Friday was very busy. In the morning, we went shopping at Conad to prepare for the dinner after class in the evening and ended up stocking up on a bunch of staples for the Institute, so we drove down with a pretty full car. My wife, who protests that she doesn't cook, is actually quite good when she wants to. She made terrific sloppy joes, which the kids love, and I did the dishes. The crock pot was full of the meat, which I thought was way too much, but once we opened it up for the kids to have seconds, it all disappeared quickly.
Also, the documents for our permesso came in, so we got to spend an hour at the local post office in the morning submitting the application. Fortunately, Sister Paulsen, the mission secretary, drove over to meet us there and shepherd us through the process. Between our Italian and her understanding of the paperwork, it went pretty smoothly. We now have an appointment on December 1st to go get our fingerprints taken at a government office, which is the next step in the process.
After that morning flurry, we were a few minutes late to the Institute for the 1pm opening time. Fortunately, it didn't matter much because there was a public transportation strike until 12:30pm, so nobody showed up for a while. Driving is getting much less stressful, as I'm getting a bit better sense of direction and things are looking familiar. Google Maps seems to take a slightly different route each time, which is both good and bad. Give us another week or two and it may even become routine. My wife holds her cell phone in her hand and tells me what to be expecting, as there almost every street here has continual twists and turns; she is getting very good at it. Often to stay on the same street means veering off in one direction, even though there's a road that continues straight. I have no idea how it was possible to navigate without GPS in the "good old days"!
I also found a hardware store downtown near the Institute and made copies of a couple of keys, one for the outside door of our apartment and one for the gate at the Institute, so that we can each have a copy. My wife also started inventorying things in the kitchen at the Institute and rearranging them so she knows where everything is. She's quite good at that kind of thing. This morning (Saturday) we did the same kind of thing in our kitchen at the apartment, and it's starting to feel like home. We also cut some final ties to the US for the duration, cancelling auto insurance and health insurance. So we're all in!😊
Ugo taught the Institute lesson (in Italian) last night on the first chapters of the Book of Mormon. The room was packed, about 16 kids, plus some of us missionaries, which was a great turnout. He always makes things fun, as well as being spiritual and thought provoking, and he got a lot of interaction going. We will end up substituting for him when he's out of town, and our Italian will obviously be nowhere near as facile as his, but we love to teach. School is back in session and some kids are just home from missions, so hopefully our attendance will continue higher than recently over the summer. Almost all the kids hung around after we left for home at 9:30pm. They love being together, and there was a lot of good energy there.
Last
night we both slept well, me without any cold meds for the first time
in about two weeks. My wife was able to sleep in our bed without
coughing on minimal meds -- she had been sleeping propped up on the
couch in the living room since we got here because her coughing was
often bad at night. So we're almost better. I am really looking forward to not having to discuss our health status!
Today we need to shop for a few days worth of stuff, because Monday there's a big zone conference which will take up the whole morning. This afternoon and tomorrow the kids will be gathering to watch General Conference sessions at the Institute, and we'll be there with them. Due to the time difference, we view previous sessions in the morning and afternoon, then watch the morning sessions live at 6pm here. Of course, Sunday afternoon between two recorded sessions, there is a full meal with baked pasta by Ugo. It is always wonderful to receive spiritual counsel from church leaders.
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Thursday, September 28, 2017
Busy Thursday
This morning I went to a doctor as a followup to last week's incident, because I've still been feeling kinda weak each morning. We discussed what had happened and my personal and family health history, then she took my BP and did an EKG. Everything looks normal, so she thinks that, as suspected, I simply fainted from a confluence of factors. However, she recommended that I get a couple more tests just to put everything to rest, so we'll try to schedule that sometime soon.
With yet another trip to the cell phone carrier stores, we finally got our US cell phones fully working with Italian SIM cards. They had been working for phone calls and texting, but not for data. It just took a small configuration change to the APN (Access Point Name). All is now well, so we can now access internet anywhere, including Google Maps while driving. With that done, we cancelled our Verizon numbers which had been expensive for the last week. It's interesting that Vodafone won't accept a US credit card for autopay, so we apparently have to go into the store each month to pay my wife's bill (I have a SIM card issued by the mission); not a big deal since it's right next to the big Target-like store (Auchan) where we'll go regularly. This type of store didn't exist in Italy in the seventies! We also cancelled our auto insurance since we no longer own any cars.
This afternoon was our first weekly Institute council meeting, with us, Ugo, the young elders assigned here, and three of the student leaders. We discussed upcoming activities and logistics, which helped the two of us come up to speed on what's happening. These kids are awesome. One of them, Oscar, is majoring in Electrical Engineering at the Sapienza University here nearby, which has over 100K students, and he wants some help with math, physics, and electronics courses, which I will happily provide. He served his mission in England, and his English is excellent.
My wife made some wonderful snickerdoodle cookies which were very well received! She is a woman of many talents. I did the dishes. We are really having fun together, laughing at lots of stuff. Her navigation skills using Google Maps are (surprisingly) good, but she says she has a great incentive -- keeping us alive! Tonight would normally be a Book of Mormon class in English, but possibly no one is coming, so we may get to go home early.
Last night and today I finally had time to prepare one of my vegan bowls with rice, beans, and chopped veggies. Today I brought my prepared bowl to the Institute and kept it in the fridge until dinner, when I zapped it in the microwave. It was wonderful to have some of my normal fare, so hopefully I can keep up the routine.
Just around the corner from our apartment are a bunch of stores, including a nice grocery store (Conad), an Italian post office, and a fun little "Chinese" store, which is what the Thackers called it because the proprietors are Chinese. It has tightly packed aisles with all kinds of stuff, from suitcases to tools to electronics to home goods to stationery.
We are still waiting for paperwork to apply for our permesso di soggiorno ("permission to stay") documents, which is basically an extended visa. The woman from the government who normally handles the paperwork in Milan is out of town, so it has been delayed. Apparently we need to get the application in very soon, but that's difficult because they haven't provided us the proper forms yet. Possibly it will be done by tomorrow, so we'll see if we have to run around to get everything finalized.
With yet another trip to the cell phone carrier stores, we finally got our US cell phones fully working with Italian SIM cards. They had been working for phone calls and texting, but not for data. It just took a small configuration change to the APN (Access Point Name). All is now well, so we can now access internet anywhere, including Google Maps while driving. With that done, we cancelled our Verizon numbers which had been expensive for the last week. It's interesting that Vodafone won't accept a US credit card for autopay, so we apparently have to go into the store each month to pay my wife's bill (I have a SIM card issued by the mission); not a big deal since it's right next to the big Target-like store (Auchan) where we'll go regularly. This type of store didn't exist in Italy in the seventies! We also cancelled our auto insurance since we no longer own any cars.
This afternoon was our first weekly Institute council meeting, with us, Ugo, the young elders assigned here, and three of the student leaders. We discussed upcoming activities and logistics, which helped the two of us come up to speed on what's happening. These kids are awesome. One of them, Oscar, is majoring in Electrical Engineering at the Sapienza University here nearby, which has over 100K students, and he wants some help with math, physics, and electronics courses, which I will happily provide. He served his mission in England, and his English is excellent.
My wife made some wonderful snickerdoodle cookies which were very well received! She is a woman of many talents. I did the dishes. We are really having fun together, laughing at lots of stuff. Her navigation skills using Google Maps are (surprisingly) good, but she says she has a great incentive -- keeping us alive! Tonight would normally be a Book of Mormon class in English, but possibly no one is coming, so we may get to go home early.
Last night and today I finally had time to prepare one of my vegan bowls with rice, beans, and chopped veggies. Today I brought my prepared bowl to the Institute and kept it in the fridge until dinner, when I zapped it in the microwave. It was wonderful to have some of my normal fare, so hopefully I can keep up the routine.
Just around the corner from our apartment are a bunch of stores, including a nice grocery store (Conad), an Italian post office, and a fun little "Chinese" store, which is what the Thackers called it because the proprietors are Chinese. It has tightly packed aisles with all kinds of stuff, from suitcases to tools to electronics to home goods to stationery.
We are still waiting for paperwork to apply for our permesso di soggiorno ("permission to stay") documents, which is basically an extended visa. The woman from the government who normally handles the paperwork in Milan is out of town, so it has been delayed. Apparently we need to get the application in very soon, but that's difficult because they haven't provided us the proper forms yet. Possibly it will be done by tomorrow, so we'll see if we have to run around to get everything finalized.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
A blessed day off
Wednesday was a much-needed day off for us. The Spragues manned the Institute, so we were able to do all kinds of shopping and errands to get things more organized around the apartment. For example, we bought some padded floor mats and some larger trash cans. I also was able to catch up on some paperwork, including scanning a bunch of docs on our all-in-one HP printer. Sometime soon, when we have more energy, I need to post some photos of our place and our car.
We do seem to be getting better slowly. My wife slept 10 hours -- she was completely exhausted the night before, so that was wonderful. We are both still coughing some and are running out of cough meds from home; we haven't found an effective replacement here yet, so hopefully we will have more luck trying something else from the pharmacy today.
Looking forward to getting back to work.
