Hello wonderful family!!
First off i want to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving! Unfortunatly they don't celebrate that here as it is an american holiday... huh who woulda thunk? But we'll probably go out and buy a nice kebab. Hmm not sure if i have explained kebabs. They are turkish i believe. It is pretty much a ton of meat, chillin on this pole all day next to a burner, and then they shave off realllllly thin slices, put it on fresh bread, with a really good sauce. It is awesome! Not quite turkey but oh well haha, it is even better. Okay so let's start off the week here! Okay.... so we have a NEW ALLSTAR here in Lugano and his name is Luis!!!!! He just quit smoking 2 weeks ago and hasn't touched it since. He was a referral from San Remo (city on the beach in italy), but then he moved here to lugano so we were able to find him! And he is amazing! We have been working with him lots and he truely is a stud. He is 38, and is half argentinian and half italian. Not married, no kids. He will be getting baptized in a couple of weeks now and is very excited!! Okay so fun story... we do an english class every wednesday night for an hour. We make 15 bucks an hour.. no just kidding, we do it as service. But we have this man named Tiziano, (PS:.. coolest name in the world!) (PS... speaking of names i have decided that i want to name one of my daughters Stella. I know its a bit premature to be thinking about this but i heard that as a name the other day and loved it. It meens star in english.)) Anyways sorry for that rant! So this man Tiziano is a magician here in lugano. He speaks english pretty well. But last wednesday, he was the only one to come, and he said.... guys.. i have to do a show in english this saturday, so i need to rehearse it. So there in the church, he did his whole presentation for us!! I felt like i was in las vegas for a second it was awesome! He is really good and really funny. But fun news... i am learning finally to cook a killer pasta. The only bad thing is i'm not sure if i can make it in america haha, because ya'll dont have the ingredients. Maybe you can find them i dunno. Okay... fun update. I don't know if you guys know about this.... BUT...... the world is coming to an end in 2012!!!! That is the newest news here in SWZ. At LEAST 3-4 times a day someone says.... what do you know about 2012, or did you know the world will end?? So it is quite humorous. I would love to be a missionary in the end of 2011. I'm sure it would be quite interesting. So funny story..... we met a ukranian man yesterday and we taught him... in english luckily haha. And when we left i said... oh dang we forgot to ask your name... what is it? And he replied......VOLDEMORT! So i just wanted to warn everyone that Voldemort has returned, and has takin refuge here in the swiss alps. Don't tell Harry! Some other fun news! We found maggots in our apartment!! Yay what a fun surprise! Yesterday i was in the kitchen and i glanced at the cieling... oh.....uhh..... ANZIANO COME HERE!!!! Gross huh? Luckily we burned most of them, but they keep magically appearing. (PS:.. mom or dad please dont call the mission president :)
Oh yeah i just wanted to give a quick shout out to Jake. I printed off the Perx Security logo, and stuck it on the back of my agenda. So Jake my man... your company has spread all across the world. You can now tell people on the door.. umm yes we are international! Haha so another shout out! CONGRATS BUCK AND JAY-Z FOR BABY JACK JACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now i'm a bit confused because in Dads email it says baby Jake. Did you guys change his name? I am assuming it is just a typo but that is sooooo coool. I'm sure he is the cutest little bugger ever! Wow i am starting to lose count of nephew and nieces. I have now had 3 born while i'm in mission. Crazy! There is just one missing link! No just kidding... no pressure! Man there are a lot of shout outs this week so sorry haha! Next shout out goes to my man NATEEEEEEE!!!!! CONGRATS BROTHER! You landed the job!! That is soo cool. SWZ is way proud of you mate! Shout out to MOM AND DAD... temple officiators?!?! SOOO COOL! That is amazing. What a blessing! And last shout out to LUISA!! CONGRATS on the advancement for the job!!! Your a star! Wow i can't think of any more shout outs. If i missed someone... SHOUT OUT to you (insert your name here)......because your are amazing! Dad thanks so much for the baby picture i laughed out loud it is awesome! I want to print it off! So update on Maddelena! She hasn't smoked for 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!! The last little obstacle is the coffee in the morning but were workin on that together! Oh wow i almost forgot! Sergio!!! Had is interview last week and everything is good to go!!! This Saturday at 7 PM he will be baptised!! We are sooo excited!! Mom you asked a question about italians and there excersise habits haha. And yes my last Italian was the reason we got rid of the bikes. It's kind of a cultural thing. Kind of the take it chill attitude. A bit like ST. Thomas. Dont worry be happy mentality haha. So i should be wrappin this email up. Sorry I just realized it was really random haha. Every 2 sentences i changed subjects. I'll do better next week! Thank you all so much for your love and support!!!!
LOVE YA!!
Anziano Perkes!
Friday, November 27, 2009
What an amazing week!!! [Letter written 11-18-09]
Haha okay so i put the word amazing in the title so that i wouldnt have to start my letter by saying this week was amazing. But I guess i'll say it anyways because this week was TRUELY AMAZING! It was full of tender mercies, miracles, and fun. This week we were so busy teaching!!! I almost don't want to tell you because it really doesnt matter but i will anyways haha. We were blessed to be able to teach 34 lessons this last week. The whole week we were non stop rushing to lesson appointments, or tracting houses, and getting in a lot!! It truely was a blessed week. All week we just kept asking each other... man Lugano is amazing!! So i wrote down some funny and sweet experiences that i wanted to share... the first is funny so here we go. We have a sweet afghani family that we were teaching (i used past tense because we dont teach them more... werent super interested :( ) Anyways so they have this crazy son about 2 years old and he is too full of energy haha. So we were teaching the plan of salvation and i was bearing my testimony about something, when all of a sudden this little champion sprinted into the room from behind us and blind side tackeled me!! Haha included was a heroic tarzan scream aghhhhhhhhh. I found myself half falling off the couch on my side with this little munchkin on top of me with his arms around my face, a couple of his fingers nearly poking my eyes out. Imagine alladin when he is on the carpet and abu the monkey jumps on his head and he cant see. That is me with this little afghani monkey haha. So the parents chased him into another room. Ahh at last peace... ok sorry so anyways... i was saying... that Adam was the first prohet called to....... AGHHHHHHHHHHH another blind attack! So let's just end this story by saying the lesson wasn't the best but it brought back the funnest memories of wrestling with my cute little nephewes and nieces. So next story... we have this cool new african investigator named Patrick. He is from Nigeria and quite the man. He came to church one day to see if he could play the piano, so we volunteered to stay after and let him play a bit. Then we ended up teaching him and now he is a cool investigator with a baptismal date! We'll see how it goes. Were pretty much at the veryyyy beginning of the teaching process but he is way cool. He sings soul music while playing the piano like... i believe in Jesus!!!!.... i put my faith in him!! He actually has a decent voice. So fun story... last pday!!! So as ya'll know we decided to attack on of the biggest and coolest mountains in our area here. So we took a bus out to the mountain (named mount Boglia) and began our hike. It was very comical because Anziano Bosco hates hiking and has never gone. Honestly i'm not quite sure how i talked him into it. So we start hiking and we go for about 20 minutes (i start to hear gasps for breath behind me.) We turn a corner and we get a great view of our final destination. There before us is the mountain... wow very beautiful but far up in the distance. I was very excited... when i heard a gasp... anziano.....breath..... were nevvvvvvvver going to make it up there.....breath..... lets go back..... this is stupid. Haha oh... did you say go back anziano... NEVER!! So after a short discussion i managed to convince him of this brilliant idea yet a second time.... we continued on. About 2 hours later i was just starting to break a sweat when i turned around to see a nearly dead, crawling up the mountain companion. Anziano... want some water?.... NO this is stupid!! Well the good news is that we finally made it up to the top after a couple more discussions.. kind of like a family council you could say. And the view was UNREALLLLLLL. First off it was the most clear day ever.. and second the view was out of this world. I honestly have never seen ANYTHING like this ever before. We have to hike this as a family some day! For 360 degrees there were jagged mountains! It was amazing. So then we had a fun lunch on top of this swiss alp I Love Lucy style.. and then began the climb down. So in the end it was the funnest pday ever. Super fun. I took lots of pics... that i will send at the next library! So great news about Maddelenna!!!!!!! She hasnt smoked for 4 days!!! So for about a month now every time we see her we ask.. hey how is quitting going... and she responds... oh i smoked 13 or i smoked 9 yesterday. We always re committed her and she always said... sure sure i'll try. For about a month nothing happened. So we were really struggling with what we could do. We had tried it all... a program, a contract, we gave up coke. So at the end ... an idea came to us that was simpler than the rest... would it work?? The next lesson we went and at the end we said... Maddelenna we have a challenge for you. Don't smoke for an entire day! We were nervous about how she would respond but her response surprised us.... Why not 2 days!! Wow... okay yeah 2 days sounds great. We called her about 10 times every day to check up on her and not it is since friday that she hasnt smoked! She is doing amazing!! So we are super excited. Her baptism is planned for the 12 of december. So were working on making that date. Sergio continues to be amazing! He is now starting to get very excited for his baptism that is in 2 weeks!! We also are starting to get the pre baptism jitters haha. We brought him to the american families for lunch after church, and he loved it!!! He finally came out of his shy box and made some friends, and felt comfortable and relaxed!! And also we had an amazing american lunch (first american in mission... sad i know.) She made corn chowder, and then we had salald with RANCH!!!! Ranch just so you know doesnt exist here... they shipped it in from america because they miss it too much. And then we had classic american cookies. It was amazing. I miss american food actually. Italian food is the bestest ever... but theres nothing like a good ole' american plate. Oh before i forget... DAD MY MAN! HAPPPPPPY BIRTHDAY!!! TANTI AGURI A TE, TANTI AGURI A TE, TANTI AGURI A PAPA, TANTI AGURI A TEEEEEEEE! My man what is this birthday.... 45?! Oh wow 50 sneakin up you young cowboy you! I hope you have a great birthday.... oh and ps.. mom thanks for the reminder haha, believe it or not i actually remembered! Mom i got your letter yesterday and the CD's today!!!! THANK you sooo much! I love them! There are perfect to bring the Christmas season into the small apartment here! I want to try to send a chocolate bar home so we'll see how it works haha. Oh speaking of Christmas, i have to excuse a flubber that i did haha. I titled my email SNOWWWWW and then i forgot to tell you guys... it snowed!!! Kind of... only in the mountains, but now, all the mountains are white capped in snow and it is very beautiful!!! So fun little thing.... well actually it is very annoying.. but i am forgetting english!!!! Aghh i hate it. When i talk in english to teach or talk to the american family, i sound like such an idiot sometimes haha. Because i'll be talking and then an italian word sneaks its way in. For example.... like this..... ohhh yeah, the other giorno we had a great lesson! Haha but at the same time it is funny. So now i cant speak english or italian! No just kidding... italian is actually coming along great! I can talk pretty easily now without thinking or being nervous. It is very natural. Ok so i have to give a shout out to MOM and DAD for being the most faithful writers for 2 weeks in a row! You guys are the best! Dad i laughed your story about almost getting beat by G.I. Jane haha. How funny. Oh yeah i wanted to give another shout out to Jake for the Perx security logo!! I love it! It is awesome! I heard Nate designed it... is that true? If it is props to nate for being amazing!! So i discovered a fun surprise at our store... PS.... the store we shop at is called MIGROS. Kind of risky huh? Everytime i say it i feel like i'm being racist or something haha. So i found a giant chocolate bar, half a kilo... not quite sure in lbs. But anyways... i found this chocolate bar for 1.80!! It lasts for a long time and it is the best chocolate ever!!!! Super creamy. I'll have to smuggle some with me when i leave switzerland! But anways wonderful family i must get running!!! Thanks so much for the love and support!!
Love ya!
Anziano Perkes!!
Love ya!
Anziano Perkes!!
SNOWWWWW!!! [Letter written 11-11-09]
Hello wonderful family!!!!!
So lemme just say that this week was one of the best weeks in my entire mission!! We were amazing blessed to teach 26 lessons this last week, but that is not why it is special, because in the end it's not the numbers that are important but the progress that people are making. So i want to tell you why this was a very special week. So we were teaching our dear sweet sister Maddelena about the 10 commandments. We had finished all the other commandments and that was the last step we needed before we were done. In the middle of the lesson, Maddelenna inturrupted and said. "You know what??" And instantly i was like... oh nooooo haha. Quick note about our dear friend. She is about 60 not sure if ya'll knew that. And she is one of the funniest people i know in the whole planet. She is like our mother here in switzlerland. And she lovessss to talk and tell stories so when she interupted i was like.. oh no were gonna get side tracked. But to my wonderful surprise she said... You know what my desire is..? No Maddelenna what is it? Can i tell you? YESSS tell us what is it! My desire.... is to go to the temple in switzlerland. When she said this the spirit just flooded the room it was so incredible. (note.. we have never talked about the temple with her before... must of heard about it in church) Then she said... i dont know why but something inside of me is saying... you have to go there! I dont even know what you do there but someday i will go to the temple! WOW!!!! The spirit was so strong it was amazing. Truely a tender mercy. So the next day that we went which happened to be the actual next day, we brought a poster of the swiss temple and taught her about the temple. She was truely touched, and is now excited and eager to make it to the temple. At the end we asked her Maddelenna what do you need to do to go there. And right away she said... quit smoking and be worthy. Wow She is amazing! So we have finished all the commandments and doctrine with her. Literally she is ready for baptism. If she quit smoking today we would baptize her tongith! No not really but she is that ready. She amazes us every time we go there. I'll have to snag a pic with her the next time. But anways... she is doing amazing. Also Sergio is doing great. He is very excited for his baptism on the 28th of November. Okay so i'm sorry but today i dont have much time. Today, we are hiking one of the coolest mountains here in switzlerand, and it just happens to be the most beautiful day in the world!!! So we are very excited. Mom i have my shoes to help me too!! We packed a couple of sandwiches and were gonna eat on top of the world!! So another fun experience this week. We were doing door to door and this old guy let us in and in the middle of the first lesson he declared... i'm a mason! Wow how cool just like national treasure!! We asked a couple of questions, and then continued our lesson. At the end you wont believe what happened! We got invited to join the masons!! How cool! Unfortunatly we declined but we want to get a souvenir or something from him... like some ancient mason ring or something cool like from the movie! So that was an interesting experience. YOYO and Slaja are doing okay. They have some problems right now, and we havent seen them for a week. Were not quite sure whats up but right now they need to work some things out on there own. Were gonna try next week. Mom you asked what kind of art Anziano Bosco does. He draws fantasy stuff like spencer Hawkes, he does also paint, and scultp. He is really good of what i have seen of his work. Mom you asked if we see president at zone conference. Yes we do. We see him at least twice a transfer (6 weeks) for interviews and zone conference. He is the man... way cool. Mom you asked about a christmas cd. Sure! That would be awesome! I am always open to more music... and yes i do have a cd player! You talked about christmas goodies. You are right mom... I am in goody land right now so dont stress out to send candy. We have it all here! Speaking of chocolate wow... it is so amazing here. I want to send some home but i think it would explode in the mail. Your encounter with the italian man inthe temple sounds so neat. If he is from milan it meens he is a stud for sure. Dad i laughed so hard that Harvy will miss the max update haha. Wow... who woulda thunk huh?? Okay so Mom and Dad ya'll asked some questions so i just cut and paste below here... lemme answer them now!!
You spoke of going on exchanges in Como. Question,…when you do exchanges and you are with another Elder, who is he and do you enjoy that? …or would you just rather stay in Lugano?
No we always go with other Elders. And yes i love it. No matter how much you love a city or a companion it is always nice to have a little break. Also it gives us a chance to learn from other missionaries as well
Is there a purpose in doing the exchanges? Or is it to just mix up things a little and give missionaries a change?
The main purpose is so that we can learn from other missionaries.. like approaches or ways to teach a certain lesson.
When you go to Como do you teach from their teaching pool? Is Como part of your District or Zone. Do you have many Zone or District activities on p-day where you gather together???
Yes we teach people in Como... i love it. They are the zone leaders in Como and they have some very cool solid investigators. So it is fun to get to know the people who are getting baptized also there. Como is in our district. There are 6 in our district. 2 Elders from como, and 2 sisters from como... obviuously we dont do exchanges with them haha. And no... President discourages from doing group pday activities so i have never done it in my mission yet.
1. What one thing do you most love about Italy that we just don't have going for us here in the US?
Hmmm good question pops... lemme think. The architecture for sure is one thing, and also the history i would say. It is so fun to see these churches that are just ancient. For example the lds church in como was the popes house like 200 years ago. Pretty neat. Also there are markets everywhere which is quite fun. And gelato ever where!! I will for sure miss that!!!
2. What is the one cultural trait or characteristic of Italians that you most enjoy?
They are loud people. And there are blunt and not afraid to speak there mind. Its like when we went to st. thomas and the members came up to Jake and were like... Jake your fat!! (sorry jake to bring up that terrible memory again!!) They are just like that. For example.. if i wear an ugly tie and i ask someone.. hey you like my tie?? Instead of being like... uhh yeah its cool man.. there like... no it is ugly haha.
3. Do you ever get to hear Italian music? Opera? Other cool music? What do you think?
Yeah people really like andrea bocceli here. It is fun because now i understand the words! And all the teenagers listen to rap, so every once and i while a car will drive by blasting there music. So we catch a peak of all sourts of music haha. It is quite interesting.
Well my wonderful family i hope that this wasn't too short!!! But we are off to hike the world now! I'll write all about it next week. PS... mom i sent a letter 3 days ago so its funny that you sent one too haha! But i love you guys and i'll hear from ya next week!!
