First Email from Brazil

Well, I made it.  It is funny to see guys I have not seen since I was in Provo.  I have a good companion for the two weeks that I am here so that is always good.  My MTC companion from Provo was supposed to be living in my room with us but his passport and visa did not make it through the US Mail so he couldn't get on the plane yesterday with the rest of us.  That is a big bummer for him.  Instead, his companion is with us and we are in a threesome. The plane ride was long and I did not sleep much.  It will be a long day.  This place reminds me of Culebra.
Lots of love,
Will

On the "road" to Brazil

From: william.percival@myldsmail.net
To: mtpercival3@msn.com; mtpercival@msn.com

Keep your phones on you throughout the day. I will try to call either before I leave or in Atlanta. One of the two. I do not know the time in Iowa but you guys can figure it out. Make sure you answer. 

On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 10:55 AM, William Percival <william.percival@myldsmail.net> wrote:

I do not have lots of time today as I have many things to do. I also wish today was not a holiday as I was hoping to stop at Wells Fargo on the way up to Tacoma. They have none here in Aberdeen. I sent one package home 3-4 days ago and I am having a family send a package home tomorrow for me. The one being sent tomorrow has lots of cash in it. I did not want to carry all that Brazil money around and I also ended up FINDING 210$ cash in my study desk as I was cleaning it out. I think it was the missionaries before me but go ahead and put it into my checking account along with the Brazil cash. I am emailing him and will wire it to him if it is his. 

I think that is it for this week. I talked to our Ward Mission Leader all about his schooling and his Radiology job. I learned a lot from him. I uploaded some pictures on dropbox today and he is the bald guy I took a picture with. I also had a women the last couple weeks re-sew all of my pants to make them fit better. She is a very good seamstress and I look much better in them now. She was very kind as it was a lot of work she did. I also picked up a cool pair of burgundy shoes to wear with my blue pants at Goodwill for 10$. Great deal. So I should be looking stylish in Brazil. 

Also a fun fact: my MTC companion, Elder Sheridan, has been waiting in Idaho this whole time for his Visa and he is leaving the same day for Brazil as I am. It will be hilarious to see him again and potentially be his companion. That is all I have. I will try to jump on email later today if you have any last minute requests. Lots of love... It's been a long ride but the prayers have been answered and I am leaving.

Wish me luck,

Will

Welcome to the CTM in Sao Paulo

Dear Parents,

Sister Swensen and I are very happy to let you know that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil Missionary Training Center.  What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they begin their missionary experiences with us. We will surely take good care of your missionary.                                                                                                     

The missionaries now have companions and are settled into their rooms.  They are assigned to a district with capable and caring instructors for language and lesson study.  Their branch presidents and wives, will meet them this Sunday.  These wonderful couples are richly blessed as they work with, motivate, and interview the missionaries assigned to their branch.

The MTC has a full-time live-in physician to care for their health needs.  He is assisted by his able wife who is a nurse. We are also happy to report that the cafeteria food is plentiful, healthy and very good.

Your missionary will be able to e-mail home on Preparation Day after a morning at the Temple.  This will be either Wednesday or Friday, depending on individual assignments.

Your missionary is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of many others. President Lorenzo Snow said: “There is no mortal man that is as interested in the success of an elder when he is preaching the Gospel as is the Lord who sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord's children".  We love these missionaries as if they were our own.  We will watch over them carefully to ensure they are ready for a wonderful missionary experience after the rewarding time they will have in the MTC.

We thank you for preparing such a wonderful representative of the Lord.

President Robert Swensen and Sister Julie Swensen

Here's some sleepy Missionaries after just flying 24 hours to reach Sao Paulo....

Probably no Cheesecake in Brazil

So he had cheesecake at the Bishop's house before he left for Brazil.

Farewell Dinner

This was his ward mission leader in Cosmopolis.

Good Bye Washington

Cosmopolis, WA

Will lived in the upstairs of this house in Cosmopolis, WA

Aberdeen is the city next to Cosmopolis.  It is the home of Curt Cobain, the lead musician for the group Nirvana.

End of August and the end of the Tacoma Washington Mission Adventure

I am so sorry to hear about Steven. That is what Max told me last week and I had to see if it was true. I am sorry to hear that it is. I am sorry for the family and will keep them in my Prayers. Who saw that coming?

