Dinner appointment

Saturday morning I went for a followup visit to the chiropractor, Dr. De Santis. My back was still hurting pretty badly, but unfortunately he was unable to get any movement in the vertebrae. He did some stretching and massage, which helped, but I was still in pain much of the day. He refused to take any payment because he didn't get the results he wanted, which is odd and refreshing at the same time. I pushed to pay him, but he wouldn't let me.

Federico and Cristina, two wonderful GANS whom we don't see much at the campus because they live in Ostia, got married Saturday morning. They are both wonderful kids, each having served a mission in the US. We don't know them well enough to have been invited, but the GANS group was buzzing with photos and congratulations. Unlike in the US, here you have to get married civilly first, and then you can go to the temple to be sealed.

 

We were home for the morning and afternoon, working on lessons for tomorrow most of the time. Doug and I went over my Powerpoint together. It's always more difficult to get it right in Italian, and he was a big help in smoothing it out. At 4:30pm there was a stake Relief Society event at the stake center nearby, so I dropped Dee off. Each ward had something to share: some did talks, and our ward was assigned a skit of the ten virgins parable. Another ward sang.  Dee had wanted to be involved, but wisely realized that she didn't have much spare time, so she just enjoyed being there as a spectator. I picked Dee up there at the end of the event, and we got to visit with a bunch of people. We feel like part of the stake here, knowing a lot of folks and being recognized by many. It is beautiful to feel the fellowship of the church wherever we go.

Rhenald and Joyce

From there, we drove over to Barbara Rondinelli's home on the other side of town for a dinner with her and her brother's family. He is our Stake President, a very approachabe and sharp man, and each of his kids are in one of my classes at the Institute. Dee became good friends with Barbara when she brought her niece Valentina to Seminary regularly. Her home is lovely, with artistic decorations all over the walls, and we ate a scrumptious and very filling meal. She must have spent a lot of time preparing the food. Fortunately, we were able to turn down some of the large portions they offered us. It was wonderful to enjoy visiting with them. She has filled her walls with framed items, plates, etc., all in a traditional vein. She also does silk ribbon embroidery and paints. She never married and has been a second mother to her niece and nephew, since their mother (Mariela) has a chronic liver disease.

Mariela is from Colombia. After her mission, she was very happy there, with a good job, a church calling with the YSA and a pleasant life. Her mother wanted her to go to Italy to learn a European language. Finally, she went. After a year, she really wanted to go home. There were hardly any YSAs in Italy and she couldn't imagine how she would find someone to marry. But her prayers told her to stay. Eventually she met Andrea Rondinelli and the rest is history. She loves the experiences she has had here thanks to following the answers to her prayers,  including dining with Elders Nelson, Uchtdorf, Scott and others. 

Seminary starts again

Friday morning I spent entirely at home, working on my lessons. Dee walked down to Conad and the Chinese store to get a few things. The weather is really nice. I am wearing long sleeves again, but it would be comfortable either way. 

I also spent a little time reviewing the mission cell phone bill. With each missionary having a phone now, the monthly cost is very high, but it would appear at first glance that there are some things we can do to lower it. For example, the senior couple plans apparently include the ability to call anywhere in Europe, but we never use that feature at all, so why pay for it? The president and Anziano Knies asked me to look it over and make some suggestions, which I will write up once I get more detail. The cell phone plan landscape here has changed dramatically this year with the advent of Iliad, lowering prices and raising the number of GB available, so it is an opportune time to review our services and what we pay.

When we arrived at the Institute, it was full of young missionaries. Two districts, Roma 2 and Ladispoli, had decided to hold their district meetings there. However, nobody had asked us permission, which is a rule we have. We would probably have said yes, especially since it was before the normal operating hours, but we need to know what is going on to avoid conflicts. So we made it clear that they need to do so in the future. Then we fed everyone with the hot dogs and buns left over from recent activities, becoming very popular with the missionaries while clearing out some space in the fridge! The real downside for us with all the missionaries being there was that much of the time we had budgeted to lesson prep was taken up working with them. Anziano Misa, who served here as a Ganziano for three months starting in October, was there from his new location in Ostia. And Anziano Waddell is here in Rome again! We were able to giveAnziano Misa his Ganziano tie, which they all seem to think is really cool. Here is a photo of us with the two former Ganziani:

Waddell, Dee, me, Misa

I was able to restore the FamilySearch computer image from a few days ago, and now it seems to work! Apparently they simply hadn't yet activated our center. There is still some testing and checking to do, but Dee in particular is quite excited have access to all the FamilySearch records now.