We do seem to be getting better slowly. My wife slept 10 hours -- she was completely exhausted the night before, so that was wonderful. We are both still coughing some and are running out of cough meds from home; we haven't found an effective replacement here yet, so hopefully we will have more luck trying something else from the pharmacy today.
Looking forward to getting back to work.
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Taco Tuesday
The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here, by the way. The high is in the mid-70s, and the low is in the mid-50s. Today was our first day driving to and from the Institute ourselves. I gave up on trying the route used by the Thackers -- too many turns to keep in mind. We simply used Google Maps on my wife's phone, and it worked well enough. Much simpler in my estimation, but still Italian driving which will take some getting used to. I was a bit stressed, but my wife was wonderfully helpful as co-navigator. We laughed rather than get upset when things went wrong, which can be painful with our coughing and my sore chest.
In the morning, when we woke up, power seemed to be out in our apartment. I was heading down to the basement to try the master circuit breaker, when my wife by reflex turned on an overhead light switch, which worked. I was puzzled because I didn't know about any subpanel, but a call to Elder Thacker pointed us to it right by the front door. Flipping the breaker brought everything back on. Whew! We had to re-run part of the washer cycle which had been cut off, but otherwise no big problem. Before heading downtown, we did some quick grocery shopping not far from home, which was also our first time going that direction on our own. Only one wrong turn, and now I think I have that down.
Today was our first Taco Tuesday lunch. The Thackers told us how it should go, and my wife makes great taco hamburger meat with onions. The kids each take a tortilla, get the meat (we have to portion it out or they'll take huge amounts), and then add their own selection of tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, chips, and beans. There were about half a dozen kids present, plus the young missionaries. My main contribution was doing the dishes afterwards. Here's a photo:
In the evening there were English classes for the public, taught by the young elders and sisters, a small choir class, and an Institute class taught by Ugo, with about a dozen kids in the room and maybe more than that online using Zoom. Because the place was well staffed, Ugo let us go a bit early tonight, which we really appreciated because we're still suffering from fatigue and sickness, but it is getting better slowly.
Tomorrow we get the day off, as the Spragues (another senior couple) will cover for us at the Institute. We plan to sleep without alarms and do some shopping to stock up a bit and get a few things to organize the apartment the way we'd like. There's also a bunch of paperwork we need to catch up on.
It was a good day. These kids are amazing. They love the Savior, and it's a joy to be with them and hear their stories.
In the morning, when we woke up, power seemed to be out in our apartment. I was heading down to the basement to try the master circuit breaker, when my wife by reflex turned on an overhead light switch, which worked. I was puzzled because I didn't know about any subpanel, but a call to Elder Thacker pointed us to it right by the front door. Flipping the breaker brought everything back on. Whew! We had to re-run part of the washer cycle which had been cut off, but otherwise no big problem. Before heading downtown, we did some quick grocery shopping not far from home, which was also our first time going that direction on our own. Only one wrong turn, and now I think I have that down.
Today was our first Taco Tuesday lunch. The Thackers told us how it should go, and my wife makes great taco hamburger meat with onions. The kids each take a tortilla, get the meat (we have to portion it out or they'll take huge amounts), and then add their own selection of tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, chips, and beans. There were about half a dozen kids present, plus the young missionaries. My main contribution was doing the dishes afterwards. Here's a photo:
Tomorrow we get the day off, as the Spragues (another senior couple) will cover for us at the Institute. We plan to sleep without alarms and do some shopping to stock up a bit and get a few things to organize the apartment the way we'd like. There's also a bunch of paperwork we need to catch up on.
It was a good day. These kids are amazing. They love the Savior, and it's a joy to be with them and hear their stories.
Monday, September 25, 2017
It's all ours now
The Thackers have finished their last day at the Institute, so it's all up to us now. The scariest part is driving there and back! We now have a mission car, but the roads in Rome are completely nuts. There's no straight way to get there. The way the Thackers like best involves many twists and turns. The worst part is the the bus/taxi lane, which you can get a ticket for using, are very poorly marked; the paint marking the lane is faint and looks like it's decades old. Even worse, the lanes keep changing sides: sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right, sometimes merged. I drove the route once as a passenger, and once as a driver, and it is very confusing. We have a GPS, which is not not up to the rigors of these roads! Tomorrow, without the Thackers to guide us, I estimate we'll take about a dozen wrong turns.
Back to yesterday: my wife woke up tired, coughing, and wheezing, and probably had a fever during the night. She sounded absolutely horrible. The mission nurse came over and said perhaps she should go to the ER (more like US UrgentCare clinics apparently). When you're sick, going to the doctor can be so tiring that sometimes it's not too appealing. The nurse also said she might be able to shake it herself with rest, tylenol and lots of fluids. So she opted to stay home from church and sleep, which she did for maybe four more hours. After that, she felt and sounded much better. Hopefully she's on the mend. We both slept fairly well last night for the first time in almost a week. I felt pretty good yesterday, but weak today, so I may go the doctor later in the week. Sorry that this blog seems to be all about health -- or lack thereof -- but these two weeks have been horrible medically and very unusual for us.
Sunday my wife missed a real treat. I got to attend church in our new ward, where Ugo Perego is bishop. It's a very small but interesting ward, with some Italians, a few Americans, and a number of foreigners, mostly from South America and Africa. The best part is that after church the Perego's 8-year old son, Sam, was baptized. Thus, his grandmother Raffaela Perego, Ugo's mom and one of our dearest friends in Italy, was in town for the event from up north, so I got to see her:
Here's a photo of me with the whole family at the baptism:
All the meetings were wonderful, full of the spirit, all in Italian. In typical Italian style, after the baptism they had a big lunch, so almost the entire congregation stayed two hours after church for the event and food:
After that, Ugo dropped me back at the apartment, where I took it easy for an hour or so -- jet lag was really kicking in, but I managed to stay awake all day.
We got to meet almost all the kids, but we don't have all the names down yet. It was late when we got home, but well worth it.
Today we went into the mission office, read and signed some docs to get the car, got an Italian SIM card for my phone, and then spent the entire afternoon and evening down at the Institute, which will become our routine. Tonight was Family Home Evening, where Elder Thacker gave a 20-minute lesson on making correct choices ahead of time instead of on the spur of the moment, followed by games and treats. Nobody wanted to leave -- we had to push them out the door, which is a good thing.
We also got our photo taken in front of the Rome temple, still under construction:
So, starting tomorrow, the Institute is all ours. Gulp. We have big shoes to fill, but we will love these kids, hopefully as much as the Thackers have done.
Back to yesterday: my wife woke up tired, coughing, and wheezing, and probably had a fever during the night. She sounded absolutely horrible. The mission nurse came over and said perhaps she should go to the ER (more like US UrgentCare clinics apparently). When you're sick, going to the doctor can be so tiring that sometimes it's not too appealing. The nurse also said she might be able to shake it herself with rest, tylenol and lots of fluids. So she opted to stay home from church and sleep, which she did for maybe four more hours. After that, she felt and sounded much better. Hopefully she's on the mend. We both slept fairly well last night for the first time in almost a week. I felt pretty good yesterday, but weak today, so I may go the doctor later in the week. Sorry that this blog seems to be all about health -- or lack thereof -- but these two weeks have been horrible medically and very unusual for us.
Sunday my wife missed a real treat. I got to attend church in our new ward, where Ugo Perego is bishop. It's a very small but interesting ward, with some Italians, a few Americans, and a number of foreigners, mostly from South America and Africa. The best part is that after church the Perego's 8-year old son, Sam, was baptized. Thus, his grandmother Raffaela Perego, Ugo's mom and one of our dearest friends in Italy, was in town for the event from up north, so I got to see her:
In the evening, we had a surprise farewell party for the Thackers at the Institute. There were over 35 young people there to wish them well, and we managed quite a surprise: they drove us down, and we had to concoct a story about the event being delayed because they wanted to be there too early for the surprise to work. It's clear that all the kids there adore them, and we saw how much they love the kids in return. There were tons of hugs, laughs, tears and tributes.
We got to meet almost all the kids, but we don't have all the names down yet. It was late when we got home, but well worth it.
Today we went into the mission office, read and signed some docs to get the car, got an Italian SIM card for my phone, and then spent the entire afternoon and evening down at the Institute, which will become our routine. Tonight was Family Home Evening, where Elder Thacker gave a 20-minute lesson on making correct choices ahead of time instead of on the spur of the moment, followed by games and treats. Nobody wanted to leave -- we had to push them out the door, which is a good thing.
We also got our photo taken in front of the Rome temple, still under construction:
Sunday, September 24, 2017
First Sunday
I never promised that I would blog every day, though I had done so every day thus far. Yesterday was a wonderful and busy day, but we got home late from the Institute, as will be common, and we were too tired to even try to blog. It'll be interesting to see how often I end up posting as we get into a rhythm. We have to leave now (Monday morning) for another full day. Perhaps I will have some down time in the afternoon for an entry.
