Monday, January 22, 2018

Home teaching assignment

A very nice Sunday. I finally got a full night's sleep, with earplugs definitely helping. For quite a few days I had been waking up after only about 7 hours, frustratingly unable to sleep any more, and it had caught up to me. Having gone to bed quite early, I was still able to get up a bit early and polish off my lesson prep, which was definitely needed. 

Church was enjoyable. Alessio, one of our GANS, gave a very fine talk in Sacrament meeting on how even small sins can block our ability to feel the spirit. My Sunday School lesson, on the creation as discussed mainly in Moses 1-3, seemed to go well. There were a number of visitors in the ward, including two of Jenna Perego's brothers, whom I almost certainly met at Ugo & Jenna's wedding years ago but don't recall. It's always fun to see new faces. 

I was also delighted to receive a home teaching assignment in our ward. My wife and I will visit the Hubers, an American family who lives here; he works for NATO, and they occasionally get us stuff at the American commissary in Naples. I will also visit two other single brothers with a companion, my fellow team teacher in Sunday School. It's nice to contribute to the ward and to get to know these fine folks better. I have always loved home teaching

We had a few hours at home in the afternoon, including coordinating our calendars for the busy upcoming week, then headed out to the Institute for a 5pm activity where the Ganziani discussed using Facebook and other technology tools to share the gospel. Then the kids went through a list of GANS for both stakes, marking those kids they knew as active, less active, or moved, so the Ganziani can follow up where appropriate. Everyone had a nice time.

Afterwards my wife brought out her peanut butter blossom cookies with Hershey's kisses, which she had cooked Friday. The room got  very silent as they disappeared! They look beautiful and taste great. Fortunately she had two plates of them.😋 Both peanut butter and Hershey's kisses are hard to come by here, so it was a real treat.
We got home fairly early, for us, and I was able to catch up on a bunch of paperwork which had accumulated over the past week. As usual, it was a full and fulfilling day.