With school back underway, it was time to restart my Doctrinal Mastery class for seminary students (high school age) across Rome. It is really fun for them to see friends from the different congregations, and our downtown location is easily accessible to all of them. Last year I started with two kids and built up to nine at the end. The first class this time had seven kids, with at least three more who couldn't make it this time but will be there next week. We added a couple of younger siblings of my prior students. Our lesson was on "fake news" -- how to recognize the spirit to discern spiritual truths in a very noisy world. We had fun with that, and then we played games to help them learn their scriptures. After the one-hour class, Dee provided her chocolate popcorn, which they really liked. Overall, it was a great kickoff to the year!

 

 

Samuel came by to pick up his laptop. I was able to spend about 15 minutes with him, giving him some usage tips. Dee donated her laptop backpack, which she bought when she broke her foot but doesn't really need anymore. We also had a used USB mouse that I gave him, so he is set. We are now at the point where we are starting to give things away rather than accumulate more, and it is a strange feeling. Going home will be very sad for us.

At Institute class we started out with the classroom half empty, but kids kept streaming in. By the end of the lesson, the room was completely full, all seats taken, just like last week. Eleonora came! She works so much that we rarely see her. The lesson was on D&C 6-9, 13, and 18, using stories from Olivery Cowdery on how to recognize the spirit, get answers to prayers, and the worth of souls being great in the sight of God. There was a lot of good interaction, with kids having comments and questions. Translation was going on into English and Spanish.

After class they quickly finished off Dee's two wonderful chicken casseroles, with sides of melon, cookies, and chips. A whole bunch of kids were still hanging out when we left before 9:30pm, pretty early for us on a Friday.

 

 

 

 

Dario, Francesca, Joyce and Margie all offered to help with dinner. Dario is very good in the kitchen, and Margie and Joyce took over serving. Francesca is the nonmember daughter of our bishop, home from BYUI. She helped, too, and we had a nice visit.

Ugo spent the afternoon here too. It's always good to have a chance to hear from him. He told me a lot of useful things, and also has a positive impact on the young people. He is a great cheerleader for Pathway and BYU online. These programs can improve the kids' future.

The business card design continues. It's a great start, and Ugo gave some good input. 

I walked to Upim, something I've wanted to do for months. It's not that far away, but with the broken foot situation, I just couldn't. Now I'm fine. Upim was around in the 70s, so I wanted to see it. It's basically a small Target. I used new insoles for the first time. They have pads at the heel and arch and they were terrific!

Waddell returns

Thursday I was stiff and in a lot of pain when I woke up, but at least I slept well. My 9:30am appointment with Dr. De Santis, the chiropractor, was pretty helpful, lowering but not eliminating the back pain. He was very kind to allow me to set up a return appointment on Saturday, when he usually doesn't take patients. Parking near his apartment was challenging, nearly 10 minutes away to find anything, but the walk actually seemed to help loosen up my back.

Sorella Knies brought some stuff by our apartment. They are leaving in four weeks and so are finding good homes for some of their items. She warned us that we will have a very hard time fitting our stuff in the suitcases we came with! There was a nice Bosch mixer and a crepe maker for us, as well as some clothes and food for the Sorelle living below us.

We went an hour early to the Institute to meet with the FM folks, one of whom was here from Torino. These are the guys who, from our point of view, lost the deal on the possible new location. From their perspective, they just didn't have time to get it done. The truth is probably somewhere in between, and maybe we should have yelled louder and earlier, but the fact is that many months passed without them ever making an actual offer to the owner. They were nice enough and apologized. They also said that they hoped to open a new "work order" soon to look for another location, which would be nice, but we believe it will be hard to find anything as good as what we had already found. May we be proved wrong!

At 2pm, we had a one-hour Zoom conference call with a bunch of other YSA senior missionaries across Europe, mostly in the UK. Everyone shared ideas on things that have worked well for them, and we got a few good ideas. After that I spoke with Virginio again about the new FamilySearch computer. He suggested reverting to the original version which was almost working. Unfortunately, I had brought that backup image home as part of my backup rotation schedule, so I couldn't do it right then. I will bring the USB drive back on Friday and give it a try. I spent a bunch of time working on my lessons for Friday, while Dee prepared her two casseroles for the dinner afterwards. They are in the fridge, waiting to be cooked. It's been several months since I made this recipe due to the fact that Elder Papritz avoided dairy. I had a little trouble getting things done in the right order, and lots of interruptions. I sure was glad to get them done a day ahead of time, though.

Anziano Waddell, a former Ganziano, is back in Rome as Zone Leader now. He dropped by on exchange with the current Ganziani, and we each gave him a big hug (probably a mission rules violation on my wife's part but I just automatically hugged him out of joy at seeing him again.). The kids and English class students who knew him were very delighted to see him again. 

