Pesto Monday

Monday morning our doorman brought up an Amazon package that was delivered here Saturday. Usually I pick stuff up from him when I take the trash down, but he gave us great service today! It included a new tie/belt rack, which I attached to the outside of my closet:

It's much nicer than the little one I had, which hung on the clothes rod and made it very difficult to separate the ties.

It was much warmer Monday than on Sunday; I almost didn't wear a jacket to the Institute. When we got there, I walked around the corner to a post office and paid off my parking ticket (30 euro). It was pretty painless: you take a ticket and wait, then go up to the assigned window when they put your number on a big screen. The price goes up about 50% if you don't pay within the first five days, so I was glad to get that done.

The new kitchen rolling cart is very nice. We played with several different rearrangements in there to make room for it, but ended up leaving things more or less where they were and just putting it next to the fridge, which we slid over a few inches. The shelves allowed us to put some things out that we use regularly, freeing up space in the (crowded) drawers and cabinet.

Francesco, a very recently returned missionary from the Milano mission, came by to study today. He's a very nice young man and is a new member of the Institute council, representing his ward. We showed him around a bit, and he says that he will come by regularly to study, so we'll enjoy getting to know him better.

There was a lot of WhatsApp messaging all afternoon about upcoming events. The shipments of goods for our 100 refugee packets arrived today at Ugo's house, so we are set to put the kits together Friday night . We'll hand them out next week. There are lots of things to coordinate right now with the holidays coming up.

In the afternoon, I worked on my FHE lesson, which was about Christmas traditions and remembering/pondering what is important; i.e., not gifts. I shared some good Christmas memories from my life, and several others did the same. It was a small group tonight, but the spirit was very strong.

There were only guys there tonight -- no girls! Usually women outnumber men at GANS events worldwide, but our demographics are unusual. It was Anziano Waddell's 20th birthday, so Jayno cooked some pesto spaghetti for the group, and there were two birthday cakes. We ate very well after home evening!

 

 

 

While we were munching down, the intercom rang. It was rather late, so we were puzzled who it could be. Turns out it was the Garretts from Palermo, on their way home from their mission. Two of the kids, plus Anziano Misa, knew the Garretts from before and love them, so it was a sweet reunion. We've had many folks tell us over the past few months how wonderful the Garretts are. We got to visit for a good bit and compare notes, while the kids played a game in the library. Unfortunately, we all forgot to take a photo with them😭

Speaking of people who have gone away, Anziano Fuller is now in Sardegna. He was an Institute elder (Ganziano) then was trasferred to our district with the Rome 3 ward, so we've gotten to know him for several transfers. He emailed on Pday asking for Dee's recipes for lava cake and tortillas. He'll add them to his repertoire there, for everyone's enjoyment.