Love ya!
Anziano Perkes
So lemme just say that this week was one of the best weeks in my entire mission!! We were amazing blessed to teach 26 lessons this last week, but that is not why it is special, because in the end it's not the numbers that are important but the progress that people are making. So i want to tell you why this was a very special week. So we were teaching our dear sweet sister Maddelena about the 10 commandments. We had finished all the other commandments and that was the last step we needed before we were done. In the middle of the lesson, Maddelenna inturrupted and said. "You know what??" And instantly i was like... oh nooooo haha. Quick note about our dear friend. She is about 60 not sure if ya'll knew that. And she is one of the funniest people i know in the whole planet. She is like our mother here in switzlerland. And she lovessss to talk and tell stories so when she interupted i was like.. oh no were gonna get side tracked. But to my wonderful surprise she said... You know what my desire is..? No Maddelenna what is it? Can i tell you? YESSS tell us what is it! My desire.... is to go to the temple in switzlerland. When she said this the spirit just flooded the room it was so incredible. (note.. we have never talked about the temple with her before... must of heard about it in church) Then she said... i dont know why but something inside of me is saying... you have to go there! I dont even know what you do there but someday i will go to the temple! WOW!!!! The spirit was so strong it was amazing. Truely a tender mercy. So the next day that we went which happened to be the actual next day, we brought a poster of the swiss temple and taught her about the temple. She was truely touched, and is now excited and eager to make it to the temple. At the end we asked her Maddelenna what do you need to do to go there. And right away she said... quit smoking and be worthy. Wow She is amazing! So we have finished all the commandments and doctrine with her. Literally she is ready for baptism. If she quit smoking today we would baptize her tongith! No not really but she is that ready. She amazes us every time we go there. I'll have to snag a pic with her the next time. But anways... she is doing amazing. Also Sergio is doing great. He is very excited for his baptism on the 28th of November. Okay so i'm sorry but today i dont have much time. Today, we are hiking one of the coolest mountains here in switzlerand, and it just happens to be the most beautiful day in the world!!! So we are very excited. Mom i have my shoes to help me too!! We packed a couple of sandwiches and were gonna eat on top of the world!! So another fun experience this week. We were doing door to door and this old guy let us in and in the middle of the first lesson he declared... i'm a mason! Wow how cool just like national treasure!! We asked a couple of questions, and then continued our lesson. At the end you wont believe what happened! We got invited to join the masons!! How cool! Unfortunatly we declined but we want to get a souvenir or something from him... like some ancient mason ring or something cool like from the movie! So that was an interesting experience. YOYO and Slaja are doing okay. They have some problems right now, and we havent seen them for a week. Were not quite sure whats up but right now they need to work some things out on there own. Were gonna try next week. Mom you asked what kind of art Anziano Bosco does. He draws fantasy stuff like spencer Hawkes, he does also paint, and scultp. He is really good of what i have seen of his work. Mom you asked if we see president at zone conference. Yes we do. We see him at least twice a transfer (6 weeks) for interviews and zone conference. He is the man... way cool. Mom you asked about a christmas cd. Sure! That would be awesome! I am always open to more music... and yes i do have a cd player! You talked about christmas goodies. You are right mom... I am in goody land right now so dont stress out to send candy. We have it all here! Speaking of chocolate wow... it is so amazing here. I want to send some home but i think it would explode in the mail. Your encounter with the italian man inthe temple sounds so neat. If he is from milan it meens he is a stud for sure. Dad i laughed so hard that Harvy will miss the max update haha. Wow... who woulda thunk huh?? Okay so Mom and Dad ya'll asked some questions so i just cut and paste below here... lemme answer them now!!
You spoke of going on exchanges in Como. Question,…when you do exchanges and you are with another Elder, who is he and do you enjoy that? …or would you just rather stay in Lugano?
No we always go with other Elders. And yes i love it. No matter how much you love a city or a companion it is always nice to have a little break. Also it gives us a chance to learn from other missionaries as well
Is there a purpose in doing the exchanges? Or is it to just mix up things a little and give missionaries a change?
The main purpose is so that we can learn from other missionaries.. like approaches or ways to teach a certain lesson.
When you go to Como do you teach from their teaching pool? Is Como part of your District or Zone. Do you have many Zone or District activities on p-day where you gather together???
Yes we teach people in Como... i love it. They are the zone leaders in Como and they have some very cool solid investigators. So it is fun to get to know the people who are getting baptized also there. Como is in our district. There are 6 in our district. 2 Elders from como, and 2 sisters from como... obviuously we dont do exchanges with them haha. And no... President discourages from doing group pday activities so i have never done it in my mission yet.
1. What one thing do you most love about Italy that we just don't have going for us here in the US?
Hmmm good question pops... lemme think. The architecture for sure is one thing, and also the history i would say. It is so fun to see these churches that are just ancient. For example the lds church in como was the popes house like 200 years ago. Pretty neat. Also there are markets everywhere which is quite fun. And gelato ever where!! I will for sure miss that!!!
2. What is the one cultural trait or characteristic of Italians that you most enjoy?
They are loud people. And there are blunt and not afraid to speak there mind. Its like when we went to st. thomas and the members came up to Jake and were like... Jake your fat!! (sorry jake to bring up that terrible memory again!!) They are just like that. For example.. if i wear an ugly tie and i ask someone.. hey you like my tie?? Instead of being like... uhh yeah its cool man.. there like... no it is ugly haha.
3. Do you ever get to hear Italian music? Opera? Other cool music? What do you think?
Yeah people really like andrea bocceli here. It is fun because now i understand the words! And all the teenagers listen to rap, so every once and i while a car will drive by blasting there music. So we catch a peak of all sourts of music haha. It is quite interesting.
Well my wonderful family i hope that this wasn't too short!!! But we are off to hike the world now! I'll write all about it next week. PS... mom i sent a letter 3 days ago so its funny that you sent one too haha! But i love you guys and i'll hear from ya next week!!
Love ya!
Anziano Perkes
Ya Ruschi . . . [Letter written 11-4-09]
Hellllllo everyone!!!!!!!
So lemme just start off by saying this week was great... no im just kidding im sure everyone is tired of me saying that haha so i want to start off by thanking everyone for there emails, pictures and love!! I seriously was laughing a lot while reading all these emails. I loved the pictures too!!!! Okay so i have lots to write about so ill just jump right into the good stuff! So i want to describe something called an out of country expereience. So i heard about the out of body expereience where you feel like your out of your body..... well i invented a new sort of abnormal thing called out of country experience. Let me explain ehem...... So i am currently serving in switzlerand right... so naturally one would think... okayy i'll teach and talk with swiss people right?!.......WRONG! So the other day we were fortunate to find a couple of people doing casa, and to talk with some other people on the bus/street. We found an amazing married couple named YoYo and Slaja!!! Yo Yo is from nigeria, and slaja is from croatia...... nothing close to swiss haha. So Then we talked with a nice man from Iran. An old italian couple, and an american mom! Well let me just finish this rather strange expereience with something i have named, the muslim encounter. So we were doing house, and this little (not trying to be racist) but this little arabian-like alladin man answered the door, complete with robe and slippers. We said, hey we have a great message for you... and he replyed with... there isnt a greater message than the islam one. Okay.... we said... we'd like to hear this message. So he invited us in. But first we had to take our shoes off, a religous tradition, pretty neat huh? So this man is from afghanistan. He was very nice and hospitable. We listened to him for a bit, and then we gave him our short sweet message. He told us that we should become muslim and that at the day of judgement he would be there to testify that he gave us the oppurtunity to be muslim. He was a stud. He was really concerned for our future and salvation. He did say one thing that was kind of strange. When he found out i was american he said that george bush is a child of the devil. Wow.... thats quite the statement huh? So this is my out of country expereience..... WHERE ARE THE SWISS PEOPLE?! Haha i love it... i feel like im serving in 18 different countries here in lugano. We meet people from all over the world every day!!! Ok so i took way to much time to describe that.. as it was just one bullet point on my list to email haha. So i went to como for exchanges again and it was funny because i learned that lugano has a reputation for just being rich people and banks haha. It is kind of true... there are so many swiss banks here where tons of foreigners store money to flee taxes. Quick update on sergio and maddelenna. Sergio is doing great.... we gave him so book of mormon posters and he had them framed and now his house is a great atmosphere for the spirit! Maddelennna is also doing great... she was in italy all week so we havent seen her, but she called us and told us she wanted to read the entire book of mormon this week!! She is in jacob when she called. She is soo cool! So i realized i havent talked about my bruther anz. Bosco much. So some basic info. He is the youngest in the family. Has 3 brothers... all served missions, and all are married. His parents are both converts and very awesome. He comes from Pescara, which is in the middle of italy. He went to artists school, and is very good. He is a great cook, and spoils me with amazing pastas, which im learning how to make! Mom and Dad that sounded so much fun about Brandon Gill!! What a good kid. I miss him tons... tell him i said hi. Email a pic of him to me from his mission if you can! Thanks!! Mom i actually did understand the packages theme haha its just that i couldnt wait to go hiking to try out the shoes so i sported them to help someone move. And i must sayyy that they are veryyyy comfy. Were planning a hike when the wearther gets nicer here!! Mom you asked how i liked Milano. That is where i have been going every month for zone conference, since i came to italy... so ive seen it beofre. According to me the best part of milano is that mcdonalds has burgers for 50 cents!!!!!!!!!!!! Every time we eat at least 5 or 6. The main station in milano is incredible!! Also the duomo is quite impressive! Dad i loved your story about facebook!! I agree with mom that your a nerd, but all the same i laughed very hard. Im glad that shadow ken and ken ken are friends haha. I literally laughed so hard. You should write a book dad! You have a great talent. But i'm sorry if this was short but i must be running soon. Im trying to think of what else is fun that i did this week. Hmmm... all I can say is that we are truely seeing miracles every week. The work here in Lugano is just booming. It is soo incredible. On a daily basis were finding new people. I often ask myself... what did i do to deserve such great blessings??? So i am very thankful and humbled to serve here. But anywho i gotta get running!! Love you guys soooo much. BYEEEEE..... oh ps.... Ya Ruschi... i have to explain that. It is russian for I'm russian. I am learning russian! Shout out to Tyler Mac! I like to learn little prhases in other languages so i can speak with all these foreigners!!!! So now im working on russian haha. Love ya guys!!
Anziano Perkes!
So lemme just start off by saying this week was great... no im just kidding im sure everyone is tired of me saying that haha so i want to start off by thanking everyone for there emails, pictures and love!! I seriously was laughing a lot while reading all these emails. I loved the pictures too!!!! Okay so i have lots to write about so ill just jump right into the good stuff! So i want to describe something called an out of country expereience. So i heard about the out of body expereience where you feel like your out of your body..... well i invented a new sort of abnormal thing called out of country experience. Let me explain ehem...... So i am currently serving in switzlerand right... so naturally one would think... okayy i'll teach and talk with swiss people right?!.......WRONG! So the other day we were fortunate to find a couple of people doing casa, and to talk with some other people on the bus/street. We found an amazing married couple named YoYo and Slaja!!! Yo Yo is from nigeria, and slaja is from croatia...... nothing close to swiss haha. So Then we talked with a nice man from Iran. An old italian couple, and an american mom! Well let me just finish this rather strange expereience with something i have named, the muslim encounter. So we were doing house, and this little (not trying to be racist) but this little arabian-like alladin man answered the door, complete with robe and slippers. We said, hey we have a great message for you... and he replyed with... there isnt a greater message than the islam one. Okay.... we said... we'd like to hear this message. So he invited us in. But first we had to take our shoes off, a religous tradition, pretty neat huh? So this man is from afghanistan. He was very nice and hospitable. We listened to him for a bit, and then we gave him our short sweet message. He told us that we should become muslim and that at the day of judgement he would be there to testify that he gave us the oppurtunity to be muslim. He was a stud. He was really concerned for our future and salvation. He did say one thing that was kind of strange. When he found out i was american he said that george bush is a child of the devil. Wow.... thats quite the statement huh? So this is my out of country expereience..... WHERE ARE THE SWISS PEOPLE?! Haha i love it... i feel like im serving in 18 different countries here in lugano. We meet people from all over the world every day!!! Ok so i took way to much time to describe that.. as it was just one bullet point on my list to email haha. So i went to como for exchanges again and it was funny because i learned that lugano has a reputation for just being rich people and banks haha. It is kind of true... there are so many swiss banks here where tons of foreigners store money to flee taxes. Quick update on sergio and maddelenna. Sergio is doing great.... we gave him so book of mormon posters and he had them framed and now his house is a great atmosphere for the spirit! Maddelennna is also doing great... she was in italy all week so we havent seen her, but she called us and told us she wanted to read the entire book of mormon this week!! She is in jacob when she called. She is soo cool! So i realized i havent talked about my bruther anz. Bosco much. So some basic info. He is the youngest in the family. Has 3 brothers... all served missions, and all are married. His parents are both converts and very awesome. He comes from Pescara, which is in the middle of italy. He went to artists school, and is very good. He is a great cook, and spoils me with amazing pastas, which im learning how to make! Mom and Dad that sounded so much fun about Brandon Gill!! What a good kid. I miss him tons... tell him i said hi. Email a pic of him to me from his mission if you can! Thanks!! Mom i actually did understand the packages theme haha its just that i couldnt wait to go hiking to try out the shoes so i sported them to help someone move. And i must sayyy that they are veryyyy comfy. Were planning a hike when the wearther gets nicer here!! Mom you asked how i liked Milano. That is where i have been going every month for zone conference, since i came to italy... so ive seen it beofre. According to me the best part of milano is that mcdonalds has burgers for 50 cents!!!!!!!!!!!! Every time we eat at least 5 or 6. The main station in milano is incredible!! Also the duomo is quite impressive! Dad i loved your story about facebook!! I agree with mom that your a nerd, but all the same i laughed very hard. Im glad that shadow ken and ken ken are friends haha. I literally laughed so hard. You should write a book dad! You have a great talent. But i'm sorry if this was short but i must be running soon. Im trying to think of what else is fun that i did this week. Hmmm... all I can say is that we are truely seeing miracles every week. The work here in Lugano is just booming. It is soo incredible. On a daily basis were finding new people. I often ask myself... what did i do to deserve such great blessings??? So i am very thankful and humbled to serve here. But anywho i gotta get running!! Love you guys soooo much. BYEEEEE..... oh ps.... Ya Ruschi... i have to explain that. It is russian for I'm russian. I am learning russian! Shout out to Tyler Mac! I like to learn little prhases in other languages so i can speak with all these foreigners!!!! So now im working on russian haha. Love ya guys!!
Anziano Perkes!
Hellllllllllllllllllo La La La . . . [Letter written 10-28-09]
Helllo my wonferful family!!!!
HOw is everyone doing!? So this week was terrible... no just kidding i just wanted to see if i could scare you. It was truely an incredible week! So lets start off with a funny like difference in languages. So everyonce in a while we meet people that only speak english. You would think this would be great but it is actually a real pain because im to the point now where it is easier to teach in italian. In fact i stink at teaching in english haha. So english for me is really awkward when it comes to like, approaching someone on the street or anything like that. So this other day i sounded like a complete idiot because i tried to translate what i say into english and it just didnt work haha. So in italian we say a lot, Lei e una persona credente. This translates to, are you religious? But the literall translation goes like this. So the other day we stopped the person, turns out to be an american! So im like... are you a believer?? I sounded like some vampire from a story or something haha. The gave me the weirdest face... a believer!? What does that meen? Like santa clause or something haha. And then there is another frase that is simply, In Giro. For example if i would say... hey were here in giro. THat meens hey were here going around talking to people. So with this same person i was like.... hey were here in gir.... umm around! Haha it made no sense at all. So lets just say it was like the worst street approach ive ever done haha. So funny story with americans... we were on the ski lift the other day going up to the train station and these really short girls were on the ski lift too. When they both look at me with a wow face. One leans over to the other laughing and says... oh my gosh he is sooooooo tall. And i was just sittin there crackin up inside because they didnt know i spoke english. Then as we were getting off i was like... oh go ahead... and they both turned brightttttt red it was hilarious. I gave them a cheesy smile and walked away, and then there were like.. oh my gosh he speaks enlglish aghhhh. Haha so last pday was way fun. WE went down and played billiards and fooseball, it was a lot of fun. And mom i dont remember the priest from st. thomas sorry! Ok.... speaking of mom.... I GOT MY PACKAGE!!!! ThANK THANK THANK THANK XOUUUUUUU. Thank you so much i loved it mom and dad! The freez dried ice cream was really fun. We enjoyed that a lot. THe frisbee is great too, we played in the house this morning and nearly broke a lamp haha. And the shoes!!! You will be glad to know that i am wearing them right now! Were in normal clothes right now it is soooo weird haha. We went and help this guy move early the morning and the library right next door. They are super comfy i love them. In fact i want to send a picture at the next place i hope i can. Did you guys get my pics last week?? I never know with the computers here. So we have zone conference last friday and we had to sleepover at como which was fun. Oh ya, the macho man post card is a blast, it is our work out pump up song haha. And PS::: Dad tell your parents thanks so much for the post card they are too nice. I wanna set some time aside to write a letter but were really busy latley. So Sergio is doing great!!!!! This week we saw a miracle from him ^he is amazing. So lets just say he had some sketchy posters and magazines all over his house haha..... we'll leave it at that. So we taught him the law of chastity and we came back and all of it was gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then he said with a grin... did you notice i cleaned the house a bit? Not only did he do that but he threw away all his films that were too violent. He said he felt like it was the right thing to do. Sooo cool!! Soo funny little story haha. So i had to take some fotos at a machine for my documnets right. So i sit down, insert the outrageous 3 euro that it cost. And i smile and click.... do you like this photo? To take another press this button. Hmmm.. i look a little cheesy in that photo... i'll try again.... okay click.... hmm i look a little gay in that photo ok one more time. So this whole time im inside this little curtain booth thing okay and anziano bosco is outside. Well right when it was about to take the picture anziano bosco leans his head in right on the countdown 2.......1. And with a mister been voice and face says..... HEWWWO. (hello in mr. bean language.) And of course i started busting up laughing. Well it took the picture and i had the worst face imaginable... but right after it took it... it said... thank you! Your photo is now printing! NOOOOOOO! So this was for a serious document so i couldnt submit this terrible photo! So i got another 3 euro.... dang itttt. Well this time i was dumb and pressed the wrong button and instead of getting id pictures... i got a picture of me with the colleseum in the back round!!! Oh perfect a souvenir. So lets just say it took three times and 9 euro to finally get a picture that was half decent. But in the end it was a funny experience to remember. So we had conference of the Stake this sunday, so we all went to milano, (MAddelenna came and loved it!!!!!!) and Elder Causse spoke! He is of the 70 and a real good guy. And then the cool part is they had a special meeting after for all investigators with a baptismal date!! So maddlenna and us, got to talk to this 70 and it was awesome! He incouraged her and just did awesome... she fealt really special on the ride home. It really helped her. THis week though she is in italy... so we wont get to see her for a week or two... bummer. But we will continue to call her!! A announcement about future packages... i heard that shoes in the mail are really dangerous here, so i am very grateful to have recieved these ones, but for future notice it might not be a good idea. Mom also thanks so much for the back pack i love it. It is perfect for just bringing a couple things along! I dont know if you found my school bag. It would be nice to have for exchanges and things when i need to pack more... if you cant find it no worries! I love ya! So that was pretty much it for the week. Sorry if that was too short. Because of the move we dont have tons of time ikes! BUt i love you guys so much thanks for everything!!! Oh yeah... shout out to buck and Jay-Z and baby JACK JACK!!!!! That is sooo exciting!! But anywho i gotta write president now!!
