At 9:15am we left for District Council, our first one with the "new" district leader, Anziano Mayer. Given our busy schedule, we have missed all the other meetings this time around, with the transfer almost completed. On the way there, Dee's new Iliad SIM card took over her old number. After a quick restart of her phone, it now seems to work fine: unlimited calls (including to the US), texts (Italy only), and 40GB of data for only 7€ per month. The competition sparked by Iliad has been very good for the consumer here, as the other three major providers have all now lowered prices and increased their plans.
It was a wonderful District Council. We had some laughs but also a great discussion on how to improve teaching. All six of us had good insights into the teaching process to share, and we all came away edified, with new ideas to think about. On the way from church to the Institute, we stopped at Metro and this time found sour cream for next week, as well as picking up some grated cheddar (cheaper per kg than the big block) and more ground beef. While there, I got a call from the Ladispoli Sorelle that their long-standing plumbing issue had come back with a vengeance, flooding one of their bathrooms. Apparently something is wedged far down the bathroom drain; they keep the water turned off most of the time, but need to turn it on to run their washer and sometimes it floods. We called Anziano Balzotti, who promised to send out yet another plumber. He has a frustrating and non-stop job.
We arrived at the Institute on time. The Rome 2 Anziani showed up soon thereafter for a baptismal interview with Robinson, a middle-aged investigator who has been taking the lessons here for some time. The ZLs showed up to do the interview, so we had a bunch of young missionaries around for a while, and it is always good to visit with them. They were very happy to eat some of the Abruzzo cheese I had bought, and try the black rice dish I had cooked. Riccardo, a very sharp young convert from Roma 1 ward who is currently inactive in the church, came by to work on his master's thesis. He needed a quiet place to study and write, and we were happy to let him stay the afternoon when he called to ask. My only requirement for him was that he sometimes eat some of my wife's food, to which he happily agreed. His English is very good, so we usually chat with him in English, mixed with Italian.
I worked on my Friday lesson, which will cover the introduction to the Doctrine and Covenants, as well as sections 1 and 2. Despite having over a month to contemplate this course, it didn't dawn on me that I didn't have a printed copy in Italian to mark up for teaching my lesson, which is how I like to roll. Ugo said he would order some for me and the kids to use, but there were none here or at the mission office. Fortunately, in the evening I found a copy at home (triple combination), so I will mark that up.
One of my favorite ties, a gold one that I have had for years, is worn out, so Dee went down and bought me three new ones at the store downstairs where Marilyn bought me a nice tie in June. When you buy three, they lower the price per tie from 7€ to 6€.
Meanwhile, at the mission office, the Balzottis asked about upgrading the electrical service at our apartments. Brother Calabrese, who is the volunteer manager for all the mission apartments, at first said that it was never going to happen. Then he checked and found out that the Balzottis already had a 4.5KW service, but that our apartment still only had 3KW, so he agreed to upgrade ours. Hopefully it will occur soon and will make our life simpler.
We left for home early, during the evening English class, which was a nice change. Anziano Balzotti came over to look at washing machines online for the Roma 1 Sorelle. The result was that the deal he saw in the Auchan store looked very good, so he will try to order that and figure out how to get it delivered.
My wife spent more time talking with Verizon, trying to close my in-laws' account and transfer their lines onto our account. She made some progress, but the customer service rep was not being very creative to help get it done. Finally it was late and she gave up for the night. Maybe next time she will get somebody more helpful. I was really tired, so I went to bed while she was still on the phone.
I was glad to have time to make the chili for tomorrow's chili dogs. I've never made it before, so I wanted to give it a try ahead of time. Besides, chili tastes better the next day. I was going to make chocolate pudding for Saturday's birthday party, but at that point, I got a phone call from Erica in America who wanted help with her Italian family history. I had researched some things for her, and she was really excited at the info and sites I told her about.
When I called Verizon, I was able to do it through Iliad! Skype has been good, but I didn't share my Google contacts with them, so it's more of a pain.
I also gave up on growing my hair and cut it this morning. It looks sooo much better. It was totally out of control.