This is Sunday afternoon. After we returned from church, ate lunch, and I had an hour nap with our air conditioner on (I did, Myrna came down and talked with the young missionaries). That is a big deal, because we have an air conditioner in our bedroom and living room, but have not been able to get them to work, until today. I guess I just wasn't pushing the right buttons, kind of like a fancy TV remote, which I have never been very good at. It brought the temperature right down and I used the bedspread because it was a little cold. The weather has warmed up quite a bit, although today it was raining. Church was good, we had the Relief Society program. Myrna even wore a black skirt and white top, as instructed, and sang with the RS choir. Yes, Myrna sang, there were about 30 of them. They sang "as sisters in Zion," in Italian, of course. For third hour on this 5th Sunday, the bishop gave the lesson for the combined adult priesthood and women. He started with the story of the 3 little pigs, which apparently Italians have heard. He told two versions, the first, Disney-like version and the second, he called it the "true" version where the first two little pigs get eaten by the wolf because they weren't obedient. Then he had a woman, who actually lives in Opera and draws really well on the white board, draw a tongue and some knives coming out of it, which he used with scriptures to tell about the bad, cutting things, we say about each other. He spoke the rest of the time about speaking nice and being nice to each other in our ward family. It was a great lesson.
On Tuesday we had new missionary training in Milano, at a church building.
The assistants to the president talking to the new missionaries, who were all sisters this time, with President and Sister Dibb looking on. I also presented about 45 minutes to them on how to use their mission funding (debit) cards, take care of their bikes and what to do it they lost their wallet or purse, etc. Fairly mundane things, but it all happens, and, as a scripture says, all things are spiritual unto the Lord..
Yesterday, Saturday P-Day, President and Sister Dibb invited us to ride in their car along with the two office missionaries, to a famous little touristy town two hours north of here called Bellagio, which is on Lake Como. We have been planing for weeks to go there with the office missionaries, but we were going to take the bus (a three hour ride) because driving is pretty difficult. The first hour is on freeway and is fine, but then you get to the lake and have to drive around it on a very small windy road only wide enough for one vehicle, but there is traffic going both ways and bikes and motorcycles, etc. I rode in the seat behind the President, who drove, and has been driving here for 3 years and isn't scared to drive anywhere.
I was sitting behind him and this is a pix with his ear in the upper right and the car in front of us and a bus coming toward us. We were so close to the other side, where Myrna sat, that she could have rolled down her window and touched the side of the mountain, and I could certainly have touched the side of the bus as we passed it, all the way following this Mercedes, of which there were many.
All of the streets, other than the main street, go up or down the mountain, which can get quite steep. Here is Myrna, from behind. I didn't notice, until I got home and saw the pix, that the Italian lady to the left of her was wearing about the same outfit she was wearing, although missionary dresses are longer than Italians wear. Most Italian women still wear dresses, at least the older ones. The young ones do not generally wear dresses.
The church was open after lunch time, which isn't all that common. (Most close from about noon to 3 pm. Duomos are generally open, but not parish churches, like this one.) Of course, we went inside for me to check out the organ.
Right across the street from the church was a little shop that sold scarfs and men's ties.among other things tourists would like. The silk is actually woven in Bellagio and is very famous (they even sell these ties in Nordstroms), and it wasn't all that expensive either. Only 12 euro for a tie, and 5 or 16 for a woman't scarf. I didn't buy a tie, but I am cheap, but I bought Myrna a necklace. Sister Dibb had bought a glass nativity set there some time ago and broke one of the wise men, so she wanted to replace it, which she was able to do. They also bought a hand painted oil painting of Bellagio, which President is going to have to hand carry home.
This street leads down to the lake. We had lunch at a little restaurant. Myrna and I split a salad and lasagna. The lasagna I made this week was better, I thought. The APs brought us down a piece of one they made today, for us to taste, which was really good.
In this pix you can see the bell tower of the church and some of the hotels and larger buildings in this fairly small town.
We walked out on the lake on one of many piers.
Anziano and Sorella Hoopes, Sorella and President Dibb. They are finishing their 3 year mission at the end of June, so this may be their last visit to this beautiful area of northern Italy.
No visit like this should be done without having gelato, ice cream, and, of course, we did. We even found a place to sit out in front of the shop. We generally buy it in cups, because cones drip on our clothes.
From the car window headed south, with lots of towns on both sides of the lake, with mountains in the background. The lake runs north to south, but there are two fingers, with Switzerland to the north, where the water starts from Alps.
It was a very nice day. We left at 10:30 am and were back home by 5 pm, which is the young missionary P-day (seniors don't have designated hours like they do). We came back to the office and checked our emails, etc., and then went with the APs to a baptism in Milano. Yesterday they were having the world soccer play off, two Spanish teams playing each other, in Milano, so the President had warned missionaries not to go out in Milano yesterday for safety reasons, but he gave us all, including the APs, permission to go to the baptism, which happened during the time of the soccer game, which didn't start until about 8:35 pm. They had perhaps the world's largest TV monitor set up in the piazza in front of the duomo, and it would have been fun to go, but that would be too dangerous.
No comments:
Post a Comment