Anziano Smith, Jomar, Anziano Waddell, Junior

Brother and Sister Calabrese surprised us with a visit, too. He was picking her up after she taught Italian cooking to the refugees at the Friendship Center. They had never been to the Institute, so they dropped by to see it. The kitchen always wows everyone. The room is large, even though there isn't much cabinetry or storage.

Samuel's new laptop showed up from an eBay seller in the UK. It is a Lenovo Thinkpad T430s, a great model that is several years old, but the unit they sent looks like it is brand new! It has a 128GB SSD and 4GB of memory, so it is fast and in terrific condition. The unit was so good that, for only 230€, I immediately asked the seller if he had any more! I showed it to Samuel briefly but will need to spend some time to teach him a few things (e.g., how to turn it on and off and put it to sleep), as he has never used a laptop before.


At the end of the evening, Samuel asked if we had anything he could eat. We have a huge store of leftover hotdogs, so I heated one up for him and brought out the condiments. I didn't notice he was slathering on the Dijon mustard, until I saw him crying with his head tilted back. I told him he could throw away the hot dog and he did. Poor guy. I made him another, and he stayed far away from the Dijon.

Dancing at the Institute, and very disappointing news

Wednesday morning I got a message that the 8GB image for the new FamilySearch computer had been uploaded. I was able to download it and put it onto a USB key to take in and try to fix the issues we have been having. In the morning, Dee walked up to Todis to look for hamburger buns for Friday night's dinner, but she came up empty. It was cool enough outside that I wore a long-sleeve shirt (white, of course 😊) for the first time in quite a while.

I emptied the trash, which is my job, going around the apartment to gather up the contents of five different trash cans. While bending over to pick up the one in Dee's bathroom, something popped in the lower back and I screamed in agony. She came running, but it was too late. I could hardly move and was in great pain. This was frustrating because my back hadn't been hurting for days, and now it is far worse than before. I messaged the doctor, but she was in the US for a conference this week. She happened to be up early or late (jet lag?) and responded immediately with sympathy, giving me the name of a colleague, Dr. De Santis, whose office is nearby. He had an opening at 6:30pm, but that didn't work for me, so we agreed on 9:30am Thursday. I would be in significant pain the rest of the day, unable to bend or move much. My loving wife took the trash out for me!

We went to the Institute early. I tried re-imaging the computer using the downloaded image from the USB stick, but it was worse than before. First of all, the image was for an older model of the Dell desktop, so the network drivers didn't work, thus the configuration script wouldn't work at all. I talked with Virginio, the FamilySearch guy from Spain who has been very helpful, and he suggested just downloading and installing the correct network driver. After doing that, the script ran, but in the end the computer was even further away from working with FamilySearch than before, missing several key software components. I tried it a few times, all with the same result. Thursday Viriginio will call to see if he can figure out the problem.

Dee spent the afternoon working on desserts and on dances for the evening activity. She did a lot of YouTube searching for various country line dances. I did some lesson prep for Friday, with two lessons (Seminary is starting again). Almendra and Riccardo were both there much of the afternoon, each studying in a different room.

The dance activity was to have started at 7pm, but we only had three guys here then, no girls. Finally by 8pm we had three girls and five boys, which was critical mass. They had a blast! Dee led them in several line dances, a Virgina reel, an Israeli folk dance (Ma Navu, a slow circle dance with a beautiful melody) , and a few others. You can see some short videos of the dancing here, here, and here. They were having so much fun that she completely missed our usual 9pm departure time, but it was great to see the kids into it so much. I really didn't mind, except that my back was killing me and I had no comfortable place to sit or lie down.

Virginia Reel

Ma Navu

After the dancing, the group hung around a while to celebrate Sheyla's birthday, while we went home. They had plans later to go out for dinner together. Chris sang some Mexican songs, which he probably performs as part of his mariachi band. You can enjoy a bit of it here.

While the dancing was going on, we got some extremely disappointing and frustrating news. Apparently the church FM folks didn't move fast enough, and we lost the apartment downstairs to a third party. Both we and Ugo are very unhappy with how it was handled on our end, as we easily had the chance to close the deal but failed. Barring something falling through with the other new tenant, we are back to square zero. The location and size and rent were perfect -- it will be hard to find something else as good. We went home depressed.

To make matters worse, as I pulled out of our parking space, Dee noticed that the rubber gasket under the front bumper of our Toyota had come loose again, dragging on the ground. Putting it back requires lying on the ground under the front of the car to reinsert a bunch of screws, something that simply was not going to happen that late in the dark, with my back killing me. All in all the ride home was not a happy one. I went to bed quickly, with Dee helping me get into bed and turning out my nightstand light, as I couldn't turn over to do it.

