percival <william.percival@myldsmail.net> wrote: 

No no Starbucks in Fortaleza. I will get some iphone 6 cords and will see if they have one of your cords but it is not likely. I did not like my talk and I only had like 5 minutes. It did not look like anyone was paying attention so I was glad I only had to talk for 5 minutes.
 My companion speaks Portuguese well. He has a strong accent but he works hard to only read in Portuguese. I have only had one companion who is Hispanic but of what I have seen the missionaries who speak Spanish speak Portuguese well. We have some dinners lined up, yes. I do not know where we will sleep when we go to the mission office. My group that is leaving is like one of the biggest. I will leave with 24 other missionaries.

 After Church on Sunday I will eat lunch with a member and then I will drive to the mission office. I will have a dinner with the president and all the other missionaries who will leave with me Sunday night. I am not sure where we will sleep. Monday we will email I think so I will email you guys next week on monday. And then on monday we will take a course about how to be self-sufficient. Not sure what else we will do. And tuesday I leave. So really my mission ends Sunday afternoon and I just have to wait until Wednesday to get home. 

Yes I have pictures that I have not sent home. No it has not been too hard to stay busy on mission things here at the end, to be honest. Which is a good thing. I thought that it would be harder. I am sure that this week will be harder. That sounds like a fun trip to Nauvoo but I want to go with you and dad and Anne once as well. I will always keep in contact with you guys in college so do not worry.

I cannot believe I am about to complain about my parents buying me a new cell phone but I was not a huge fan of the samsung s6 edge but liked the samsung s6 normal better. So make sure not to open the phone so in case I want to trade I can do that. Hope that is still a possibility. Let me know. But just wait until I get home to do anything because I will go to the store and play around with the two models to see which one I like better and then choose. But I love you guys. I baptized a women in a pool on Sunday which was a cool experience. I will send the pictures to dad. Lots of love,

Will

More August...To Dad

To: SHANE PERCIVAL

Yes I realize thing will be different. But I still have two more weeks to live the missionary life. Still seems like a good chunk of time. I am glad I am not coming home during the winter. It would be really difficult for my body to handle. I have not had a winter since 2013. I miss watching baseball and golf. These sports do not exist here. 

I am glad you have a chance to go with the missionaries to teach people. It is a good experience for members and gets them involved in the work. And yes there are tons of things to explain so you just have to make it really simple. But anyone who studies it themselves will learn. It just takes effort. Speaking of effort our efforts this week paid off and we are planning to baptize 2 people this Sunday. One guy who is like 24 and a women is around 35. They are cool and just have to quit drinking coffee. (Have I mentioned that everyone and their dog drink coffee in Brazil. I thought Washington was bad but here is worse. People give coffee to their kids who are like 3 years old.)  I have learned on my mission the impact of people's childhood has a lot to do with how they will live their life. Children are very sensitive to everything. And yes people sometimes get the wrong impression that we worship Joseph Smith because we talk a lot about him in the first lesson. But it does not work talking only about Jesus Christ because everyone here believes in him. Not because they actually believe and read the scriptures but because someone when they were a child it was told to them that a man named Jesus Christ died for their sins. 

But those who search will find. Knock and you will receive, right? A promises made in the scriptures many times. I am giving a talk in our branch this Sunday. I will be able to compare the two. I have only given a talk one other time on my mission in my first ward. It has been a long time. That is all for this week. Lots of love. I will give my testimony to the whole mission, along with the other people who will go home with me, on Friday. Should be a fun time. Friday will be our zone conference with the whole mission. A seventy will come. Elder Pino I think. 

With love,

W

August 17

24 years is a long time to have been married. Have you been married more years than not? Should be getting close. That will be fun to talk to him ( the new guy in your ward) about Fortaleza. It is an interesting place. Glad to hear the drive from Denver went well. Yeah it is really not too bad to live here. You get used to it. I sometimes forget that I used to take warm showers. But I will always miss having a couch. Thanks for the posters. Sounds like a good plan for our trip to Utah. It will be like our trip to Denver. It is too bad Anne and Dad cannot come with us but that is alright. Do not worry about Music. I will be alright for two weeks. But if you have some ready I will accept it. Just let me know when you put it on Dropbox. That stinks about Finley. Seems like she is always having trouble scratching.  I have to get me temple recommend renewed, but President does that in the last interview I will have in two weeks. Here are some pictures from last week when we went and saw the giant catholic cathedral. It is really quite beautiful. And huge. It is strange they let anyone enter and take pictures. I will let Dad know more about the week. I told President to do my BYU thing again. Trying to take more photos. Lots of love,

Will

August

FW: Sabbath Day

mtpercival3

8/10/15

To: mtpercival@msn.com

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Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2015 18:03:12 -0300
Subject: Re: Sabbath Day
From: william.percival@myldsmail.net
To: mtpercival3@msn.com

I have not seen the movie17 Miracles but I have heard it is good. You should watch Ephraim's Rescue which I have watched two times on the misison. I have heard it is very similar to 17 Miracles but most people like Ephraim's Rescue better. That is a long drive for Mom to do alone. Sorry I am not there to help her. Yeah you could say that I am jealous about the food. But I am more jealous of the fact you have a car. I just rode a bus for 1.5 hours when it should have taken 45 minutes. My companion and I always end up taking the wrong buses. 

3 people baptized this year in your ward? That does seem like little. Do the people in our ward who get baptized stay firm? This part of the world baptized lots of people but few stay. This is a large problem. Lots of it has to do with a culture who lives without commitments. And little education. A member asked my companion the other day if the country of Peru had Internet. And then tried to convince me that the country of Cuba did not have cell phones. I am greatful for the education I have had and will continue to have.

