They broke the bank!

Tuesday morning when I woke up, there was an email from the manager of the Mens Wearhouse store in Encinitas where I bought my suits. He said that he would ask how long it would take to make me a replacement pair of pants. We'll then figure out whether Sherry & Greg can bring them in March, or whether my sister Marilyn will bring them in June. I can get the alterations done here. That sounds pretty fair to me, though we also probably want to look at re-stitching some of the seams to reinforce them.

In the morning I went to the hardware store down the street to get a copy of the Institute door key. They had the correct blank, and the key worked when we tried it later in the day. It cost 15 euros! This is the kind of key I had in Switzerland in the 1970s, and it took him quite a while to cut the copy. In any case, Ugo will reimburse us, and we're very happy to have a key each.

I also went to Conad for a few things, including some soft bread for Dee after her oral surgery. Actually, the bread crust is rather hard, as is typical here -- we really like Italian bread! But in this case the center of the bread is soft, so she should be able to eat it.

It was quite a day at the Institute: the largest Taco Tuesday crowd since we've been here, by far. Luckily for us, some of the kids were there early and helped us to prepare, but we were still busy in the kitchen for hours, making more and refilling serving bowls! Over 25 kids signed in during the day. The classroom we use for eating tacos was so full that some of them had to eat standing up! We had six non-members there during the day, all of whom seemed to enjoy themselves and fit right in. The missionaries also are a natural part of this group, which allows them to talk about the gospel with the nonmembers. It was awesome.

 

 

During the event, we served over 50 tacos. My wife tried to make Spanish rice, which has gone well the first few times, but this time it was disastrous. She burned the first batch, then had to switch to a different type of rice for the new batch, which took over an hour and still wasn't very soft, so we didn't serve it after all. They did manage to finish off a large pan of chocolate chip cookies, but not as fast as Americans would have. Most of our GANS just aren't as interested in sweets. 

Anziano Waddell was with a different companion today, due to splits. Elder Findlay was totally blown away by the food--Tacos! Cheddar! and most of all, Peanut Butter Bars!!!

About 3:30pm we finally got to sit down and eat a bit ourselves, though we never really had much down time during the day. It was brilliant of the Thackers to come up with this Taco Tuesday idea, and we are so happy to continue the tradition.

Cami and Torrey, the two girls here doing BYU study abroad, were also there much of the day and had a blast. Their classmates were doing other things in Rome, but they wanted the experience of hanging with Italian kids. They are outgoing and fun. In the evening, with the Sorelle running late for starting the English class, I asked them if they wanted to have some fun teaching English. They were all in! So we started class and had them interact with the Italians. The Sorelle showed up in a few minutes and took over, but Cami and Torrey stayed in for the whole hour. One of the Italian students, a young man, apparently flirted pretty heavily with Torrey during the lesson, which made it even more fun. 😊

A bunch of the kids, including Torrey and two of our non-members from Colombia, played Bang! with some of our locals after lunch. They were all having a great time together. At one point, Matteo came in to see us in the office and to complain about how cold it was in the game room. Dee told him to turn on the overhead electric heater, which he said was a good idea. As he was leaving to return to the classrom, on an whim I asked if maybe the window was open. He thought for a minute, and then said "why, yes it is!" It was about 50 degrees outside, so no wonder they were cold! In general, Italians like fresh air during the winter, but not so much during the summer. Anyway, after closing the window it magically warmed up! 😁

 

After I exited the English class, I saw a woman sitting in the entryway. She looked very familiar. After a while, it finally dawned on me, so I went up to her and asked, "Are you Barbara?" Indeed, it was one of the translators from the FairMormon conferences we helped put on in Italy in 2013 and 2015, and we had gotten to know her then. She also said that she recognized me but couldn't quite place me at first either. She's a great lady, one of the best translators ever, having served a mission in England some years ago. We had a nice time visiting with her.

Choir was very nice tonight. There were more women than men for a change, including several new (non-member) faces. We sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and "With Wondering Awe" in Italian. Lorenzo, our teacher, is really talented and fun. Matteo knows a lot about music and has a terrific deep bass voice. 

 

We got home a bit earlier than usual, and I had the chance to call my mom, as well as my sister Colleen, who is visiting her in Las Cruces. I hadn't spoken with Colleen for a while, so it was nice to visit a bit.

Ugo's comment on the large turnout today was "they broke the bank!" Indeed, we had thought that we had a few weeks' worth of tortillas on hand, but instead we went through almost all of them in one day. We now need to do some shopping to track down more for next week. Hopefully the attendance will continue to be big! We love having that many kids around -- it's so good to have this Institute Campus for them.