Dinner with Anna and Roberto

Thursday morning I got a haircut. Francesco, my barber down the street, surprised me right up front by saying "Don't forget what you are going to do for me in January." I didn't know what he was talking about, so he said "you need to let me see your beautiful new church." He was talking about the temple open house. Nice! We started a list of people we want to make sure to invite.

The drama continues with my in-laws back home in California, but it does appear that things are improving slowly. So perhaps the crisis is over, at least for now. We had not needed AC in our home for a few days, but we turned it on in the back bedroom as it was just warm enough to warrant. 

Dee noted that the published title online for my talk at the YSA conference next week was incorrect. It's not clear who messed up, nor how they came up with a completely wrong title: "Using technology for family history." My concern is that the family history part will turn half the people off. The actual title is "Preserving Digital Data," talking about backup, much more general. Apparently the kids have already signed up for their classes, so we will see if anybody comes to listen to me.

We went to Institute at 1pm. At 3pm, we had a meeting at the new possible Institute location on the first floor with the local architect and builder that the church uses. Dee and I spent some time together before the meeting mapping out how we think the rooms could be used. Signora Chirra got the key to us, so we were able to get in. The architect will draw up plans, and he took much more careful room measurements than we had done weeks ago. The goal is to get a plan done so we can tell how much the build-out would cost and then start negotiating a deal within a week or two. It is nice that things seem to be rolling.

At 6:30pm we had a dinner set up with old friends Anna & Roberto, who live about an hour north of Rome. Anna and Dee became friends almost 15 years ago after connecting on the internet due to a shared interest in hand work, such as tatting, knitting, and jewelry making. We stayed with them just over ten years ago at the start of one of our trips. They are very intelligent and their Italian is very easy to understand; Dee and I both enjoyed gleaning a few useful phrases and words while we talked with them during the evening. Traffic made them a few minutes late, but they were able to find a parking spot right in front of the Institute -- August here has its benefits! It was about 6:45pm, and we stood out in front of the Opera House talking for a while. We asked if they wanted to go to the restaurant, Target, just down the street. Roberto responded "It's only 7pm. We can't eat now!" Sometime we forget how very different the cultures can be. 😀

Roberto loves to walk. In 2008 he walked us all into the ground, covering much of Rome. They know and love the city. We walked to a church around the corner (Santa Maria degli Angeli), but it was already closed for the day. So then I asked if they had been to the Four Fountains; Anna knew about it, but Roberto didn't, so we walked there in about ten minutes. It is one of Dee's favorite sights in Rome, and it was nice to spend time there enjoying the statues instead of just driving by, which we do regularly. Roberto happily pointed out several big  government offices along the way. He follows Italian and world events a lot and always has interesting insights and questions. He and I walked and talked, with the two women trailing behind visiting. There was a lovely cool breeze. Once at the Four Fountains, he said that if we just kept going a little bit, we could see the Presidential Palace, pointing to it in the distance. He was ready to go, but Anna laughed and said "don't trust him -- his walks always go on and on." So I said that it probably wasn't wise to push it with Dee's not quite fully healed foot. Roberto was disappointed, but the rest of us were happy to head for the restaurant.

As always, we ate very well there. Dee and I shared fagottini, a filled pasta, as well as a salad with smoked salmon. Roberto and Anna had pasta and a pizza, respectively. For dessert we had very thinly sliced pineapple with berries. They are brand new grandparents, and we got to see pictures of their beautiful grandson, four months old. Their daughter and her husband are living with them for now, while their new home is getting ready after returning from London where they worked. Anna's 90-year-old mom had been immobile for a couple of years, just waiting to die, but now she has come back to life thanks to her new great-grandson!

Walking back to the Institute, just a block away, they asked if we wanted a coffee, then Roberto remembered that we don't drink coffee, so he backed off. However, we encouraged them to get one, so we sat and visited at a sidewalk table outside the cafe down below the Institute. He said that coffee really helps them digest food. Italians always talk about what you need to do do digest food well, while we Americans rarely think about it. We got home about 11pm, tired but happy after a lovely evening with great people.

Light bulbs, aerators, washing machines

Wednesday was our day for inspecting four apartments in Ladispoli and Roma 1. We left at 9am, arriving in Ladispoli right on time at 10am. The Balzottis had given us four boxes of Books of Mormon for the Ladispoli missionaries, two boxes per apartment, which we delivered; they were heavy! In each apartment we were able to do something to help: replace an elevator light bulb, a faucet aerator, a bulb in an overhead bedroom light, etc. My practice of carrying tools, plus extra light bulbs and aerators has been very successful. 

