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
Friday, November 27, 2009
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!
Bon Giorno Tutti! [Letter written 7-30-09]
Bon Giorno Tutti!
Come state?! Ho ricevuto il vostro email e ero molto contento! I ho una bella famiglia! Grazie mille. Quindi, questa settimana era molto bene. Abbiamo insegnato un saco di lezione. Specialmente africani. Ci sono tonti Africani qui in Piacenza. Piacenza dovrebbe essere Sud Africa! I'm just kidding haha. I wanted to see you if you thought i accidently wrote the whole email in italian. Got ya!! How is everyone!!!! Thanks so much for the emails and mom the pictures of lugano were amazing! Wow that place is beautiful! How exciting! Okay so this week was way good. First off we don't use bikes anymore in piacenza. I was quite sad to let my bike go. Even with all the repair problems theres just something fun about cruising around town with a helmet the size of africa on my head and all the people laughing at us. Anziano catalano doesn't know how to bike so naturally we had to switch to buses. Ew so far i'm not a big fan of the busses. The problem is there not very reliable. So pretty much we lost the bikes and now we walk everywhere! It is much more tireing and i feel like i'm wasting time when it takes 20 minutes to walk to an appointment when it used to take like 3 minutes biking. So now we have to space our appointemnts out more especiually if there far away to alow walk and bus time to get there. I'm not a big fan. But it is also fun making friends with all the old ladies that cruise the buss's around all day. I just walk up to them and say, sorry mam i know i'm short and they start bustin up laughing. No your not your tall!! Then by the end of the bus ride there like... bye!! Say hi to your mother for me okay!! By maxi! Haha there very sweet old ladies. All of them are veryyy catholic but still fun to talk to. So the heat here in piacenza is still blazing down on us. Yesterday it was 104 degreees!!!! And get this it is humid here! It was like 80-100 percent humidity as well. So as you can imagine i was sweating like a horse these past couple days. You walk out of the house and it like knocks your breath out. So i just want to tell you guys how hardddddd it is to keep this whole lugano thing a secret!! Haha it is amazingly hard! LUGANOOOOO AGHHH... okay i feel a bit better. The other day we were with other missionaries because they had to come down to piacenza to get there permesso di sogiorno (living permit) and i was talking to this awesome kid that was under me in the mtc and i was like... when you came in where did you want to serve. And he was like... ohhh i wanted to go to luganooo so bad haha. And i was like... um uh hmm ughh umm yeah.... that would be nice. But anyways let's talk about something else now haha. And then i was joking around with Elder Shill, (elder in the district who is awesome, the one in the pic of us sitting down the day we biked up into the mountains to go to the cheese factory) and anyways... i was jokingh that i was going to go south the next transfer, and he was like... haha now that you say that your going to go to lugano next transfer (because lugano is the most north in the mission) and i was like... nooo way that would be unreal haha. The whole time i'm just smerking in my head woo hoo lugano. So i feel like i'm clark kent sometimes. I just want to grab some random pedestrian and say HEY I'M SUPERMAN!!! and run away smiling, haha i told someone! So cultural thing. Here in Italy it is sometimes very popular for people to have english written on there shirts because america is cooool. But sometimes i see shirts that just make me laugh here is an example. "I love boy" or "I love party". They just make me laugh because i can just picture some italian shirt designer being like... oh i knowwww i love party! That's it so brilliant, when little does he know he is be grammaticly falssse. And then this one is too funny. I saw a big billboard that was in italian and said basically come to english class, learn english and all that. Then in big bold letters it said in english, "Learn and Practise English!" If i'm not mistaken i'm pretty sure practice is spelled wrong. I'm not sure i can't really spell anymore haha. Okay so the update on Francesca. She is M.I.A. For about 3 weeks we havent seen or talked with her. Her daughter says she is in southern italy, but i'm not sure if that is true. So i hope she actually is and is planning on returning sometime soon. It is sad to see people progress and then just change all of a sudden. I think that is why a mission is hard. Not because of the walking and hotness but because the people you love, don't accept the gospel. Anyways Koffi and Doddi are doing great. We have reset there baptismal date to August 22nd and are seeing them 2 times a week to help them prepare. We just finished teaching them the lessons, and commandemtns and they have accepted them all and are living them. The only problem is getting them to church. Weere trying to get the members to take turns picking them up but there kind of dragging there feet a bit. But they are doing great. We asked them to wear shirt and ties to church and they told us they didn't have any so i'm giving two of my shirts to them (as Catalano's would be a bit big on them haha) and two of my ties. They are verry funny. Alice is doing great. The branch is preparing to give her a calling now. I know she will do great in whatever she does! So anyone who has served a mission will know this but as a missionary we see very strange things sometimes usually on a daily basis. Yesterday we were waitin for this bus and this very strange man came up to me with no teeth and said in broken english. Let me borrow your pen. So i gave him my pen and a pieace of paper. He wrote on it THE EARTH HAS A ROTATION. Then he looked at me and said why? And i wanted to assure him that i was a missionary and not some first place science fair boy on the way home from a hard day in the lab. He then told me about Isacc Newton gave me the pen back and continued walking down the street to stop some other poor person to lecture them about Isaac Newton. So there are very many strange things that happen to us on a daily basis like this. Maybe i'll start a book someday. So this friday we have zone conference yay! So mom i think you said you sent a package. I should get it on friday. I was talking with the zone leader and he told me that my companion in Lugano is named Anziano Mickelson (spelling