Yet another upgrade in mission cars?

Teaching, Teaching, Teaching

Hello my wonderful fam!

Thank you all for the marvelous letters. Dad I loved the 9 mb picture you sent me, haha. My email box went from 28% to 65% in one letter! Haha, I loved it though you guys look great! Mom I'm lovin the grey hair. It's kinda like a Rogue look from Xmen, which probably doesn't make sense, so I'll just say it's sexy, wait can't use that word, it is red hot chili spicy! Ow, ow! But anyways sorry about that.  Julia Welcome to the world!!!!!!!!! I loved the pictures you sent me Dad. She is soooo cute. Tell her I love her. Jake and Kate I hope you're doing well. Kate I know you're great, Jake I hope you didn't faint or have any severe problems during your labor, haha.

Okay, soooooo here is the run down. Francesca is doing good. We actually haven't been able to see her since the last letter so nothing new. We see her tommorrow though. The reason why is... we had stake Conference in Verona which was wayyy awesome. Also Anziano L. Tom Perry wasss there! Yeahhh it was sweet and the coolest part is only our stake got to go and we are like the very edge of the stake. I'm in the Milano Zone, but in the Verona (another zone/big city) stake! So we really lucked out with that one. He was amazing! He had to say something and then have the translator translate which was cool. He gave a very simple but great talk about planting seeds and making sure we plant seeds. It was very funny he was like.... we need to use a rottertiller and dig up the earth. And Andrea, the translator who is a 28 year old stud who is going to byu in 3 weeks. He kinda reminds me of a slightly chubbier Italian Josh. So yeah, he is way cool. But he looks at Elder Perry and is like... a WHAT!? And Elder Perry is like... ummmm do you know what a till is? And Andrea is like, umm no. So he is like.. well anyways, planting seeds is very...... and then in the middle he snaps his finger and says, "I know! Do you know what a shovel is?" And then Andrea was like... ohhh, ok. So he was very cute with all the Italians here. He is a stud.

So we do this thing called dieci inviti which is ten extra invites to hear our message in a day. You can't plan them, but if your like on a bus or making calls and you talk to someone it is a bonus. So this week I worked real hard at getting them and I ended up getting 56. I need to work harder to get a perfect 70 so I am very motiviated to get the 70 invites. Dad its kinda like your sales thing. I know if I can get in 5 doors I'll sell. So for me it's like... I know if I do this that I'll get an appointment, or a number, or if not blessings at least. So a couple days ago it was getting late and I only had 4 inviti so I was like dang, I gotta get 6 more. When to my surprise I saw 6 old geezers sitting on a bench just kickin it in the breeze. Similar to the old guys in andy and griffith who just sit around all day, haha. So I was like... Anziano Ransom hold on buddy. And went up to them and was like I'm a missionary and so forth. I ended up inviting all of them to have an appointment with them and 5 of them just laughed at me, it was quite funny, but one of them, Leonardo, I ended up getting his number so we'll see what happenes with that.

Okay so this weeks miracle story. We met this African man named Koffi. There is actually quite a few Africans here that come up for work. But anyways we met Koffi and got an appointment. He lives 30 minutes outside our city. So last p-day we ended a bit early and took a bus out there to teach him and he gave us a no show. So we're like.... dang this is dumb we come all the way out here and when we call he's like.. oh sorry, I'm busy. So at first we had a very negative attitude towards this man, but we were like okay, we'll give him another chance. We went back last Friday and he was there and brought us to his house. We shared a short message about happiness and how the church has been restored when he shared with us that his sister was Mormon and her husband was a bishop in Ghana where he is from. He told us that his sister had been trying to get him to meet with missionaries but he could never find any. So he was like... I have to call my sister and tell her I finally found her. So we left and were like wow what an amazing man. So we went back this monday and taught him in more depth the restoration. We invited him to pray about it and his response was that he would, but he has been hoping for this day for a long time. So we were just like wow. So we're inspired to share a scripture about Christ getting baptized and then we asked him... Koffi, will you follow the example of Christ and be baptized July 4th (first Saturday in July)? And he was like yes, I will be able to do that. It won't be a problem. So we have a baptismal date!! He is amazing.... we also told him we wanted to see him 3 times a week to prepare him and he said that would be no problem. So we have been blessed amazingly here in Piacenza.

