Day of Rest
It was a very nice Sunday. There were some great testimonies in Fast & Testimony meeting, including a few from our English speaking members, who asked Brother Bosco from the bishopric to translate into Italian for them. He is amazing: a native Italian who served a mission in Spain and picked up flawless American English from his companions, without an discernible accent. After he translated a few times, a sister from South America, who speaks Italian but with some Spanish mixed in, got up and motioned him to translate for her too (we all chuckled, but he didn't get up to help :-). A couple of women told some amazing stories of how prayers were answered for them this week. Anziano Bentley, a young missionary who is new in our ward and is going home in a month, bore a brief testimony -- his Italian and his accent are very good!
After church, Alessio, one of our GANS young men, took off his coat and tie to wrestle on the hard tile floor with Levi, Ugo's youngest child (6 years old), who is a very energetic rascal. It was unusual to be sure, but they had fun. The ward members, knowing Levi well, thought it was cool.
After church we came home and broke our fast. Often that makes us rather zonked, but today we did well. I did some paperwork and we caught up on a few things. Right before it got dark, we took a walk around the block, which felt good. The temperature is in the 40s, so we wore heavy coats -- we're wimps from San Diego after all. My leg did ok, but I had to ice it afterwards.
We forgot to mention that, on Saturday when we walked into the local farmer's market, there was a huge vat where they were cooking/stirring polenta. My wife bought a small sample, with a little red sauce added (they wanted to put a lot more on it!), and it was delicious. Here's a photo:
My wife did a write-up on WhatsApp about our choir class at the Institute, promoting the fact that Lorenzo, our teacher, is a professional who usually charges a lot for his services and also a very spiritual man with a deep desire to help develop the musical abilities of the members. Hopefully this will increase attendance. I added a note that sometime (next year??) there will be a temple dedication choir which the kids could join, so this class is an opportunity to prepare. I mentioned my participation in the San Diego Temple dedicatory choir in 1993 and how wonderful that was for me.
I also sent out an offer to all the kids on WhatsApp to help them with their computers. It's something I like to do at home for friends, and hopefully this will give me a chance to bond with some of the kids.