Saturday, September 23, 2017
First full day in Rome
We each slept a bit last night, but not enough. This morning I felt very weak and still a bit woozy, with lots of pain in my chest from the CPR. There's one intercostal spot in particular that feels a bit depressed and is painful to the touch, so it was hard to get a deep breath. By afternoon, however, I started feeling much better. My wife is actually in worse shape than I am now, still exhausted, with runny nose and coughing, and feeling sick to her stomach tonight. Hopefully a good rest, after staying awake all day, will help us both get on track tomorrow.
The Thackers, the couple we are replacing, took us down to the mission office in the morning. There we met President Pickerd, who spent a bunch of time to orient us as a senior missionary couple. Then he took all of us to lunch (not vegan for me!). After that, the Thackers took us to the mall where we changed the apartment internet connection to my credit card and went to Auchan, a huge store like Target or Walmart on steroids, then to Lidl, where they buy most of their groceries. We checked off a bunch of things from our need-to-buy list. It was so kind of them: this was their final P-day, when they could have been doing lots of other things, but they used it to help us figure things out. Here's a photo of us with the Thackers:
This evening we went to a BBQ with all of the senior missionary couples in Rome, at the home of the Paulsens, who serve as mission secretary and financial officer. The occasion was to honor the Thackers, who finish their mission next week. It was nice to meet everyone. Here's a photo of the group:
Our first order from amazon.it (Dee's hair dryer, and a Waterpik-like device) arrived at the office yesterday, and we picked it up tonight. Awesome.
Wish us good luck for a long and restful sleep tonight!
The Thackers, the couple we are replacing, took us down to the mission office in the morning. There we met President Pickerd, who spent a bunch of time to orient us as a senior missionary couple. Then he took all of us to lunch (not vegan for me!). After that, the Thackers took us to the mall where we changed the apartment internet connection to my credit card and went to Auchan, a huge store like Target or Walmart on steroids, then to Lidl, where they buy most of their groceries. We checked off a bunch of things from our need-to-buy list. It was so kind of them: this was their final P-day, when they could have been doing lots of other things, but they used it to help us figure things out. Here's a photo of us with the Thackers:
This evening we went to a BBQ with all of the senior missionary couples in Rome, at the home of the Paulsens, who serve as mission secretary and financial officer. The occasion was to honor the Thackers, who finish their mission next week. It was nice to meet everyone. Here's a photo of the group:
Wish us good luck for a long and restful sleep tonight!
Friday, September 22, 2017
Drama in the sky
Wednesday when we each got a Priesthood blessing, I joked that the elders should bless us to survive the trip, given how sick we were with a cold. Little did I know that might actually be an important part of the blessing!
From Detroit we departed on time, and I went right to sleep and missed dinner. After about 6 hours, I woke up and asked my wife to let me out to the aisle so I could go to the bathroom. A few rows down I started feeling very lightheaded. The next thing I knew I was on the floor with my shirt half off, staring at the ceiling surrounded by medical personnel -- there happened to be two nurses and a young ER doctor in that area of the plane. I was rather disoriented, as you can imagine. The doctor said that when he got to me, I wasn't breathing and had no pulse, so he started CPR for five compressions. I came to almost immediately, and he said that I probably did that on my own, so he apologized for how sore my chest would be in coming days. Not sure exactly how long I was on the floor, probably around an hour. They gave me juice to drink and let me lay there. My vitals seemed ok, but I was in no condition to get up for a while. Finally they had me sit up in a seat right next to where I fell -- the couple sitting there switched seats with us -- where I remained for the rest of the flight. The pilot later said that they were charting a course to land at the nearest suitable airport in France, but after I stabilized they decided that they could make it to Rome, which was just over an hour away by then.
Everyone was so nice and helpful, offering their seats, blankets, and pillows, etc. The doctor said he thinks it was a perfect storm: lack of sleep, being dehydrated, not having eaten much all day, sitting for hours in a cramped position, recovering from a cold, and the fact that I had also been at some altitude in Provo. Also, I recalled that the night before, in the chaos of packing, I had inadvertently taken my BP-lowering medication, which I normally take in the morning, so I had doubled up on that. I have been known to faint in the past (the last time was over 8 years ago, due to a cold and being at altitude), so it all kinda fit.
Once we got to the airport, we waited until everyone had deplaned and then I was able to walk off slowly on my own power. The airport staff offered to call the paramedics to take me to a hospital, but, after discussing things with the doctor, we agreed that I could go as long as they put me in a wheelchair to conserve my strength. So an airport employee named Ugo wheeled me a very long way through passport check (we got to skip the line!), luggage pickup, and customs, where the Thackers were waiting for us. My wife had called them from the plane when we landed, and I'm sure we caused some concern with them and the mission staff. I spoke with the mission president on the phone from the car, and he ordered me to take it easy and skip everything planned for today, which was wise. The Thackers took us straight to our apartment, which they just vacated, and we slept like logs for 2-3 hours; they actually rang the doorbell when they came back with some groceries for us, but we didn't hear anything. The mission nurse, who lives in our apartment complex, came by to check up on my after I awoke. We'll meet with the President tomorrow morning.
During all this, my wife was not feeling well herself, partly because of the cold, but probably more so because she had had so little sleep the past few nights. However, during the drama she didn't let on, so they could focus on me. She slept even longer and sounder than I did. Hopefully we can get a good sleep tonight and start to get over jet lag, but we both still feel cruddy. Yes, my chest does hurt, especially when I laugh, and it will probably be worse tomorrow.
When Ugo got our luggage for us, he said that he was going to turn me over to somebody else to take me out to the car, so I reached in my pocket to give him a 20-euro tip and say thanks. Later I realized that I had given him 50 euros (about $60) -- no wonder he was so effusive! He proceeded to go all the way to the car with us, which was quite a hike. I guess I was pretty out of it 😊
As far as health goes, this mission has been terrible so far, but it can only go up from here! More about the apartment and other stuff in coming days -- this is enough excitement for one post.
From Detroit we departed on time, and I went right to sleep and missed dinner. After about 6 hours, I woke up and asked my wife to let me out to the aisle so I could go to the bathroom. A few rows down I started feeling very lightheaded. The next thing I knew I was on the floor with my shirt half off, staring at the ceiling surrounded by medical personnel -- there happened to be two nurses and a young ER doctor in that area of the plane. I was rather disoriented, as you can imagine. The doctor said that when he got to me, I wasn't breathing and had no pulse, so he started CPR for five compressions. I came to almost immediately, and he said that I probably did that on my own, so he apologized for how sore my chest would be in coming days. Not sure exactly how long I was on the floor, probably around an hour. They gave me juice to drink and let me lay there. My vitals seemed ok, but I was in no condition to get up for a while. Finally they had me sit up in a seat right next to where I fell -- the couple sitting there switched seats with us -- where I remained for the rest of the flight. The pilot later said that they were charting a course to land at the nearest suitable airport in France, but after I stabilized they decided that they could make it to Rome, which was just over an hour away by then.
Everyone was so nice and helpful, offering their seats, blankets, and pillows, etc. The doctor said he thinks it was a perfect storm: lack of sleep, being dehydrated, not having eaten much all day, sitting for hours in a cramped position, recovering from a cold, and the fact that I had also been at some altitude in Provo. Also, I recalled that the night before, in the chaos of packing, I had inadvertently taken my BP-lowering medication, which I normally take in the morning, so I had doubled up on that. I have been known to faint in the past (the last time was over 8 years ago, due to a cold and being at altitude), so it all kinda fit.
Once we got to the airport, we waited until everyone had deplaned and then I was able to walk off slowly on my own power. The airport staff offered to call the paramedics to take me to a hospital, but, after discussing things with the doctor, we agreed that I could go as long as they put me in a wheelchair to conserve my strength. So an airport employee named Ugo wheeled me a very long way through passport check (we got to skip the line!), luggage pickup, and customs, where the Thackers were waiting for us. My wife had called them from the plane when we landed, and I'm sure we caused some concern with them and the mission staff. I spoke with the mission president on the phone from the car, and he ordered me to take it easy and skip everything planned for today, which was wise. The Thackers took us straight to our apartment, which they just vacated, and we slept like logs for 2-3 hours; they actually rang the doorbell when they came back with some groceries for us, but we didn't hear anything. The mission nurse, who lives in our apartment complex, came by to check up on my after I awoke. We'll meet with the President tomorrow morning.
During all this, my wife was not feeling well herself, partly because of the cold, but probably more so because she had had so little sleep the past few nights. However, during the drama she didn't let on, so they could focus on me. She slept even longer and sounder than I did. Hopefully we can get a good sleep tonight and start to get over jet lag, but we both still feel cruddy. Yes, my chest does hurt, especially when I laugh, and it will probably be worse tomorrow.
When Ugo got our luggage for us, he said that he was going to turn me over to somebody else to take me out to the car, so I reached in my pocket to give him a 20-euro tip and say thanks. Later I realized that I had given him 50 euros (about $60) -- no wonder he was so effusive! He proceeded to go all the way to the car with us, which was quite a hike. I guess I was pretty out of it 😊
As far as health goes, this mission has been terrible so far, but it can only go up from here! More about the apartment and other stuff in coming days -- this is enough excitement for one post.
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Goodbye Provo. Who needs sleep?
