Fudge and Lollipops

Wednesday morning I went down early to the Chinese store to pick up some wooden sticks for lollipops for our evening activity. We drove to district council, taking a full cheddar cheese block that the five Anziani asked for -- it is hard to find here. Anziano De La Rosa, from Mexico, did our training in a mixture of the three languages: English and Italian, with a little Spanish here and there. He is very sharp, and his foreign languages are coming along, but he couldn't seem to stick to just one, which made it fun. Afterwards, the Sorelle presented cupcakes that they had made for my wife's birthday, and we each enjoyed one.

It was probably our final meeting together, with four of them going home right after the Open House. Normally, that would be cause to do our photo of stacked chairs. However, we were in a bit of a hurry, and it wasn't clear that we even had enough chairs to cover all these "old"! missionaries! So we just did a photo with everyone holding their number of transfers in the mission:

 

From there, we drove two of the Sorelle home to inspect their apartment. The other two drove home on their own in their new car. We found a number of issues, including a dead smoke detector and a freezer that is not working -- it just always fills with ice and can't even be closed. I replaced a light bulb too. But the big deal is that they have had no hot water or heat for the last week. They don't complain, but yikes! The repairman is supposed to come on Thursday, so we hope that will fix it.

Then we drove to Metro on the way to the Institute. First I had to get the new card with my photo on it, which lets us get in. Anziano Thacker had gone i person to add me to the approved list. Getting the card went easily enough, though maybe Dee won't be allowed to go in on her own anymore; however, they don't seem to check the photo ID, so maybe it will be ok. We stocked up on ground beef, cheddar, white chocolate, jalapenos, and sour cream. After all that extracurricular activity, we arrived late -- around 2pm -- at the Institute, but fortunately Ugo was already there to open the place.

At 2:30pm we had a student council meeting, with Ugo, the Ganziani, Joyce, Sheyla, Noemi, and us. We did our planning for March activities. It is strange to think of us not being there for all of them.

Chris Erhue came by. I let him use my phone to make some calls, since his SIM card has no money left on it and I have unlimited minutes. He also wanted to make photocopies of his permesso doc; fortunately he had a scan of it even though it has been stolen. We printed both sides on card stock, then glued them back to back, and he had the card laminated at the copy shop downstairs. It almost looks legit, if you don't examine it too closely, and he took extra paper copies to use. Despite the immigration expert warning him that the government can take his kids away next month, he doesn't seem to think they really will do so. I don't know what to say, since I don't really understand the laws here, but there are some new nasty regulations which he probably shouldn't dismiss so easily.

Turns out that Noemi loves strawberry Pop Tarts. Dee had asked if there was anything she could bring from the US. Joyce later went out to do an errand, so I gave her some cash to get some Pop Tarts and a Dr. Pepper (for me) at the America Land market nearby. Noemi is excited to get them Friday! Dee may bring even more back if she has time during her quick trip home.

Dmitri from Germany, who has visited many times before, was here with his friend Manuel to see the Open House. They spent the evening with us. Our activity was having Dee show everyone how to make Oreo fudge and lollipops. Everyone loved it, both the making and tasting! Dee was all grins, very happy with the result. 
I learned both of these recipes from YouTube and Google, and made them one time for practice. That just shows how easy they are. Everyone should try it! The fudge that they had made themselves needed to harden in the frig for an hour. When I brought it to them, they cheered like they had seen a touchdown! I loved their reaction.

Crushing Oreos for the fudge

Mixing fudge ingredients

Putting wooden sticks into the hot lollipops

 

Enjoying the results!

Playing cards and eating fudge

Linda decorated and wrapped some lollipops

Linda De Martino came by, and we drove her home on our way to our place. We are allowed to drive non-members, but not members in our (mission) car. By the time we got home it was late, almost 10:30pm. Dee had already had a lot of calls and messages with California, and she would stay up even later doing more of that. She has told her parents that she is coming, and everyone is very relieved to know that she can help for a while.

Delli laptop

Tuesday morning we each awoke after almost eight hours sleep, which was much needed. The morning was spent at home. It was sunny and not very cold outside, which is a nice change. President Pickerd emailed to say that he had received permission for Dee to travel alone to LA, which is good because the price for a ticket for me doubled overnight, with less than a week to go. So she is set to go and now has a bunch of work to do to get ready, in addition to an already busy week. 

