Only two hours of church (plus two more!)

Sunday morning Dee woke me up at 7:45am to get ready for church. I have been waking up in the middle of the night a lot recently, which happens to me sometimes, but at least these days eventually I manage to get back to sleep after a while. There was a wonderful smell throughout the apartment. Dee had gotten up early to work on her Primary lesson and also to cook sausage for the ward lunch after the baptism. Being fast Sunday, that aroma was nice but tempting.

This was our first Sunday with "only" two hours of church. During our testimony meeting, an elderly visitor got up from his wheelchair, with help, and bore his testimony. Elder Jessop was in the first group of missionaries called to serve in Italy, in 1966, and his Italian was surprisingly good after fifty years. He is here for a few months to help organize volunteers for the open house. In his setting apart by Elder Benson, he was promised that he would perform miracles. He told some great stories, including one where they were asked to give a priesthood blessing to a boy who was in the hospital expected to die any day. The kid they blessed walked out of the hospital the next day, completely healed.  After the meetings we enjoyed visiting with him, as did many others.

Elder Jessop with Dee

Ugo taught the Sunday School lesson, an introduction to the New Testament, urging us all to do our study at home ahead of time. It felt very odd to finish after the second hour. Fortunately, with 8-year old Nicolas getting baptized, we had not only an extra hour, but a full lunch spread afterwards, which is our ward's superpower. His nonmember father bought amazing fancy sandwiches.We will miss the socials here! The baptismal service was short and sweet. Alessio, our GANS pizza maker, gave a wonderful talk on baptism looking directly at Nicolas most of the time and just talking with him. Junior, a teenager, gave the talk on the holy ghost. Nicolas chose the speakers and music etc. He is a natural leader. A bunch of family and friends were there to celebrate the event, and then we feasted to end the fast. Margarita, our Relief Society President, covets a crock pot. I'll help her get one from amazon.it. Also, she invited us to stay with her when we come to visit. She is so generous, but her home is far away, so we will use a hotel.

 

 

During Sunday School the contact lens in my right eye moved off my iris and got embedded underneath my eyelid. This happens a few times each year, but the light in the bathrooms was so bad at church that I couldn't see where it was. I was beginning to think that it might have popped out, but my eye felt a little uncomfortable so I hoped it was still in there somewhere. Fortunately, after about 45 minutes, it popped back into place on its own, as mysteriously as it had disappeared. I do have an extra set of lenses, but I am happy not to have to use it.

The Hubers brought us more loot from the commissary, restocking our stash of peanut butter and Hershey's Kisses--both very popular here. Ugo gave us a bunch of stuff to take into the Institute, including some food, paper goods, books, etc. We swapped him for the big block of cheddar cheese he had us buy for him at Metro the day before.

On the way home, Dee reported that the Primary kids loved her games and begged to play them again next week. They behaved quite well, which is a testament to how well she connects with that age. The challenge will be helping train the other leaders to know how to continue what she is trying to model for them: making Primary more fun and engaging. One thing I'm emphasizing is preparing ahead of time. Another important aspect is variety and participation, instead of lecture. The ladies love it. I have the advantage of Pinterest in English, hehe. Anyway, we played Sing or Dare (Cantare o Sfidare), with the children in a tight semicircle. They were much better behaved and loved the game. Many thanks to Doug for translating it.

I had two new children in my senior primary class. Martina, 10, and Ciro, 9. They are friends of some members. They loved the class and  participated. Their mother told me they would come again, since her children liked it. Our challenge is getting her little 3 year old to acclimate, but it will happen. 

Once home, we had a lazy afternoon and evening, with Dee taking a nap and me working on several things at my computer. In the evening, Dee made some phone calls back home. Anziano Willey came over for some help with his new Wind "saponetta" hotspot, which ended up being a two-minute fix. We were also able to recommend a few other things for them, including getting another credit card for security reasons, with an Italian mailing address to help with some auto-pays here. Anziano Thacker came along too, and he figured out how to light one of the burners on our stove that hadn't been working. It was a very productive and brief visit. 

Dee seems to be coming down with a cold, just as mine seems to be done. Bummer. Hopefully it will be one of her very quick colds, which last only a day or two (making me very envious).

One fun story about Italian happened recently to Dee. She was at the dentist and wanted to give personalized invitations for the Temple open house to each of the staff there. One of the assistants is named "Emanuela", but Dee wasn't sure whether the name had one or two m's. She asked the receptionist, who just said slowly out loud "E - man - ue - la." Dee responded "yes, but one or two m's?" The woman repeated again, with exasperation, "E - man - ue - la!" Why spell it out when you can just pronounce it clearly? Italians can hear the difference between single and double consonants, which is obvious to them but hard for Americans to hear and pronounce correctly. Two m's would have made the pronunciation "Em - man - ue - la." Dee finally got it and chuckled to herself. I'm pretty good at pronouncing double consonants correctly, but I still missed what she was telling me, haha.

Mary Poppins Returns

Saturday was a long day away from the house, perhaps getting us ready for re-opening the Institute and our normal schedule. We left at 10:30am to go to Metro to buy cheddar and hamburger for Taco Tuesday, since we left the cupboards bare before Christmas. From there we went directly into town, unloading things at the campus that had accumulated at home over the holidays. Metro was less busy than usual. Doug was feeling tired, so I went in while he stayed warm in the car.

We also went to fill up the car, but my credit card wasn't working yet again, so I just used cash to mostly fill it up. Later in the evening I would call the customer support number to learn that they had deactivated the old cards when they mailed the new ones. Oh well, at least I know now. We have multiple cards we can use, but only one other is also chip-and-PIN.

Rhenald came by the Institute for a couple of hours so that I could help him fill out forms for his new job as gardener at the temple, which starts on Monday. It is such a big upgrade for his life, and we are excited for him and were happy to make the trip to help. We printed out about fifty pages about pension, tax forms, direct deposit, etc -- the typical kinds of things you have to sign. However, the terminology and laws here are all different, so we weren't able to get it all filled out, and Ugo didn't know the details either. I am sure that the HR person will help him complete them on Monday, but he has printout with most of the fields filled in using PhantomPDF editor, not hand written. Dee kindly made us some sandwiches to eat while we worked.

The Balzottis came down to meet us for an early evening out. There is a theater at Piazza Barberini, less than 15 minutes away by foot, where they show movies in English sometimes. Mary Poppins Returns was playing with Italian subtitles at 3:30pm. Just as we were leaving the Institute, the intercom rang. It was a girl named Grace from the Philippines, here on her own as a tourist. She is a member of the church and has submitted her mission papers. She was looking for directions to a chapel to attend on Sunday morning, so we had time to print out directions to the Roma 5 ward chapel for tomorrow. She was definitely not dressed warm enough for the cold outside, but that may be due to coming from such a warm climate. Anyway, it was fun to chat with her for a while.

It felt very strange to all of us to be in a movie theater -- the first time since coming on our missions. The show was great, very true to the spirit of the original, with good music and a fun story. We particularly enjoyed the cameo appearance by Dick van Dyke. Afterwards we walked over to Termini station at Dee's suggestion, going upstairs to the new food court above the tracks, called Terrazza Termini. There are over a dozen places to eat, with very bright and modern decor. The whole area is enclosed enough that they can heat it, which was very welcome in this season. We enjoyed some dinner, followed by a little pastry, then walked back to the Institute and drove home, arriving around 7:30pm. 

Fun chocolates at the pastry shop

All in all it was a lovely day, but Dee was bushed and went to bed really early. She still had stuff to prepare for Sunday, but decided it was better to get a good sleep and wake up early. She left me a small game for Primary to translate into Italian for her, which I did in not much time, learning some nice phrases along the way; e.g., "give high five" is "dare il cinque." Who knew? I called my mom and sister and got a few things done before getting to bed about my usual time.

Arrivederci Chiara

Friday morning we left for the airport at 6am to drop of Chiara, who had a 9:15am nonstop Alitalia flight to LAX. She set her alarm for 4am, but I woke up a while before that, unfortunately for me but fortunately for her since she wasn't up at 4:15am. She thanked me for getting her up, though she said she was just waiting for her snooze alarm to go off. I would end up rather sleep deprived, as would we all. Chiara would hopefully be able to sleep on her flight, while I and then Dee each took two hour naps after returning from the airport around 8am. We were able to stuff a few last things into the two big suitcases she was bringing home, lightening our load for March. Dee printed and emailed her a copy of the customs list.



