January 26th

Hi,

Almost all of the wards around us have chapels like they do in the US, but they look very beautiful here because all of the other building kind of look like crap. That is interesting that Kate has had this opportunity to be Relief Society President of her ward in Colorado. One thing that you learn on a mission is what really goes on in the world. I learned a lot in Washington but Brazil really has opened my eyes to the bad things that happen. Here in Brazil everyone talks about everything and everything loves to gossip. I am convinced it is because of the lack of things to do. Here they do not have many clubs and sports and activities like the US just due to the fact that people do not have money for things like that. It makes you realize that hobbies are an important thing to have because they keep you busy doing good things. 

I got your card this week and all the elders commented on how cool the outside and inside looked so thank you. The money was much needed for things I had to buy and other random stuff. Yes, it is great to bring light into people's lives I just wish people would realize they need it more. It is hard to teach people here when they do not care because you know that they know so little about everything. But that is part of the mission. I enjoy taking the pictures. We do not go each week to the mission office but the zone leaders do. Lots of love. 

W

To: mtpercival3@msn.com

So on Saturday we had our baptism. The water was not working at our church so we had to have it at the stake center which was nicer in the end. Andre is 25 years old and has a pretty tough situation in life. He does not know who his parents are and lives with someone who kind of adopted him (not very uncommon here, to have a mother and father is really not very common) He is working on getting his High School education as well so he can get a job. But he has a great heart. He stopped drinking coffee and drinking alcohol almost instantly. We have helped him a lot and he has come a long ways. I saw on Sunday he did not have his shoes tied correctly and after asking some questions discovered he does not know how to tie them so we will teach him that next time we see him. It his hard to learn things when no one teaches you. But it was a fun experience to baptize him. 

We have a couple on date to be baptized the 21st of February and a kid who is 14 for Feb 7th. So it has been nice to see some success here. Thank you for the advice about school. We have interviews with president Friday so I will decide by then what I want to do. It is a not an easy decision. 

They have paved some more roads recently in our area but still lots of them are not paved. No one sleeps in the hammock it is just there to relax in. All the houses have these hammock things that people can place hammocks on. I will miss lots of things about this area but I am ready to move on. Some parts of the mission are much different than the part I am in so we will see. I hope to go somewhere close to the beach. It has like never rained which is strange and many people are worried because this is the time of year it is supposed to rain. No rain means everything is more expensive. But the dollar is way strong now which is nice. Love you guys, Go Patriots

W

January 19

Hi Mom,I will think about that idea as well. Thank you for the idea. I will give you my response for school next week. But I do like that idea. Yeah I really hope my next companion is Brazilian. There are lots of benefits. Carnival is coming up but it really it not that big in Fortaleza. Especilly in our neighborhood. Everyone says that the whole neighborhood leaves for other places. Carnival starts Feb. 14th. I have not gotten a card yet. Oliver is going to the U of Utah. I sent Dad lots of information about the week and what is going on. Thank you for all the pictures on dropbox. It was fun to look at them today. What is your calling in the church? Brazil does not have as cool holidays as the United States. Either way I am out of time. Hope things turn out with the Job for Dad. 
W
Hi Dad,To: mtpercival3@msn.comIt will be hard to decide about the phones. I definitely will not get an Apple because they are too boring for me. Either way I do not have to worry about it now. That is hilarious that Seattle won. We went to a birthday party of one of our investigators yesterday to show that we are normal people and not just missionary robots. And on the television was the Green Bay Seattle game. I could not believe it because not many people here like football. But the score was Green Bay 16 Seattle 0 so I was sure Seattle was toast. Go New England. That is interesting Cleveland is not doing very well. 
I am glad your back is doing better. Transfers are not until Feb. 9th so nothing will change until then. This week was kind of rough for missionary work as we did not really find anyone new that is good. We will baptize Andre this Saturday though which will be cool. Also today we took the papers to the place you marry people for one of the couple we are teaching. Because you have to be married if you are living with someone before you get baptized. So they will get baptized as well and they are really awesome. They are both in their late 20s and have two girls. The only sad part is the marriage takes 30 days so they will not get baptized until the 20th of February and I am pretty sure I will leave the 9th which is a bummer. If i am close I will see if I can go back for the baptism. The cool thing about this city is you can go anywhere in the city by bus for 1 dollar. 
I do not know what else to report. I put some more photos on Dropbox of the area. I am trying to be better about photos. I took some photos of the church building that we attend. The church has already bought the land to build a chapel but they are waiting for the attendance of the ward to grow. We also met with our WML this week and he was very cool which I am glad to report. He was the old first counselor in the bishopric before everything changed  in the ward two weeks ago. 
Lots of love, hope you enjoy the pictures. 
W

