New companionship

Tuesday I kept feeling better, without needing any cold or cough meds all day, except some Afrin nose spray to sleep that night. Sorella Balzotti had a minor medical procedure in the morning that kept her at home for the day, so Anziano Balzotti and I were a companionship for the day, kinda like splits! 

In the morning I got an email from Anziano Sanchez in our ward, announcing that they were bringing six people to Taco Tuesday! So I asked who they were, explaining that it is not appropriate to invite immigrants from the Friendship Center to a free lunch; if that word got around, it could overwhelm us (and our budget). Sure enough, he had invited a bunch of immigrants, so that got squashed. I felt bad for him, but we have limited space and resources, and our Institute is really for our GANS kids, their friends, and serious investigators, not just for people hoping for a meal. He was fine with it, and they later showed up with one nice kid from South America.

Anziano Balzotti and I did all the Taco Tuesday prep between us. He is very good in the kitchen, as we knew from Thanksgivings past. He chopped the onions and tomatoes, and then I had him cook the meat and add the taco seasoning, so that he could learn the secrets of our trade. We were ready in plenty of time.

We ended up with a fairly big group for tacos. There were not enough chairs to hold everyone, and we had to pull out extra meat -- a very fine thing. Here is an early photo before everyone got there:

Right after lunch, someone range the intercom asking if this was the Mormon church. I invited him up. His name was Gustavo, a young Peruvian studying in Edinburgh. He had already eaten, so he refused tacos. He is not a member, but came to Italy looking for his Italian roots so that he can apply for Italian (and thus EU) citizenship. I helped him on the FH computer for half an hour or more, while Anziano Balzotti finished the dishes without me even asking. Unfortunately, his Italian connection is back in the 1830s or so, and he doesn't know an exact date or place, so we couldn't find anything. I told him that he needed to work back from his parents and grandparents, finding records with names and ages and places of each prior generation, in order to have any chance. He is not in a rush and asked if he thought he should return to Scotland for now. My response was yes, until he had more details, at which point he might know where to go in Italy to look for church records, since there are few civil records in those decades. We spoke in English, since his Italian was not good. He was sharp and extremely grateful for the help, though a bit disappointed at not finding anything. I suspect that, knowing Dee, she would like to try to help him at some point, but she is rather busy right now!

At 3:30pm we had our student council, with Joyce, Sheyla, Maria Jose, Marlene, Ugo (on Zoom) and me, plus the Ganziani at first to talk about missionary work. With those four girls, the meeting is always lively and productive.  Everyone was very sad about the news on Dee's dad and that we thus would not stay as long as we had planned. They even got a little teary eyed. We love these kids.

Anziano Balzotti took a long walk to pick up his wife's purse which she had left at the doctor's office near Circus Maximus, and he got back for the last few minutes of the meeting. Afterward, while chatting, the girls asked us for advice in picking a spouse, which was very nice, and they seemed genuinely interested in the response from two guys each married over 40 years.

Ugo normally comes into town for his Tuesday night Zoom class, but his train got cancelled at the last minute. So he taught from home, and I set up my laptop for Noemi to participate, the only in-person student that night.

Linda showed up late on her way back from an interview in Milano with Disney about a one-year internship at Disney World Orlando. She had a friend with her, who also interviewed for the job. Seemed like a nice enough guy, with decent English skills, having studied in Boston for a while.

It was nice to chat with Anziano Balzotti throughout the day, about life and our missions. It seems amazing to both of us that time has passed so quickly. We really like those Balzottis!

I spoke with Dee a couple of times. They had to take her dad to the hospital in the morning in an ambulance again. They found him on the floor in the hallway, unable to get up and very disoriented. It was unclear to me for a while, between phone calls, whether Dee would be able to come back here at all with this development. Actually, however, having him under care at a hospital or nursing facility for a couple of weeks -- which he clearly needs -- will  make it easier for her to come back long enough to pack up calmly here and say some farewells. The church travel folks can change our return flights for no fee, so we will try to figure out real soon what the plans are.