There was almost no traffic on the freeway either direction at that hour, on this holiday week. Having taken that flight a few times ourselves, I instinctively drove past Terminal 1 to Terminal 3, from where it had departed in the past, but it now leaves from the former. Had I read her boarding pass carefully, I would have known. Amazingly, I found a parking spot right next to the entrance when somebody else pulled out. Dee walked in with Chiara and waited until she got checked in. Because I had gone to the wrong terminal, it took them a while to figure out where to go, and they had to walk a few hundred yards, but it all went well. She got through security without problems, and her flight would leave only a little late. 

As we pulled out of the airport, I said to Dee, "let's finish this mission!" We want to keep working with these great kids right up until the end, making the most of our time. Both of us felt somewhat emotional with Chiara leaving, so it will be good to get back to work.

After our naps, Dee went out to do some local shopping: pharmacy, Chinese store, and Conad for groceries. She said it felt good to walk around in the chilly air. I never left the house again except to empty the trash. I am feeling a whole lot better, but still sleepy. 

Mariela Rondinelli found a tailor who could hem the long-sleeve shirts from Lands End to short sleeves, for their son Daniele's mission in Arizona. So she placed an order for five of them, which I had shipped to our neighbors Claire and Jim; they are coming over at the end of the month for the temple open house, so we will get the shirts in plenty of time. The Rondinellis are very grateful, but they are paying for the shirts, so it isn't a big deal. She was so excited to see that wrinkle-free actually works here with their dryer. Not life changing, but nice, as I personally know from ironing my shirts for every day here.

We heard from Chiara after she landed at LAX, waiting for her prearranged shuttle. They kept telling her it was coming, and then after 90 minutes they said they didn't have anyone to take her and were refunding her money. So she took a Lyft at rush hour. It too her far too long to get home, but she is there safe after a great trip.

Dee had a 9:30pm call with Silvia, the new Primary president in our ward. They were planning for coming weeks. I was really tired and ended up falling asleep before she finished.

Cold at the Vatican

Thursday morning I woke up feeling a lot better, finally! I actually did a partial morning workout for the first time in a couple of weeks, walking up six floors of stairs a couple of times. Just after 10:30am I dropped the girls off at the Jonio subway stop so they could head down for their afternoon guided tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, a fitting way to end Chiara's visit here. From there I went into the mission office for a general tech support visit. I helped the Willeys with a few small things, setting up her iPhone hotspot, opening an account at Amazon.it, and showing them how to use WhatsApp web, which is awesome. They are very sharp and catch on right away. Now that they have an Amazon account here, they can do purchasing for the office and other seniors, which has been our occasional job.

Then Anziano Millet and I went to the Wind/Infostrada store at the mall, where the traffic was surprisingly high. This is still holiday season in Italy, up through Epiphany on January 6. Fortunately, there was no line at all in the store, which is unusual. He got his fiber internet through them, and that all works great, smoother than with anybody else I have helped. As part of the offer, they also give a 100GB data-only SIM card, which is great and can be used if the wired internet ever goes out. He had understood that, once his internet was running, he could go back and get a 4G hotspot device for free. I was somewhat skeptical -- since he doesn't speak Italian and the clerks usually don't have the greatest English skills, I thought maybe he had misunderstood. However, I wanted to see, since that would also work for the Willeys. In fact, he was right: there was a free (with the two-year internet service contract) hotspot device. Very nice! That call it a "saponetta" (little bar of soap), which is a cute name and describes the size well.

Alcatel / Infostrada 4G hotspot device

We left the staff there some temple open house invitation cards, which they seemed pleased to get, since it is right next door, and we thanked the sales associate for his extremely helpful service. Then we drove back to the office, where I installed the SIM card and configured the device, explaining how to use it to Anziano Millet. I think he got it, which is quite impressive for someone in their mid-70s! Missions keep you young: this is their third one.

