Sunday, 25 September 2916, BAPTISM IN BERGAMO

This week was an adventure, as they all are.  On Monday we went to Carrara, which I have already posted about.  We had a lot of work to do because we didn't work on Monday, although when I got back I did do a batch of rimborsi for the missionaries.  I get from between 5-35 emails a day from missionaries who send me pictures of their receipts for transportation expenses, bikes and bike items, household items, including cleaning supplies, medicine, etc.  I reimburse them, which is rimborsi (plural) in Italian.  I use the Church's IMOS program to do this and it takes about 1-3 hours a day, depending on how many there are and what I have to figure out.

On Thursday we went to Lodi to check out a sister's apartment. All of our senior missionaries are responsible for about 10 missionary apartments.  We check to see if they are clean enough and need anything fixed, and it was time to do Lodi. We got  there easily enough, about a half hour, but coming home was difficult because of heavy traffic.

This is what their apartment building looks like on the outside, pretty typical. Italians like pink.

The only thing we found that needed fixing is an apparent leak in a radiator, where they get heat, although it is still warm enough they aren't using it.  As you can see, they have a pan to catch drips, so I need to contact the landlord (this is his problem, for which I hope he accepts responsibility--which is always a problem) and has it fixed. Typical marble chip floor.

Directly across the street from the apartment building is this fairly old church, which doesn't look like much from the outside.

But had a nice pipe organ, probably from the late 1700s. There was no one there to ask if I could see/play it, and I did not see an electronic, so I suspect it still works. Maybe next time we will have more time. It started to rain, which was nice, and we hurried to get back to the office, but we there was a traffic jam on the freeway and it took us an hour to get back.

Then on Friday we went to Pavia and checked out the two missionary apartments there, one with elders and the other vacant, where we think the President may send a couple of sisters when 34 more missionaries arrive in in two weeks, the same week that Jan comes to visit, which will be very busy.

This is what the outside of the elder's apartment building looks like, and our car in the foreground.  This street faces the Ticino River, which comes down from Switzerland. Their apartment is quite large, big enough for two sets of missionaries, which it could also have in two weeks.

Their bathroom (only one) was pretty clean, and didn't smell bad. Blue fixtures none the less!

Their sleeping room was also fine, not too cluttered and didn't smell like athletic shoes. These are excellent missionaries; one of them's father (Anziano Lilly) is from Safford, Arizona.

On Saturday, our regular P-day, we decided to go to Monza, which is just north of Milano, to check out the royal palace, to see if that is somewhere we want to take Jan, Ginger and Brian, when they come.  So after cleaning our apartment, we left about 10 am and got there in only a half hour, which is faster than we thought because we took the freeway which goes around Milano.  However, when we were getting off the freeway we couldn't believe the lines of cars trying to get into Monza, where I realized that the famous car races of Monza are held.  Our GPS actually had us heading toward the race track, which I suppose is near the old royal palace and the duomo, which we also wanted to see.  We tried going that way, but were going so painfully slowly, and there were policemen and women (yes, they have women police here too) everywhere flagging heavy traffic, that we decided to get out of town as fast as we could, so we wouldn't be stuck in Monza.  However, that took at least an hour, and we ended up going into a parking lot of a large supermarket, where, to kill time, hoping the traffic would subside, we bought a few things, including a pizza and fresh grapes for lunch.

It wasn't all unpleasant. In the area going into the supermarket was a playground for children, and there were two teenage boys out spray painting a large plastic coated drum of some type.  This is the kind of art that our grandson, Dallin, does, and we were fascinated to watch them.  They were both very good at it, and fast. The weather was also very nice, as you can see.

We later learned that they were having a concert (probably rock), starting at 8:30 pm that evening in Monza, at the race track, and cars were already trying to park for it by noon. (Probably lots of tailgate parties,)

So we finally got back onto the autostrada (freeway) and went another half hour to Bergamo, where there was a baptism starting at 6 pm. (We had our dress clothes in the car for the baptism.)  In downtown Bergamo, which was still familiar to me after 50 years, Myrna and I had a guy take our picture in front of a statue in a park of an Alpino (Italian equivalent of a Marine), climbing up a representative "mountain." (Sort of modern art, but at least 50 years old.)

This is pretty close to where my companion took my pix with a young Catholic priest, from Sicily, we were teaching, 50 years ago, which seemed like just yesterday.  I wonder what ever happened to the priest?  He said he was leaving the Catholic priesthood, going to Switzerland to try to get a job teaching school. He had read the Book of Mormon and said he already knew that little children did not need baptism.

At that park there were a few vendors.  We saw this stand for items from Sardinia, an island to the west of Italy, but still part of Italy.  The bright green sign says "Specialty of Sardenia, cheese of pork!!"  Now, who in their right mind would milk a pig and make cheese.  As you an see, there was also sausage, also from Sardinia.  We didn't taste any.  We did buy some toasted, with melted sugar coating, hazel nuts, which were €3 for 100 grams. They were pretty good.

