Friday morning when I got up I was pretty tired, not having slept well. We left to work in the mission office at 8:15am, because the Knieses were out of town for a well-deserved weekend getaway. The Benincosas, a new senior couple, arrived on Thursday, and I gathered some of their vital info with help from Dee and Sorella Balzotti so that I could fill in and print out the forms to get them a codice fiscale. I left about 9am to pick them up at their place. They do not have a car yet, so I drove them around.
When I got to their apartment, I went in to check out their modem/router that was left a few months ago by a temple construction worker family who finished and went home to the US. All the lights were blinking, but nobody knew if it was actually connected nor what the WiFi settings were. I was able to log in using an Ethernet cable I brought for that very purpose, and I then reconfigured the WiFi to have a recognizable name and a reasonable password. Their main circuit breaker kept tripping if they turned on anything that drew much current, such as a washer, air conditioner, or iron. Apparently the church had been paying the bill for the internet, but not for the power! When a bill is unpaid, instead of cutting off the power completely, in Rome they diminish the power little by little. The joke is the TV is the last thing to go out. I think this is to keep the people peaceful. I called Anziano Balzotti, and he and Fratello Calabrese (Norma's dad, btw) ran all over town looking for an office that was open where they could pay the accumulated electrical bill to get full power restored. Almost everything is closed due to Ferragosto, but they finally were able to find a place that would take their payment. Online payments are not the norm here! Unfortunately, with the holiday month it might be a while before power is back on completely.
We drove to the nearby government office (Agenzia Entrate), where there was no line to get a number. August can be nice! Last fall the line stretched out the door. It still took about half an hour for our number to be called, but then they were able to get their codice fiscale docs issued quickly. Norma Salerno, a wonderful young mom in our stake who speaks English almost natively from having lived in London, was there also trying to get something done. She offered to help, which was very kind though not needed, and we had the chance to visit. Many transactions here, such as opening a cell phone plan, are only possible (or at least much easier) with a codice fiscale, so it is good to get this done right away. From there we drove to the mall, where we stood in line at the Iliad store for about ten minutes, then we were able to get them each a new SIM card for their phones. On the way back to the office, we stopped at our local Chinese store, and they bought a bunch of useful things, such as USB chargers with Italian plugs, a wheeled shopping cart, a fan (can be used without tripping their circuit breakers!) and some flip flops. It was their first experience at a Chinese store, which is always fun.
We then went to the mission office for a while for them to do a few more things, including a run to the post office with Dee to apply for their permesso docs. I dropped them off and picked them up less than an hour later. When they got back they were tired, only one night's sleep removed from their flight here, so I took them home. There I spent a few minutes finishing the router configuration while Anziano Benincosa put the fan together and Sorella Benincosa napped. It was pretty toasty in their apartment without AC, and their apartment has mosquitoes due to open fields nearby, so they can't even open their windows. 😟
When I got back to the office after dropping them off, it started raining pretty hard outside, with some thunder and lightning. Dee had been organizing supplies to be shipped out to the missionaries (per their requests) at the upcoming zone conferences. The President brings a suitcase or two full of stuff to be handed out to them, along with boxes of Books of Mormon in an assortment of languages. We finished about 5:15pm and came home. After a quick meal, we walked down to Conad to buy some food for our trip, especially the overnight bus ride. We also moved the new table from the apartment below into our kitchen, and it looks really good there. It is longer and skinnier than our old one, so we will try it turned sideways for a while.
At 9pm I called my sister Karen and her husband to talk about their visit in October. We figured out a rough itinerary, and I will look at hotels and trains to present a few options soon for their consideration. It will be good to have them here. All in all, it was a busy and very productive day.
Since we were going into the office, I set my alarm for 5:15am. I know, it's crazy how much time I like to have in the morning. When my alarm went off, I was so deeply asleep that I didn't even know what it was. Luckily, it's my wristwatch, so it didn't bother Doug.
The first thing I did at the office was update the missionary files, removing the ten who have gone home recently. There's a lot of detailed paperwork in that office. Some of the pages are kept, but others need to be shredded. The shredder deplorably only takes two pages at a time. Sheesh.
The supplies ordering is painstaking. There are so many things that the missionaries can order, and in so many languages! I had to wrap each order in such a way that nothing get wrinkled or bent, and label it. The items are in many sizes, so this is no walk in the park. Elder Sprague had been in the grocery business, so he and his wife were really good at it. One of his tricks was to use a roll of plastic wrap, like you use when you move. Brilliant. And Elder Knies wrapped a sample of 100 cards to use as a measuring tool for stacks of cards. So smart! These young missionaries asked for materials in Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Russian, Ukrainian, and various African languages. There was a run on Prince of Peace cards.
One benefit of going to the office was the opportunity to talk with Bishop Calabrese face to face about a certain needed apartment repair. Then he reminded me it's August and no one is available to fix it yet. Sigh.
When the Benincosas arrived at the mission office, it was lunchtime and they were starving. Luckily, my Italian nature had whispered to me in the morning and I had extra food in the frig. They fell on it enthusiastically.
Taking the Benincosas for their permesso was smoother than for the Canfields. The good part is we think we've figured out how to get a two-year permesso on the first round, which would save the mission oodles of money. Stay tuned.
Since we were driving Anne and Tillie around yesterday, we washed and vacuumed the car. But it was already shockingly filthy the very next day. Bummer.
I told Sorella Balzotti that our ward is going to do a skit on the ten virgins for a stake relief society evening. Our RS president asked me to help. It turns out Sorella Balzotti has a script. How cool is that!
Sorella Balzotti also showed me the old mission histories and scrapbooks. The one for my years is missing, but I got to see my first companion, Coy Anderson, and my MTC Italian teacher, Anziano Damiano, as well as the early mission pictures of some of our recent senior missionaries (Balzotti, Herway Heyman). It was a blast.