11 December 2016, "Regular" work week

This week the rest (final four) of the zone conferences were held in the southern part of the mission. We didn't have anything to do with them, and other senior couples made the lunches (not all were Thanksgiving dinners, like ours).  President and Sorella Allen, and the APs went and Sorella Hoopes and I stayed in the office all week, along with the three office anziani. They had their meetings, and go out "finding" every afternoon and evening, so, we were alone in the office pretty much all week.  Next week we have a General Authority 70, Elder Johnson, coming for a "mission tour." We will have two mission conferences (half of the mission at each), one in Milano and the other in Modena, which we will also be attending, because we're doing the food. The entire mission is coming, where Christmas gifts will be distributed, which Myrna also worked on, along with Sorella Allen, this week.  We are serving sloppy joes, for 220 total souls, so we've spent a lot of time this week buying and preparing for that luncheon. We bought 90 kilos of hamburger, which we watched being ground at Eurospin. They actually invited me into the butcher room of the supermarket (which you can see in through a large glass window and watch the butchers), and asked me what we were going to do with all that meat.  I had fun telling the two young butchers about sloppy joes, as well as the Church and our missionary program. Italians sell ground meat for ragù (think spaghetti sauce), although it is usually a mix of beef and pork.  We had the ground beef specially made for us, and it was even on sale.  They took very large chunks of nice looking beef (comes in sealed plastic bags, which one could buy at Metro), trimmed a little of the fat and ground it up in a large machine.  I suspect in the US it would be labeled about 10-15% fat (I have no idea how they measure fat content), but Italians don't sell it by fat content, and it was only 4.99 euros a kilo, which is about $2.50 per pound. They also sell "hamburgers," which are already pattied out ground beef, and costs a lost more.  Apparently Italians don't realize that you can patty out your own hamburgers.  We bought nice big buns also at Eurospin, although we bought all they had and need to go to other stores to get more tomorrow.  They are made in a big bakery somewhere, have a shelf life until March of next year, but are pretty good, and even have sesame seeds on top.  We also went 17.4 kilometers (one way, I keep track because we are reimbursed mileage) to Metro, Italy's version of Costco, and bought two large containers (5 liters each) of catsup for 12 euros, although Heinz, which they also sell there, was 15, and other ingredients, like worshistershire sauce, bottles of water (so each missionary can have their own) and potato chips. We bought the local, San Carlo brand of chips (they also sell Lays), 75 cents for two serving size (50 cm) bags, although we got one for each missionary. (I don't know why we just didn't buy large bags, but that wasn't our decision) to go with the sloppy joes.  I chopped a heck of a lot of onions during the week and Myrna cooked the meat mix in our kitchen, in many batches over two days.  

Sloppy Joes cooking on our stove, cooled on the kitchen table out on the balcony (probably colder out there than in our refrigerator.)

Sloppy joe mix cooling on our balcony, before we put it in freezer bags, 8-9 cup bags, and into the large (for Italy) freezer at the mission home.

Bottles of water, buns and potato chips stored in the mission office, ready for the conference.

Next to my desk I have two little rose bushes, which were on sale at IPER, two for 2.99, and my avacado, above the radiator, so they all keep pretty warm, and get sunlight during the day.

In the mission office we have a Christmas tree with der blinken lights! We get many packages from the post office, FedEx, DHL, Amazon, etc, each day for the missionaries. (Some with pretty stiff import fees,) It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.

As I type this I can hear the assistants to the president, Anziani Santoro e Pyper, in the office next door, planning their work for next week, which includes having the Genova anziani here tomorrow for scambio. They are both excellent missionaries, for whom I have a lot of love and respect.

Myrna also worked this week in her "spare time" (early mornings) stuffing cute little bags we bought, at IKEA, for all of the 220 missionaries, including seniors, with chocolate, some of which David and Megan brought us from the US.

We have our own little Christmas tree and Nativity, which David and Megan brought, and for which Kristin sent some cute ornamenti she made with paint stirrers.

David and Megan also brought our cute Christmas stockings.

Myrna bought this live plant, which in Italy, literally translated, is called a Christmas Star.