There was also a spice vendor.  We actually bought, not there but previously, some green curry powder and had curry with chicken for lunch today, so we don't eat exclusively Italian food, although it is so good.  One thing we don't eat at all, at least not yet, is McDonalds.

This landmark church in Bergamo, actually commemorating the war dead, had a sign near it, you would have to enlarge it to see, saying there is a McDonalds restaurant down the street.

But there was another sign on the church about an International Organ Festival.  The first concert is this Friday evening, starting at 9 pm (Italians like to start things late),  But we have a talent night in our ward in Milano. I have been asked, by the bishop's wife, to sing a solo of the last hymn in the Italian hymnal, which is sort of like a national anthem.  It is the hymn of the Hebrew Slaves from the opera Nabucco by Verdi, named: "Va, Pensiero, sull'ali dorate" (Leave, thoughts,on golden wings), so I guess we won't go to this organ concert, but there is another on Oct 7 and again another on Oct 14, when Jan will be here.  Maybe...

So our GPS took us to this street, at the end of which is an old Catholic church, where we went to kill some time, and I took a nice video of the big bells pealing in the church tower. I wish I knew how to post videos.

If you enlarge the pix of the street above, you could see that the first building to the right is the fairly new, and very nice, LDS church (complete with steeple and name plaque on front), which houses two wards and one branch.  We got there about 5 pm, and it was not yet dark, but I took this pix at 7:30 pm, after the baptism, when it was starting to get dark.  (Fall has fallen, and it is getting dark earlier).

While waiting in the chapel for the baptism, I (tearfully) contemplated that 50 years ago there were only two LDS missionaries and one sweet sister member, in her 80s, we called Nonna (grandmother) in all of Bergamo, and we held church around her kitchen table, usually before she fed us dinner.  

This is dear Nonna, on the left, her non-member daughter (who wasn't too interested in the Church), and my companion, Elder William Greco, from Snowflake, Arizona.  She has probably gone to her reward. Of the several people I asked who came early to the church in Bergamo last evening, no one could remember Nonna, they haven't been members that long.

At least 120 people (I tried to count) came to the baptism, of a husband/father, whose wife joined the Church 20 years ago. The missionary in the middle, with the pink tie, is Anziano Galli, from California, who taught the man and performed the baptism, talking to an American man (white shirt), who came from Utah, just for the baptism. In fact, this is a great missionary story, which Myrna has already written up, so I will just paste it here.

Baptism story

An American sat by me during the baptism and while we were waiting for the people to get dressed he told me the story. Twenty some odd years ago he came to Italy, working for NuSkin. They wanted to get Nuskin established in Italy.  He hired Monica and her sister. They ended up going to conferences and meetings together. On one particularly long flight they got into a rather deep religious discussion. When they landed back in Milan he called the mission office, but it was Sunday and there was no answer.  So he took them and went to find the mission office and knocked on the door until someone answered.  He got her an Italian Book of Mormon and he went back to the states, turning her over to the missionaries. I do not know how many missionaries taught her but she was baptized 20 years ago.  He (the NuSkin employee) has stayed in contact and flew over just for the baptism. Her family has been in his home in Utah many times, etc. This man told the husband that when he was baptized, he would come. Tonight her husband was baptized, after 20 years, and the American came. The Elder that baptized her was also there. (Two Americans came just for this baptism.) The Elder who baptized her spoke at the baptism tonight (his Italian, after 20 years, was still pretty good). I was just so impressed that they both came and have stayed in contact with her for all these years. Her daughters, both members, gave the prayers. So she has done a good job staying active to have both of them active. I asked him if he still worked for NuSkin, and he does.  I asked him if she still worked for NuSkin and she does not, and he replied, "she only worked there as long as she needed to in order to hear the gospel."  Interesting how the Lord can get us where we need to be. 

So the bottom line here is we need to open our mouths and be brave.  You never know, even after 20 years.  He said he will be back next year to go to the temple with them.  And then he told a second story.  A lady sitting in the back also worked for NuSkin and came to the national convention in Utah. She walked across the street to the visitors center and signed some card that she would listen to the missionaries and the referral went through and she was baptized shortly after returning home to Italy.  Her husband has been the bishop of the ward. He did comment that NuSkin tries to be a missionary force as they travel the world and tries to be careful about the standards, etc.,that they portray.   Anyway I was very impressed with these two American bothers and their commitment to sharing the gospel, 20 years ago, and with on-going follow up.

Carrara Christus & Apostles, 19 Sept. 2016

On Monday, the day after Elder Holland's conference, all of the senior couples (two couldn't come) went to Carrara, a relatively small city about 3 hours south west of us, south of La Spezia, which is south of Genova (Genoa), both on the Mediterranean coast, and about an hour north west of Florence. Anyway, Carrara is on the seacoast and there are large mountains behind it. They have been quarried long since before the time of Christ for white marble, of which there is still a lot left. This is where Michelangelo went, in the 1500s to get marble for his statues, spending months at a time on the mountain (even sleeping there) to make sure he got what he wanted. Myrna and I drove with President and Sister Allen in a small Toyota Yaris (like what Jeff has, except ours also have electric motors), because their big van was being used by Elder Holland. The senior couple in Prato (a city north of Florence, where we were supposed to go) arranged for a sister in the Florence ward, an American with six children, who, with her husband, live near Florence. She is starting a tour business to take people to Carrara, especially LDS who want to see where the marble statues for the Church temple visitor centers are being made.  She said we need to go soon before they take the statues to Rome for the temple, so we went on a special P-day.