It has been a crazy day so far, not in a great way. When we last saw our intrepid senior couple, they were packing their suitcases, weighing them with the portable luggage scale from Amazon, which works very well. It's a little challenging working in a small room -- only one of us could pack at a time. We also tried to balance things across our two big suitcases, so that if one of them doesn't arrive promptly, we'd still be ok, more or less. For example, I made sure to put half of my socks, underwear, short/long-sleeve shirts, and slacks in each suitcase, plus one suit in each one. Of course, if the suitcase with the toiletries bag gets lost, that's more difficult, but you get the idea.
my wife's cough kept getting worse, even after she took the Delsym cough syrup, which has always worked great to me, apparently not so much for her. Her Afrin spray bottle also seems to have gone bad, in the sense that it didn't let her breathe. We got to bed fairly early, knowing it would be a short night, but her coughing really didn't let her sleep much, if at all. Even though I had my earplugs in, I couldn't sleep well either. By about 2am it was getting to the point where we considered just postponing the trip, but of course that has all kinds of downsides. So, we got up at 2:30am, showered and dressed, then called the MTC security shuttle, which took us to a 24-hour CVS pharmacy in Provo. There we bought Tussin DM caplets, Afrin, cough drops, decongestants, face masks, etc. As senior missionaries we are always supposed to wear our name tags in public, but we joked that, if she was coughing constantly on the plane, we should take them off to not put the church in a bad light. 😉
Anyway, the drugs helped a bit, but there was no more sleep for the night. We finished packing and did some final shuffling of suitcase contents until all four were within half a pound of the 50-point limit. On the airport,scale, all four of them measured exactly 50 pounds -- no decimal point, so it was rounded. Are we good, or what?
We went out at 5:15am to meet the shuttle, which arrived promptly and amazingly could hold all six of our suitcases, plus two more small ones from other passengers. We arrived at the airport three hours ahead of time, fairly groggy. Fortunately, we were able to sleep some on the flight to Detroit, and my wife is doing a little better. I'm really feeling quite a bit better. Hopefully we can zonk out over the Atlantic. Our flight for Rome leaves in just over two hours, and we are parked at the gate.
I sent an email yesterday to the Thackers, the couple we are replacing at the Institute, telling them of our health woes and that we might not be in shape to do all (or any) of what they had on the program for tomorrow. Elder Thacker wrote back saying it was all cool, with a new beatitude: "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape."
Our next post will be from Rome!
my wife's cough kept getting worse, even after she took the Delsym cough syrup, which has always worked great to me, apparently not so much for her. Her Afrin spray bottle also seems to have gone bad, in the sense that it didn't let her breathe. We got to bed fairly early, knowing it would be a short night, but her coughing really didn't let her sleep much, if at all. Even though I had my earplugs in, I couldn't sleep well either. By about 2am it was getting to the point where we considered just postponing the trip, but of course that has all kinds of downsides. So, we got up at 2:30am, showered and dressed, then called the MTC security shuttle, which took us to a 24-hour CVS pharmacy in Provo. There we bought Tussin DM caplets, Afrin, cough drops, decongestants, face masks, etc. As senior missionaries we are always supposed to wear our name tags in public, but we joked that, if she was coughing constantly on the plane, we should take them off to not put the church in a bad light. 😉
Anyway, the drugs helped a bit, but there was no more sleep for the night. We finished packing and did some final shuffling of suitcase contents until all four were within half a pound of the 50-point limit. On the airport,scale, all four of them measured exactly 50 pounds -- no decimal point, so it was rounded. Are we good, or what?
We went out at 5:15am to meet the shuttle, which arrived promptly and amazingly could hold all six of our suitcases, plus two more small ones from other passengers. We arrived at the airport three hours ahead of time, fairly groggy. Fortunately, we were able to sleep some on the flight to Detroit, and my wife is doing a little better. I'm really feeling quite a bit better. Hopefully we can zonk out over the Atlantic. Our flight for Rome leaves in just over two hours, and we are parked at the gate.
I sent an email yesterday to the Thackers, the couple we are replacing at the Institute, telling them of our health woes and that we might not be in shape to do all (or any) of what they had on the program for tomorrow. Elder Thacker wrote back saying it was all cool, with a new beatitude: "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape."
Our next post will be from Rome!
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Final day at MTC
Today was our final day of classes at the MTC. We focused on how to work well with local leaders, instead of showing up and taking over. The CES Senior Missionary Coordinators also came and gave an inspirational message about how we will touch lives and be blessed for serving, using the story in Acts 9 about Saul's conversion as somewhat of an analogy. In the afternoon, we had a one hour presentation on the BYU-Idaho Pathway program, which is an online way to work toward a degree with very inexpensive tuition -- the hope is that we can point some of our YSA kids that way when appropriate.
By 2pm we were done, so we did laundry and called three of our kids (one more to go tonight) to say goodbye before leaving the US. The final shipment from Amazon was supposed to arrive today, but didn't; not a biggie, as it's an unimportant $7 item, but our fear is that they'll try to forward it to Italy somehow and we'll get stuck paying for it. My companion spent a bunch of time on the phone with two USPS offices trying to get it resolved.
Tonight we are packing and weighing suitcases again. So far, so good, but it will be a very early morning, getting up probably around 3am to shower, finalize packing, and be ready for the shuttle at 5:30am for our 9:30-ish flight. Getting up that early actually helps out, because we should be tired enough to sleep well on the overnight flight to Rome.
Dee has been really sick with a cold all day. As we say, she is "draggin' her wagon", but she's been a trooper, though she did skip most of the last hour to get some rest. At lunchtime we each got a Priesthood blessing to help us to be well enough to travel tomorrow. She feels a little better, and I feel much better tonight, though we aren't over it yet. Hopefully the very long day tomorrow will go ok for us, despite our colds.
We are really excited to take off for our destination. It's kinda scary to contemplate sometimes -- so many changes await us so quickly -- but this is what we've wanted to do for so long. We love serving the Lord.
By 2pm we were done, so we did laundry and called three of our kids (one more to go tonight) to say goodbye before leaving the US. The final shipment from Amazon was supposed to arrive today, but didn't; not a biggie, as it's an unimportant $7 item, but our fear is that they'll try to forward it to Italy somehow and we'll get stuck paying for it. My companion spent a bunch of time on the phone with two USPS offices trying to get it resolved.
Tonight we are packing and weighing suitcases again. So far, so good, but it will be a very early morning, getting up probably around 3am to shower, finalize packing, and be ready for the shuttle at 5:30am for our 9:30-ish flight. Getting up that early actually helps out, because we should be tired enough to sleep well on the overnight flight to Rome.
Dee has been really sick with a cold all day. As we say, she is "draggin' her wagon", but she's been a trooper, though she did skip most of the last hour to get some rest. At lunchtime we each got a Priesthood blessing to help us to be well enough to travel tomorrow. She feels a little better, and I feel much better tonight, though we aren't over it yet. Hopefully the very long day tomorrow will go ok for us, despite our colds.
We are really excited to take off for our destination. It's kinda scary to contemplate sometimes -- so many changes await us so quickly -- but this is what we've wanted to do for so long. We love serving the Lord.
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Second day of S&I training (on the mend?)
My cold is actually doing quite a bit better: breathing without meds, not using much kleenex, but my energy is still a bit low and there was one afternoon application of cough syrup. Meanwhile my companion seems to be coming down with it (again?). Perhaps we need to get out of Utah to get healthy!
One reader asked how we were able to obtain 18 months worth of prescriptions to take with us. It's a good question, so here goes. We really liked the idea of not having to figure out how to find a doctor and fill prescriptions over there. For senior missionaries serving abroad, the church offers a very reasonably priced international health insurance policy from Aetna, which pays for up to one year's worth of prescriptions before departing. Once the Aetna policy was in place (Aug 1 in our case), we asked our doctors to write one-year prescriptions and filled them via the Aetna card at our pharmacy of choice. Our doctors didn't give us any hassle about that, since we had explained what we were doing. Once we got one year's worth filled, we then asked our doctors to submit another six month's worth of prescriptions to be paid for out of pocket. Fortunately, Costco is really cheap for most prescriptions without insurance -- I've learned that over the years because I have one prescription not covered by insurance (it's about 10x cheaper at Costco than at CVS). Problem solved, fairly inexpensively. Note that this whole exercise wouldn't have been necessary if we were to serve in the US, as is true with a good portion of our mission preparations.
Today we spent the full day (8am - 3:30pm) in S&I training, talking about how to prepare lessons, make the classroom a welcoming and safe environment for our students, and even preparing and teaching a brief lesson from the scriptures to another couple. It's stuff we mostly know, but it's always good to get fresh ideas from other teachers.
At the end of our class time, we had someone from church security talk to us for an hour about how to be safe as missionaries. They covered lots of different topics, and we got some good pointers out of it.
Tonight was the weekly MTC devotional with a General Authority of the church. They don't announce ahead of time who it will be, but tonight it was Elder Quentin L. Cook, one of the twelve apostles of our church, and his wife -- kind of a big deal for us Mormons. He told several touching/funny stories about his mission companions in England in the early 1960s, then he challenged the missionaries to love their companions, the people, their mission president, and the Lord. At the end he bore a very strong testimony of the fact that Jesus Christ lives today. It was a spiritual feast.
