No longer Amish

Tuesday started with some good news: my sister Karen emailed to say that they had made their flight reservations to visit us in Rome in October. We are very excited about seeing them. In the morning I tried to make some reservations for us to go to the excavations under St. Peter's Basilica, including the bones of St. Peter. That tour is booked months in advance, and they gave me an October date that doesn't work for us, so we'll try again.

In the morning I paid our first 2018 estimated taxes and caught up on a few things. Dee walked down to the open market and bought herself a light sweater and a beautiful scarf for the nicer weather. She also stopped at Conad to get us some food, including several kinds of awesome bread to try.

We filled up our car on the way in to the Institute, using the mission credit card. In general, we are responsible for our own gas, but we get to expense certain trips, such as taking missionaries to/from the airport and driving to inspect apartments. We don't do that too much, but we accumulate the mileage (kilometerage? :) in a spreadsheet and fill up after it reaches a typical refill amount.

We got downtown in plenty of time to prepare for Taco Tuesday. Adrian arrived early because he also had us buy him a block of cheddar and he was anxious to get it. That boy loves to eat! So he ended up helping by grating a whole bunch of cheese (ours, not his :-), until his arms were sore and tired. After a slow start, the lunch room ended up quite full, with several friends of Margie and Alkmini rounding out the group. I did several full loads of dishes, washing and drying, and Dee did at least one also.

At one point, Gabriele came into the kitchen and asked who made the wonderful taco meat. I told him that I did, and he laughed because he was sure that I was pulling his leg. He looked at my wife, who told him that indeed I did make it. He was quite surprised and gave me a congratulatory handshake!

We learned this week that the Zone Conference this coming Friday will be an eventful one, because our young missionaries are getting smartphones. Thus far they have had tablets (WiFi only), plus old flip phones. Dee writes: I tell them that people in the future will be very confused by their mission photos with flip phones, pegging their mission years as the 1990s. It will be a huge step forward for them to be allowed to use smartphones, though they will be locked down somewhat. Most importantly, they can use WhatsApp, which is what everyone here uses for almost all communication on their smartphones. It will make the missionaries much more effective in connecting with their investigators. One of the sisters joked, "we won't be Amish anymore!", referring to the reaction they always get from people who see their old-school flip phones😀. Because they dress fairly conservatively, people also sometimes think that the Sorelle are nuns, since nuns are also called Sorelle. The look is quite different obviously, but that comment gives them a chance to respond that they are only nuns for 18 months 😉.

Our choir class got cancelled at the last minute, because Lorenzo's wife was not feeling well, so he had to help with the kids. Dee had already started on a dessert for after class, Cinnamon Cream Cheese Blondies, which were chewy and delicious, so she just put it out for everyone to enjoy. It disappeared quickly!

 

Ugo walked me down to Americaland, a small store a few blocks away that sells American candy, cookies, and soda. I got a Dr. Pepper for me and a cream soda to share with the kids, who are not familiar with it. They have all kinds of goodies there, which the owner's uncle ships over from the US. We may go back there sometime in the future!

Dee writes: I spent some time with Maria Josè, teaching her how to direct music. She was so excited to hear that Lorenzo was teaching it in choir. When he couldn't come, I offered to help. She has no musical training, and wanted to know about half notes, quarter notes, etc. I taught her to listen for the downbeat, which she had never known about. She practiced conducting until her arm was tired. We started by singing along, but after awhile, I had her do it without singing because it was more helpful for keeping track of the beat. She says in her ward they often have no one who can lead music, so she really wants to learn. The pickup beat is a more advanced step, and we did a bit of that, too. She is a delightful gal, and will soon put in her mission papers.

I got to hang out with Ugo and a small group of kids in the library just talking and joking together in high-speed Italian; I was able to understand almost everything and inject a few jokes along the way. Our language has really gotten more facile after these months. We are both enjoying spending time with these kids, who seem to be really warming up to us more than ever.

Arsene came to English class for the first time in a while. He had been out of town and then took some personal time off. It is always delightful to talk with him. He plans to spend the summer in Wisconsin, immersing himself in English at a Catholic theological school there. We asked if there is a time we could attend a mass he gives, and he says that he does one every Thursday at 7:50am at his university. A bit early, but we'll see if we are allowed to attend and maybe try to make it one time. It was amazing when he met Anziano Wijesundera for the first time: Arsene looked at him and his nametag, then said "wait a minute ... [long pause] ... Sri Lanka?" That is exactly where Anziano W's parents are from! 

Linda DiMartino, a non-member from Battipaglia who is going to school in Rome, dropped by later to visit. Her sister is a member, and she is very friendly with the church. She has been there a few times in recent months. We made her a sandwich (with the coveted cheddar!) and chatted with her a lot. She opened up about some personal issues she is going through, and it felt like we really connected with her.

Our Amazon Alexa has stopped being able to find the weather for Rome, which is one of the things we like to use it for the most. It can find other cities in Italy and in the US, just not Rome. I called tech support after we got home and had them reproduce the problem on their end, so they have their engineers working on it. Hopefully soon it will be back up to speed.