She is in the pink top and the rest of us are senior missionaries.  We met in the parking lot of a large supermarket, and you can see the mountains in the background.

We drove a ways up past the ancient city into the mountains, which took only about 15 minutes.

Until we got to a place we couldn't drive further.  They had work shops there that were cutting some large chunks of marble, and the Christus status itself was made here.

There is an Italian tour business there, which she was connected with (they charged 10 and she charged 40, but we would not have got to see the Church statues without her.)  On a clear day, and our day was fairly clear, you can see the Mediterranean from the top of the mountain.

This was our group; she liked to take pix of us. I think she is designing a marketing brochure.

There is one cave mine for marble, this one goes back about a kilometer, but most of the marble is cut right out of the side of the mountain, cutting from the top down.

They were certainly moving a lot of marble, going to the many work shops in the city, although there are a few on the mountain itself.  Italians aren't very safety cautious, although we wore vests and hard hats.  I am sure a lot of workers are killed, especially over the centuries when they were less careful.

This was our first view of the Christus for the temple in Rome, almost completed and ready for shipping. The white bags are full of marble chips, which will be ground down (it is calcium carbonate) and used for things like tooth paste.

Of course, everyone wanted their pix taken with Him.  He was magnificent, to say the least.

They were cutting large chunks of marble with special saws.

And working on other statues.

Including other Christus statues.  The one on the right is for the new Paris France temple, although it is not as large as the one for Rome. Some made for temple visitor's centers are not even solid marble, they are made of "cultured marble" which is a mixture of marble dust and resin, as are all of the little reproductions you can buy at places like Deseret Book.

Then we went to the waiting Jeeps for our ride up the mountain.

Our driver was an interesting guy, to say the least.

We passed many marble quarries.  The Italian government owns the mountains and leases spots to different mining companies, and then charges them royalties to take out the marble.

It was a fairly clear day and we could see the Mediterranean Sea, although it was a bit hazy.

Looking east, the other direction from the ocean, there were more mountains.

Many of which are currently being quarried.

Our guide showed us a strand of the heavy wire used to cut the marble into large (like the size of a car, or larger) chunks; there are diamonds embedded  in it.  A lot different than the way it was cut in Michelangelo's day, when it had to be taken down the mountain either by donkeys or wooden skids, using soap for lube.

Then we came off the mountain and went to one of the many workshops in the city of Carrara.  This one had lots of different types of stone, but the "queen" of the stones is, of course, the purest white marble, only used for statuary.

Looking between two large stones in the yard, I could see the stone cutter's garden, on the side of the hill, with tomatoes and other veggies growing.

Inside the shop there were cutters, sculptors and finishers.  This one was working from a model on the right, beginning to sculpt a duplicate statue on the left.

There were two gigantic copies of Michelangelo's David (this is the actual size of the original).  There are at least three of these in Florence, the original and two copies, and more copies are all over the world, and when these leave the shop there will be two more, but they didn't tell us where they are going.  Our American guide guessed they cost millions of dollars each.

A worker was busy polishing David's backside.

There was a full size copy of Michelangelo's Pietà,  the original of which is found in the Vatican.  They also wouldn't tell us where this copy is going.

Then I saw one of the 12 apostles for the temple in Rome. They are all copies of statues that were made here in the 1830's by a Danish sculptor for the Lutheran Cathedral in Copenhagen.  Each apostle has his distinctive emblem, by which they can be identified, which I need to look up to make sure of.
 
There were  a few of the apostles already mounted on their pedestals, with their names in Latin, of course, inscribed below.

A worker was in the process of putting a pin in the bottom of an apostle, who they mounted right after we left (apparently they didn't want us to watch the process.)

We watched them move Phillip's pedestal, with that of Paul to the right.

We had our picture taken with some of the apostles.

In between these two apostles for the Rome temple is a nice Madonna, which they will put on top of the visitor's center (just kidding, but Italians would love it.)

John, the Beloved, is shown without facial hair, with an Eagle and his writing tablet.

The details are very life-like (David even has visible veins in his hands and arms).  These apostles' fingers are about life size.  I should have blown off the marble dust.

Made by this young worker who was copying a famous piece to the left.

Judas was still reclining, and is shown clasping his hands, hopefully praying for mercy.

The last sight we saw, as we went out the closing door, was all the workers gathered to help with putting an apostle on his pedestal.  They take this stuff very seriously.

The name of the workshop where the apostles are being made is, in English, Studio of Art, Michelangelo's Cave, Inc., and they have a website.

Leaving the city of Carrara we passed this marble tower that says, if you could read it, Carrara dei Marmi, or Carrara of Marble.

On the way home we went through a lot of tunnels.

And a lot of little towns on hills, some with castles, for more adventures.

Ciao for now.