Taco Tuesday
Things are settling in a bit. We did shopping this morning for the food for Taco Tuesday, as well as some useful household items. For example, we bought a curtain rod to hang some sheers over the bedroom windows so that we can keep the tapparelli (rolling vertical metal shutters) open and let light in while we are getting dressed. It seems that every day we come carrying with a bunch of big bags full of stuff for the Institute: food, supplies, etc. That will probably diminish somewhat as we stock up and figure out what we're doing better.
Only six kids showed up for Taco Tuesday today, so everyone got plenty of food. My wife had me cook the meat this time while she did the chopping -- I'm learning to cook as bit as well as wash dishes! School seems to be in full session now, so a bunch of the kids have classes that make it difficult to get here during the day.
Our neighbors from Carlsbad, Jim and ClaireS, showed up this afternoon, bearing welcome gifts: four bottles each of taco seasoning and baking power, which are apparently not to be found anywhere here.
You can see my official missionary apron, which I tend to wear a lot during the day.
I'm also helping Pamela, a single LDS woman who is living in Rome for a while, reinstall Windows 7 on her older laptop which is having problems. This is the kind of thing I like to do to help out friends, and I'll probably offer my free IT services to the kids once things get settled more. Our Amazon order contained a few tools that I often need for fixing PCs, such as a USB DVD drive.
In the afternoon, my wife decided to try to make tortillas by hand from scratch. Maybe we'll use them next week instead of store-bought ones. Dario, one of the GANS, was excited to learn how to do it, and they worked together for quite a while:
The result was warm and delicious, especially when you put Nutella on it, as Claudia demonstrates here:
In the evening there were two English classes, beginning and advanced, taught by the young missionaries. We also had an online Institute class on Jesus Christ and the Eternal Gospel, taught by Ugo using Zoom online conferencing. He couldn't be there in person, so he taught from home and I set up Zoom on my laptop to display on the big screen TV. There were five kids in the room, plus about 25 other locations around Italy.
Jim and ClaireS also brought us a 3D figurine that we had made before we left, but which didn't arrive in time for us to take. It was a Christmas present from my wife's cousin Jim, who lives with her parents in South Pasadena. It's small (about 4 inches), but very life-like, and the resemblance is impressive. We plan to use it somehow at the Institute as a placeholder for us😊
It was a very good day today! We're tired but pleased. These kids are really great, and the spirit is very strong when they are around.