check) and he says he is a stud. I guess there from the same group in the mtc but he says he is wayyy cool. And he works really hard. I guess there also teaching 20 lessons a week and seeing a lot of blessings up in the alps there. So that was very exciting news. I am very excited. The weird thing is i will see him on friday. I asked the assistant about it and he told me i would have to talk with him and give him the "look" meening hey buddy see you in a month look haha. So i'll have to go say hi to him on friday. Anziano Catalano is doing good. He continues to amaze me with his uniqueness haha. He is a very special person. I am very grateful for him. My italian is really improving. I can pretty much understyand people it is aweosme. He hates making calls so i make all the calls and i love it. Because i actually am talking in italian!! For pdays we don't really do much which is a bummer. The first day i tried to get him to want to go to this castle and he was like... no thanks i'm staying inside, you can go if you really want to. So as you can guess i ended up choosing not to go haha. But it is also nice to be able to relax and kind of rest up for the rest of the week. So i was reading the scriptures this morning and found a fun spiritual thought for ya'll. I know crazy right. As much as you guys probably don't think i do study the scriptures haha. I think this is my first spiritual thought sending home haha. I just don't want to bore you but this one was pretty cool. So in mosiah 8:3, it talks about Ammon telling the people of Limhi about what king benjamin said. And it struck me that this was home teaching! Ammon was a 100% home teacher. I could just picture him there with the ensign in his pouch, pulling it out and being like... okay king the message of the month is from king benjamin. So if you havent done you home teaching do it! Okay so new idea that i quite like. I am going to buy a usb flash drive for pictures. They make like 4 gig and 8 gig usb drives that are pretty cheap. So i was thinking it would be soooo much easier to just put my pictures on that to send home so i'll let you know. I have to check them out at the store next week. But wow i'm running out of time. Okay so josh i loved your email your story about James was so cute. Thats so cool i'm very proud of him. Thanks for the sweet little picture of Claire! She looks like a little princess! I can't wait to meet her. Dad i was laughing so hard about your facebook exspereince. It sounds like you are quite the big man on campus with all the people asking to be friends. Oh and by the way we can't be friends. It would break all the violations of the son father codes in the use of facebook. Sorry. Although you do have my pass word so i guess you could log on and friend yourself. Dang! I also laughed very hard about your Gomer Pyle HEY!! I could just picture you saying hey to the judge haha how funny. Mom thanks sso much for the emails it sounds like you had a very busy week. My advice would be to sell the truck and use the busses haha no i'm just kidding. I'm sorry to hear about the computer dying that is no fun. Please don't send me that email haha. But anywho i really better be running. Nate sorry to hear that your sick my friend hoep you get better! Piacenza is great and i love you all times a billion!!
CIAO!!
Love Anziano Perkes!
Come state?! Ho ricevuto il vostro email e ero molto contento! I ho una bella famiglia! Grazie mille. Quindi, questa settimana era molto bene. Abbiamo insegnato un saco di lezione. Specialmente africani. Ci sono tonti Africani qui in Piacenza. Piacenza dovrebbe essere Sud Africa! I'm just kidding haha. I wanted to see you if you thought i accidently wrote the whole email in italian. Got ya!! How is everyone!!!! Thanks so much for the emails and mom the pictures of lugano were amazing! Wow that place is beautiful! How exciting! Okay so this week was way good. First off we don't use bikes anymore in piacenza. I was quite sad to let my bike go. Even with all the repair problems theres just something fun about cruising around town with a helmet the size of africa on my head and all the people laughing at us. Anziano catalano doesn't know how to bike so naturally we had to switch to buses. Ew so far i'm not a big fan of the busses. The problem is there not very reliable. So pretty much we lost the bikes and now we walk everywhere! It is much more tireing and i feel like i'm wasting time when it takes 20 minutes to walk to an appointment when it used to take like 3 minutes biking. So now we have to space our appointemnts out more especiually if there far away to alow walk and bus time to get there. I'm not a big fan. But it is also fun making friends with all the old ladies that cruise the buss's around all day. I just walk up to them and say, sorry mam i know i'm short and they start bustin up laughing. No your not your tall!! Then by the end of the bus ride there like... bye!! Say hi to your mother for me okay!! By maxi! Haha there very sweet old ladies. All of them are veryyy catholic but still fun to talk to. So the heat here in piacenza is still blazing down on us. Yesterday it was 104 degreees!!!! And get this it is humid here! It was like 80-100 percent humidity as well. So as you can imagine i was sweating like a horse these past couple days. You walk out of the house and it like knocks your breath out. So i just want to tell you guys how hardddddd it is to keep this whole lugano thing a secret!! Haha it is amazingly hard! LUGANOOOOO AGHHH... okay i feel a bit better. The other day we were with other missionaries because they had to come down to piacenza to get there permesso di sogiorno (living permit) and i was talking to this awesome kid that was under me in the mtc and i was like... when you came in where did you want to serve. And he was like... ohhh i wanted to go to luganooo so bad haha. And i was like... um uh hmm ughh umm yeah.... that would be nice. But anyways let's talk about something else now haha. And then i was joking around with Elder Shill, (elder in the district who is awesome, the one in the pic of us sitting down the day we biked up into the mountains to go to the cheese factory) and anyways... i was jokingh that i was going to go south the next transfer, and he was like... haha now that you say that your going to go to lugano next transfer (because lugano is the most north in the mission) and i was like... nooo way that would be unreal haha. The whole time i'm just smerking in my head woo hoo lugano. So i feel like i'm clark kent sometimes. I