Love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anziano Perkes!!
HOw is everyone doing!? So this week was terrible... no just kidding i just wanted to see if i could scare you. It was truely an incredible week! So lets start off with a funny like difference in languages. So everyonce in a while we meet people that only speak english. You would think this would be great but it is actually a real pain because im to the point now where it is easier to teach in italian. In fact i stink at teaching in english haha. So english for me is really awkward when it comes to like, approaching someone on the street or anything like that. So this other day i sounded like a complete idiot because i tried to translate what i say into english and it just didnt work haha. So in italian we say a lot, Lei e una persona credente. This translates to, are you religious? But the literall translation goes like this. So the other day we stopped the person, turns out to be an american! So im like... are you a believer?? I sounded like some vampire from a story or something haha. The gave me the weirdest face... a believer!? What does that meen? Like santa clause or something haha. And then there is another frase that is simply, In Giro. For example if i would say... hey were here in giro. THat meens hey were here going around talking to people. So with this same person i was like.... hey were here in gir.... umm around! Haha it made no sense at all. So lets just say it was like the worst street approach ive ever done haha. So funny story with americans... we were on the ski lift the other day going up to the train station and these really short girls were on the ski lift too. When they both look at me with a wow face. One leans over to the other laughing and says... oh my gosh he is sooooooo tall. And i was just sittin there crackin up inside because they didnt know i spoke english. Then as we were getting off i was like... oh go ahead... and they both turned brightttttt red it was hilarious. I gave them a cheesy smile and walked away, and then there were like.. oh my gosh he speaks enlglish aghhhh. Haha so last pday was way fun. WE went down and played billiards and fooseball, it was a lot of fun. And mom i dont remember the priest from st. thomas sorry! Ok.... speaking of mom.... I GOT MY PACKAGE!!!! ThANK THANK THANK THANK XOUUUUUUU. Thank you so much i loved it mom and dad! The freez dried ice cream was really fun. We enjoyed that a lot. THe frisbee is great too, we played in the house this morning and nearly broke a lamp haha. And the shoes!!! You will be glad to know that i am wearing them right now! Were in normal clothes right now it is soooo weird haha. We went and help this guy move early the morning and the library right next door. They are super comfy i love them. In fact i want to send a picture at the next place i hope i can. Did you guys get my pics last week?? I never know with the computers here. So we have zone conference last friday and we had to sleepover at como which was fun. Oh ya, the macho man post card is a blast, it is our work out pump up song haha. And PS::: Dad tell your parents thanks so much for the post card they are too nice. I wanna set some time aside to write a letter but were really busy latley. So Sergio is doing great!!!!! This week we saw a miracle from him ^he is amazing. So lets just say he had some sketchy posters and magazines all over his house haha..... we'll leave it at that. So we taught him the law of chastity and we came back and all of it was gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then he said with a grin... did you notice i cleaned the house a bit? Not only did he do that but he threw away all his films that were too violent. He said he felt like it was the right thing to do. Sooo cool!! Soo funny little story haha. So i had to take some fotos at a machine for my documnets right. So i sit down, insert the outrageous 3 euro that it cost. And i smile and click.... do you like this photo? To take another press this button. Hmmm.. i look a little cheesy in that photo... i'll try again.... okay click.... hmm i look a little gay in that photo ok one more time. So this whole time im inside this little curtain booth thing okay and anziano bosco is outside. Well right when it was about to take the picture anziano bosco leans his head in right on the countdown 2.......1. And with a mister been voice and face says..... HEWWWO. (hello in mr. bean language.) And of course i started busting up laughing. Well it took the picture and i had the worst face imaginable... but right after it took it... it said... thank you! Your photo is now printing! NOOOOOOO! So this was for a serious document so i couldnt submit this terrible photo! So i got another 3 euro.... dang itttt. Well this time i was dumb and pressed the wrong button and instead of getting id pictures... i got a picture of me with the colleseum in the back round!!! Oh perfect a souvenir. So lets just say it took three times and 9 euro to finally get a picture that was half decent. But in the end it was a funny experience to remember. So we had conference of the Stake this sunday, so we all went to milano, (MAddelenna came and loved it!!!!!!) and Elder Causse spoke! He is of the 70 and a real good guy. And then the cool part is they had a special meeting after for all investigators with a baptismal date!! So maddlenna and us, got to talk to this 70 and it was awesome! He incouraged her and just did awesome... she fealt really special on the ride home. It really helped her. THis week though she is in italy... so we wont get to see her for a week or two... bummer. But we will continue to call her!! A announcement about future packages... i heard that shoes in the mail are really dangerous here, so i am very grateful to have recieved these ones, but for future notice it might not be a good idea. Mom also thanks so much for the back pack i love it. It is perfect for just bringing a couple things along! I dont know if you found my school bag. It would be nice to have for exchanges and things when i need to pack more... if you cant find it no worries! I love ya! So that was pretty much it for the week. Sorry if that was too short. Because of the move we dont have tons of time ikes! BUt i love you guys so much thanks for everything!!! Oh yeah... shout out to buck and Jay-Z and baby JACK JACK!!!!! That is sooo exciting!! But anywho i gotta write president now!!
Love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anziano Perkes!!
Tanti Aguri Halloween! [Letter written 10-21-09]
So this week i believe Halloween is coming up! How exciting... too bad they don't celebrate it here. I'll have to just scare anziano Bosco to get my fun out of the holiday haha. So this week was a great week. Thanks so much for all the letters. Wednesdays are always frun days because i get to hear from my wonderful family! It sounds like you are all doing great. I just wanted to give a shout out to Jake WOOP WOOP HOORAY. That is so cool you got the first business sale. Way to go bro. Were proud of you here in Switzlerand! I loved the logo's too. I kinda agree with mom a bit, but at the same time i really liked the hipness of them. And dad it isn't blood haha. So... lemme update ya'll on the week and then ill answer some questions etc. etc. So we were on the train and this priest walked by and i smiled and waved, and to my surprise he stopped and sat down with us. My first thought was oh no i dont want this to be contentious. Boy was I surprised when he was totally a cool guy and just wanted to talk. He is from brazil and has seen our temples down there, so he just asked us a bunch of questions. So before we know it were exchanging numbers and he invites us down to his sanctuary or whatever it is called sorry haha. So we went down this last week and he fed us a great dinner of rice and beans and meat... shout out to BUCK! Bring back any memories buddy!? It was delicious and then the coolest part... he took us on a tour of the facilities there. We saw things that not even the members see. He took on this tour of an old baptistry which was quite awesome. Then there was this section kind of like a museum, or a collection of old stuff and he showed us the oldest bible i have ever seen! So all in all it was a very intersting fun experience. In fact it was so fun that for pday today were going down to play some basketball, billiards, and fooseball with him and other priests haha. So were really excited. I'll have to get a picture. Oh i'm so sorry about not being able to send pictures. The computers here are really lame and the problem is to send one pic takes like 10 minutes, but i'll see if i can get one sent off today. Sorry! My card is almost full so i'll just have to burn a cd and send it home! Mom you are too sweet haha, your already wondering about my christmas package, wow your on the ball haha. I was trying to think the other day and i have a couple things that would be nice, but not neccassary. Whatever you send i'll be thrilled i'm sure! Just some ideas... Deodarant (axe), chapstick (magic kind jake uses), Zebra F-301 BP pen refills (black), I dont know if my bag is still sittin around the house but my bag here is really dorky and breaking, if you cant find it please dont worry about buying one, it was just a thought. And then i dunno if they have these but like 2 pairs of the thermal garments would be awesome! For size im guessing large, 34-35 ish waist. But these are just ideas to help ya get started. Thanks!! Anziano Bosco is still doing great. My italian is really improving i love it. We are both really motivated to study the language everyday. He is studying english obviuosly. I have some sad news about the Carbone family... not reallly that sad but not terrific. Allexander is leaving for the military in northern switzerland this week. It is obligatory for all youth here to serve for 8 months... BOGUS!! So unfortunatly he will be out of our teaching area, but we are going to refer him to missinoaries up there. We are going to still keep in contact with him. I know he will be baptized some day. But these day now will be difficult for him. Maddelenna is really struggling with quitting smoking. She is also going to italy for 3 weeks, so her batpism date needs to be pushed back, but no worries. It is more important to be ready right? So we are still working with them and they are still awesome, we love them! To try and help them quit we decided that we would give something up, so i cant drink any more soda!! OH NO!! So it has been a challenge but Anziano Bosco is helping me :) . The good news is that we have a new power house investigator named Sergio. He is seriously a stud. He has some of his own problems as well but he is amazing. We taught the word of wisdom and half way through the lesson he says, you know what i will not drink tea or coffee any more!! I've had enough! That was a week ago and to this day he has been living the word of wisdom 100%. He is our superhero. He is 50 and from france. Speaks perfect italian and is very nice. We teach him 3 times a week. So that is the news for us here in lugano! I am so excited that Brandon is home! That is soooo nuts! Give him a big hug for me! He is a good kid. Oh and mom haha, im sorry that someone profaned on my wall. You have my permission to permanantly delete them forever!! :) Thanks for the happy birthday messages from facebook. Honestly i had a hard time remembering who those people were but im sure were great friends haha. So i better get going now.. i will try photos at the next library. I cant promise anything but i will try!! THanks so much family and have a wonderful Halloween!! Sono molto grato per voi e per tutte le cose che fate. Siete un esempio per me ogni giorno. Veramente, siete bravi!
Ciao!!
Anziano Massimo Perx!
Ciao!!
Anziano Massimo Perx!
Hahah , , , hello family! [Letter written on 10-14-09]
Hahaha so this week was amazing and very fun to say the least. So first off mom and dad thank you so much for the 49 letters... no just kidding there werent that many but they was a lot haha. I loved them. So lets start with last wednesday. I was a little worried about you guys but at the same time i realized that your busy. So me and my companion were eating lunch with this old couple, she cooked some awesomeeee baked pasta it was great! When i saw the office calling... hmm thats strange, but not that strange, i ignored the call. Then 2 minutes later.... vibrations, to see the office calling again. Hmmm now this is starting to be strange. So after the appointement i called the office thinking.. oh no what did i do haha. When sister christensen answers... hello anziano perkes we recieved a call from your father about an hour ago... oh no something must really be wrong i thought, and he called to say that him and your mom love you and they forgot to email. She then went on for about a minute telling me how much you love me haha. So dont worry dad i wasnt mad at all, in fact i laughed about it for a good part of the day. The no no would be if you called the mission president, but the office sisters, there fine. Seriously they remind me of grandma. There very sweet. So that was pretty funny. So i sent my companion off, after packing and saying bye to members. To pick up my new companion, Anziano Bosco.... and the big news is.... drumroll..... he is a stud!!! I love this kid! Okay so it will be hard to describe him. I want to say he is kind of like mister been, but that sounds negative and i dont want it to be negative. Okay so he kind of looks like a mr. been and a eoen mcGregor mix. So he has the himor of mister been (not his weird strange humor but funny humor) and the studlyness of mcGregor. Seriously this kid is awesome, we laugh all day long.... literally we laugh so much. We get a long great. In fact i would say the best out of all my companions by far. We have the same amount of goofyness in each other. So we'll just like make eye contact in the bus and start laughing. Not only is this italian funny, but he is the most amazing teacher. We taught this lesson and he blew me a away. This kid knows how to teach. It is not just because it is his language, but he just knows how to teach. So all is good in the world of lugano. We are getting a long perfect, and not just that but the work is going great as well. We have been finding new people and inviting tons on the bus, in the park everywhere! And the last bonus of the day is he is a gooooood cook! We have been eating great here in lugano i love it. He has made this like cheesy pasta with sauce, it is the bomb. So anyways i am running out of time here so i gotta rap this up haha. So yesterday i got to return to Piacenza to do fingerprints for my documents!! So we slept over in italy yesterday morning and we had a blast. Anziano Motley (big black brother from mtc) is serving there so we had a blast together. I also got to see the saquing family (awesome new convert family) and they fed us dinner which was awesome. So Carbone family is doing great. They have met there first trial in this blessed process of conversion. The word of wisdom. I never told you before but both of them smoke like someone from NH (alot! Haha shout out to Jake and the NH smokers voice. COUGHHH* ). So we taught them this lesson and they are both working on quitting smoking. They are smoking less but it is very hard. So we are going to come up with a program to help them quit. Any advice from x-missionaries that had investigators quit smoking? I would love some thanks! Okay mom and dad thanks so much for the birthday money, we'll have to go get some pizza or something. It will be awesome thanks so much! Yeah you guys called the american school Tasis right? Haha that is funny, a kid in the ward goes to that school he is aweseome. Mom thanks for the jello facts haha i loved them. I loved the pictures of mt. washington... how amazing is that! I loved the story of the italians haha... and yes dad all italians are loud and very animated with there speech, hands and everything getted involved in the language. MOm your already putting together the christmas package wow your on the ball haha. Quite honestly i had no idea christmas was coming up haha. Umm im not sure about requests... ill think about it this week and let you know ok? Well my wonderful family my time is running out. But i hope you all have a marvelous week!!!!
Vi Volgio Bene!
Anziano Perkes
Vi Volgio Bene!