Yesterday (Saturday) morning, Sorelle Hoopes e Allen wrapped their secret gifts for all of the missionaries. I went over to the new mall (within walking distance, but I didn't walk--it was too cold) to see if the Ferrari store was open yet, it wasn't, and found the office elders there taking pix.

Anziano Noah Anderson pointing to Noe, his first name in Italian, at the new mall.  Because it was cold and I wanted to find a warm place that wasn't a store where people would try to sell me something, I went into the new McDonalds and had a chocolate shake (they are only €1). This week I had this silly idea that Myrna and I would buy each other a bottle of profuma (perfune) for Christmas and I have been doing research about suitable (for missionaries) flavors it on line. Italians use more perfume than do Americans, and they make a lot in Italy, although perhaps not as much as in France. Because of what I have read online, I am interested in Ferrari Black (actually made invented by Enzio Ferrari and sold at their stores).  Then, in the afternoon, we went to the IPER mall (larger and inside, where it is also warm, but very busy) and went to several profumerie (perfume stores), and smelled until our noses became very confused, but did not buy, yet. Myrna says I am too cheap to buy good stuff, but we will see.  It is 6 pm on Sunday and I have washed my left hand many times, including a shower this morning, but can still smell the Ferrari Red (they didn't have Black) from 32 hours ago.  It smells different each time, but is still faintly there. (I think I have a dozen little slips of white paper with various uomo e donna profuma smells in my jacket pocket.)

One time when we got back from a trip, the office anziani had taken a picture they took of themselves and installed it on our monitors as our screen savers.  There used to be a pix of the temple in Richland, WA, that Anziano Brooks had installed when we came, and I have never taken off.  This evening I found Anziano Anderson's mission blog and took off this picture, which is my now my screen saver. He is in the middle bottom.  They may have taken taken this pix at a store where they, at least the three on the right, could wear the same red jacket.  Interesting...

This morning we went to church at our Navigli Ward, pretty normal, and this afternoon I went with my new home teaching companion, Chris Dansie, to see Gianna and her daughter (and two dogs), and came back to the office and found my blog (lost it this week because IMOS made me take off all my "favorite" places) and wrote this blog post.  I will now do today's rimborsi and go up to our apartment in a while.

Anyway, this was a less busy week, but next week should be pretty busy.  We'll see!

Ciao for now.

Saturday, 3 December 2016, David's family, B, Thanksgivings, Wedding & Baptism

We left David's family in Florence on Wed, 23 Nov, and came back to Opera on the train, about a two hour ride.

Arriving at the Rogoredo station in Milano, where we caught the train to Locate, where the assistants came to get us.  David's family drove down to Rome, where we can't go because it is not in our mission. (The Ticino cantone in Switzerland is in our mission, which is why we were able to go there with David's family.)  On Thursday we worked with Sister Allen to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for their family (their son, wife and two small children were visiting), which we had at the mission home with all of the local missionaries, the Salatini, and a senior couple, the DeAngelis, who were going home to Utah the next day.  It was a traditional Thanksgiving diner, which Myrna helped prepare, and went very well. When we went around the table saying what we were thankful for, I remarked that I like pecan pie, which Myrna made with pecans that David brought.(They don't have pecans in Italy.)  I talked about how I was raised in Thatcher, where pecans are grown, it is my "birthright" to have pecan pie, and how thankful and blessed I have been because of my heritage. We worked in the office, getting caught up with our normal tasks, on Friday, and late that evening David's family arrived from Rome, having had a grand time.  He left me with copies of all of his pix, which are wonderful, but I will not share them on this blog. Those here are all mine, but his are far better than mine.

On Saturday morning we went with David's family to Como, then up to Lugano in Switzerland.
 
They were having an open market in Como, and also selling things for Christmas.  David enjoys taking pix of stuff, and he gets excellent photographic results, which he puts into fascinating videos, which I am looking forward to seeing.

Megan bought freshly made pretzels.

We enjoyed walking the streets of Como, seeing many interesting sights.

We went into the cathedral, where an organist was practicing for a service they were getting ready for. We (David and I) both took videos, which include sound, of the organ in that large and ancient (started during Roman times) cathedral.  It was wonderful, to say the least.  David wanted me to ask the organist if I could play the organ (there are two pipe organs in that duomo, this pix is of the smaller of the two), but the organist was intently practicing beautiful music, and they were starting to put the chairs up for the service we didn't stay for.