just want to grab some random pedestrian and say HEY I'M SUPERMAN!!! and run away smiling, haha i told someone! So cultural thing. Here in Italy it is sometimes very popular for people to have english written on there shirts because america is cooool. But sometimes i see shirts that just make me laugh here is an example. "I love boy" or "I love party". They just make me laugh because i can just picture some italian shirt designer being like... oh i knowwww i love party! That's it so brilliant, when little does he know he is be grammaticly falssse. And then this one is too funny. I saw a big billboard that was in italian and said basically come to english class, learn english and all that. Then in big bold letters it said in english, "Learn and Practise English!" If i'm not mistaken i'm pretty sure practice is spelled wrong. I'm not sure i can't really spell anymore haha. Okay so the update on Francesca. She is M.I.A. For about 3 weeks we havent seen or talked with her. Her daughter says she is in southern italy, but i'm not sure if that is true. So i hope she actually is and is planning on returning sometime soon. It is sad to see people progress and then just change all of a sudden. I think that is why a mission is hard. Not because of the walking and hotness but because the people you love, don't accept the gospel. Anyways Koffi and Doddi are doing great. We have reset there baptismal date to August 22nd and are seeing them 2 times a week to help them prepare. We just finished teaching them the lessons, and commandemtns and they have accepted them all and are living them. The only problem is getting them to church. Weere trying to get the members to take turns picking them up but there kind of dragging there feet a bit. But they are doing great. We asked them to wear shirt and ties to church and they told us they didn't have any so i'm giving two of my shirts to them (as Catalano's would be a bit big on them haha) and two of my ties. They are verry funny. Alice is doing great. The branch is preparing to give her a calling now. I know she will do great in whatever she does! So anyone who has served a mission will know this but as a missionary we see very strange things sometimes usually on a daily basis. Yesterday we were waitin for this bus and this very strange man came up to me with no teeth and said in broken english. Let me borrow your pen. So i gave him my pen and a pieace of paper. He wrote on it THE EARTH HAS A ROTATION. Then he looked at me and said why? And i wanted to assure him that i was a missionary and not some first place science fair boy on the way home from a hard day in the lab. He then told me about Isacc Newton gave me the pen back and continued walking down the street to stop some other poor person to lecture them about Isaac Newton. So there are very many strange things that happen to us on a daily basis like this. Maybe i'll start a book someday. So this friday we have zone conference yay! So mom i think you said you sent a package. I should get it on friday. I was talking with the zone leader and he told me that my companion in Lugano is named Anziano Mickelson (spelling check) and he says he is a stud. I guess there from the same group in the mtc but he says he is wayyy cool. And he works really hard. I guess there also teaching 20 lessons a week and seeing a lot of blessings up in the alps there. So that was very exciting news. I am very excited. The weird thing is i will see him on friday. I asked the assistant about it and he told me i would have to talk with him and give him the "look" meening hey buddy see you in a month look haha. So i'll have to go say hi to him on friday. Anziano Catalano is doing good. He continues to amaze me with his uniqueness haha. He is a very special person. I am very grateful for him. My italian is really improving. I can pretty much understyand people it is aweosme. He hates making calls so i make all the calls and i love it. Because i actually am talking in italian!! For pdays we don't really do much which is a bummer. The first day i tried to get him to want to go to this castle and he was like... no thanks i'm staying inside, you can go if you really want to. So as you can guess i ended up choosing not to go haha. But it is also nice to be able to relax and kind of rest up for the rest of the week. So i was reading the scriptures this morning and found a fun spiritual thought for ya'll. I know crazy right. As much as you guys probably don't think i do study the scriptures haha. I think this is my first spiritual thought sending home haha. I just don't want to bore you but this one was pretty cool. So in mosiah 8:3, it talks about Ammon telling the people of Limhi about what king benjamin said. And it struck me that this was home teaching! Ammon was a 100% home teacher. I could just picture him there with the ensign in his pouch, pulling it out and being like... okay king the message of the month is from king benjamin. So if you havent done you home teaching do it! Okay so new idea that i quite like. I am going to buy a usb flash drive for pictures. They make like 4 gig and 8 gig usb drives that are pretty cheap. So i was thinking it would be soooo much easier to just put my pictures on that to send home so i'll let you know. I have to check them out at the store next week. But wow i'm running out of time. Okay so josh i loved your email your story about James was so cute. Thats so cool i'm very proud of him. Thanks for the sweet little picture of Claire! She looks like a little princess! I can't wait to meet her. Dad i was laughing so hard about your facebook exspereince. It sounds like you are quite the big man on campus with all the people asking to be friends. Oh and by the way we can't be friends. It would break all the violations of the son father codes in the use of facebook. Sorry. Although you do have my pass word so i guess you could log on and friend yourself. Dang! I also laughed very hard about your Gomer Pyle HEY!! I could just picture you saying hey to the judge haha how funny. Mom thanks sso much for the emails it sounds like you had a very busy week. My advice would be to sell the truck and use the busses haha no i'm just kidding. I'm sorry to hear about the computer dying that is no fun. Please don't send me that email haha. But anywho i really better be running. Nate sorry to hear that your sick my friend hoep you get better! Piacenza is great and i love you all times a billion!!
CIAO!!
Love Anziano Perkes!
Hellllo from Piacenzzzzzza [Letter written 7-22-09]
Ciao Tutti!!
