David Archuleta!!

If you thought that having Victor Ludlow come to the campus was cool, wait until you hear about Friday evening! But let's start in the morning. I seem to be coming down with a cold, with a slight sore throat, runny nose, and low energy. Let's hope for the best on that front. I walked down to Conad to buy some salad fixings for the evening dinner, plus stocking up on a few other things. Dee called me about noon, which is 3am her time! I was surprised, but apparently she took a 5pm nap and slept 9 hours. Jet lag can be a real pain, especially when you are as busy as she is.

Her dad is home, and a nurse and social worker came to assess the situation. They made several recommendations, including that he has to use a walker, since he is not steady or strong enough. That required clearing out some space around the house, which took some doing (and some convincing, since her parents don't think they need help). We will see whether her dad will actually follow their suggestions.

I reserved flights and the hotel for a trip to Provo in August for the annual FairMormon conference. I have been attending since 2006, and was joined over the years by Dee, my mom, my sisters Marilyn and Karen (and her husband Dave), plus some other friends. We enjoy the conference and the mini family reunion. The Marriott website apparently wasn't working, but it turns out that it just refuses to give me access because I am in Europe, without even giving a nice explanatory message. So I logged into my laptop in Carlsbad and made the reservations. In other tech news, I had to reset my network drive in Carlsbad, which had detected a disk error. Fortunately it seems to have been transient: everything works after running the diagnostics. Now Rich can continue to scan pieces of mail for us.

I left early for the Institute. On the way, I got a call from some YSA girls from the Netherlands, in town for the Open House. They asked about the Institute, and I invited them to come to class that evening. Unfortunately, they wouldn't make it. The Ganziani taught some "refresher" missionary lessons to a Nigerian member from our ward in the early afternoon. Sorella Canfield brought by three chocolate cakes for dessert for Seminary and Institute. She had volunteered to do it since Dee was gone, and she is an awesome cook! I had to put a sign next to them on the counter to prevent grazing. 😋

"Do not eat!!"

We had twelve kids at Seminary, with the lesson about prophets as spokesmen for the Lord, using the D&C 1:37-38. We played the game of trying to apply a strange photo to a scripture which each kid was randomly assigned (via their bingo card).  In this case, it is a catfish with a big ball stuck in its mouth, unable to disgorge it or submerge; a fisherman ended up puncturing the ball and saving the fish. It is always fun to see what they come up with! Hat tip for this game to Kelly Miller, my long-time Seminary coordinator. We then played bingo. There was plenty of cake for all.

In trouble

Saved

Post bingo photo

Hanging and eating cake

Sorella Canfield made plenty!

About half of the kids soon left, and then the intercom buzzed. Anziano Waddell, who was there for a while after exchanges, answered "chi è?" The response, in English, was, "Is this the Institute? This is David Archuleta." Yeah, right. Not like we believed that, since often the kids will joke with us on the intercom. But a minute later, who should show up at our door but the David Archuleta, a very famous American Idol contestant and LDS singer. He happened to be in Rome, and somehow through a friend of a friend, Jenna Perego told him to come to the campus. He is a very humble and unassuming guy (and still a GANS), and he offered to do a devotional if we wanted him to. He had to leave by 8pm to meet some friends, but, after a quick check with Ugo, we decided to postpone my lesson and substitute him -- no brainer! I sent out a photo of him with an announcement of the change of plans, and the campus WhatsApp group exploded with everyone expressing disbelief and amazement. 

David Archuleta in our library

He had been walking all day sightseeing around Rome, here for the first time. It was relatively warm, and he apologized several times for being a bit dirty and sweaty. We got a photo of him with the remaining Seminary kids, all of whom were excited. He was so down to earth in just talking with them.

