This was a week of zone conferences, which we have recently been asked to have every six weeks instead of quarterly. The senior couples used to make lunch for them, but because there are now more missionaries, more frequent meetings, and fewer senior couples, it was decided that the zone leaders will be sent money and they are to figure out what to do for lunch. I was asked to put €8 per head on the ZLs cards, but they all used different amounts, based on what they did. Some used it all, one used less than half. Many of them just ordered pizza, which costs no more than €5 per person, including drinks (at least in Opera, you can have a fairly large pizza and a can of pop delivered for €5). Because we needed to keep the office open and the sisters in Verona needed some chairs, dishes and blankets, at our Monday office meeting it was decided that Sorella Hoopes and I would go to Verona on Tuesday to their zone conference and deliver the items to the apartment. (The office anziani attended the zone conference in Milano on Friday.) On Tuesday we left at 8 am and got back at 7 pm, so it was a long day. I had hoped to see some of Verona, but it was foggy when we left, took two hours to get there, and it was almost dark when we left the church after zone conference, but it was a good day, and we hope to get back to Verona some time to see the attractions.
This is the fairly new, and very nice, chapel in Verona. It sits on the side of a hill, and has adequate parking. Like most new Italian LDS churches, it has two stories, the chapel is on the upper floor, and there is an elevator, for the handicapped.
This is the road where you drive or walk up the hill to the church, looking down at the street below.
This is looking over the fence from the chapel, down the hill, at the city of Verona, at about sunset, when we started home after the conference.
When we got there the church smelled like a Mexican grill. Here the zone leader, Anziano Lilly, was in the kitchen frying up chicken and peppers for fajitas. They were able to buy El Paso brand flour tortillas (which they have in Italy, but are expensive--Myrna has now learned to make them, but there would have been too many for her to make for the conference).
They pre-made Spanish rice (not unlike Italian risotto, but with tomato, which I have never seen in risotto) and the sisters had made brownies, which Myrna liked so much she asked for the recipe.
Here we are in the chapel, getting ready to start the conference. Our mission goal is to baptize at least 300 people before the Rome Temple is dedicated, as per the logo projected to the right.
The "mountain anziani" (those from Brixen, Bolzano and Trento), up in the Dolomites, sang a beautiful special number.
Sorella Allen trained about Church government, emphasizing that in the center of the church circle is the individual, and in the center of the mission circle (right) is the investigator, or simpatizzante, literally sympathizer, which is what we call investigators.
The APs have done quite a bit of information gathering, using survey questionnaires, and presented the results. As you could read, the most successful finding method in our mission is, not surprising, member referrals, with the second being finding someone while you are traveling, e.g., riding on the train or bus and talking with someone who is, for a little while, a captive audience. The third is English class, the fourth "strada" which means street and is talking with someone on the street, the next is "mostra," having a street board or table, which is something we did 50 years ago too, and the last is contacting former investigators. The meeting started at 11 and ended at 4:40 pm, so it was a complete day, after cleanup and transportation.
Before we got in our car to leave I took a parting shot of the church, at dusk.
It always brings a lump to my throat to see the signs on our churches, that are the same everywhere in the world (except for language) with "welcome" (benveniuti) at the bottom.
From this angle you can see the Italian flag, which all of the new freestanding churches now seem to have. After we left the church we went to the sister's apartment and delivered the large chairs, blankets and dishes, which took up the entire back of our car. It would have been nice to have offered the sisters a ride back to their apartment, but we had no room so they had to take the bus, which took them 20 minutes (us 10). Parking was a problem, we had to "drive around the block" to wait for someone to leave, and they had to stand in the vacant parking spot to keep someone from using it until we got there. We were able to see the nice apartment where they live, very close to the famous amphitheater, left over from Roman times and is still used for productions, like "Romeo and Juliet." (They were actually kids from Verona, according to Shakespeare.) Maybe we will get to go there sometime, but hopefully when it is spring and is a little warmer. It was fairly cold when we were there and I wouldn't have wanted to sit through an event outside.
