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