40th Anniversary

Friday was our 40th wedding anniversary. Here is the photo from our wedding invitation. As you can see, we have not changed even one little bit!

Our son Rich scanned the photos from our wedding album a few years ago. They had aged and reddened a bit (apparently common for prints from that era), but you can see and enjoy them all here. Not every minute together has been full of bliss, but it has nonetheless been wonderful. We still are madly in love with each other and have fun being together. We are hoping for 40 more years, at which point we will reassess 😉😀. I had the photos running as a slideshow on the big screen at the Institute during the day, and I passed around a printout of several wedding photos during my class, so everyone got to share in our occasion. I can't think of a much better or more appropriate way to celebrate it than while serving here.

Dee had a followup foot x-ray scheduled in the morning, in preparation for her doctor visit on Monday. She was able to move the appointment to Monday morning, so she will only have to make one trip to the clinic and doctor's office, giving us another very welcome morning at home. Outside it was really hot and humid. In the late morning I walked up to Todis to get just a few things for dinner in the evening.

We had a bunch of stuff to carry out to the car, two trips worth, which is rare, though mostly because I still won't let Dee carry anything heavy yet. She can now carry some light bags, which is a big help. She wore her tennis shoes with arch supports all day and apparently did very well, which is a nice improvement. I was still hurting by the end of the night, but not in the same places, and only a 7 out of 10 instead of a 10 like before.

Once at the Institute, I finished prep for my two Luke lessons. Most of the quotes that I use come from www.gospeldoctrine.com, but my notes from past Seminary lessons are often handy. After that I took a break and walked over to the train station to get some clarifications on the new SIM cards that we just bought for Wes's visit. While there, I went up the street to the BNL ATM to get some cash. 

Dee worked in the kitchen again all day, making peanut butter cookies for Monday, when she won't be there due to the doctor appointment and Wes showing up. One batch got overcooked, so several of us had to help her destroy the evidence. Fortunately, she had done a bunch of prep on Thursday, so the big dinner was easier. 

Our group for the Institute class was rather small, but we had a very good discussion of Luke 16-18. There were two American girls needing translation, which worked ok, although both I and the translators got confused occasionally. For example, when the translator (Claudia, and then Anziano Lewis) had a comment to make, they would speak in Italian and I would translate it into English, except a few times we reversed roles. I think that everyone was able to understand, and lots of people had comments in both languages. At one point, Anziano Lewis forgot to translate, so I prompted him to continue. He apologized later, saying that he was thinking so hard about what I was asking that it completely skipped his mind to translate. I will take that as a compliment 😀. Alessio never likes to have his photo taken, so I got to be in the group shot this time, with him behind the camera.

The crack chicken and brownies (with our 40th candle stuck into them) were very popular. Todis only had the slider-sized buns, so we served teeny tiny crack chicken sandwiches. So cute! I kept some chicken and bacon for Anziano Papritz to make into a wrap, since he stays away from dairy products. Yum--bacon!

Dee had washed the dishes all along, so there was not too much left for me to clean up. We left about 9:30pm, with the kids still there playing games. It is always nice to see them enjoying being together, including several non-members who are very well integrated into the group.

Ashley, our new American girl, came in to chat with us about being a senior missionary. She said it looks pretty chill. I guess we make it look easy! We have some long days but it's true that we devote ourselves to games and fun, too.

Christian came over after his mariachi gig, so he must be enjoying the group. It's great to have him there.

I showed Noelle and Jomar a YouTube video for a talent show idea. It's called Steam Heat, from The Pajama Game. The choreographer was Bob Fosse, who did Chicago, All that Jazz, Cabaret, etc. They had never heard of any of those movies. But then, I showed them a clip where Michael Jackson's moved are side by side with a Bob Fosse dance, and they could relate to that. 

Singing for English class

Thursday we did not have district meeting because our missionaries had a service project. We were also going to inspect the Roma 3 Anziani apartment after DM, so that will get rescheduled. In the morning I ran some stuff up to the Temple visitors center and then bought a few things at Lidl (mostly big water bottles for the Institute) on the way home. The new 120GB SSD for the old ward computer arrived, but not in time for me to install it in the morning.