Also I think I told you about Cristo the crazy Romanian, and also about his kick boxer friend George. So we came back during the weekend and gave George a Book of Mormon in his language. Because he had to go to work last week but he was like... yess, I would be interested in hearing this message. So we gave it to him and he was like excellent. And we were like will you read and pray this week? And he was like, all of it? And we were like no, we'd just like you to read this passage here to start off with and his response was . . . no, I think I'll read all of it this week. Then he assessed the situation and was like... yess, I don't think it'll be a problem I'll read it all this week. 2-3 hours a day won't be too bad. Because hey I'm curious you know? So he is the bomb. He has a long way to go but we think he can do it. He smokes, drinks, and is a body guard in a club, he also says he does underground street fights sometimes to earn extra money. So he is quite the character but we know he can do it. George was the 2nd place kick boxer in 2001 in the whole world. I can't remember if I told you about him. But he's a stud. If you have any questions about anything I forget to say just ask me.

Okay so crazy fact: I have been in Italy for a month now. That just blows my mind it seems like this is my first week. Everyone has said that it only gets faster which makes me nervous because it's already going very fast. So our branch is playing another branch in basketball and they want me to play real bad but it's out of our area. In sacrament, Harold Saquing, in the announcements said, I believe that with Anziano Perkes we will be able to win, haha. So the branch president made us promise to ask President Dunaway so we were like okay, whatever haha. Of course he said no. Luckily he was talking to my companion about signing up for college classes so he managed to slip it in there. So at the stake conference Presidnet D. went up on the stage to sit down and one of the members, Andrea (Italian Josh) went up on the stand and pulled president aside and asked him if I could play, haha. He was heart broken. The members here are so funny I love them. So we brought this like 80 year old guy named Fratello Bizzi to a lesson. And then after he was like... hey come over for drinks so we were like... okay we can teach them a short lesson and get feed back from them. So we finished the lesson with brother and sister Bizzi and we were like... hey what can we do for you today? like we always do but this time she was like... ummmm.... come here. By the end of the time there we had taken down and folded all her laundry and carried these extra mattresses down to the basement. So it was very funny taking down an 80 year old couples laundry down. Kind of gross in a way but very funny, haha. So we were happy someone finally took us up on our offer. By the wayyy Matt, happy birthday!!!! Sorry, it's a bit late, haha. Time goes by too fast! Oh mom or dad if you could keep the letters I send home and you send out somehow that would be great. I don't have a ton of storage on myldsmail. Dad, thanks for the American Idol and Star Trek updates, haha. They actually have a theater here that we go by everday, so I've seen the Star Trek posters everywhere. Also I guess there is one called Public Enemies that everyone is talking about here. Mom, I still haven't gotten your letter. Did you send it to here or the missino home? I'll keep an eye out for it. So I recorded a day in the life of a missionary with my tape recorder and will probably send that off next wednesday for ya. I want to add some final recordings and then send it off. So I hope you enjoy that. If you guys want anything from Italy, what is it?? Like little candies or crushed flowers or 100% silk ties for 5 euros, haha? Lemme know if ya want anything special and I'll see what I can do for ya. haha, I'm glad to hear that my mission is hitting the world wide web. Hope I get lots of hits on my page, haha, just kidding. Dad thanks for editing my letters a touch to make them all grammar correct. This is following are sentence just to gives you a an challenges haha good fortunate edits this. Betchya couldn't edit that in 5 seconds flat haha take that. Max 1, Dad 0.