The glass in the outside kitchen door at the apartment of the Anziani in Roma 1 shattered the other day when the door got stuck. It was non-tempered glass, and Anziano Sanchez actually got cut. We got approval for them to get it fixed and reimbursed. The washer at the Roma 1 Sorelle apartment has not been draining well for over a month, and we finally got the office to agree to replace it. Dee helped Anziano Baker make some butterscotch haystacks, which take just a few minutes, and Anziano Sanchez shared some nice chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting that he had made. We also delivered some letters, as well as giving cookies to each companionship. Overall, it was a satisfying trip. The missionaries really appreciate how we try to help them, and we enjoy being around these wonderful kids.
The Roma 1 district has more than half native spanish speakers, including the wonderful Anziano Sanchez and De La Rosa. The latter just got here from Mexico and doesn't speak much Enlish yet.

Anziano Sanchez with his cake

 

Anziano Baker making treats with help from Dee

 

 

By 2pm we were home for the rest of the day, which was good with all we have to do. I worked on my PowerPoint slides for next week, which are coming along well with some really fun clip art. Dee had more good feedback. I went out and read the gas meter and odometer to send in for our monthly report. There was a ton of chatter on the GANS conference groups. I also helped Claudio a bit over the phone with his new computer, which is basically done. He needed to update the BIOS, which was tricky, but he got it done.

At home in California, my father-in-law is a terrible patient. He doesn't quite understand why he has to do what the doctor asks, so he keeps making things worse. It is frustrating to hear the details as they come in, but we feel great that Lynn and Jim are there to help.

It was nice to catch up on some computer work and start my powerpoint presentation for the GANS conference.

New computer on the way

Tuesday morning I woke up about 4:30am, unable to get back to sleep. I hate it when that happens. Since I was up, I sent an email to Merrill, our former FamilySearch "manager" in Salt Lake, asking for clarifications on the need to have a dedicated computer for our new Family History center. I had been hoping to use our existing computer. Given the hour (evening there), I didn't expect a response for a while, but Merrill answered right away, which is very typical of him. He brought a few of their technical people into the email thread, and the conversation would continue through the day. They were very helpful. 

Meanwhile, I started looking on eBay.it for an inexpensive computer that we might be able to use, particularly since I already have the Pickerd's old 128GB SSD, and FamilySearch would provide the license for Windows. I found a brand-new Intel NUC, which is a tiny desktop where you add your own RAM and disk, which would be perfect for this kind of thing. The list price was only 10€ -- usually these things cost hundreds of dollars! So I quickly ordered the remaining two units. The seller soon contacted me to say that the price listing had been in error, asking to cancel the deal. Bummer. It was too good to be true, but for a few minutes there I was pretty excited!

At 9am we had a conference call with Ugo and Christian, who works for the church's Facilities Maintenance group. Christian wants to come on Thursday afternoon with an architect and a builder, whom they have used before, to look over the possible new location on the first floor of the Institute building. He talked about making a deposit to hold the place if their initial assessment is positive. Finally the powers that be seem excited about getting a nice location downtown, and it sounds very promising. We were very delighted.
 At 10:45am we left for Lidl to buy things for Taco Tuesday, mainly lettuce and tomatoes. Unfortunately, those two items were not in stock. That is the problem with Lidl: they have great prices, but limited selection and sometimes the common items cannot be found. So we bought some other things we needed and then drove to Coop, another local market on the way back, where Dee went in and found the two produce items. We still arrived at the Institute in plenty of time to set everything up and prepare the tacos. There was a relatively small turnout, but not really given that it is still August here. We all had a fun time visiting and eating. Both Ugo and the Ganziani brought guacamole that they had made, a rare and wonderful treat!

 

 

At 2:30pm we had a student council meeting, mostly to plan for our fall kickoff activity on September 8. Sheyla, who is our party animal and planner, had done some good work planning and recruiting people to help. The theme will be "At the Movies", and we talked through lots of ideas for decorations and activities, with Ugo ordering some stuff from amazon.it while we talked. We also told the kids the news about the FamilySearch center and the possibility of the new Institute location, and they were pretty jazzed! Claudia is officially released, since she is moving to England to work in the missionary training center there. It was strange not to have her. Ugo gave a wonderful vision-style talk to the council members.

Dee did most of the kitchen cleanup afterward, while I did some work on my PowerPoint presentation for the YSA conference this coming week. Later I showed her what I had so far, and she came up with some great suggestions on how to improve it. She has become quite a PowerPoint expert and a terrific presenter. 