We then wandered down, only about a block, past McDonalds, in which only I stopped to use the bathroom, to beautiful Lake Como, and walked around.

Abby was doing cartwheels on the sidewalk.  I was surprised someone didn't come up and offer her money. Sometimes we see guys juggling in the middle of a busy street, hoping someone will give them a few euros, and there are musicians on street corners playing, sometimes quite well, with their hats on the ground waiting for coins to drop in. There are also a few beggars, including newly arrived Africans, who can't get jobs, with their cups out.

We saw some people with three of the kind of dogs that Jan raises, English Creams, a kind of Golden Retriever, at least I think they are.  If you read this, Jan, please comment. I think you also saw some when you were there.

We parked near where the missionaries live (behind the duomo), including Anziano Thompson, who was in the office and is now a zone leader.  We rang their bell (second down on the left), but they weren't home. We told him later and he was upset they weren't home to see us.

After leaving Como, we drove about 45 minutes to Lugano, in Switzerland, and to the little town that has the Last Supper painted on the wall in the church. You can see Christmas decorations, which they have up (they didn't have them 50 years ago). Opera has some nice ones too.

We were the only ones in that little church at the time, but it was busy out in the narrow little streets. Again, this Last Supper was painted on wet plaster (afresco), the way Leonardo's should have been painted, but wasn't, so it faded fast. The painters here used Leonardo's outline, so it is exactly the same size painting, because they were from his school (apprentices, who actually painted everything but the faces) in Milano.  David's family wasn't able to see the "real" Last Supper, because tickets are very hard to come by for several reasons.  If you are coming and want to see it, you need to let us know well in advance.

They were having a Christmas craft sale out in the streets, which was fun to see.

Someone brought their St. Bernard, which the kids enjoyed seeing and petting.  They are very large dogs, with soft fur, and this one had his red Swiss collar and little brandy keg, which leaked a little when he laid down to be petted.  This is Josh petting him.

This is farming country, and someone's little asino (donkey), which will perhaps be used in a Christmas pageant, also wanted to be acknowledged.

Then we headed back south, stopping in Lugano to walk on the shores of Lake Lugano, which has a beautiful park we enjoy seeing each time we go there. We went to an Aldi store (headquartered in Germany, but they have them in the US) and bought some Swiss chocolate, etc..
 
From the lake looking south, towards Italy, which isn't very far.

Looking north, further in to Switzerland, there were alps, which have already had a little snow.

The next morning we went to Sacrament meeting.  The program was the Young Women.  I played the piano for their special musical number.  The lady on the left is Sorella Gianna Lanfranseschini, who is the Young Woman leader and also leads the music in Sacrament meeting.  We are her home teachers. The girl right behind the girl in the middle with the yellow T shirt is Gianna's daughter.  After she graduates from high school next year, they plan to move to the US to live with her son, who currently lives in Rexburg, where they are attending BYU-I.  After church we came home and had lunch, then went on the metro (subway) to downtown Milano, to see the duomo and other sights.

Here is David's family in front of the famous cathedral of Milano. one of the largest churches in the world.

David is in the corner looking at one of the large metal doors, of which there are three sets.

We went inside.  The kids had seen so much like this during the week, including the wonders of the Vatican in Rome, they were't sort of overdosed. The organs, there are four cases of which you can see two, have more combined pipes than the Tabernacle organ.  I played this 50 years ago, but they won't let me near it now, and they charge €2 to even go into this cathedral. Security is tight here, with armed guards.

We did see the saint who was skinned alive and is holding his skin (draped around his shoulders) and his skinned fingers in his hand.  Sort of gross, but interesting. You can enlarge this pix to see the skinned fingers, etc.

