29 Jan 2017, Verona Zone Conference, Music lessons and P-day

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.

23 Jan 2017, Additional thoughts about Victor's baptism

After looking at my last post and the previous one, I realized I put in a pix of my little plants again.  I am not that much in love with them, I just didn't realize I put them in twice.  Also, I didn't have a pix of the man that Anziano Joshua Thompson taught and baptized, whose baptism we attended in Como last Friday evening. It was a special event, and we felt the Spirit strongly.

Anziano Thompson sent this pix today of himself  (right) and Victor, the man he baptized, and his companion, Anziano Campbell George. This is the man who attended the family home evening in Como, his first, before he even had a lesson, a few weeks ago. I think it is significant to point out that Victor is representative of who is accepting the gospel right now in Italy.  All missionaries send pix of who they baptize into the mission office, and we see them, and Myrna records the baptisms, when the paperwork finally comes in.) They are quite often immigrants from Africa and have a really hard life, both in Africa, getting here (including illegally by boat), and once they get to Italy. Victor has no job and few prospects of getting one. He lives in a refugee camp in a room with other Africans like him. He speaks a little English, in which he was taught the gospel, but better than he does Italian, and is a very humble, and, surprsingly, happy man. The anziani had dinner with him, where he lives, and even took a video of it.  He made them his favorite and traditional meal, fu fu, which looks like a white dough ball.  After washing their hands in a common bowl (mostly to wet them so the dough would not stick to their hands) they form a little ball and dipped it, with their hands, in a small bowl of tomato based soup, made with goat meat. Victor was very pleased to be able to offer the missionaries this humble meal, the best he had.  He has to ride a bus about a half hour to the church, and has to come by the money for the bus ticket.  I don't know how he gets money, but when you go to the center of touristy cities, like Como, you see young Africans pan-handling, selling trinkets, including "friendship bracelets," as  Jan, Ginger and Brian learned in Rome. Anyway, I wanted to add this post about Victor before I forgot, although I may have already mentioned the Africans.

After I typed this I saw a few more baptism pictures come in, so I decided I had better amend this post to include this pix:

Just to show that people other than Africans are being baptized in Italy.

22 January 2017, Como Baptism and Bologna Chapel and University

This was another full week in the office, with the President gone most of the week for zone conferences.  On Thursday evening we went to the bishop's house for home teaching and then on to Naviglie (or ward) for our weekly keyboard lessons.  A new, teenage, girl came, so I had to start her at the third lesson, but she caught on fast and I hope will make good progress.  Today at church the bishop's wife asked me to start a little boy, maybe 10 or so, and I don't quite know how I will do it, because I am not giving them private lessons, but I will see if he has any natural talent.  If so, he may be able to keep up with the others.  I only have two more keyboards that I can give away away, but perhaps he will have one at home.  I don't give them a free keyboard at the first lesson, I want them to "earn" them by showing up and having studied the first things in the book, for which you don't need a keyboard.  Anyway, I am enjoying this experience and hope they are learning good music skills.

The avocado and rose bush in my office window seem to be thriving, but it is still pretty cold outside.

Today at Sacrament meeting we, the missionaries, were asked to sing a special number. Italians love "If you could hie to Kolob," but they never sing "O My Father," so I put together a little choir of missionaries (we practiced on Thursday evening after the music lessons) and sang the O My Father words to the Kolob music.  It was a little tricky to get the words to fit the music (It fits perfectly in English, but not so easily in Italian.) We sang it today and I thought it went well, and several people, including the old bishop's wife, with whom we had dinner on New Years, thanked me, twice, for it.,  Myrna taught the Joseph Smith First Vision lesson in Sunday School, which went very well. We only had the Danzie family and me, our American students haven't come yet.

On Friday evening we went to the Salatino's apartment for chili before driving together, in their car, to Como for a baptism that Anziano Thompson invited us to.  He baptized Victor, the African we met a few weeks ago at a family home evening in Como, which was before Victor ever had a lesson.  He progressed quickly. He speaks a little English and is learning Italian. I suppose he is in his 20s, but will know more about him when his baptism certificate comes to Myrna, who records them.  I forgot to take my camera, and my cell phone was not working because I didn't know the SIM card PIN, but later got a new one. It was a good evening.