Anziano Perkes
Good Morning America . . . [Letter written 10-7-09]
Helllo familyyyy
How is everyone doing. So strange thing happened this morning. I opened my email box and there was only one letter from Buckstersss. Props to Buck yeah! So i'm not quite sure if my computer is working, or if my emails buggy, or if there was an emergency at home, or if everyone is just busy (which is very understandable). So let me know, i hope everything is okay. So this week was a really awesome week. It was way funnn. First thing is that last pday we went to Locarno which was awesomeeee. It is a city an hour north. It is set on a gorgeous lake just like Lugano. I like Lugano more, but it was fun to see a complete other city. Most people spoke German there which was fun. So fun culture fact haha. So because they speak italian here, they just like us in america come up with lots of clever abbreviations for things, although sometimes there abbreviations have meening in english haha. For example... the bus company in Locarno is called FART LOCARNO. On all the buses that is written in big letters on the side. So i got a good laugh out of that. Another i saw was CTR. So the choose the right progam is famous here in svizzera. I would name the other ones off but they were a bit on the vulgar side haha so i'll spare you the pain. So it's startin to be a bit chilly here in lugano. I love it. We haven't put on jackets yet which i just love. Nothing is better than a brisk fall day. It is so beautiful here. In fact this morning i got some great pics of the lake before emails. Sorry about not being able to send pictures. I'll try to figure it out today and see how it goes. So it feels realllllly weird being 20!!!! I'm an old person aghhhh. It kind of scares me... i want to be a kid still haha. So for a great birthday present i got to go watch conference!!! Which was amazing. We watched every session except for the sunday afternoon session. Which meens we missed elder holland's talk which is sad. BUt the rest were wonderful! And another fun surprise was that Maddelenna and Allessander (Carbone family) came to all the sessions of conference and loved it!!! Not only this but Allessander showed up in a suit looking very sharp. He is 20 and such a stud. You guys would love him, he is really a sharp kid. He is the type of kid that if i ever came back to lugano i'd have to go see him and hang out. So another conference surprise was when i saw Mark Stevens in the choir!!! LIKE 5 times haha. Great job Mark, you sounded great! So they don't have Jell-O here but yesterday i was looking through our cupboards and i saw a huggggge like 3 gallon bag of jello powder. So i have been making jello for all these people and they all hate it hahahaha. They think it is soooo weird. I guess jello would be rather gross if you havent grown up eating it... or sloshing it. So fun fact about Lugano. They have a hockey team here that is reallllly good. It is kind of like canada. Everyone plays hockey here so there really good. So funny thing. I changed the zone leaders name in the phone to George Cloony so everytime they call us i say like... oh george cloony is calling, and these people on the bus next to us are like..... HE'S TALKING to George Cloony!!!! Haha so were quite famous here now haha. So something i wanted to emphasize is that i'm in a different country!!!! CRAZY HUH? Now that is not just like going from idaho to utah or NH to Vermont. This is like going from mexico to cuba or something. The culture here and the food is very different and unique. So just know that i am lovvvvving soaking in a completely new experience here in switzerland! It¨s amazing i love it! So some big newsssss DRUMROLL....................................... So yesterday in the bus president called us and he was like... can i speak with Anziano Perkes. So turns out my new companion who will come on thursday is italian!! Another italian crazy huh! His name is Anziano Bosco. Just so you know the craziness of this... we have 4 italian elders, and 120 ish americans. That is some crazy odds. He has been out about a year now. So this should be interesting haha. But i'm excited, an italiannnnnnnnn no way. It will really help my language skills. I'll be with him for 4 and a half months! Long time huh. And this elder doesnt speak english by the way haha. So yeah this will be way fun. But that is about it for news about switzerland. Sorry if i was boring this week haha. So thanks you all so much for the love and prayers. I feel them everyday. Vi AMO!! Love you guys
Love
Anziano Massimo Perkes
How is everyone doing. So strange thing happened this morning. I opened my email box and there was only one letter from Buckstersss. Props to Buck yeah! So i'm not quite sure if my computer is working, or if my emails buggy, or if there was an emergency at home, or if everyone is just busy (which is very understandable). So let me know, i hope everything is okay. So this week was a really awesome week. It was way funnn. First thing is that last pday we went to Locarno which was awesomeeee. It is a city an hour north. It is set on a gorgeous lake just like Lugano. I like Lugano more, but it was fun to see a complete other city. Most people spoke German there which was fun. So fun culture fact haha. So because they speak italian here, they just like us in america come up with lots of clever abbreviations for things, although sometimes there abbreviations have meening in english haha. For example... the bus company in Locarno is called FART LOCARNO. On all the buses that is written in big letters on the side. So i got a good laugh out of that. Another i saw was CTR. So the choose the right progam is famous here in svizzera. I would name the other ones off but they were a bit on the vulgar side haha so i'll spare you the pain. So it's startin to be a bit chilly here in lugano. I love it. We haven't put on jackets yet which i just love. Nothing is better than a brisk fall day. It is so beautiful here. In fact this morning i got some great pics of the lake before emails. Sorry about not being able to send pictures. I'll try to figure it out today and see how it goes. So it feels realllllly weird being 20!!!! I'm an old person aghhhh. It kind of scares me... i want to be a kid still haha. So for a great birthday present i got to go watch conference!!! Which was amazing. We watched every session except for the sunday afternoon session. Which meens we missed elder holland's talk which is sad. BUt the rest were wonderful! And another fun surprise was that Maddelenna and Allessander (Carbone family) came to all the sessions of conference and loved it!!! Not only this but Allessander showed up in a suit looking very sharp. He is 20 and such a stud. You guys would love him, he is really a sharp kid. He is the type of kid that if i ever came back to lugano i'd have to go see him and hang out. So another conference surprise was when i saw Mark Stevens in the choir!!! LIKE 5 times haha. Great job Mark, you sounded great! So they don't have Jell-O here but yesterday i was looking through our cupboards and i saw a huggggge like 3 gallon bag of jello powder. So i have been making jello for all these people and they all hate it hahahaha. They think it is soooo weird. I guess jello would be rather gross if you havent grown up eating it... or sloshing it. So fun fact about Lugano. They have a hockey team here that is reallllly good. It is kind of like canada. Everyone plays hockey here so there really good. So funny thing. I changed the zone leaders name in the phone to George Cloony so everytime they call us i say like... oh george cloony is calling, and these people on the bus next to us are like..... HE'S TALKING to George Cloony!!!! Haha so were quite famous here now haha. So something i wanted to emphasize is that i'm in a different country!!!! CRAZY HUH? Now that is not just like going from idaho to utah or NH to Vermont. This is like going from mexico to cuba or something. The culture here and the food is very different and unique. So just know that i am lovvvvving soaking in a completely new experience here in switzerland! It¨s amazing i love it! So some big newsssss DRUMROLL....................................... So yesterday in the bus president called us and he was like... can i speak with Anziano Perkes. So turns out my new companion who will come on thursday is italian!! Another italian crazy huh! His name is Anziano Bosco. Just so you know the craziness of this... we have 4 italian elders, and 120 ish americans. That is some crazy odds. He has been out about a year now. So this should be interesting haha. But i'm excited, an italiannnnnnnnn no way. It will really help my language skills. I'll be with him for 4 and a half months! Long time huh. And this elder doesnt speak english by the way haha. So yeah this will be way fun. But that is about it for news about switzerland. Sorry if i was boring this week haha. So thanks you all so much for the love and prayers. I feel them everyday. Vi AMO!! Love you guys
Love
Anziano Massimo Perkes
Bonjour!!!! [Letter written 9-30-09]
Hello hello wonderful Perx family!!
Thanks so much for the emails this week. I laughed a lot haha you guys are too funny. So this week was drumroll..... awesome as always in the mission haha got ya. No but really it was an awesome week. So first for some cultural Lugano facts for you. Languages.... there are lots of languages here. Switzlerand has 4 national languages being, italian, english, german, and french. So pretty much everyone speaks at least two languages. We hear other languages being spoken all day everywhere. I love when german speakers ask us for directions and there like... chzne bokcnien shinepine bla bla bla... and i respond with i dont speak german (in german though) and immediatly they think i do speak german so they start speaking louder and slower, and once again i respond with nooooo i dont speak german silly!! Haha so it is quite fun. So next cultural fact.... ethnicity. Most people here are swiss, with some connection to italy... like there parents are from italy but they were born here in Ticino (the name of our region). There are many german swiss people here as well. Lotsss of africans, a ton in fact. And most of them are muslim african from like... samalia or other crazy places i've never heard of. I have met, iraqians, pakistanians, iranians, turkish, russian, mongolian, johanisburgians, all of the european places, japanese, chinese, ukrainians, americans, santo domingo people (lots actually, quite fun) and basically name a place and i know someone from there. So it is quite the little mixing pot of people for us. For some reason on the muslims love us here haha. We'll have some guy stop us and be like... wasssup man ho are you guys. And as we are walking away i turn to my comp and ask... who is he.. and he responds... i have no idea... never met him haha. So they like the missionaries here. So food here in Lugano. Nothing really different than in italy actually. Pizza, the works. Lots of pasta or as you americans say spaghetti. Just a fun fact. Spaghetti is a specific type of pasta. So as americans we just call any type of pasta spaghetti which is like calling every car a jeep or something. Each type of pasta has its own cool name here which is fun. Spaghetti is correct but that is the long pasta. But anyways im not sure if i already told you but we just have 2 hours for lunch and no dinner, so we usually eat lotssss of pasta for lunch with mayonaise too... yummmmy. The Carbone Family is doing great. The grandma came to church and lovvvvvved it!!! The son who is our age was in Locarno (2 hours away) for the weekend so he coudlnt come. But she seriosuly loved it. She told us after that everyone was soooo nice. She made some friends so she is doing great! Thank you guys so much for praying for them that is very sweet. I will tell them that, they will love it. So last pday we went hiking!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was awesome! We actually took a ski lift partly up and then hiked the rest. But we hiked Mount san salvatore which is right next to lugano. SO i got some great pics on top of the world with lugano behind. There is soooo much hiking to be done here. I hope my next comp likes hiking because im way excited!! Today for pday we are going to lucarno a city about an hour north that is also on a big lake. I think they talk about it in I loved lucy crazy huh?? Dumb fred sends the band to locarno i believe... which quite honestly is a great place to be sent haha. So sorry i havent been able to send any pics really. I keep trying at the second library and the computers are mega slow and it hasnt been working. I'll try to figure out a better way. Maybe i'll show you in two years haha... just kidding. I'll work on it. So mom about the package. Thats good there wasnt meat in it. The office unfortunatly doesnt call when they recieve it. But honestly mom i dont want you to feel bad that i wont have it on my bday. Were so busy here that quite honestly i have not really realized my birthday is coming up. So i'll just pretend like it actually is october 20 haha. I will get it at next zone conference which they havent announced yet. I would bet in like 3 ish weeks or so. But dont worry mom seriously.... ill be just as excited, im not sad. Mom i'm glad the birthday was fun. Funny fact, i saw your present from nate before you haha. Nate sent me a picture preview and it looks awesome. Nate you really have an eye my friend, in fact you have two!! Dad thanks so much for the pop culture. I have really come to love your news caster type reports thanks so much. THats crazy paula abdul quit. In italian we say... Meno Male.... which meens like... perfect... its about time. I think miss degeneres will be a great replacement. Mom and Dad your trip to idaho sounded awesome. I laughed so hard hearing about Ben and how he shouldnt step on Jesus's animals haha how cute. Those little stinkers are growing up on me. The trip sounded too fun. But we are cutting internet time a bit shorter today to make it in time. But mom i recieved your letter the other day and loved it thanks so much! I'll get around to writin one back to ya'll. But hey my wonderful family i love you guys so much and will see you later!!!! Buck and JayZ how is my little Max doing? Haha he'll be the cutest kid for sure!! Well i gotta get going.
CIAO!!!
PACE FRATELLI
Love you guys!
Vi Amo!
Anziano Perx
Thanks so much for the emails this week. I laughed a lot haha you guys are too funny. So this week was drumroll..... awesome as always in the mission haha got ya. No but really it was an awesome week. So first for some cultural Lugano facts for you. Languages.... there are lots of languages here. Switzlerand has 4 national languages being, italian, english, german, and french. So pretty much everyone speaks at least two languages. We hear other languages being spoken all day everywhere. I love when german speakers ask us for directions and there like... chzne bokcnien shinepine bla bla bla... and i respond with i dont speak german (in german though) and immediatly they think i do speak german so they start speaking louder and slower, and once again i respond with nooooo i dont speak german silly!! Haha so it is quite fun. So next cultural fact.... ethnicity. Most people here are swiss, with some connection to italy... like there parents are from italy but they were born here in Ticino (the name of our region). There are many german swiss people here as well. Lotsss of africans, a ton in fact. And most of them are muslim african from like... samalia or other crazy places i've never heard of. I have met, iraqians, pakistanians, iranians, turkish, russian, mongolian, johanisburgians, all of the european places, japanese, chinese, ukrainians, americans, santo domingo people (lots actually, quite fun) and basically name a place and i know someone from there. So it is quite the little mixing pot of people for us. For some reason on the muslims love us here haha. We'll have some guy stop us and be like... wasssup man ho are you guys. And as we are walking away i turn to my comp and ask... who is he.. and he responds... i have no idea... never met him haha. So they like the missionaries here. So food here in Lugano. Nothing really different than in italy actually. Pizza, the works. Lots of pasta or as you americans say spaghetti. Just a fun fact. Spaghetti is a specific type of pasta. So as americans we just call any type of pasta spaghetti which is like calling every car a jeep or something. Each type of pasta has its own cool name here which is fun. Spaghetti is correct but that is the long pasta. But anyways im not sure if i already told you but we just have 2 hours for lunch and no dinner, so we usually eat lotssss of pasta for lunch with mayonaise too... yummmmy. The Carbone Family is doing great. The grandma came to church and lovvvvvved it!!! The son who is our age was in Locarno (2 hours away) for the weekend so he coudlnt come. But she seriosuly loved it. She told us after that everyone was soooo nice. She made some friends so she is doing great! Thank you guys so much for praying for them that is very sweet. I will tell them that, they will love it. So last pday we went hiking!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was awesome! We actually took a ski lift partly up and then hiked the rest. But we hiked Mount san salvatore which is right next to lugano. SO i got some great pics on top of the world with lugano behind. There is soooo much hiking to be done here. I hope my next comp likes hiking because im way excited!! Today for pday we are going to lucarno a city about an hour north that is also on a big lake. I think they talk about it in I loved lucy crazy huh?? Dumb fred sends the band to locarno i believe... which quite honestly is a great place to be sent haha. So sorry i havent been able to send any pics really. I keep trying at the second library and the computers are mega slow and it hasnt been working. I'll try to figure out a better way. Maybe i'll show you in two years haha... just kidding. I'll work on it. So mom about the package. Thats good there wasnt meat in it. The office unfortunatly doesnt call when they recieve it. But honestly mom i dont want you to feel bad that i wont have it on my bday. Were so busy here that quite honestly i have not really realized my birthday is coming up. So i'll just pretend like it actually is october 20 haha. I will get it at next zone conference which they havent announced yet. I would bet in like 3 ish weeks or so. But dont worry mom seriously.... ill be just as excited, im not sad. Mom i'm glad the birthday was fun. Funny fact, i saw your present from nate before you haha. Nate sent me a picture preview and it looks awesome. Nate you really have an eye my friend, in fact you have two!! Dad thanks so much for the pop culture. I have really come to love your news caster type reports thanks so much. THats crazy paula abdul quit. In italian we say... Meno Male.... which meens like... perfect... its about time. I think miss degeneres will be a great replacement. Mom and Dad your trip to idaho sounded awesome. I laughed so hard hearing about Ben and how he shouldnt step on Jesus's animals haha how cute. Those little stinkers are growing up on me. The trip sounded too fun. But we are cutting internet time a bit shorter today to make it in time. But mom i recieved your letter the other day and loved it thanks so much! I'll get around to writin one back to ya'll. But hey my wonderful family i love you guys so much and will see you later!!!! Buck and JayZ how is my little Max doing? Haha he'll be the cutest kid for sure!! Well i gotta get going.
CIAO!!!
PACE FRATELLI
Love you guys!
Vi Amo!
Anziano Perx
Hola Amigos! [Letter written 9-23-09]
Hello wonderful family!!
This week my inbox was flooded with letters from the family. Thank you sooo much i loved everyone of them. Unfortunatly i only have 3 minutes to write this letter so here we go. I love you guys but i gotta run!!! Sorry i'll write better next week!!
Love Anziano Perkes
PS.. Haha im just kidding sorry that was a terrible joke i know. I have plenty of time to write a big long letter haha. So let's just start off with the miracle story of the week. The Carbone family!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow what a family. I cant even describe them in words. So we were doing casa right... and we were just getting a lot of doors shut on our faces. So we were like... hey this isnt working so we decided to switch it up a bit. So we knocked on another door and this 20 year old kid leans his head out and says what do you want? Instead of pitching him like we usually did we just said... hey can we come in? And he said... ummmmm why? We just want to explain who we are. Sure come on in. So they we were we got into the house! Not only did we get into a house but we got into a house of a family!! There is this boy Allessander, the grandma, madelena, the daughter of the grandmpa barbara, and the daughters daughter (8 year old girl). So this Allesander isnt actually apart of the family but he lives in the house, and is just best friends with this 50 year old grandma. So there we begin to teach our lesson. Turns out there all catholic, but they all like many italians/swiss people dont like the church and don't really practice. So we taught about how the church of Christ is once again upon the Earth!! This whole time all of the were completely silent, just staring at us with a deep concentration, not even blinking. We gave them a book of mormon at the end of the lesson and asked them to read a chapter. The next day we called them and Allesander answered the phone. Hey he said... we love the chapter but honestly bro... were gonna need some more books of mormon in this house! We have been arguing over who's turn it is. WOW RIGHT!! So we set another appointment with them for 2 days later. Brought back 4 book of mormons, and taught them again. The lesson went awesome. They are all just wayyyy interested. So at the end of the lesson we challenged them to be baptized on November 14th and they all said a big YES!!! It was awesome. SO we taught them again and it went great again. We are seeing them tommorow and saturday and then there gonna come to church! I really cant describe this family. Lets just say that this is the type of family that all missionaries in the world dream of finding. So they are stellar and ill keep you updated on them. So this last week i went to Como and yes mom it is amazing. Unfortunatly i didnt see Goerge Clooney but we'll see haha. There part of our district in como. They have a big ole ward there. Yeah mom, we taught a bunch of lesson on the exchange it was great. Real nice members there. It was wayyy beautiful but i still think lugano is more beautiful up here. There is just a huge difference between swiss and italian cities. So dad you'll be sooo jealous haha. There is a hugggge bonsai convention right across the street from our apartment!!! When i saw the sign i was like dad would be soooo jealous. So mom you asked some questions lemme try and answer them now. The weather here is great now. I would imagine they the do have a rainy season and it would be in the fall not quite sure. The leaves here arent turning red yet but i think soon they will. When i say cold i just meen a bit chilly. We arent even wearing jackets yet so its still not cold cold but it is getting there. At night it cools wayyy down. And then during the day the temp is perfect! Haha mom you dont have to send a new jacket. My jacket is actually really nice its just that i wouldnt go rollin around BYU campus flashin it off. I only use it in the rain so its fine dont worry about it. I cant believe Tanner is home mom that is nuts!! And Brandon comes home in 3 weeks i dont believe it!! What a good kid i miss him. Say hi to him alright? Mom you asked me about the convert baptisms that is a great idea. I'll have to write Alice and ask her to send it to me. How neat would that be. Dad haha thanks so much for the letter. I really enjoyed the Pop's pop culture keep them coming!! You'll be famous some day! I loved how you wrote your letter with the features like it was a news cast haha your too funny. So i'm running out of things to say haha. Lugano is going great i love it. Oh mom i do have some sad news for you. I didn't get my birthday package yesterday (we went to milano for interviews). My guess is that it is still in the mail. But i should recieve it next month's conferences. I wont get it in time for my birthday but i dont want you to be sad. Honestly i nearly forgot it was my birthday. And plus conference is on my birthday so it couldnt be better! But i was a bit nervous.. you didnt put beef jerky in it did you? The mail system is known to confiscate packages for certain items like beef jerky. So i was just wondering. But dont worry mumsy i'll get it some day and ill love it more than ever!!! So sorry that i didnt really have much to say this week. Lugano is going great. I love being a missionary. Time is flying haha thanks mom for the reminder. I feel like ive been here for 3 weeks honestly. It is kind of scary!! But anywho i'll talk to ya'll next week!