A little more Fortaleza Jan 2015

New Year Fortaleza

Most Likely Dengue Fever

MOndays are not great here to be honest. We could watch movies for the first three weeks I was here but after that we really have nothing to do. Not sure what we are going to do. Maybe I will take some pictures today or something. I am trying to put pictures on dropbox but they take forever to upload. I took some photos this week of a restaurant we eat at for free two times a month. It is not great but it is food. Did not know you guys were going to the Carribean so that sounds like fun. YOu will have to send me some pictures. Yes I will get that information for you this week about Elder Robinson. I have interviews on the 30th of January, a little later than I expected. I only have time for one email today, sorry. I got an email from Oliver smith which was a first this week. 

The baptism did not work out as he has lots of problems with the word of wisdom but he is on date for the 24th of January and he does not miss a sunday and is stopping all the coffee and alcohool which is great. We are going to get the documents hopefully today from one couple and the documents from a different couple on tuesday. We also put three people on date for the 31st of January but 2 did not go to church this week. The other is a 14 year old boy that is actual really cool who we met. He went to church and really liked it so that was cool. And yes we got a WML but it was not the guy I wanted which was a bummer. At least I really like the Bishop here, he told me he likes to watch the movies about slaves in America which I thought was interesting. 

Yes there are many pretty flowers here along with many fascinating creatures that are just different than the states. I will keep Dad in my prayers. Tell him THank you for the sports updates. I share them with Elder benetiz sometimes because he likes them as well. 

I actually got kinda sick this week which is strange because I never get sick. I am only telling you this because I am assuming you guys will not freak out because I am fine now. I got a kind of virus that just hit me really hard. Saturday I woke up and I like could not move without something hurting so I was just going to sleep in the house all day. But my companion was worryihng a bout me so he called the doctor person of the mission and he told me to go to the hospital. (which is like the doctors offfice here just they do not have those here, just hospitals.) anyways it was a very good hospital because we have the best health insurance here and they gave me this iv with stuff in it that made me feel much better and I am all better now. Just was kind of an interesting experience. I got to do all these cool tests, I have always like doctors tests. I dont really know why. But when the lady went to draw my blood she told me it was not working becasue I was stressing to much haha. I have never like needles. 

Love ya guys, I am fine now, just thought I would share that experience. Sorry only have time for one email today. 

will

Post Christmas

I must be your son because I have a tendency to root for the underdogs as well. Maybe that is why I picked to like the Heat because I finally wanted to win for a change. We went to a different Lan House today so the computer I am on is very nice for a change. I am sorry it was a little loud when I was skyping you guys but I am glad it all worked out. I guess just send normal sunscreen but if it is too expensive do not worry about it because I will just but it here. You look good in the suit that Mom sent me a picture of. You kind of look like Hyrum Smith, haha. 

Today my email will be short because I think I already told you lots of things on Christmas and I do not have much to report. Sorry I laughed when you asked if we had a walmart, haha I just thought it was funny because I think of how often I wish we had one. Things are very different here. I think there is a Sam's Club somewhere in the City but i will have to look for it. We had a new family we are teaching come to church on Sunday along with Andre who is on date to get baptized on January 10th. I put some new photos on Dropbox and will try to be better with taking photos of the area. It is just hard because I do not want to walk with the camera. Anyway, all my friends told me they were bored over break which I think is funny with all the things we have in the world people can still be bored. 

Today are transfers but we did not get transfer emails so I guess we are staying. I have mixed feeling but overall I think I am happy. I want to finish with the people i taught here and I really like my companion and who we live with so that is cool. I will want to leave after these 6 weeks though. At least I have have basically a new area to work in as we switched areas two weeks ago so I have new places to walk. 