The amphitheater in Verona from the outside--it is basically the same size as the more famous Colosseum in Rome.
The amphitheater in Verona was opened in 30 AD and seated 30,000 people, but now, for security reasons, maximum attendance is only 15,000 people, according to helpful Wikipedia.
On Thursday evening we went home teaching to the bishop and Sorella Villacorta, then to the church where I hold my beginning music lessons, with the goal of getting them to play hymns for meetings. We sit around a table and follow the Church's book, which is very well written, although we only have them in Spanish at this time. I was able to get a Word file in Italian, so I also print a section for our lesson each week on our printer, but all of these "students" also understand Spanish. Getting them to practice at least a half hour each day is a challenge, as it is for everyone, but they seem to be making progress. The Harmon Foundation in Utah sent me (I had to write a grant) five free Casio keyboards, which are available to students who don't have a keyboard at home, and packets of the Church produced books. Here they were performing their lesson, which included five hymns (just the melody). The older guy (Elders quorum counselor) just joined us, after the third lesson, and is doing fairly well, and the little girl on the end, looking up, is still probably the most excited. I gave her a keyboard at Christmas time. On Thursday Anziano Anderson had diarrhea and vomiting (although he had eaten no sushi, which missionaries love), and he has recently been diagnosed with acid reflux. He spent the day on a portable bed we set up in the president's office, but, because he is young and and otherwise healthy, got better fast. I was also a little queezy for a few days this week, my first time in the year we have been here, but can't pinpoint why, and am now fine.
On Saturday the office anziani wanted to have a P-day with us, so we happily agreed. We started with lunch at the Roadhouse Grill, in our new shopping center here in Opera. Anziano Anderson (on death's door two days before), behind Anziano Piper, is being transferred out of the office and is being replaced by Anziano Hogan.
In the middle is Anziano Hogan, with his companion Anziano Simmons, to the left, gazing out the window. They are both from the same stake in California. To the right is Anziano Lucca Santoro, from Bari, Italy, an assistant to the president, who will be going back out into the field next week, but does not know where yet. He is being released on May 5, and has a girlfriend, Sorella Garcia, who he says he is marrying ASAP. He wants to come back up north (Bari is in the south), perhaps to Varese, to learn to be an airplane mechanic, and I believe he will always be a wonderful leader in the Church. He was born and raised in the Church, with active parents and siblings. He was initially called to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he went to the MTC. But he had to come home for a while for health reasons, and was reassigned to our mission, but is still only 21 (he seems older). He said he didn't speak any English when he went to the MTC, and therefore didn't learn anything, but now speaks good English. The anziani love to tease him, and he teases back, like a prarie dog. In a few years when we read about him in the Church News being called to leadership positions, we will be able to say we knew Lucca Santoro when he was a young assistant to the president in our mission. It is amazing to spend time with these amazing young leaders.
Anziano Simmons, will remain in the office with Anziano Hogan. The more I am around him he reminds me of Dr. Franson, from Soda Springs, especially in the way he talks and approaches things. He wants to become an electrical engineer and design medical devices. He enjoyed his plate of ribs and french fries.
Anziano Anderson, who is leaving after he trains Anziano Hogan, is always asking us interesting questions and to do interesting things, like when he had my camera at the restaurant he asked us to kiss so he could take a picture of it, so we obliged. We were talking about going to see something in Milano they hadn't seen, after lunch, but...
got sidetracked by all the sales at the stores in the new mall. They all wanted to try on Vans shoes and sale items at Nike and other American stores. Then we went to the Iper mall, to try on more clothes. Everywhere we went the Italians looked at us, five tall handsome young men wearing white shirts and ties along with their grandparents, all wearing the same little black name badges and speaking English. What a sight!
Ciao for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment