We left David's family in Florence on Wed, 23 Nov, and came back to Opera on the train, about a two hour ride.
Arriving at the Rogoredo station in Milano, where we caught the train to Locate, where the assistants came to get us. David's family drove down to Rome, where we can't go because it is not in our mission. (The Ticino cantone in Switzerland is in our mission, which is why we were able to go there with David's family.) On Thursday we worked with Sister Allen to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for their family (their son, wife and two small children were visiting), which we had at the mission home with all of the local missionaries, the Salatini, and a senior couple, the DeAngelis, who were going home to Utah the next day. It was a traditional Thanksgiving diner, which Myrna helped prepare, and went very well. When we went around the table saying what we were thankful for, I remarked that I like pecan pie, which Myrna made with pecans that David brought.(They don't have pecans in Italy.) I talked about how I was raised in Thatcher, where pecans are grown, it is my "birthright" to have pecan pie, and how thankful and blessed I have been because of my heritage. We worked in the office, getting caught up with our normal tasks, on Friday, and late that evening David's family arrived from Rome, having had a grand time. He left me with copies of all of his pix, which are wonderful, but I will not share them on this blog. Those here are all mine, but his are far better than mine.
On Saturday morning we went with David's family to Como, then up to Lugano in Switzerland.
They were having an open market in Como, and also selling things for Christmas. David enjoys taking pix of stuff, and he gets excellent photographic results, which he puts into fascinating videos, which I am looking forward to seeing.
Megan bought freshly made pretzels.
We enjoyed walking the streets of Como, seeing many interesting sights.
We went into the cathedral, where an organist was practicing for a service they were getting ready for. We (David and I) both took videos, which include sound, of the organ in that large and ancient (started during Roman times) cathedral. It was wonderful, to say the least. David wanted me to ask the organist if I could play the organ (there are two pipe organs in that duomo, this pix is of the smaller of the two), but the organist was intently practicing beautiful music, and they were starting to put the chairs up for the service we didn't stay for.
We then wandered down, only about a block, past McDonalds, in which only I stopped to use the bathroom, to beautiful Lake Como, and walked around.
Abby was doing cartwheels on the sidewalk. I was surprised someone didn't come up and offer her money. Sometimes we see guys juggling in the middle of a busy street, hoping someone will give them a few euros, and there are musicians on street corners playing, sometimes quite well, with their hats on the ground waiting for coins to drop in. There are also a few beggars, including newly arrived Africans, who can't get jobs, with their cups out.
We saw some people with three of the kind of dogs that Jan raises, English Creams, a kind of Golden Retriever, at least I think they are. If you read this, Jan, please comment. I think you also saw some when you were there.
We parked near where the missionaries live (behind the duomo), including Anziano Thompson, who was in the office and is now a zone leader. We rang their bell (second down on the left), but they weren't home. We told him later and he was upset they weren't home to see us.
After leaving Como, we drove about 45 minutes to Lugano, in Switzerland, and to the little town that has the Last Supper painted on the wall in the church. You can see Christmas decorations, which they have up (they didn't have them 50 years ago). Opera has some nice ones too.
We were the only ones in that little church at the time, but it was busy out in the narrow little streets. Again, this Last Supper was painted on wet plaster (afresco), the way Leonardo's should have been painted, but wasn't, so it faded fast. The painters here used Leonardo's outline, so it is exactly the same size painting, because they were from his school (apprentices, who actually painted everything but the faces) in Milano. David's family wasn't able to see the "real" Last Supper, because tickets are very hard to come by for several reasons. If you are coming and want to see it, you need to let us know well in advance.
They were having a Christmas craft sale out in the streets, which was fun to see.
Someone brought their St. Bernard, which the kids enjoyed seeing and petting. They are very large dogs, with soft fur, and this one had his red Swiss collar and little brandy keg, which leaked a little when he laid down to be petted. This is Josh petting him.
This is farming country, and someone's little asino (donkey), which will perhaps be used in a Christmas pageant, also wanted to be acknowledged.
Then we headed back south, stopping in Lugano to walk on the shores of Lake Lugano, which has a beautiful park we enjoy seeing each time we go there. We went to an Aldi store (headquartered in Germany, but they have them in the US) and bought some Swiss chocolate, etc..
From the lake looking south, towards Italy, which isn't very far.
Looking north, further in to Switzerland, there were alps, which have already had a little snow.
The next morning we went to Sacrament meeting. The program was the Young Women. I played the piano for their special musical number. The lady on the left is Sorella Gianna Lanfranseschini, who is the Young Woman leader and also leads the music in Sacrament meeting. We are her home teachers. The girl right behind the girl in the middle with the yellow T shirt is Gianna's daughter. After she graduates from high school next year, they plan to move to the US to live with her son, who currently lives in Rexburg, where they are attending BYU-I. After church we came home and had lunch, then went on the metro (subway) to downtown Milano, to see the duomo and other sights.
Here is David's family in front of the famous cathedral of Milano. one of the largest churches in the world.
David is in the corner looking at one of the large metal doors, of which there are three sets.
We went inside. The kids had seen so much like this during the week, including the wonders of the Vatican in Rome, they were't sort of overdosed. The organs, there are four cases of which you can see two, have more combined pipes than the Tabernacle organ. I played this 50 years ago, but they won't let me near it now, and they charge €2 to even go into this cathedral. Security is tight here, with armed guards.