I was back home by mid-afternoon, feeling pretty good after being out and about. I did some bookkeeping and other things for home, and just enjoyed more time to rest and feel better. The girls were out most of the day, going to the Vatican area and shopping a bit before their 2pm tour. They both said that the guide was excellent, which has been our experience with the official museum group tours there. Unfortunately, I messed up and bought the wrong ticket, excluding the last part of the guided tour: St Peter's Basilica, which is right past the Sistine Chapel. However, the girls were able to go in on their own and see it; not as good as having a guide, but still it is a very impressive place. It was very cold (below freezing overnight) and they had been outside much of the time, so they were ready to come home. I picked them up at Jonio again, just after 6pm. My illness had me miss a bunch of time with Chiara, but Dee has done great, covering a lot of ground comfortably in her new Gore Tex boots. I had done most of the touring with past guests, so I guess it was her turn.

Dee made us a nice riso al telefono dinner (rice with cheese and ham), which she used to cook as a young missionary. She doubled the recipe, which was a mistake, as there were tons of leftovers. Fortunately the four Sorelle downstairs were very happy to take most of them off our hands when they got home just after 9pm.

Chiara started packing, and Dee printed up a list of contents of the extra suitcase we are sending home with her to show to US Customs. Friday will be an early morning, leaving here for the airport at 6am. It's hard to believe her Chiara's visit is already over so quickly, but we have done well by her in only eleven full days (including three national holidays) in Italy: Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Naples, Pompeii. Not bad! Her visit has been a nice change of pace, but we are excited to get back to work loving our YSA kids next week.

Napoli and Pompeii

Wednesday morning I woke up sick with digestive tract issues, very glad all day that I had not gone to Napoli. I rested a fair amount and finally started feeling somewhat better by evening, unable to eat much most of the day. I had planned to go out and do some grocery shopping during the day, but I didn't feel well enough -- one trip to take out the trash did me in for hours. The office contacted me to see whether they should wait to do repairs on our car body, given how we are always driving downtown. I agreed that it was a good idea to wait; I don't really want the pressure of a shiny car!

Meanwhile, the girls in Napoli went to the DePaola cameo factory, which has been around since before Dee was there in the 1970s. From there they took an (expensive) taxi to Pompeii, in time to have a nice guided tour with Cinzia, who has taken good care of us over the past year. It was cold down there, but Chiara amazed Cinzia by not wearing her jacket, while Cinzia was wearing double or triple layers of everything. When the girls got back to town, I drove down and picked them up at the subway stop. From there we drove directly to Lidl so that Dee could buy us some groceries and show Chiara more about Italian supermarkets. They bought several types of cookies, including amaretti (my favorite, very inexpensive here), as well as buckwheat bread, all of which Chiara loved. Her comment was, "I was born in the wrong country!"

Without much energy during the day, I watched the Dry Bar comedy channel for a while, particularly enjoying Dennis Gaxiola, which I shared with the girls in the evening. Laughing is good medicine. I also showed the girls how to find the Vatican Museum from the subway exit on Thursday afternoon. It isn't hard, but there are a couple of details to know that make it easier. Hopefully Thursday will be a better day for me -- it is no fun being sick, especially with a guest.

The girls off to Napoli on New Years

Tuesday morning we awoke after a surprisingly good sleep, fireworks notwithstanding. Not sure whether they were more tame in our piazza or we were more tired, or perhaps some of both. Here is a photo of the shelves of fireworks for New Years available down the street at our local Chinese store:

Anyway, despite feeling rested, I was still too wiped out to go go Napoli with the girls. This cold keeps hanging on. It was a bummer for me to miss the trip, but I could tell that I was not up to all the walking. I had given Dee all the travel details she would need, and she has been to Napoli enough recently that she knows her way around. So I unpacked my suitcase, dropped them off at the subway with their suitcases just after noon, and then tried to take a nap -- no luck sleeping, but the rest helped. I spent the remainder of the New Years Day inside, feeling better as the day went on.

The Willeys informed me that the fiber internet at their apartment finally came on, which is a big step, and she was able to unlock her iPhone finally by paying a third-party service to get an unlock code. AT&T and Apple had not been able to agree on whether she had paid off her four-year old iPhone, so they wouldn't unlock it! She finally got tired of spending time on the phone with them and took matters into her own hand after I showed her how.

