Slacks for sisters! (and Christmas party)

Friday morning we awoke to big news: sister missionaries will now be able to wear dress slacks! We spread the news to a number of the sisters around here that we interact with, since the young missionaries are not as connected as are the seniors. It was announced the prior evening our time, and all the sisters are pretty excited, though some say it will be hard to find appropriate (i.e., not skin tight) pants here with current styles. President Nelson is really shaking things up in wonderful ways. I know that it is not just him, but I am happy to give him much of the credit.

For the morning we got to be at home again. Dee walked to Conad in the late morning and the lines were horrible -- Christmas is coming. So we left home for the Institute just a little late, and then traffic was horrible. We were basically stopped for about half an hour, not far from downtown but too far to walk, so we didn't arrive at the campus until 1:30pm. It is rare for us to be late at all, much less that much. Ivan and Sammy were waiting out on the street for us to arrive, but it was not really a problem. 

Matteo soon showed up from school for Seminary. I had a little time to finish working on my  lessons. Nobody else showed up until after 4pm. For a while I thought we might cancel Seminary, but then more kids came. We had another lesson on the atonement, using the scripture mastery verses related to that. We played one scripture game, followed of course by the ever popular Bingo, with Donatella being the caller. It is always fun to be with them and learn while we play. Dee's carrot cake was the dessert, but the kids didn't seem to be very hungry. Thus she still had a bunch of dessert left for our evening dinner. I intentionally made a ton so we could serve it for both seminary and institute. But it was still a surprise to have the seminary students NOT finish their dessert. We almost never throw food away.

 

Dee also started working on her tortellini crock pot dinner which was so popular the prior week at church. Because we are going north with our daughter Chiara next week and it is cold, Dee went out for a while to look for some warm shoes. At first she was thinking tennis shoes, but ended up buying some Gore Tex boots that are warm, waterproof and comfortable. She said that the store had some Gore-Tex shoes for me, and I walked over later but didn't really like them much. Anyway, she is wearing them a lot for the next few days before we leave, per my Aunt Elma's wise rule: "never take new shoes on a trip". It is so great that they keep my feet warm without making them sweat. How does that work, anyway? I didn't even know my feet were cold, but once I tried these puppies on, I was sold.

Sammy finished editing the translation of "The Other Wise Man" story. He did a great job, writing in very small but legible script. There are so many little things that a native speaker just knows but neither Google Translate nor I could catch. It will be a much better version once I get the changes all entered, and I thanked him profusely. Fortunately he enjoyed the story a lot.

As usual, the 7pm Institute class started out pretty small but ended with a bunch more kids. We covered "The Vision" (D&C 76), Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon's vision of the degrees of glory. There were a lot of really good questions and comments. This is the final class of the first semester of the year, right on track. I ended class early, at 8pm, since we had some Christmas partying to do!

A lot of kids missed class entirely, only showing up in time for the food and the party. Not good, but at least they came. The traffic was horrible all over Rome all day, which explains some of the tardiness. Dee's pasta was a big hit, with salad, garlic bread, and carrot cake. Garlic bread is unknown here. So, it's definitely not a Roman Italian thing. They really liked it. David Perego was over the moon to have bread with butter, haha. Manuel, Claudio and a couple of others asked me how I made it. They were so excited to have tortellini with pesto. After dinner Ugo led the white elephant gift exchange, filling the big classroom. There was a lot of energy and laughter going on while we finished cleaning up the kitchen. Because the campus will be closed for the next two weeks over the extended holidays here, it took more time to clean up because we had to empty food from the fridges which would otherwise go bad.

Dinner is served

Eating in the library

Ugo leads the lively white elephant gift exchange

 

Simone, who just got back from his mission last week, told me he wants us to extend for six months. That's a big compliment. We already know and like him, since he had to come home during his mission for back surgery. Then Grace hugged me tight and told me I can't leave. It breaks my heart.

Dario was hit by a car Monday and has been very happy to borrow my ice wrap for his ankle. He doesn't have a frig (!) so he can't do it at home. Poor guy.

Simone lives by the beach in Ostia. It took him two hours to get to the Institute. Wow. We Californians are wimps about commuting time.