On Saturday we went, in our car, with the Salatinos (left) and met up with the president and APs, to attend a ground breaking for a new chapel they are building in Bologna.  It was about 2 degrees C. outside (almost freezing), and the tent, where the meeting was held, was not heated.

This is the artist's rendering of the new chapel.  It will be a beautiful freestanding building, bigger and nicer than even in some places in the US (for example, Superior, AZ).  To remember back 50 years, and I spoke with a member who has been in the Bologna branch, now ward, 40 years, there were not any members there 50 years ago, but now they have a thriving ward and will be able to meet in this beautiful new building, and may have a second ward.  It is amazing how the Church is thriving in Italy.


The ward had a nice choir, to which they invited city officials, who showed up and seemed impressed, and had two short talks, mostly about the history of the Church in Bologna, a prayer by the stake president (they are in the Venice Stake), and the ground breaking, first by those seated on the stand, and then by anyone who wanted to come up and play in the dirt with a gold shovel

President and Sister Allen on the far right.

A pix of the missionaries, who were in attendance, which included some from nearby cities.  They also had nice refreshments, typical Italian appetizers and sodas, but it was pretty cold.

The property is in a nice part of the ancient city, (the ground was probably pretty expensive) next to a large grocery store, called Gigante, which provides a lot of nice free parking, although I assume there will be dedicated parking within the gates on Church property.  It is also near public transportation, which is important in Italy, since few members have cars.

From there we went to the center of Bologna.  We had to find a place to park and walk about 20 minutes, because there is no parking in the center of town.  Sister Salatino has a Fitbit on her wrist, and said we walked 6 miles, in our Sunday clothes and shoes (in the snow and uphill both ways).  In the center of Bologna there are two ancient towers, one is leaning quite a bit,

as you can see from this picture of its base. We saw another leaning tower in Bologna, so Pisa is not the only Italian city with old leaning and towers.

We were hungry and cold, so we found, near the towers, an all-you-can-eat buffet, for €10 each, which includes drink and cover charge.  They had a bit of everything, including sushi, which the missionaries love, but we never eat.

But poor Sorella Hoopes does not like mortadella (bologna) which you should eat at least in Bologna.  You can enlarge this and see the pistacios in this traditional mortadella. I ate a piece, but preferred the lasagna and meat (roast pork with mushrooms), which was pretty good, for a buffet.

It isn't a large place, but was fairly busy.  The missionaries like to eat there and told us about it. Missionaries always seem to know about good, cheap, places to eat.

The restaurant from the outside, but no one wanted to eat outside in the frosty temperature. In good weather Italians love to eat outside and watch the people stroll by.
 
It was also near the old public market area, which was not in operation.

And was near this church, which is like three old churches all connected internally.

The middle one had this very large preaching pulpit, but was not large enough for a congregation to sit to hear the preacher. I thought it seemed like a rameumptum, or how ever you spell it, but you know what I mean.
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Actually, the preacher could probably have been heard out in this inner courtyard, with a well in the middle, which would have been pleasant, in warmer weather.

In one of the chapels was this depiction of Jesus's body, as it would have been within the Shroud of Turin, the burial linen they have in the duomo of Torino, which I also saw 50 years ago.

There were many chapels, each with an altar, with different old and large paintings.

And displays of the old chalices used for mass.

They had a room full of ancient hymn books, very large, for the entire choir to read.

All hand written and well decorated. Music had not progressed to a 5 line staff yet, but the notes on the lines and spaces show how the melody goes up and down for chanting the words beneath.

There was this large oil painting, not framed, of the Son, on the left, and Father, on the right, with the Holy Ghost as a dove, touching the world they had created, with a few angels at the bottom.  Catholics may say they only believe in one god, but have a hard time otherwise depicting the Trinity.

This is a medieval Madonna and child,

And this is a newer one, with little Jesus holding a rose, about to receive an apple from his cousin, John the Baptist, with whom he is frequently painted.

