Dee can now walk (slowly) up the steps at church on her own using crutches instead of the lift, which is much easier for all involved. Anziano Jensen, our district leader, is a wonderful guy but always seems to be late: 25 minutes this time. We actually started a pool while waiting for him. I won. The meeting was very good, with Sorella Maxfield doing our training this time. Her topic was on making commitments, both for helping investigators and for personal goals. She said we usually spend a lot of time on the what and the how, but we need to spend time on the why. Terrific. These young missionaries are very good teachers. Anziano Jensen said he was sorry they were late. I zinged him by saying that usually repentance included a resolve to not repeat the action. . .
Anziano Stucki did the language tip. He told us he has a twenty-page document from a past missionary with lots of tips, and he sent it to all of us. Isn't that great?
After district meeting, we did our typical shopping stop at the nearby Lidl on the way to the Institute. This was the first time I did it on crutches. We got a fair amount of food, only a little bit for home. I pulled two 1kg paper bags of flour out of the plastic wrap multipack they come in. One bag on the end of the package had a big hole in the bottom, which poured out on my black shoes and light gray pants, requiring some cleanup later. Then the two that I picked up also had holes that I didn't notice until we got to the check stand, so I ran back and replaced them with two without holes. Once we got to the Institute, it took me three trips up the elevator to carry it all up from the car.
At 2pm we had an online video conference (via Zoom) with other YSA missionary couples from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It was led by the Skoubyes in Frankfurt, who are over all the YSA senior couples in Europe. We all shared several ideas on how to help train the young people to be better leaders, and we got a good idea or two out of it.
I spent the afternoon on prep for my two lessons on Luke Friday and Saturday. After another week, the two classes will be in sync, so that will be less work, though I will still have to print the notes in both languages. Dee spent a bunch of time in the kitchen, cooking the chicken we just bought at Lidl in the crock post, as well as making chocolate cookies for the evening English class. I'm still not up to going to Napoli. It requires too much walking, but I sure wish I could go to meet the students.
I spoke with our son Rich about mailing a couple of other small things to our son Wes to bring to us next month, including a nice foldable shade hat for our Pompeii visit. Rich had just shipped a package for Dee, but I didn't think of these items in time, so we will have to pay a little more for postage. We used Zoom video calling to help make sure he found the correct items. It was great being able to do live video for free.
In the late afternoon and evening, we had a number of kids show up who aren't often here on Thursdays. It was good to see them, and they enjoyed the cookies and stayed for the English class. Michela apparently recruited Sheyla to help plan her (Michela's) wedding in October, so those two worked together for a while. Christina, a girl from Oregon showed up for the first time; she is here for a while to do some opera training. After English class, she broke out into an impromptu concert, which was stunning. You can watch a few seconds of it here. We heard it from the kitchen, and the other kids in the room with her were amazed. One said, "how do sounds that powerful come out of a human being?"
When we got home, the Balzottis gave us a letter with an Aetna insurance reimbursement check for Dee's medical expenses. Yay! The church insurance program for senior missionaries abroad is wonderful and very inexpensive, especially for people our age.