The dancing was so fun! Eight gans came and they were all up for learning for new stuff. They all love to dance, and were full of laughter and smiles. It was a bonus that we ended up with four guys and three girls at one point, so that's why we did the Virginia Reel. The tough part of the dancing was trying to explain moves in real time in Italian, but seeing the dance on screen compensated for that. At the time, I was thinking how we barely fit in that room, and thinking about future dances in the big room downstairs. Little did I know that it was not to be.

Mr. Tucker

Tuesday started out great, waking up after a full nine hours of sleep, and then it just kept getting better! I received a nice note from Aysha on WhatsApp, thanking us for making her feel so welcome at the Institute. I told her that we would love to see her anytime she could come, but that her studies are clearly the priority right now. Dee walked down to the hardware store and then to the open market. I got to stay at home all morning, which was very welcome.

We left at early (11am) for the Institute, talking on the phone along the way with the Pickerds for a while, who were on the road to Zone Conference in Bari. On Taco Tuesday we have found that it is much nicer to get there plenty early so that we can get things ready without rushing. I set up tables, chairs, tablecloths, plastic ware, water, etc., while Dee starts chopping things up. Once she gets the onions done, I cook the meat with the onions. This time Dario was there early, and he likes to help, so he did all the stirring and mixing of the meat. He too had thrown his back out last week and had actually been in the hospital. I tried to ask him if he had ever tried a chiropractor, but he said that his back problems were caused by his back getting exposed to cold. That is a common complaint here, which doesn't make a lot of sense to us, but then our medical viewpoint probably doesn't make sense to them either! In any case, we were ready for lunch with some time to spare.

The event started with a fairly small number, but then kids just kept showing up, until we didn't have enough room around the table to fit everyone. Our Roma 3 Anziani brought three new investigators, who fit right in and stayed for most of the afternoon. Dee brought out dessert, which got a round of applause (a first!), including cookies and the remaining lava cake from the night before.

Dario cooking the taco meat

Two-sided access to the taco fixings

 

Chris shows us how real Mexicans do it

It was the first Taco Tuesday for our new Ganziani, as well as for the Roma 3 Anziani, who were open-mouthed at the food and at awesome environment. The whole place was buzzing with noise and energy all afternoon, with every room in use for various things: studying, card games, Wii, etc. Often Tuesdays quiet down for a while after lunch, but not this time!

The kids were very helpful, cleaning up the lunch room while I got on a 3pm call with Virginio, a FamilySearch manager from Spain, trying to figure out how to get our new FH computer up and running as an official center. Ultimately he couldn't figure it out, but he offered to upload a boot image that I could use to re-initialize the computer. Hopefully that will work.

One of the new non-member visitors, a very sharp kid named Marco, was chatting with me. After a few minutes he said, "your Italian accent is bad, but your grammar is excellent!" Not that I would disagree, but Italians can be very forthright, shall we say 😒

The Ganziani spent some time designing a new business card to hand out to young people they meet on the street, with a printed schedule of all the activities at the Institute campus. They ended up getting a bunch of the kids involved, including the non-members, in suggesting changes and improvements, so it was actually a nice little activity.

When it came time for the evening Institute class, Ugo was teaching remotely from Pavia. Normally in that case I would use my laptop to connect to the video conference for the students there in person, but we were going out for dinner, so Riccardo offered to use his laptop, which was very generous. Even though he isn't going to church, he is very involved and helpful here at the Institute right now, fitting in well. The class had several new attendees, including Sammy, Veronica, and Noemi, all recently returned from their missions.

For dinner, my high-school physics and calculus teacher from 1972-74 at George Wythe High School in Richmond, Mr. Tucker, was in town with his wife on a tour. He had contacted me via email a few weeks ago, and we were able to clear this evening for a dinner together. His wife also taught (Spanish) at GWHS, which is where they met, and I knew of her slightly from way back when. I have seen him a few times over the years. He was one of my favorite teachers, and I spent a lot of time in his classes (two years of physics, one year of calculus), which prepared me very well for Caltech. Dee had never met them before, but she was a good sport and seemed to enjoy the evening. (It was a really nice visit.) Their hotel was nearby, so they took a taxi over, and we walked to Target, our favorite restaurant only a block away. As always, the food was excellent; Mr. Tucker in particular absolutely loved his risotto. Visiting with them was really delightful. As they left, we got a photo together and they got into their cab. It was cool enough that I actually wore my light jacket home and Dee wore a sweater. I'm back to wearing a sweater at night, and stockings all day.

We stopped at the Institute to get our stuff just before 9pm, and the place was still full and buzzing. Sheyla was there, with keys, so we do not know how long the party went on.