Lessons are going well. My first week here we taught, 9, then my 2nd week we taugh 12 and this last week we taught 16!! So lessons are just boomin right now. We are hoping to break 20 this week, which shouldnt be too hard. We are on track to hit it. 3 on monday and 3 yesterday. So we are workin real hard to up those lessons because if you're not teaching, then what are you doing, haha. So I can't think of anything else to write. Love ya all so much and thanks for your love and prayers.

Oh ps... mom Cia is spelt Ciao just so you know, haha. I know weird right. Here's something else for you to Learn. Word of the week would be.... Cosa le Piace fare? (pronounced Koza lay Pee-aw-che Far-eh) It meens what do you like to do?

But anyways love ya all so much thanks for the support!!

Ciao!!!!!!!

Miracle Week

How is everyone doing!! 

Hope that ya'll had a wonderful mothers day! It was soooo much fun to talk with ya'll and hear your voices. Don't worry it didn't make me home sick. It actually inspired me to work harder talkin to ya'll so thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, let's see I'm runnin a bit short on time today so I'll have to make this faster than usual. Okay, so first off today we kind of did a bit of pday and then were doin more after this. This morning we went to this huge castle/Italian mansion thing that was turned into a museum. It's kinda hard to explain but just know that it is a hugeeee building filled with cool stuff. They had armour, and spears, swords, tonssss of awesome paintings, and sculptures. I guess we're the only tourists in Italy too, because we were like the only ones there. I snuck a few pics but then this lady told me i couldn't take pictures in the museum. So that was way fun.

We also went and bought groceries. Okay so they give us way too much money on our missions, haha. Too bad we can't save it away and buy a car here. So they give us 180 euro every month!! So I have a ton of money, so this time shopping I was like... okay, I need to spend more money. So I was grabbin all the stuff that I never dared to, like yogurts, Dolce (Italian sweets.... oh baby so good!), and all the good stuff. So I'm like dang I'm droppin some bills today, and I got up to the cash register and I only spend 15 euro! For a whole week!!!! So I'll be buyin some gelato this week, can't wait. I wish I could send home some gelato in the mail, you would loveee it. The best kind is cookies . . .  wow, amazing. Okay so anyways, sorry, little tangent there. So now we're emailing and we still have a lot of time for p day. We think we might go play some ball with some Italians, show them how it is done. Maybe some frisbee as well. We'll see.

So this week I did an exchange down to Parma where the oh-so-famous proccuto crudo di parma comes from. Cured meat in very thin slices. So I had some of that, it was amazing.  I loved it. We also had zone conference this past week and that was amazing. It lasted all day so it was very tiring, but it was good to see President.

Okay so we have this investigator named Augustine and we had the coolest lesson with him. We have always taught him and his wife decided to sit in this lesson. Up to now Augustine hasn't showed a ton of interest but in the middle of the lesson, the wife very sincerely asked.... how do you know that this is true? Our eyes lit up and we bore strong testimony to her, it was awesome. She said that she would read and pray. The only problem is that they live far out. They might be buying an apartment here in Piacenza though, so were praying for that. That way they could come to church and be near their friends. The Saquing family just got baptized 4 months ago, and they are wayyyy stellar. He is now the 1st counselor in the branch presidency. They help us out a ton. Augustine is Harold Saquing's (dad) best friend. So Harold comes to all the lessons; it really helps out. Unfortuanly, they are all Phillipino, haha. They speak kind of English, kind of Italian, and a lot of tagalog. So we had that lesson and it was so crazy. They want us to teach them in English, so we are teaching them in Enlish. They would read the scriptures in Italian and speak to each other in tagalog. So the whole lesson we keep switching between all these languages and I'm just sitting there dying, haha. It got to the point where the wife would ask me a question and I'd be like... I don't understand (in Italian) and my companion gave me the look of, she's speakin English you dummy, haha. So I got very mixed up language wise, but it was a wayyy stellar lesson.