This week has been very intense. Thanks for all the letters and pictures! I love them everyweek. it is so fun to open my email box to a bunch of emails i can't help but just not smile. Okay so first offff.... LUISA!!! Happy birthday! I hope my dear brother nate wowed you with something cool. If he didn't go out to town and buy something big haha. And your triathlon sounded aweomse. Wow i am very impressed you go girl! So this week in Piacenza has beeeeeen very hot! Oh my i am sweating like a pig. Get this.... i wake up shower, and by the time i'm brushing my teeth 10 minutes later i have a sweat stash haha. Gross huh?? So i heard Lugan is a bit less hot being up in the alps and all. Okay mom i love when you type up questions so here we go!
1) How is your new Italian companion? What is his story? How long has he been a member? What kind of family does he come from? Wherebouts in Italy is he from? Is he hard working and wonderful?
Okay i'm gonna split this up into abc's ok. So.... A.) My new companions name is Anziano Catalano. I picked him up on thursday and he's been here ever since. Things are going great here in piacenza with him. We haven't talked english since thursday so i've had a constant head ache for a week but i'm sure it will go away. They other night i was writing in my journal when i looked down and noticed that half way into it i had slipped into italian haha. So i guess something is startin to tick in my little ole brain of mine. B.) He is 24 and he is from Polermo Sicilia, i think sicily in english. He is very short haha and a bit filled out. He was a computer hacker before the mission crazy huh! C.) He has been a member his whole life. D.) He has one brother and two parents. All members seem pretty cool from the picture i saw. E.) Palermo the soccor ball of italy haha. F.) Haha if i had to use one word to descirbe my wonderful new companion it would be "unique" haha. He is just a interesting character. I don't know if it is the italian culture or just him. I think the best way to describe this would be with a story haha. So i spend like the whole last 4 hours of me and Anziano Ransom's time together cleaning!! I cleaned like crazy because i wanted my new comp to come home to a clean home. Anziano Catalano walks in and the first thing he says is Che Sciffo which meens how gross. He then unpacked his suitcase and pulled out a vacuum!!! A vacuum! This kid has been lugging around a vacuum with him his whole mission! Gotta be crazy. So i just sat around reading the book of mormon while he fumigated the house haha. But he's a good kid. He goes home in two transfers. But he's a funny kid. I'll survive a transfer i think. One thing that is amazingggg is always speaking italian. I am oh soooo grateful to be able to speak italian always. So i love him he's helping me out a lot.
2) When do you get to go to Switzerland to start filling out the paperwork? What a trip for you to be able to check it out before you pull up your routes and head out.
So i actually don't go to switzerland but i went on monday to the swiss consolate in downtown milano for my visa. It was way fun. They had pictures of switzerland and from what i can tell it looks beautiful
3) Are there misionaries in Swizterland now? What news do you hear from them as to the area, etc?
Yes there are two missionaries in Lugano. The zone leader told me the work is really good there and they have been really busy with teaching and baptisms and the AP told me that the branch is really solid there as well. So i'm very excited. Dad you were talking about being seperated from the rest of the mission its funny you say that because when President called me (hope i didnt already tell you this) he explained about how he only sent really obbedient missionaries there and how it is seperated from the rest of the mission and you have to be a very good example in the city, and how he had great confidence in me. Boy was i nervous when he told me that. It was kinda of a if you let me down i'll break your knee caps mafia style haha no just kidding but it was kinda overwhelming news haha. The whole visa application was in German i had to have the lady there translate for me haha. it was very embarrassing. And then you think that was enough wait till you see my visa picture haha. You'll love it. I used a photobooth thing and i sat down, and the picture was just of my chest because i'm too tall so in the midst of trying to get myself situated it took the picture haha. You'll like it.
3) How is Alice doing? Was her confirmation on Suinday wonderful?
Alice is doing great her confermation was awesome. The whole branch loves her and has just taken her into there arms.
4) His is Dodi coming along? Wouldn't it be so wonderful if you were able to get Dodi and his cousin to join the church before you leave?
So Koffi and Doddi are doing great. We've been getting them rides for church. We taught them tithing yesterday and they accepted. We re schedlued there baptismal date for august 22 the week before i leave. So we are really working with them to prepare. They said they have finally stopped drinking coffee so that is awesome. They are great i can't wait to see them get baptized.
Okay so that was it for the questions now lemme see if i missed anything. So it sounds like HP was fun. Thanks for the update it is always fun to hear a little piece of the world. Nate thanks for the photos my man... that jump was nutsssss. You couldn't of landed that haha. NON CI CREDO! by the way the video you tryed to send didn't work. Jake it looks like your loving the boatin life my friend. I saw those shades!! Are they oakleys! But they family looks awesome. dad it sounds like your very busy lately i'm sorry but i'm sure your tearin it up. Mom thanks for the pics of portsmouth. I really like the tug boat one. But anywho i can't really think of anything else. Oh yeah... PS.. if someone is awake could they send me a picture of LUGANO? I would love that. I'll be on for another 10 minutes! But i love you all thanks soooo much!!!
Vi Voglio Bene!
Ciaooo
Anziano perkes
This week has been very intense. Thanks for all the letters and pictures! I love them everyweek. it is so fun to open my email box to a bunch of emails i can't help but just not smile. Okay so first offff.... LUISA!!! Happy birthday! I hope my dear brother nate wowed you with something cool. If he didn't go out to town and buy something big haha. And your triathlon sounded aweomse. Wow i am very impressed you go girl! So this week in Piacenza has beeeeeen very hot! Oh my i am sweating like a pig. Get this.... i wake up shower, and by the time i'm brushing my teeth 10 minutes later i have a sweat stash haha. Gross huh?? So i heard Lugan is a bit less hot being up in the alps and all. Okay mom i love when you type up questions so here we go!