Lava cake

Monday morning I had my followup chiropractor visit. My back has been doing a lot better, with almost no discomfort for a few days, though I am still trying to treat it somewhat gingerly. However, my knee has still been giving me grief. She did back adjustments, which always feel good to me, and she also massaged and prodded my knee a bit. The area that was hurting seemed to get better, but then a completely different area on the front of the kneecap hurt all day. Not sure if it is related to what she did, but icing seemed to help. I have one more visit in a week, but things are headed in a good direction.

Upon returning home, I had a message from Anziano Benincosa that they were back in town and that the Wind fiber internet technician had come out and hooked things up at their apartment, saying they were good. However, they still couldn't get onto the internet. So I went up there. Apparently there is a final registration step which they don't bother to do for the customer, resulting in tech support phone calls. The rep on the phone was pleasant enough, but seemed annoyed at the thought that the technician should complete the job! Anyway, it was easy enough, only about 10 minutes on the phone, and then it was working fine. We also reconfigured the WiFi name and password to be more friendly. He had purchased a hotspot device for their 100GB/month data SIM, and I got that working and configured. I was there for an hour, and they were delighted to have everything up and running.

Meanwhile, Dee went out shopping at Conad and the Chinese store. We left for the Institute at the regular time, carrying in a few extra copies of some church books that Ugo and I have had translated into Italian. Our library at the Institute has hundreds of church books, mostly in English except for these few in Italian, but they unfortunately get used very little.

Dee spent the afternoon working on her FHE lesson and a quadruple-batch lava cake. I worked on my lessons for this coming weekend, with a slight glitch that all the S&I online manuals had broken links. That will get fixed, but fortunately in the meantime I had already downloaded the English versions, though what I really wanted was Italian.

In the evening we had a brief meeting with the new Ganziani before FHE, just making sure that they knew how it is supposed to work for them. That is, they aren't just to hang out with the GANS, but should generally be here only when they have an investigator or there is a specific event to which we invite them (e.g., Taco Tuesday). The mission president will have the same talk with them soon. Dee likes to say that the young missionaries know how to be kids better than they know how to be missionaries, so it is easy for them to end up just hanging with the kids.

Dee gave a very good FHE lesson on one of the scriptures (Helaman 5:6-12) and the related talk by Elder Bednar (October 2012) from the ongoing Book of Mormon challenge. She got a lot of good participation, including Aysha who only speaks English but is learning Italian. Anziano Smith did the translation for her, but she read her scripture verse in Italian with great pronunciation. We also had her pick the quote from the Italian quote book, and she did fine. Almendra gave the closing prayer in Spanish. Having all these languages around us is a very enriching feeling. After the lesson we had Dee's lava cake which was a bit liquid, not having had time to fully cool down, but very delicious. We also brought out the ice cream, finishing it off to free up some much-needed freezer space (yes!!)

 

 

 

 

After dessert we had a game of Cover Your Assets with eight of us gathered around the table. Aysha had never played before but almost won. 

After the events, Christian waited to meet Riccardo and Almendra to go out to a Mexican restaurant in Trastevere (Pico's Taqueria and America Grill). It is really cool to see all these nice friendships developing: in this case, a Mexican non-member from California, an inactive Mormon Italian from Rome, and a returned missionary from Peru, all of whom speak Spanish.

When we got home, I made some phone calls to the US to see about donating old cars to charity. It sounds like it might be easy to do for my in-laws, if we can figure out how to get the pink slips signed if my father-in-law won't go along. There is definitely an interesting soap opera in the making, though I will kindly spare you most of the details.

The new Ganziani had other ideas for the calling cards that Wendy worked on. They need something that shows all of our activities. They spent some time on the computer at the end of the night, with our admonition not to be there too long. 

It was lovely to sleep in for the first time in a long time. I slept for 9 hours, which I really needed after Saturday night's five and a half hours.

I usually don't make a dessert if I'm teaching FHE, but we hadn't had lava cake for months, and I wanted to do it again. I think that making a quadruple batch requires less water to help it set up, but it was happily received. The leftovers will come in handy on Taco Tuesday. 

The Church here has changed their supplier for paper and soap supplies. At the Institute we still have some of the old ones, but at Church we're nearly out. It's a problem because the new ones require different dispensers. I hope they can figure it out soon.

Sergio Giudice, a member in our ward, is a single man in his sixties. He lived with his mother until she died, and his father is long gone. He is more French than Italian and recently went to the Paris Temple to be sealed to his parents.  He told me twice that he can feel the difference, that he feels more complete. It's a tangible blessing to go to the Temple, that's for sure.

