Zone Conference, 30 July 2016

Sunday, 31 July 2016

Yesterday, Saturday, was Zone Conference in Lampugnano, which is one of the stake centers (there are two) in Milano.  It started at 10 am and went until 4 pm. It did not seem that long and it was, without any question, wonderful in every sense of the word.  We have them on a quarterly basis, and this was our second, the first with President and Sister Allen. Myrna and I drove ourselves up there, which took about a half hour.  The GPS lady always takes us on interesting routes, and we have to "repent" (turn around when we don't go the right way because she confuses us or does not catch up with us), but we always get there. It was held in the back of the chapel, which is air conditioned--thank goodness.  I did not take many pictures, except at the end, and did them with my phone. There were 30 missionaries there.  I had sent the zone leaders, who live in Como, extra money (on their cards) to buy lunch, Myrna and I were not asked to make it this time, just participate.  The zone leaders called us the night before (10:30 pm, after we were in bed--they're kids who stay up late) to ask us what kind of pizza we wanted, we each got our own. Most of the pizza places, which generally bake pizzas in wood fired ovens, make more-or-less one size of pizza and they cost between 4-9 euros, depending on the ingredients.  We had diavolo (devil), which is relatively spicy salami, or pepperoni, as it would be called in the US. Anyway, the meeting began with Sister Allen showing us a picture she took from the side of a road of field corn in Italy.  It has basically had ears since early in July, so it is different from US corn, which is supposed to "knee high by the fourth of July:"  It is already as "high as an elephant's eye" to quote a musical, she mentioned. She said that, like Italian corn, Italy is now ripe for harvesting the seeds that have been planted for the past 50 years in Italy.  She introduced our new mission scripture, D&C 4, especially "field is white already to harvest," and said our goal is to have 300 baptisms before the Rome temple is dedicated, which has still not been announced.  Below is a pix I took of corn, which is right by the side of a city park where Myrna and I walk every morning (on the other side of the park rice is growing). Actually, this pix was taken a few weeks ago, the ears are bigger now, as I look at them every morning.  How I would love to have some to take home and boil and eat with wonderful Italian burro (butter), but I can't figure out who owns it and would not want to be caught stealing corn.
 
(Nevertheless, I try to convince myself that Jesus' disciples picked corn on the Sabbath and certainly would not have had permission, because it was "illegal" to pick corn on the Sabbath--but this hasn't worked for me, yet.)

Taken as we first got to the zone conference, with the missionaries coming in from several cities, including Lugano, Switzerland, by train, metro and bus.

The elders congregating in the back of the chapel, where we had the meeting.  The older guy in the middle is Anziano Salatino, a senior missionary, like we are.  He and his wife work with young single adults (GANS in Italian) and do Pathway, the BYU-Idaho on-line program we were originally called to supervise. We do a lot of things with them, and were the only two senior couples to attend this conference.  There are other zone conferences throughout the mission, and they all have a senior couple or two in attendance.

The assistants to the president, Anziano Pesci and Barragan, and President Allen  (right to left), in their places waiting for the zone leaders to arrive. I didn't take any pix during the morning, as it didn't seem appropriate.

Lunch, pizzas, with different kinds of sodas and fresh fruit (nectarines and bananas, not sure why they chose these).  The sisters eat together, and so do the elders. We sat with the sisters.

Anziano Pesci, who is going home in two weeks, showing Myrna something on his i-pad.  All of the missionaries in our mission are given i-pads, which are great missionary tools, and they also take pictures, movies, etc. with them,

After lunch Sister Allen lead the missionaries in an exercise, where, blindfolded, they help each other find a plastic cup on the floor and put it in a bucket.  This teaches trust and working together,  She had many good examples and lessons from this game, more than I had ever heard before, although I had played the game in team building exercises before.


It was a great learning exercise for the missionaries, who had not done it before.

It was fun to watch them and take pictures, some of which may end up on the official mission blog.

Again, more instruction from Sister Allen, who was very well prepared and does a great job with the missionaries, and this is just her first time doing it for this mission.

Then, another exercise, only done by elders (sister's skirts would have been in the way).  They formed a tight circle and marched around and on instruction, sat down on the knee of the person behind them.

They weren't always successful, which made for a great teaching moment.

The sister missionaries enjoyed watching.

Then, there were role play exercises, where they practiced challenging an investigator to be baptized. This group was actually practicing for a lesson they had scheduled later that evening, when they got back to their area.