One reader asked how we were able to obtain 18 months worth of prescriptions to take with us. It's a good question, so here goes. We really liked the idea of not having to figure out how to find a doctor and fill prescriptions over there. For senior missionaries serving abroad, the church offers a very reasonably priced international health insurance policy from Aetna, which pays for up to one year's worth of prescriptions before departing. Once the Aetna policy was in place (Aug 1 in our case), we asked our doctors to write one-year prescriptions and filled them via the Aetna card at our pharmacy of choice. Our doctors didn't give us any hassle about that, since we had explained what we were doing. Once we got one year's worth filled, we then asked our doctors to submit another six month's worth of prescriptions to be paid for out of pocket. Fortunately, Costco is really cheap for most prescriptions without insurance -- I've learned that over the years because I have one prescription not covered by insurance (it's about 10x cheaper at Costco than at CVS). Problem solved, fairly inexpensively. Note that this whole exercise wouldn't have been necessary if we were to serve in the US, as is true with a good portion of our mission preparations.
Today we spent the full day (8am - 3:30pm) in S&I training, talking about how to prepare lessons, make the classroom a welcoming and safe environment for our students, and even preparing and teaching a brief lesson from the scriptures to another couple. It's stuff we mostly know, but it's always good to get fresh ideas from other teachers.
At the end of our class time, we had someone from church security talk to us for an hour about how to be safe as missionaries. They covered lots of different topics, and we got some good pointers out of it.
Tonight was the weekly MTC devotional with a General Authority of the church. They don't announce ahead of time who it will be, but tonight it was Elder Quentin L. Cook, one of the twelve apostles of our church, and his wife -- kind of a big deal for us Mormons. He told several touching/funny stories about his mission companions in England in the early 1960s, then he challenged the missionaries to love their companions, the people, their mission president, and the Lord. At the end he bore a very strong testimony of the fact that Jesus Christ lives today. It was a spiritual feast.
Monday, September 18, 2017
First day of S&I training
It is a very small world. Today at breakfast we sat down next to a small group of young missionaries headed for the Philippines, learning Tagalog here. I started chatting with a couple of them. The first was from Washington state, and the second said he was from California. I then said that we were from the San Diego area, and he said that he was actually from San Marcos, which is right next door to Carlsbad. Then I looked at his name tag, and it turns out he's the son of ScottM, a long-time colleague and friend from work. I had known that Scott's son was in the MTC, but it wasn't likely to run into him out of thousands of missionaries. Here's a photo we took and sent to Scott:
I slept pretty well last night -- the cough syrup and Afrin did their job. Today I'm feeling quite a bit better, but still not close to 100%, going through lotion kleenex regularly. Hopefully I'm on the mend.
Today we spent all day doing S&I training for YSAs. For those of you not up on all the acronyms, that's Seminary & Institute training for Young Single Adults, which is basically our assignment in Rome. There were 21 couples with us, including the Military Relations couples for much of the day. The S&I trainers talked a lot about how to plan and deliver lessons that work well for YSAs, with a bunch of interaction from the crowd. At the end of the day, a senior couple returned from a YSA mission in Germany talked with us for an hour about activities and how to involve the YSAs. We have another day and a half of S&I training.
After dinner, we watched a wonderful video of Elder Bednar speaking at the MTC on Christmas morning in 2011. The title of the talk is "The Character of Christ", and it was just over an hour long. He talked about how to turn outward as Christ did, toward helping others, instead of turning inward, which is how we all normally roll. It really gave us some good things to ponder and think about. There were some amazing stories, plus very animated and fun impersonations of Cookie Monster -- unusual for an apostle (to say the least)! Apparently the video is not available to the general public, being reserved for the MTC. So, if you want to watch this phenomenal video, you'll have to come on a mission!
I slept pretty well last night -- the cough syrup and Afrin did their job. Today I'm feeling quite a bit better, but still not close to 100%, going through lotion kleenex regularly. Hopefully I'm on the mend.
Today we spent all day doing S&I training for YSAs. For those of you not up on all the acronyms, that's Seminary & Institute training for Young Single Adults, which is basically our assignment in Rome. There were 21 couples with us, including the Military Relations couples for much of the day. The S&I trainers talked a lot about how to plan and deliver lessons that work well for YSAs, with a bunch of interaction from the crowd. At the end of the day, a senior couple returned from a YSA mission in Germany talked with us for an hour about activities and how to involve the YSAs. We have another day and a half of S&I training.
After dinner, we watched a wonderful video of Elder Bednar speaking at the MTC on Christmas morning in 2011. The title of the talk is "The Character of Christ", and it was just over an hour long. He talked about how to turn outward as Christ did, toward helping others, instead of turning inward, which is how we all normally roll. It really gave us some good things to ponder and think about. There were some amazing stories, plus very animated and fun impersonations of Cookie Monster -- unusual for an apostle (to say the least)! Apparently the video is not available to the general public, being reserved for the MTC. So, if you want to watch this phenomenal video, you'll have to come on a mission!
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Final Sunday at the MTC
Today we had church starting at 8:30am -- a bit too early for my taste given how I'm feeling, but there was a wonderful spirit in our Sacrament meeting. One young sister brought her violin on her mission, and she played a lovely duet with another sister on the piano. Each week they assign all the young missionaries to prepare brief talks on two different topics, and then they call on a couple of them, with no notice, to come up and deliver their talks! The kids did great today, and then they have a member of the branch presidency and his wife (Provo residents for whom this is a calling) speak to finish the meeting. In the afternoon we got a bit of down time, with each of us taking a short, well-deserved nap.
My cold is progressing: less sore throat, more runny nose, a froggy voice, low on energy. Fortunately I bought a couple of boxes of lotion kleenex which should get me through the weekend, barely. I'll be in line when the missionary store opens tomorrow to buy more! The tissues they provide in the rooms just don't cut it when you are going through them so quickly. The Gatorade we bought at the store yesterday has also been helpful in keeping me hydrated, and the Afrin got me through the night with a good sleep. I haven't used as many meds in a long time as I have this week, but I'm sure grateful for them.
As usually happens at altitude (Provo is at 4500 feet) after a few days, it is a bit difficult for me to get a deep breath. This will pass in a few days, right about the time we leave. I've only stayed above 5000 feet a few times in my life, and each time I got sick. GaryC and his wife want us to come to their house in Park City when we get back, but, since it's at 8500 feet altitude, wisdom dictates that I not even try to go there.
I haven't really had time to exercise, which is quite a change for me. For example, at home I spent an hour on my elliptical machine six days a week, but thus far I have only gotten 20 minutes on the treadmill down the hall. There is also a very nice gym in the basement, with lots of weights and bikes/elliptical machines. I miss the exercise, but between the busy schedule and not feeling great, it can't be helped -- we knew this was possibly one of the sacrifices we'd make by serving a mission. My wife does stretch and exercise some in the room before I wake up -- she's better than I am! We did at least start walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator to our third-floor apartment several times each day, which rather leaves us winded due to the altitude issue mentioned above. Hopefully in Rome we'll figure out a way to exercise more regularly once our schedule settles down there.
Those of you who know about my low-fat vegan diet may be wondering how that's working with the cafeteria food here. Four years ago I started the diet for long-term heart health, not for weight loss. Fortunately, they have a dietician on staff in the cafeteria to help missionaries with special dietary needs. I met with her Monday and asked for some beans and brown rice each night to give me some filling protein, which has worked well. They have a salad and fruit bar at each meal, so I get plenty of fruits/veggies. For breakfast, I have cold cereal with a banana and my choice or rice/almond/soy milk. Overall, I'm doing better at sticking to my diet here than I had feared, with plenty to eat, so I'm never hungry. Once I get to Italy, it'll be a different story, so stay tuned to see how that turns out!
One example of the kinds of things we have bought on Amazon is plastic coat hangers for our room. The room came with a few "loose" hangers, probably left over from prior couples, and a bunch of non-removable metal hangers, which are useless for taking to the laundry for example. There also weren't enough of them, so we bought 30 hangers for under $20 on Amazon, and now we have plenty. There's a "courtesy closet" down the hall where couples leave useful things when they depart, so you can "shop" for things like alarm clocks, nightlights, hair dryers, etc. We have taken advantage of that and will return the favor when we leave, including our coat hangers.
Small world department: at lunch today we were sitting with another senior couple on their way to serve in a mission office in Brazil. The wife mentioned the name of some dear friends of ours from Carlsbad, Linda/SteveO. Linda served her mission in Italy, which is how this came up, and it turns our that the two couples have been close friends for decades. Here is a photo, which we emailed to Linda/Steve:
Tonight after dinner we attended two devotionals. The first was the "departing" devotional, for the missionaries leaving this week. It was quite inspiring, with lots of advice mostly aimed at the kids and a bit of humor thrown in. For example, the MTC presidency and wives told them to behave and serve others while traveling to their destination -- not that young folks would ever need reminding of that! There were hundreds of us in the room. Several of the young missionaries got to stand for a minute and share something important that they had learned during their MTC stay. The second devotional was for the entire MTC group, several thousand missionaries, with the president and matron of the Provo temple speaking. The music was amazing, with several young missionaries performing vocally and on different instruments. Wow. I really love the "prelude" singing time where all the missionaries sing well-known hymns together with gusto, including a Primary song with two extra verses written just for the MTC missionaries.