Lots of love,

W 

Musings about the future

Thanks for the pics. A couple things, I want to figure out what I am doing for BYU here soon so I do not have to think about it anymore. So if you could call again and ask them when I have to decide by if I want to switch to Fall semester and then let me know. Please do this for me. I have two thoughts about this. It would probably make more sense for me to wait until January to attend but I think I would be a lot happier if I went in fall just because I really do not want to be at home for 4 months in a row. One of the guys I live with here, ELder Robinson goes home 1 transfer before I do and he is going to BYU Provo and asked if I wanted to live with him in an apartment there, so that is one option. Let me know, I will continue to pray about it about what I should do. I will also talk to the Mission President in my next interview about it so let me know this week when I have to decide by. Also make sure you send me that letter from the ward and I will send some letters I will write home next week when we go downtown. The tie for christmas was very cool by the way along with the calendar. 

January 5 2015

Sorry about the leak in the house; that stinks. That stinks about Dad's back as well. Tell Jane I said hi as well. Anne showed me a picture of the cabin and it looked awesome. We will have to do that next year. We passed the new year's eve in the house but we ordered some pizza and hung out so we had a nice time. I went to bed a 10:30 as usual this year because I was really tired and was awoken at midnight due to our neighbors lighting fireworks directly outside our window. I have never been so confused than when I woke up to what sounded like bombs going off in my room. But things calmed down after that. Either way we had the day off on the 31st and watched Ephraim's Rescue which is a church movie but it is really good. I watched it once earlier on my mission. 

This week we had 5 people at church which was cool. One guy named Andre who we will baptize this weekend if everything works out and also that family with three girls. The family wants to get baptized which is cool but we have to marry them which takes 30 days to process which is a bummer. But it was a good week. Also it rained a bit this week and I used my umbrella which is a very good umbrella. The weather was a little cooler this week which was nice. 

Lots of love, I am glad you had a good time in the Cabin. Max told me the rule that we can not swim was the best rule ever because he is tired of swimming, haha. 

W

FW: Snow Storm Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2015 16:11:52 -0200

Subject: Re: Snow Storm
From: william.percival@myldsmail.net
To: mtpercival3@msn.com

I am sorry to hear about your back. It is great to hear that FSU lost and so did Alabama. I think I will root for Ohio State since they are big ten. That is amazing they won with that quaterback. I think I like when Alabama loses more than the Yankees. Anne sent me a picture of the Cabin and it looked very nice. I was jealous of the couches and the nice big tv. The couches in Brazil are really hard. It is strange. Either way the weather has cooled off a bit and it rained for a couple days which was different. I talked to one of our mission secretaries this week who are just regular missionaries who are called to work in the office. Usually this is a job for older couples in the US but here we only have one set of senior missionaries so regular missionaries have to do office work. But one is a really cool kid from Salt Lake who attended Harvard for a year studying chemistry and will go back this fall. The mission secretaries are good to talk to because they always know what is going on. He told me some interesting facts about the mission  and about the future. He told me he thinks the two missions in Fortaleza will combine eventually again due to the fact that our mission will lose many missionareis this year and is not gaining many. Right now every transfer we usually gain between 8-10 missionares and we lose 15-20. And my group has 25 and the group after me has 42 so he thinks the missions will combine again. Right now the world has a bubble of missionaries that will collapse this year due to the amount of missionaries that left when I did. And the bubble will collapse this year when they all go home so we will see if some missions will close. I do not think the missions here will combine but we will see. Either way it does not affect me just interesting to think about. We should have a baptism this week which should be cool so I will take some pictures. Lors of love and I hope your back feels better. I eat lots of fruit do not worry. There are lots of cool fruits here. I ate a Caja the other day. 

W

Merry Christmas from Fortaleza 2014

Some for Mom Dec 22

I would kill a horse to go to Bravo tonight for Anne's birthday dinner, but at least I am making a trip into the city today so Subway is on the menu for lunch. Take a picture at Anne's dinner and send it to me. 

Yes I will do google hangout again on Christmas D. I will use my google email wjpercival@gmail.com. I am thinking 1:00 in the afternoon my time would be best but let me know what works for you guys. I have received here 3 packeges from you and 1 card from G&G and 1 card from Allison. I never got numbers 1-7 from the christmas numbers but maybe they are there today. 

W