Special ties

Friday morning we got to stay home, which was nice as always. On the way into town, we got a phone call on the car speakerphone from the Assistants, telling us about the special zone conferences coming over the next three weekends. The President got permission to bring all the missionaries here for a brief zone conference at the chapel on the temple grounds, as well as a tour of the temple. That involves a lot of travel, and they asked if we could put up four Anziani for one night at our place on the next three Sundays. It will be tight, but we are glad to be able to help. This really is a special time in the history of the church in Italy, and we feel very privileged to be here. It is cool that all the missionaries here get the chance to participate. We have all been inviting friends and acquaintances to go to the open house. Here is the little card we give out (front and back):

Soon after we got to the Institute, Matteo and Andrea showed up. Andrea is a young nonmember who has been coming out for the last week. His English is pretty good, though Dee was able to teach him a few things, such as the fact that the "ed" ending on verbs or participles usually does not add a syllable; e.g., "returned" has two syllables, not three. He was really surprised and delighted to learn that fact. He works part time for AirBNB, checking people into the rentals and giving them a few pointers about Rome. He would be around almost all day and evening, except for running out to do his job a couple of times.

The afternoon was busy, even by Friday standards, with a number of Seminary and Institute students showing up earlier than usual. It was good that my lessons were mostly ready, because there was a lot of good visiting with the kids and not much time to polish my lessons. 

We had twelve kids in the Seminary doctrinal mastery class, with a lesson on the restoration and scripture games. I invited Andrea to participate and he sat in on it. It had to be strange for him to hear all these new terms and scriptures, but he was smiling and later told me (in effect) that he thought there was a good method to my madness, since the kids were really involved and learning. It was fun to have so many kids in there; I think that 12 is the most ever.

Daniele was there after work for most of the afternoon. He got on the FamilySearch computer and worked on his genealogy. Dee went in for a while and gave him some tips, which surprised and delighted him. She is very good at family history, in case you didn't know! Several kids came and sang some very spirited karaoke, led by Jomar and including Nahomi and Andrea, which is always fun to hear down the hall.

Daniele doing genealogy

 

Karaoke

Our friends Holly and RD wrote to say that they were cancelling (or at least postponing) their trip to Rome next week. Bummer. We were looking forward to seeing them. 

Maria Jose, one of our student council members, asked me how the hunt for a new location was going. I told her about the one place we had seen recently that looked promising. When I told her where it was located, she immediately said that she would never go there at night, as the area is dangerous. We looked at it on the map and I explained how close it was to Termini station, but she wasn't convinced. I think that is a nail in the coffin of that location for us. If we used it from 9-5pm, it wouldn't be much of an issue, but most of our traffic is at night when the area is usually deserted. She is small and spunky, and she is working on her mission papers. She went to the Ecuadorian consulate to check on her documents, and a woman there asked if she was legally allowed to sign because she looked like she was only 12 years old! Maria Jose, who is 20, was not amused!

During the afternoon and evening, there were at least four missionary lessons taught at the campus. Missionary work has definitely been picking up as our numbers have increased. We have two more baptisms scheduled for the next week.

We had a good turnout for the evening, many of whom even went to class 😏. Our discussion was on D&C 84-87, mostly on section 84 about the priesthood and purpose of the church. There was a lot of lively discussion (and laughter) as we went over the various topics. Nahomi and Andrea were both in the class. 

Institute class, with Maria Jose on the far right

At the end, I gave Ganziano ties to Anziani Kane and Castro. These ties do not quite match the ones we have given so far, as that model is not in stock, but I told them that they were "special" ties for these two who were pressed into Institute service for just a few weeks. And of course they had the big "G" embroidered on the back. They were delighted, and the kids laughed and clapped really hard. We still have three of the original ties left for our remaining two months, which should be enough, just barely.

Dinner was pancakes with sausage. My wife has an awesome pancake recipe, and there was Nutella, maple syrup, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce for the kids to put on their pancakes. They were going crazy for the food! Did I mention that my wife is good? The place was very full, with a number of our non-member kids inviting their friends to join. Andrea was scandalized that you could put sweet stuff near sausage, but Dee explained that it is a breakfast in the US, and then it made sense to him. I also had a nice conversation with him about the Book of Mormon, which is completely new to him, and I encouraged him to read it.