Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Taco Tuesday and choir

A comparatively easy day today. We shopped at Lidl on the way into the Institute, mostly food for us at home, but also stuff for Taco Tuesday, including the meat. Once at the Institute, we brought most of our stuff inside to keep it refrigerated during the day. Tacos went well today -- it's getting easier to make everything and get the place ready, and the ganziani and some of the kids helped out. 



Unlike many afternoons, there was a steady stream of kids coming into the center, so we got to chat with a bunch of them, which was nice. 

My wife helped ClaudiaM with her family history, which went very well. You've seen a picture of Claudia before, holding a handmade tortilla with Nutella. She's an awesome gal: very sharp, served her mission in Toronto, and her English is practically flawless.

At 6pm, we have a choir class, taught by Brother Rossato, who is an amazing musician. Only a few of the kids know how to sing parts in choral music -- surprisingly, they don't have music in the schools here. So it was fun to work with a few of them to help them learn their part to "What Child Is This", translated into Italian. My wife is a terrific alto and sat next to a girl who needed help with that part, while I was the lone bass and did ok. That particular Christmas song is not known here at all, so I also helped the sopranos learn the melody by singing along with them an octave lower.

At 7pm, there were English classes and Ugo's online Institute class. My wife tried to sit in on the Institute class, but the room was full and she was tired, so we decided we could leave a bit early. I was on intercom duty during class: sitting in the entryway, answering the intercom, and ringing people in.

The outgoing ganziani said their goodbyes to everyone, bearing a nice testimony of the gospel after lunch. We found out that the new ganziani will arrive sometime Thursday. Apparently one of them is an Elder Waddell, son of Bishop Chris Waddell of the Presiding Bishopric, our former stake president in Del Mar. Mormons live in a small world!