No room?

Sunday night I woke up after a bad night, having had a stomachache and not enough sleep. Dee had to wake me up in time to get ready for church. I was not feeling well, but an Excedrin helped quite a bit. If I hadn't been able to go, she wasn't comfortable driving by herself, so it was good that it worked out. I like to bring treats to the missionaries when we inspect their apartments. This time, they had to cancel due to working at the Temple open house, so I gave them their treat before Church. It was Twix bars. One of the American sisters gave a gasp and fell into my arms. She said, "it's been sooo long." (She is on her first transfer, haha.) The other American sister was estatic, too. The two Italians were pleasant but not jumping up and down. The difference was hilarious.

Sacrament meeting started and ended on time this week. The bishopric announced that some remodeling of the building will start this week, for a month or so and that half of it will be inaccessible. It will be interesting to see what they do, and our building can probably use some refreshing.

After that I taught my Sunday School lesson on Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2, basically the Christmas story. Since everyone knows the story, I just led a discussion on a number of issues and questions that I came up with. The class was large, and a whole bunch of people participated, with good comments and questions. Everyone seemed really engaged, and I felt great about it. The spirit was very strong. I closed by reciting the words of a Christmas song from an old cantata we sang in Richmond 2 Ward in the 1970s, which I applied to finding room for Christ in our own lives:

No room, only a manager of hay
No room, He is a stranger today
No room, here in His world turned away
No room, no room

No room, here in the hearts of mankind
No room, no cheery welcome could find
No room, surely the world is blind
No room, no room.

Angels, in heaven up yonder
Watch with amazement and wonder
To see the Son of the Highest treated so.
No room.

Dee used the Uno game from the prior week to do singing time, and the kids paid attention pretty well, actually learning the lyrics to the song. After church, I helped Samuel with his laptop, which worked the first time. I didn't do anything, but it seems fine, and he was happy. Maybe his phone hotspot was misbehaving the day before. 

After Church, I took the markers, bulletin board pics and other stuff home, since that part of the building will be blocked off. We wanted to clean out our primary cupboard, but since Doug and I needed to do inspections, it will have to wait. We have two nonmember kids in our primary who are real treasures. They want to learn and love Jesus and are participating. It's great to have them.

I also spoke with Chris, the Nigerian immigrant whom I baptized last year. He is really struggling with finding a job, which is a common issue here. His wife and two children are in a refugee camp down south, and if he can't help them soon she will apparently be kicked out of the camp and the kids taken into custody. Our heart aches for the difficulties these refugees go through. I encouraged him to talk with the bishop, who knows how Italy works (and doesn't) much better than we do, and I offered to help translate between them if needed.

We waited a while for the Anziani to finish and then drove them to their apartment to do an inspection. It had been too long. The place was actually reasonably clean and organized as such things go here, except that the furniture and bedding is really old and worn out. We will buy them some new sheets, blankets, and mattress pads (of which they had none), also because they will be getting extra missionaries this week.

In the evening, the Pickerds had our senior couple potluck dinner at the mission home, which happens usually once every six weeks. There were three kids of soup and a bunch of breads, all wonderful. For dessert Dee made peanut butter and butterscotch haystacks, which we love but weren't as popular as with the kids. It was great to visit with a bunch of the other senior missionaries, about twenty in all. I sat where we spoke mostly Italian. Afterwards the President gave an update on the mission, with Dee and I translating for the Simoncinis.

Dee making dessert in our kitchen

The potluck spread

There was a flurry of activity back in South Pasadena, with Dottie having some eye problems after a procedure this week. She said her eye hurt, she was seeing double and couldn't read. Then she went to bed. After a couple of hours, she still wasn't up and Jim told me about it. I phoned her doctor. He was very concerned. Pain and vision changes require immediate attention. But when Jim woke  her up, her eye wasn't hurting anymore and it wasn't red or anything. It takes Lynn, Jim, and sometimes Donna and me just to keep things afloat.  Dee almost had Jim run her to the doctor, but finally it seemed that it was ok. Almost every day there is some kind of health or emotional crisis going on, and we're doing our best to handle it all.