Tech support Sunday

Sunday morning we were both really tired after having gotten in so late. But we headed off at the usual time for a nice day at church. Sacrament meeting was enjoyable, with a newly-assigned high councilor speaking, as well as Sorella Palmer introducing herself.We have known her for almost a year, since we first inspected her apartment at Roma 1, and she is a wonderful gal.  I particularly enjoyed Brother Frulla's talk on using time wisely. Wow, he had some great quotes.

Ugo was to have taught Sunday School, but he drove up to Verona (over 300 miles) in the morning to sub for Brother Ascione at a S&I afternoon training meeting, because of the death of the Ascione's son-in-law. Of course I was happy to fill in for him. We discussed the book of Hosea, which is a story about God's love for his chosen people, using lots of symbolism, often quite strange (e.g., God told Hosea to go marry a prostitute as a symbol of Israel's idolatry). I was able to get a lot of good conversation going about symbols, about the importance of names (because Hosea's children were given meaningful names), and about forgiveness. Everyone seemed fully focused on the lesson, and there was a good spirit there.

Meanwhile, Dee was teaching in Primary. She can tell you the details, but it went really well.

After church, we drove Sorella Palmer and Sorella Liddiard home, stopping in for a quick apartment inspection, which was overdue.  They have a very nice place, with no significant issues, although their water was brown for a few days after the big rain. We left them a big bag of Smarties to share, which Dee luckily had not ended up using in Primary.

From there we drove up to lunch (a bit late) at the Canfields' apartment. They had been trying to have us over for a while, and finally we found a time that worked. She cooked some awesome food, which we thoroughly enjoyed. This is their third mission together, and they are great folks. Their apartment is right near the temple site. After lunch, Dee helped her a lot with her (Italian) family history, and I helped him with tech. In particular, they didn't have a backup of all their photos, so I made a copy onto my USB drive and started transferring them to Google Photos. We had to set up a Google account for him, as he uses hotmail for email, and his laptop needed some TLC as well. He will buy a new 2TB USB drive to do future backups. It is always scary when people only have one copy of their photos, so that felt good.

We had a bit of down time at home in the late afternoon. Then at 7:30pm we went to the Knieses' new apartment to help configure their internet modem/router. The apartment had been vacant since the Paulsens left in June, and the bill hadn't been paid. Anziano Knies went into the store Friday and got the bill up to date, but we still couldn't get it to work. Their phone support said that the bill still wasn't paid, so maybe the payment hadn't been posted yet. Dee was going to help her with iPhone photo backup too, but without internet it wasn't feasible.

By the time we got home a little before 9pm, Dee was done and went to bed. Surprisingly, I still had some energy, so I went to the Balzottis. The Rome 3 Sorella had given us a big tupperware full of unknown keys that they had no use for and didn't even know what they were for, probably accumulated over years (decades?) of Sorelle. Anziano Balzotti said he wanted to see the collection, but I think he regretted that statement when he saw the mess 😀. Fortunately, that is all in his hands now. I also gave him my 3G hotspot (MiFi) and helped him install and configure the SIM card in it. I am thinking that my next mission may be as an IT guy, as I tend to help a lot of people here, mostly senior couples. I got to bed about 10:30, pretty tired too by that point.

My Primary lesson was on tithing. I had the 4-7 year olds, but it turns out the other teacher didn't show up, so I had the older kids, too. I had promised Levi I would have five activities in the lesson, but he had a meltdown and wouldn't come to participate. First, I asked them how they earn money and what they want to do with it. Everyone wanted to buy a toy or game. I had made a little bank with two compartments, which is a standard way to show how much goes to tithing. I'm always amazed at how well these little kids read. A seven year old girl was able to read "da spendere o risparmiare" without help. I used one euro coins, which are worth $1.20 each. One disappeared. I guess they were too big a temptation to someone. Anyway, they're used to talking, pulling out toys and generally not paying attention, but I got them focused when I poured a bag of popcorn over Jonathan's hands. He got a lot, but there was more that overflowed. I told them that was like God's blessings when we tithe. Then I gave each of them a cute red and white striped box full of popcorn. Sylvia the counselor was smiling and loving it (and eating some popcorn herself). I also picked a class president by having them select a number from 1 to 25. Lia, who is 4 or 5 had the exact number. So, I had her call on people to pray, hand out plates, etc. She really liked it. Then, I had a story with pictures they hadn't seen, and also one of those games of which picture doesn't match, which they liked. Then I gave them each ten sugar cubes and asked for one back. I was the Lord, and I used the ones they gave me to build churches, Temples, print Church materials, help with missionary work. And because they gave them to me, I gave them even more. They really loved it. I also pulled out a cardboard cylinder from paper towels and had them look through it. I showed them they could see a little, but God can see more. I had a great time,  and I think they got the concepts.

