Devotional broadcast, with food

Sunday was fairly chilly but sunny. We left home at 8:45am and got home about 7pm, so it was a long day, but we really enjoyed it all. Church was great, though it was interesting to have three speakers in Sacrament meeting, each of whom spoke in Italian, but none of whom are Italian. Let's just say that it isn't necessary to be fluent to bring the Spirit, and we really enjoyed their talks. First, Billy spoke about faith. He's from Nigeria and is a wonderful guy, but he struggles with Italian pronunciation and also adds his Nigerian cadence. He fearlessly read passages from the Bible, which is written in an archaic Italian. We all love him. Then Jenna Perego, Ugo's wife, spoke, also mostly on faith. Her Italian is fairly good and very intelligible, perhaps because we come from the same English-language background. She's a wonderful lady. Finally, Jim Huber, an American who works with the military here and who served a Spanish-speaking mission, gave a talk that he had had translated into Italian for him. He told some great stories and had some very touching insights. There was a bit of Spanish pronunciation mixed in, with an occasional word in Spanish, but it was a great talk. Jim is the Young Men's president in our ward, and he loves those kids, though he told me he's never quite sure how they are able to teach them, because some speak only Italian, some only Spanish, some only English and some combinations of the above. There is no common language that everyone speaks. All in all, it was a wonderful Sacrament meeting in a polyglot ward. We loved it!

Dee writes: We have a young man in our ward who is a Nigerian refugee. He is a great member, very faithful. He's going to the Temple for the first time soon, so Sister Sprague has been helping him with his family history. She invited me to help out when they hit a snag or two, which was really special. Ugo is taking him to the Madrid Temple.

Dee continues: Our Relief Society is pretty small with an average attendance of less than ten sisters. Our RS President is all heart. For example, this week we had a new sister, Marta. She has been here from Peru for three months and doesn't speak very much Italian yet. Peruvian Spanish can be hard to understand because they use an h sound for the s. Anyway, our RS President has asked each of us to have her over for dinner on Sunday. Wow, that's what I call a welcome! It had never crossed my mind to reach out to this extent, and I am forever changed by her vision.

After church we went straight downtown to the Institute, taking some pulled pork in a crock pot, prepared by Ugo,  and a bunch of small buns from Ugo. At 3pm we had a late lunch with pulled pork sandwiches, chips, and store-bought cookies. My wife also made a Reeses-style dessert, with help from Claudia and Alessio, while Francesco helped cut open the buns (they usually don't come sliced here!). About ten kids showed up, more than we had anticipated. Claudia and the elders were gaga for that dessert.

 

 

 

 

After eating, we watched a pre-recorded YSA devotional broadcast from last month, with Elder and Sister Uchtdorf. One room watched it in Italian, and the other in English. My wife sat in on the Italian version, while I had door duty and was still able to listen to most of the English one. Both of the Uchtdorfs did a wonderful and entertaining job. You can watch it here.

Mid-way through the food prep, I leaned over in the kitchen to do something, and my suit pants split up the back! This happened a little bit ago on another pair a few months ago, but this time it was more than the thread breaking; the pants actually tore. For the record, I will state I have NOT gained weight here. The pants were basically ruined. Fortunately I had my long winter coat with me which I wore for the rest of the evening, so no one other than my wife was the wiser. We suspect that the fabric used by Mens Wearhouse for these two suits must be too thin and light, or maybe it's sewn wrong. It's good that I have two pairs of pants for each suit, but I'll have to be very careful in the future. If I were back in California, I'd take the suit in and complain -- it wasn't terribly cheap -- and probably get some satisfaction given the good customer service reputation from MW. Living here, we'll see what we can do.

It was fun to hang with the kids, as always. We got home in time to do some studying together, and for Dee to talk with our daughter Wendy. The coming week is quite busy, so we're glad to be home early.