After a number of emails back and forth about the new computer for FamilySearch, they finally made us an unexpected offer we can't refuse:  a brand new Dell All-in-One computer to use for our FamilySearch efforts at the center. I had expressed to them my concern about our lack of available space at our current location, so this was a perfect response.

We stayed a bit later than we had thought, leaving at 8:30pm. We carried a bunch of stuff home for the GANS conference, such as the Wii, some card and board games, food, etc. On the way out, we stopped by the cafe downstairs to ask Signora Chirra if we could get the key to the new place on Thursday afternoon. As always, she was gracious and delightful. We had a fun visit with her and her daughter for a while.

Meanwhile, back in California, my father-in-law has been in and out of the hospital for some issues that are uncomfortable but not life threatening (at this point). Dee's cousin Lynn has been truly amazing in helping out. It is a big concern, but we feel blessed to have her and Jim there to provide some direction and sanity to a difficult situation.

Near disaster

Monday would be our first day back at the Institute in quite a while. The weather is warm but  pleasant, not requiring much AC at home. In the morning, Dee had finished creating a contact group of the kids in our group (about 20 from all over Italy) for the YSA conference in Assisi next weekend. We will be the group leader for these kids, giving several devotionals and leading discussions at various times. She created a WhatsApp group and, even before she had time to send an initial welcome message, they were already chatting energetically with each other! I asked her to export those contacts for me to add to my Google contacts, since without names they just show up as phone numbers in WhatsApp. She quickly complied, and I imported the list she sent me. Mistake!!

She had inadvertently sent me her entire contact list, which is much bigger than mine and organized very differently (my way is better, of course!). All of a sudden my rather carefully managed contact list went from something I understood to a large mixture that I couldn't wrap my arms around. There was no easy way I could figure out to undo it, and every thing I tried at first seemed to make it worse. Fortunately, I had done an export/backup of my contacts only two weeks ago, so I ended up reverting to that and merging in my changes (that I could remember) since then. In such a situation you have to do things very carefully and deliberately so as not to lose anything. Anyway, after quite a while of groaning audibly (I would call it whimpering) about how bad it was, with Dee feeling awful about her mistake, I finally got my contact list back to where it belongs. We rely so much on Google for mail, contacts, calendar and directions that this really was a near catastrophe. I will back up my contacts more frequently from now on!

We left early to fill up the car and drop by Metro to buy some items for Taco Tuesday, mainly cheddar cheese and sour cream. I stayed in the car while Dee shopped, because we had all the boxes from Claudio's new desktop computer in the car. She got the stuff quickly, and we arrived downtown by about 12:30pm. 

Claudio took a while to arrive, and then we set to work on finishing his computer. I had ordered an extension cable for motherboard power for 7€ that we needed, and it worked fine. When we finally got everything installed and powered it on, absolutely nothing happened: no fan, no display, no nothing. Turns out that we had connected the power cables incorrectly, and after that the fans at least came on, along with the fun LED lighting that are a feature of the case he bought. However, absolutely nothing showed up on the screen. We tried different things: re-seating the RAM, removing the graphics card, removing the hard drive, all to no avail. 

It was that point in a PC build where you think you just wasted all your money -- happens most of the time, but this one lasted well over an hour and was excruciating. Finally, I re-seated one of the power connections and everything worked. Whew! We ran some quick tests, then installed Windows from a USB drive I had prepared. Claudio choose an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU (8 cores, 16 threads) with 16GB of memory, a nice graphics card and a 500GB SSD, so it is fast! He still has some software installation and configuration to do, but it looks really good now. As we loaded it all into his car to take home, he gave me a big hug. 😀

During the afternoon, we learned via email that our Institute campus has been approved as a Family History Center. This was awesome news, something that we have been asking for for some time. Our friend and former FH manager in Salt Lake knew what buttons to push to get this approved. There are many records in Italy that are not available online except at an official FH center, so this will allow Dee (and me) to help the kids more easily with their family history. We still have to figure out what computer to use and where to locate it, since we don't have much free space here, but we and Ugo are excited. I can't express how great this is! I hit that restriction all the time working with Italians.

Dee spent almost all afternoon in the kitchen, cooking various desserts for FHE. She burned the first one -- a granola mix -- but the other two kinds of cookies turned out great. I offered to teach the lesson for her, using my lesson on Proverbs from the day before as a template, and she happily accepted. Usually she won't let me do that for her, even though she knows how much I love to teach, because she likes it too, but with all the stuff going on this coming week she relented.