For her trip, Dee is switching to my "backup" computer, which is a nice Dell Latitude laptop (model 7370) that I got for real cheap here. She will take it to California and leave it there, offloading our final trip home both in terms of weight and customs fees. So she started using it to make sure it has all she needs, though she can always TeamViewer into her own Dell which she will leave here. We came up with a nickname for this new computer: Delli -- Dell because of the brand and "i" because it is from Italy -- pronounced like "deli". Our family likes to give names to things.

We left a little early to drop by Todis to pick up some butter. The group for Taco Tuesday ended up fairly large,  though it took the kids a while to filter in. We had several new kids, which is always fun. The Ganziani weren't there because it was their P-day, after the Zone Conference ending Monday, but the Roma 3 trio of Anziani came with Nicki, an investigator from Pakistan. Anziano Sanchez was quite interested in getting some cheddar cheese, which is largely unknown here. We will bring him some if he wants to pay for it. Andrea (not the guy who got baptized last month) also showed up for the first time in a while. He and Dee have really hit it off; they spent a bunch of time talking together about Pebble watches, family history, and other stuff.

Chris Campos also came by for some tacos. He had been really sick with the nasty flu last week and missed our group visit to the temple. Now he is mostly better and would like to go. He didn't realize that the temple would not be accessible to non-members after the dedication. We offered to take him Thursday afternoon, and he was happy to have someone to go with him. It turns out that I will also take Arsene and our landlord, Marco, making three separate visits in one day. We really like each of these guys, so it will be a busy day but a real pleasure. Thus we do not plan to come to the campus at all that day, which is ok with Ugo during this Open House period.

The other Chris, the Nigerian convert, came by. He looked a lot better, having decided to be happy after the recent disasters. Dee fed him some warm chicken (she cooked a third crock pot during the afternoon) and some leftover casserole from last Friday, which he really loved -- ranch dressing is magic here! I talked with him for a while and helped him out a bit. Sister Canfield called me later to say that she needed to talk with Chris. She didn't have his flip-phone number, which has no minutes left but can receive incoming calls for free. Apparently they spoke with an immigration expert who says that Chris and his family need to leave Italy asap. Otherwise the government will take his children away because he hasn't found work, and it will be almost impossible to get them away. Wow. The story just keeps getting worse. The immigration issue is complicated and difficult, but this just seems unfair. Stay tuned to see what happens.

Dee called the guitar repair store, who said to call back in a few more days. It is starting to sound like maybe they really can't repair it after all this time, but we'll see. She also went out for a walk to look for lollipop sticks for her cooking event Wednesday, but no luck. 

Ugo came by for his class in the evening. Dee was cooking all evening, up until after 9pm when she finished her trial batch of suckers, which turned out very nice. She had already made two kinds of fudge: dark chocolate with nuts, and white chocolate with Oreos; both were immensely popular.

Jomar, Manuel, Chiara and Chris Campos were totally blown away that it's possible to make lollipops at home in ten minutes. Ugo and Jomar loved the fudge, especially Oreo flavor for Jomar. Andrea thought fudge is a kind of yogurt.

I may get a ride to airport with departing missionaries after zone conference and Temple tour.

Great convo with Andrea about fast Sunday, testimonies, genealogy, and etymology of words. I learned from him that the word Clessidra (hourglass) is related to cleptomaniac. The site is etimo.it.

Pickpockets strike again (but not us)

Monday morning I got up early to drop off Anziani at temple by 7:15am. They had to get up even earlier to shower and dress, and they did so very quietly, which is amazing for their age. I just threw on my workout clothes and drove them. Dee was able to sleep until after 8am, which was nice because she had been up late again, as is common for her these days with all that is going on at home. We were both tired for the day.

Just after 9am I left for a shift at the temple guard house from 10am to noon. Anziano Balzotti is in charge of staffing that right now, and I was happy to help out. It was pretty easy, mostly opening and closing the gates, as well as directing visitors where to park down the street for tours. 

