Cartoon

Monday morning I went to Conad to get some supplies for home as well as produce for me and for Taco Tuesday. Dee walked to the Chinese store to get some things for her Italian lesson. We then left early to get to the Institute for her to finish lesson prep there, including printing out a bunch of things on card stock on our nice laser printer. 

Making games for Italian class

While she was out at class, I printed out materials for my lessons this weekend. I also offered to teach Priesthood in a couple of weeks, and Jair, our Elders Quorum president, quickly agreed.

We found a really cute and wonderful cartoon of the two of us, drawn by one of the GANS. At FHE we would learn it was Riccardo. Here it is:

My personage, with a tie and scriptures in hand, says "let's take a photo and then eat!" which is what I say each Friday after class. Dee, with kitchen utensils in hand, asks "who wants seconds?" We were chuckling all day about how clever and true-to-life it was. Obviously they are most impressed by my spiritual lessons! 😀

In response to my (probably fake) quote of Jesus the other day, our daughter Wendy shared a different and clever one with a very modern twist: Jesus said, "yolo lol jk brb." For those who want a little translation, that would be: "You only live once. Laugh out loud -- just kidding. Be right back!" 

A guy named Nabil, who is just over thirty years old, showed up in thelate afternoon. He said that he is Italian/Arab, born and raised here, with a father from Morocco. Most of his family is there and he seems to be alone. We learned that he joined the church a few years ago, but he is very quiet and withdrawn, so it was hard to learn much about him. Jomar recognized him, after he stayed for FHE. Nabil found and shared the quote of the week with the group.

We have started asking a question of the week at home evening, going around the room and having everyone respond. This time it was "name one of your favorite singers or bands." It was really fun, with everyone selecting very different types of music. Anziano Castro said his was cumbia music from Argentina. When Riccardo said that he knew that music and named a famous song, Anziano Castro got so excited that tears came to his eyes. Everyone laughed and had a great time. I said Gladys Knight, fwiw, while Dee chose Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street.

The Ganziani then gave a very nice lesson on faith: what it means, how to increase it, how to show it. They got a lot of participation and comments out of the group.

After the lesson, we tried the new crepe maker that Dee was given by one of the American temple construction worker families who went home. Grace jumped in and expertly cooked almost all of them, spreding them with Nutella. The whole group stood around in the kitchen and visited while they were waiting for their crepe. It was really fun, with the room filled with energy. We didn't leave until late, about 9:30pm, but we didn't care because we were all enjoying it so much. Several of the kids, including Sammy, Jomar, and Dario, were very hungry and first devoured a dozen crack chicken sandwiches, left over from Friday night.

 

Grace with her concoction

 

Jomar tries his hand

Grace at work

We really are enjoying the "temporary" Ganziani, Castro and Kane. Anziano Kane said that he hopes to stay on as a Ganziano, in part because he wants to get one of our "killer ties". Sammy, always looking for a new English phrase, asked what that meant and wrote it down. He also learned the difference between slick and sleek.

Once we got home, Dee made some phone calls to California and ended up sleeping on the couch for a good while, waiting to get a call from my father-in-law's doctor. Sometimes the time change works in our favor, but not so much in this case. Papa will still be in the hospital for at least another day or two, and we are trying to understand better what is going on. The doctor called at 2:45am, but Skype sent it to voicemail so fast that I didn't get to talk with him, grr. Doug has now lovingly switched me to GrooveIP, which rings eleven times before going to voicemail. So, I'll try again the next day.