The zone leaders and assistants to the president all had time to teach and bear testimony, but I was especially impressed by the instruction from the sister training leaders.  The one on the right, Sister Jones, is going home in two weeks and her training was very effective, because she had an abundance of the Spirit.  After this we had testimonies from the missionaries who are going home in two weeks, including Sister Jones. We had attended the testimony meeting of those missionaries who went home two weeks ago.  These are especially wonderful, they seem to be better than those they give when they get home, because they are testifying to their peers and friends.  It was worth being to all six hours of the zone conference just to hear these testimonies and feel the Spirit that was there in abundance.

After the the testimonies and final words from the leaders, we all stood in a circle, hands on shoulders, and sang our mission hymn, without accompaniment, so everyone could participate, and had a kneeling prayer, in Italian, offered by one of the sister missionaries.

There were some ward members using other parts of the building, actually kids coming back from EFY, and one came in and took a pix of everyone who attended this zone conference.

After clean up, we went home and then drove back to our ward building for a baptism of a 14 year old boy, Roger, who had been taught by the zone leaders, who attend the ward we are assigned to attend.  I did not take any pix during or after the baptism.  I played the piano for the service, which was also a wonderful, spiritual experience.

Our 5th Sunday meeting today, in which I also played the piano for all the meetings (our regular accompanist is on vacation in Scotland), was not very well attended, as many Italians go on vacation during August.  The boy who was baptized last evening was confirmed, and during the third hour our bishop,Villacorta, gave a wonderful lesson on self'-sufficiency to the adults, the best I have ever heard on this subject. (He and his wife and daughter are coming to dinner at our apartment this coming Wed evening--we are their home teachers.)  We hurried home after church and ate some bread with Gorgonzola (blue) cheese, and then went home teaching to a sister and her daughter, taking them microwave brownies Myrna quickly made. I am down here in the office typing this blog while I am watching the veggies (carrots, potatoes, zucchini, egg plant and red onions) roasting in the oven down here, while Myrna is upstairs in our apartment baking sesame seed chicken and her crescent rolls for President and Sister Allen, who are coming to dinner at our apartment in 30 minutes. The oven in our apartment is not big enough to bake chicken and roast veggies at the same time, and they cook at different temperatures. Myrna also made a nice looking chocolate pie, using Italian cookies crushed up instead of graham crackers, which we can't find here.  She practiced earlier this week, making a banana cream pie, with the cookie crust, which the young missionaries devoured. Every day is a new experience for us, and we love each one.

Ciao for now.

Wednesday 27 July 2016

Yesterday (Wed) was a fairly typical day in the mission office.

I paid utility bills, it was mostly electricity day.

Myrna is working to get fully functional (and meeting church standards) smoke and carbon monixide (CO) detectors in every missionary apartment. It has been a lot of work, because the missionaries aren't all very compliant with testing and reporting, which Myrna must report to the Church. Our desks are right next to each other, and we share a copy machine (which scans and faxes also) between us.
 
There is a binder cabinet behind us.  This is where information for all 120 of the mission apartments are kept, and things have to be filed.  Right now we have a young missionary who is helping me file things like paid utility bills, etc.

However, yesterday we had a few adventures we don't normally have during a week day.  This Saturday, our P-day, is a zone conference we are attending in Milano, so I didn't feel too guilty leaving the office at 5 pm, which is our posted closing time, although we usually stay at least until 6 pm.

On Tuesday evening we went home teaching to the Friolo family, who moved to San Giuliano Milanese, a suburb of Milano not too far from us. It was a good visit and lasted almost two hours.  It took us a half hour to get there, so it took about three hours for this family. They are moving to Los Angeles this fall, when their daughter gets her mission call.  He is an air conditioning man, and actually installed a new air conditioning unit in our apartment a couple of weeks ago.  He is Italian and his parents, who live close by, basically disowned him when he joined the Church. He is a counselor in the bishopric of our ward. His wife is from South America and her parents live with them, and are moving to southern Italy when they move to the US. The First Presidency message was about pioneers, which they certainly are. They have have a ten year old boy who likes spiders, so I took him some pix that Jeff sent of Jacob's butterfly collection and spiders, with which he was fascinated.  He asked his dad if he could have a collection like that in America.

On the way out to their apartment, we passed by another abbey, one we had not yet seen, so I decided we should go see it.  We left the office yesterday to see it before it closes at 6 pm (all the information about these places is on line).  When we got there we learned they have vespers starting at 6 pm.


