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.