7 May 2017, New missionary training, twinkling & Darco

While Kevin and Tess were on their trip, we had a busy week in the office.  We had 11 new missionaries come in.  I did my training with them at the Cimiano church, and we fed them and their trainers lunch, about 30 people in all

Myrna puts meat and cheese packets together early for panini for their lunch.

Although my picture didn't turn out well, the three kinds of cookies Myrna baked for them were delicious. They were chocolate chip, potato chip, and Janet Anderson's "Kicken Craisen" recipe for cookies with craisens and chili, yes chili powder for a "kick".

Sorella Allen did her training on Sono Secondo (I am second), compared with Sono Primo (I am first, which is being the "natural man.")

We had a change in Assistants to the President this week.  Anziano Pyper was sent to Montevarchi for his last few months.  This week he also received his letter telling him he is on the BYU football team, starting this fall. He was very excited.  (President and Sorella Allen barbecued hamburgers for us this week as sort of a going away party.) Anziano Da Ponte (on the right in the pix) was called as an AP, to serve along with Anziano Larsen Brooks. They also take part in the training.  Anziano Da Ponte was born in Bolzano, Italy, to an American, so he has dual citizenship.  He came on his mission to Italy, but had to go home to have operations on his knee, in Richland, Washington (by Dr. Hazel) and then returned a year later, which is remarkable.

Myrna's lunch spread at the Cimiano church. She also did a similar one at the mission office for those who were going home--never the two groups met.

Our sorelle can sometimes out eat the anziani.

But these stud muffins can also eat a lot. We enjoy our "catering" assignments, being able to serve the missionaries,literally.

On Thursday evening we put together the usual going home dinner in the mission home for the missionaries who were being twinkled.  The traditional missionary slang phrase is "dying," but Sister Allen wants to change it to "twinkling" and even uses scriptures to reinforce this concept.

The APs serve, and seem to enjoy it.  This time they served at the beginning of the meal, then sat to eat, and the office anziani finished the serving process, while we manned the kitchen and dishes.

I took this group pix of the twinklers.

From the above pix I cropped out Anziano Luca Santoro and Sister Iliana Garcia, both Italians being twinkled on the same day.  They knew each other before their missions and were even informally engaged.  He is from Bari and was called to Johannesburg, South Africa. However, he had to come home for health reasons and was re-assigned to our mission.  She was from Rome (although her family immigrated from South America) and was called to our mission.  President Dibb allowed them to write each other and President Allen, when Anziano Santoro was called to be an AP, allowed them to email once a week. There are many inspiring stories of how they kept themselves apart during their mission.  Many missionaries didn't even know they were in love.  One time Sister Garcia asked the President for a blessing.  He took his assistants with him and told her any one of them could bless her, so she asked for Anziano Santoro, who was able to do it.  I believe they will be married fairly soon, probably in the Swiss Temple.  He said he wants to go to school, to become an airplane mechanic, in Lecco, so we may be able to see them again before we leave.  I also believe that they will become great church leaders in Italy, where they intend to live, and we feel it is a privilege to have known them at this tender and influential stage of their eternal development.

After the go home dinner on Thursday we went to get Kevin and Tess at Rogoredo.

Kevin zips up his last bag about midnight.  We had them at the airport at Malpensa early the next morning.

Then, on Friday morning, we went to an orthopedic doctor at the Humanitas clinic in Rozzano, near where we live, so Myrna could have her increasingly aching right shoulder checked out.  Dr. DeRosa, who spoke English, told her it is tendanitis (not arthritis, which we feared) and gave her an injection of cortisone. He also ordered x-rays and ultrasound next week and wants to see her next Friday. The shot has helped a little, and she is icing her tendon, instead of exercising and using heat.

This was taken in the waiting room of the very large Humanitas hospital complex on Friday. You take a number to go up to register to be seen.

Then you wait in the waiting room to be called into the room.  We did not wait long at either place though.  As you can see, it was a very modern hospital with state of the art technology.  They accepted our Atena (through the Church) insurance. Socialized medicine works okay, at least for us, so far.

Then, later in the evening on Friday, after doing our normal office work, we had a high priest group party at our house.  I wrote the following, so I could remember what I learned.

On Friday, 5 May 2017, we had a Navigli Ward high priest group party at our apartment in Opera. It had been planned for several months, things kept coming up, but it was finally held. Eighteen people came.  In our ward there is a former Catholic Priest, Darco Javic, who was born in Croatia, which is just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy.  He is in his early 30s and was our speaker.  Italian is not his native language, but he speaks it fairly well—he spoke in Italian.  He was born and raised Roman Catholic and entered a seminary to become a priest when he was seven. His parents were very proud of him, believing it was an honor to have a priest in the family.  He had a younger brother, who passed away, whose picture Darco had enlarged and brought with him. He said saving his brother from hell was a very powerful motivator for his finding the truth.

Darco asked for a white board and used it during his 90 minute talk.  He began by drawing a triangle and said it represented the Catholic Church.  Teaching by asking questions, asking what the Catholic Church is. The correct answer, on which he elaborated, is a monarchy, which ruled much of the world for the past 2,000 years. It is designed after previous monarchies, and subsequent monarchies are modeled after it.  At the top of the triangle is the pope, the king, who is believed to be Christ on earth. The princes are the cardinals. He said the election of a pope is a political process, not spiritual. Then he drew a circle representing a bishop of a diocese (from Greek meaning administration), which is analogous to an LDS stake. The bishops report up through the College of Cardinals, who report to the pope.

