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