New shoes
Thursday morning we left at 9:15am for our weekly 10am district meeting. It's a drive down the freeway (GRA), all the way to our ward chapel. Without traffic, it takes 25 minutes or so, but an accident ahead on the GRA slowed us down enough that we were a few minutes late. It was a wonderful meeting, with some unexpected news. Anziano Ferrara, our district leader, really knows how to set the spirit. He has us do some personal study for five minutes before starting, and then he leads a marvelous discussion on the topic(s) he assigned us to read ahead of time. It's very simple, but he has great insights and is a wonderful leader.
Sorella N'Zoungani announced that she will be going home early at the transfer next week, due to some (unspecified) health issues. We are very sad to hear it, because we really like her. It's particularly nice to have a native Italian speaker of whom we can ask language questions. My wife gave the "language tip" today, and Sorella N'Z backed up the points: the importance of pronouncing double consonants fully, and the use of present tense for events coming up soon where Americans often use future tense -- e.g., Italians usually say "vengo domani" (I come tomorrow) instead of "verro' domani" (I will come tomorrow).
The Spragues, who are finishing their 18-month mission in May and who have been in our ward the whole time, announced that they will transfer to Malta for their final six weeks to replace the Thompsons who are going home. We really love the Spragues, and we will miss them. Change is a constant in our mission. Here are two photos of our district:
Dee writes: At the end of district meeting, I took a few minutes to show Sister N'Z the braided two-color cast on. She was excited and took a video. She's been making hats for the young elders and her companion. It's been fun to share quick knitting tips.
After district meeting, we headed downtown, stopping at a Lidl market which was right along the way to buy some stuff, a bit for home but mostly for Friday night's dinner. It was a really nice Lidl, much bigger than our local one. Dee would like to go there again. We had also brought some stuff from home, so it took two fully laden trips from the car to carry it all up to the Institute.
In the afternoon I worked on my lessons, while Dee started preparing for dinner Friday. She cooked some frozen chicken in the two crockpots, so it will be ready to be shredded and used in a casserole, making Friday less busy.
As is typical on Thursday, it was a very light day in terms of people showing up. The temperature has been surprisingly low, and my feet in particular feel really cold. I only have one pair of closed shoes: my spring/summer shoes are a bit too cold for this weather, even wearing a second pair of socks. The problem is that they don't tend to carry anything in my size (12 US, 46 EU) in most shoe stores here, so it's not easy to go out and find anything that fits me. A thought came to me to go to the men's clothing store down the street where I bought my suit and ask Gino for suggestions as to where to find shoes my size. He immediately suggested Geppy, a shoe store right around the corner, where I quickly found a nice pair that fits, for only 90 euros. The brand is Pikolinos, which I had never heard of, but which my shoe-expert wife informed me is well known. My feet will be happier!
Here is the list of upcoming activities for the GANS in Rome, from our bulletin board at the Institute:
Stefano Da Ponte from the Milano area came down for the weekend because there's a GANS dance here Saturday night. It was good to see him. Only one student showed up for English class: Arsene, the Catholic priest from Burundi. He basically got a private tutoring lesson from the Ganziani, and they all enjoyed it.
Because she didn't know how well she'd be feeling after getting her tooth pulled, Dee cancelled her online Family History class this week. Instead, she offered to do one-on-one meetings with each of her students to work on their own tree. She did one in person with Eleonra on Tuesday, and two more Thursday night online via Zoom (one in Rome, one at the temple in Switzerland). They loved what she is doing and were effusive in their praise. My wife rocks.
We were able to leave Institute a bit early and got home about 9:15am. We feel very blessed to be here and happy to serve.