Love ya!!
Vi amo
Anziano Perkes
This week my inbox was flooded with letters from the family. Thank you sooo much i loved everyone of them. Unfortunatly i only have 3 minutes to write this letter so here we go. I love you guys but i gotta run!!! Sorry i'll write better next week!!
Love Anziano Perkes
PS.. Haha im just kidding sorry that was a terrible joke i know. I have plenty of time to write a big long letter haha. So let's just start off with the miracle story of the week. The Carbone family!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow what a family. I cant even describe them in words. So we were doing casa right... and we were just getting a lot of doors shut on our faces. So we were like... hey this isnt working so we decided to switch it up a bit. So we knocked on another door and this 20 year old kid leans his head out and says what do you want? Instead of pitching him like we usually did we just said... hey can we come in? And he said... ummmmm why? We just want to explain who we are. Sure come on in. So they we were we got into the house! Not only did we get into a house but we got into a house of a family!! There is this boy Allessander, the grandma, madelena, the daughter of the grandmpa barbara, and the daughters daughter (8 year old girl). So this Allesander isnt actually apart of the family but he lives in the house, and is just best friends with this 50 year old grandma. So there we begin to teach our lesson. Turns out there all catholic, but they all like many italians/swiss people dont like the church and don't really practice. So we taught about how the church of Christ is once again upon the Earth!! This whole time all of the were completely silent, just staring at us with a deep concentration, not even blinking. We gave them a book of mormon at the end of the lesson and asked them to read a chapter. The next day we called them and Allesander answered the phone. Hey he said... we love the chapter but honestly bro... were gonna need some more books of mormon in this house! We have been arguing over who's turn it is. WOW RIGHT!! So we set another appointment with them for 2 days later. Brought back 4 book of mormons, and taught them again. The lesson went awesome. They are all just wayyyy interested. So at the end of the lesson we challenged them to be baptized on November 14th and they all said a big YES!!! It was awesome. SO we taught them again and it went great again. We are seeing them tommorow and saturday and then there gonna come to church! I really cant describe this family. Lets just say that this is the type of family that all missionaries in the world dream of finding. So they are stellar and ill keep you updated on them. So this last week i went to Como and yes mom it is amazing. Unfortunatly i didnt see Goerge Clooney but we'll see haha. There part of our district in como. They have a big ole ward there. Yeah mom, we taught a bunch of lesson on the exchange it was great. Real nice members there. It was wayyy beautiful but i still think lugano is more beautiful up here. There is just a huge difference between swiss and italian cities. So dad you'll be sooo jealous haha. There is a hugggge bonsai convention right across the street from our apartment!!! When i saw the sign i was like dad would be soooo jealous. So mom you asked some questions lemme try and answer them now. The weather here is great now. I would imagine they the do have a rainy season and it would be in the fall not quite sure. The leaves here arent turning red yet but i think soon they will. When i say cold i just meen a bit chilly. We arent even wearing jackets yet so its still not cold cold but it is getting there. At night it cools wayyy down. And then during the day the temp is perfect! Haha mom you dont have to send a new jacket. My jacket is actually really nice its just that i wouldnt go rollin around BYU campus flashin it off. I only use it in the rain so its fine dont worry about it. I cant believe Tanner is home mom that is nuts!! And Brandon comes home in 3 weeks i dont believe it!! What a good kid i miss him. Say hi to him alright? Mom you asked me about the convert baptisms that is a great idea. I'll have to write Alice and ask her to send it to me. How neat would that be. Dad haha thanks so much for the letter. I really enjoyed the Pop's pop culture keep them coming!! You'll be famous some day! I loved how you wrote your letter with the features like it was a news cast haha your too funny. So i'm running out of things to say haha. Lugano is going great i love it. Oh mom i do have some sad news for you. I didn't get my birthday package yesterday (we went to milano for interviews). My guess is that it is still in the mail. But i should recieve it next month's conferences. I wont get it in time for my birthday but i dont want you to be sad. Honestly i nearly forgot it was my birthday. And plus conference is on my birthday so it couldnt be better! But i was a bit nervous.. you didnt put beef jerky in it did you? The mail system is known to confiscate packages for certain items like beef jerky. So i was just wondering. But dont worry mumsy i'll get it some day and ill love it more than ever!!! So sorry that i didnt really have much to say this week. Lugano is going great. I love being a missionary. Time is flying haha thanks mom for the reminder. I feel like ive been here for 3 weeks honestly. It is kind of scary!! But anywho i'll talk to ya'll next week!
Love ya!!
Vi amo
Anziano Perkes
Hi . . . [Letter written 9-16-09]
Hi!
That sounds weird. I havent said hi for about 6 months haha. The funny thing is sometimes people answer the phone here saying hhello? Its not in italia but just here in switzerland it was very funny last week i had the phone and someone called and i answered saying in my best italian accent, si pronto, sono anziano perkes. And this man responded hello. So i started talking in enlgish, hey hows it going how can i help you etc. etc. And he started being very confused..... chi é, perche parli in inglese? Non parlo inglese! Which translates to pretty much.... what?? I dont speak english what is going on?? Haha so people say hello here it is funny. So anyways sorry that was random. Whats up everyone!!! Thanks so much for the letters i loved them. Lemme jot down some things about the week and then ill get to answering your questions. So this week was absolutly spendidly fantastic. You like that string of adjectives there.. haha yeah i liked them too. So this week has been wayyyyyy rainy. But surprisngly enough i loveeee it. For many reasons. First is that the buses are cramped with people that cant leave haha... so i get to talk to them and they cant run away. Second, when were out in the rain it really helps motivate me to get into a pillazo, or in english... a... ummm dang what is the word. Condo?...no thats not right. Like a flat or something i dunno a apartemnt complex. English is lame.. so a pilazzo right. Okay it really helps motivate me to get in there because its raining. And thirdly, its not hottttt anymore!!! In fact it is kinda chilly i love it so much. Were still in short sleeves here, and we get asked by lots of sweet old ladies... arent you cold?!?! Haha i love it, its a great intro into a gospel conversation. That is something we learned about in yone conference this week is how to navigate everything into a gospel conversation it is awesome. It reminds me a lot like sales.... not selling the gospel but of controlling the conversation. For example, i met this guy that was carrying a fishing pole... so i was like.. hey man you like fishing? He started going off about fishing and i was like.. dang how can i NAVIGATE this conversation. So i was like.. hey man your just like an apostle of Jesus Christ, did you know they were fisherman? Haha it worked perfect... sadly he wasnt interested but i invited him to here about the restored gospel! So it is rather fun. Like a challenge actually. So the fourth reason for liking the rain is we get to wear rain jackets! And luckily my trainer gave me one. Man i miss that kid. But this jacket makes me look like a hench man haha. Its one of those big ole jackets with the popped collar. I look quite fashionable haha. But something cool about the rain is that its really foggy and misty being on the lake here. The mountains are covered in fog it is soooo pretty. It is raining today i want to go hike a mountain but we'll see what we do today. I get to go to como tonight for a split. Como is where george cloony lives!! Ill let you know if i see him! So the ward is still doing great. I seriously feel like im in a utah ward here the members are just sooo cool. There is lots of families in the branch here. About 50 60 ish people in church on sundays. Interesting fact is before these 4 baptisms that happend in the past 6 months, there wasnt a batpism for 5 years!!!! So the branch is getting real involved in the work its great. They had an activity the other night and we got a call from the branch president and he was like... hey guys (he calls us rigazzi which meens like kids or guys its very funny.) Hey guys.. theres a bunch of food in the church, go take it home or it will go bad. This man kind of reminds me of an italian brother siebach. He is from balogna (italy) and has a serious bolagnesi accent. Its funny because that is his name, Presidente Bolagnesi. So last week we went to the chocolate factory. Honestly it wasnt as cool as we thought but it was still very intersting. We got to eat a big ole handful of chocolate for free. And we got to take pictures with a cow!!! Ill send a picture! So besides all that that is the week! We did lots of finding work and it was great i love finding work. More than anything! We have found lots and lots of potentials in the past 2 weeks so now were working on turning some of them into new investigators. We are trying to kind of recycle some investigators. Kind of like a bonsai. Get rid of the week branches and make way for strong ones! Mom thanks so much for the BYU trivia i loved it haha. Go cougars! Hey did mark stevens serve in the milano mission? Dad you commented about the cheese factory and the store clerk that was short. I didnt explain this but this wasnt some cheese tour or something. We were good friends with that store clerk named Gorgio. And he invited us to come to the factory where he buys his cheese from. So it literally was like we were ina cheese factory watching people make cheese. This wasnt some tour where there like... okay look over here. We just sat and watched these cheese makers for hours. It was awesome. And the cheese warehouse with the millions of cheese balls, the guy there gave us the key and was like... hey go check out the warehouse here.... lock it up when your done. So it was arealllllly cool experience. It was like a behind the tape tour type of thing. Dad im surprised at how hip your becoming!! Way to go cowboy! You know what gaged ears are! Isnt that gross haha... lots of teenagers here do that to their ears. Dad i laughed so hard about your water haha. You are too funny. Youll be sad to know that i just drink tap water here... aghhh. It actually makes sense though. So your not too weird haha. It actually kind of sounds like a fun little hobby to have. Lemme know if there is some springs here in lugano okay! Actually cool thing is everywhere there are these fountains in the parks, sidewalks everywhere!!! Now this isnt like a walmart drinking fountain, but a cool modern fountain that you can drink out of... all different too. And dad guess where the water comes from!!! The lake!.... no im jus tkidding. The mountains! So my friend i drink from your springs up here in lugano!! Haha i¨m glad you guys liked the movies. So mom lemme answer your questions now!
You haven't shared with us much about your new companion. Do you like him? Do you get along? Is he hard working? Would he be your friend if you were at BYU together?
Yeah i like him is is reallly hard working. We get along just perfect. He is a cool kid i think ill keep him around for 4 more weeks haha. sad!!
I know you only have him for about another 4 weeks and he will be transfered out. Man, you've got to get the lay of the land quick so you don't loose anyone when he goes. Tell me about the leadership in the branch. Are you loving all of the members. You have commented what a wealthy area you are in. Are the members that way as well??
The members here for the most part are pretty well off. We have an american family that lives here they are aweesome. And yes they are veryy wealthy. But i only have 54 se^conds aghhh!!! So i have to go i love you guys so much... Ill send pics in 10 minutes at the next place.
Love ya
BYEEE!!!
That sounds weird. I havent said hi for about 6 months haha. The funny thing is sometimes people answer the phone here saying hhello? Its not in italia but just here in switzerland it was very funny last week i had the phone and someone called and i answered saying in my best italian accent, si pronto, sono anziano perkes. And this man responded hello. So i started talking in enlgish, hey hows it going how can i help you etc. etc. And he started being very confused..... chi é, perche parli in inglese? Non parlo inglese! Which translates to pretty much.... what?? I dont speak english what is going on?? Haha so people say hello here it is funny. So anyways sorry that was random. Whats up everyone!!! Thanks so much for the letters i loved them. Lemme jot down some things about the week and then ill get to answering your questions. So this week was absolutly spendidly fantastic. You like that string of adjectives there.. haha yeah i liked them too. So this week has been wayyyyyy rainy. But surprisngly enough i loveeee it. For many reasons. First is that the buses are cramped with people that cant leave haha... so i get to talk to them and they cant run away. Second, when were out in the rain it really helps motivate me to get into a pillazo, or in english... a... ummm dang what is the word. Condo?...no thats not right. Like a flat or something i dunno a apartemnt complex. English is lame.. so a pilazzo right. Okay it really helps motivate me to get in there because its raining. And thirdly, its not hottttt anymore!!! In fact it is kinda chilly i love it so much. Were still in short sleeves here, and we get asked by lots of sweet old ladies... arent you cold?!?! Haha i love it, its a great intro into a gospel conversation. That is something we learned about in yone conference this week is how to navigate everything into a gospel conversation it is awesome. It reminds me a lot like sales.... not selling the gospel but of controlling the conversation. For example, i met this guy that was carrying a fishing pole... so i was like.. hey man you like fishing? He started going off about fishing and i was like.. dang how can i NAVIGATE this conversation. So i was like.. hey man your just like an apostle of Jesus Christ, did you know they were fisherman? Haha it worked perfect... sadly he wasnt interested but i invited him to here about the restored gospel! So it is rather fun. Like a challenge actually. So the fourth reason for liking the rain is we get to wear rain jackets! And luckily my trainer gave me one. Man i miss that kid. But this jacket makes me look like a hench man haha. Its one of those big ole jackets with the popped collar. I look quite fashionable haha. But something cool about the rain is that its really foggy and misty being on the lake here. The mountains are covered in fog it is soooo pretty. It is raining today i want to go hike a mountain but we'll see what we do today. I get to go to como tonight for a split. Como is where george cloony lives!! Ill let you know if i see him! So the ward is still doing great. I seriously feel like im in a utah ward here the members are just sooo cool. There is lots of families in the branch here. About 50 60 ish people in church on sundays. Interesting fact is before these 4 baptisms that happend in the past 6 months, there wasnt a batpism for 5 years!!!! So the branch is getting real involved in the work its great. They had an activity the other night and we got a call from the branch president and he was like... hey guys (he calls us rigazzi which meens like kids or guys its very funny.) Hey guys.. theres a bunch of food in the church, go take it home or it will go bad. This man kind of reminds me of an italian brother siebach. He is from balogna (italy) and has a serious bolagnesi accent. Its funny because that is his name, Presidente Bolagnesi. So last week we went to the chocolate factory. Honestly it wasnt as cool as we thought but it was still very intersting. We got to eat a big ole handful of chocolate for free. And we got to take pictures with a cow!!! Ill send a picture! So besides all that that is the week! We did lots of finding work and it was great i love finding work. More than anything! We have found lots and lots of potentials in the past 2 weeks so now were working on turning some of them into new investigators. We are trying to kind of recycle some investigators. Kind of like a bonsai. Get rid of the week branches and make way for strong ones! Mom thanks so much for the BYU trivia i loved it haha. Go cougars! Hey did mark stevens serve in the milano mission? Dad you commented about the cheese factory and the store clerk that was short. I didnt explain this but this wasnt some cheese tour or something. We were good friends with that store clerk named Gorgio. And he invited us to come to the factory where he buys his cheese from. So it literally was like we were ina cheese factory watching people make cheese. This wasnt some tour where there like... okay look over here. We just sat and watched these cheese makers for hours. It was awesome. And the cheese warehouse with the millions of cheese balls, the guy there gave us the key and was like... hey go check out the warehouse here.... lock it up when your done. So it was arealllllly cool experience. It was like a behind the tape tour type of thing. Dad im surprised at how hip your becoming!! Way to go cowboy! You know what gaged ears are! Isnt that gross haha... lots of teenagers here do that to their ears. Dad i laughed so hard about your water haha. You are too funny. Youll be sad to know that i just drink tap water here... aghhh. It actually makes sense though. So your not too weird haha. It actually kind of sounds like a fun little hobby to have. Lemme know if there is some springs here in lugano okay! Actually cool thing is everywhere there are these fountains in the parks, sidewalks everywhere!!! Now this isnt like a walmart drinking fountain, but a cool modern fountain that you can drink out of... all different too. And dad guess where the water comes from!!! The lake!.... no im jus tkidding. The mountains! So my friend i drink from your springs up here in lugano!! Haha i¨m glad you guys liked the movies. So mom lemme answer your questions now!
You haven't shared with us much about your new companion. Do you like him? Do you get along? Is he hard working? Would he be your friend if you were at BYU together?
Yeah i like him is is reallly hard working. We get along just perfect. He is a cool kid i think ill keep him around for 4 more weeks haha. sad!!
I know you only have him for about another 4 weeks and he will be transfered out. Man, you've got to get the lay of the land quick so you don't loose anyone when he goes. Tell me about the leadership in the branch. Are you loving all of the members. You have commented what a wealthy area you are in. Are the members that way as well??
The members here for the most part are pretty well off. We have an american family that lives here they are aweesome. And yes they are veryy wealthy. But i only have 54 se^conds aghhh!!! So i have to go i love you guys so much... Ill send pics in 10 minutes at the next place.
Love ya
BYEEE!!!
Helllllllllo la la la . . . [Letter written 9-9-090
Hellllllo wonderful family of mine!!