1) How is your new Italian companion? What is his story? How long has he been a member? What kind of family does he come from? Wherebouts in Italy is he from? Is he hard working and wonderful?
Okay i'm gonna split this up into abc's ok. So.... A.) My new companions name is Anziano Catalano. I picked him up on thursday and he's been here ever since. Things are going great here in piacenza with him. We haven't talked english since thursday so i've had a constant head ache for a week but i'm sure it will go away. They other night i was writing in my journal when i looked down and noticed that half way into it i had slipped into italian haha. So i guess something is startin to tick in my little ole brain of mine. B.) He is 24 and he is from Polermo Sicilia, i think sicily in english. He is very short haha and a bit filled out. He was a computer hacker before the mission crazy huh! C.) He has been a member his whole life. D.) He has one brother and two parents. All members seem pretty cool from the picture i saw. E.) Palermo the soccor ball of italy haha. F.) Haha if i had to use one word to descirbe my wonderful new companion it would be "unique" haha. He is just a interesting character. I don't know if it is the italian culture or just him. I think the best way to describe this would be with a story haha. So i spend like the whole last 4 hours of me and Anziano Ransom's time together cleaning!! I cleaned like crazy because i wanted my new comp to come home to a clean home. Anziano Catalano walks in and the first thing he says is Che Sciffo which meens how gross. He then unpacked his suitcase and pulled out a vacuum!!! A vacuum! This kid has been lugging around a vacuum with him his whole mission! Gotta be crazy. So i just sat around reading the book of mormon while he fumigated the house haha. But he's a good kid. He goes home in two transfers. But he's a funny kid. I'll survive a transfer i think. One thing that is amazingggg is always speaking italian. I am oh soooo grateful to be able to speak italian always. So i love him he's helping me out a lot.
2) When do you get to go to Switzerland to start filling out the paperwork? What a trip for you to be able to check it out before you pull up your routes and head out.
So i actually don't go to switzerland but i went on monday to the swiss consolate in downtown milano for my visa. It was way fun. They had pictures of switzerland and from what i can tell it looks beautiful
3) Are there misionaries in Swizterland now? What news do you hear from them as to the area, etc?
Yes there are two missionaries in Lugano. The zone leader told me the work is really good there and they have been really busy with teaching and baptisms and the AP told me that the branch is really solid there as well. So i'm very excited. Dad you were talking about being seperated from the rest of the mission its funny you say that because when President called me (hope i didnt already tell you this) he explained about how he only sent really obbedient missionaries there and how it is seperated from the rest of the mission and you have to be a very good example in the city, and how he had great confidence in me. Boy was i nervous when he told me that. It was kinda of a if you let me down i'll break your knee caps mafia style haha no just kidding but it was kinda overwhelming news haha. The whole visa application was in German i had to have the lady there translate for me haha. it was very embarrassing. And then you think that was enough wait till you see my visa picture haha. You'll love it. I used a photobooth thing and i sat down, and the picture was just of my chest because i'm too tall so in the midst of trying to get myself situated it took the picture haha. You'll like it.
3) How is Alice doing? Was her confirmation on Suinday wonderful?
Alice is doing great her confermation was awesome. The whole branch loves her and has just taken her into there arms.
4) His is Dodi coming along? Wouldn't it be so wonderful if you were able to get Dodi and his cousin to join the church before you leave?
So Koffi and Doddi are doing great. We've been getting them rides for church. We taught them tithing yesterday and they accepted. We re schedlued there baptismal date for august 22 the week before i leave. So we are really working with them to prepare. They said they have finally stopped drinking coffee so that is awesome. They are great i can't wait to see them get baptized.
Okay so that was it for the questions now lemme see if i missed anything. So it sounds like HP was fun. Thanks for the update it is always fun to hear a little piece of the world. Nate thanks for the photos my man... that jump was nutsssss. You couldn't of landed that haha. NON CI CREDO! by the way the video you tryed to send didn't work. Jake it looks like your loving the boatin life my friend. I saw those shades!! Are they oakleys! But they family looks awesome. dad it sounds like your very busy lately i'm sorry but i'm sure your tearin it up. Mom thanks for the pics of portsmouth. I really like the tug boat one. But anywho i can't really think of anything else. Oh yeah... PS.. if someone is awake could they send me a picture of LUGANO? I would love that. I'll be on for another 10 minutes! But i love you all thanks soooo much!!!
Vi Voglio Bene!
Ciaooo
Anziano perkes
One Word says it all: WOW!!! [Letter written 7-15-09]
Okay so this has been an amazing and crazyyyyy week.
