12 February 2017, Missionary in and out, music lessons and Pavia

This was, again, a busy week in the office.  We had one new missionary come in from the Spain MTC on Tuesday, an Italian for whom I did his financial orientation, in Italian. (He will learn English during his mission, which will be a real blessing for him.)  Then on Wed. eight more came from the Provo MTC, for whom I also did their orientations, in English.  Their airline (British) lost every piece of their luggage and it didn't arrive until noon the next day, and we had to send the office anziani to the airport to get it, or the new missionaries would have had to wait even longer to get out to their first assignments. There is always some unplanned challenge, but, overall, the week went as planned during our Monday morning office meeting,

They all looked so wide awake (smile), during Sorella Allen's orientation--they were absolutely dead during mine, but I get to do it again for them in five weeks.

During the match-up they learn who their trainer will be and to which city they are going.  This is always, at least for me, an emotional experience. I took the "official" pictures of them, the ones that are put in the mission blog and were sent to their parents, who were also called by the office anziani.

Some of them look so young, but they were well trained in the MTC. Anziano Goold, in the middle, is from Oregon, and spoke today, without prior notice, in our ward's sacrament meeting. He began by saying, in proper Italian "I have been in Italy for four days..."  It will be interesting to see how much they mature.  His companion/trainer is Anziano Harris, from Brigham City.

Anziano Anderson, on the right, and has been working with us in the office for a few months, was made a trainer and went to Pesaro with his "greenie," to his left.  He is excited, and we are happy for him, but will miss him, as we do all of them when they eventually leave.  He did call, at 5:30 pm on Saturday, from the supermarket, to ask Sorella Hoopes, what ingredients to buy to make brownies, for which she emailed him the recipe.

The gentle gigante, in the center, Anziano Petruzzielo, is from Bari (as is Anziano Santoro), and was a chef--his specialty was lasagna. I hope I get to try some of it someday.  On Thursday evening the eight missionaries who went home had their last supper at the Mission Home.  Anziano Te Mari, from New Zealand, wanted to make shepherd's pie, and Sorella Allen allowed him do that for them. My trainer, Anziano Cody Brooks, was in the group.

This is the "official" picture taken at the Mission home, after the last supper and testimony meeting, for those who are going home.  The missionary, on the far right, is my trainer (taught me how to do financial things), Anziano Cody Brooks. He is going to BYU for a year, then to the U of U to pharmacy school. Sorella Hoopes and I, in our testimonies, reminded them to remember the Spirit they have felt and to not lose it, so they can return in a few decades as senior couples.  I told them that on my mission 50 years ago, I greatly admired fellow missionary, (I didn't tell them his name) who I was sure would become a general authority.  An intellectual author and attorney, he (along with his wife, perhaps related to Myrna) apostatized and is now a well-known (one of the September Six) anti-Mormon.

On Friday we went to the church at Navagli for weekly keyboard lessons.  I had a new student, the Primary President, from 6 to 7, and of the four who should have come from 7 to 8, only little Samantha came, so I taught her one-on-one, with Myrna in the room.

On Saturday morning we went to IKEA to buy a cat pillow for Anziano Hogan's birthday.  His companion, Anziano Simmons, wanted to get it for him, so we went to buy it.  We also had lunch there.  I had the Swedish meatballs, and remembered that I do like meat loaf (polpettone).  Maybe I will get some one of these days, if I can convince Myrna I really like it. We are also the "senior couple" over the missionary apartments in Torino, and we got a call from Anziano Juhasz telling us their beds are broken and they are sleeping with their mattresses on the floor.  So, on Saturday, we drove "big Bertha" the mission's largest vehicle, to Pavia to the vacant apartment, where the two anziani from Pavia, came to help us load furniture.  They had to carry a large clothes closet down five flights of stairs; we carried the bed frames.  It will take two more trips to empty that apartment.  We will take the beds to Torino this coming week, probably on Wed. morning when I just learned that the landlord is sending some painters to paint the ceilings in our offices, because of leaks in the apartment above.  At 5:00 on Saturday evening, we were coming home from Pavia and saw a Baroque church tower I had never noticed.  I took a hundred meters detour, parked and went into the church. The old organ was being played, very impressively (most don't play any more), so I went back out and asked Myrna to come in, just as the 5 pm mass was beginning to start. We sat in the back and I really enjoyed the music, which was sung with the organ by the congregation of old folks, but at 5:30, Anziano Anderson called and so we slipped out the back door as to not disturb the sermon.  We did some grocery shopping for breakfast for consiglio, which is tomorrow morning.

Today at church we learned that next Sunday is ward conference, so we should be getting a new counselor in the bishopric, as our previous counselor, Davide Friolo, moved with his family to Los Angeles, California, where he heard they are doing well, attending a Spanish speaking ward and the children are leaning English.  

In the evening we went over to the Mission Home to celebrate Anziano Hogan's 20th birthday.

Sorella Hoopes made him his favorite dessert, banana creme pie. She made the crust from crushed up Italian cookies from a box at the store, and it turned out better than graham cracker, which they don't have here.

Then, Sorella Allen had them play a game, which they are using as an object lesson tomorrow at consiglio.  Teams try to bounce new pencils, from the eraser end, into large bowls within a limited amount of time. Everyone tried, some did better than others--Sorella Hoopes was pretty good and I beat the president (by one pencil).

Then his companion, Anziano Simmons, gave Anziano Hogan the cat pillow we bought for him at IKEA yesterday. He really loves cats. We also watched a bunch of cat videos on YouTube, where someone sneaks a cucumber next to a cat eating and when the cat discovers the cucumber, which it must think is a snake or something, they all really jump, which is funny to watch.  If I ever have access to a cat and a cucumber, I think I will try that.

Ciao for now.