We didn't have any family here this week, but we did travel. In addition to our work in the office, we went to inspect apartments to the south of us. I taught my piano lesson at the church in Milano on Thursday, and had a new student, the Primary President, who I think will do well. She is from Venezuela, has been in Italy for two years, and speaks good Italian. Her husband is a chef on a ship, and will be at sea until August. I also bought a new pair of dress shoes, for €30, at Deichmann, near Metro (Italian Corsto), where we bought boxes of individual packets of mayo and mustard for conference lunches.
On Saturday morning we went with the Allens to Vicenza to a baptism, and then, later in the afternoon, to another one at the Cimiano church in Milano. Crossing the street to the mission home at 8 am, we ran into missionaries, who had been out playing early morning basketball.
Ends are office anziani, Simmons (left) and Hogan, red shorts is Anziano Pyper, AP, with visiting missionaries, DaPonte (right of red shorts) and Lazarte (Italian, left of red shorts), with AP, Anziano Brooks second to right. We are expecting a new office anziano today, Anz. Matt Wilson.
Vicenza is a city about two hours east. We had only been near there, when we went to the chess tournament last summer at Marostica, which we could see from the freeway near Vicenza. There is an American base in Vicenza, and an English speaking ward. The young father who was baptized was an American, whose wife said he would not have been baptized had they been living in the US. The fairly new church in Vicenza is on the second floor of an office building, and is quite spacious.
Chapel of the Vicenza wards; an American and an Italian ward meet here.
Little American girl in hallway of Vicenza meetinghouse.
On Saturday evening we went to the baptism of this 9 year old African boy, who lives with his father in Crema. They attend the Lodi Ward, which does not have a baptismal font, so he was baptized at the Cimiano chapel by Anziano Simmons, who works with us in the office and is going home soon, and will be replaced by Anz. Wilson.
As part of the baptism program, the Primary from Lodi, sang a song, accompanied on the piano by a Primary age boy who also gave the talk on baptism. He did a good job speaking and playing. The little African boy who was baptized will be a member of this Primary. I don't know how many kids are in the Primary. The bishop and ward mission leader, who conducted the meeting, were also impressive. The office anziani go to this ward, and the APs attend ours at Navigli.
Since it was the evening before Easter, Sorella Allen boiled a few dozen brown (only kind I have seen in Italy) eggs, which would be difficult to dye colors, and we (the Allens, Myrna and I) hid them in the yard of the mission home. As we were hiding them, about 8 pm, there was thunder and then a very heavy rainstorm came, but quickly left.
Find the hidden boiled egg by the planter on the steps to the mission home.
So about 9:30 pm, when all the office missionaries were back from their appointments, we invited them over to find the eggs, which they did (except for 3) in the dark, and wet grass, etc, with flashlights.
Today we went to church in our Navigli ward. We sang the two Easter hymns and then during third hour watched the Church's Easter videos with the Priesthood and Relief Society meeting together.
Today after church we (mostly Myrna), made a very nice Easter dinner, and invited the Salatini and Allens to our apartment. We started with wedge salad, brought by Sorella Allen, fruit salad, brought by Sorella Saltino, and we served chicken cordon blu (I wanted to serve roast coniglo--Easter Bunny, but was outvoted), gouda (cheese) potatoes, asparagus, and a fresh strawberry pie for dessert. Buying the strawberries was interesting. The stores had tons, but sold the out--apparently everyone wanted strawberries for Easter dinner. Kristin sent Easter confetti (see on table) and she and Megan sent lots of Easter candy eggs, with which we made a large Easter basket for the office, devoured by the missionaries.
It's asparagus season, which Italians like, as do I.
And, of course, we had uovo alla diavola. (Good way to use Easter eggs.)
President Allen was sent a copy of a new book about the history of the Church in Italy, published by BYU. It is called, as you can see, "Mormons in the Piazza." He is letting me read it first, and I just started this afternoon. It looks like it will be interesting.
This is a picture from the book, taken on the day when the Italian Mission was first organized in 1966. I hadn't seen this picture before, but I am pointing my pen at Anziano Hoopes. Four heads to the left (front row) of the end of my pen, is a missionary who almost looks like he has a mustache (but didn't), and is Carlos Mongiovi, one of my companions in Bergamo, who is now the high priest group leader in Muggiò, with whom Myrna and I, and his wife, went to visit President Mario Viara, the first stake president, a mission president and Swiss Temple president, who my brother, Fred, baptized. I have not yet read the entire book, but looked through the index to find something about President Vaira, and, interestingly, haven't found anything yet. Interesting, because one of the authors of the book, Toronto, was a mission president in Catania, a few presidents after President Vaira, so he undoubtedly knew about him.
On page 332 of the book
is an interesting paragraph that could have included my name, had the author known it. I had been serving in Florence, working part-time in the mission office typing the words under the music for the children's hymnbook, getting it ready for printing, when I was called to be Elder Rial's companion in Livorno. In addition to doing normal missionary work in Livorno, we worked on translations and also published "La Stella," a predecessor to the Liahona magazine. On Sundays we attended the Pisa branch, where I was later transferred and became the branch president there, before returning home from my mission during late spring in 1968.
Ciao for now.
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