Francesca is still amazing. She wasn't able to come to church because her daughter took her to some restaurant for mothers day and shopping, which is understandable, I guess. We have a lesson with her tommorrow, so were hoping it will go well. You asked for Fratello Clarke's (Harris is his first name) email, so here it is: harristclarke@gmail.com.  My other teacher is Fratello Garlick. He was a stud too. Here's his email: spenceritaly@gmail.com. They were both amazing. Tell them I said hi from Italy! Oh, if you ever send any packages.... something that I can't get here is drink mixes, so like little crystal light lemonade packets would be wonderful. But only send them if you're sending a package. Don't go out after reading this and mail a package out. I can survive till whenever, my birthday or something. About the baptismal picture. I'm not sure if you took pictures. If you can't find it, that is fine. Don't worry about it. 

I also did an exchange with the zone leaders this week in Milan. So I've traveled all over. At first I was like sweeet, I get to see other cities, but now I'm like... leave me alone, I'm tired of traveling, I just want to teach lessons, haha. No, they're fun, but I get tired of the travel time. So the other day we were biking on this big old road that is closed where all sorts of people walk on it, and these three old guys stopped us and were like... How is Obama!!! Haha, so we quickly dodged that question and were like we're missionaries. When they found that out they were like were in the Catholic choir! On the spot they started singing with an o so terrible old men voices and all. We caused quite an attraction in Piacenza here. 3 old crazy guys and 2 young guys with bike helmets on that look like bowling balls. So we gave them some pass a long cards and left the stage as soon as possible, haha.

Okay, so this week were are doing what's called an English fast... drum roll please..... I can't speak English this week agh!! From today to next wednesday, I cannot speak English ever! Not even if i slip in a puddle of melted gelato. Other missionaries have done it and say it just brings great blessings to the work and your language skill. It helps keep you more focused and improve in the language. So me and my companion, Anziano Handsome Ransom, are doing it this week. We started this morning. My head hurts a bit but I have already seen myself improve. There are times when I have to literally bite my tongue and grab a dictionary before I break my fast. I'm just like aghhhh what's the word!! But it is amazing. It will be a long hard week, but we are calling it miracle week, and i'm sure we'll see many miracles this week.

I laughed when you guys said you watched Lady Hawk, haha. I'm sure it was cheesy beyond belief, but probably fun. I heard that all the outside castle scenes are from the castle here. I'm guessing the indoor shots are sets, but I don't quite know. Dad your story of the fire truck made me laugh so hard. I could just picture you up there 100 feet above the ground and being like... wow, it's sooo beautiful... and the 13 fire fighters below being like... just take the picture already!! Hahaha, no I'm just kidding, but it sounded way amazing. I was jealous for about 4 seconds, but then I rememberd that I was in Italy, no I'm just kidding.... but seriously, Italy rocks! So I'm sorry this was a bit shorter. I can't think of anything else to say, hmmm. I'll send some pics across your way in a sec. But I love you all. Thanks so much for the letters; I love them.

CIAO CIAO CIAO!!

Anziano Perkes

Beautiful Italy

The following photos may have been taken in Piacenza, particularly the one of Max on the old city street.  The two shots of the buildings below came to us with the caption "beautiful Italy," and could have been taken in one of the outlying areas.  But one thing is for sure, Max is definitely right on his assessment of Italy's beauty!

Cremona

"Okay so i forgot to tell you, we have a city called Cremona that is actually part of our area.  We have some less actives out there we are teaching so we went out this week.   I have a couple pictures of it.  It is where violins were like invented so it's a pretty famous little city.  I also did exchanges in Reggio Emelia, i think i told you.  Kobe Bryant grew up there, haha.  So there is quite a bit of culture around me. Tomorrow I'm going to Parma which is a famous city for its food.  It's fun having a district leader as a companion, I get to travel around, haha. But anywho gotta run lemme attach these pics."

Lady Hawk

"Oh!! For pday today, I never told you: We went to this castle that's outside our city it was very cool.  You can see the pic.  My companion wanted to take a nap and I was like.... nopeeee we're goin to a castle . . . so it was a blast.  There are like 2 more we wanna go see. So we'll let you know.  This castle is where they filmed the movie Lady Hawk.  Some medevil movie that is cheesy I guess.  You could watch it and that's the castle I was at!  Some more pics on the way!"

