Anziano Kimball

It was a fairly typical Friday. In the morning I got a haircut, giving me the chance to ask the barber how busy the roads would be on the big holiday Saturday; the answer: very crowded! I also walked to Conad to buy some oranges to serve along with dinner, having forgotten to buy some the day before. The weather continues fairly hot (low 80s) and  muggy. We are really grateful for AC at the Institute.

We carried a package of chicken (from Metro the other day) into the Institute for Dee to cook and freeze for future meals. We also brought in a big hunk of cheddar cheese for Ugo, and an apple for my lunch, but I somehow forgot my rice bowl that I had carefully prepared to bring. So two days in a row I didn't have my dinner for two different reasons, both my fault. When we got to the Institute, the Zone Leaders were doing prep for next week's Zone Conference, along with two Sister Training Leaders and their companions. Anziani Misa and Dunn showed up again, spending the day here before flying back to Catania in the evening. Dee brought out the remaining Reeses peanut butter bars, which they enthusiastically devoured. Anziano Dunn even took a photo of the recipe. All the missionaries then went out to work for the afternoon, on splits, which gives them a chance to work with somebody else.

Anziano Dunn wanted to buy a wooden sword for some reason, but he couldn't find one. Instead, he bought a small letter opener shaped like a sword. I told him that I doubted they would let him carry that onto the plane, which he hadn't thought of. Not sure what ended up happening with that.

I spent much of the afternoon doing final lesson prep, while Dee cooked the whole time.  She did a full crock pot of chicken, which we brought home in the evening for her to shred and freeze. She also cooked six packages of breakfast sausage, filling the small crock pot which kept it warm until evening. Everything was done seated in my chairiot, which meant that the sausage drippings spattered all over my clothes. Now I have a big prespotting job ahead of me :(Her wonderful pancake recipe worked great again, and she made a bunch of them ahead of time and kept them warm in the oven.

 

 

 

Ivan, Jayno, and Jomar showed up a couple of hours before class, and we had a nice visit with Ivan, who is newly in Italy from Peru. He attended my Seminary class for a while, and his English is better than his Italian, though the latter is now coming along pretty well. Ivan helped put the Wii back together that my wife had knocked onto the floor the other day; she was worried that she might have broken it, but fortunately it is well made.

My lesson on Luke 6-7 ended up fairly well attended, though as usual the crowd was small at the beginning. Ugo was there and had some nice comments along the way. Several of the points I made as we read through the chapters seemed to hit home pretty well, and there were a bunch of good comments. Anziano Kimball, who served in Milan in the early 1970s and here in Rome with his wife starting about five years ago, showed up mid-way through the lesson. We had met him here in 2013, again in 2015, and then at the wedding for Ugo's brother Alessandro in Utah. He was at a conference in Sardegna for his work, and he was really excited to be able to stop in Rome on the way home and see friends.

 

 

Joyce and Anziano Kimball

 

 

 

 

Margie showed up during the lesson time as planned and helped make pancakes, then had to run before dinner was served. Later she brought a friend for the after party. Maria Jose helped serve pancakes for most of the meal. All the food was wonderful and everyone had their fill. In particular the Mapeleine syrup turned out perfect this time; it tasted like the real thing. We ended up with some extra pancakes, because Dee made plenty in case we had a bigger crowd.

Ugo was so busy visiting with Anziano Kimball that he forgot about his train, so he went running out. Later he messaged us that he had barely caught the train and was dying from all the running in the heat, asking us to adopt his family if he didn't survive. 

Ugo on the train home

We had a fun time with that, with me kidding him that we would adopt his wife Jenna and dump the kids. Dee then said that she loved his kids and would keep them but dump me on the side of the road. I retorted that she couldn't even get to the car if I didn't help her. You can see that we are always extremely serious as missionaries! 😀