So lets start off with the BAPTISM!! Wooo. So it was pretty much amazing and made my first 2 transfers and life. Alice got there and she was just beeeeeming! First off we did it in a little tub at a members house out in the country. So we sang a song, then we both hopped in the font. Water... no joke... was up to my knees! Haha i think i recieved some extra back strength for the baptism because i had to bend down far. So Alice the whole time just beeming i said, Maria Alice Monteiro Almeida, essendo stato incaricato da Gesu Cristo Io ti battezzo nel nome del Padre, e del Figlio, e dello Spirito Santo, Amen. It was awesome. So after we changed she bore her testimony aand boy was the spirit just drenching us. She is amazing. She talked about hor her life was in a despair, and then 2 angels knocked on her door and changed her life. She was crying the whole time it was really amazing. And also pretty much the whole branch was there at her baptism supporting and loving her. It also happened to be her birthday that day so we sang her happy birthday and ate cake after!! Okay i have to kinda skip along because i have a lot to reveal haha. So This last week was awesome. Anziano Ransom left last Monday. I'm very tired this week. Sending someone home is very draining haha, with packing cleaning, saying bye to 100's of people. So he left on monday and since then i have been in Reggio Emilia a neighboring area rolling the threesome here. So Tuesday night was transfer calls and i got a call, Anziano Perkes your new companion is Anziano Catalano! Yes you guessed it.... HE IS ITALIAN!!!! Yippeee hahahaha. So like a week ago i was praying to help me do SYL (speaking italian with comp) and the Lord is sending an Italian!! So pretty much bye bye english language...yessss. I am soooo excited he is from Sicily. I go to pick him up tomorrow! So another crazy story. Yesterday i got a call from President..... bum bum bum. He was like... Anziano perkes i have some news for you. Oh boy i totally freaked out haha. So it turns out this next transfer i am going to get transfered to Lugano!!!!!!!!!!!!! That probably means nothing but let me explain. Lugano is 100% switzerland. We have one city in our mission that is across the border and i guess most people speak italian still. It is way up in the alps of Switzerland!! I am sooooo stinkin excited. The reason why he is telling me is because i need to get a visa for there because its a different country and i'll need to be making some trips this next transfer to work on my papers. So wow that was some news huh?? I'm going to the alps in another country!! I have heard that is is just amazing there. I also know that i'll stay there for 4 transfers (6 months). So it is kind of strange knowing i'm getting transfered. It surprisignly has motivated me because i want to leave it all on the court here in Piacenza so i'm way stoked. So it was quite the week this week wow! Only problem is i can't tell anyone but you guys so i am nearly exploding with this giant secret haha. AGHHH LUGANO!! Haha okay i feel better now. You guys should look it up lemme know how it looks haha. So that in a nutshell was my week! Thanks all for the emails i loved them. The pictures of Ed and Beth i loved. They look amazing. How fun for our little ward. So BROOOOOKE!!! Your probably giving birth right now!! hOW IS is my cute little Claire! That is too fun. I'll be praying for you! Haha dad i'm sorry i couldn't come to Harry potter with you. You'll have to let me know how it was haha. Jake and Nate your sports club thing sounds amazing. That is too fun. Take a boat our for alright! Say hi to ya mutha for me ight? Buck and JAYZ!!!! Your having a boy!! Jack i like that name. I think Max might be a bit more manly but Jack is a close second haha! Dad it sounds like your case was way intense. Slap your boss from me okay haha he sounds like a bum. That is too fun you won you stud you! Oh yeah dad i actually don't have Anziano Ransom's phone or address haha.. oops. But i do have his email. Not with me but at home. I think it is curtisransom@gmail.com Don't qoute me on that one though. He should be home now, he's probably sleepin though. So it sounds like life is going great! Thanks for all the emails i loved them. Oh yeah i forgot! Today we went to a cheese factory!! It was soooo sweet. Saw the complete process of Parmegianno made. YUMMY! But anywho i should be going i have a long day today here in Reggio.
Love ya'll!!
Anziano Perkes
So lets start off with the BAPTISM!! Wooo. So it was pretty much amazing and made my first 2 transfers and life. Alice got there and she was just beeeeeming! First off we did it in a little tub at a members house out in the country. So we sang a song, then we both hopped in the font. Water... no joke... was up to my knees! Haha i think i recieved some extra back strength for the baptism because i had to bend down far. So Alice the whole time just beeming i said, Maria Alice Monteiro Almeida, essendo stato incaricato da Gesu Cristo Io ti battezzo nel nome del Padre, e del Figlio, e dello Spirito Santo, Amen. It was awesome. So after we changed she bore her testimony aand boy was the spirit just drenching us. She is amazing. She talked about hor her life was in a despair, and then 2 angels knocked on her door and changed her life. She was crying the whole time it was really amazing. And also pretty much the whole branch was there at her baptism supporting and loving her. It also happened to be her birthday that day so we sang her happy birthday and ate cake after!! Okay i have to kinda skip along because i have a lot to reveal haha. So This last week was awesome. Anziano Ransom left last Monday. I'm very tired this week. Sending someone home is very draining haha, with packing cleaning, saying bye to 100's of people. So he left on monday and since then i have been in Reggio Emilia a neighboring area rolling the threesome here. So Tuesday night was transfer calls and i got a call, Anziano Perkes your new companion is Anziano Catalano! Yes you guessed it.... HE IS ITALIAN!!!! Yippeee hahahaha. So like a week ago i was praying to help me do SYL (speaking italian with comp) and the Lord is sending an Italian!! So pretty much bye bye english language...yessss. I am soooo excited he is from Sicily. I go to pick him up tomorrow! So another crazy story. Yesterday i got a call from President..... bum bum bum. He was like... Anziano perkes i have some news for you. Oh boy i totally freaked out haha. So it turns out this next transfer i am going to get transfered to Lugano!!!!!!!!!!!!! That probably means nothing but let me explain. Lugano is 100% switzerland. We have one city in our mission that is across the border and i guess most people speak italian still. It is way up in the alps of Switzerland!! I am sooooo stinkin excited. The reason why he is telling me is because i need to get a visa for there because its a different country and i'll need to be making some trips this next transfer to work on my papers. So wow that was some news huh?? I'm going to the alps in another country!! I have heard that is is just amazing there. I also know that i'll stay there for 4 transfers (6 months). So it is kind of strange knowing i'm getting transfered. It surprisignly has motivated me because i want to leave it all on the court here in Piacenza so i'm way stoked. So it was quite the week this week wow! Only problem is i can't tell anyone but you guys so i am nearly exploding with this giant secret haha. AGHHH LUGANO!! Haha okay i feel better now. You guys should look it up lemme know how it looks haha. So that in a nutshell was my week! Thanks all for the emails i loved them. The pictures of Ed and Beth i loved. They look amazing. How fun for our little ward. So BROOOOOKE!!! Your probably giving birth right now!! hOW IS is my cute little Claire! That is too fun. I'll be praying for you! Haha dad i'm sorry i couldn't come to Harry potter with you. You'll have to let me know how it was haha. Jake and Nate your sports club thing sounds amazing. That is too fun. Take a boat our for alright! Say hi to ya mutha for me ight? Buck and JAYZ!!!! Your having a boy!! Jack i like that name. I think Max might be a bit more manly but Jack is a close second haha! Dad it sounds like your case was way intense. Slap your boss from me okay haha he sounds like a bum. That is too fun you won you stud you! Oh yeah dad i actually don't have Anziano Ransom's phone or address haha.. oops. But i do have his email. Not with me but at home. I think it is curtisransom@gmail.com Don't qoute me on that one though. He should be home now, he's probably sleepin though. So it sounds like life is going great! Thanks for all the emails i loved them. Oh yeah i forgot! Today we went to a cheese factory!! It was soooo sweet. Saw the complete process of Parmegianno made. YUMMY! But anywho i should be going i have a long day today here in Reggio.