My lesson went  well, with lots of good participation. Doug is such a great teacher. The young people ate it up. Everyone, including our non-members Margie and Junior, took a turn finding and sharing a good proverb, with a very nice spirit present. Afterwards we enjoyed my wife's cookies, followed by a spirited card game.  And it was wonderful to see our GANS again!

 

  

 

For August (much of Italy is still on vacation), it was a fairly big group. After the festivities, we took the sisters, Neuberger and Decker, home to their apartment below us. They were the two who did a heart attack on our door the day before and were at the Institute all evening working on their presentation with our ZLs for next week's Zone Conference. It was a big help for us because we had a bunch of stuff, so they helped carry bags in exchange for a ride home.

We got to meet Elder Baker, a new zone leader in Roma 1.He's American, but he has the best Italian accent I have ever heard among these missionaries. He's very personable and a great addition to the mission. They were working on zone conference preparation. The zone leaders and sister training leaders prepare a good chunk of the meeting. They're creative and do interactive things. Impressive.

We were happy to hear that Margie has finished her internship and they even offered her a job! Her thesis is due September 3, so she's down to the wire. She is talented, diligent, pleasant and beautiful. She would be a benefit to any company.

I put together the new shelving for the bathroom storage area and cleaned everything up. It's so much better than it was, and now the organization is logical and easy to maintain.

For our YSA conference, we have a list in an excel spreadsheet. Unfortuately, it had some random merged cells and wasn't sortable. I spent a couple of hours getting it into shape, only to find out there was a cleaned up copy that hadn't been sent to us. Oh well, it's taken care of now. There are 130 kids going to the conference, and 19 will be in our own little group. They're from all over Italy. It will be fun to get to know them all and play and learn together.

Two great lessons

Sunday we were both a little tired, but church was wonderful. Both of our lessons went very well. In Sunday School, I had the class discuss some verses from Proverbs that I handed out for them to read. Then I had them each look for a verse at random in Proverbs that they liked. Everyone who shared their verse got a piece of candy, provided to me by my wife, which brought some laughter and was a very popular incentive! Dee's Relief Society lesson on ministering, using some material that she didn't get to last month, resulted in a whole lot of good participation. She felt like it was among her best efforts. First, we had a visitor from England, so I had the sisters all introduce themselves--name, country of origin, how long a member of the Church. Then I broke them into groups and gave each a story about ministering to read and discuss. A lot of the sisters shared stories and thoughts. There was a great spirit there.I also brought store-bought cookies to hand out, saying that ministering doesn't have to be fancy or difficult They were happy to nibble on them.

When we got home from church, our front door had been "heart attacked" by the sisters below us. Wasn't that nice?

 

 

In the afternoon we spent some time at home, but also some time out helping other senior missionaries. I went to the Benincosas to help them configure their portable wireless printer, as well as with a gasoline gift card they bought. That is called faith, because they don't have a car yet!  I also tried to set up a Google Voice number to forward to their old US cell numbers from T-Mobile, with a goal of ultimately porting the number away from T-Mobile to Google Voice, using Groove IP as the back-end app. That is a mouthful! Unfortunately, I used a very old phone with their SIM cards, which takes full size SIMs, but I didn't realize it, so I pushed the nanoSIM completely into the body of the phone. At that point it was impossible to extract, so I gave up and went home with the phone and SIM.  Meanwhile, Dee went to help Anziano Balzotti with his Italian family history for a few hours, one of her favorite activities and best skills. 

After getting home, I took the old phone apart with help from YouTube, extracting the SIM card. I was then able to get most of the setup done for Google Voice, except that I had Sorella Benincosa's T-Mobile SIM, but with his email account info, so I kept having to call him to get him to approve my accessing his account. Finally I gave up and told him we would do it some other when we we could both be in the same room.

I worked on the Powerpoint for my presentation at the GANS conference in a week in Assisi. We both did a lot of messaging and planning for our upcoming busy week. It was actually overcast and not hot for the day. When it came time for bed, we didn't even need to turn on the AC in our room. 

I've been too tired to keep with the blog on our Switzerland Temple trip, so let me catch up here. I did add some things to the days that were already published (Full Day at the Temple, Tacos with Spanish Rice, Five Languages, Home Again). I hope you'll look at them. I added some fun photos, too.

Monday:
Wonderful people: there was a woman who spoke French, from 
Iceland/Greenland. She had come alone. I wonder what her story was? She spoke enough English for me to help her get situated a little.