We did see the saint who was skinned alive and is holding his skin (draped around his shoulders) and his skinned fingers in his hand. Sort of gross, but interesting. You can enlarge this pix to see the skinned fingers, etc.
Then we walked a few blocks over to see the church with people's bones (plague victims) for decorations. However, we were not aware that it closes at 12:30 pm on Sundays, so we couldn't get in. This picture is not the church with the bones. You go to the front door of this church, turn to your left and ahead of you (to the left) there is the church with the bones in one of its side chapels. It always amazes me why they built two churches right next to each other. There were so many people milling around the duomo area that I asked a guard (they have army guards, wearing cammo and with machine guns) if something was going to happen. He remarked that it is always like this on Sunday afternoons. We had never been there on Sunday afternoon. Because it was Sunday, we did not walk into the world's oldest and perhaps most famous shopping mall, nor did we walk through it to see the famous Opera Scala on the other side. David's family left to return to sunny southern California on Monday morning. We had a wonderful time with them and are looking forward to more visitors.
Then, we started one of the busiest and most physically demanding weeks that we have had, so far, on our mission. On Tuesday we drove 2 hours one way (up hill, both ways, in the snow, of course) to Torino to zone conference to feed 30 missionaries a turkey dinner, which we started preparing the day and night before (roast turkey, dressing, real potatoes and gravy, corn, salad, Myrna's crescent rolls, and apple pie.). Then we drove another two hours on Wed. to Genova to do the same thing for the about same number of missionaries. Then, on Thursday, we did it again for another 30, driving 40 minutes to the Cimiano church in Milano. We learned how to roast turkey breasts (we couldn't find whole turkeys to buy) in crock pots (start cooking at 11 pm the night before), make dressing with Italian bread (interesting, but good), make mashed potatoes with Italian or Dutch potatoes (we used both, certainly not like good ole' Idaho russets), and apple pie (they do have Granny Smith apples here) in large pans because we don't have pie pans. I went to nearby grocery stores just before serving time, to buy crema gelato, the closest thing they have to vanilla ice cream to top off the pie, so they could have a little taste of America, which they seemed to enjoy.
We even found that at Ikea they sell bottles of Swedish cranberry jam, which they don't otherwise have in Italy. If you enlarge this pix, you could see the expression on the sister's faces, when they said, is this really cranberry jelly?
This is one of the apple pies that Myrna made. She made the first ones with shortening, because she still had some, but ran out (they don't sell it here), so she used butter for the others. Those with butter were actually better, I thought. They do sell lard here, but she didn't want to use it.
On Friday we attended the wedding of Sorella Cano's daughter to a non-member (he is taking the discussions) at the Lampagnano church. I played the organ and piano and sang a solo (I Believe in Christ), and Myrna offered the opening prayer, in Italian.
The chapel was decorated with the two chairs for the bride and groom to sit in, with the witness chairs on the sides. It was to start at 10:30, but actually started at 11:45 am, so I played a very long prelude, mostly hymns. This is fairly typical of Italian events, including baptisms. The man who married them came up to me and asked what I was going to play for the wedding march, saying I could not play "here comes the bride," which I wasn't planning on playing. He must not have trusted me, so he brought me a hymnbook opened to "I know that my Redeemer lives," which he asked me to play while they were marching in, father escorting the bride with children throwing flower pedals on the red carpet.
They had a professional photographer there, as well as a videographer, and I snuck this pix from the piano as the father was giving his advice.
After the ceremony the guests went outside and formed two lines. The bride and groom then passed between the lines, while people shot off guns filled with confetti, and there was much noise and clapping, etc.
Then to the cultural hall for the festa It cost the parents a fortune for this wedding. Her father is unemployed (he broke his leg last January), and the mother cleans the mission home and the stairs in our apartment building. They are from Colombia in South America, but are now naturalized Italian citizens. This party continued for about four hours.
These were the wedding cakes.
The disk jockey played loud music, some in Italian, some in Spanish and even some in English.
The couple had the first dance together. Notice how tall he is compared with her.
Her parents had the second dance with them. Then they handed out surprise door prizes. The one they handed me was shocking. I was to have the third dance with the bride, which I did, but I had my camera in my pocket, thank heavens.
Then everyone who wanted to could have their pictures taken with the bride and groom, so here we are at our first Italian wedding.
Speaking of baptisms, we had one this evening in our Navigli ward. Jimmy, who has been investigating the Church for the past four years, and who we thought for a long time was a member, was baptized. I played the piano and for the postlude he asked me to play the "Star Spangled Banner," and everyone stood. He loves the USA and actually became acquainted with the Church by taking English lessons,which the missionaries all teach. Tomorrow is his birthday, so we had a cake and sang Happy Birthday, in Italian, Spanish and English. Myrna made muffins, which he also asked for.
Today we began the morning at 5:15 am, calling Willy for his 12th birthday, then stayed in our apartment until about 3 pm ironing Ikea cotton pillow cases. (Yes, it took that long,and we are not yet finished.) We are helping Sister Allen with surprise Christmas gifts for the missionaries. We will tell you more about this project later. We went to the baptism with President and Sorella Allen and are now back in the office. I just did a batch of rimborsi and Myrna checked on some permessi, and we are shortly going to bed. Another exciting week of our mission in Milano.
Ciao for now.
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