In addition to this monarchy, there are many orders named after founders, who have generally been canonized as saints. For example, the Benedictines, Franciscans (founded by St. Francis--a Patron Saint of Italy, along with St. Catherine of Siena), Dominicans, Jesuits (founded by a Spaniard) and hundreds more, including orders for women. The Jesuits, who wear black robes, were very instrumental in converting the natives of the Americas to Christianity. The current pope, Francis, of Italian descent, but born and raised in Argentina, was the first ever Jesuit to become a pope. (Jesuits, according to their order, are not supposed to be in positions of authority, a paradox for the papacy.)  Members of these holy orders, who are called religiosi (religious) in Italian include priests, monks, deacons, nuns, etc. and do not necessarily follow the pyramid organization chart, reporting to a bishop and may have somewhat different practices. Darco said that the founders of orders were looking for more truth or to correct what they believed were errors. For example, Martin Luther was a priest of a diocese who didn’t like certain things in the monarchy, like indulgences (paying in advance for forgiveness of sin), being used at that time to build St. Peter’s Bascilica in Rome. Darco said that this belief that the priest can forgive sins is still being abused. Luther didn’t intend to form another Christian church, just to reform the Roman one, but was excommunicated by the pope and his followers ended up founding a new Christian church.  Luther was one of many reformers, some sainted (Francis) and some excommunicated (Waldo, whose followers are known as Waldesians).  

Darco said that the Roman Catholic Church burned its enemies for centuries, believing that this was not murder because their blood could not cry vengeance from the earth, quoting an Old Testament verse.  (If you try to change the church in a “politically correct” manner you could become a saint, if you don’t, you could be excommunicated, or burned.)

Darco also talked about the history of the succession of popes, telling about a woman, Joan, who actually became a pope, but died during a procession, in childbirth. He said that Pope John XXIII, who was an Italian from near Bergamo in the early 1960s had a very short reign, but created significant changes in the church, through an ecumenical council, that helped make it possible that LDS missionaries could come to Italy. (I remember being told that when I came in 1965, and we appreciated Pope John.)

    

Darco then talked about his own preparation to become a priest, which was abusively strict.  For several years during his training he could not speak (vow of silence) and he lived in physically uncomfortable circumstances. He said that he was required to clean a very long hallway with a toothbrush, because in his culture men did not clean anything—that was women’s work.  This taught him humility and obedience. Even his name was changed, to Peter, and so was his personality, through powerful psychological manipulations so that when he was finally ordained, and was told he could forgive sin as a priest, he was supposed to be more Christlike, or at least well "brainwashed."

 

It is interesting that Sister Allen has been teaching our missionaries the concept of “Sono Secondo,” which means “I am second.”  All of the attributes of putting yourself “first” (Sono Primo) have to do with the “natural man,” using LDS terminology, and putting yourself second is to become more Christlike. However, like about everything, going to excess can cause problems. 

 

After Darco became a priest he was sent to Rome, where he worked with the headquarters bureaucracy.  I have been told he investigated supernatural experiences, such as miracles, visions and exorcisms, although he did not elaborate (I hope to learn more.)  He briefly described how the Catholic Church creates saints, who whom prayers are offered. (In Soda Springs, a good Catholic, I believe he is a deacon, told me that Catholics only pray to God through Jesus, not saints or Mary—so the teachings may be different in different parts of the world.)  

Darco said he was converted to the LDS church through the Book of Mormon, and when he told his parents about it, they were very upset, saying he had abandoned his culture, heritage and let everyone down. They wouldn’t talk to him for a long time, only recently has he had a conversation with his father.
    

It was a very interesting talk, I wish I could learn more from Darco.  He also played my Hauptwerk organs, playing some ancient Gregorian and Ambrosian chants I have collected, and said he was taught to sing it and enjoys it.

It was a “potluck” party.  Because it was 5 May (which nobody knew about as a Mexican holiday), we made fajitas, Spanish rice (Mexican Risotto), salsa and bought corn chips. Fratello Nay made a spinach quiche, the former bishop’s wife made a lasagna, but with regular noodles, someone brought little pizzas, some filled with wurstel (hot dogs), and there were lots of desserts, like big pannetone. Sorella Allen brought a great frog eye salad.  Instead of filling their plates and sitting down to eat, our guests just gathered around the serving table and ate there. Rather than eat at the beginning of the party, starting at 8 pm, with fresh/hot (at least ours was hot) food, they waited until the end and we ate mostly cold food.

Although you can't see him well, because of the back lighting, here is Darco telling us about the catholic monarchy and his experiences as a Catholic Priest, in our living room.

After Darco's talk, everyone gathered around the food and ate, instead of filling their plates and taking it back to the living room, as we thought they would.  They seemed to enjoy the party and many told us again at church today how much they enjoyed it.  The white haired guy in front of the door is Fratello Angiouli, our high priest leader, a former bishop who is also on the high council, and Darco is the taller guy to his right.  The brother in the striped shirt (I believe the Stake Exec. Sec.) between them came from Como, about an hour away, just to hear Darco.

This has been a busy, but fun, week.  After church today, we took good naps and look forward to next week. On Monday we feed 36 missionaries at Lampagno and this week we also go to Varese to close an apartment. The bishop's wife just called and asked me to play the piano for the Festa delle Donne (Mother's day) party at the church on Friday, so this will also be a busy week.  We received our travel plans to go home this week. It will be here before we know it. We arrive in Salt Lake City on Aug 12 at 10:30 pm.

Ciao for now.