After class and cleaning up all the popcorn, I found Levi and asked him why he was so upset. He told me he wanted his snack that he had brought from home. All the kids know they get their snack after class. I told him if he had come to the table, he would have had popcorn right away, and that I had been thinking about him and planning for him all week. We'll see if he can recognize I'm trying to make it work for him.

Sister Canfield has had some amazing family history experiences in her town, and she is eager to progress from there. It was great to help her with some new information. And she's an amazing lady, very accomplished but never talking about herself.


Anna and Roberto bought some desserts for us to talk home, but then sent us a message that some of them had alcohol in them. We enjoyed the others.

We learned from Sister Palmer that there is a new challenge to speak Italian 11 hours a day. We look forward to the official announcement, and we're excited to do it. We're comfortable with Italian but sometimes we get lazy.

Ronciglione

Saturday morning I had a rather long tech support call with Anziano Balzotti. His Macbook Pro had only 4GB of memory (2 x 2GB), but he got an 8GB stick from somebody's dead Mac. He wanted me to walk him through installing it, which he pretty much had already figured out. He is a great tinkerer and hands-on problem solver. He also is thinking about upgrading his internal hard drive to an SSD, which I strongly encouraged, and I viewed some Youtube videos on how to do it and sent him the links. He also wants to try getting rid of fiber internet at home and use a hotspot instead. I don't think it is really the best idea, but I offered him my old 3G hotspot device to try with his new data SIM card.

On Friday, Dee and I had a phone call with her dad, with Jim there to repeat what we said for him, because his hearing is so bad these days. The main point of discussion was that we had Jim take his car keys and lock them away. Her dad had been so sick for a few weeks that he hadn't noticed, but now he has started asking for them. The doctors say he should not be driving, and it is obvious to all of us that it is no longer safe for him to drive. Understandably that is very difficult for him to accept. To our delight he immediately agreed with us that we should sell the cars! Unfortunately, the problem is that his short-term memory is so bad that just an hour later he was demanding the keys again. I called him back later in the evening, but that didn't last either. This will not be easy. On Saturday we came up with the idea of sending him a letter, and having our kids do the same, telling him not to try to drive anymore. Paper works very well for him, much better than anything electronic. So we signed a copy and emailed it to Jim to print and leave on his desk. We shall see.

My back and knee continue to bother me a little, but in general they are getting better each day. I worked a bunch on my Sunday School lesson (Hosea) and took an early afternoon nap because I was so tired from not a great night's sleep.

About 5pm we left for a delightful evening with our friends Anna and Roberto, about an hour's drive away in Ronciglione. They have a lovely house, a standalone villa instead of the typical apartment. We went out for a drive to the beautiful lake nearby, Lago di Vico, and then to dinner at a new restaurant Roberto's cousin opened in his hometown of Caprarola. One of the main agricultural products in the area is hazelnuts. Dee had hazelnut pasta with a crust of Parmesan cheese, while Roberto and I had ravioli with chestnuts. We all shared a lovely appetizer plate with meats and cheeses. Roberto paid for it all, which was lovely (we paid last time). They bought us some local specialty cookies to bring home. While driving home, they called to say that one of the cookies in the package was bathed in liquor. Bummer, but very thoughtful of them to check with the restaurant and let us know. Roberto is quite puzzled why we don't drink, but he respects our beliefs. He is always fun to talk with, and their vocabulary is a wonderful help to our Italian.

We had such a nice time that I told them I was giving them new names: Roberto Eccezzionale and Anna Meravigliosa. They are gracious and generous. Their home is a rich feast of visual delights. She is extremely artistic, so their house is full of jewelry, tatting, crochet etc. that she made. Her mother who lives with them is 90, is sharp mentally. She was in a wheelchair for two years, but when she found out she had a great-grandchild on the way, she perked up and began walking, cooking and ironing again. 

Sunset on the lake

Appetizers

Roberto and I had the same pasta plate

 

 

We arrived home after midnight. It would have been earlier but there was a horrible accident which shut down the freeway, so we had to exit and figure out a different way home. Google Maps did a great job. Once we arrived at our apartment building, the elevator was stuck on the seventh floor -- somebody had inadvertently left the door open. So I got to walk up seven floors to unstick it, and Dee took the elevator up from the last few floors -- I am much faster than she is. It was good to know that my knee didn't hurt after doing that. We were exhausted after a great evening. Hopefully we will be able to function on Sunday without much sleep. 

It was so nice to stay home most of the day. I worked on my Primary lesson and did little things. I even had enough time to paint my toenails at last.

I went down to the farmer's market below us and bought some flowers: cyclamen for Anna at Saturday's dinner and a different type for the Canfields, whom we will see on Sunday. The latter has tiny leaves and flowers. Monica, the flower seller, said they grow wild in the woods. I would love to see them there.

