At 1:30pm the plumber showed up. The sink drain in the bathroom was almost completely clogged, so we had asked FM to send someone. He has worked there before and was awesome! He unclogged that drain, and then cleaned out the kitchen sink drain which has been slow forever. The radiator in the entryway, where I usually work and which is always cold since it has the exterior door, was not heating up at all due to an air bubble in the line somewhere, so he also fixed that. I told him that he was my favorite person of the year so far!
I worked on lesson prep for Friday as well as my Sunday School lesson in two weeks, printing out a bunch of material. I also backed up both computers at the campus and mounted a third coat rack in the hall. It felt like a very productive afternoon.
I spent time Sunday night and Monday morning prepping to teach Italian and also looking for material for Primary singing time. Youtube and Pinterest are so great! I found some songs with singalong karaoke to use for vocabulary. They loved "Ci Vuole un Fiore". Then, I did false cognates, showing what the words really were in Spanish and English.
Dee went out to teach the Italian class to immigrants at the Friendship Center. She had volunteered to help, and she did such a great job that everyone wanted her to come back and teach regularly. She makes it fun, sharing false cognates between Spanish and Italian that they really got a kick out of. For example, constipado in Spanish does not mean the same thing as costipato in Italian! I will let you look it up.
There was a lot of messaging during the day with Lynn back home. We are very concerned about my father-in-law, who is not eating much and not getting out at all, which is the antithesis of who he has always been. He is also in a lot of back pain. Lynn is trying to get him to see a doctor and a physical therapist, and we may need to admit him to a convalescent facility for a while, where they can get him back on track.
We had one more postcard from Chiara to mail but needed a stamp. I went out to buy it at a Tabacchi store, which is where you can buy such things. Two different stores did not have stamps; the clerk at one of them looked at me like I was crazy for even asking! Finally I went to the Post Office and took a number. There were dozens of folks there before me, but I thought I would wait a few minutes. The Post Office here does all kinds of things (paying bills, tickets, etc), not just mail, so I hoped that the queue for stamps might be short, though I wasn't really expecting anything quick. However, within five minutes my number came up, whereupon I bought the stamp and mailed the postcard! Nice.
Anziano Pedroza went home over the holidays. He had been here for a few months, and was really struggling to insert himself into missionary life. It's too bad, since a mission can be such a blessing in terms of personal growth and learning to love people. Missionary life is definitely very demanding. We wish him the best and hope he can be happier. Anziano Mansell remains, in a threesome with the two other Anziani in their apartment for a few weeks.
For home evening, we had a decent turnout, including Almendra who has been out of town for a long time. My lesson was on personal scripture study, with the new emphasis on doing so daily with the Come Follow Me manuals. We had some good discussion with almost everyone contributing things that helped them enjoy studying the gospel. Dee said that she felt the lesson went really well, which is how it also felt to me.
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| FHE group |
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| Karaoke before FHE |
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| Hot chocolate cooking |
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| Game and dessert! |