They have a nice parking lot, which is uncommon, but this old church, first built in the 1100s, is out in rice farming country.  We saw a nun, in a white habit, going into the cloister where the nuns live, and we saw her later, at vespers (the nuns who live here wear black habits), so she must be a visiting nun.

This is the front of the church.  To get in you go through the small door in the middle of the big door, which is only opened for special occasions. You have to humble yourself to get in.

It was not very ornate, because the original monks were Humiliated, or poor.  There was not even a crucifix on the new (old altars were in back, where the priest did not face the congregation) altar, although one from about the 1400s was included on the fresco on the ceiling, so I guess this counts.

Myrna immediately spotted the flying cow in the fresco on the ceiling.  We later learned (from a missionary when we showed this pix at the office today) that it is an ox, symbolizing the apostle Luke, not a flying cow.  The flying lion is St. Mark.  Everything is a symbolic of something.

The Umiliati monks who founded the monastery were not rich enough for a pipe organ, but the nuns must be, and they have a new one installed in 2004.  I asked if I could play it, but the nun said she did not have the key and vespers were starting soon, so I said we would return sometime, which I hope to be able to do.

On the console there were interesting sliders for the mechanical stop action of the organ. I have not seen any horizontal ones like this, most are vertical, but the console is detached from the pipe chamber, so this makes sense.  From the acoustics of the old church, the organ must sound very beautiful.

This is the choir area, and there are chairs like this on both sides, and nuns sit on each side.  We attended vespers, which lasted 35 minutes.  One side sings ancient chant music, in Italian,  and the nuns on the other side answer, by signing the next phrase or verse. They sang from the Psalms, had a nice prayer in the middle (they prayed that the youth of the church would not go astray), and had a blessing at the end. I did not hear the word Mary once.  This was all done by nuns, there is no priest there.  We saw a total of about 16 nuns, about half sat on each side, they were fairly old, one was in a wheel chair.  For accompaniment they had this Casio keyboard, but did not use it. One of the nuns had a pitch pipe she intoned the pitch at the beginning of each Psalm.  There were about 8 people, including us, in the congregation.

This side alter, if it is actually an altar, I didn't see a crucifix, is very old and the frescos are deteriorating, as you can see.

They had a few paintings, oil on wood or canvas, but not many, again because they were poor.

Myrna asked me if this was a spiritual experience for me. It was not.  It was a beautiful cultural experience, to experience nuns chanting the Psalms in the evening, before they retire, as they have done every day, for at least 1,500 years, in historic places like this.

When we left, we went to a nearby Ikea, bought some batteries for the smoke detectors, and had dinner (Swedish meatballs, salad and caneloni) and then to a big box store, Leroy Merlin, like Home Depot, to buy some stick adhesive for the smoke detectors. On the way home, about 9:30, we had the biggest thunder storm we have experienced so far in Italy.  There was a lot of wind, noise and rain.

Another day, another adventure.

Ciao.

Saturday, 23 July 2016

Today, our P-day, Myrna and I drove about an hour north to a small city called Muggiò, where we found the apartment of Carlo and Rosemary Mongiovi.  He and I were missionary companions together in Bergamo (where we went last week) 50 years ago, and we re-connected a couple of weeks ago when we attended a baptism in Muggiò.  Today, along with the Mongiovis, we drove about 45 minutes further north, toward the Swiss alps, to a little city called Merone, to visit Mario and Rosa Viara.  They were both born in 1923.  My brother, Fred, baptized them in Genova when he was on his mission to Italy over 40 years ago.  I got up at 5:30 this morning and spoke with Fred, who was in Thatcher for the 24th of July holiday, and asked him to send pictures I could print out and take to the Viaras today, which he did.

 
We gave them the pictures when we first got there, and they were delighted to see them, and asked lots of questions about Fred's family, who were, for the most part, all there in Thatcher.

 
Italians are very hospitable.  They gave us gelato, Italian ice cream (several flavors, including lemon and chocolate), and pastries, from a pastry shop. These were as good as they look. Italians eat a lot of them, but they usually look better than they taste. Myrna made them two kinds of American cookies and I made them a CD with the first 64 hymns from the Italian hymnbook, played virtually on the organ in the old duomo of Brescia.


They brought out their picture albums, which included pictures taken at their baptism in Genova over 40 years ago.  Fred and his companion found, taught and baptized them, after patiently working them (including Mother sending them letters) for about 5 months.

