Steve and Linda

Wednesday morning I woke up too early again and would be tired most of the day. I am almost caught up on all the laundry, after my fifth load of sheets, not to mention towels and clothes. My 9-to-noon shift at the temple was pretty uneventful, with only a few groups and individuals coming through. My role was to be background help, with Italians doing most of the greeting and directing visitors as they entered the stake center. With the light traffic, I wasn't needed much, which was fine with me. I did see a few of our GANS coming through, including Martine (who moved from Rome some months ago), Simone, and Ludo (who was volunteering).

From there I drove downtown, arriving by 12:30pm. Chris Erhue came by to scan some documents for some applications (job, apartment). With his wallet being stolen, he has no ATM card, and they apparently won't give him a new one without his documents, which were also stolen. Bureaucracy here is taken to an art form. There would be no other young visitors all day, not unusual for a Wednesday afternoon, and I closed the campus for the evening.

Steve and Linda showed up about 3pm, after having checked into their AirBNB from the airport. Linda served in the Padova mission soon after we served in the 1970s, and she has stayed connected to Italy and kept up her language well. They brought the five wrinkle-free white dress shirts from LandsEnd for Daniele to take on his mission, after the prior set was stolen from Claire and Jims' car last month. I gave them the hairdryer we had bought online for their trip, and then I installed the new Iliad SIM card in a phone that a friend loaned them to use here. Because it was an iPhone, it took me a while to figure out how to configure everything, because the menus are all different from Android and they were in Italian. However, they departed with a working phone which they can hotspot to their US phones. Steve was pretty sleepy from the overnight trip and nodded off at one point. Been there, done that.

Two of their sons, Carson and Derek, were also joining them here in Rome, and they invited me to dinner with them. First I checked with Ugo and the GANS before accepting, but it all worked out. The Institute activity for evening was for the GANS to attend the Open House again, so I just told everyone that I couldn't make it and closed up the campus. Claudia was back in town from England to take her family through the Open House, and she got to see Jomar at the temple. I hope to see her Friday night at class.

Jomar and Claudia hamming it up for a selfie

So I took the subway to their AirBNB near the Vatican, and we ended up walking to dinner at a place a few blocks way. Steve had left his sweatshirt at the Institute, and I brought that to him. Derek's wife was there was well, with their two very cute young children, but she skipped dinner to put them to bed. It was good to see everyone and visit. We each ordered something different and cut it up to share, which was great. Carson arrived from the airport after we got back from dinner.

Dress shirts for Daniele, finally!

L-R: Linda, Steve, me, Derek

After dinner I took the subway back to the campus and drove home, arriving after 10pm. Dee and I had talked briefly during her morning. She was very busy getting ready to bring her dad home, so we haven't talked after that happened.