Tuesday:
When we went shopping at Aldi, I needed some oil for my salad. There was a small bottle that was inexpensive and looked nice. It turns out it was linseed oil, which although edible (it's also called flax seed oil) is also used in paints and the manufacture of linoleum. It tastes terrible. I quickly got something else. 

We had a devotional in front of the Temple at 9pm. They did it every night, but I only made it to Tuesday and Doug didn't go at all. It was fun to hear our Bishop speak in English to Simeon. I didn't know he could do that.

Wednesday:
The man who asked us to be the witness couple on Tuesday was Brother Certa. Certa is a name in my Sicilian line, so I was intrigued. He spoke only French. In fact, he had to use a headset in the Italian session. I told his wife I had Certas in my family, and she was polite but noncommittal. Perhaps she didn't understand me. My french is from high school, so I didn't understand her too well, either. Later in the day, I had Caterina Certa's name card. She got really excited when she saw it. Then it happened that Brother Certa was involved in our Temple ceremony on that occasion, too. When he saw the name, he followed me up to the Celestial room, very excited. His Certa grandfather was from Sicily, too! We exchanged emails and will write to each other using Google Translate. I am so touched by his experience. He told me even if we're distant cousins, he is so glad we have met. I'll see if I can find a connection.

I met a German woman named Brigitte. She told me that she lives 600km from any Temple, because the one near her has been closed for repairs for two or three years. So, she decided to come to Switzerland. However, she was really sick, driving all that way. She stopped to vomit now and then as she drove. She finally felt bad enough that she called a friend to ask for a blessing when she was near the border at Basel.He gave it to her over the phone! She hadn't been able to reach the hostel to reserve a spot, but she came anyway. And it turned out there was one bed left, for exactly the two nights she needed! She lives by the promptings of the Spirit. She told me she had been prompted to go to the Netherlands Temple at Den Haag and to stay in a youth hostel and stay in the big room (not part of the Temple property). She would never have chosen this crowded situation. And by "coincidence", a young LDS lady bunked just above her! She needed help, and Brigitte was able provide it. Amazing.

I helped Sandro and Silvia print some name cards, and then Jenna showed up and we sat and talked for an hour or so. It was great to talk and get to hear what she's thinking about. I wish we had more time together. It was also terrific to be with Raffaella and Alberto Perego. They mean so much to us.

There were two sisters in their early sixties who work at the Temple. They live in Florence and serve here for a few weeks at a time. They have never married and live together, even sharing an email address. They were both very lovely. Doug did a Temple name for Victoria, and when Frieda admired my earrings, I gave them to her. It was a little pair I had made, with silver hearts and a coppery bead. We think we'll see them when the Rome Temple is dedicated. 

A fun part of making the rice was that AJ liked it. He is recently 18 and we'd love to have him at the Institute. I told him we do it every week at Taco Tuesday....

Thursday:
The Bishop arranged the Bern trip schedule specifically so I could go to the yarn store. That was extra nice!

Home again, home again

The overnight bus journey from Switzerland to Rome took just over 12 hours, with stops in Bellinzona, Modena, and then an hour north of Rome. It was still a long night without a ton of sleep, but definitely better than being so cramped on the trip up. The kids around me were pretty quiet and sleepy, so that was not a problem. David and Parker actually each laid out in the aisle and slept with a pillow and blanket there, which was probably good for them but almost impossible to pass. Once we got into Italy, I could turn my SIM cards back on and access the internet and emails. 

I sat near Barbara Rondinelli, her brother and his wife, Mariella (he's the stake president) and Marcella Stocchi. I really like these people. We had a nice time visiting. I was ready to sleep, but just then the bus driver started a video for the kids, very loud. Thankfully, after awhile, the Bishop turned down the sound. It's never good sleeping upright, but I have a fabulous neck pillow, which helped a lot. Since Doug sat in the back, I had the double seat to myself. I wanted to sit where there was an overhead. It's illegal in Switzerland to have your bags under your feet, so I had my items in the overhead. There isn't one in the far back. My ankles got very puffy, but I'll get things back into shape when I get home. They don't hurt, which I'm grateful for. Going up and down the bus stairs is pretty tough for me. They're steep and don't have a good handrail. I won't miss that part of the whole experience.

One of my ward assignments is to teach Relief Society on the fourth Sunday of each month. The latest curriculum has me teaching on the same topic for six months, with very little guidance. I have a total of seven paragraphs of material for the six months. But luckily, last month I prepared way more than I could use, so I already had everything I needed. It takes time to find the material, translate it and set it up in double columns. I was so grateful to already have it, since I was pretty fried by the time we got home. Unprecedented for me, and a relief to be ready. I read the lesson once on the bus, and was ready to go. I set it up in two languages so that the missionaries can more easily translate for visitors. They really appreciate having it in English. 

