Happy Birthday, Papa!

Wednesday morning we left early to go to District Council at Roma 3. On the way, we stopped at Todis, where Dee found over 20 packages of tortillas for upcoming meals, including enchiladas Friday (Institute) and Saturday (missionaries staying with us). She also got some hamburger buns for Sunday dinner: Sloppy Joes. The missionaries will really like these meals. American food! Cheddar!

At the chapel, workmen were there starting a significant remodel. The back half of the building was walled off, but fortunately they had moved most of the Primary stuff into the room Dee requested, and we got help from the Anziani to put the rest of the things into place. I also helped the workers turn on the circuit breakers for the plugs in the back room, with help via phone from Ugo. Our meeting was very nice, and we will be losing Sorella Brock and Anziano Clark to transfer this week. As always, we miss these wonderful kids, but the new ones always impress us too. At the end we took our typical transfer photo with chairs stacked to show how many transfers each missionary has served in Italy. Next time will be our last photo.

L-R: Clark, Whiting, Yanacallo, Muce, De La Rosa, Brock, Ashton

We drove the Anziani to their apartment with the trunk stuffed full of their new linens from Ikea, as well as a new digital kitchen balance from Amazon and some graphite powder for their front-door lock. From there we went to Metro to stock up on cheddar (over eight pounds), beef, sour cream, and some paper goods. Metro is a membership store, with the mission office paying the fee. They just started a new system, and our old cards don't work, though they let us in this time. After all that we still managed to arrive at the Institute right on time at 1pm. It took a couple of trips upstairs to unload everything.

Anziano Clark is transferring down to Cosenza via train on Thursday (5+ hours) and then returns Saturday for the zone conference, staying here with us. Ganziano Kane is transferred to Sardegna but has to come back to Rome two times in the next few weeks: once for zone conference, and once to apply for his permesso. Travel is expensive in this mission, which is very spread out and includes three islands: Sardegna, Sicily, and Malta.

Just after 2pm I left for the Roma 3 chapel again, this time to meet with the bishop and Chris, our friend from Nigeria. I was basically there as translator, although I did have some input. Chris has lost the room he was renting, after his former boss (who wasn't even paying him for his work) told his landlady to kick him out. Chris quit working for him, since he wasn't being paid, and then the former boss apparently told the landlady to kick him out, out of spite. So he is living on the street, working during the day now selling guided tours. He sleeps in the train station and has nowhere to take a shower. It breaks my heart. The bishop said that the ward could probably give him some financial help with rent, but that we don't have any way to help find him a place. He gave Chris some people to network with, and I checked with Samuel. It is an extremely sad and difficult situation. Apparently if he can't get an apartment and a job by March, his wife will be kicked out of the refugee camp in Lecce and the government will take their two young children away. Also, he has two unreliable phones: one which can make brief calls, and one which can receive calls. He cried part of the time, which is very understandable. As missionaries, we are not allowed to help financially in such cases. There are certainly thousands of people suffering in the same way all the time here, but when you know the person it is very tough to see. We should all count our blessings.

My 45th high school reunion in Richmond was just announced for July, and I hope to go to see my good friends again. Dee's 50th is coming up this fall, in South Pasadena near where we will probably be living. Not that we are getting old or anything. Our question of the week at district council was "what do think your life will be like in ten years?" The young missionaries all talked about education, marriage, kids, career. Dee said that she hoped that we were still alive 😃.

By the time I got back, it was nearly dinner time. I still haven't found much time to work on my lessons this week, but Thursday should be a more free day. For our activity, we had a game night, with about half a dozen kids showing up for Five Crowns (I played) and Cover Your Assets (I didn't). It is always fun to hang with the kids. We finished off the rice pudding from Monday, which was a big hit again, and then a Pandoro as well.

Rice pudding break during Five Crowns

Pandoro time

It was my father-in-law's birthday, so we called to wish him well in the convalescent home. Wendy sent cookies and flowers from our family, and Lynn got flags and cake. Wendy sent a goodies box from Harry and David, which he devoured, as well as a nice boquet, both from all of us. Lynn brought ice cream cake. Dad ate a huge piece and Mom had two helpings. They had enough for 48 people. Cousin Jim also came. The center gave him balloons. He is still pretty confused, often thinking that my mother-in-law is Dee. Apparently he is eating well, which is good, but every day he asks why he is there and wants to come home. He also can't remember that we two are in Italy. It is hard to be so far away, even though we love what we are doing here. We feel blessed to have Lynn and Jim managing the bulk of the load. My sister-in-law Donna flew from Missouri to LA and will join the on-the-ground team there on Thursday.

 

Talking with us on the phone from Rome

Lynn is very positive about the skilled nursing facility. It is clean, the staff is always coming by, the food is good. Tomorrow I get to talk with the staff about his progress. Dad snacks all day long. They bring goodies and hot chocolate. He really likes sweets.

We're starting to make appointments in Carlsbad (dentist, eye doctor, etc.) , but since we're sharing a car, we're trying to synchronize.