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.