I've been cleaning out the kitchen cupboards and tidying here and there. I'm antsy to move my desk setup back to the front room, but I'm waiting a little longer since there's no air conditioning in there and it might get hot again. It will be great to have the bigger setup again.

It has been too busy to knit. I rarely do it when in the car anymore, since we don't have a death wish, haha.

I'm trying to grow out my hair and also encourage the curl. It hasn't been as curly as in previous years. I watched some YouTube videos and I'm experimenting. 

The Church has a new book out called Saints. It is a new telling with info from multiple sources on the story of Joseph Smith and the restoring of the Church. I'm listening to it in Italian, and learning new things from those early days. It's worthwhile, available for free on the LDS library.

More about yesterday (Friday):
When the new elder, Anziano Smith, heard we were having pancakes and sausage on his first Friday, he really lit up. Later, three sisters showed up. Their lesson with a young woman fell through, but I fed them. Sister Liddiard said it was the first time she has had pancakes on her mission. They loved the TLC.

This week, the dinner was very organized. I even separated the plastic plates, which made a surprisingly large difference in serving speed. It's a good thing I started the day before. Things always come up and it takes a long time to do anything for such a large number of people--34 when you count all the missionaries.

More on printing cards for the Ganziani: I looked online a found a place that will print two-sided cards for about €70, compared to €600 downstairs. Our daughter Wendy is kindly going to help design them. She is doing great stuff in your graphic arts classes! I love her work.

I met a lovely couple in Assisi. The Asciones were mission president twenty years ago in Catania, probably in their forties. I got to know Anna Maria and they even gave me a ride to Assisi when I went there solo one day. We just learned that their son-in-law, age 33, died in a car accident. He probably fell asleep at the wheel. He leaves a wife and a baby girl of 7 months. I am so sad for them all.

Full class

Friday was a great day at the Institute. After a nice morning at home, we got to the Institute on time. On the way out, Dee stopped at the underground parking garage beneath our apartment complex to see how that would work. It has been difficult to find open parking spaces nearby this week. Even our doorman Paolo said it has been hard for him. The cost for paid parking below is 90€ per month, but it is a valet service, where they take your car and park it possibly several levels deep. If we pay for six months ahead of time, we get one month free, so that is reasonable, but we are concerned about not having direct access to our car. The guy also told her that they were really full, but that he would let us park there as a favor, which seems a bit concerning. He also said we didn't have to sign anything, which sounds shady. So we will mull it over and see what happens.

I spent much of the afternoon doing prep for my lesson; the week has been busy and I wasn't as far along as usual. Dee first cooked a bunch of sausage in the oven (much less messy), and then started making her wonderful pancakes, keeping them warm and covered in the oven.

 

Riccardo was there all afternoon, and this time he even stayed for the Institute lesson and dinner. By the end of the evening, 27 kids had signed in, which is possibly an all-time high for a "regular" (non-holiday) Institute night. Our classroom was completely full, with four rows of chairs. We need the new, larger facility! There were several non-members there, including Christian, and some kids who hadn't been out for a while (Ludo, Jayno), as well as a few new faces. For example, Noemi just returned from her mission (Rome), and Valentina just moved here from Colombia. Two kids from Ostia joined us via Zoom video, including Daniele who just returned from his mission in Athens. The new Ganziani introduced themselves, as did several of the new kids. When Noemi walked in, she was greeted with applause and some posters the kids had made. It was really wonderful to have so many kids.

Anziano Mansell

Anziano (Hyrum) Smith -- yes, he is a direct descendant!

Joined via video conference

Posters for Noemi

Our lesson was on D&C 3,5,10, and 17, talking about Martin Harris, the lost 116 pages, and the witnesses to the Book of Mormon. We spent most of the time on the latter, with me reading some great quotes from interviews of the witnesses. We talked about how the story of the lost pages and the repentance and redemption of both Joseph and Martin can serve as a parable for when we mess up. A number of the kids had good comments. Noemi translated into Spanish for Valentina, though I suspect that my material did not make it easy for her. Anyway, there was a great spirit there. I ended with a story about my miraculous "healing" from a lifetime of headaches last year, tying that into the lesson. Afterwards, a bunch of the kids told me how much they enjoyed the lesson, and Francesco told me that he was nearly in tears at the end. So I guess it went well, which is always gratifying.

Afterwards, the 96 sausage links went fast (three per person), but Dee had made a ton of pancakes (15 batches) so that everyone had their fill. Their favorite thing to put on pancakes is Nutella, but many also enjoy maple syrup (from Mapeleine extract) and whipped cream. The food was a great hit, and Dee did it almost all by herself. She was tired when we got home, for some reason.