President Viara said that just before his baptism he had been diagnosed with a fairly severe case of Krone's disease, and was being treated by a radiologist for it.  Shortly after his baptism he had an appointment with the radiologist, who, after doing the regular tests, said he could find no trace of the disease and declared, including to his colleagues, that Viara had been miraculously cured.  I remarked that the Lord had a great work for him to do after he was baptized.  He became the first stake president in Italy (now there are many), went to general conference 8 times and stayed with apostles, who have also stayed in his home. He then became a mission president in southern Italy, and was Aliesa Jensen Nelson's mission president. (They showed us the announcement they received that Aliesa's daughter sent about her wedding this coming week.)  Rosa told us about hand sewing many pillows for the missionaries while on her mission.  She is also a very accomplished oil painter and has lots of her framed art on her walls.  She said I could take pictures of the pictures, but they all had glass, which was a photographic problem, because of the glare.  Here are a few.

Jesus coming with chariots of fire.

Pleasant typical scenes in Italy.

Country scenes.

Fruits

Berries

Older times scenes

A nativity (sort of a Madonna and child, which Italian artists all paint)

Scenes near their home, and many more.

She didn't paint this one, but it is of a book of Mormon, with plates and paper.

The "girls" were out looking at other things, and I took this pix of President Viara in his living room.

Another room off the living room.

President Viara took us to his library office, where he has several books (in the boxes) written by general authorities and BYU professors, which are currently in the process of being translated into Italian.  He does not do the original translation, but helps with the Italian translation of the doctrinal parts

The outside deck: The home seen beyond belongs to the DalZotto family.  He has recently been released as a stake president, and his children have homes nearby; this is sort of a Mormon neighborhood on a hillside in Italy, and they take care of each other.

The Viara home from the front, showing the main entrance

The steep driveway down to their home.  When Rosa heard us coming she headed to the top of the hill and opened the gate for us, and then didn't want to ride down with us, she walked as fast as we drove.  Pretty good for a 93 year old woman, who is witty and fun to be around.

My former mission companion, Carlo Mongiovi is on the right, his wife, Rosemary was taking the picture.  They live by themselves and there wasn't anyone else around.

Mario and Rosa Viara, both 93, Mormon Pioneers in every sense of the word, taken on the day before Pioneer Day 2016.  It was a wonderful experience. I wish that Fred could have been there and that he and Krisanne are able to come to visit  them soon.

Ciao for now.

Sunday afternoon, 17 July 2016
NEW MISSIONARIES & GOING HOME MISSIONARIES

This week we had 20 new missionaries come from the MTCs in Provo and Spain, and 18 go home. We were involved all three days.

We had a total of about 50 people to feed breakfast and lunches.  We had sandwiches, or panini in Italian. Myrna made many batches of muffins and cookies. We had the main event in the Cimiano chapel in Milano, because the mission office isn't large enough for that many. The mission rented a bus to transport them.

I took them down the street from the chapel to an ATM (called Bancomat in Italy) so they could learn how to use their debit cards and withdraw €150 to give me for the bike fund.

Anziano Osborne, from Utah, with whom we work closely in the office, taught them how to set up their Ipads the Church gives all missionaries these days.

At least one new sorella had never used an Ipad.

Sister Allen, the president's wife, talked to them about their health and well being.

One of the assistants to the president, Anziano Barragon, from West Valley City, Utah, taught them how to approach people on the street, etc. They took them to the duomo of Milano, where they approached people within the piazza on their first day in Italy.


President Allen gave them some heartfelt advice.

Then came what everyone was anxious and excited about, the "match," where the greenies are introduced to their trainers, their first companion in the field.  Fourteen of our new missionaries were sisters.

I took pix of each and every one of them, so the office anziani could email them to their parents, who they also call to let them know their missionary has arrived safely.

It was a fun and spiritual experience for everyone, but a lot of organization and work.

The entire group of greenies with their new companions. The president was out interviewing them, individually. Before they went out into the field two by two, we sang (I accompanied) the mission hymn and knelt in prayer.

I did not take any pix of the 18 outgoing missionaries.  We had a testimony meeting in the evening before they they left at the mission home, which was, as you can imagine, very spiritual.  Sister Allen asked them to think of Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life on the way home, and in the future, and how they will enter the world and be mocked, and must always hold to the iron rod, even though the mist makes it slippery and it may not be politically correct.  After that, about 9 pm, but still light outside, a few parents, who had been patiently waiting, came out and met their missionary coming down the steps of the mission home, which was also a very emotional experience.  

It was another spiritually uplifting week in Italy.

Ciao for now.