Out that church and down the narrow street are these buildings, shops on the bottom and homes and offices on the upper floors,

The decorations on the side of the buildings include many, many heads (look at the top row).

Some pretty interesting.

We went to this inside passageway area, where Sorella Hoopes,standing in the corner, could hear me speaking softly, in the other corner (where I was taking the picture) because of the acoustics of the domed masonry area. I am not sure it was built specifically for this purpose, but someone figured it out long ago, based on the indentations on the stone pavement.

Going out the door in the picture above, and to the other side of the piazza, this is the building which contained the passageway, the middle door, without awning is the one above.
This piazza and church were out the other side of the passageway.  They started to put nice marble fascia on the large church, but must have run out of money (or had a war) and never finished it.

Behind the altar was the choir, which had this large wooden music book holder.  There was also a display of ancient violins, for which the entrance fee was 50 cents.  I happily paid it just to get closer to the organs, as can be seen in the right--there were two, one on each side.

One of the old hymn books, showing more decorations.  I would estimate the letters were at least an inch high.

To the side of that church was a building of the University of Bologna, which is very old and famous, at least in Italy.

We entered this courtyard of the university, which, look at the ceiling, has plaques of coats of arms.  These are for the students and teachers.  Everywhere you look there are these coats of arms for the different families, many with names and dates.

It was unbelievable how many there were, and the stories they told.

This dude graduated in 1750.

A hallway leading to a section of the university we visited

This is a large room, all in wood, where they laid out a dead body on the white marble slab and dissected him, with a professor at the high end, and students in their places all around, taking notes.

It was sort of spooky, thinking about what they did in there, for centuries.

Also, in this room the first woman university professor, Laura Bassi, did her thing, in 1732.

About which books were written.

Sadly, the university area part of Bologna was targeted during World War II for bombing, as shown in this picture taken from a plane.

They did take out some university buildings.  See the plaques in the middle right; don't know if they have ever been replaced.

More plaques with family names.

They actually had balls at the university, in rooms like we saw.

And lots of hallways, with many historic things displayed.

Including this newspaper when Giuseppe Verdi, the great opera composer, died in Milano.

We saw a library, with lots of ancient books, and more plaques.

And in this classroom there was some modern technology, because the university is still in business.

And this guy taking a break from re-finishing this more mundane floor in the classroom area.

There was this courtyard in the area where the museum is located.

There were tombstones from ancient Greece and Rome

And with statues...

Including this one of Neptune, who looked to be about the same size as Michaelangelo's David.  There is another Neptune like this, which is in a piazza in Bologna, at the top of a fountain. Sorella Salatino said there is a duplicate of this statue in her home town in California.  We did not go to that piazza because of time limitations, but hope to go back sometime.

The museum began with arrowheads from prehistoric Italy.

And pottery.  I thought of how Paul used to restore pots.

And they worshiped little gods, of which there were many.

Both male and female gods.

And some larger ones, like this smiley one

This statue of Eirene and Plutus was from 370 BC, in Rome.  Even though this was from before Christ, it is easy to see how the Romans just continued to make these kinds of mother and child statues over the centuries, but switched to calling them Mary and Jesus, which are still worshiped.

More female god statues.

But they also liked their athletes, like this gladiator.

And their theater.

There was an entire room of Greek pottery.

Of all shapes and sizes.

And weapons of war...

like arrow heads and knives, they also had swords, hatchets, etc.

There was this display of Roman coins,

including this one that was being used at the time of Christ.

These are the coins needed to buy this bag of wheat.

A collection of Roman oil lamps.

A lot of this pottery, etc, was found in graves. They had a few displays showing what the graves looked like when they were found and took out the pottery, coins, jewelry, etc.

A metal hat and some gold piece.

And lots of jewelry.

And a couple of entire floors from their homes

made of mosaics.

The way out to the busy street was lined with Roman tombstones.

It was 5 pm, and just starting to get dark, especially in those narrow streets where the shops were still open.

We will end with this large (but I have seen bigger) mortadellas (baloney from Bologna), in this meat and cheese store.

Ciao for now.