Right before we left, Jenna Perego came toward us in the back of the bus to give a bottle of water to David. I held up my hand and she tossed the bottle to me from about 15 feet away. There as an audible gasp from all the non-Americans, who are not accustomed to being able to catch things easily with their hands, probably due to soccer being so dominant. Anyway, I caught the bottle easily, and everyone seemed very impressed.

As we approached Rome, I kept Anziano Benincosa informed of our ETA, and he showed up just a few minutes after we unloaded. It was his first time driving to Roma 3 chapel, and he had missed the exit on the freeway. He gladly let me drive home, dropping him off along the way. They enjoyed having the car for the week, so everything worked out well. 

As soon as we got home, just before noon, we unpacked enough to fill the laundry hampers and Dee started a load, then we both crashed for a nap. Mine lasted for 1.5 hours, and Dee for 2 hours. It was a big help. We each took a shower after we woke up, which felt soooo refreshing. Dee would do six loads of laundry, which dried pretty fast due to the heat.

I ripped the Italian Primary music CDs for Dee, using the Nero and MP3tag programs to get all the names and numbers right. In the early evening I walked down to Conad to stock up on produce. My Sunday School lesson (on Proverbs) didn't take too long to prepare, as I had already read a bunch and decided to let the class search for a Proverb that they liked. Sorella Knies needed some help filling out an application for when they return to the US in October. The web site wouldn't let her do it from Italy, so I had her log onto my laptop at home in California via TeamViewer, where she was easily able to get it done. She was delighted. Doug is the tech rescuer here.

We were both pretty tired and in bed by 10pm. It was a great week, but there is no place like home.

Last minute shopping and packing

Friday was a wonderful final day. We both woke up earlier than we would have liked, unable to get back to sleep. Dee got almost eight hours, but I was still tired. Since we were already up, we decided to go to the 8am endowment session. I ran into Alberto while eating breakfast. When he heard what we were doing, he went back and woke up his wife so they could join us. The session was again in Italian, and it gets easier each time. After that session, which ended about 10am, we went to the start of a sealing session, where Alberto's father was sealed to his parents. His dad died last year at age 98; we had met him once a few years ago while visiting there, and he was still sharp and seemed quite the gentleman. His mom is still alive at age 91, so her work obviously cannot yet be done. Dee and I have a long history of being present at big Perego family events and ordinances, so we didn't want to miss this chance given that we were so close.

After that one sealing, we left to go back to our room for a nap: first me, then Dee. Alberto was stunned when we had told him earlier that we were tired and were going to take a nap. He responded, "at 11 in the morning!?!" Doesn't seem odd to us, but apparently that is strange in his world.

Brother Certa, who is French but with Sicilian ancestry, and his wife are now very friendly with us, even though we can't communicate well. My wife has Certas from Sicily in her line as well, so she is looking at how to help them with their family history. Apparently they are not from Dee's ancestral town, Chiusa Sclafani, but from other towns in the region. The Swiss temple is small enough that we keep running into them.

At 2pm we had a ward endowment session in Italian, with Bishop Magnanti and his wife officiating. It was nice to see so many ward members together in the temple. Rhenald and Dexter were not there, which surprised us. Later we learned that they were running a bit late and didn't have any family names (which many of us would have happily shared if we had known). Since they are new, they didn't know that the temple had names it could share with them, so they just skipped it. Bummer. We think that we explain things well, but it is so easy to overlook an assumption. 

After that session, we were done with temple work for the week. Dee and I walked over to the distribution center to buy some temple clothing. The woman at the store speaks four languages well, plus a few more to some degree. She said that she was the temple president's secretary for a few years back when there were only a few temples in Europe, and they regularly had visitors from all over the place, including Finland and Scandinavia. I bought myself a new white tie and slippers, as mine were both quite worn out. We also bought white ties as gift mementos for Rhenald and Dexter, which we will give them on Sunday at church. They had a bunch of church materials available in Italian, including CDs of the Primary hymnbook. Dee has been wanting MP3 files of all the Primary songs, but online she has to download them one at time. For 4.5 francs ($4.50), we bought the six-CD set, which I will rip for her when we get home. She bought a white dress, which we just learned that she needs for a brief presentation we will make at the GANS conference next weekend in Assisi. We didn't bring our temple clothes with us on our mission, assuming that we would not have any opportunity to use them. Dee asked around about borrowing a dress, but didn't find anything that would definitely fit, and it was easy to do this while there in Switzerland. She really liked the dress, and she took it to the temple where they have sewing tools to fix things up a bit for herself.

