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!
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