AMAZING!

Hello, hello, wonderful family!

This last week was . . . I'll let you guess the word I'm going to use . . . yes,  amazing.  I know I say that every week but they all have really been amazing.  Truly amazing.

Okay, so I'll do a quick update on the peeps and then tell you a bit more about Italy and things we do.  I've realized I don't talk much about our day to day activities and about Italy much, so I'll try to include those in here.

So Alice is doing great.  She is definitly our star investigator.  We taught her the Sabbath Day and she was like . . .  yeah the Sabbath Day is sacred.  For the past 10 years I haven't done shopping on Sunday.  She even cooks extra Saturday night so that she can just eat left overs on Sunday, thus focusing more on the Lord and her beautiful daughter.  Imagine this . . .  every lesson you teach someone they already know and add more insight than you have thought of.  BAM that is Alice for you.  She is just so cool, not in a arrogant way of I'm so cool but a very humble way.  She has that DESIRE.  So she has been living the Word of Wisdom for 2 weeks now.  She says the head aches went away and she feels wonderful.  She had a friend visit her and was like . . . let's have some coffee and she was like . . . sorry, I don't have any.  I guess her friend was just blown away . . . you don't drink coffee any more why not?!  And Alice was just like . . . I don't; enough said.  Haha, what a champ.  We are going to see her tonight for a FHE at the Saquings house for dinnerrrr so good, yeah!

We saw Francesca and invited her to be baptized and she accepted right away!!  She was way happy.  We haven't taught her the Word of Wisdom yet though so we need to teach her that.  She shouldn't have any problems with it.

Koffi and Doddi are doing great.  They weren't able to come to church because the bus schedule was messed up. The hard thing is they live like 40 minutes outside the city and on Sundays the buses come irregular times.  So they went down and waited for like an hour and no bus came. Koffi asked if we could move the baptism back a bit, because he said . . . I know that this is something very sacred and I want to be fully prepared.  I don't want to rush it.  Which was actually good because we had to move it back because here in Italy they have to come to church 4 times, preferably in a row.  That way people don't like baptize someone in a week and have them become inactive a month later.

It's way cool, Mission President has a big push on converting life long members. He gave a great talk in zone conference yesterday.  He was like . . . what do we want for our investigators?  And a bunch of gomer missionaries were like . . . To read! To have faith! To get baptized! The whole time I was sittin there I was like . . . no, to go to the Celestial Kingdom and then President was like . . . to receive exaltation!  We have to have a goal further than their baptismal date!  I love it; it was way powerful talk. 

So here in Italy they have something called colpo daria that I am learning about.  We had a branch council meeting and it was stinkin hot and I was like . . . can we crack a window open in here!  And everyone was like . . . colpo daria, anziano!  So out here in Italy a lot of people have funny superstitions.  In fact, Lorenzo Snow who served his mission in this area always talked about the superstitions of the people.  But anyways they beleive that wind blowing on the back of your neck will make you sick and potentially kill you.  They even give kids vaccinations for this stuff!!  They also believe that if you drink cold water when its hot it will like kill you, haha.  So this week I have been worrying a lot about colpo daria, as I noticed that I often have wind blowing on the back of my neck.  So if I die, colpo daria did the trick!

Okay they have something called Bocci here, just like in France Josh!  It is where everyone kisses each other's cheeks.  It is as common as a hand shake here.  I have been talking to other missionaries and they're like . . . sometimes it's impossible, they just grab you!  Well, I am proud to say I have not had the strike of the Bocci yet!  I'm too tall, they can't get me, haha.  This old lady went in for the strike with me and I just stood tall and she was like, hey, what are you doing?  HAha, I have a goal to make it my whole mission without getting attacked.  Other elders say its impossible but I think I can do it.

So here when we do door to door, it is more like call box to call box. There aren't any neighborhoods here like in America.  They are all multi family homes, or apartment buildings. So we have to stand out at the gate and press this button and then they come on saying . . . what!?  So a lot of our pitch is done through a box, and sometimes we're lucky to get in the building and then go door to door.  But the other day we met this Italian surfer dude through the box and he was like . . . (surfer voice)  missionaries?? . . . . . ahhhh, tranquilooo (tranquil) ma, no grazie.  It sounds dumb but it made us laugh a lot.  Just imagine some surfer bum saying that we're tranquil, haha.

Okay, so we had this FHE on Monday with this awesome lady from the branch, with like 5 non members there.  She had us over and she was like . . . Aanziani, I made tacos!!!  So we had American-style tacos and it was very fun.  No one else knew what they were; it was fun as we had to explain how to assemble the taco.

Okay, so back to zone conference. We had it yesterday and it was amazing.  Nate and Luisa I didn't get your package nor your's Mom, but we have interviews next Thursday where they also bring the packages from the mission home, so I'm hoping that they will get there by then.  Thank you guys soo much; you're too sweet to send those.  Zone conference was way fun.