Meanwhile, my cold kept getting worse, including the start of a cough which can only get worse during the night. Since I'd like some sleep tonight, we had an MTC shuttle run us out to a local pharmacy to get some cough syrup (Delsym) that works for me and a few other items since we were there, including more lotion kleenex. Mormons usually don't shop on Sunday, but this ox was definitely in the mire. My wife felt like she was coming down with the cold for a while too, but after her nap and dinner she felt fine. This always happens: she gets cold symptoms for a few hours and is done, while I suffer for at least a week. At least she can take care of me.
My cold is progressing: less sore throat, more runny nose, a froggy voice, low on energy. Fortunately I bought a couple of boxes of lotion kleenex which should get me through the weekend, barely. I'll be in line when the missionary store opens tomorrow to buy more! The tissues they provide in the rooms just don't cut it when you are going through them so quickly. The Gatorade we bought at the store yesterday has also been helpful in keeping me hydrated, and the Afrin got me through the night with a good sleep. I haven't used as many meds in a long time as I have this week, but I'm sure grateful for them.
As usually happens at altitude (Provo is at 4500 feet) after a few days, it is a bit difficult for me to get a deep breath. This will pass in a few days, right about the time we leave. I've only stayed above 5000 feet a few times in my life, and each time I got sick. GaryC and his wife want us to come to their house in Park City when we get back, but, since it's at 8500 feet altitude, wisdom dictates that I not even try to go there.
I haven't really had time to exercise, which is quite a change for me. For example, at home I spent an hour on my elliptical machine six days a week, but thus far I have only gotten 20 minutes on the treadmill down the hall. There is also a very nice gym in the basement, with lots of weights and bikes/elliptical machines. I miss the exercise, but between the busy schedule and not feeling great, it can't be helped -- we knew this was possibly one of the sacrifices we'd make by serving a mission. My wife does stretch and exercise some in the room before I wake up -- she's better than I am! We did at least start walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator to our third-floor apartment several times each day, which rather leaves us winded due to the altitude issue mentioned above. Hopefully in Rome we'll figure out a way to exercise more regularly once our schedule settles down there.
Those of you who know about my low-fat vegan diet may be wondering how that's working with the cafeteria food here. Four years ago I started the diet for long-term heart health, not for weight loss. Fortunately, they have a dietician on staff in the cafeteria to help missionaries with special dietary needs. I met with her Monday and asked for some beans and brown rice each night to give me some filling protein, which has worked well. They have a salad and fruit bar at each meal, so I get plenty of fruits/veggies. For breakfast, I have cold cereal with a banana and my choice or rice/almond/soy milk. Overall, I'm doing better at sticking to my diet here than I had feared, with plenty to eat, so I'm never hungry. Once I get to Italy, it'll be a different story, so stay tuned to see how that turns out!
One example of the kinds of things we have bought on Amazon is plastic coat hangers for our room. The room came with a few "loose" hangers, probably left over from prior couples, and a bunch of non-removable metal hangers, which are useless for taking to the laundry for example. There also weren't enough of them, so we bought 30 hangers for under $20 on Amazon, and now we have plenty. There's a "courtesy closet" down the hall where couples leave useful things when they depart, so you can "shop" for things like alarm clocks, nightlights, hair dryers, etc. We have taken advantage of that and will return the favor when we leave, including our coat hangers.
Small world department: at lunch today we were sitting with another senior couple on their way to serve in a mission office in Brazil. The wife mentioned the name of some dear friends of ours from Carlsbad, Linda/SteveO. Linda served her mission in Italy, which is how this came up, and it turns our that the two couples have been close friends for decades. Here is a photo, which we emailed to Linda/Steve:
Meanwhile, my cold kept getting worse, including the start of a cough which can only get worse during the night. Since I'd like some sleep tonight, we had an MTC shuttle run us out to a local pharmacy to get some cough syrup (Delsym) that works for me and a few other items since we were there, including more lotion kleenex. Mormons usually don't shop on Sunday, but this ox was definitely in the mire. My wife felt like she was coming down with the cold for a while too, but after her nap and dinner she felt fine. This always happens: she gets cold symptoms for a few hours and is done, while I suffer for at least a week. At least she can take care of me.
Saturday, September 16, 2017
Saturday off
Saturdays are off days for senior couples, and the rest is welcome because it's been so busy. Unfortunately, we couldn't really sleep in late because breakfast runs from 7-8am, and entering the cafeteria requires missionary dress code. 😞 No biggie.
Here are photos of our mag-stripe missionary cards, which open exterior doors and get us into the cafeteria. We also each have a physical key for our room.
After some welcome down time in the morning, we went to lunch at Guru's Cafe in downtown Provo, with my sister Marilyn, who drove down from Ogden, and my long-time friend/business partner/boss, GaryC, and his wife Roxanna. They just moved from Florida to Park City, which I hadn't known. It had been a few years since I had seen Gary, so it really great that everyone was willing to drive to see us. Here are some photos:
I seem to be coming down with a mild cold, so Marilyn took us to a market on the way back where we bought a few things including cold meds. Hopefully it will stay mild, particularly with the big trip coming up. We continue to place small Amazon orders for things we'll need during or before the trip. Thank goodness for Prime shipping! Sorella Whiting inadvertently had one of them shipped to our home in Carlsbad, then we were puzzled why it wasn't here at the mailroom after Amazon said it had been delivered, until our son asked via email what we wanted him to do with the items 😕. So we re-ordered it to be delivered here.
After a bit of relaxed time in the afternoon, this evening we went to visit a district of young missionaries destined for Italy. The instructor is a recently returned young sister missionary who is the niece of a long-time friend of ours, BradC, so we had asked if we could come meet them. We worked up a fun little program where we taught them some Italian culture issues that they will find useful; e.g., not making the "sign of the cross" when two missionaries shake hands with two Italians by crossing hands over each other (definitely verboten), and how to count with your fingers (a thumb is "one", thumb and index finger is "two", etc). We then gave a spiritual thought from Mosiah 16:1, which is on our mission plaque. Finally, we encouraged them to serve missions in 40+ years, explaining that the rules are different for seniors: we can hold hands, and then we got a big giggle from them when my wife "unexpectedly" gave me a peck on the cheek (I said "fantastico!"). We took turns: one of us spoke first in English, and the other then translated each phrase into Italian. They got to ask us some questions, and we had a lot of fun together. Here is a photo, with the instructor on the far right:
Here are photos of our mag-stripe missionary cards, which open exterior doors and get us into the cafeteria. We also each have a physical key for our room.
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| Elder Whiting and Gary |
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| Whitings, Marilyn, Gary, Roxanna |
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| Marilyn with the Whitings |
After a bit of relaxed time in the afternoon, this evening we went to visit a district of young missionaries destined for Italy. The instructor is a recently returned young sister missionary who is the niece of a long-time friend of ours, BradC, so we had asked if we could come meet them. We worked up a fun little program where we taught them some Italian culture issues that they will find useful; e.g., not making the "sign of the cross" when two missionaries shake hands with two Italians by crossing hands over each other (definitely verboten), and how to count with your fingers (a thumb is "one", thumb and index finger is "two", etc). We then gave a spiritual thought from Mosiah 16:1, which is on our mission plaque. Finally, we encouraged them to serve missions in 40+ years, explaining that the rules are different for seniors: we can hold hands, and then we got a big giggle from them when my wife "unexpectedly" gave me a peck on the cheek (I said "fantastico!"). We took turns: one of us spoke first in English, and the other then translated each phrase into Italian. They got to ask us some questions, and we had a lot of fun together. Here is a photo, with the instructor on the far right:
Friday, September 15, 2017
Final day of general training
Today was our final day of general missionary training, so we said goodbye to our two wonderful trainers, Sister Anderson (who is getting married tomorrow!) and Sister Lewis, with photos below:
And here we are with the Painters, the couple with whom we practiced teaching each and hung out a lot.
We also got a chance to do a practice gospel lesson with Sister Read, an LDS volunteer from the community. She was a very sweet lady. We met with her for 15 minutes to get to know her, then had 10 minutes to prepare a 20-minute lesson of our choice. Our lesson started with the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, explaining how the story illustrates spirit is as real as physical things. We then talked about how the spirit encourages us to look for our weaknesses and strive to become more like Jesus Christ.
In the afternoon we had a final gathering and instruction as a large group, including a fun skit by the young trainers in which they made a bit of fun of us older folks but also said how much we had to offer.
Here is a photo of us in front of the "famous" world map in the MTC, pointing to where we will be serving:
At dinner we met an Elder Conger from Logandale, Nevada, who knows our niece Mandi and her husband Brandon. Small world.