Yes my companion and I love Mormon messages. We wish we had Ipads so we could watch all the videos on LDS.org in our downtime for fun. Its odd to hear about Seattle playing well. It seems like ever since I came to Washington the teams here are playing well. And yes unfortunately Seahawks football has started up again. If you would like to send me anything now is the time as this is my last week in America. I do not think I need anything but if you have things to ship make sure they get here before Tuesday.

My companion and I had an interesting week. We put an old guy on date for baptism in September who we met. His name is Terry and he is an older gentleman with health problems. He wants to join the church after we taught him the first lesson which was awesome. We just have to get him to church. We also went on a church tour with a lady named Alecia who will be baptized in September. I was hoping to stay here one more transfer as I think this area will have 5 baptisms next transfer if you count Becky and her two kids. We taught Becky and her two kids last night about the book of Mormon. I do all the talking as Elder Rice is one of the shyest people I have ever met. I love spending time with the guy but I have a hard time getting him to talk in lessons. Either way I loved the lesson as we talked about the old testament and even ended up talking about the 1/3 hosts of heaven who decided not to come to earth. Not something we usually teach people but they had lots of questions.

Also something interesting that happened. Remember how we were going to help that family do a water change on their 250 gallon tank? Well we planned to come over last Saturday until we got a text from them on Friday telling us how their tank had a leak and 200 gallons of Saltwater poured out all over their living room and seeped into their downstairs. Dad's worst nightmare. They managed to save all the fish and coral and we helped them out by connecting them to our neighbor with all the saltwater tanks who is the kindest guy and offered to hold all the fish and coral until they set up another tank. So on Saturday instead of doing a water change we helped them tear down the tank. They have to rip up the flooring and lots of other things. I cannot imagine the cost. Either way I was happy we could help but also happy at the end we got to leave and it was not our problem. Ha

So that's it for the week. This is my last week in the Wa-Tac. I leave on my 11-month mark so I will still spend most of my mission in Brazil. I am scared for the change but at the same time excited. I will put trust in the fact that change has almost always been good on my mission. I have been blessed to have great companions so far so we will see if my luck continues down in South America. I will give you guys a call from the airport but I do not know my flight itinerary yet so I will hopefully know for next week.

Lots of love,

Will

August 18 2014

We are having success as of lately. We will have three baptisms in mid-September. A lady named Becky Leonard and her two boys who are 16 and 11. I will be amazed if something goes wrong as she is way solid. We are also teaching a women named Alicia who I am sure will be baptized. If we can convince a 10 year old named Tommy then he will be too. Our climb last Monday up the nuke towers was lots of fun. The tour guide was less than enthusiastic and just told us if we fell off from the top we would die. IT was quite the climb. I am sorry I forgot my parachute man from Christmas Mom sent me. I meant to bring it.

Anyways it was nice weather this week. We taught a good lesson about the commandments to Becky with a member from our ward. I actually am really starting to like this area and my companion Elder Rice. He is very quiet but he is quite funny when he talks to me. I hope if I leave for Brazil I can wait until after like September 10th so I can see this lady baptized. We also found an old guy we are going to teach named Terry. An old less-active guy who did meth his whole life wanted us to come over and his friend Terry was there so we are going to go over and teach him this week. My advice to anyone is do not do meth. Its the reason no one has teeth in this town.

Also something interesting that Elder Rice and I ran into was two families who have huge saltwater tanks. One of which on a Saturday morning we are going to help  do a water change and clean the tank for service. The guy that lived in the house before them sold them a 250 gallon Saltwater tank that they wanted but did not know how to take care of. So we talked to them for a long time about what they need to do and they asked if I would help do a water change. We like to do service on Saturday mornings so we agreed. This is not what we usually do but I think it will be fun. Our next door neighbor is also a less-active member who has a 200 gallon tank in his house. I could see the glow of it at night and knew it was a saltwater tank. We went over Saturday Morning and looked at it and I talked to him for a while about it. He actually knows what he is doing and has lots of coral and fish. He had a cool refugium and sump system set up and I actually learned a couple things from him.

Tell Bon Bon I got her letter and loved it. I will continue to write her. I did not know Jessica got married. You should send me a wedding pic if you can find one. We got fed almost every night last week which was great but this week we are down to two. Everyone is going out of town before summer ends. School does not start here until Sept 4.

I like it here. I took a picture next to a Kurt Cobain memorial so I will send that next week. Aberdeen has some very interesting history that you should read about. It used to be a very large city and then a couple different things happened that hurt the logging and fishing industries and the town collapsed. There is still much logging here.

Lots of Love,

Will