[EDITOR'S NOTE:  Jen and I watched Lady Hawk last night.  It is worth seeing just to see how cool this castle is!  We had a blast watching it and knowing that Max had been to this amazing place.]

Mission Cars?

The Hills Are Alive . . .

MAX'S 5-6-09 LETTER:

Thank you all for you wonderful letters!!  I'm sorry I've made you wait a bit... We decided to write after our pday adventures, which I'll tell you about.  Okay so looking back on my first letter I realized I didn't have enough enthusiam!!  I love Italy sooo much!  I will admit the first 3 days were the hardest 3 days of my life.  Pouring rain, straight up all finding work, and 9 hour jet lag. Terrible combo haha.  But I am over the jet lag, the sun is out, and were teaching lots of lessons!  I love it everyday we get home and its just like.... wow I'm in Italy, this is soo cool.

Okay so I dont have a ton of time because we have 3 lessons tonight. We're cutting into pday time a bit.  Quick question, do you want me to tell you about investigators very much.  I didn't know if that would be boring or not.  Its really all I have to talk about so lemme know, haha.

So first off.... last week I didnt have any Italian meals.  Heavenly Father must have done something because we ate alot this week, haha.  It was amaazing!  First off we went to this sweet sisters house names sister Libe.  We went over to share a quick lessons and she completly took over and just told us stories.  Many Italians love to talk and if you let them take control it is very hard to get it back, haha.  So she went on for quite a while about her life, me not understanding anything.   Anytime she looked at me waiting for a response, I'd just nod my head and be like si. Haha, I guess it worked because she gave us ice cream.  We finished a whole tub me and my companion.  She was ruthless I'd be like I'm full thank you, and she'd be like ANZIANO the last elder would eat 4 bowls, come on.  So we practicly rolled out of that lesson. Wow, it was amazing.  So we ran or rather biked to this lady named Yvonne.  And right when we get there she comes in carrying a tray of the very same ice cream!!!   I wanted to die.  She was like here's some ice cream and I looked at my companion with a grin.  Haha, so we felt sick that night. 

Okay so that last guy that got baptized was named Adalberto.  He is a spanish guy that moved to Italy for work.  He speaks a mix of Italian and Spanish so I really don't understand him but we hit it off very well.  He is very funny.  Picture a spanish Ernest T. Bass with a mullet, haha and you have him.  He comes with us to a lot of lessons so that we have a male with us whenever a lady is alone.  We were biking yesterday and he stopped and stepped in some mud and he screamed out AIIIIIIII.  It was very funny; everyone in the street turned and stared at us.   We were just laughing the whole time.  He started asking me about Lord of the Rings, and we decided together that my companion is Gimli, haha.  He thought that was verry funny. Tu sei molto buffo!!  Haha, you are very funny is what he said.  So he is a total stud, I love him.  Very goofy at the same time.  

Buck and Jayz, I'm sorry I missed your birthdays.  Happy birthday!!! And congrats on the baby!!  I'm so excited!!  Just one more from another brother and sister and I'll have 4 born while I'm gone!!!!  I won't mention who the brother and sister are, haha.  Take a guess. Speaking of Nate and Luisa, haha, I missed your anniversary!!!! Happy anniversary!  By now I'm sure you're already celebrating your 1 year 2 week anniversary, haha, I'm just kidding... but no seriously, how was it??  