So this week was a gggggreat week! Thanks for all the emails i loved them. Dad if you sent a letter i didn't get it. If you didnt have time though i understand. Mom told me that you won your big trial!!!!! CONGRATS!!! That is soo fun! Was that the hanniford bank robbery one!? That is too cool. So did your boss give you a fat bonus check? Well anyways i have lots to write this week so i better get started. So i have realized that i love old ladies haha. They are too fun. Especially european old ladies there just a kick. So we were walking on the street and there was this old lady with a mustache, i know rather strange... i was a bit surpirsed myself. But when we walked by i heard her under her breath mutter... translated.... holy cow he is tall!! So i stopped and turned to her and was like... mam have you ever seen someone as short as me? And she starts laughing, by the way she seems a bit strange from the start. She was like... wow how did you grow that tall?? And i said... mam i ate my vegetables like my mother told me too (i know kind of a fib but i did eat potatoes and ketchup too!) And she was like.... oh my gosh stop!!! Stop growing!!! Basta!!! which meens enough. And she was seriously like screaming this in her old lady voice... so i was like.... okayyyy mam i wont eat any more. And she was like NOOOOO Youll die dummy!! You have to eat. So that was basically our converstaiont,,, doesnt sound quite as funny written down as i thought haha... just picture a crazy old italian woman with a mustache shouting at me haha. Okay so this week i met someone from joburg! Shout out to nate woo! THey had crazy accents by the way... they were white. Okay so i told you how amazingly gorgeous lugano is right?? So along the lake there is a giant sidewalk along the whole outside. Not only that but its surrounded by gardens, modern statues, and lots of american tourists! We meet americans on a daily basis here it is soooo fun. I love americans there soo funny. So last pday we just walked around the city and centro. I saw like 9 ferraris and maseratis it was great. But today for pday were going to a giant chocolate factory!!!! How fun is that right! Were are very excited. Switzerland is mega famous for chocolate... in fact lindt comes from here. The chocolate here is soooo yummy... i get chocolate once a week when i shop and then i nibble on it all week hah yummm... we also got root beer!!! So gooooood. So you know the phrase everything is bigger in texas? Same goes here but it goes like this... everytrhing is bigger, nicer, cleaner, prettier, more expensive, fancier, more legit, and tottaly cooler in LUGANO!!! I cant stop being amazed by this beautiful country! At least once a day i say to myself... wow this is my area!! So we have a guy come to our english class named Tiziano! He is a magician!!! And he comes to practice his show in english with us!! No way right. He taught us like 8 tricks the last week and i wrote them all down in my journal so i can remember them. But he is super funny and just a really cool guy. So every wednesday night we have a magic show for us! Mom you already sent the birthday package? Dang i wanted to tell you not to spend too much money. But its too late... so i'll tell you in advance... next year please dont spend too much money haha. Oh yeah so our area is ginormous by the way... its like the size of utah... maybe not that big... but to put it into perspective... we can ride a train for 3 hours going north and we are still in our area! Thats a lot of souls to cover! But mainly we just stick here in lugano because there is tons of work to do here. So right now we have a baptism coming up of a 17 kid named Davide. He is a stud. His mom is less active so that is how we found him through her. He is progressing just great. He said that he wants to serve a mission. They also baptized a lady named Dina the week before i got here and i realized that most of the fun is not the progressing towards baptism which dont get me wrong is an amazing sweet process. But i think i like even more working with them after. Seeing them just completely change there life and become happier and happier is amazing. Because the work is not done after baptism for sure. So Dina is amazing and i love her. She is 40 and single. 2 daughters about our age never met them though. She is just radiating happyness off of her i love it. So something funny i dont think ive told yall. Anziano literally translated means ancient. In my opinion its a bad translation for us to have on our tags and ill tell you why. About once a day i swear.... we have people that stop us saying.... do you know what anziano meens?!?! You guys are young!! Your not old! Becuase they call old people anziani so its kinda funny. I make a joke out of it telling poeple that im much older than i look. So funny story... i said that theres lots of americans here. So we were on a bus yesterday and these 3 americans got on and they started speaking english right next to us. And they gave us a look of like... what losers haha. So me and anziano mickelsen started talking in italian just saying like... hey next stop is ours. When they heard us speaking in italian they started making fun of us because they didnt think we spoke english. They were like... oh hahaha theres always two of them, there so weird type talk. So im just sitting there smiling, almost chuckling to myself. Right before we get off i turn my head and in a big smily voice im like... where ya'll from?? And the look on there faces was priceless. They were silent for about 2 seconds all looking at each other with the look of a guilty 8 year old... then the main guy stuttered out colo...o...o...orado. And i was like... awesome yeah i worked there for a summer... well guyss this is our stop see ya later! It was sooo funny the look on there faces. So i got a good laugh out of that. Someone actually thought i was italian awesome huh?? So mom you told me to email president to tell him to make sure to bring my package haha. Sei Fouri?? Meens.. are you nuts?? Haha i cant call president saying... oh yes presidnet.... dont forget my birthday package hah. No im just kidding dont worry though... they never forget. He has a big van he uses. Wait mom you said that Mark Stevens knows lugano? Did he serve in the milano mission?????? Am i just an idiot or did i not know this?!?! He must of been zone leader in como then. At least that is what it is now.. Como, where george clooney lives. It could have been Bergamo back then not sure. But he served here!?! No way i dont believe it!! I feel dumb now haha. Salute Mark for me! Tell him i say hi from lugano! Well family that is about it for the letter today sorry! I'll try to send a pic at the other library today. Sorry i didnt send one last week. Love you guys!!!!!
Vi voglio bene!
Anziano Perkes
So this week was a gggggreat week! Thanks for all the emails i loved them. Dad if you sent a letter i didn't get it. If you didnt have time though i understand. Mom told me that you won your big trial!!!!! CONGRATS!!! That is soo fun! Was that the hanniford bank robbery one!? That is too cool. So did your boss give you a fat bonus check? Well anyways i have lots to write this week so i better get started. So i have realized that i love old ladies haha. They are too fun. Especially european old ladies there just a kick. So we were walking on the street and there was this old lady with a mustache, i know rather strange... i was a bit surpirsed myself. But when we walked by i heard her under her breath mutter... translated.... holy cow he is tall!! So i stopped and turned to her and was like... mam have you ever seen someone as short as me? And she starts laughing, by the way she seems a bit strange from the start. She was like... wow how did you grow that tall?? And i said... mam i ate my vegetables like my mother told me too (i know kind of a fib but i did eat potatoes and ketchup too!) And she was like.... oh my gosh stop!!! Stop growing!!! Basta!!! which meens enough. And she was seriously like screaming this in her old lady voice... so i was like.... okayyyy mam i wont eat any more. And she was like NOOOOO Youll die dummy!! You have to eat. So that was basically our converstaiont,,, doesnt sound quite as funny written down as i thought haha... just picture a crazy old italian woman with a mustache shouting at me haha. Okay so this week i met someone from joburg! Shout out to nate woo! THey had crazy accents by the way... they were white. Okay so i told you how amazingly gorgeous lugano is right?? So along the lake there is a giant sidewalk along the whole outside. Not only that but its surrounded by gardens, modern statues, and lots of american tourists! We meet americans on a daily basis here it is soooo fun. I love americans there soo funny. So last pday we just walked around the city and centro. I saw like 9 ferraris and maseratis it was great. But today for pday were going to a giant chocolate factory!!!! How fun is that right! Were are very excited. Switzerland is mega famous for chocolate... in fact lindt comes from here. The chocolate here is soooo yummy... i get chocolate once a week when i shop and then i nibble on it all week hah yummm... we also got root beer!!! So gooooood. So you know the phrase everything is bigger in texas? Same goes here but it goes like this... everytrhing is bigger, nicer, cleaner, prettier, more expensive, fancier, more legit, and tottaly cooler in LUGANO!!! I cant stop being amazed by this beautiful country! At least once a day i say to myself... wow this is my area!! So we have a guy come to our english class named Tiziano! He is a magician!!! And he comes to practice his show in english with us!! No way right. He taught us like 8 tricks the last week and i wrote them all down in my journal so i can remember them. But he is super funny and just a really cool guy. So every wednesday night we have a magic show for us! Mom you already sent the birthday package? Dang i wanted to tell you not to spend too much money. But its too late... so i'll tell you in advance... next year please dont spend too much money haha. Oh yeah so our area is ginormous by the way... its like the size of utah... maybe not that big... but to put it into perspective... we can ride a train for 3 hours going north and we are still in our area! Thats a lot of souls to cover! But mainly we just stick here in lugano because there is tons of work to do here. So right now we have a baptism coming up of a 17 kid named Davide. He is a stud. His mom is less active so that is how we found him through her. He is progressing just great. He said that he wants to serve a mission. They also baptized a lady named Dina the week before i got here and i realized that most of the fun is not the progressing towards baptism which dont get me wrong is an amazing sweet process. But i think i like even more working with them after. Seeing them just completely change there life and become happier and happier is amazing. Because the work is not done after baptism for sure. So Dina is amazing and i love her. She is 40 and single. 2 daughters about our age never met them though. She is just radiating happyness off of her i love it. So something funny i dont think ive told yall. Anziano literally translated means ancient. In my opinion its a bad translation for us to have on our tags and ill tell you why. About once a day i swear.... we have people that stop us saying.... do you know what anziano meens?!?! You guys are young!! Your not old! Becuase they call old people anziani so its kinda funny. I make a joke out of it telling poeple that im much older than i look. So funny story... i said that theres lots of americans here. So we were on a bus yesterday and these 3 americans got on and they started speaking english right next to us. And they gave us a look of like... what losers haha. So me and anziano mickelsen started talking in italian just saying like... hey next stop is ours. When they heard us speaking in italian they started making fun of us because they didnt think we spoke english. They were like... oh hahaha theres always two of them, there so weird type talk. So im just sitting there smiling, almost chuckling to myself. Right before we get off i turn my head and in a big smily voice im like... where ya'll from?? And the look on there faces was priceless. They were silent for about 2 seconds all looking at each other with the look of a guilty 8 year old... then the main guy stuttered out colo...o...o...orado. And i was like... awesome yeah i worked there for a summer... well guyss this is our stop see ya later! It was sooo funny the look on there faces. So i got a good laugh out of that. Someone actually thought i was italian awesome huh?? So mom you told me to email president to tell him to make sure to bring my package haha. Sei Fouri?? Meens.. are you nuts?? Haha i cant call president saying... oh yes presidnet.... dont forget my birthday package hah. No im just kidding dont worry though... they never forget. He has a big van he uses. Wait mom you said that Mark Stevens knows lugano? Did he serve in the milano mission?????? Am i just an idiot or did i not know this?!?! He must of been zone leader in como then. At least that is what it is now.. Como, where george clooney lives. It could have been Bergamo back then not sure. But he served here!?! No way i dont believe it!! I feel dumb now haha. Salute Mark for me! Tell him i say hi from lugano! Well family that is about it for the letter today sorry! I'll try to send a pic at the other library today. Sorry i didnt send one last week. Love you guys!!!!!
Vi voglio bene!
Anziano Perkes
Helllllooooo from the mountains!! [Letter written 9-2-09]
Okay so lemme explain something real quick. So here the swiss switched the z and the y on the keyboard and it is taking me forever to try to perfect it. So if i mess up i am sorry but i think youll understand the same. It will actually make me sound swiss which would be cool. So anzwazs swityerland is sooooooo amaying. So seriouslz i want to move here sooo bad. It would be hard but we should build a cabin here it would be awesome. So transfers went good. The last night i ate dinner with the saquing family which was awesome!! I gave them my password for facebook so that they could add me as a friend to see my pictures. So if any of zou saw me cruisin facebook it wasnt me so dont get nervous or anzthing. That would be verz dumb and i wouldnt do that. Oh zeah so thez also called me and told me that right next to there friend request was Jake Perkes!! What Jake zou got a facebook... no way i dont believe you!! That is too cool. Haha so i thought instead of waiting 2 years to accept you id just give you my password so you can go on if you want. [password edited out] Yeah ps... dad please edit that out and dont publish it to the thousands of people online haha. Thanks! So Jake or anyone i guess if you wanna go on there go ahead. So i have to tell yall my first impression of lugano. So we are on the train just up in these green mountains superrrr beautiful. And then all of a sudden we come around the corner and there is a ginormous lake with a city dug into the mountain. It was the most beautful thing that i think i have ever seen. Truely incredible. So this city is surrounded by green mountains and a giant lake. It is awesome. For instance.... sitting here in the library i am looking out the window and i can see the lake. So pretty much from everywhere we can see the lake or the mountains. It is awesome. The city is wayyyy rich. I have seen the nicest cars of my life here in 4 days. Masarati, ferrari, porshe, lamborghini, bentley, aston martin. You name it and ive seen it. They are everywhere!!! So the city is way nice. It is just a step above the rest. Everything here is of the nicest quality, from the shopping, to the trash cans, to the bus sytem. Things are quite elegant here. So no im gonna answer moms questions because im running out of time. By the way we use 2 different libraries here to get the full time. An hour at each for our allowed 2 hours. So im done here in a bit and then off to the other one to send pics, write president and all that good stuff. So anyways here we go.
1) What is your shirt size? Ohh.... i honestly dont know very good. But if your thinking of sending white shirts honestly im fine with white shirts. I picked up a couple in piacenza. But i think it is 15 and a half neck and longest sleeve im not sure.
2) What is your tshiet size?
Tshirt size would be L
3) What is your pant size? Think 34 waist and longest they come
4) What is your shoe size? 11
1) How is your companion? He is a stud. His name is anz. mickelsen. He is from clearfield utah. Comes from a big family. Is the only one in his family to serve a mission which is amazing. So he is a stud i have a lot of respect for him. He has been out for about a year now and actually served with Anz catalano my last companion so we have had some fun conversations haha.
2) What do you think of Lugauna? Lugauna also known as lugano is amazzing i love it.
3) What is your apartment like?
The apartment is tinyyyyyyyy. It has a bedroom, where we sleep, study, dry laundry, and have the fridge. Then we have a kitchen the size of a large shirt, and a tiny bathroom. It is nice quality but just very small. But i like it. It is in great location. In fact it is way close to the lake. Yesterdaz we went running along the lake with the sun rising it was awesome. Very beautiful and tiring haha.
4) Are you on city transportation, or do you have a bike again??
Nope we use a very expensive city pass that lets us use all buses, gondolas, and local trains. Yes there are gondolas here haha. There awesome. The bus system is amazinggg.. Super nice nad clean.
5) Tell us all about the branch??
The branch is awesome. SO i loved piacenza a ton especially the branch, but there were not a lot of families in the branch. Here in lugano it is all families!!! It is awesome. Little kids running around. They have primary, seminary everything!! It is awesome. They are super nice. It is bigger as well about 60 members that come, so i need to get to know them all!! So oh yeah i have to learn the city in one transfer because anz. mickelsen is leaving next transfer. So i have to pay attention a lot this transfer haha.
KK mom i hope i did well haha. Thanks for the questions i love them it makes it very easy to respond. So we use franks here. They are huggggge. It is about the equivalent to the dollar more or less. It is very expensive up here though. Also they have root beer here!! And dr. pepper!!! So it is amazinggg. So this is a really touristy area so we meet americans on a daily basis. It is quite fun. Okay so mom you asked about my address here in switzerland. You can mail the package here. Im not sure what will happen. I have interviews on sept. 22 so if you mail it to the mission home i'll get it before my birthday. I think that would be better. Im not sure how the mail sytem is for packages here. I might get charged for customs and stuff. So if you need to you can send it here but mission home might be better. Its up to you. So my address is Anziano Perkes, Via Del Tiglio 13A 6900, Lugano (TI), Switzerland, Svizzera If you could update my facebook with that new address saying ill be here for 6 months that would be great. Letters come here just great. So that is about it. I want to take a picture of the lake and send it at the next library. I'm running out of time so i better wrap this up. Josh congrats on denver big guyyy!! That is wayyyy cool. I am very excited. You are tooo cool. You will have lots of fun. I'm sure Buck and JZ will miss you guys lots. Mom and Nate California sounded amazingggg. Thanks for the pictures i loved them!!! You guys must of had soo much fun. Nate you surfed huntington you lucky dawg!! Dad i'll keep you in my prayers my man. Sounds like the trail is going great. Keep it up slugger! So i'm glad you got hedwig. Everything worked all right? Mom if you could back it up and then send it back ill work on another delivery from hedwig my owl. Sorry i was a bit short. I love you guys so much. Thanks for all your love and support. Lugano is amazing i love it. I'll explain more next week.
Love ya!!
Anziano Perkes!
1) What is your shirt size? Ohh.... i honestly dont know very good. But if your thinking of sending white shirts honestly im fine with white shirts. I picked up a couple in piacenza. But i think it is 15 and a half neck and longest sleeve im not sure.
2) What is your tshiet size?
Tshirt size would be L
3) What is your pant size? Think 34 waist and longest they come
4) What is your shoe size? 11
1) How is your companion? He is a stud. His name is anz. mickelsen. He is from clearfield utah. Comes from a big family. Is the only one in his family to serve a mission which is amazing. So he is a stud i have a lot of respect for him. He has been out for about a year now and actually served with Anz catalano my last companion so we have had some fun conversations haha.
2) What do you think of Lugauna? Lugauna also known as lugano is amazzing i love it.
3) What is your apartment like?
The apartment is tinyyyyyyyy. It has a bedroom, where we sleep, study, dry laundry, and have the fridge. Then we have a kitchen the size of a large shirt, and a tiny bathroom. It is nice quality but just very small. But i like it. It is in great location. In fact it is way close to the lake. Yesterdaz we went running along the lake with the sun rising it was awesome. Very beautiful and tiring haha.
