This was a fairly busy, normal week in the office. President and Sorella Allen were gone doing interviews. On Tuesday, Anziano Morgan Joseph Pyper, who is from Idaho Falls and is an assistant to the president, celebrated his 20th birthday.
He wanted Cafè Rio-like pork, which Myrna made, along with her first attempt at home made flour tortillias, using strutto, which is lard, which turned out very well. (They do not have shortening in Italy.) He said his mother made his favorite birthday cakes from brownies with cookie dough ice cream, topped with whipped cream. In Italy they do not have cookie dough ice cream (they have many, many other flavors, but not cookie dough--and they don't even eat those kinds of cookies either), so Myrna went to the internet. She first made normal chocolate chip cookie dough, then from it made tiny balls that she froze. Then she thawed pana gelato (ice cream), mixed the two and re-froze it, and it really tasted like cookie dough ice cream. She made large round brownies in a springform pan, and layered them with ice cream, then topped them with real whipped cream, "stabilized" with Philadelphia brand (they sell it here) cream cheese, because you can't get CoolWhip in Italy either. She topped the cake with fudge sauce, which she also made, and he was quite delighted. The balloon in front of Myrna in the pix contained his gift, from his companions, which was a Milano football (actually soccer) team jersey (Pirelli), which he wanted. He will return to play football for BYU. It was a nice evening, and day of preparation.
On Wed we took a sister, who was gong home early, to the airport.
Even the public airport in Milano, Linate, had a nativity set up
just outside the non-denominational chapel.
Then we drove 35 minutes to a fairly little town on the outskirts of Bergamo to check-out a potential missionary apartment for rent. It is in the yellow building, which is only three years old.
Sister Hoopes checks out the bedroom. The double bed has to go, but the mission has twin beds we can easily take there.
The combination living room-kitchen is adequate, although small,
The bathroom has a shower, as well as a washing machine, but is also pretty small.
The front door, behind Sorella Hoopes, and a little yard (see the snow), and on the other side is the landlord's house. I think the missionary apartment is adequate, and is certainly clean, although a little small. But I think the biggest problem would be living that close to the landlord, who is a member of the Church, who repeatedly told us she does not want sisters in the apartment (she certainly does not want elders) who won't keep it tidy. I took pix and wrote a description so the President can make a decision as to whether we proceed with negotiating the lease agreement or not. We were alone in the office much of the week when many packages, many late for Christmas, arrived,
including this relatively big one,
which cost the parents $72.95 in postage to mail, although it only took 6 days to get here, and was not sent by any kind of "special" delivery company, including UPS, DHL, etc, which all come here
and contained, according to the declaration, $10 in hair gel, $25 in snacks (undoubtedly peanut butter), and a $45 jacket.
But, I had to give the mailman €22.83 in cash (he never has change), and then charge the poor missionary, for the dogana/import fees. Of course, the missionary could have bought wonderful Italian hair gel, great snacks, and a nice jacket for much less, but "it was the thought that counts," and costs. I try to use these examples in my new missionary training, but it probably does little good. Kids love getting packages, and don't care about what it costs.
On Friday evening I taught my first class in keyboard skills, at the Navigli chapel, to four members, who remembered to show up. It went 1.5 hours, perhaps a little long, but it will be a good experience, I hope. We plan to do it each week. On the way home we went to the IPER mall and found things for breakfast and for dinner on Saturday. (A beautiful little rose bush with yellow roses, and four growing flower bulbs were her presents from us.) Myrna made cinnamon rolls for Sister Allen's birthday breakfast. We all went over to the Mission Home, at 8 am, where Myrna also gave her a binder that she has worked on all week. It contained individual pledges by nearly all of the missionaries to keep all of the mission rules as spelled out in the white handbook, on Jan 14, for Sorella Allen's birthday. It made her weep. We spent the rest of our p-day preparing, as did the office missionaries.
for Sorella Allen's birthday dinner, held at the Mission Office that evening.
Sorella Hoopes made the salad (lettuce, pears, cheese, bacon, almonds and poppy seed dressing), Anziano Simmons made the appetizers, grilled zucchini, rolled and filled with ham (crudo) with cheese, tied with chives, which were excellent and very creative. The APs made potato soup, with dried chili peppers (like the kind you sprinkle on pizza), which was really good, served as the second course. (Italians never think a meal is complete unless it has at least three courses.)
Then the third course was Mexican lasagna (right), made by Anziano Anderson, which was also really good. Myrna made more flour tortillias (she is now a really great tortilla maker), with melted cheese inside. And for dessert, the APs served a chocolate brownie with fiordilatte (flowers of milk) and stracciatella (vanilla with chocolate pieces) gelato, which was also great, but a lot of food, which took more than two hours to eat. The four office anziani also did an impromptu skit, like they did for Myrna's birthday. It was pretty comical, and included us, as the rival king and queen, trying to take over the kingdom; Sorella Hoopes with her killer muffins and my loud organ music (which caused people to poop their pants), but it ended well, with everyone being good.
I enjoy living plants. These are the two I am currently watching in my window, above the radiator. An avocado pit I started and a rose bush, which lost its flowers but is growing.
Ciao for now.
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