Sister Dunaway decided she wanted to read us a childrens book in Italian, and boy was I surprised when she pulled out Librabry Lion!!  So congrats Kevin: your book has made it all the way to the children here in Italy!  It was very fun to see it in Italian and hear the story again. Tell the Hawkes hi!!  They are an amazing family; I miss them.

So get this... President is giving his last talk, we've been sitting there for about 4 ish hours so i'm startin to get a bit tired when all of a sudden president is like... and now we will hear the testimony of Anziano Perkes!!  What!!  So out of the blue i had to go up in front of the whole zone and bear my testimony on the spot.  It was good i was lucky enough not to trip over my words.  When i sat down Anziano Ransom said that he's never seen him do that, so maybe he knew that i needed to get up and stretch a bit so i didn't die so it was really a hidden blessing, but still scary.  So mom you asked if everyone else was teaching lots.  All i know is what the Zone leaders told my companion but i guess other people teach a lot too, i guess the zone leaders said that they ap's loved us because we were the only ones consistintly hitting 20 lessons a week.  So honesly i don't know.  I'm sure everyone is teaching lots, italy is amazing.  it's crazy too because i swear every day we ask ourselves... man what have we done to get these lessons and these amazing investigators.  So the bottem line is we have been blessed a lotttt.  Mom you were asking about my bike... yes it is very much a lemon haha.  In fact i broke it again this week.  Somehting with the gear changer.  Now i can't peddle backwards or change gears or the chain dies haha.  So it has been quite the adventure.  I figure i'll open a bike shop someday because of all my practice fixing this bike.  Mom i'm sorry to hear some of my pictures are blurry. I'm sure my camera is fine.  I can't lie i havent been using the viewfinder hold my breath trick you talked about haha.  I'll try it out and see if it is better.  Someone in the branch told me transformers 2 comes out this week so that will be fun your you all.  I remember the summer days when we'd all go hit up the movies.  I'm surprised how modern italy is.  I kind of expected to be secluded from the world hear but i hear about movies and all the works including obama.  People love to ask us about him.  I hear he is doing good stuff.  How's the crisis?  Everyone talks about it out here.  Is it really bad right now?  jake and Kate were you able to sell the house yet?    I'm glad dad you liked the fathers day over the pulpit surprise.  Mom says you were beat red so that makes me happy.  My goal was to embarass you just a bit haha sorry!  I hope you get bettter and happy Fathers day to all of you guys! Mom thanks so much for sendin a package out, that will be very fun to get.  Sour patch kids and crystral light I can't wait oh boy!  They don't have either of those here so it will be very fun.  I should get it next thursday i hope. Nate and Luisa sorry to hear about your little run in with the cops.  That sounds unfortunate.  I had very similar expereience driving on campus at byu with my scooter.  Thanks so much for the package you guys sent.  I hope to get it on thursday as well so that will be fun.  Nate your business cards are amazing!!! They are truely cool i loved them.  Everyone i opened i was like... wowwwww.  I loved them it was very fun to see them.  Oh yeah an announcement to the fam, i love getting pictures it is very fun.  Even if it is just a picture of you in front of burger king or something that would seem boring, i'd love it.  Oh yeah mom and dad how is mark denniss doing?  for some reason the other day i just randomly thought of him and wanted to make sure he was doing alright.  And also how is my buddy Q doing?  Tell them i say hello!   So Italian is coming along all right haha.  I understand more and more every day but speaking is the hard part still but i know if i study hard i'll get it down.  My buddy Tyler Mcintosh is leaving the mtc in a week for russia so that will be way fun.  i've been able to keep in touch with him which has been way fun.  Anziano Ransom says hi.  He is doing good.  he only has 2 ish weeks left and he is doing great.  Hangin in there like a trooper!  But anywho i hope i didn't forget anything.  i love ya'll times a billion!  Thanks for all the letters!!

Vi Volgio Bene

Anziano Perkes

The Week of Miracles!

Helllllo there, wonderful family!!

Okay, so first off Italy is amazing.  Second off . . . this last week was amazing!  We managed to get 24 lessons breaking our new record!  It was truly a busy amazing week filled with miracles.  We are very blessed here in Piacenza.  I think it is like daily I turn to Anziano Ransom and say, man what did we do to deserve these blessings!?

But anyway I'll start from the top of my list so this might be a bit scrambled, sorry! First off, if you could hook me up with Tyler Pendleton's email somehow I'd love to shoot him an email. 

Okay, so I've told you the different escapades of my bike . . . well, this week has a whole new episode!!  Previously on THE BIKE . . . my bike stinks and is always breaking!  This week on THE BIKE . . . okay, so we went out to our furthest biking contact way out in the sticks, took like 20 minutes biking.  Little to my surprise, my tire exploded on the way back about 5 minutes into our travel!  So I guess I'm a bad driver because I manage to hit all the nails, pieces of glass, barbwire etc. etc.  So at first I was mad, but I am getting use to this weekly occurance, so I just laughed it off and was like . . . okay, let's grab another bike and get back to work!  So we walked to the Saquings house, which took about an hour, and asked if we could borrow a bike for the night and return it that night.  They said yes because they are amazing, and then led us to the back of the house where their bike was.  To my surprise the bike was miniaturized with some magical spell.  No, but seriously this was like a kids bike, complete with racing flames and everything.  So with my knees nearly hitting my chin we set out again.  Now the bike is fixed, with the small problem of having to pump up the tire on a regular basis.  It's kind of like our car in St. thomas that we needed to stop every half an hour to fill it with oil.  So I figure it's some good exercise for my arms pumping it up.  By the end if my time in Piacenza I'll be huge!! 

Okay so Aliceeeeee.  She is so cool . . . very inspiring.  So this last Wednesday, after emailing, we went and taught her the Word of Wisdom . . . oh boy.  We told her about alcohol, drugs and tobacco, and she was like . . . ok, I can do that.  I quit smoking about 10 years ago in one day.  It was very hard but I have a stong mind.  So were like . . . sweet.  And then we were like and also tea and coffee are bad.  And she smiled and just gave us this look of . . . oh crap . . . you serious?  She laughed and was like . . . oh boy . . . well I guess if I quit smoking I can quit drinking coffee.  So we came back a couple of days later and brought her some herbal tea to replace all her bad tea and she thanked us a lot.  I was like . . . how are you doing?  And she was like . . . these 2 days have been hard.  I've had a head ache and I've been very tired, but I haven't broken the Word of Wisdom!  I made you guys a promise and I'm keeping it!  She is literally just glowing everytime we see her.  Everytime we see her, which is 3 times a week now, I am just inspired by her faith.  So then church rolled around . . . actually more like flew around, and all three of our power investigators were there!!  Alice came with her cute little baby, that is one, Francesca came, and Koffi and Doddi came! 

We also had this Russian guy, Cristo, come who doesn't speak any languages we do.  We literally teach him by drawing, it is very hard.  So he is also kind of [an unusual] character. So he came in his jean shorts and white flame shirt.  In the middle of a talk his cell phone went off and he held an argument in Russian right in the middle of church, with all the members turning around to look at him.  It was not soo good, but I couldn't help and just think... yeah that's our investigator baby!

So anyways, Alice came and president asked her to say the closing prayer!!  And she said it and it was perfect.  Then another lady asked her how long she had been a member and she responded, I've been a member for 3 weeks (how long we've been seeing her).  That's how cool Alice is.  We saw her yesterday and we were like . . . how are you doing?  And she was like . . . today has been very interesting.  So i was like . . . oh no, is she drinking beer or something??  And she was like . . . this morning I prayed, asking God for something, and I got my answer today!  She was just beaming.  It is so amazing to see the change that the Book of Mormon makes in people's lives.  She is on page 124 in Italian which is the beginning of 2 Nephi.  Everytime we come she shows us her favorite verses.  It is my favorite part of the week to see her come to us with her marked scriptures, wanting to share them.  She will make an amazing member.  She requested to be baptized on the 8th of July because it is her birthday and she says that would be the most special birthday she has had.  So we said that would be perfect.

Francesca is still doing great.  Nothing really new in that department.  I know I say this every week but I think we're going to invite her to be baptized this week.

Koffi and Doddi are the bomb.  So in Sunday afterwards, the Branch President came up to them and was like . . . hey, if I was someone who didn't know anything about the church, could you tell me about the church's beliefs?  And Koffi was like, yes, we could.  So branch president was like . . . I, for instance, have never heard of this church.  And it was soooo sweet, At first I was like . . . oh crap . . . but then they totally jumped into the first lesson! Swtiching off and everything.  Well, you see, Joseph Smith in 1820 was 14 and had a question . . . etc., etc.  They amazed me; it was awesome.  So we saw Koffi and Doddi this morning before emails, and talked about commandments and we invited Doddi to be baptized!  I don't know if you remember, but we asked him before and he said he had been baptized twice before and didn't want to make it 3 times.  And he was like . . . yes, but I am concerned about this.  Will it be a sin if I get baptized again, because it says in the Bible one baptism.  And it was sooooo cool I looked over at Anziano Ransom and he gave me the look of . . .  you got this answer.  So i turned back to Doddi and was like . . . No, Doddi, it will not be a sin.  If you could see the Joy that God has because of your faith and your decision to be baptized.  I know that this is exactly what God wants you to do . . . it was awesome.  And then to see the look of joy come to his voice, as he said . . . okay, I will be baptized on the same day as Koffi (July 4th).  Then we just bore testimony and left it was awesome.  The Spirit was very stong as we testified of Heavenly Father's joy for his choice to be baptized.

So the other day we met this funny guy named Max who is from Africa and I was like . . . my name is Max!!  And he was like . . . no way . . . I will call you MAX THE PREACHER then, haha. He took our number down and titled us as that.  So we're going to try to see him this week.  We met him in the park which means there is a good chance that he is homeless, but we'll see, haha. He is a funny man. 

So this week was just way cool because of our awesome brothers and sisters in the gospel here in Italy.  Thank you all for your emails; I loved them.  Josh happy Birthday, my friend!!!  Graduating from the "M"BA and all that is way cool.  Mom take it easy on the bats, haha.  Dad I would search the closet in case mom brought home a shotgun or some other form of weaponry, haha, sorry Mom.  Nate I loved your picture of the cabin.  You should send it into halllmark or something.  Write a poem about me and send it in.  For sure it will be a winner.  But hey, I have to rush off now and buy some food.  I hope this wasn't too short!  Mom and Dad glad to hear you got the package. Lemme know if the pics work so I can clean up my card.

Love you all!!

Ciao, ciao, ciao

Max the Preacher!

Ciaowdy!!

Ciaowdy!! 

That is a mix between ciao and howdy i thought it would be great for the southerners.  A mix between formal and informal.  But anywho hello hello hello family!  This week was wonderful!  Thank you all for the letters it sounds like ya'll have been very busy busy busy.  So this last week was wayy fun.  So i'll start off with Koffi and Doddi. We saw them and they had both read 1 nephi 1-4 together and had some questions.  Doddi asked about a verse talking about how nephi wrote the plates in the language of his father, and he wanted to know all about that haha.  So we explained the difference between hebrew and egyptian and all that stuff i luckily learned at BYU. Koffi and Doddi want to know everything in the chapters we give them.  It is quite humbling to me.  I seriously thing that they read these chapters at least 3-4 times.  Because we come in and are like... how is your reading and there like.... oh nephi just did this to laban and his brothers are murmering.  They are amazing.  They weren't able to come to church because they had some mini emergency.  One of there brothers or i think friends just showed up on their doorstep at like 1 in the morning without a place to go.  So they had to like stay up late and spend the next morning helping him out.  They were very sad that they couldn't come.  But we saw them again on monday and they are still doing great.  Koffi explained that since we've met them they can't put the book of mormon down.  He said... we have other books but right now it is only the book of mormon!!  So they are loving it. I asked Koffi if he had prayed to know and he was like... why you keep asking me that... i know i know... its true.  It is a book of God.  I cannot say it is not true or i would be lying.  He is a stud.  So then as they were walking us to the bus i was talking to koffi and was like... hey my man your baptismal date is coming up... you excited!!  And he was like.. yes... but i have to tell you someting.... and i'm like... kuplunkkkk oh no what!?  And he is like... i haven't boughten my suit yet for my baptism.  So we told him he was silly and we had one for him.  I told him if he ever came to america ya'll would feed him dinner.. he laughed at that and said he wanted to meet you guys.  Okay now for ALICEEEEEEE.  Our starting power forward... wow is she amazing.  Okay so we taught her right after sending our last email and invited her to be baptized and she smiled and said yes right away!!  And then we were like... were so happy for you.. and she was like.. oh believe me i'm happy too.  Then we saw her again on monday and she just finished 1 nephi in her reading so we were talking about that.  Then my companion started the lesson and i felt like we had missed something.  We hadn't really followed up on her reading at all.  We had been like... oh your finishing 1 nephi?  Great.. but anyways today we want to talk about.  We had gone from teaching a person to just teaching a lesson.  So halfway through the lesson i just fealt terrible that we had failed to really follow up at all.  So i kind of awkwardly stopped us in the middle of talking about faith and repentance, and was just like... i am so happy you have been reading so much but i want to ask you a question.  And when i said this it was quite awkward because it was so random.  But then i was like... have you prayed about the book of mormon?  And she gave us the response we get a lot from people avoided the question.  Yes i always pray. So i was like... perfect....BUT have you prayed and asked God if this book is true?  And this was when it went from awkward to wonderful.  She looked me straight in the eye and with the happiest smile nodded and said... Yes i did.  But then she just stopped so i was like... and.... did you get an answer?  And once again that wonderful smile.... Yes i did.  She paused for a moment looking at me the whole time just grinning with pure joy and said.... i recieved a comfermation and i know it is true.  I prayed and asked God and felt a joy i've only felt a couple of times in my life.  This is why i love Alice.  I seriously feel like she teaches us when we go over there.  She has sooooo much faith and just ... i don't know how to explain her... just awesome!  So we just bore our testimony's after and ended the lesson and asked her to say the prayer... she wa nervous at first but we assured her she would do fine.  In her prayer she thanked the Lord that her brothers (us) could be here in her home, and she prayed that she could prepare for baptism!!  She came to church again on sunday and is making friends and just doing amazing.  She asked to be baptized on her birthday on july 8th.  After she is baptized i am going to write her story from start to finish in my journal.  She is amazing.   Francesca is also doing great.  We weren't able to see her last week because her daughter broke her leg but she came to church and loved it again.  She is like the little miss popular in the branch.  She is making friends with everyone.  It also helps that we have brought about 5 different members to our lessons so she practicly knows the whole branch.  So Mom and dad Happy Anniversary!!!!!!!!  I actually found out the day after emailing because i looked in my binder thing... i was like... aghh i forgot!  So i sent home a package for you guys!!  Ta daaa.  And in it is about 700 pictures on a 3 cd's, about 6 videos, and a cassete tape to narrate the pictures!!  Woohoo.  You should be getting it this week hopefully.  There is also a surprise for dad for fathers day in there.  Lemme know if you get the package.  I taped it all up so it should get there alright.  And lemme know if the pictures work, or if there broken so i can re do them.  I still have them all on my card so when you back them up lemme know and i can erase them.  They are the pics from my last night in the mtc all the way until now so it should be a fun little treat for ya!  Oh yeah.. if you guys could send me that great cookie recipe that nate used to always make.  Italians love american cookies and never get them so we wanna make some for our golden investigators.  Mom and Dad or anyone i guess haha if you want some good italian music get Andrea Bocelli's new CD Vivere (To Live).  It is mostly in italian and people love it down here.  We have a crazy less active member that played a bit of it for us.  it is very good.  It was fun because i could understand a bit of what he was singing.  The other night we had a fun little expereience.  We met this fun guy and he invited us to his choir performance.  So saturday night we thought we would go poke are heads in and say hi to him.  We went into this veryyy beautiful cathedral and there was this cute old guy we met a week earlier.  There choir was amazing.  It was way good.  They sang songs like... ave maria that i think you know.  We listened to 3 songs and then ran but we saw him again and were like you were sooo good and he was like... i have to come to your church sometime.  I am so happy you came to my performance.  He is actually that crazy old guy that stopped us and sang to us on the street that i told you about like 4 letters back.  So he is very nice.  The nauvoo trip sounded way fun.  Yes mom i did do baptisms there.  If i remember it has the dark wood cabinets very beautiful.  Dad don't get upset that matt beets you in Pokemon haha.  He beat me too the little stinker.  But everything sounds very fun.  Today we don't really have a plan of what were doing so we'll see. Anziano Ransom is going home in 5 weeks crazy huh!  You guys were asking about him.  He is from North Dakota so we as you can imagine kind of different haha.  He thinks i'm this little thug from the bronx and i think he's this little hick from the sticks haha.  So our personalities aren't quite the same but he is a good kid.  We get along good.  I'm trying to help him not be trunky as he is leaving soon and getting a bit ancy haha.  But i think all the work here will keep us too busy to think about going home so life is good in the mission field.  I hope this letter wasn't too boring for ya though.  I can't think of anything else to write about.  Please if i leave stuff out just ask questions.  it helps me know what i don't talk about enough.  But anyways it was fun hearing from ya'll and i love ya soooooo much.  I will talk to you next week!!!

Love ya tons!!

Anziano Perkes

P.S.  Italian for the week is.... hmm lemme think...
Ho Fame (prounounced Oh Fom Ay)  It meens i'm hungry.  it is a good phrase to remember here in italy haha. Loves! bye!!

Face of an Angel

Ciao, ciao, ciao, everyone!

First off I'd like to start the traditional way of starting my letters by saying thanks so much for all the letters.  I love Wednesdays, being able to hear from you guys.  You crack me up, haha.

Okay, so let's start off the letter with our starting line up!  Okay, so Francesca is still doing amazing.  She ended up missing church because she had stayed up late the night before with her friends and her alarm didn't go off in the morning.  Usually I'd cash this in as an excuse but coming from Francesca I believe that she is sincere.  She is on page 500 in the Book of Mormon . . . man, she amazes me.  She's read more than I have [since I have been in Italy]!  She is starting to like the Book of Mormon more and more as, when she first started reading she just kept saying . . . there're too many names it's so confusing.  But now we can see the excitement in her eyes when we ask her about her reading.  It has been an amazing experience to see the change in Francesca.  When we first taught her she was still way cool but to see more light come into her life has been amazing.  She is sooo happy now.  She told us the other day that when she opened the door for the first time and saw us, she felt like there was something different about us and she should let us in.  She also said that I have the face of an angel or cherubim, haha. I'm not quite sure why; she's very poetic though, I give her that.  Then we gave her the conference dvd's and highlighted on the index the 3 talks we most loved, and she was like.... can't I just watch them all??  With kind of a like... hey, gimme, gimme voice; it was funny. She really has a desire to learn and grow.  She told us she wanted to become more like Christ.  So I know I said this last week, but we are going to invite her to be baptized this week.  We think she is ready to commit to baptism.  So keep her in your prayers would ya?  Thankssss.

Okay... starting at center is our boy KOFFI!!!  Wow, he continues to amaze me!!  Okay lots to say about Koffi.   First off, we are now teaching his cousin, Dodi, as well who is also a stud.  Koffi is from Togo, he is married and has children.  He is in Italy for work, so that he can send money to his family.  Italy actually has a lot of Africans here that are searching for work.  Many of them sadly have been here for months with no work.  A man we're teaching has been here a year with no work.  It is very hard for them to get jobs when they don't speak Italian.  So Koffi and Dodi came here together from Togo, they are both married, and they both work in the same warehouse.  They don't make a whole ton but compared to the work in Togo they are making lots.  So the big news is that they came to church on Sunday!!! Wow I was sooo happy they came.  The hard thing is that they live about 30 minutes outside the city in a part where no members live so they take the bus.  These two guys are such studs.  They roll into church sportin suit pants, with a button down Keith Urban like shirt, only buttoned up half way.  We had a very nice man translate for them and they loved church!! Bless their hearts, they both pulled out their Book of Mormons and had a scrap piece of paper and were taking notes!!  Taking notes!!  Wow, oh wow, they are studs.  I sat next to them and they kept being like . . . oh yeah, that's good, I like that.  We taught them two days ago and followed up on church and they were like, we loved it.  They didn't have any questions about what happened in church until halfway through our lesson Dodi was like . . .  oh yeah, I DO have a question.  And he pulled out his notes and was like . . . in the front of the room there were 4 numbers written on the wall, 34, 4, 126, and 67.  What do these numbers mean!?   He asked with the curiosity of a little boy it was so funny.  I wanted to go into how they were part of the Dharma theory but i explained that they were the hymns that we sung.

So we taught they the Word of Wisdom in this lesson and at first they were kinda like . . . that's crazy.  When we said tea was bad, Koffi ran into the kitchen and brought back a jug of Lipton ice tea and was like . . . "Diz tea is bad?!?"  So when we committed them to live the Word of Wisdom they were like . . .  okay, we're fine with drugs and alcohol, but we have to drink coffee and tea or we'll fall asleep in work and get fired.  So we just bore testimony about how God would help them and at the end they were like . . . okay, we will do it. So we're teaching them today at 3 and we're gonna follow up.  It'll be awesome.

Okay, so we have a new recruit to the dream team.  Introducingggggg Alice!!!  Pronounced ( Al-eech-ay )  She is soo cool.  So a couple weeks back we did a power lesson with the Saquing family, the new convert family here, and we talked about missionary work for 5 minutes and asked them to pray about a street that we could go knock doors on.  So they prayed and it was amazing.  The wife prayed and at the end she was all teary eyed and told us to go to Via Boselli.  So we went there and it happened to be like one of the main interstates going through piacenza.  So at first we were like... this thinggg is huge.  So we started knock and the 4th person we talked to stuck her head out the window and was like what do you want?  We told her our schpeal and she was like where is your church?  So we told her.... she didn't have time for us to talk to her and she told us if we wanted to we could try back later sometime which we hear a lot.  So we were like.. okay whatever... 2 weeks later we were back in the area, and we were like... lets go stop by that brazilian lady (She's like black brazilian mix, but speaks italian perfectly because she has been here for 20 years.)  We go back and she lets us right in without any questions.  There were some random other people in the house.. one i think was her sister and maybe some friends or something,  so we taught her the first lesson, and it turns out her cousin is on a mission right now and her sister lives in boston!  So we gave her the Book of Mormon and left.  We came back for our appointment 3 days later, and she had read 30 pages and loved it.  She said she felt peaceful and happy when she read.  it was amazing!  So we talked about the spirit and how it testifies.  We then kind of recovered joseph smith, watched the restoration movie with her, which at the end just kept talking about how beautful it was.  Oh yeah... our first lesson, like 4 minutes into the lesson asked if her 1 year old daughter could be baptized and we had a sweet experience in teaching her about how her daughter was pure and sweet and she really liked that.  Alice is 39 and a single mom with 1, 1 year old child named katherine.   So we invite her to come to church and she is like... i will come!  Before we even asked her she talked about how she had went into town and looked for the church so she could make sure to fund it on sunday.  Wow amazing.  So we invited her and she said she would come.  Lo and behold she came on sunday, even to gospel docterines which she even commented in the class about the spirit and the influence it's had on her life.  I think she wowed everyone in the class it was awesome.  Then after sacramant she pulled my companion aside and was like... during the meeting i felt a very odd sense of joy that i've never felt.  What is this feeling?!  And Anziano Ransom responded very well with a scripture of how the fruit of the spirit is joy and how it was the spirit testifying that this is what she needs to do.  So she was like... oh that makes sense.  We called her this morning and were seeing her at 2 today and were going to ask her to be baptized!!  So it should go very well.  Alice is amazing though.  So those are our 3 power starters.  The rest are doing well too but just not dreem team well yet.  We hope to recruit many more members to the team.

 This last week was another amazing week.  We were blessed to teach 22 lessons and get 11 people in church.  Getting 11 people in church is like un heard of.  We got very lucky, it was quite funny.  Mission President said that anyone not a member that is in church counts for you.  So we had alice, koffi and dodi, some evanglisit dude that has been coming for a couple weeks, this mom and her two sons that have been being taught for a while, this other mom and her son that also have been taught for a while, then there was someones 2 random friends there.  End of the story is that there were a lot of people there that we didn't plan on being there.  It was awesome.  So sorry i don't have much time today since were kind busy today.  So this will have to be a bit short.  Josh congrats on making the NBA.  Mom and dad told me about it. That's wayy cool.  From bishop to the NBA.. wowsers.  Buck I was sorry to hear that you got called into the bishopric... no i'm just kidding, i'm sure you'll love it.  You'll be great!  Ed and Beth sound like they are amazing! That is soo cool.  Dad thanks for updating me on the box haha.  One request if i could make it.  Could you look online to see if you can order harry potter in italian?  I see all the kids reading it here.  I want to read it in italian when i get home to keep my italian up so if you could look into that.  If they are pricy don't worry about it its fine but i was just thinking that would be fun.  Mom and Dad your trip sounds way fun.  Sounds like you'll be nice and busy this week!  Hope all goes well and i'll talk to you next week!!

Love ya All!!!

Anziano Perkes

Twenty Lessons!

Hello everyone and all!

Thanks so much for the letters, today they were great. I laughed very hard while reading them. The Italian lady here asked if I was alright, haha. But anywho, this week was amazing. Wow, wow. wow, we were very blessed. So we had a real big desire to hit 20 lessons finally. My companion says he's never hit it that he can remember. But when Elder Perry came, these one missionaries went up and said hi and he said, how many lessons are you teaching? And they were like, yeah we hit 14 this week! And he was like... you are wasting time then, you must hit at least 20 lessons. So wow... that is pretty intense. So this week we were just like come on we got this... we really wanted and worked very hard to hit and alas.... we taught exactly 20 lessons! It was funny because we actually hit 20 lessons Saturday afternoon. And that night our 2 appointments gave us a no show but we were still happy because of hitting 20. Then on Sunday we had 5 lessons planned and all ended up falling through at the last moment. People that never cancel dropped us right at the end. So we decided to set a goal of 20 or more, that way we don't just call it in for the week when we hit 20. But that was besides the point we were soooo happy and blessed to be able to teach that much.

It was really an amazing week. It is amazing because when you're working the hardest the days fly by. I notice that when we bust it and give it our all, all day, that we get home and I'm like ... the day is over?!? But then on the days where we get discouraged and maybe take a gelato break, that I get home and am like... wowwww, what a long day, haha. So last week we just busted it and it was amazing. We were truly blessed. It was way cool.. the 20th lesson we taught was at the end of the day on Saturday, and we just needed one more to hit it, but we didn't have any planned so we met this guy in the park and we talked to him and told him we wanted to share a message with him another time and he was like, okay, that sounds good. And just as my companion was saying well cool we'll see you later, I decided... no, no, this isn't good enough. So I used some of my sales skills and was like... hmmm, well we don't have another commitment for 15 minutes if we could just sit down real quick and explain why were here in Italy for two years. And he was like... sounds great, take a seat. So we taught him a brief first lesson and just bore testimony on the Book of Mormon and gave him one and committed him to read it. So it was very cool. It made me realize that we need to be more bold instead of just being like... you don't want to hear us do you? Okay no perfect... Grazie tanto!

Okay, big news of the week Koffi. Wow, he is amazing. So I think I told you a little bit about our African brother. We went back again and we were like... hey, did you pray about the Book of Mormon? And he was like yes, I prayed about it and I felt good, but I've been searching for you missionaries for 1 year. Turns out when he first moved to Italy he tried lookin up the missionaries but couldn't figure out the website so he finally gave up because he didn't know what to do. One year later, he goes to his friend's house that is an hour away and it just so happens that his friend had just let in the missionaries. When he saw them he was like... hey, give my number to your brothers in Piacenza! Coincidence? I think not. The Lord is truely working miracles her in Italy.

So he told us this story and we were like wow, what a guy.  So this was our second time seeing him, but we decided that he needed this so we were like. . . Koffi, will you be baptized July 4th? And he was like . . . yes, it won't be a problem. So He is very prepared. So then we went back two days later and were like . . . oh, did you read the chapter we gave you? And he pulled out his Book of Mormon and he had a red pencil marking the page, and he had made little notes in the margins. We were like what did you like about this chapter? And he went off about how this awesome man Alma did this and that. He said he read every morning and night and I was like . . . did you keep reading on or re-reading the chapter?  And he said . . . I just kept re-reading it . . . I wanted to do exactly as you guys told me to do. Very humble man; he is the bomb. Then we taught him on Saturday and his cousin was there who is just as amazing as him. He, I guess, was also looking for the missionaries with Koffi, but before this week he was working the night shift. But this week they are on the same shift so we'll be teaching them together. His cousin's name is Dodi. They are both from Ghana. So I'll keep you updated on them. They are amazing. 

We taught Francesca and showed her the restoration movie and she loved it. At the end she just kept saying how much she loved it. She had read a little bit. The problem we have with her is we keep asking her if she has/will pray about the Book of Mormon and she keeps responding that she wants to read the whole thing before asking. We've tried teaching her that she can still recieve a witness of its truthfulness without finishing it. But she is doing marvelous. She met with her Catholic friend, and he was like... oh my, Mormons are evil, bla, bla, bla, and she was like . . . I don't care what he says, I like you guys, haha. And then she came to church on Sunday for the 2nd time! She is getting a long great with the members. They are really pulling her into the fold, which is great.

Okay so it is stinkkkkin hot here!! Sunday got up to 100 degrees farenheight plus like 99% humidity. So we have been veryyyyy sweatyy these past couple days. I think I'm slowly getting adjusted to the heat. Okay, Mom I got your letter yesterday!!! Because we had interviews with president in Milan. By the way . . . any letters can go here in Piacenza. Because I only get the ones that get sent to the mission home when we have zone conference or interviews which is 2x every 6 weeks. So letters can go here and packages to the mission home. But Mom, thanks so much I loved the letter. The memory card is in great condition. It was very fun to see the pics from the MTC. Man I feel like that was forever ago . . . weird, weird.

So I've been working out since I've got here, which has been awesome. They give us these super rubber band nifty things so I feel kinda of stupid but they work great. I've gained 10-15-ish pounds since entering the MTC. I weighed 81 kilos like a week ago which is 178 pounds. When I entered the MTC I was like 165 so it's been great. I hope to come home breaking 200. My companion says I eat a lot but I can't help it I'm hungry! In the pictures I'm sending I am sending my before picture from a week ago. Just in case you guys do like a LGN v2 competition or something . . . I'm winnning for sure this time. Bring it on baby! I'm actually in the best shape of my life right now I think. It is very nice.

So time for the language update... ba, ba, ba, blaaaa. Italian is still very hard, the end, haha. No, I actually am understanding much better now. I can understand mostly all the words people use, but just putting them all together and making any sense out of it is very hard. So we're still practicing here. It was fun to hear that Tyler Pendleton entered the MTC. If you could somehow give him my email or get me his I would love it. Wow, so this morning has been crazy. We were going to go teach Koffi this morning, but my bike tire popped . . . again. So we quickly ran back to the house... and patched it up, reassembled the bike to learn that there were 2 more holes in it. So we didn't have any patches left, so we ran to the bike store bought a new tube, ran home and put it on. Then as I was screwing the wheel back onto the bike, the axel thing kind of exploded, nearly taking my eyeball out. So then we ran back to the store, ran home and after a long time fixed the dumb bike. End of the story: Koffi had to go to work so we rescheduled for tomorrow which should be okay. We think that Satan is working hard because he knows Koffi is amazing. So that was kind of frustrating this morming to miss that but its all turned out well. My hands are like permanly black from all the oil though, haha . . . it is quite funny looking.

Josh and Brooke, I loved your letter thanks so much. The picture of Matty was especially cute. Rocketssss . . . I remember those! Mom I laughed very hard when you were telling me about the bats in the house. I could just picture you being like . . . Ken, Ken, KENNN being chased by a bat, haha. Very funny picture in my head. But I agree, I heard bats lay eggs in your hair and make you go crazy.  I would get rid of them for sure.  Sorry Dad. That is sooo cool that Ed and Beth are getting baptized . . . Wow, what a blessing for them and the ward. They sound amazing. Haha, Dad I liked your description of Mom's armoured truck camera bag; how fun, haha. And wow, you have lost 25 pounds!!!! That is amazing. I'll come home and be like . . .  where is Dad!! I'm glad you guys got the tape. That went real fast. A week is all. Yeah I listened to a bit before sending it and Mom your comment about us sounding like the Italian Job actors was very true, haha, I'm trying to work on the accent. I also realized that about every 10 seconds I was like . . . ummmm I hope this isn't boring, haha. Maybe I'll do another one for you sometime this next month. I'm gonna try to burn my picture off maybe next week sometime, so maybe I'll try to include a tape with descriptions of the pictures kind of like a slide show or something for ya. I'll see what I can do for ya. The other day we were on the highway and 10 Lamborghinis drove by in a row. It was awesome. But besides that I think I'm out of things to say. Thanks so much for your love and support. I can feel it all the way over here in Italy. I'll talk to you later!!

Vi Voglio Bene (Love ya'll)

Ciao, ciao, ciao

Anziano Perkes