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!