This transfer will be tough to find a baptism but I believe we will. We teach lots of people during the week but we do not ever seem to find them in their houses again. It is a big problem with missionary work. Finding a time that people will sit down with you and listen. We had 2 people at church this week. A guy we taught just one time and a women who is very very very poor and will be difficult to help her. But we will do what we can. I will send Mom some other things about the week. The dollar is VERY high, ridiculously high. I am sorry I did not take out money today. It is horrible for the economy here but if you have dollars like me it is great. 1 dollar is 3,44 reals. In 2013, 1 dollar was 2 reals. I bought some shirts today to bring home for you guys and some other cool things. Took lots of pictures as well but forgot my device to upload them. Lots of love

From mom in Denver

To: Cindy Percival

Hey so I did my BYU endorsement thing again. I will call President Bonini tonight and tell him to do it again. That is wierd that Madison is transferrring to Iowa State. Jeesh. Hope she does not regret it. Yeah so I am way excited for the Samsung 6. It costs 3000 reals here just to give you an idea for the price of electronics here. The minimal salary here is 700 reals and lots of people make that.

But I found a place that sells iphone cables and keyboards and usb cables that charge all the other types of phones way cheap today. So if anyone needs like electronic accessories, iphone cables or keyboards or mouses or speakers or anything let me know because I will go back there in two weeks to buy some stuff for college. I can buy a iphone cable that will charge the iphone 6 for like $1.50.

We went to central to buy souveniors that I will bring home. I bought some cool shirts and other things to bring home but I will go back in 2 weeks and buy the rest of the stuff I want. I also took cool photos of the giant catholic cathedral but I did not bring my camera-computer device today so I will send the pictures next week.

The gospel can chage lives more than anything. Sometimes I need to remember that when I am working with people. Sometimes I forget how important this all is because we do the same thing every day, but I am grateful for the people that I have been able to help until now. I have three more weeks to help as many people as possible. And yes a stake president is very important. Along with a bishop.

I am rushing today so that is all for now. Lots of love!

On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 2:58 PM, William Percival <william.percival@myldsmail.net> wrote:

It was good to hear about Jared Newman coming home from Belo Horozonte mission. He served in a hot part of the country. To tell the truth all of Brazil is hot. Luckily here is really not too bad. You get used to the warmth. And sleeping is good because it get cold during the night this time of the year. But I always though Jared's dad was really cool. Yes it is weird to think that the world will always be there. There will always be a world series every year and a finals in basketball every year. But I am looking forward to watching the summer Olympics at home. It will be a nice reunion at home. 

As far as missionary work goes. This area proves to be difficult. But missionary work in general is difficult so I am not sure what I expect. But this week we will baptize the wife of a recent convert. There is a guy named Marcio who was baptized three weeks ago by the old missionaries. He was part of the Assembly of God church but was converted by the Book of Mormon. He is way cool. And this week we will baptize his wife. We are planning to have the baptism Friday. Other than that we taught a lot of lessons last week but not to many people that understood or cared. So we will find different people this week. It is amazing to see the level of understanding of people here. Lots of missionaries here like to work with young adults or teenagers because many people over the age of 30 who do not actively seek to learn new things lose their ability to learn. It is interesting for me to see how when people have not learned something new in a long time. Their ability to learn new things begins to die. Whatever part of the brain that is. And they just give up because it is so hard for them. This problem is much more evident in Brazil than in the U.S. But life moves on and I will pray and thank God for the education that I have had. 

Today we went to one of the big malls that exist here in Fortaleza. It was actually really nice. Like almost as nice as the Jordon Creek Mall. Just not quite as big but close. We bought chocolate in one of the nice shops. It was a fun time. I also saw the new Samsung 6 in the samsung store and I think I am sold. Great size. Great Material. 

Also I am always amazed at the lack of service in the stores here. The people who work in these stores are just not very nice when you ask them questions. They seem annoyed sometimes. I miss good ole U.S. service. 

That is all for this week. Hope you have a great week. Lots of Love,

Will

In the Home Stretch

Re: A list of questions

William Percival

Add to contacts

8/03/15

To: Cindy Percival

Church was good. Yes I bore my testimony. When there are only 45 people there almost everyone needs to bear their testimony. Yeah I am pretty thin I will not lie. But I laughed when you asked me if I had a parasite. Haha. I do not think so. To be honest I probably do but that does not change anything for 4 weeks. Nothing I can do. I will try to eat more food. Sometimes I think that since I do not like the food I just have the desire to eat less but I will try to be better. I take a vitamin I bought here everyday if that helps. I will gain some weight when I get back. 

I am not sure when my friends want to go see Max. I think the first week of September but I am not sure. I think most of them will be at college when I get home yes so I will have to organize this better. Maybe I will just go with Davis  to see Max. 

Yes Robinson emailed me. He went home in the airplane first class due to some mix ups. Lucky guy. We do not know who we will live with. I think we decided to try to find a tv out there in Utah. Interview with President will be the last day of my mission. The monday before I leave. I will make sure to do a ecclesiastical report thing. We always get fed, but lots of times we just get money from the members to go buy food.

Facebook is huge in Brazil so I will keep in touch with everyone through Facebook.  The new Samsung 6 looked pretty sweet today. We went to the mall which they call "Shopping" here and I went to the Samsung store. I think I am sold. I love you lots. THanks for the survey. It makes it easy to know what you want to know from me.

love you

W