Then we walked a few blocks over to see the church with people's bones (plague victims) for decorations.  However, we were not aware that it closes at 12:30 pm on Sundays, so we couldn't get in.  This picture is not the church with the bones.  You go to the front door of this church, turn to your left and ahead of you (to the left) there is the church with the bones in one of its side chapels. It always amazes me why they built two churches right next to each other.   There were so many people milling around the duomo area that I asked a guard (they have army guards, wearing cammo and with machine guns) if something was going to happen.  He remarked that it is always like this on Sunday afternoons. We had never been there on Sunday afternoon.  Because it was Sunday, we did not walk into the world's oldest and perhaps most famous shopping mall, nor did we walk through it to see the famous Opera Scala on the other side.  David's family left to return to sunny southern California on Monday morning. We had a wonderful time with them and are looking forward to more visitors.

Then, we started one of the busiest and most physically demanding weeks that we have had, so far, on our mission. On Tuesday we drove 2 hours one way (up hill, both ways, in the snow, of course) to Torino to zone conference to feed 30 missionaries a turkey dinner, which we started preparing the day and night before (roast turkey, dressing, real potatoes and gravy, corn, salad, Myrna's crescent rolls, and apple pie.). Then we drove another two hours on Wed. to Genova to do the same thing for the about same number of missionaries. Then, on Thursday, we did it again for another 30, driving 40 minutes to the Cimiano church in Milano. We learned how to roast turkey breasts (we couldn't find whole turkeys to buy) in crock pots (start cooking at 11 pm the night before), make dressing with Italian bread (interesting, but good), make mashed potatoes with Italian or Dutch potatoes (we used both, certainly not like good ole' Idaho russets), and apple pie (they do have Granny Smith apples here) in large pans because we don't have pie pans.  I went to nearby grocery stores just before serving time, to buy crema gelato, the closest thing they have to vanilla ice cream to top off the pie, so they could have a little taste of America, which they seemed to enjoy.

We even found that at Ikea they sell bottles of Swedish cranberry jam, which they don't otherwise have in Italy. If you enlarge this pix, you could see the expression on the sister's faces, when they said, is this really cranberry jelly?

This is one of the apple pies that Myrna made. She made the first ones with shortening, because she still had some, but ran out (they don't sell it here), so she used butter for the others.  Those with butter were actually better, I thought. They do sell lard here, but she didn't want to use it.

On Friday we attended the wedding of Sorella Cano's daughter to a non-member (he is taking the discussions) at the Lampagnano church. I played the organ and piano and sang a solo (I Believe in Christ), and Myrna offered the opening prayer, in Italian.

The chapel was decorated with the two chairs for the bride and groom to sit in, with the witness chairs on the sides. It was to start at 10:30, but actually started at 11:45 am, so I played a very long prelude, mostly hymns. This is fairly typical of Italian events, including baptisms. The man who married them came up to me and asked what I was going to play for the wedding march, saying I could not play "here comes the bride," which I wasn't planning on playing.  He must not have trusted me, so he brought me a hymnbook opened to "I know that my Redeemer lives," which he asked me to play while they were marching in, father escorting the bride with children throwing flower pedals on the red carpet.

They had a professional photographer there, as well as a videographer, and I snuck this pix from the piano as the father was giving his advice.

After the ceremony the guests went outside and formed two lines. The bride and groom then passed between the lines, while people shot off guns filled with confetti, and there was much noise and clapping, etc.

Then to the cultural hall for the festa  It cost the parents a fortune for this wedding.  Her father is unemployed (he broke his leg last January), and the mother cleans the mission home and the stairs in our apartment building.  They are from Colombia in South America, but are now naturalized Italian citizens. This party continued for about four hours.

These were the wedding cakes.

The disk jockey played loud music, some in Italian, some in Spanish and even some in English.

The couple had the first dance together.  Notice how tall he is compared with her.

Her parents had the second dance with them.  Then they handed out surprise door prizes.  The one they handed me was shocking. I was to have the third dance with the bride, which I did, but I had my camera in my pocket, thank heavens.

Then everyone who wanted to could have their pictures taken with the bride and groom, so here we are at our first Italian wedding.

Speaking of baptisms, we had one this evening in our Navigli ward.  Jimmy, who has been investigating the Church for the past four years, and who we thought for a long time was a member, was baptized.  I played the piano and for the postlude he asked me to play the "Star Spangled Banner," and everyone stood.  He loves the USA and actually became acquainted with the Church by taking English lessons,which the missionaries all teach.  Tomorrow is his birthday, so we had a cake and sang Happy Birthday, in Italian, Spanish and English. Myrna made muffins, which he also asked for.