David went into the classroom with the piano for a while to prepare his devotional. Soon Jomar showed up. He has a great tenor voice and loves to do karaoke, but is rather timid about it. I went in and asked David if he would be willing to make Jomar's day by singing with him, and he was very happy to oblige. I introduced the two, and Jomar started almost hyperventilating. David asked, "Jomar, shall we sing together?" It took some convincing for Jomar, but everyone encouraged him, so the two of them did a song together ("Perfect"), with the entire small group looking on. David was so cool, singing harmony with Jomar a few times. At the end, David gave kudos to Jomar, and the group exploded with applause and shouting! It was really a special moment. You can see some brief video clips here, here and here.

David sang the first verse, Jomar still not believing what was happening

 

Jomar does his verse, with David harmonizing lightly

The two hug after their awesome performance

The Ganziani finished their new Institute "business card", which has a list of our weekly activities on it. The mission paid for them to print 5000 cards, which will be very helpful when trying to invite people to come visit us.

Meanwhile, there was a big piece of missionary news: the First Presidency announced that young missionaries can now call or video home every week on P-day with their families (not with friends). This replaces the long-standing policy of doing that only twice a year, on Christmas and Mothers Day. The reaction was interesting. Several of them did not like it at all, saying how distracting it would be for them. I can see their point, as a mission is all about focus on the work, which they love. President Pickerd sent out a followup email with details and asking them to be wise in not going overboard. It will be interesting to see how it works out. 

After our announcement, lots of kids started arriving. We had a number of visitors from out of town (Milano, Genova, etc) for class -- they really lucked out! A number of kids on WhatsApp expressed grief at not being able to come. I would later send out a message, only slightly tongue-in-cheek, saying "this is why you need to come to Institute class, on time, every week!"😉😀 It would be our biggest day at the Institute in a while, with over 40 kids signing in.

We started on time for once, because David had to leave by 8pm. I made some brief announcements, followed by the opening prayer, and then I turned the time over to David. The kids had carried the piano into the big room for him to use. Alessandra did a great job of translating: for him when I was talking, and for the group when he was talking.

David gave a very spiritual and touching devotional, telling his story, how his life changed dramatically at age 17 after coming in second on American Idol. His career was really taking off, but the spirit kept telling him that he should serve a mission. His advisors and manager told him that he was crazy, and even many of his family members felt that it would ruin his career. Finally he decided to go with the spirit and put in his mission papers. He sang a song about that experience, "I'm Ready", in which he says to God that he is willing to put everything on the line to follow Him. You can read the lyrics here, and here is a YouTube version. He ended up serving two years in Chile, so he can understand a little Italian. He went on to talk about difficult times and decisions in his life, stopping to sing a related song a few times. The entire audience was paying rapt attention. We didn't record it because he said that he would need permission from his agent, but it is an evening we will never forget.

He finished just before 8pm. After the closing prayer, everyone wanted a photo with David, and he was very gracious about it and seemed to genuinely enjoy being with the kids. He stayed longer than he should have, with kids surrounding him. Then Ugo drove him to his hotel, with Ugo's sons Joshua and David going along, which certainly made their evening!

The group photo

Krista, David, Riccardo

Maria Jose, David, Grace

 

 

With Dee out of town, Ugo had made pulled pork sandwiches, and Alessio helped me cut up and toss the salad fixings ahead of time. There was plenty of food and dessert for everyone. Among our visitors was Claudia, back from England for the Open House. I gave her a big hug -- what is the mission president going to do to me at this point? 😉😀 Francesco was back from Milano, with a girlfriend from St. Petersburg, and I gave him a big hug too. Linda arrived after her class, not knowing that she had missed a great show, but she drowned her sorrows in pulled pork.

Ugo's dinner

Claudia reuniting with dear friends

Marlene, Sheyla, and Maria Jose served the pulled pork

 

 

 

Claudia's UK roommate on the left

We miss Claudia!

Natalia, Francesco, me

Dinner and fun in the library

Group karaoke

Several of the kids gave a video greeting to Dee, which you can see here. Another group did it too, but I pressed the wrong camera button and missed it. You can see a short video of the group karaoke here. It was nearly 10:30pm when I got home, still glowing from the wonderful evening. My lesson can wait.