Email from President and Sister Grahl

Dear Parents,

Sister Grahl 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 MTC 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.

Pres. Paulo R. Grahl and Sister Zuleika M. Grahl

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: PLEASE DO NOT SEND PACKAGES to the Brazil Missionary Training Center. All packages must be sent directly to the mission where your missionary will be serving, not the MTC. If you have already mailed a package to the Brazil MTC, please understand that the package cannot be forwarded to his or her mission and will be returned to you.

WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE SENDING HAND WRITTEN LETTERS. Please write your missionary´s first and last name. Your missionary will provide you with his district and box number. Also, please DO NOT SEND ANYTHING BY FEDEX, DHL, UPS, or other private carriers. The cost to process this type of correspondence is exorbitant.

First email from the São Paulo MTC

Hey, I forgot the list of questions in my room but I will answer them when I have my P-day.  My P-day will be on Wednesday, but I don't think that I will email this Wednesday because there will be a devotional. I did make it safely! I met 3 missionaries that have not been to an MTC and 2 Elders and 3 Sisters coming from the MTC in Provo. It is really cool here. Not temp. wise though. The key boards are weird, but it looks kind of what I thought it would look like here. I won´t be able to send pictures while I am here by the way. I am obviously excited, and scared. Some of the Elders in the CTM (MTC) spoke portuguese and I couldn't understand a word of what they were saying. They aren´t supposed to speak english to the American missionaries. I will write a longer email on P day whenever that is, and answer all your questions then. It is weird seeing everything is the metric system, but I am sure that I will get used to it. I have flown in a plane now, kind of what I expected, not terribly exciting. After the ride to the CTM I am glad that I don´t have to drive here. Everyone drives crazy. 

Love you all.

--Elder Pettingill

p.s. I have to stop saying dude a lot. I didn´t know how Californian I am.

Leaving Soon

Elder Pettingill will leave for Brazil on January 23 at 5:30 am. He flies to LA, then Atlanta, then Sao Paulo. He has never flown before but we know he will be watched over and helped.