Bon Joviii! . . . [Letter written 7-1-09]

Bon Jovi my superstar family!

So i got lots of emails today with lots of pictures!! Thank ya'll soooo much i loved them. Okay so first off real quick. So here in italian we have Bouna Mattina, Bon Giorno, and bouna Sera. All meening good morning afternoon and night. So i figured with all the "Bon's" going around i'd throw in a Bon Jovi. Sadly no one has responded back yet. I threw a couple out via bike but sadly got no bon jovi's in reply. Caspito (it happens). Okay so first off... we'll start off with the most important. I heard Micheal jackson died what a shame. One less fruit on the giant tree of fruits. Everyone here is very sad, i'm not quite sure why he was rather bizzarre. I'm sure they had a grand welcoming party whever he went, not quite sure where the plan of salvation and him match up... no just kidding. It's funny though because in tribute all the cars have been blasting thrillller. So it has been a musical week that is for sure. Okay third episode on THE BIKES. My tire that i had to pump up everymorning started becoming worse so i bought a new tire and it is working marvelously. Anziano ransoms bike chain broke in half so for a day he held on to my backpack as i gave him a ride haha. he was on his bike and me on mine, but i guess you could say it was like a tow truck haha. So a couple of ya'll have been asking what we do on pdays down here so lemme tell ya. Nate you were asking. We have pday all day until 6 at night. Sometimes we are naughty and sneak in a lesson in the morning though shh don't tell anyone. We usually try not to but if someone is like hey.. come by tomorrow were just like... umm okay! So the past couple pdays we hadn't been doing really anything. Maybe just seeing one church and staying inside against my protest haha. So last pday i was like lets go go go, so we went out behind out apartment in a soccer field and played some frisbee and it was actually really fun. Then there were like 10 old men playing bocci ball (the game we played on the beach). So we watched them and talked with them for a bit. This Pday is Anziano Ransoms 2nd last so we decided we should do something crazy and fun and take advantage of being in Italy. So this morning we caught a bus to a town about an hour and half away called "Bobbio". Piacenza is not mountainy but if you go outside the city at the very west of our area it starts getting quite mountaineuos (sp). So Bobbio is right on the edge of our area, way up in the mountains. So this morning we grabbed breakfast out, consisting of a wondeful briosche with chocolate, and a Fococcia Dolce. Which is faccacia bread made into a dessert with sugarize carmel stuff. It was amazing. Then we went up there, and the town was gorgeuos. The town is famous for having this bridge that dates back to the roman empire. You'll see a picture of the bridge that i send. So we hung out there, even went on a little hike up this fun hill, and found some fresh plums, and had a great lunch on a mountain top. Then we came back and now were emailing. Bobbio reminded me of the war of the buttons community complete with farmers driving there tractors on the small streets. It was so fun. Then we got some faccacia bread pizza which was amaaaaazing! People use faccacia bread for a lot of stuff here. It is amazing. Mom its like that bread with the salt that you buy but the real deal. So today were going to go shopping after, make some brownies and take them to Alice! Nate i have a question. We met with this african on a bench the other day and taught him and asked him to say the prayer. Halfway through the prayer he stopped and was like... you guys aren't doing it right. Everytime i say in the name of Jesus you say amen! So then were like... um okay and he bagan every sentence with in the name of jesus. So we were sitting there on a bench chanting amen with this crazy african friend of ours. Did people in Africa pray like that? Haha we love our friend Julius. So quick update on the investigators. Alice has her interview this weekend and if everything goes well she will be baptized a week from today!!!!! She is so excited. She shared with us yesterday how she is so excited to be baptized. She compared her self to a little school girl waiting for her birthday or something. So we are going to take her brownies today for her 1 week countdown celebration. Were having some problems with our other start investigators. Francesca is still amazing, but we met with her and we werent quite sure she was understanding everything because she kinda has ADD, not in a mean way but like... she just is sooo energetic and we weren't sure if she was listening as much as we would like. So we kind of tested her understanding asking her about the restoration and she really didn't remember much. Then she shared that she thought Heavenly Father was a spirit, so she is still going well but we kind of need to slow it down and explain some things. So her baptismal date has been moved back, because they have to live the word of wisdom for a month and we need to make a foundation with her before teaching it. She comes to church pretty much everysunday but branch president is big on making sure they understand, which is awesome. He is way cool. And then Koffi and Doddi. They are amazing and are doing great but they just have the hardest time coming to church. They haven't come for 2 weeks now. the first time they said they missed the bus but this last sunday they said they just went to their church in their town. So we are going to teach them about the importance of coming to church. But besides that work is going well. Still teaching lots lots. This next 2 weeks will be nuts however. This week we have interviews with president tommorrow in milano, then i'm doing an exchange with the zone leaders in milano, then next week we have Alice's baptism and Then Anziano Ransom is going home. So it will be a bit hectic this next couple weeks. Josh I loved your letter split into the three sections. Your facebook dilemma sounds quite serious. I would go ahead and accept all the friend requests as long as there not wierdos. I have like 300 friends, and i barely know half of them. If you ignore though, they probably wont even notice, its not like they get a note saying, Joshua Perkes hates you, better luck next time, thanks for playing! Matt and James sounded very cute in the lockers and i laughed very hard at your graduation jump. You goofy guy haha. It was hilarious. Mom thank you so much for tylers email. here is Sister Libe's address for you haha. She would love getting a postcard or something. "Libe Carla, Via borghetto, 99, 29100 Piacenza (PC) Italia" It will have to be in italian though, unless you want to write in english and when we go over i'll translate it for her. In answer to some of your questions. Anziano Ransom is not touring, just going straight home. Yes i do remember going to the hatshell. How fun you will have a blast. That is weird the weather is cold. It is july now and this is the hottest month in italy. I might die, it has been very hot lately. Oh and by the way KATEEEE HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I think it is also BABY NATE'S!! Hope ya'll have a happy happy birthday. Jake i got your letter my friend thanks so much i loved it. julia sounds so cute give that stinker a hug for me. Mom the pic of the boston temple, regular size should workd fine. By the way your pics of nauvoo were great i loved them. The family looks great. Dad the pics worked just fine and i have lots more space so keep them comin tiger! Dad it sounds like you are very busy with your cases how fun. It was fun to hear about some of the "nut cases" you have to deal with.. no pun intended there. Mom said you were watching Mall Cop haha. That made me laught thinking of you watching that movie, going and why did max like this movie?? Nate thanks for the pics and email my friend. You are the bom. Your guys scooter looks a bit like mine but BETTER!! It looks very fun. Luisa were you wearing a helmet young woman?? If you look in the missionary hand book on page 34 it says always wear a helmet haha just kidding. The business card looks great nate. I'd buy your photos for sure. Tomorrow i should get ya'lls package so i'll write next week for sure about how much i loved it. That humming bird picture was amazing i loved it. But hey family that is all i can think of writing but thank you so much for the letters. This week was amazing and very busy. I'll send some pics in a bit!!

Love ya!

Anziano Perkes