 

 

Driving back, I picked up Dee at the apartment, waiting while she walked to the Chinese store, then we went grocery shopping at Lidl on the way into town, arriving only a little late. Dee cancelled and re-booked her flight reservations to LA to give her another 24 hours to decide. She needs to talk with the staff at the convalescent home first to see what the plan is, before committing. President Pickerd told us that he needed to get permission from up the chain of authority another level or two because we were not going together. I told him that I prefer not to go but would do so if necessary.

In the afternoon, Chris came by, looking incredibly distressed. That morning he had been pick-pocketed on a busy subway: they got his wallet with cash, credit card, and immigration docs, as well as his smart phone. He cried and just looked miserable for the evening. It is one thing to steal from relatively well-to-do tourists, but to steal from a poor immigrant is just awful. He doesn't know what to do. We gave him some food and invited him to stay for FHE. He took a two-hour nap, then read some from the Bible to try to calm down, and he seemed to enjoy the lesson and the company, but he still looked miserable.

Dee spent time in the kitchen, cooking chicken in the crock pots for upcoming meals. She will it after it is boned and cut into bite-sized pieces. She also worked on some fudge as a trial for Wednesday night's activity -- making American sweets -- which lots of the kids are very excited about.

Some of the kids came early to play games while waiting for home evening. Dee's question of the week was, which would you prefer to give up for the rest of your life: social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc) or movies/TV (including YouTube)? Several of the kids were very torn, but most voted to give up social media. It was very fun to see everyone's reaction. My lesson was on the story of Christ with the Samaritan woman at the well in John, chapter 4. The point was that he taught and bore testimony of his divine mission to a woman, and not just a woman, but a Samaritan (hated by the Jews). And not just a Samaritan woman, but an outcast among her own people. You could not pick a less likely candidate for him to open his ministry, and so he taught us indirectly how important it is to love and reach out to others. 

For dessert Dee served her fudge, in very small pieces because it is so sweet and rich, which is not the Italian way.  The kids liked it a lot! They also enjoyed the panettone that Manuel had given us for Christmas. Then they hung around to visit and to play some games. I also let them see the Oreo fudge, but didn't serve it. It's gorgeous.

Ugo dropped by after the lesson and dessert. He is in town working as a part-time guide for a tour group from the US, which he does occasionally to make some extra money; with five kids, that is a good thing. We told him about Dee's pending trip to LA, and he was very supportive, telling her to do what she needed for her Dad and that we would make it work here.

Apparently one of the marble statues of the twelve apostles at the temple Visitors Center had its staff broken off by an American kid. We told Ugo how surprised we were at many statues here that were close enough to touch, while in the US they are always cordoned off. He said that Italians don't take young kids to see artwork; they apparently think it is a waste.

Overflowing chapel

Sunday at church, the chapel was completely overflowing with visitors! They had to set up about thirty chairs in the foyer to accommodate everyone. The visitors were here for the temple Open House, including a number of missionaries who served in Italy in years past. There was a sister who served during the same time as Dee, though they never knew each other, as well as her daughter who served in Rome 3 six years ago. 

Our fast and testimony meeting had some wonderful testimonies, including one from an African brother from London. He started speaking in English, and after a minute I went up to translate for him, since we were sitting on the front row, which was about the only place left near the front when we got there. He was crying and very touched by the spirit of the meeting. His English was fortunately very clear, but we do miss Stefano (who just moved away) and his flawless translation skills. Since I was up there, when he finished I gave a brief testimony, saying how much we loved serving there, that we are counting down the days not because we want to go home but because we don't want our mission to end. I decided to skip it since I get pretty teary when I think of leaving. The Magnantis said they're crying, too, and want to have us over for lunch.

I did the lesson and music in Primary. An American couple (Pitts from Bakersfield) wanted to visit and videoed the kids singing I am a child of God in Italian. I had taken this last opportunity to teach a song in Spanish. All the kids speak it except the Peregos. I found a gorgeous video for He Sent His Son in Spanish on Youtube. I added captions and Doug brought in the screen from the clerk's office. They loved the pictures, though I lost the Perego boys a little.