Love ya'll!!
Anziano Perkes
Ciao ciao ciao [Letter written 7-8-09]
Buenos dios!
hello my great family thank you alll so much for the letters they were wonderful! I love all the photos that you sent! Keep them coming i love them. Okay so this last week was very awesome. Last pday after emailing we got the chance to go bowling! It was so fun. We were the only people there so we played a quick 2 games. It reminded me of the good ole sellin days of bowling. I totally beat Anziano Ransom too. They asked for our names and on the screen it said, Lorenzo and Peres haha. So i guess we failed the italian heritage test. They don't use K's here so perkes kinda gives me away every time haha. They are always like.. Anziano Perhezz? Okay so we had interviews this week and Nate and Luisa I GOT YOUR PACKAGE!!! Thank you guys so much your the best i loved it so much! The CD's were perfect!!! The candy was also much appreciated! You guys are too kind thank you so much. So the other day i found this little asian shop and they sell tammarin and passion fruit drinks! So naturally we tried them and there amazing. Anziano Ransom has also had passion fruit so we love getting them. Okay so funny story. We were eating at Alice's house and she cooked viel, and it was amazing. But i was like... i think this is baby cow. So i tried to ask her what kind of meet it was and i said, Che tipo di cane e questo? Which meens what type of DOG is this!! Meet is Carne and not cane. So she started laughing like crazy, she loves when i mess up like this she is very funny. So we all laughed about it over some lovely lunch. Ok so i have some rather dreadful news. I got Bocci'd!!! NOOOOO. That meens some old lady kissed my cheek. I told you before that i never wanted to get bocci'd haha. We just met her and she looked at me and was like... YOUR TALL, stood on her tip toes grabbed my hair and planted one right on me making me bend way over. She had my hair i couldn't excape! Haha it was rather funny, Anziano Ransom said i made quite the face. So we met a man last night name Hugo who works for the CIA. We thought he was crazy at first, but then he turned out to be a genius! He speaks 7 languages and was telling us all about the war and stuff, things you don't see on tv, and then at the end he was like... i probably told you guys too much haha. I asked him what he did for the CIA, and he was like... that is classified. I love when people say that! So cool! So mom i'm going into the CIA when i get home.. sorry! No just kidding. Dad your jury duty sounded so much fun. I love the story of your nun that was there. It reminded me of the movie runaway jury a bit. Is it like that or is that dramatized? I could just picture you sitting there taking down notes about all these crazy hicks, gangsters, and nuns. Ed and Beth sound amazing! What a family! YOu have to send a pic of there baptism to me! Josh i loved your geocache adventures haha your nerds.. .no i'm just kidding it actually sounds very fun. How cool is that, so many people do it. I could just picture matt and james yelling MUGGLES!! Haha what funny kids. Mom thanks so much for the pictures they were great. How fun 4th of july. Here in Piacenza, 4th of July is there biggest holiday. No connection to america at all but they pretty much turn the whole of down town into a giant market it was amazing. I tried taking pictures and it was really hard to capture the grandness of it. By the way mom the reason why my pictures are blurry i think is because i shrink them when i send them, or else it takes a bit longer. Therefore when you blow them up as a screen saver it makes them quite blurry. I'll send one full size, lemme know how it looks compared to the others. Mom thanks so much for brandons email! And yes tyler emailed me back!! he sounds like he is doing great! They have a baptism in 2 weeks. I'm going to email a quick email to brandon today. So Alice....drumroll....... is amazing. Sorry i think you guys already knew that. So she is getting baptized tonight at 8!! The interview went great and she is good to go! We were setting up the program with her and we usually try to have members do the baptism to create bonds, so were like... yeah who do you want to do the baptism, harold can, fratello Bissi, Presidente Maldarizzi, Lorenzo, and she just blurted out. PERKES! So i have the honor of baptizing her tonight! I am very excited, honored and nervous haha. It is in italian so i have to memorize it today. I'm afraid i'll be like... i baptize you for Alice, who is dead or something. I haven't seen a normal baptism for ever!! Haha so it will be awesome. She is very excited. Today is her birthday so were going to call her and sing to her, and then give her acake tonight. So i'll make sure to take lots of pics for you next week, and mom i'll hold my breath. Oh yeah mom, Katherine Alice's daughter is 1. Her husband left her when she became pregnant. Alice has had a very hard life, consisting of overcoming cancer, being hit by a car 5 months ago, brreaking her hip and ribs, and being a single mom. But she is the happiest person i've met truely an example for me. She is from Capo verde which is off the coast of Africa, but she speaks portoguese. Buck you should call her and be like... HI!!! In portoguese of course haha. So I have to hurry today because we have to go fill up the pool and set up chairs, (no font here in piacenza). Nate were using a rubber pool like the ones you used in Africa. But thank you all so much and i hope i didn't forget anything!!