I found the scanned version of our wedding photo album and put it on a flash drive so that we can do a slideshow on Friday at the Institute for our 40th anniversary. I also printed a few of the best shots to show.  

I paid an insurance bill online finally, after it had failed to accept electronic payment over July 4th. Not sure what happened, but all is good now. Thank goodness for online payments, which make it so much easier to serve here and manage our life.

The FM folks scheduled somebody to come fix the AC unit in the Institute office next week. That was good, except they could only do it while we will be in Sicily with Wes and Alyssa. Fortunately the Ganziani were willing to come to the campus and wait for the repairman. It will be nice to get that fixed so it doesn't keep leaking on the wood floor.

I did a video conference test via Zoom with Scott Gordon of FairMormon. We know him and his wife pretty well from two conferences Ugo and I helped organize here in 2013 and 2015. He will be the guest speaker for Ugo's church  class next Tuesday. We got to chat for a bit and catch up on family.

Dee spent almost the entire day in the kitchen, cooking chicken for upcoming events, plus brownies (and some veggies for herself) . I spent most of the time working on my lessons and talk, though I did also take and post photos of the two current Ganziani on our "wall of fame".

As is usual for Thursdays, it was a pretty light day. For English class, there was only one non-member, but the missionaries and a couple of our GANS decided to sing English hymns with him, which he really enjoyed. Anziano Lewis is phenomenal on the piano and has a very nice voice. It was actually a very effective class and a missionary moment; the investigator, Frank, wants to sing with them in a Sacrament meeting (his idea!). Not sure if they will try this program again, but it was a lot of fun for everyone.

When we got home, I installed the SSD and cloned the old disk over to it. As expected, it boots way faster now! The ward will be very happy with what I did. They hope to use it for family history work and indexing, and it is easily up to the task now.

By the time we got home, my feet were hurting a lot. It's my heels that hurt, not the break area. The doctor had told me I have a heel spur, so I looked it up to see what I can do. I hadn't been able to tolerate any arch supports, but now I hope I can. I'll try it tomorrow.

Fourth at home

Wednesday was July 4, a day at home for us, though it's not a holiday here. We never got in the car, which was a wonderful feeling. I walked up to Todis in the morning, looking for buns for our Friday dinner, but they only had the small ones and not the larger ones we wanted. I bought all that they had, figuring that a bun in the hand is worth two in the bush, and we will look again on Friday. I also got some fruit and some soda in case we decided to join one of the July 4th activities (which we never did).

Later I walked to Conad for some produce for me and a few household supplies. It was wonderful to have AC in my home office, where I spent much of the day working on my lessons. In particular, I copied and pasted a number of pages from Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes and translated it into Italian. It comes from the chapter on honor/shame culture and really makes you think about how much our interpretation is colored by our culture. As you know, I highly recommend the book.

In the evening we took a little walk together down to the Chinese store so that Dee could get out of the house. I was in my room with AC, but she likes to be in the living room, even though it's only with fans. Yes, it was sweaty, but I like my desk setup. We bought a few small things, including some tape to try as padding for her crutches and a big candle with 40 on it for our anniversary on Friday. I made the trip with the walking sticks, which are light and convenient. They aren't good for leaning when standing still, though. And people sure do stare when I use them.

I also did lesson prep. I'm teaching Primary Sunday, and Relief Society on July 22. The latter is pretty far away, but since Wes and Alyssa will be here, I need to prep in advance. It was really great to start to organize my thoughts so far in advance. Doug was stunned ;-)
We have a new blender for the Institute. It's going to be handy this summer for salad dressings. We don't have an easy way to make ice, so no smoothies. The freezer is made of drawers, so an ice cube tray would spill, and we don't have enough room anyway.

On the Fourth, I was surprised to hear fireworks outside our apartment!