Now we are off for the weekend, which is nice, because we are pretty tired. Tonight we are doing laundry in the basement of the "main" building. There are lots and lots of washer and dryers! Here is just a part of it:
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| Sister Anderson with our district |
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| Sister Lewis with our district |
We also got a chance to do a practice gospel lesson with Sister Read, an LDS volunteer from the community. She was a very sweet lady. We met with her for 15 minutes to get to know her, then had 10 minutes to prepare a 20-minute lesson of our choice. Our lesson started with the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, explaining how the story illustrates spirit is as real as physical things. We then talked about how the spirit encourages us to look for our weaknesses and strive to become more like Jesus Christ.
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| Sister Read with the Whitings |
Here is a photo of us in front of the "famous" world map in the MTC, pointing to where we will be serving:
At dinner we met an Elder Conger from Logandale, Nevada, who knows our niece Mandi and her husband Brandon. Small world.
Now we are off for the weekend, which is nice, because we are pretty tired. Tonight we are doing laundry in the basement of the "main" building. There are lots and lots of washer and dryers! Here is just a part of it:
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Another full day, and news from Rome
Here is a picture of the four couples in our district, left to right: Carpenter, Jensen, Whiting, Hafen.
Tonight after dinner we also met with the Painters to help them work on their family history. We love doing it of course, and I think we were able to teach them a few useful things.
Tomorrow will be the last day of general training and will end at 3:30pm instead of 4:30pm. We hope to get laundry done then. Next Mon-Wed we'll be doing specialized training for the Church Education System (CES, which can also stand for "Cooking Every Second"). CES is in charge of the Institute campus in Rome where we'll be serving. Then Thursday morning we leave for Rome.
Today we were delighted to learn from President Pickerd, our mission president in Rome, that we will be assigned to attend church in the Roma 3rd Ward, where our friend Ugo Perego is bishop. I have known Ugo since he was five years old, when my missionary companion and I knocked on his parents' door and started teaching the gospel to his mother, Raffaela. Long story, but the entire family ended up joining the church, and our families have been close ever since. We have visited them many times in Italy, and various Perego groups have been to our home in Carlsbad on a number of occasions. Ugo is also director of the Institute, so we will work closely with him and see his wife and five children regularly on Sundays. Nice!
Most senior missionary couples in Rome attend Roma 2nd Ward, the "international" ward, which has classes in Italian, English, and Spanish, and is a large and strong congregation. By contrast, our Roma 3rd Ward speaks only Italian, although there are many non-Italian immigrants there, and it is a smaller congregation, so we will be much more needed. The drive from our apartment to Roma 3rd will be considerably longer, but it is a good fit for us, so we are pleased to be able to serve there.
Wonderful folks! We are all
really enjoying studying and working together. One big challenge is
learning to always call our spouse Elder or Sister, not using first
names. Each of us has messed up at least once, and we kid each other
when it happens.
FYI, the photo is in front of the mural of Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail in one of the brand-new MTC buildings. There are a bunch of other amazing murals, two per floor, that we really want to go see this weekend when we have a bit of free time. The way lighting is used behind the canvases is very impressive. You can see a couple of them here in a nice article on the new facilities. We don't get to train there, but it's not a very long walk from where we live and train.
Today in class we spent a meaningful period of introspection of how we can be more Christ-like in our personal lives, using a list of questions in the Preach My Gospel (PMG) manual. It's always good to think about how to improve. We also met with the Painters to teach each other a 20-minute gospel lesson that we had 30 minutes to prepare. We got to choose the topic, and each of us selected a few of the questions from the list to discuss.
We also had some more tech training. The LDS Media Library app is really cool and was completely new to us. It has tons of gospel photos, audio, and video, which can be put into playlists to use in lessons. The best part is that it's possible (and fairly easy!) to trim the audio/video to play just the section of a talk or video that is relevant. It's available to everyone, not just missionaries. Who knew?
Tonight after dinner we also met with the Painters to help them work on their family history. We love doing it of course, and I think we were able to teach them a few useful things.
Tomorrow will be the last day of general training and will end at 3:30pm instead of 4:30pm. We hope to get laundry done then. Next Mon-Wed we'll be doing specialized training for the Church Education System (CES, which can also stand for "Cooking Every Second"). CES is in charge of the Institute campus in Rome where we'll be serving. Then Thursday morning we leave for Rome.
Today we were delighted to learn from President Pickerd, our mission president in Rome, that we will be assigned to attend church in the Roma 3rd Ward, where our friend Ugo Perego is bishop. I have known Ugo since he was five years old, when my missionary companion and I knocked on his parents' door and started teaching the gospel to his mother, Raffaela. Long story, but the entire family ended up joining the church, and our families have been close ever since. We have visited them many times in Italy, and various Perego groups have been to our home in Carlsbad on a number of occasions. Ugo is also director of the Institute, so we will work closely with him and see his wife and five children regularly on Sundays. Nice!
Most senior missionary couples in Rome attend Roma 2nd Ward, the "international" ward, which has classes in Italian, English, and Spanish, and is a large and strong congregation. By contrast, our Roma 3rd Ward speaks only Italian, although there are many non-Italian immigrants there, and it is a smaller congregation, so we will be much more needed. The drive from our apartment to Roma 3rd will be considerably longer, but it is a good fit for us, so we are pleased to be able to serve there.
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Training, teaching, tech, and no more foot pain!
Today was another full day of classes, including some wonderful scripture
reading and commentary together as a district (Alma 5). We also prepared
and delivered a lesson to the another couple, the Painters, our
assigned teaching partners (not in our district), so
we could learn better how to teach as a team and ask for commitments. We chose to teach Family History (our specialty!), with some doctrinal background and some explicit help for the branch they'll be serving, in Ramona near our home.The Painters then gave us their lesson, making a great analogy from the book of Ether about trials. Wonderful folks -- we are enjoying everyone here so much! Tomorrow we'll get a
chance to review briefly each other's work with them.
We also had some training on how to use the Gospel Library tool on our phones and tablets, and there will be more of that tomorrow. They taught us how to use Tags, which we didn't really know about and are a very nice tool for preparing and organizing lessons.
Dee's old Samsung tablet just died. Well, it actually runs, but the USB port seems to be broken so that it can't be charged, after trying several different chargers and cables. Thus, we're ordering her a newer model tonight on Amazon Prime which should arrive here Friday. It's a pain to configure a new one, but better here over the weekend than once we hit the ground running in Rome. Yes, I'm probably a little jealous that she has a new one and mine is three years old, but I'll get over it <g>
My foot seems to be all better now. I slept well without any drugs, and it isn't sore at all, not even any twinges. The entire course of steroids has now been completed. Whew! I'm very happily not expecting any more problems. We fortunately seem to be mostly caught up on our sleep now after a few crazy days.
We also had some training on how to use the Gospel Library tool on our phones and tablets, and there will be more of that tomorrow. They taught us how to use Tags, which we didn't really know about and are a very nice tool for preparing and organizing lessons.
Dee's old Samsung tablet just died. Well, it actually runs, but the USB port seems to be broken so that it can't be charged, after trying several different chargers and cables. Thus, we're ordering her a newer model tonight on Amazon Prime which should arrive here Friday. It's a pain to configure a new one, but better here over the weekend than once we hit the ground running in Rome. Yes, I'm probably a little jealous that she has a new one and mine is three years old, but I'll get over it <g>
My foot seems to be all better now. I slept well without any drugs, and it isn't sore at all, not even any twinges. The entire course of steroids has now been completed. Whew! I'm very happily not expecting any more problems. We fortunately seem to be mostly caught up on our sleep now after a few crazy days.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Busy day of training, no more zingers
Here is a photo of our missionary name tags. We are to wear them for the duration whenever we are out in public, including here at the MTC. They give our title/name, plus the name of the church in Italian:
Yesterday we received our passports with an Italian visa inserted. That was faster than we anticipated, and it's one less thing on our list of concerns.
Last night I was able to sleep fairly well, thanks mostly to a good dose of Norco. This morning my foot was much less painful, with swelling and soreness to the touch gone, thanks to the anti-inflammatory steroid pills. I've had a few small twinges today, but none recently, so hopefully I can sleep tonight without any painkiller (though I have them ready if needed).
We spent the entire day in training, using the missionary manual Preach My Gospel, discussing how to care about and teach people effectively. Even though most of the teaching will be done by young missionaries, it's nice for us seniors to know the program so we can assist when needed. Interestingly, the training is done by young, recently returned missionaries in their early twenties. Our two trainers were both young ladies and were very impressive. Apparently they change whom we work with each day. One of the other trainers, Sister York, had served in the Italy Milan mission (my alma mater), and we had a fun chat with her for a few minutes -- her Italian accent was excellent! BTW, yesterday we heard from the MTC mission president, Dave Martino. who served in Italy in the early 1970s, including two of my cities (Sesto San Giovanni and Lugano), and we also got to talk a bit with him in Italian, sharing some good memories.
Tonight we attended the weekly missionary devotional, along with all the young/old MTC missionaries. A large missionary choir -- hundreds of voices -- sang "Nearer My God To Thee" very well, particularly considering that they apparently only get to practice one time. The speakers were Elder Patrick Kearon of the Seventy and his wife, who gave wonderful, inspiring talks -- he's the one who gave the phenomenal talk in April 2016 about how we need to support refugees. It was wonderful when the entire congregation of about 3000 sang prelude hymns together, including a rousing version of "Called to Serve." The best part was when we changed two words in the chorus of "Army of Helaman" from "we will be the Lord's missionaries" to "we are now the Lord's missionaries" -- very cool!