Once back at the hostel, we had an early dinner and packed (me first, then Dee), then cleaned out our kitchen area. It is always easier and quicker to pack for going home than for leaving home. Jahir, one of the ward members, made some nice pasta to share with the whole ward, of which I enjoyed tasting a little bit.

 

 

By about 8pm we took our luggage down and enjoyed sitting in the very fresh outside weather, after vacuuming our room. We returned our keys and the Swiss 3-prong plug adapters which they loaned us, plus gave them the Swiss outlet strip we had bought for others to use, as we will not need it again. Two-prong devices tend to plug in fine, but the Swiss have the middle ground plug offset instead of in a straight line, so a couple of our devices needed help.

Dee vacuuming out our spacious room

The hallway to our door, last on the right

The bus departed at 9:50pm, a few minutes early. I was able to secure the seat in the middle on the back row, with full leg extension available for me. However, I was surrounded by teenagers who weren't quite sure what to make of this old guy in their midst, and I was concerned about how rowdy they might be. But, as I told our bishop, "è meglio non dormire per rumore che per dolore" (it is better to not sleep because of noise than because of pain).

The view from my seat in the back of the bus

Sandra eating an apple while helping her kids settle into their seats on the bus.
I told her that I could blackmail her with this photo

We were all excited to be heading home, although the kids were sad that this would likely be their last time at the Swiss temple, with the Rome temple opening next year. We felt very privileged to be able to participate in this last trip of its kind.

Five languages

Thursday morning we both slept in. Dee woke up with a sore back that she had managed to tweak somehow. When we get back to Rome, we need to find a chiropractor, since from time to time we each seem to need one. They are not well known here, and every one we find on the web has an American name. 

Below is a photo of the unusual faucet fixture in our room at the hostel. We have named it "Vlad" (as in Vlad the Impaler) because it has this big vertical handle that sticks up and is easy to hit on your forehead (or eye!) when you lean over to rinse your face. Fortunately, the end is not sharp! Remind us never to buy one like this at home 😉

 

In the late morning I went into the temple to do some initiatory ordinances, which I thought were to start at 11am. When I got there, the list said that it started at 11:30am instead, so I had apparently misunderstood. I sat down to read the scriptures for a while, then saw that a small group had gathered early. So I was able to do nearly an hour and finish the rest of the names Dee had given me. The ordinance workers were French and Italian, so they each did their part in their native tongue. Fortunately French is somewhat easier for me to follow than German, but in any case I know it all by heart from having worked at the San Diego temple for a year before coming on a mission. I went to a session while Doug was doing this.

At 1pm we did a two-hour sealing session, getting a whole bunch of names done from all the patrons, including Dee's entire stack. Of course, she will have more names in the future with all the work we have done this week, plus many more to come. The sealer, a Brother Rino Savian from Verona, speaks five languages -- Italian, French, German, English, and Spanish -- and we did some in each language. Those who knew said that his accent seemed quite good in all the languages, and he had it all memorized verbatim except for Spanish. One of the sisters there was from South America, now living in Italy, and we did her names in Spanish with Jim Huber helping out as a proxy, since he served his mission in Argentina; they lived in South America for a while, with him serving as a colonel in the US Army. Dexter was able to seal his paternal grandparents from the Philippines to each other, with him and Sharon as proxies. Brother Savian said that he didn't know Tagalog, although he had visited the Philippines once; thus he performed that ordinance in English. Kim Huber speaks French from her mission in Belgium, so she helped with some of the names that a French sister brought in. Dexter also helped, dutifully and correctly saying "Oui" at the right time, and then later "Ja" for some German names. It was very cool to hear all those languages done so well. The spirit was strong, and we were so glad to be there.

At 4pm we had a ward bus excursion to Bern, less than 15 minutes away from the temple here in Zollikofen. Apparently they do it every year. Swiss towns are so clean and lovely. There is a park down by the river where they keep some bears in captivity, so everyone headed there. Dee wanted to go see a yarn store, Magliamania ("Sweater Madness" in Italian), that she had read about online, in the other direction from the park. So the two of us split off from the group when we were all dropped off by the train station. It was about 15 minutes by foot, past the University of Bern campus. Dee really enjoyed visiting with the store owner, who had some beautiful samples of things she had made with each type of yarn. I was interested in visiting this particular store because they have hand-dyed yarn. I bought a skein of merino and mohair, fingering weight, that has brilliant neon touches on a bright gray background. Finding a yarn shop while traveling is a favorite tradition for Dee, and I encouraged her to buy a couple of skeins (didn't take much convincing!), including one made from yak fur. Knitting is not a hobby; it is an addiction. 😀

Yarn-bombed bicycle

 

Babette winding a cake of yarn from the yak skein

 

Hand-dyed yarn. See the bright one on the far right.