A new favorite vegetable: Agretti, also known as Friar's Beard or Monk's Beard. I love to steam it in the microwave and eat it with a little lemon. I hope I can find it in the USA.

Our district meeting got changed to a day when we can't attend. When Wes and Alyssa are here, we planned to skip them, too, so we're going to miss several in a row, for the first time. 

It's great to be doing some ab and back exercises again.

Taco Tuesday afterparty

Tuesday was really hot and humid. I turned on the AC at home in my back-bedroom office. We got to Institute in time to start preparing for Taco Tuesday. Ugo, Claudia, and two Anziani were there already, with Claudia helping the elders teach a missionary lesson to one of their new investigators, a Lithuanian guy who speaks English. Ugo had started our Alexa there playing soft classical music in the background, which was very nice. We don't use her enough. There was a pretty good turnout for tacos, bigger than in recent weeks. Final exams are still going on, so a number of the kids are busy, but it seems like things are calming down a bit. Ugo had brought limes, avocado and cilantro, making a nice bowl of guacamole; Noelle gasped when she saw it -- rather unknown here, but quite popular at the Institute.

 

 

 

 

After lunch, a bunch of the kids hung around, playing music and singing together.

 

 

The air conditioner unit in the Institute entryway has started dripping lots of water on the (wood) floor after running for a little while. Perhaps it has to do with how humid it is outside, but the other units don't have the problem, and this unit is fairly new. I called it in to the church FM (Facilities Management) group, so we will see if anything happens. 

Ugo, Claudia and I were in the library for much of the afternoon, working on various things: Ugo on his lesson for that evening, me on my talk and lessons for the weekend, and Claudia translating something for her job. We worked quietly most of the time but also chatted a bit, which is always fun. With that group it is a mix of English and Italian, with no real rhyme or reason as to which word or which sentence is in which language, which makes it fun. Ugo was going to teach a lesson next week on Masonry and the church, so I told him to ask Scott Gordon, our friend and president of FairMormon, who has given talks on that before (including here in Rome three years ago), to give the lesson as a guest teacher via Zoom. Scott quickly agreed via email; that will be fun.

I bought a copy of Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes as a graduation present for Claudia. The Kindle version was only available on amazon.com (the US site), but when she tried to load it into her Kindle app it didn't work, saying that the book couldn't be used in her country. So then I ordered a paperback copy for her from amazon.it, which will arrive Wednesday. Seems to me that electronic copies should be easier to ship internationally than paperbacks! Not to worry, I gifted the Kindle version to Ugo, who has a US account on Amazon, and he was able to load it. So we got to give two gifts in one day 😊.

A number of the kids went over for the gospel choir practice at the friendship center at 4pm, which apparently had quite a good turnout. I didn't go because I needed to work on my lessons. Afterwards, they came back and started playing games, with a few more kids joining them in the evening. It was a really fun group. At one point Ugo walked in, looked around, and asked us, "are there any members here?" He was joking, but it was about half members and half nonmembers, which is a nice thing. Jomar said that the games were like a Taco Tuesday "afterparty", which was an appropriate description. Dee made more butterless Reese's bars for the evening English class and the card players. Ugo in particular loved them! The place had a great vibe, and we all enjoyed it. 

 

 

With Wednesday being July 4th (not a holiday here) and no activities scheduled at the Institute, we decided to take the day off. That will be my first afternoon at home in quite a while, and our absence doesn't seem like it will impact anyone. There are a few July 4th picnics and barbecues going on for Americans, and we might go to one of them, but it will be good to have some down time.

I experimented with making peanut butter bars with oil instead of butter. I added extra cookie crumbs, and they were delicious! People liked them better than the original recipe. I am still amazed at how many things can be duplicated or improved without butter. I used to buy a kilo or more (a couple of pounds) of butter a week, and now I rarely use it. Wow. 

Just doing stuff in the kitchen was hard on my feet. I don't know why they're both acting up, except that I stood so little for the first five weeks after the accident. I sure hope I can get over this. I'll ask the doctor when I see her next week.

