This week was sort of foggy and with light rain. We went to Milano twice, taking the metro (subway) both times. Myrna had her molar, on which she had root canal operations performed, sealed and was fitted for a porcelain crown, which she gets the end of the month, we hope. The pain has subsided. It took many visits to an endodontist, Dr. Gorny, which David found for us. Gorny is a university professor and always had students observing him. One of his associates actually finished the work. Our mission president, who is a dentist, said that what Myrna had was indeed a very difficult procedure, although he generally does them in two visits. I believe she had good quality care here.
This week was Halloween. A few Italian member families stopped by the mission office to trick-or-treet, and we had American candy (thanks to Fred). Italians do not generally celebrate Halloween, but Monday was a national holiday, All Saints Day. I guess after the spooks come out on Oct 31, you are supposed to worship all the saints on Nov 1.
I also cooked and ate the trout which Adrianna gave us at church on Sunday. It was pretty good.
Then, because we haven't had our flu shots, which I believe in, we went to the "mission doctor," William S. Freilich, M.D, FACEP, also in Milano, to get them. He has certificates from Chicago on his wall, and I believe he is American. He had several framed thank you certificates from the US Consulate, so I suppose he is also their doctor. He sort of reminded me of a "mad scientist," about my age, with white messy hair (think Einstein), horn rim glasses, a bow tie, white lab coat, stethoscope around his neck. He also reviewed our list of medications and wrote prescriptions for refills on his Italian pad, saying we could probably get them at a pharmacy without prescription. They are all generic, although we both take one med that perhaps isn't available in Italy, we will see. Before we left for our noon appointment, Myrna spoke with a missionary, who is in Milano (President and Sister Allen were in Hungary this week at a mission president conference) who said he had bloody diarrhea. He asked her to tell Sister Allen (all missionaries are to tell her about their health issues), because he didn't want to talk with her about it. Anyway, because of the blood, she told him to go to Dr. Freilich, which he did. He gave him an antibiotic, although said it was most likely caused by their (another missionary) eating under cooked chicken. While we were there, the other missionary, from Como (an hour away) called Myrna and I had Freilich speak with him on my phone. The doctor told him to go to a pharmacy, buy a stool collection kit and come ASAP to Milano. He, with his comp, came on the train and also received an antibiotic, so this must have been a nasty (lasted more than a week) bug.
After Dr. Freilich gave us our shots, I also spoke with him about flu immunizations, and he gave me an Rx, which I took to a pharmacy here in Opera. They said we could just buy a box, Fluad, which contains a filled syringe and needle (like which the doctor used), for €11.45, and give it to ourselves. Anyway, I also called Aetna and got the name of the Church's provider, which is in Russia, and they are going to send a doctor to all eight of our upcoming zone conferences to give flu shots. The APs sent an email to all missionaries, asking them if they want a shot, and many, including a senior couple, have responded that they don't want and/or need one. I find it interesting that all missionaries, whose applications I have seen, said they would have immunizations on their mission, but some are now refusing flu shots, probably because of misconceptions (they will get the flu from it, it will cause other diseases, made by evil men, etc.) I have been thinking this is like the gospel. In the pre-existence (pre-mission) we all said we would keep the commandments (signed the forms), but when we get here we become blinded by the "world" and find reasons not to do what is really best for us (go to church or have a flu shot). Anyway, it is certainly not doctrinal, and I won't use it in any talk or even harass any missionary who does not want a shot, but I have thought a lot about the similarities.
On Friday evening Myrna and I rode with the APs to the church for the final going-away "party" for the Friolo family, who are immigrating to California (tomorrow). Myrna made a big plate of cookies and muffins, as we thought it was just a pot luck dinner. It was actually like a sacrament meeting, in the chapel. In fact, we got there a little late, but I played the piano (they must have sung the opening hymn without accompaniment). There were many moving testimonies and the family spoke last. All of the missionaries, present and past, in the ward came up and sang "Called to Serve" (I also accompanied), and then we all sang "God be with you..." at the end. It was, as you can imagine, very emotional. Again, I thought of what it was like in the late 1800s when saints migrated to Zion. I hugged and told Fratello Friolo that I hope to see him at General Conference in Salt Lake next October. (Their daughter is gong on a mission to Lyon, France, leaving Jan, 2017.)
On Saturday I went to play the organ in the church at Locate, but when I got there, at 2:45 pm, there was a funeral about to start, so I didn't go in. They rang the bells for at least 15 minutes.
So I went to a new shopping center in Locate, by myself (Myrna was home making muffins). When we got here 9 months ago there were rice and corn fields between Opera and Locate, and we walked by them. However, they have constructed and just opened up a new shopping center this week, called Scalo Milano. It is an outdoor mall, but very big and has "high end" stores like Calvin Klein, Guess,Nike, Levis, etc. It does not have large grocery anchor store, but it has a food court, 17 stores, including a McDonalds, Roadhouse, Lindt chocolate, etc. I only walked around, in the mist, but had a very hard time finding where I parked the car. I almost called the office missionaries to ask them to rescue me, it would have been embarrassing, but I looked harder and finally found the car. This week the office elders had an accident on a round-about, and when the Italian was yelling at them, they called one of the APs, a native Italian, to come to save them, which he did.
Then, last evening, the Salatini came about 5 pm and took us to Alessandria, to attend a concert, which included one of their Pathway students (Pathway is what we were supposed to do). We rode with Salatini the hour, on freeway, to Alesandria and found a nice osteria-pizzaria, and had a good dinner together. Myrna had risotto with asparagus and shrimp, I ate the shrimp, which she doesn't like, and had a pizza. Then we went to a large piazza (Garibaldi) and had a dolce (fancy pastry) from shop where they are made. The person who served us was a cute girl who had been a foreign exchange student in Michigan, and spoke good English. There was a light drizzle, but it was a pleasant evening. We were met by the husband of Erika Lovell, who served a mission in Rome, met an Italian missionary and they were married a year ago. She is now pursuing a master's degree in opera singing in Alessandria and was asked to sing in a concert with three other soprani.
Erika is on the right. They sang famous, and very demanding, arias from Verde and Puccini operas, e.g., from Verdi's Machbeth "Nel di della vittoria" (Google it). The performance started a 9 pm, and went until 11:30 pm, which is typical in Italy. Sister Lovell's parents came all the way from Salt Lake City to attend her performance. He was a mission president in Jeff's mission in Argentina. When I asked, her mother said she does not sing, except in the ward choir, but her mother sang opera at BYU-Idaho, so the daughter certainly comes by it naturally. I love music, but don't particularly like opera, although I appreciate the skill needed for this type of singing. After we left and were walking to the car, there were many, many young people in the piazza, it would have been fun to go to one of the open cafès with them for an after opera snack.
The community theater in Alessandria, where operas are held.
Walking back to the car after the performance.
I took this pix, which I will use in my presentation to the new missionaries this week, to show them what can happen to their bikes, if they don't lock them up properly. We got on the freeway, which, after driving a while, we found was shut down, we assume because of an accident. We were re-routed, and didn't get home until almost 1 am.
Today at church I played for Primary, as I have for the past two weeks. They are preparing for their annual sacrament meeting program, on Nov 20 (when we will be with David in Venice.) I gave the music to an American sister, who will play for them. We came home and I had a nice nap, then came down and typed this.
Ciao for now.
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