The best part was talking about being a creator. I showed works by Elders Scott and Gong and talked about creating. Then I showed parts of the stained glass from the Rome visitor center and told the amazing stories. You can read a very nice article about it here. Then we had the Bishop come in and play his guitar, and the kids drew to be creative. Then Silvia and Marcella and I cleaned out the cabinets, even finding a Santa suit.

Ugo's parents, Raffa and Alberto, were there. They came down to see the Open House. It was good to hug them and visit with them. We had originally hoped to take a week at the end of our mission and visit them and other friends up north, but that is out of the question now with my in-laws' challenges, so it was great that they could come down. They also have some health challenges coming up, and Ugo and I gave them each a Priesthood blessing after the meetings, before they left to take the train home.

Jenna's parents with Alberto and Raffa

Extended Perego family

Ugo gave a nice Sunday School lesson. It is odd to be teaching only once per month with the new schedule, which means that I have only two lessons left before we go home. There was a lot of good visiting going on after the meetings, and the GANS brought sandwiches, soda, chips, and cookies for a lunch together in the Primary room, since the kitchen is blocked off during the remodel. 

Once home, we had the whole afternoon and evening there. The Rome 3 Sorelle called to say that they had no hot water  or heat; that means that their heater is out, but nobody can come until at least Monday. They don't complain but wow. Dee would spend a bunch of time talking with family back in LA, trying to figure out how to manage the coming weeks, especially with Donna going home on Tuesday. Her Dad just wants to go home and can never remember why or how he got to the hospital or convalescent facility, so she has to remind him each time. He used to weigh about 155 pounds but was down to 112, though he fortunately has put on a few pounds in the last couple of weeks. Anyway, he is still very weak, so she tells him he needs to gain weight and get strong enough to come home. She made tentative reservations (we can cancel within 24 hours) to fly to LA for a week or so later this month to help transition him back to home and arrange for more care at home.  President Pickerd has asked for permission and expects approval soon. With so little time left, she would prefer to spend it all here, but the trip may be necessary and it feels like the right thing to do. 

About 9:45pm I picked up four Anziani (from Caserta and Pozzuoli) at the temple site after their Zone Conference. Anziano Mayer, our former district leader, was in our group, and it was good to see him. Dee put out the leftover casserole, as well as a salad and some cookies (including Hello Dollies). They each had a bunch of the huge casserole and almost finished it off. They looovvved it. A couple of them did some stretching, and two of them took showers because the morning will be early after a late night and we don't have enough hot water for four showers. They are all wonderful young men, very polite and always complimenting the food and offering to help. It is not as fun to have only one night with them, unlike last weekend.

Anziani Lamoreaux, Trickett, Atanasio, Mayer

It was pretty late by the time we all got to bed.

Dinner with Pam

In the morning, the Willeys called to cancel for dinner with Rick and Pam that evening. They had planned to work at the Open House during the day but then were told that they were needed for the evening. Bummer. 

I had an appointment with my chiropractor, Dr. Williams, for some minor neck pain that I have been having. She was able to loosen me up a bit, but I have a followup appointment next week. She said that she was going to the Open House that afternoon with her Italian husband and his family, as well as his priest. At the end, she said that there was no payment due -- this one was on her!

Things in South Pasadena are not going well in many ways, despite the best efforts of Donna, Lynn, and Jim. Donna goes home in a few days, and Dee may need to make a brief trip to Los Angeles to help get her dad settled at home when he leaves the convalescent home. He is confused and forgetful and just wants to leave, even though he is still too weak. She asked for permission from President Pickerd, who has to ask the Area Presidency, but it should not be a problem. We'll see what happens.

I did what I could to offload Dee, who is understandably feeling  overwhelmed with things at home and here. I went to the pharmacy to refill a couple of prescriptions for her, and then to Conad for a big load of produce and food for the four Anziani who will be staying with us Sunday night. 

Erika, one of our GANS, messaged to ask about buying a computer. She showed me several models on sale at Mediaworld, which is like BestBuy. I called her and discussed how she wanted to use it, and then picked one of them that should work for her. 

I remembered too late to make reservations for dinner. When I finally called one of them (they all close for the afternoon), our favorite Target was completely booked. I then learned that Matriciana is closed on Saturdays! Most places here close one day a week, but Saturday seems like it would be a big day for eating out. Eventually, I got a reservation at Del Giglio right next to the Institute.