In the afternoon I finished packing the extra big suitcase of our stuff for Chiara to take home and hold for us. It came in at 49 pounds, just under the limit. Now the question will be whether we will need to pay for yet another suitcase when we go home in March. Stay tuned.

I emailed with Brother Scherber, who is here coordinating the open house volunteers from among the senior missionaries and anyone coming from abroad. He was one of the first group of missionaries to come to Italy, in 1966, and he and his wife served as a senior couple in Battipaglia in 2013-4. We actually met them briefly at the FairMormon conference here in Rome in June 2013. They know and love Ugo. We invited them to come see the Institute sometime. He suggested how we should sign up to volunteer, given our somewhat constrained schedule.

I also decided to add an extra day at the beginning of our AirBNB stay in March just before the Motts get here to replace us. That will allow us to move our stuff out over two days, instead of just one, as well as do a better job cleaning this place for them. Fortunately, that day was still available, and it just took a few minutes to set up.

The girls got to their hotel in Napoli without incident, having first stopped at a Murano glass jewelry store in downtown Rome and finding some nice stuff. There was a Napoletano pizza place right around the corner from the hotel, and they enjoyed their dinner very much. Dee and I messaged and talked a few times during the evening, discussing different details of their Wednesday schedule. Getting to and from the tour in Pompeii will be a bit tight given the return train departure time, but fortunately there are various transit options available at different prices, depending on how things go for them. In the morning they hope to find some nice cameo necklaces downtown before heading out to Pompeii.

By the end of the relaxed day and evening, I was feeling better than I had in days, but still glad to be at home. This is the first night that Dee and I have been apart since well before leaving on our mission, so it feels strange to be alone, but fortunately it is only for one day.

Loud fireworks for New Years Eve

Monday morning I woke up late, feeling pretty cruddy. I quickly decided that I was not going anywhere for the day. Dee and Chiara headed downtown about noon, and I then tried to nap, unsuccessfully. For the afternoon, I took it easy physically at my desk, working ahead on my lessons and also finishing the last two months of the history of the Institute for 2018, sending it off to Sorella Balzotti to add to the mission history. She said that I won the prize for the first on to submit their history. My part is about 40 pages, with lots of photos. Every couple of months, I use this blog to review what happened that was unusual or memorable, writing it up briefly and copying photos into a Word doc.

Finally I left the apartment in the late afternoon for a walk to the Chinese store to buy some paper towels, which were running low here. It was a pleasant surprise that my energy was enough for that, though I did feel really chilly. Later I drove down to the Jonio metro stop to pick up the girls after their afternoon adventures. Chiara was actually feeling the cold! On the way back we stopped to fill up with gas, and my credit card didn't work, yet again. It seems to be on and off these days, so I will start carrying another card with me until the new on arrives. So I just put in a 10€ bill to get the tank mostly full, good enough for now. While at the Esso station, our doorman Paolo got out of the car at the other pump. He came over and gave bacetti (kisses on the cheek, the traditional greeting here among friends) to Dee in the back seat.

The girls had gone to see the "church of the bones", which is a weird and fun place to go see here in Rome. Read up on it here -- Chiara was appropriately grossed out and amused. Then they walked past the Quattro Fontane (Dee's favorite) and did some jewelry shopping, followed by a trip to the Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth), well known from the movie Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn. Unfortunately, the line was way too long, so they just saw it from a distance. Then they found a Brazilian sushi place nearby and had an interesting dinner -- fortunately I was not there, as raw fish is not my thing! Dee did make cook dinner for me when she got back, which was kind of her.

Chiara eating sushi

Fun decor at the restaurant

After we got home, I helped Wes and Alyssa install Acronis backup software on her laptop. I have a bunch of paid-up licenses to the software that I bought over the years whenever Frys had a huge rebate on the product. The product is highly recommended -- it has saved our bacon a number of times over the years. Wes installed TeamViewer on her laptop so that I could log onto it remotely and configure everything. Merry Christmas, Alyssa!

Fireworks started going off in the afternoon, with increasing frequency and intensity as the evening progressed. Some of them sound like artillery shells exploding nearby (in our piazza), shaking the ground. I am grateful for earplugs, but, if last year was any indication, we may not sleep until well after midnight. 2018 has been a wonderful year for us, completely spent here on a mission, with lots and lots of great memories.