It's always great to see Ugo and get to talk with him. He is perfect for working with youth. He is always available, always online, and full of great ideas. He loves the kids and they know it. And he's a terrific teacher!

One nonmember, Christian, is really fitting in. He came twice to hang out today, and really enjoyed the musical time and the game time. 

Trip to the mall

Monday we left just before 11am to go to the mall. There was a list of things that had accumulated for us to do, and this seemed an opportune time. On the way, we filled up the car and then rinsed it off at the self-wash place. I bought two SIM cards for Wes and Alyssa to use while they are here. First I went to two companies (Wind and Iliad) which couldn't seem to accommodate me as a foreigner, but then TIM was easy: two cards, each 20GB/month and unlimited calls (texts are 0.20€ each, but we don't use them much because WhatsApp is better), for only 10€ for the SIM and then 10€ per month. It cost 46€ out the door for the first month. Dee bought herself trekking poles at Decathlon, the big sporting goods store, to see if they can help her in this transition period. She looked for larger tennis shoes to wear with her brace, but they don't seem to have wide sizes there, so that didn't work. Then we went to Auchan to buy some toiletries and a bit of food, almost all for us. From the mall we drove directly to the Institute, arriving only about 15 minutes later than our usual opening time.

In the afternoon I spent a bunch of time working on my lessons and talk for this coming weekend, printing out lesson material and the chapters to highlight. I have three lessons and one talk to give, so there is a lot to do. Dee made dessert -- Reese's peanut butter bars -- and worked on her FHE lesson for that evening.

On Sunday I had mentioned to Jonathan, who works for the church Italian translation department here, that a number of the general conferences from 15-20 years ago are just missing in Italian. He was quite surprised and promised to follow up to see if it is just a matter of a broken link or something. It affected me in one talk I used last week; I can always do the translation myself if I want it written, but sometimes the video is nice. We will see what happens.

Dee gave her FHE lesson on the youth fireside from President Nelson last month, challenging the kids to take some time off from social media to actually interact with and serve others. There was a good-sized group. I asked Noelle to pick a quote to share from the Italian quote book; she doesn't know Italian but went with it, picking a very nice quote, based just on who said it (Audrey Hepburn in this case 😀). Dee got a lot of good participation, but I missed much of the lesson because Ashley, the girl from Utah, arrived at the nearby Metro stop but didn't know how to find the Institute. I walked down the two blocks, talking on the phone via WhatsApp, and she spotted me -- having the white shirt, tie, and name tag is a good way to find each other in a crowd! This was her first time ever on a bus or a subway, so she was pretty brave to give it a try alone. I think she really enjoyed hanging with the group, including a good game of Five Crowns. We had her and Anziano Lewis introduce themselves to the group. The dessert was very popular. I created a version with corn oil instead of butter, and it was the favorite over the butter version.

Anziano Lewis, our newest Ganziano

After getting home, we went down to the piazza and gave Sorella Balzotti her blender back. As always, she is really fun to visit with. With the rather sudden medical release of the Paulsens, we are all very busy until a replacement can arrive, but we have no idea when that will be. Nobody is getting much of a P-day right now, so hopefully things will calm down in not too long. August should be a much slower month, as much of the country goes on vacation the whole time. Maybe it will be easier to park, too. It's been three weeks since the trees near our apartment were trimmed and the branches are still waiting for pickup, blocked off with orange tape. This has robbed us of about thirty parking spots, grr.

Break-the-fast lunch

Sunday morning Dee went to church without her boot or a brace, just wearing normal shoes. It was exciting, though I was concerned she was maybe pushing things a bit. Everything went ok, though by mid-afternoon her feet and legs were hurting and tired. After weeks of not walking much, that is perhaps to be expected. So many people were excited to see my out of the boot, but both my feet were really sore by the end of the day. I went home and iced and massaged them. Monday I'll wear the boot again.

