Zone Conference

Friday was our Zone Conference, which was originally supposed to start at 9:30am across town at Roma 1. Due to the transit strike it was moved to 9am, and due to the work being done at Roma 1 it was moved to Roma 2, much nearer to us. As always, we enjoy being with the young missionaries and the Pickerds, even though a lot of the topics covered don't relate to use directly, since we are not out proselytizing all day. In the morning they have newly arrived missionaries bear their "birth" testimony in Italian (which are thus quite brief 😀), and departing ("dying") missionaries give their testimony at the end. Because our zone includes the office, there are a bunch of senior couples present as well, including the Thackers, who gave a birth testimony, and the Knies, who leave in two weeks and gave their departing testimony. It was a very nice day despite ending late, after 3:30pm.

Entire zone

Just the Anziani

Just the Sorelle

Benincosas

Whitings

Thackers

Knieses

Farewell cards for the wonderful Knieses

Simoncinis

The Simoncinis were there, so I translated for them for a while. Then Anziano Sanchez got out the wireless headsets and took over for me, including translating for his "greenie" from Mexico, Anziano De La Rosa, whose Italian is far better than his English. Finally, Dee translated the last hour or two. It is nice to tag team the translation, which can be exhausting but is always challenging and fun. Simultaneous translation is taxing, but I was happy that Anziano Sanchez offered me the mike. I wasn't tired, even though I did it for a pretty long time. The acoustics in that building really deaden sound. It's hard to hear while talking anyway, so it helped a lot to move to the front. 

There is another big transit strike planned in two weeks on the 26th, including airlines. The Knieses are scheduled to go home that day, with family flying in from all over the country for their homecoming. She was asking if we thought that they would be able to fly home that day, and we all told her that it wasn't worth the risk. She will call the church travel folks and have them move up their departure by one day.

During lunch, I got a phone call from a Vodafone technician asking if we had an appointment for them to come install fiber internet at the Rome 3 chapel. The answer was no, but it wasn't clear whether he was already there waiting for us to show up. I simply gave him the number of Bishop Magnanti, who lives nearby. Hopefully this comedy of errors can end soon so that we can have decent internet at church.

David Perego bought a used desktop on eBay.it, with some advice from me, and he was asking all kinds of questions via WhatsApp on different things he could do. At some point soon we will get together and I can help him upgrade his hard drive from 150GB to 500GB. He is learning a lot through this process.

At the end of the conference, Anziano Balzotti brought some disturbing news, that the daughter of Bishop Calabrese (he serves in the office) was rushed to the hospital with a blood vessel in her forehead bursting. We all assumed that it was Norma, whom almost all of us know, a wonderful young mom in Roma 2 ward with 2.5 children. We had a group prayer for her before breaking up. Later in the evening we learned that it was his other daughter, who lives in London. Still obviously a big concern, but we don't know her.

After the conference, we drove downtown to the Institute. Dee spent some time looking online at Ikea cabinets for the kitchen and the entryway with its new Christus statue. There are a few that look promising, but we don't know what budget Ugo has, if any. We expected low turnout due to the strike, and indeed nobody showed up until we left at 7:30pm. As we closed the door, the intercom rang. It was Junior, our non-member from Cameroon who is always around. I told him that there was nothing going on this evening. He lives far outside Rome and needed to get on the train before the strike restarted at 8pm, so it was just as well.

On the way home we went to Lidl and stocked up on food for our house, with visitors on the way. It was nice to do that so that we can stay at home most of Saturday. When we got home, it took two loads up the elevator. I also dropped by the Balzottis to get the reimbursement for our recent plumber visit, as well as get details on the Calabrese daughter. Still no more info, but at least I learned who it actually was.

Elder Rosas made chocolate salami cake for Sister Palacio's birthday. I had never heard of it before, but I sure liked it! It's similiar to trifle, with chocolate cookies crumbled into whipped cream, but much more cookie than whipped cream. In Sicily, they would add almonds and hazelnuts.

Transfers will be a week early for some reason, so we won't get to inspect the apartments beforehand. I am sad that Anziano Sanchez and Sister Silva will probably be transferred and I may not get to see them again. Sister Silva needs knitting help, but it's out of my hands.

Sister Evertson gave her farewell testimony. It turns out she was originally called to Argentina, then after the MTC she was sent to Italy. She already spoke Italian. She also did a stint in Salt Lake. Three missions, wow!

Elder Misa, a former Ganziano who is from Australia, led us in a Haka dance in his farewell testimony! President looked dubious, but let it happen and even participated.

Anziano Waddell is back in our area, and I can see that he has grown during his mission because his suit sleeves and slacks are a tad short. They're young, but mighty.