Love ya!!
Anziano Perkes
hello my great family thank you alll so much for the letters they were wonderful! I love all the photos that you sent! Keep them coming i love them. Okay so this last week was very awesome. Last pday after emailing we got the chance to go bowling! It was so fun. We were the only people there so we played a quick 2 games. It reminded me of the good ole sellin days of bowling. I totally beat Anziano Ransom too. They asked for our names and on the screen it said, Lorenzo and Peres haha. So i guess we failed the italian heritage test. They don't use K's here so perkes kinda gives me away every time haha. They are always like.. Anziano Perhezz? Okay so we had interviews this week and Nate and Luisa I GOT YOUR PACKAGE!!! Thank you guys so much your the best i loved it so much! The CD's were perfect!!! The candy was also much appreciated! You guys are too kind thank you so much. So the other day i found this little asian shop and they sell tammarin and passion fruit drinks! So naturally we tried them and there amazing. Anziano Ransom has also had passion fruit so we love getting them. Okay so funny story. We were eating at Alice's house and she cooked viel, and it was amazing. But i was like... i think this is baby cow. So i tried to ask her what kind of meet it was and i said, Che tipo di cane e questo? Which meens what type of DOG is this!! Meet is Carne and not cane. So she started laughing like crazy, she loves when i mess up like this she is very funny. So we all laughed about it over some lovely lunch. Ok so i have some rather dreadful news. I got Bocci'd!!! NOOOOO. That meens some old lady kissed my cheek. I told you before that i never wanted to get bocci'd haha. We just met her and she looked at me and was like... YOUR TALL, stood on her tip toes grabbed my hair and planted one right on me making me bend way over. She had my hair i couldn't excape! Haha it was rather funny, Anziano Ransom said i made quite the face. So we met a man last night name Hugo who works for the CIA. We thought he was crazy at first, but then he turned out to be a genius! He speaks 7 languages and was telling us all about the war and stuff, things you don't see on tv, and then at the end he was like... i probably told you guys too much haha. I asked him what he did for the CIA, and he was like... that is classified. I love when people say that! So cool! So mom i'm going into the CIA when i get home.. sorry! No just kidding. Dad your jury duty sounded so much fun. I love the story of your nun that was there. It reminded me of the movie runaway jury a bit. Is it like that or is that dramatized? I could just picture you sitting there taking down notes about all these crazy hicks, gangsters, and nuns. Ed and Beth sound amazing! What a family! YOu have to send a pic of there baptism to me! Josh i loved your geocache adventures haha your nerds.. .no i'm just kidding it actually sounds very fun. How cool is that, so many people do it. I could just picture matt and james yelling MUGGLES!! Haha what funny kids. Mom thanks so much for the pictures they were great. How fun 4th of july. Here in Piacenza, 4th of July is there biggest holiday. No connection to america at all but they pretty much turn the whole of down town into a giant market it was amazing. I tried taking pictures and it was really hard to capture the grandness of it. By the way mom the reason why my pictures are blurry i think is because i shrink them when i send them, or else it takes a bit longer. Therefore when you blow them up as a screen saver it makes them quite blurry. I'll send one full size, lemme know how it looks compared to the others. Mom thanks so much for brandons email! And yes tyler emailed me back!! he sounds like he is doing great! They have a baptism in 2 weeks. I'm going to email a quick email to brandon today. So Alice....drumroll....... is amazing. Sorry i think you guys already knew that. So she is getting baptized tonight at 8!! The interview went great and she is good to go! We were setting up the program with her and we usually try to have members do the baptism to create bonds, so were like... yeah who do you want to do the baptism, harold can, fratello Bissi, Presidente Maldarizzi, Lorenzo, and she just blurted out. PERKES! So i have the honor of baptizing her tonight! I am very excited, honored and nervous haha. It is in italian so i have to memorize it today. I'm afraid i'll be like... i baptize you for Alice, who is dead or something. I haven't seen a normal baptism for ever!! Haha so it will be awesome. She is very excited. Today is her birthday so were going to call her and sing to her, and then give her acake tonight. So i'll make sure to take lots of pics for you next week, and mom i'll hold my breath. Oh yeah mom, Katherine Alice's daughter is 1. Her husband left her when she became pregnant. Alice has had a very hard life, consisting of overcoming cancer, being hit by a car 5 months ago, brreaking her hip and ribs, and being a single mom. But she is the happiest person i've met truely an example for me. She is from Capo verde which is off the coast of Africa, but she speaks portoguese. Buck you should call her and be like... HI!!! In portoguese of course haha. So I have to hurry today because we have to go fill up the pool and set up chairs, (no font here in piacenza). Nate were using a rubber pool like the ones you used in Africa. But thank you all so much and i hope i didn't forget anything!!
Love ya!!
Anziano Perkes
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
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
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