Vodafone challenges
Thursday morning I folded and put away most of the linens, all fully dried. I still need to make the two beds in the back room, but it is nice to be caught up on laundry. I left early for the Institute so that I could walk to Termini to talk with Vodafone. They provide our internet at home, as well as two SIM cards, and it was unclear how all this worked. In particular, the cell/internet bill I just got was somewhat higher than expected -- some things are the same everywhere! With the Motts coming next month, I needed to figure out how to transfer the account to them and lower the bill. I thought that I would need to cancel at least one of the SIM cards, so I went with a bunch of questions. The gal at the store was almost hostile, telling me that I couldn't transfer the account and just giving me some forms to snail-mail in to cancel. I asked several questions, but she didn't really try to understand what I wanted to do, which is basically to not have any down time in our service for the Motts. I left feeling more confused than when I entered.
Mariela came by to pick up the five dress shirts for Daniele and pay us for all the shirts we have gotten for them. She was very grateful, and we chatted for a while.
Later in the afternoon, I put one of the Vodafone SIM cards into my phone and called their support number. This woman was very helpful, listening carefully to my questions and concerns. What a contrast! She emailed me a form to fill out and mail in (via a certified letter) to do the account transfer. She also explained that both SIM cards were free, included with the home internet service. One is a 1GB/month data-only SIM, to be used as a hotspot if the home internet ever goes out, which has only happened once in a year. I had paid extra to increase that amount to 10GB/month and used it in my tablet, which was helpful in particular before we got fiber internet at our chapel, but she removed the extra data and monthly cost. The second SIM is for a phone, with a reasonable monthly plan (especially for "free"): 1000 minutes, 1000 texts, and 5GB. It isn't as good as Iliad, and I recommended to the Motts that they each pay the 7€ per month for Iliad's better plan, but ultimately that is their decision. In any case, I had much kinder feelings toward Vodafone after the phone call than earlier in the day! I sent a long email to the Motts explaining all this, and we exchanged some messages back and forth on various topics. They have a busy few weeks before entering the MTC, as we well remember.
I also emailed President Pickerd to try to schedule the time we need with the Motts for those few days we overlap. He will want time with them as well, but I outlined what times we felt that we needed to be with them and for what reason. He was fine with it.
Dee called in the morning her time, and we got to catch up on things. She is fighting jet lag as well as challenges with her parents. Her dad is home, which makes him very happy, but he is weak and their home is not very accommodating for the elderly. Since it was Valentine's Day, I went online and ordered a vase of flowers to be delivered to my beautiful bride in California. They arrived within a few hours. The internet is good stuff.
Thursday is a pretty light day, and this was no exception, giving me time to work on my lessons for Friday. Chris Erhue came by to meet with Anziano Benincosa to prepare for a job interview he has coming up. After he left, Anziano Benincosa was very pensive, saying that it is hard to talk about a job when Chris said that he didn't know where he would sleep that night, with temperatures dropping almost to freezing.
There were three kids for English class in the evening, plus Riccardo for the self-reliance class with Anziano Benincosa. I was able to leave a few minutes early, but only after a nice discussion about Mormon history with Riccardo. He is very intelligent and well read about religions and finds them fascinating. It has been nice to have him participating at the Institute, as he has become very close to us and the other kids, but he really isn't much of a believer. The Institute is nice in that we provide a safe and welcome space for anyone who is willing to respect our standards.
Upon getting home, I dropped off the extra copy of our apartment keys with the Sorelle living underneath us. We had taken them back for our visitors the last three weekends, but it is good for the Sorelle to have a copy just in case. Sorella Dwomoh is fighting a cold and can barely speak. I offered her cold meds from our stash, but she said she didn't need anything. It was nice to get to bed earlier than in recent nights.