My temple prep class first lesson went quite well. Dee was there with me, then taught Primary music during the third hour. Jenna stepped in and helped immensely with teaching the verse. We're going to add one in Spanish next week, since so many of the kids have Spanish in their homes. I can hardly wait! This was a totally new idea for them. In my class, we went over the plan of salvation, making a diagram on the chalkboard (they still have one in the clerk's office!), with lots of good questions and comments.  This class will be very enjoyable! Rhenald and Billy took pictures of the blackboard and notes on their phones. Rhenald in particular knew a lot. He is teaching the English gospel doctrine class in our ward. I love the Nigerian accent, but it takes some getting used to.

Rhenald, Billy, Dexter

 

From church we drove straight to the Institute, with food from Ugo in our trunk for the break-the-fast lunch. Dee had made two carrot cakes, and Ugo made pulled pork and bought some wonderful rolls. We put out chips and some cookies as well.

 

There was a very good turnout (about 20 signatures on the sign-in list), including a few nonmembers, with lunch starting at 3pm. Everyone was able to eat until they were full. 

 

 

After lunch, the Fenns gave a fireside. He served in my mission in the 1970s, and he and his wife have lived in Rome for 6.5 years working on the construction of the temple. She served in the Arcadia Mission when she was young, which is near our former town of South Pasadena. Small world! She is called as a missionary to keep the history of the temple construction. They took turns, telling stories about neat things that they saw and learned during this process, and applying lessons of the temple to the lives of these kids. There was translation from Italian to English and Spanish going on, and then from English to Italian when Sister Fenn spoke.

 

 

It was a very warm day, with temps in the 90s, so it was great that the AC was working well. The carrot cakes were served after the fireside. We gave the few leftover sandwiches to our Roma 3 Anziani, and the leftover carrot cake went to the Peregos (that is Ugo's favorite). After cleaning up, we left the Institute with a big group of kids still at the campus, playing games together -- a great thing.

Once arriving home about 7pm, it was a busy evening. Together we had a calendaring session for the upcoming week. Good thing: each of us got several  important followup assignments out of that. I discovered that I had reserved a hotel for the wrong days for Wes later this month, and fortunately I was able to modify the reservation (not a given at the height of tourist season). I then made the train reservations for Dee and me to go to Naples next Saturday, and I started setting up apartment inspections for later in the month. In addition, I did a bunch of WhatsApp messaging for the Institute and made a couple of Facebook posts for the Institute events of Friday and Sunday. 

David Perego gave me the memory from his old (now dead) computer to use in the old ward desktop that I am refurbishing. One of the 2GB sticks was dead, but I was able to use what he gave me to upgrade it from 4GB to 8GB and run an overnight test. Hopefully that computer will be ready to go by next weekend so that I can get it out of the house before our guests arrive.

It was a long day for us, over 10 hours out of the house. This Sunday was not a day of rest, but we loved it.

I got to talk with Wendy, which is our Sunday tradition. She had a big week with dental stuff as well as finishing one semester and beginning another. It's very impressive how much she is doing and how well she is doing it. She is taking a double load an acing her classes. Wow!

This last week, as I think I have already written, I got a phone call from a relative in Colorado. Her kids are asking about their ancestry after taking DNA tests. So, I sent a little info on the who and where to her. We'll see if they want more.

I have discovered beet greens (which can be red or green, haha) and agretti. I am loving eating these things, and I get them at our little farmer's market downstairs. I feel great about eating these healthy things, but I love potato chips and cookie dough, too.

Doug is incredibly organized and productive. He is teaching at least three lessons every week, keeps up the attendance report, the Institute history, backs up our computers, keeps an eye on our finances, helps my parents, and writes this blog. Sometimes I hate the unrelenting dailyness of it, but when all is said and done, I'm grateful he's writing.

I'm pretty busy, too. I am called on to teach classes or music in Primary, as well as the fourth Sunday Relief Society lesson. The latter doesn't have much material, so I have to really work on it to get a good lesson. I also spend a lot of time in the kitchen, making food of some sort nearly every day. The kids come to talk with me, which is great, but makes it harder to fit in my lesson prep. There are also family home evening lessons and the upcoming singles conference to prep for. I help a few people with family history or math, and will be teaching a family history Institute class again in the fall.