Yesterday we received our passports with an Italian visa inserted. That was faster than we anticipated, and it's one less thing on our list of concerns.
Last night I was able to sleep fairly well, thanks mostly to a good dose of Norco. This morning my foot was much less painful, with swelling and soreness to the touch gone, thanks to the anti-inflammatory steroid pills. I've had a few small twinges today, but none recently, so hopefully I can sleep tonight without any painkiller (though I have them ready if needed).
We spent the entire day in training, using the missionary manual Preach My Gospel, discussing how to care about and teach people effectively. Even though most of the teaching will be done by young missionaries, it's nice for us seniors to know the program so we can assist when needed. Interestingly, the training is done by young, recently returned missionaries in their early twenties. Our two trainers were both young ladies and were very impressive. Apparently they change whom we work with each day. One of the other trainers, Sister York, had served in the Italy Milan mission (my alma mater), and we had a fun chat with her for a few minutes -- her Italian accent was excellent! BTW, yesterday we heard from the MTC mission president, Dave Martino. who served in Italy in the early 1970s, including two of my cities (Sesto San Giovanni and Lugano), and we also got to talk a bit with him in Italian, sharing some good memories.
Tonight we attended the weekly missionary devotional, along with all the young/old MTC missionaries. A large missionary choir -- hundreds of voices -- sang "Nearer My God To Thee" very well, particularly considering that they apparently only get to practice one time. The speakers were Elder Patrick Kearon of the Seventy and his wife, who gave wonderful, inspiring talks -- he's the one who gave the phenomenal talk in April 2016 about how we need to support refugees. It was wonderful when the entire congregation of about 3000 sang prelude hymns together, including a rousing version of "Called to Serve." The best part was when we changed two words in the chorus of "Army of Helaman" from "we will be the Lord's missionaries" to "we are now the Lord's missionaries" -- very cool!
Monday, September 11, 2017
First official day, with zingers
We officially started our training today, and it went pretty well, all things considered. There was some running around to different offices to get registered and acquaint ourselves with the campus, followed by some initial training and splitting us up into districts of four couples each. Tomorrow is our first full day, starting with breakfast at 7am and classes from 8am until about 4:30pm, so it's going to be busy. There's a small store for missionaries here in our building, and it had a nice selection of a bunch of things: medications, stationery, clothing, snacks, laundry supplies, etc., which we took advantage of. You can even order more missionary name tags, which we did.
The problem was my foot. Dee was exhausted and went to bed relatively early last night, thinking maybe she was coming down with a cold. She slept pretty well and feels much better today, perhaps avoiding getting sick. However, I woke up around 11pm with an intermittent shooting pain just below my right ankle. I took some Alleve, which helped a little bit, but I didn't sleep much all night for obvious reasons. In the morning, I felt something like a little bone spur sticking out there below the skin, which was red and very painful to the touch. The painful "zingers" in my foot came and went all day, one or two almost every minute, which meant that I wasn't terribly focused on the classes.
This evening we went over to a local Urgent Care facility, where the doctor was a bit puzzled by my symptoms. He ultimately prescribed some steroid anti-inflammatory pills and some Norco, in case I'm still in pain during the night. Hopefully I won't be loopy tomorrow -- or at least no more so than usual <g>
While we were out for the doctor/pharmacy, we also got some dinner at a nice little Mexican place on State Street, then did some shopping at the grocery store next to the pharmacy. It was nice to walk around and get a few things we needed. You can tell you are in Utah when no one is surprised to see a missionary name tag and knows what it means. We took a Lyft back to the MTC and are now looking forward to some sleep.
Everyone has been really nice all day, and several couples checked up on me tonight to see how I was doing.
The problem was my foot. Dee was exhausted and went to bed relatively early last night, thinking maybe she was coming down with a cold. She slept pretty well and feels much better today, perhaps avoiding getting sick. However, I woke up around 11pm with an intermittent shooting pain just below my right ankle. I took some Alleve, which helped a little bit, but I didn't sleep much all night for obvious reasons. In the morning, I felt something like a little bone spur sticking out there below the skin, which was red and very painful to the touch. The painful "zingers" in my foot came and went all day, one or two almost every minute, which meant that I wasn't terribly focused on the classes.
This evening we went over to a local Urgent Care facility, where the doctor was a bit puzzled by my symptoms. He ultimately prescribed some steroid anti-inflammatory pills and some Norco, in case I'm still in pain during the night. Hopefully I won't be loopy tomorrow -- or at least no more so than usual <g>
While we were out for the doctor/pharmacy, we also got some dinner at a nice little Mexican place on State Street, then did some shopping at the grocery store next to the pharmacy. It was nice to walk around and get a few things we needed. You can tell you are in Utah when no one is surprised to see a missionary name tag and knows what it means. We took a Lyft back to the MTC and are now looking forward to some sleep.
Everyone has been really nice all day, and several couples checked up on me tonight to see how I was doing.
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Provo, we are here (with photos)
Yesterday was a very busy day, between Dee finishing her packing, and both of us scurrying around the house cleaning and throwing stuff away. Our suitcases each came in at just over 49 pounds, which is good because of the 50 pound airline limit, though hitting that weight involved a few iterations of removing things. To weigh the suitcases, I stepped on our bathroom sale to get a baseline, then I stepped back on holding the suitcase up so Dee could read the weight and we could subtract to get the difference. Good thing I have been doing weight training! Next time we'll buy a luggage scale, which is inexpensive and much easier.
We each have two 29" suitcases (one two-wheeler, one four-wheeler), plus a small carry-on suitcase and a bag holding our laptop and other stuff. It's odd for us to have so much luggage: usually we do three-week trips to Italy with just a carry-on sized suitcase and a backpack. Senior missionaries serving in the US are expected to bring their own car, which they typically fill to the brim. Several of them today expressed amazement that we could fit our stuff into only 2+ suitcases. The carry-on is where we keep our meds so that they can't be lost by the airline. By piggybacking the carry-on suitcases using the built-in strap of the two wheelers, we were able to move everything on our own at both airports, but just barely! See the photos below:
Traffic was fairly light and we made it to San Diego airport early -- thanks to VinceH for dropping us off. Our flight to SLC and SuperShuttle to Provo all went very smoothly. The flight wasn't very full, so we got exit row seats with lots of leg room for me. We arrived at the MTC about 10pm MDT and took a while to unpack and get settled. Then breakfast and church were pretty early -- 7am and 8:30am, respectively -- so suffice it to say we needed a nap this afternoon! Nothing much else is scheduled for us until tomorrow morning, which is nice.We have our missionary nametags and have worn missionary garb all day long, so it feels pretty official.
Our room is small but clean and well designed, rather like a hotel room, with enough storage space for us. We are in the Jacob Hamblin building, named after my great-great-grandfather on my mom's side. The grounds are beautiful, with lots of pretty flowers all over. There are tons of young missionaries around, dwarfing the number of seniors like us. Our church congregation today was the "international branch", consisting of the seniors and the foreign missionaries here to serve in the US or Canada. The English we heard from them was pretty good, and they were from all over; the two who spoke were from Mexico and Norway.
Photos of our accommodations are below, including the view of the Provo Temple from our window:
We each have two 29" suitcases (one two-wheeler, one four-wheeler), plus a small carry-on suitcase and a bag holding our laptop and other stuff. It's odd for us to have so much luggage: usually we do three-week trips to Italy with just a carry-on sized suitcase and a backpack. Senior missionaries serving in the US are expected to bring their own car, which they typically fill to the brim. Several of them today expressed amazement that we could fit our stuff into only 2+ suitcases. The carry-on is where we keep our meds so that they can't be lost by the airline. By piggybacking the carry-on suitcases using the built-in strap of the two wheelers, we were able to move everything on our own at both airports, but just barely! See the photos below:
Traffic was fairly light and we made it to San Diego airport early -- thanks to VinceH for dropping us off. Our flight to SLC and SuperShuttle to Provo all went very smoothly. The flight wasn't very full, so we got exit row seats with lots of leg room for me. We arrived at the MTC about 10pm MDT and took a while to unpack and get settled. Then breakfast and church were pretty early -- 7am and 8:30am, respectively -- so suffice it to say we needed a nap this afternoon! Nothing much else is scheduled for us until tomorrow morning, which is nice.We have our missionary nametags and have worn missionary garb all day long, so it feels pretty official.
Our room is small but clean and well designed, rather like a hotel room, with enough storage space for us. We are in the Jacob Hamblin building, named after my great-great-grandfather on my mom's side. The grounds are beautiful, with lots of pretty flowers all over. There are tons of young missionaries around, dwarfing the number of seniors like us. Our church congregation today was the "international branch", consisting of the seniors and the foreign missionaries here to serve in the US or Canada. The English we heard from them was pretty good, and they were from all over; the two who spoke were from Mexico and Norway.
Photos of our accommodations are below, including the view of the Provo Temple from our window:
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