So back to the food conversation, haha.  So we went to this ladies house to teach her a quick lesson.  We come in and she is like Anziani I cooked you lunch!!! S o were like... ummm okay, sounds good I guess, we have time for lunch.  Boy was that the biggest mistake we've made.  She hands out a plate of lasagna, and I'm like, oh marvelous, home made lasagna.  So I eat till I'm full and I'm like okay, I'm ready to roll out.  Well, apparently they like eating out here, because they eat in different shifts, oh boy, do they, haha.  So I'm full at this point, because I thought lasagna was all, right?  Next she brought out bologna fresh cut and bread so I'm like... that's weird, a little after dinner snack I guess.  Then she plops a plate in front of me full of baked chicken and some weird mushy stuff that was delicious.  I look over at my companion and I'm like... does she have Alzheimers? We just ate!!!   So I shovel that in, nearly dying, when she takes my plate and replaces it with shish kabobs and potatoes.  Wow, I feel terrible at this point, but I don't want to offend her, so I eat that.  Of course, she would make it delicious too. The nerve of Italians, haha.  All 3 plates have been amazing already. So I slowly finish that and she then makes gelato in some crazy machine.  Home made pineapple gelato!!!!  So I eat that ready to explode, but are we done... oh wait, then she brings out some amazing pudding stuff that tasted like tarimisu, I think not sure.  It was incredible though.  So that was lunch, wow oh wow, I think I gained 2 kili.  Mamma mia!  

So outside of piacenza there are these beautiful greeeeeen hills and thats where she lived.  I have a picture I'll send."

"I want to send home my pictures because I have like 300 and I want you to see them all!!!!  But it takes quite a while to upload them here.  One thing that would be nice from home, if you could send me my baptisimal picture, I would love you to peaces!!!!!  I want to show it to everyone to show them how happy I was.

So the other day, we took a 10 break to make all our calls to set up the lessons.  So were sitting by this basketball court and my companion is calling members and such and this little 12 year old is playing ball, so I was like hey better go to some contacting right?!  So I go up and ask him if I can play.  His name was Diego; he was so funny.  We're playing and I'm like who are your favorite NBA players, and he tells me he loves  Mykill Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Shakweel Oneale.  Haha, Diego was a stud.  Imagine the chubby Italian/Spanish kid in mighty ducks and that's Diego.  So a lot of Italians know who we are, especially the teenagers.  Whenever we go by they go YAY MORMONI,  haha.  I think they're making fun of us, but in my mind they're cheering us on.  It's funny, people want to practice English with us, so they're always like... Hhhhello ow are oo.  It's quite funny.  It's probably what I soundl like to them.  

So one of our investigators came to church!!!!  Her name is Francesca; she is such a stud.  We gave her a Book of Mormon and when we came back 4 days later she had read half of it!!!!  She is just super nice and excited.  She is about 45 and divorced with no kids.  We are really excited about her.   She liked church and we're going to follow up tonight.  We might commit her to be baptized tonight depending on how she liked church.  I've only been here two weeks and I've already seen miracles happening.  It is amazing.  

Calling out to all the brothers/sisters that served missions. What are your secret finding tricks!?  People in Italy are pretty hard core.   We've had our fair share of doors slammed in our faces.  So we're trying to think of something to just wow them on the doorstep, so we would love any secret advice ya'll have.

I loved all your letters. Mom I loved how you said my companion looked like a munchkin, haha.  I laughed sooo hard.  People in the branch tease him because I'm so tall.  There always like... wow Anziano Perkes, you're tall and then they just look at him and chuckle, haha.

The branch is doing wonderful.  They're the nicest people in the world; I love them.  Josh, thank you very much for the history about Piacenza.  I loved it.  I really thought the Po River here was famous, but I saw you were kidding; I was very sad, haha.  Okay, so I guess next sunday is Mothers Day!  Crazy huh?!?!  So we're going to call you guys Sunday night.  It should be like after 6:30 anytime, so that ya'll aren't in church.  I'm gonna buy some phone cards to talk to ya'll.  I won't get another email with instructions on who to call and such, so I'll start off callling mom's cell and then dad's, so if you guys could stay near them that would be lovely!  I should be able to talk a bit longer, because ya'll are spread out all over the place, but we'll see. I love you all and can't wait to talk to you!!!!   I'll send off some picture rights after this!!!

Love ya'll!!!

Anziano Massimo Perkes!