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