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!!