For dinner, Dee decided that she had too much going on, so I drove down to the Institute to meet with Pam and Rick. They had spent the day out and about in the rain, with their son Jason, daughter-in-law Noel, and seven-week old grandson. They arrived from the Vatican area about 7pm, and we went right to the restaurant. The waiter there is the same one who served us in June when Marilyn and Lu were here. He is a lot of fun! The food was wonderful, and it was good to visit. Pam and I go back over 50 years to Richmond days. We were in the same ward and graduated from high school the same year. When it came time for dessert (after delicious appetizers and pasta), it turned out that every dessert except one had liquor in it! Pam wanted to try the limoncello cake anyway, reasoning that the alcohol must be cooked out, despite our protests. Finally our waiter confirmed to her that it was not cooked out, so we had gelato. Tough life!

Rick and Pam with gelato

 

 

After dinner I gave them a brief tour of the Institute, with a handful of kids there eating KFC and playing games. They really enjoyed seeing the place and the kids.

I stayed home to prep for the elders who were going to stay with us for zone conference week two, to work on my Primary stuff and to talk with everyone about my Dad's needs. The amount of dust never ceases to amaze me. I was grateful for the time. I had plenty to fast about this time. Doug had a great time with the Klomps, but I know I did the right thing.

It was my birthday, so I got wishes from a few friends: Helen, Holly, Susie, Nasrin, Jim. Wendy sent me a handmade card that is so professional. Wow! Chiara phoned me and we had a nice talk. She had a flood recently from a blocked landscape drain.

Two more Ganziani ties

Friday morning we got to spend mostly at home. Dee walked to the Chinese store to buy a whiteboard for the Ganziani, which gave her a nice excuse to take a walk. I spent time on some paperwork for my in-laws and did some lesson prep. We had a bunch of stuff to carry to the car when we left, and we forgot that we had parked on the other side, so we ended up walking out to the wrong street before remembering.

In the afternoon at the Institute, Matteo and then his brother showed up early. I worked some more on my lessons. My Seminary class ended up being nine kids, even though there were several home sick. It was a bit more rowdy than usual, but we still had a good time. Before playing bingo, we discussed the translation of the Book of Mormon, including the Urim and Thummin and the seerstone and how that has not been well represented in church artwork. I pointed out different ways that the Lord has given revelation, such as a burning bush to Moses and a still, small voice to Elijah (not the fire, earthquake, or wind). Matteo came up with some good questions on other topics that I will address next week. Dee had made a bunch of Hello Dollies (Magic Bars), which are too sweet and rich for most Italians, but they seemed to like them. I used most of my stash of coconut and sweetened condensed milk.

 

As it got close to Institute class time, three different pairs of missionaries showed up to teach lessons to three young investigators. That is wonderful, except that we only have three rooms, so they ended up kicking our GANS kids out of all the rooms. We need to find a better way to coordinate. It is great to have missionary work going on at the campus, but not to the extent that we can't do our classes. I was able to get into my classroom just barely in time to set up. Another pair of Sorelle showed up to teach Flavia during my lesson. The place was very full, but our class wasn't all that large this time, once we subtracted out the ten missionaries!

Our lesson was on D&C 89-93, splitting most of the time between the Word of Wisdom and the incredible doctrines in section 93. There were a number of good comments, and people were paying attention pretty well. I always have supplementary quotes, usually from www.gospeldoctrine.com, which I put in dual-column format (English on the left and Italian on the right). Most of the kids here don't have access to that type of material, so it is always fresh for them. 

At the end of the lesson, I called up the two new Ganziani and presented them with their ties, which they were delighted to receive. The kids know the tradition now and started smiling and laughing when I called them up, enough so that Dee was able to detect the "ceremony" and look in to share the moment. We now have only one tie left from our original batch of twenty, and this design is no longer available, so we estimated pretty well.