From there, we walked about 30 minutes through downtown Bern to the bear park just across the river, arriving in plenty of time for the 7pm bus departure. The walk was a lot of fun, with lovely architecture and lots of nice shops along the way. I have often said that, if I had to pick a country to live in other than the US, it would be Switzerland, having lived there for three months as a missionary and visited many times. This visit did nothing to change that opinion!

We saw the bears and visited with the other folks from our ward for a while. The weather was warm and pleasant. At 7pm we walked across the street to the bus waiting to take us back. It took a while to gather everyone else, but we were back before 8pm. I sat in the one seat where I have adequate leg room: in the middle all the way in the back, where my feet protrude directly into the aisle. Later I asked the bishop for permission to have that seat for the  return trip, and he agreed, as I am easily 3-4 inches taller than anyone else on the bus. As if to prove that point, walking onto the bus, I slammed my head on a flip-down TV screen in the aisle, with a metal frame. It hurt for quite a while! Nobody else had that problem. As I may have mentioned previously, it is very common for me to be the tallest person here in a room without Americans.

 

Photos of the bears

We ate our dinner with the senior Peregos and enjoyed visiting. They told the story of our long-term connection and friendship to Daniele Salerno, who hadn't heard it all before. We really are family with them. Dee was completely exhausted, with her back hurting, so she hit the sack by just after 9pm. Here is a photo of the temple at night, from the window of our room at the hostel.

Shop in Bern under the street

Shop with doors closed

Pretty Bern!

Lots of nice things to see

Clever shop name. Cappelli is hair, and Caffe is coffee. 

I wonder what this means?

Tacos with Spanish rice

Wednesday morning I slept in until about 8am, finally feeling like I was caught up on sleep. That was an hour and a half more than I slept. We went to the 11am endowment session together, where they asked us to be the witness couple. Alberto and Raffa Perego (Ugo's parents) were seated next to us. The session was in Italian, and for the first time I did the whole thing without ever switching to English. I loved doing it in Italian! The temple workers say that this week has been one of the most crowded they have seen, which is great.  At 2pm I did some initiatory ordinances with Rhenald and Dexter. They each had a family name or two, and I gave them a few of Dee's as well, so we were able to complete eight of her names. I went to another session. As wonderful as it is to go to the Temple, sometimes I can nod off. This time, Marcella was sitting behind me and gave me a good whack on the back! 

The Hubers, who are presidents of the Young Men and Young Women in our ward, put on a taco dinner for our ward, with the kids helping to serve the tacos in a production line and handing out completed plates to everyone. We occupied over half of the eating area with just our ward. Ugo had suggested that I cook Spanish rice, and I was happy to do it, which is why we went to the store the night before. It's always tricky to use a different kitchen. My main concern was having a large lid for the frying pan. We found one lid, so I just used the same pan to make four batches. We also didn't have any serving bowls, so I put the cooked batches in a big pan. I burned the first batch while I looked for a lid, but it was early in the game and didn't set me back by much.  Several folks asked for more and for the recipe. It was great to visit with the Hubers as the meal was being prepared. They are an awesome couple. Here are some photos of the event:

 

Tables of Roma 3 tacos, with Bishop Magnanti on the left

 

Pamela, one of our wonderful young women

 

 

 

Several folks not from our ward asked if they could try it, and we gave them tacos to eat. The dinner started at 6:30pm, very early by Italian standards, and by 7pm all the food was gone. A few ward members showed up just after that and got nothing, which was stunning to them -- usually church dinners here start an hour or more after the announced time, but what could we do?

After dinner, I sat outside with a bunch of Italians of my generation, having a good time telling stories and laughing. Alberto and Raffa Perego were among the group. It had cooled off nicely due to a bit of rain. I didn't get a photo of our group, but here are a bunch of folks from our ward outside at the same time.

It turns out that my mom's friend, Sister Thomas, is in the apartment literally right next door to our room on the 3rd floor of the hostel. The full-time temple workers and the visitors are all intermixed. Here is a photo of us in the hall:

She and I each called my mom to tell her about it.