Sergio Vardeu told me that one time, he taught a lesson by dancing. It was a youth class and he couldn't get their attention, so he started dancing to the concepts, and called on the kids to dance when they gave their answers. It worked!

I have had a request for Crack Chicken again, so that will be our Friday dinner. I had to put the chocolate chips in the freezer because of the hot weather. I even switched to short sleeves for the first time since we arrived.

A visitor brought a package for a sister missionary and gave it to us to deliver to the mission home. People go through so much to send things to their missionaries. Due to the customs charges, it's just not practical to send a package through the mail. One sister had to pay 65 euro in duty to receive a package (a dress).

Our new elder, Anziano Lewis, used to be in Palermo, where there are lots of Nigerian refugees. He and his companion were able to speak enough Nigerian to convince the Nigerians that they were from there, too. After about five minutes, the ruse would break down and the guys would laugh at the joke. Then, they were friends and the elders would invite them to Church. Those that came tended to continue to learn about the Church and get baptized!

Right now, our missionary numbers are down, and some rearranging has gone on. Some cities were closed and others reopened. So, we have extra sisters downstairs, waiting for a new apartment in their area. It's far for them to go, and they need a car to reach their assigned area, so with one of the mission couples gone, the sisters are using that car. But they don't have a mission credit card for gas, so the office couple has to fill the tank for them. Very complicated.

Our wonderful Simoncini couple has moved into a different apartment and won't be in our ward anymore. This is better for them, since it puts them much closer to the Temple. They host the information center there. But we'll miss seeing them.

Dee walking all over Napoli

On Saturday, Dee went with me to Napoli for the first time to teach the Institute class. I dropped her off at the train station to minimize her walking, then parked at the Institute and walked over. From there on, she walked the entire rest of the day, which was well over a mile. She was wearing her boot, using crutches as walking sticks, and going way faster than she ever did before breaking her foot! She said it all felt great. I loved being able to move! Here she is walking down the street from the chapel in Naples.

 

It certainly makes for a long day, well over 8 hours away from home, so there is stuff to catch up on, but it was wonderful. Dee gave hugs to each of the guys there the first time she met them, and they loved her chocolate-chip cookies. These guys are so sincere and full of the spirit, and they know their New Testament! Each of them lives in a refugee camp, so their life is very tough. Dee had some very nice comments during the lesson on Luke 14-15. We all had a really good discussion about the parable of the prodigal son, similar to the one the night before in Rome. They had never really noticed the famine part either. They had some really insightful questions as we discussed some of the difficult things Christ asks us to do as Christians. We all came away from the lesson feeling very uplifted. They love to sing, so we always have an opening and closing hymn. This was a terrific experience.

Peter, Dee, Maxwell, Sunday

 

When we got back to Rome, Dee was feeling good and walked with me to the Institute. From there we drove to Lidl before going home, filling up the basket with a bunch of stuff for us and for the Institute. Arriving home, we left some non-perishables in the trunk to take directly to the Institute on Sunday, which allowed me to carry the rest up to the apartment in only two trips. We are both delighted at how well she did with all the walking, though her feet were quite tired after getting home, as were mine!

Dee called Ashley, a GANS from Utah who is here as an au pair for a couple of months to try to teach English to a child of her host. Dee told her about everything we have going at the Institute, and Ashley wants to come. President Pickerd had met her at the airport when she was getting picked up by her host family.

My mom and three sisters were in St. Johns, Arizona, to bury the ashes of my aunt Elma, who passed away last fall just before turning 100. They sent a photo, and I called and got to chat with them for a bit. It would have been nice to be there, but at least I got to participate indirectly.

After that I worked on my temple prep lesson for Sunday. It was hot, so I turned on the AC in my back office for a while. We were both pretty tired after a long day, but we look forward to Napoli next time.