Dee made her pasta casserole, with chicken, cheddar, ham and bacon, which everyone loved. There was plenty, and several had thirds, including Anziano Faletti who couldn't stop raving about how wonderful it was. She made two big salads, as well as putting out the Hello Dollies. Everyone had plenty to eat! We even had a lot of leftover casserole to bring home for our four guest Anziani here Sunday night for Zone Conference. That will save Dee a bunch of time, which is nice, though it was a challenge to fit everything into the elevators at each end of the trip home. I was glad I had chicken and ham and grated cheese made ahead of time.

Joyce helping serve casserole

 

 

 

By the time we got home, there was plenty of news about my in-laws from South Pasadena. Every day now brings something. Dee was up very late working on convalescent home issues and logistics for family members helping out.

Where did January go?

Thursday was a blessedly light day at the Institute, giving us a chance to catch up and work ahead. In the morning Dee went to the open market and got a few necklaces from Abdulla. He says that he would like to take English classes and eventually move to the US, after returning to Senegal, so she told him about the free English course at church nearby on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. He already goes to an Italian class on Monday and Tuesday nights. He said, "Why stay home and watch TV when I can go learn something?" What a guy. When I took the trash out, our doorman Paolo said that he and his family had gone to the Open House the day before, since Fratello Calabrese told them that Saturday would be crowded. They loved it and hope to go back again!

Chris came by after his work, which isn't going well. He had a new job application to submit on our computer here. Dee fed him some Sloppy Joes and sent him away with some extra food as well. We were able to help him in a few ways, but it is hard to see how difficult his life is.

I got something caught in my throat, which bothered me most of the afternoon. It felt like something was irritating the back of my mouth, causing me to cough and making my nose run and my eyes water. Very frustrating. By evening it was finally somewhat better. Sorelle Muce and Ashton dropped by to study for a while before heading up to the mission office to pick up their car. Sorella Muce has a license but is from a small town and is understandably intimidated to drive here in the big city (as am I). Dee went out for a walk, meeting Chris at the train station, then stopping by the nearby ATM to replenish our cash. We buy most things here with credit cards, but the cash does run out slowly. Soon we'll have to decide how many euros to bring home with us. In the past we have always kept a good stash at home because we plan to come back here regularly; hopefully that will continue in the future.

Our internet went out for a couple of hours. It happens occasionally when it rains, but this was longer than usual. We have an LTE wireless connection, not DSL or fiber, so weather can mess it up. They don't have cable (or cable modem) here at all. Finally I called the tech support line and they had me do a factory reset on the modem, which fixed the problem -- not sure why, but it worked. So then I had to reconfigure the WiFi and network settings; we use the LDSAccess name like all the chapels around the world. I am encouraging Ugo to sign up for fiber at the campus, which costs more but should give better reliability. The internet loss was stressful for Chris, who was trying so hard to submit this job application. He couldn't get the site to work from the Friendship Center, so he came to us. At last he got through.

I finally had time to work on lesson prep for Friday, which was later than usual in the week for me. There are a bunch of bills and other things coming in the mail at my in-laws' home which need attention. Fortunately Donna is scanning them and sending them to us, but she goes home next week. I spoke with the property manager, and there are items needing attention at the family rentals. We are slowly taking over all the paperwork and bills for my in-laws, though it will be much easier once we are back home.

In the early evening, the little restaurant downstairs called Quel Che C'è, which Dee has written about, brought up 55 sack lunches that Ugo had ordered for the S&I training going on here. Early Friday morning they finish and head out for a visit to the temple Open House, and they will take these lunches with them. Unfortunately, despite Dee's efforts in clearing out about 1.5 fridges worth of space, it didn't all fit, so she had to take all 55 sandwiches out of the bags and put them alone into the fridge, leaving the water bottles, fruit, and cookies out on the counters. That was a job! Friday morning Ugo will come with some colleagues and reassemble everything.

In the evening there was the English class, with only Jomar and Junior, as well as the Benincosas self-reliance class with only Riccardo. Thursdays are always light, but this was lighter than usual.

On my walk, I saw the Terme di Diocleziano for the first time. It's always a shock to see such ruins right in the middle of traffic. It's so nice to take a walk. The weather was crisp but not painfully cold, and the days are a little longer. I love feasting my eyes on Rome--such a nice break from the homogeneity of Carlsbad.