4) Are you on city transportation, or do you have a bike again??
Nope we use a very expensive city pass that lets us use all buses, gondolas, and local trains. Yes there are gondolas here haha. There awesome. The bus system is amazinggg.. Super nice nad clean.
5) Tell us all about the branch??
The branch is awesome. SO i loved piacenza a ton especially the branch, but there were not a lot of families in the branch. Here in lugano it is all families!!! It is awesome. Little kids running around. They have primary, seminary everything!! It is awesome. They are super nice. It is bigger as well about 60 members that come, so i need to get to know them all!! So oh yeah i have to learn the city in one transfer because anz. mickelsen is leaving next transfer. So i have to pay attention a lot this transfer haha.
KK mom i hope i did well haha. Thanks for the questions i love them it makes it very easy to respond. So we use franks here. They are huggggge. It is about the equivalent to the dollar more or less. It is very expensive up here though. Also they have root beer here!! And dr. pepper!!! So it is amazinggg. So this is a really touristy area so we meet americans on a daily basis. It is quite fun. Okay so mom you asked about my address here in switzerland. You can mail the package here. Im not sure what will happen. I have interviews on sept. 22 so if you mail it to the mission home i'll get it before my birthday. I think that would be better. Im not sure how the mail sytem is for packages here. I might get charged for customs and stuff. So if you need to you can send it here but mission home might be better. Its up to you. So my address is Anziano Perkes, Via Del Tiglio 13A 6900, Lugano (TI), Switzerland, Svizzera If you could update my facebook with that new address saying ill be here for 6 months that would be great. Letters come here just great. So that is about it. I want to take a picture of the lake and send it at the next library. I'm running out of time so i better wrap this up. Josh congrats on denver big guyyy!! That is wayyyy cool. I am very excited. You are tooo cool. You will have lots of fun. I'm sure Buck and JZ will miss you guys lots. Mom and Nate California sounded amazingggg. Thanks for the pictures i loved them!!! You guys must of had soo much fun. Nate you surfed huntington you lucky dawg!! Dad i'll keep you in my prayers my man. Sounds like the trail is going great. Keep it up slugger! So i'm glad you got hedwig. Everything worked all right? Mom if you could back it up and then send it back ill work on another delivery from hedwig my owl. Sorry i was a bit short. I love you guys so much. Thanks for all your love and support. Lugano is amazing i love it. I'll explain more next week.
Love ya!!
Anziano Perkes!
Amazing last week here in Italy [Letter written 8-26-09]
Helloooooooooooooo
How is everyone doing?! It was great to hear from the fam today thanks so much. Hey i have a question right off the bat! Wow i'm starting with a question, just throwin in all sourts of curve balls at ya. Okay so i want to know if you guys get the pics i send through the email. I've sent pics every week for a couple weeks. But i was thinking, the list of emails i put on is huge because were a big family. So i was thinking that maybe my pics weren't getting to you guys. No one has said anything about them which makes me think there not getting to you. So today i'm just gonna send them to mom, and then mom if you could forward them out. Lemme know if that works. I hope hedwig gets there this week. I hope you'll like it. But anywho lemme get started with the email here. So this week was greattttttt. First off it was blazingly hot....still. Your probably tired of hearing about how hot it is but yesterday i woke up with a sweat stache. It was so gross to wake up sweating haha. But luckily lugano will be a lottttt cooler. Okay so it amazes me how much the Lord is in his work. Cool little miracle story. So a month ago we were doing casa in casa... sorry umm in english house to house. okay anyways... we found this wonderful equadorian family. A mother and the cutest little daughter named pamela. So we taught here the first lesson, she told us that her sister in rome is a member of the church. And that she always wanted to look into the church because her sister liked it. So we got another appointment but then she stood us up. She called us and told us that her work schedule was crazyyyyyy and that she would call us in a couple of weeks when she had more time. So a month almost 2 months goes by. I honestly had forgotten about her for a bit. Well this week i was studying in the morning and all of a sudden i thought about Maria the mom. And i couldnt stop thinking about her family. So i figured, okay this is my hint, we have to go out and see them. So i saw that we had some free time that night and said okay awesome were going out there. So we knocked on the door and maria came to the door laughing. Haha i was kinda scared. But she laughed and then said, we were just talking about you guys!! And then lo and behold the sister came to the door too. The sister was visiting for the week, and Maria told her she talked with the missionaries but had lost contact with them. She said that right before we knocked they were talking about how they had to call us. So we taught them the next day and it went great. It has really helped me realize how much the Lord helps us. It was not just a coincidence thats for sure. So i hope that it will go well after i'm gone. Okay another amazing story, not quite as amazing though.... I found snickers!!!! Yeah the candy bar sorry for the let down. But that was a little miracle for me. They had them on sale at this store last wednesday so i bought 6 and ate them all this week!! Wow they were amaaaaazing. lOVE them. Okay so we had an italian man come down for the interviews of Koffi and Dodji and he didn't speak english!! So he had me translate for him it was very strange haha. But at the same time really cool. I have noticed that when i have to translate the Lord really helps me out. I find myself able to talk a lotttt better. So that went good. And then...... drumroolllll the baptism on Saturday was amazinggggg. It was truely a spiritual experience. I love those guys. So they were really happy that day and just really excited. So cool experience, i gave a talk on baptism. And i was talking and during the whole thing i was fine, but then at the end i was bearing my testimony to them in english, and i said that i knew that their Heavenly Father was happy with the things they were doing. And when i said this the spirit hit me so strong, confirming that it was true. I felt the love of Heavenly Father so much, that i started to cry. Yeah crazy huh haha. First time i've cried in public it was crazy. So i choked out the rest of my testimony, and then the baptism was done. But i was so grateful for my experience. It really helped give me a stonger purpose as a missionary. I experienced the love that God has for his children and it really strengthened my testimony. It was truely an amazing experience. So the next day in church they wore ties!! Yeah they looked so good. President in the middle of sacrament asked them to bear there testimonies. They were a little nervous but i told them i could translate for them if they needed. So they were like yes, come with us haha. So i got to translate these 2 wonderful brothers testimonies it was great. Dodji said that today was his happiest day ever. And how he was so happy to be here with his new family. It was awesome. So i'll send you a pic of baptism after. So something crazy that i'm very jealous about. Remember Anziano Motley form the mtc. Big black kid that i always hung out with that is just an amazingly funny kid. He is taking my place here in piacenza!!!! NOOO. I knew it haha. I wanted to be his companion and we were sooo close. But i'm really happy though. He'll really be a great help for koffi and Dodji. So i'll see him tomorrow which will be fun. Okay so today is crazy by the way. I leave early tomorrow so today is pretty much packing, and saying bye to people. Tonight we are eating with the saquing family who are new converts. And Alice is coming too. So that will be so awesome. I am very excited. But besides that i'm gonna be busy busy busy packing cleaning, and all the fun stuff involved in moving haha. Not too excited haha. So Mom and Nate your in California this week!!! That is wayyyy exciting!! I have never been to Cali. I have always wanted to go. Say hi to usher for me wouldja!? Mom you asked about my travel schedule for tomorrow. On transfers everyone meets in the train station in Milano. So i will go to Milano to meet my new comp and he will take me back to Lugano. We take trains, no not planes sorry mom, and the President does not come no. So it will be a hectic day that is for sure! You asked about dialects and wondering if the Lugano members will talk different. I'm sure they will. The history of italia is interesting because before they were not italia. 100's of years ago all the cities were independent. Which meens they spoke there own languages/dialects too. it wasnt until they united them all that italian became the main language. For example, people here in piacenza speak piacentino, which i've learned a bit which is fun. People in Genova speak Genovese, and in Verona, Veronese. Pretty much every city has a dialect. And lots of time it effects there italian. So i am sure that Lugano will not only have german and italian but some form of dialect. I love learning a bit because when you speak with old people you drop a line of dialect and there like... you speak my language!!!! It is so fun haha. So i'm sorry if this was a bit shorter but i have lotsssss to do today. Thanks for the emails. I am very excited to go to Lugano tomorrow. It will be quite fun. WOOOOO. So i love you guys so much and will talk to you next week!!
Vi voglio bene!
Anziano Perkes
How is everyone doing?! It was great to hear from the fam today thanks so much. Hey i have a question right off the bat! Wow i'm starting with a question, just throwin in all sourts of curve balls at ya. Okay so i want to know if you guys get the pics i send through the email. I've sent pics every week for a couple weeks. But i was thinking, the list of emails i put on is huge because were a big family. So i was thinking that maybe my pics weren't getting to you guys. No one has said anything about them which makes me think there not getting to you. So today i'm just gonna send them to mom, and then mom if you could forward them out. Lemme know if that works. I hope hedwig gets there this week. I hope you'll like it. But anywho lemme get started with the email here. So this week was greattttttt. First off it was blazingly hot....still. Your probably tired of hearing about how hot it is but yesterday i woke up with a sweat stache. It was so gross to wake up sweating haha. But luckily lugano will be a lottttt cooler. Okay so it amazes me how much the Lord is in his work. Cool little miracle story. So a month ago we were doing casa in casa... sorry umm in english house to house. okay anyways... we found this wonderful equadorian family. A mother and the cutest little daughter named pamela. So we taught here the first lesson, she told us that her sister in rome is a member of the church. And that she always wanted to look into the church because her sister liked it. So we got another appointment but then she stood us up. She called us and told us that her work schedule was crazyyyyyy and that she would call us in a couple of weeks when she had more time. So a month almost 2 months goes by. I honestly had forgotten about her for a bit. Well this week i was studying in the morning and all of a sudden i thought about Maria the mom. And i couldnt stop thinking about her family. So i figured, okay this is my hint, we have to go out and see them. So i saw that we had some free time that night and said okay awesome were going out there. So we knocked on the door and maria came to the door laughing. Haha i was kinda scared. But she laughed and then said, we were just talking about you guys!! And then lo and behold the sister came to the door too. The sister was visiting for the week, and Maria told her she talked with the missionaries but had lost contact with them. She said that right before we knocked they were talking about how they had to call us. So we taught them the next day and it went great. It has really helped me realize how much the Lord helps us. It was not just a coincidence thats for sure. So i hope that it will go well after i'm gone. Okay another amazing story, not quite as amazing though.... I found snickers!!!! Yeah the candy bar sorry for the let down. But that was a little miracle for me. They had them on sale at this store last wednesday so i bought 6 and ate them all this week!! Wow they were amaaaaazing. lOVE them. Okay so we had an italian man come down for the interviews of Koffi and Dodji and he didn't speak english!! So he had me translate for him it was very strange haha. But at the same time really cool. I have noticed that when i have to translate the Lord really helps me out. I find myself able to talk a lotttt better. So that went good. And then...... drumroolllll the baptism on Saturday was amazinggggg. It was truely a spiritual experience. I love those guys. So they were really happy that day and just really excited. So cool experience, i gave a talk on baptism. And i was talking and during the whole thing i was fine, but then at the end i was bearing my testimony to them in english, and i said that i knew that their Heavenly Father was happy with the things they were doing. And when i said this the spirit hit me so strong, confirming that it was true. I felt the love of Heavenly Father so much, that i started to cry. Yeah crazy huh haha. First time i've cried in public it was crazy. So i choked out the rest of my testimony, and then the baptism was done. But i was so grateful for my experience. It really helped give me a stonger purpose as a missionary. I experienced the love that God has for his children and it really strengthened my testimony. It was truely an amazing experience. So the next day in church they wore ties!! Yeah they looked so good. President in the middle of sacrament asked them to bear there testimonies. They were a little nervous but i told them i could translate for them if they needed. So they were like yes, come with us haha. So i got to translate these 2 wonderful brothers testimonies it was great. Dodji said that today was his happiest day ever. And how he was so happy to be here with his new family. It was awesome. So i'll send you a pic of baptism after. So something crazy that i'm very jealous about. Remember Anziano Motley form the mtc. Big black kid that i always hung out with that is just an amazingly funny kid. He is taking my place here in piacenza!!!! NOOO. I knew it haha. I wanted to be his companion and we were sooo close. But i'm really happy though. He'll really be a great help for koffi and Dodji. So i'll see him tomorrow which will be fun. Okay so today is crazy by the way. I leave early tomorrow so today is pretty much packing, and saying bye to people. Tonight we are eating with the saquing family who are new converts. And Alice is coming too. So that will be so awesome. I am very excited. But besides that i'm gonna be busy busy busy packing cleaning, and all the fun stuff involved in moving haha. Not too excited haha. So Mom and Nate your in California this week!!! That is wayyyy exciting!! I have never been to Cali. I have always wanted to go. Say hi to usher for me wouldja!? Mom you asked about my travel schedule for tomorrow. On transfers everyone meets in the train station in Milano. So i will go to Milano to meet my new comp and he will take me back to Lugano. We take trains, no not planes sorry mom, and the President does not come no. So it will be a hectic day that is for sure! You asked about dialects and wondering if the Lugano members will talk different. I'm sure they will. The history of italia is interesting because before they were not italia. 100's of years ago all the cities were independent. Which meens they spoke there own languages/dialects too. it wasnt until they united them all that italian became the main language. For example, people here in piacenza speak piacentino, which i've learned a bit which is fun. People in Genova speak Genovese, and in Verona, Veronese. Pretty much every city has a dialect. And lots of time it effects there italian. So i am sure that Lugano will not only have german and italian but some form of dialect. I love learning a bit because when you speak with old people you drop a line of dialect and there like... you speak my language!!!! It is so fun haha. So i'm sorry if this was a bit shorter but i have lotsssss to do today. Thanks for the emails. I am very excited to go to Lugano tomorrow. It will be quite fun. WOOOOO. So i love you guys so much and will talk to you next week!!
Vi voglio bene!
Anziano Perkes
Ciao Tutti Come State! [Letter written 8-19-09]
Okay just wanna start off with the same start that i always do but really, this week i loved all the letters. Sorry i say that everytime but it is true! Okay so this week was awesome. First off saturday was a holiday called Ferragosto. Which meens that the whole town of Piacenza flees to the nearest large body of water. Which meens that just the missinoaries and all the hobos are left in the city. Haha so saturday is the day missinoaries clean the house all day, wow how fun right. I wanted to go out and work but it is a pretty serious thing. Sister dunaway sent us a check list about as long as a marathon. We had to dust the cielings. Dust the cielings!! I have never heard of such a thing. Lucky for me i am tall so i got the job of dusting the ceilings. So for most the day we cleaned, then we got tired and snuck out to teach a lesson to someone under house arrest which meens he is home haha. But shhh don't tell anytone. We still got all the cleaning done so were fine. So that was an interesting day. But also this whole week it has been very dead. But the Lord is still finding a way for us to teach so it is awesome. i love Being a missinoary. No joke... its the best! Okay so the update on Koffi and Dodji, they are getting baptized this saturday!!!!!! Yeah they are amazing. They are soo excited it will be aweomse. So were way busy this week preparing for that. I am so happy for them. We found them like 3 months ago and they are now worthy to be baptized and start there new lives. I love those guys. They are so humble and have such a great faith. Okay so something way fun that we did! Last pday we went to a place called ROADHOUSE GRILL!!!!!!! Pretty much it is a american restaurant that got lost here in italy. So we went there and they had everything from the peanuts to the pepsi. Anz. Catalano loved it. I got a burger and it was soooo good. It was a bacon burger that tasted just like chilis. I loved it. It was a bit expensive but we were celebrating. Now i just have to eat crackers for 2 months. no just kidding, i am learning how to budget and doing much better on the money side of things. Okay so i have started thinking in italian which is reallllly weird. I could never imagine what that would be like.... but it is weird. I love it. I am so thankful for the gift of toungues haha because without i would be way worse haha. But it is awesome. I feel like i can comfortably talk with people for the first time it is the best. I am getting to know the members so much better. I love just talking with them. I made this friend that is like 89 in the ward. She is so sweet and about 4 feet tall so were best friends. So i have a fun surprise for you mom and dad! I sent a package last week!!!! WOooohooo yeah! So i just put one small thing in there. Hedwig my usb drive! But wait, it if full of 400 of the latest and greatest pics, and a movie!! Yeah thats right i made a movie. I decided that i needed to take a day in the life of a missinoary to the next level. So i made a film called, Un giorno della vita di un missionario! You'll love it it is about 20 minutes long, includes me shaving, some fun members and some investigators as well. I hope you like it! So i think i am becoming accident prone haha. I was walking on the sidewalk and wasnt paying attention and stepped in a pot hole thing and tripped and ended up falling into rosebushes haha. Full of thorns ouch!!! So i just finally picked the last thorn out of my hand last night. I was reminded of Brooke with the sea urchin attack. So i was laughing at myself all week. So next week i'll have to tell you what else i did haha. Okay so mom you asked if i was leaving in about 3 weeks. Nopeeeee... I'm leaving next Thursday!!! Crazy huh! Next week is transfers. So wednesday i'll pack and thursday early morning i'm out! I am veryyyy excited but also a bit sad. The zone leader told me that they are teaching tonsssss in lugano so i am very excited. So this last week will be crazy with packing, saying bye to people, and the baptism! So mom my address will change. If you could update my facebook saying to not send letters till i know the new address. That would be great thanks! Mom that is soooo exciting about the camerons!!! I am sooo happy for them. They will be amazing parents. Thanks so much for there email i will have to say hi to them today. Okay so i was very ecited to hear that jake your starting up the security company! Way to go idaho! So i was laughing hard about the competition! That is too clever. And i just wanted to say that spelling Perkes with an X was my idea!! Because that is my email is mb.perx. I don't think i thought of alert with it but i remember the x for sure. And i just want to say i was so honored that some sweet person thought of Max Security!! I love it! That is my vote 100%! Haha great name according to me. Dad it was fun to hear about your case. When you wrote no one messes with my hannafords i was laughing so hard. I think some of my slang is rubbing off on you haha. So lemme know how the competition goes. I love you all so much thanks for all the love prayers and support! I hope everyything is going wwell in america. But i gotta run now. I love you guys!
Vi Voglio bene!
Anziano Max Perx
Vi Voglio bene!
Anziano Max Perx
The Library is laughing at me . . . [Letter written 8-12-09]
So the library is closed today haha. It got the better laugh out of me. So unfortunatly i will be a bit on the short side today because this is very pricy ouch! So i loved all the emails i got thanks so much. It sounds like you guys are all doing great. So this week was way fun. To start off i got bit by a dog!!!!!! I think i have some curse or something i keep getting attacked, first by hail and now adog. So lemme tell the story. We were at this members house doing an fhe, and there dog was outside and i was playing with the dog i thought, i guess he thought i was teasing him. When all of a sudden this little golden retriever ugly thing leaped in the air with teeth shining in the light. He latched on to my lower calf, ouchhhhh. Then i have no clue how he did it but he used his hold to make another flying leap up my leg! This time latching on to my thigh a little too high for my comfort. So this is when i assessed the situation, thought for about .1 second looking at all my options, and kicked him off of me. He came back even more angrily, but luckily this time i was well prepared with a rubber sole of my shoe, fending him off. Back BACK!! Finally he surrendered but the little jerk took a piece of my suitpants with him. So unfortunatly i have a big hole in my suit pants on my inner thigh area. Luckily you cant really tell unless i was doing yoga or something but it is still a bit of a problem here in the pants department. Luckily i didn't get hurt too much, not too much blood or flesh removed. Just a little nibble. I hope he doesn't have rabies. No just kidding. Mom please don't call president haha. Okay so later this week our ward had a talent show that was really quite fun. We had a lass active come and also an investigator. Some people sang, played instruments, and did skits. It was an amazing night just to be able to get to know the ward members better. There so sweet and nice. Okay so Josh and Brooke i recieved your letter in the mail today! Claire is sooooo cute. I loved it thank you so much. Mom i'm glad you went to Jordans without me haha. I always loved walking around looking at couches for hours haha. Mom you said i have a birthday coming up. Really?? I guess i do no way haha. okay so you said i could hint at somethings. The only thing that i can really think of is sour patch kids watermelons. Those are delicious and no one has them here! Umm besides that i really can't think of anything. You asked if money would be nice. I am happy either way. Package no money, no package no money. Just promise me that you wont spend an arm and a leg sending the package. Oh yeah... if you could send a missinoary photos of the siblings i would love that. If you can find them. but thanks i love ya! Dad i am glad you are doing well my friend. It sounds like you had a very special week. How fun a dude in a white jacket with soda no wayy. I want to buy a white suit while i'm here in italy haha. Nate the picture of you board looooooks wayyyy cool. Way to go luisa great find. I love it. In fact you can just set that aside for my coming home present thanks! No just kidding but really its awesome. I loved the pictures thanks broseph. But i'm sorry this is so short. I love you guys so much and we'll talk to you later!!!!
Ciao!
Anziano perkes
Ciao!
Anziano perkes
Laughing in the Library [Letter written 8-5-09]
Ciao Tutti!!
Hello everyone thanks so much for the emails i lovedddd them! So first off, Mom i got your package!!!! THank you sooo much i loved it. The drink mixes were perfect we love them! We have been making fresh lemonade pomegranitaid all week!! It is so nice to have something to drink besides water. Thank you!!! And the other thing i loved... the tape!!! There were many moments that i was just busting up laughing and smiling. I love it thank you so much. First off i learned that you went to mexico!! Gramma said that you went to mexico. I think she means Pheonix but boy was i surprised when she said, your mom is leaving to mexico. I thought oh no did she dodge the draft and now she's fleeing the country. No mom don't do it! The next very funny momnet was when James was saying hi. He talks about Jelly car and then he is like... okay i have to go .... i love you........ And then in the most innocent little voice.. What's his name?? And i hear someone in the backround.... maxxxx. Haha i think he was really into jelly car when you gave him the tape. I laughed a lot very cute. Then of course Emma disrupting pokemon was very funny. I loved when little Ben was talking and he says about 3 words and then i hear kate in the backround... tell him what you got for your birthday... and then ben says in his little voice... WHAT??.... tell him what you got..... WHAT???? I rememeber he used to say it just like that. So thanks for all the people who spoke in it which i think was everyone. Actually no sorry Josh i think your part got cut out of the movie. Maybe in the deleted scense you'll make it haha. I remember near the end everyone is like... okay i have to save room for josh so bye! And then i hear a cshhh... okay max this is mom sending the package love ya! But its alright Josh you'll make the next tape. So thank you mumsy it was avery special treat to get that i loved it. So this week was real great. We had Zone Conference which was real nice. It was a bit strange because i went up and talked to my next companion! I discreetly found out some info about Lugano. it is a branch there and they use buses. They have a baptism planned for about a month after i get there which will be great! Anziano Mckilson is from utah. He is a good ole farm boy. I think we'll get a long great. Anziano Catalano was his companion as well crazy huh!? So this was very good news. It sounds like he a good ole mormon boy that will work hard. I am very excited. Anziano is a good kid and i love him to death but sometimes he has the attitude of the Pirate in the first pirates of the carribean ( when there talking about the pirates code) when he says, They are more guidelines not rules. So that is frustrating sometimes but I love him he's a good kid. I'm just trying to be a good example for him hoping that he changes a bit. I heard a talk by someone that says the best way to help someone is to just be a loving example. So i decided against being like.... okay here is what you are doing wrong and just lead by example. So i hope it helps him. it is amazing having an italian companion though. I am learning about the culture... i am learning the language sooo fast now. I find myself thinking in italian it is very cool. Sometimes i'll speak english and accidentally throw in an italian word.
Okay so i told you that i bought 2 usb drives. And i did!! I named one the vault and on hedwig. I will use one to keep all my pics and one to send pics home. So Nate can you do me a favor and resend the pictures of the cabin, you and luisa jumping, the business cards too? I can't remember far back but if you can just look back in your email and forward them to me so that i can save them. Oh yeah if i can get the pic of josh jumping too... i love that one haha. Okay so Alice is still amazing. She bore her testimony on sunday and pretty much owned the pulpit it was awesoome. She was like... if any of you don't have time to read the book of mormon read it!! because it changed my life! It was amazing. Okay so i didn't tell you but my mtc comp anziano collins is in my district!!! He got transfered here no wayyyy right? So on monday we did exchanges and he came down to Piacenza to be with me. it was the most fun and best day ever! It is really great to see him. First off we were out working and it started hailing!!! We had no idea this was coming so we didnt have umbrellas or jackets or nothing. So it starts downpouring and hailing marbles (about the size of marbles i kid you not) i looked over at Anziano Collins and said.... is this gonna stop us?! And he grinned at me and said.. no way baby! So we continued stopping everyone we could. The hail got a bit bigger and really hurt when it hit our head so we put are hands over our heads and not my knuckles are a bit bloody haha. It was sooo awesome. We stopped everyone we could find. All of them thought we were crazy out of our mind but we didn't care it was awesome. Plus before this we had been sweating a lot so it felt good. We continued to work the streets in the hail and we got 4 peoples numbers!!! Which is just unheard of from what i have seen. We got two families and 2 africans. So we were very excited. We then retired back to the house after a long amazing, and slightly painful bloody day. but we were fine... mom just our knuckles are a bit bloody but by today there fine. DOn't call presidend pleaseeeeee. So we got home that night and made pudding american style!! As it was a our 6 months of being a missinoary mark!! No way huh... crazy. Usually missinoaries burn something like a tie, but we decided that was dumb and decided to burn birthday candles on top of our pudding. So we had a little party it was tons of fun. 1/4 the way done... how scary wow! I gotta pick up my pace time is ticking! So the next morning the scambi was over... awww we got on the train to go pick up our comps when this cool muslim guy sat next to us. Me and Anziano Collins made eye contact and just both grinned knowing exactly what we were about to do. We started up a converstaion with this man, and ended up teaching him a 45 minute lesson on the train and getting a return appointment for next week. He was sincerely enterested it was awesome. I was just amazed at this couple days. It was so nice to be with another younger missioanry that is not a burned out veteran. I've decided i want nothing but young companions from here out haha. So it was an amazing day. So this last week i ran out of money and spent 2.55 euro about 3, 4 bucks on food!! I bought pasta and milk for the whole week haha. So today i have money again and i'm very exccited to go shopping for food!! So how are my salesman doing?? The summer is almost over boys!! You gotta end it strong! I remember august being a veryyyy amazing month. The joy of being done for the summer just pounding down on you haha. Don't get trunky boys! Koffi and Doddi are doing great. They wore white shirts to church on sunday and my shirts fit them great haha. I was a bit nervous it wouldnt fit but they looked great. Mom can you get me mike camerons email address? I'd love to zip him a quick hello. Mom and Dad i loved your emails, i was laughing so hard. until a woman here in the library gave me a dirty look. How embarrassing! So the 300 people you sworn to secrecy better not spill the beens haha. The saga about the bats is very humourous. Dad i can jsut picture you standing on achair swinging your towel at these bats how funny! I liked you Harry Potter analagoy dad. I think i'm neville Longbottem haha. Mom you asked about the bikes. No we didn't ship them off. One was a members and the other we put in the storage shed. We got rid of them because Anziano Catalano doesnt like bikes. So my shoes are rapdily wearing out ikes! But it is alright.. It is a bit easier to stop people when i don't have a bowling ball on my head. And AC in the apartment... that is a negatouire. We use a fan and thats it. I know che skiffo right. I found out anziano mickelson has been about for about a year. He has been in lugano for 3 transfers and will finish there 1 with me. Then i will have a new comp for 3 tranfers. (1 transfer is 6 weeks). Wow i can't believe nate and mom your going to kick it with someone that knows usher!! Get is autograph for me haha. That will be amazing i'm sure. By the way Nate you little stinker... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! TANTI aguri a te, tanti aguri a te! Okeedokee i believe that is it for what i have to say. Thank you all so much for your love and support!! Miss ya!
Love ya!!
Anziano Max the preacher Perkes
PS.... can someone tell me Kate's email address. I just noticed i don't have it on this list. Thanks love ya!
Hello everyone thanks so much for the emails i lovedddd them! So first off, Mom i got your package!!!! THank you sooo much i loved it. The drink mixes were perfect we love them! We have been making fresh lemonade pomegranitaid all week!! It is so nice to have something to drink besides water. Thank you!!! And the other thing i loved... the tape!!! There were many moments that i was just busting up laughing and smiling. I love it thank you so much. First off i learned that you went to mexico!! Gramma said that you went to mexico. I think she means Pheonix but boy was i surprised when she said, your mom is leaving to mexico. I thought oh no did she dodge the draft and now she's fleeing the country. No mom don't do it! The next very funny momnet was when James was saying hi. He talks about Jelly car and then he is like... okay i have to go .... i love you........ And then in the most innocent little voice.. What's his name?? And i hear someone in the backround.... maxxxx. Haha i think he was really into jelly car when you gave him the tape. I laughed a lot very cute. Then of course Emma disrupting pokemon was very funny. I loved when little Ben was talking and he says about 3 words and then i hear kate in the backround... tell him what you got for your birthday... and then ben says in his little voice... WHAT??.... tell him what you got..... WHAT???? I rememeber he used to say it just like that. So thanks for all the people who spoke in it which i think was everyone. Actually no sorry Josh i think your part got cut out of the movie. Maybe in the deleted scense you'll make it haha. I remember near the end everyone is like... okay i have to save room for josh so bye! And then i hear a cshhh... okay max this is mom sending the package love ya! But its alright Josh you'll make the next tape. So thank you mumsy it was avery special treat to get that i loved it. So this week was real great. We had Zone Conference which was real nice. It was a bit strange because i went up and talked to my next companion! I discreetly found out some info about Lugano. it is a branch there and they use buses. They have a baptism planned for about a month after i get there which will be great! Anziano Mckilson is from utah. He is a good ole farm boy. I think we'll get a long great. Anziano Catalano was his companion as well crazy huh!? So this was very good news. It sounds like he a good ole mormon boy that will work hard. I am very excited. Anziano is a good kid and i love him to death but sometimes he has the attitude of the Pirate in the first pirates of the carribean ( when there talking about the pirates code) when he says, They are more guidelines not rules. So that is frustrating sometimes but I love him he's a good kid. I'm just trying to be a good example for him hoping that he changes a bit. I heard a talk by someone that says the best way to help someone is to just be a loving example. So i decided against being like.... okay here is what you are doing wrong and just lead by example. So i hope it helps him. it is amazing having an italian companion though. I am learning about the culture... i am learning the language sooo fast now. I find myself thinking in italian it is very cool. Sometimes i'll speak english and accidentally throw in an italian word.
Okay so i told you that i bought 2 usb drives. And i did!! I named one the vault and on hedwig. I will use one to keep all my pics and one to send pics home. So Nate can you do me a favor and resend the pictures of the cabin, you and luisa jumping, the business cards too? I can't remember far back but if you can just look back in your email and forward them to me so that i can save them. Oh yeah if i can get the pic of josh jumping too... i love that one haha. Okay so Alice is still amazing. She bore her testimony on sunday and pretty much owned the pulpit it was awesoome. She was like... if any of you don't have time to read the book of mormon read it!! because it changed my life! It was amazing. Okay so i didn't tell you but my mtc comp anziano collins is in my district!!! He got transfered here no wayyyy right? So on monday we did exchanges and he came down to Piacenza to be with me. it was the most fun and best day ever! It is really great to see him. First off we were out working and it started hailing!!! We had no idea this was coming so we didnt have umbrellas or jackets or nothing. So it starts downpouring and hailing marbles (about the size of marbles i kid you not) i looked over at Anziano Collins and said.... is this gonna stop us?! And he grinned at me and said.. no way baby! So we continued stopping everyone we could. The hail got a bit bigger and really hurt when it hit our head so we put are hands over our heads and not my knuckles are a bit bloody haha. It was sooo awesome. We stopped everyone we could find. All of them thought we were crazy out of our mind but we didn't care it was awesome. Plus before this we had been sweating a lot so it felt good. We continued to work the streets in the hail and we got 4 peoples numbers!!! Which is just unheard of from what i have seen. We got two families and 2 africans. So we were very excited. We then retired back to the house after a long amazing, and slightly painful bloody day. but we were fine... mom just our knuckles are a bit bloody but by today there fine. DOn't call presidend pleaseeeeee. So we got home that night and made pudding american style!! As it was a our 6 months of being a missinoary mark!! No way huh... crazy. Usually missinoaries burn something like a tie, but we decided that was dumb and decided to burn birthday candles on top of our pudding. So we had a little party it was tons of fun. 1/4 the way done... how scary wow! I gotta pick up my pace time is ticking! So the next morning the scambi was over... awww we got on the train to go pick up our comps when this cool muslim guy sat next to us. Me and Anziano Collins made eye contact and just both grinned knowing exactly what we were about to do. We started up a converstaion with this man, and ended up teaching him a 45 minute lesson on the train and getting a return appointment for next week. He was sincerely enterested it was awesome. I was just amazed at this couple days. It was so nice to be with another younger missioanry that is not a burned out veteran. I've decided i want nothing but young companions from here out haha. So it was an amazing day. So this last week i ran out of money and spent 2.55 euro about 3, 4 bucks on food!! I bought pasta and milk for the whole week haha. So today i have money again and i'm very exccited to go shopping for food!! So how are my salesman doing?? The summer is almost over boys!! You gotta end it strong! I remember august being a veryyyy amazing month. The joy of being done for the summer just pounding down on you haha. Don't get trunky boys! Koffi and Doddi are doing great. They wore white shirts to church on sunday and my shirts fit them great haha. I was a bit nervous it wouldnt fit but they looked great. Mom can you get me mike camerons email address? I'd love to zip him a quick hello. Mom and Dad i loved your emails, i was laughing so hard. until a woman here in the library gave me a dirty look. How embarrassing! So the 300 people you sworn to secrecy better not spill the beens haha. The saga about the bats is very humourous. Dad i can jsut picture you standing on achair swinging your towel at these bats how funny! I liked you Harry Potter analagoy dad. I think i'm neville Longbottem haha. Mom you asked about the bikes. No we didn't ship them off. One was a members and the other we put in the storage shed. We got rid of them because Anziano Catalano doesnt like bikes. So my shoes are rapdily wearing out ikes! But it is alright.. It is a bit easier to stop people when i don't have a bowling ball on my head. And AC in the apartment... that is a negatouire. We use a fan and thats it. I know che skiffo right. I found out anziano mickelson has been about for about a year. He has been in lugano for 3 transfers and will finish there 1 with me. Then i will have a new comp for 3 tranfers. (1 transfer is 6 weeks). Wow i can't believe nate and mom your going to kick it with someone that knows usher!! Get is autograph for me haha. That will be amazing i'm sure. By the way Nate you little stinker... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! TANTI aguri a te, tanti aguri a te! Okeedokee i believe that is it for what i have to say. Thank you all so much for your love and support!! Miss ya!
Love ya!!
Anziano Max the preacher Perkes
PS.... can someone tell me Kate's email address. I just noticed i don't have it on this list. Thanks love ya!
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