Today we began the morning at 5:15 am, calling Willy for his 12th birthday, then stayed in our apartment until about 3 pm ironing Ikea cotton pillow cases. (Yes, it took that long,and we are not yet finished.)  We are helping Sister Allen with surprise Christmas gifts for the missionaries.  We will tell you more about this project later. We went to the baptism with President and Sorella Allen and are now back in the office.  I just did a batch of rimborsi and Myrna checked on some permessi, and we are shortly going to bed.  Another exciting week of our mission in Milano.

Ciao for now.

25 November 2016, David's family came, part A

On our P-day, Saturday, we got ready for David's family visit.  We took the train to Malpensa, the big airport north of Milano to be there when they arrived.

While we were waiting I took this pix of the reader board.  They were coming on the plane from Newark.  It was interesting to see where other planes were coming in from.

They were safe and fairly sound. They rented a 9 passenger Fiat van, which was comfortable to ride in, although it was standard shift, which they didn't mind. actually liked.

We came back to our apartment and had my 70th birthday dinner. We had cotoletta alla milanese (which, when Empress Maria Theresa's cooks took it to Vienna, it became wiener schnitzel), risotto alla milanese (rice grown within 3 miles of where we live with saffron and parmesian cheese), and chocolate cake alla Italiana. It was all very good. Then we headed for Venezia (Venice).

We stopped off at Sirminone on Lake Garda, to see the castle, etc.

And arrived in Venice just at dark, and took the boat-city bus to our hotel, near St Mark's. We had packed a picnic lunch, which we ate in our hotel.so we would not break the Sabbath buying food.

And took a stroll over to St, Mark's square, which was very pleasant, although it sprinkled a little.

We slept well and had a nice breakfast in the old hotel, which, in the 1800s, had been a home for orphans, so the history they gave us said.  The rooms were quite nice, but I didn't think to take a pix of them.

Then we went out to explore Venice.

The ancient city was charming, as usual, especially in in the early morning, without so many tourists this time of year.

St. Mark's duomo, the largest and most famous in Venice, wasn't very busy, and we got in without having to pay anything.  They still didn't allow picture taking, however.

David wanted the perfect picture of his family on an old bridge, of which there are thousands to choose from. Gondolas passed by, but not at the right time for the pix.

After touring Venice a while, we took the boat, which is like the city bus, for which we bought a €20 all day pass, out to the island of Murano, where they blow glass.  We went on a tour of a glass blowing factory, of which there are many.

I was fascinating to watch them work with molten glass to make beautiful things, from little objects tourists buy to very large vases and lamps, which are adorned with crystal they get from Austria, as they have done for centuries.

Josh bought a dip pen with blown glass and a little bottle of ink for €5.

Then, we started checking out places for lunch.  In front is an old well for drinking water. The hole in the bottom is for water for cats, which were prized in ancient times, because they ate the rats that came in on the ships.  The water comes from sisterns on the roofs, because this is an island which cannot support an acquifer.

Their first real Italian pizza they had, delicious.

Ben had a calzone, a folded over pizza, with tomato sauce in a bowl, sometimes they put it on top.

David had a seafood salad.

More of Venice, this time with a gondaleer

Until evening, when we took the boat to the car parking garage and headed back to our apartment in Opera for the night.

Where Ben was able to have what he had been waiting for, his carne equina (horse) hamburger.

It tasted sort of like beef, and if you would have had it on a bun with condiments, I doubt you could tell it from beef, although it is more expensive than beef, so why bother.

The next morning we went to Pisa, about 2 hours south, where we went to the piazza with the baptistry (closest round building), the duomo, (cathedral, middle) and on the end, the bell tower, which happened to lean, quite famously.  I am sure it was an embarrassment, at first, but if, in the 1100s, they would have known how many billions in tourist money it would have brought to Pisa, they would have been quite proud.

This map shows the layout of the piazza, which is quite beautiful, with its green grass, which is not too common in Italy.

David wanted the perfect pictures of his family, and worked hard to get them.

There was a new (from the 1990s) statue of a fallen angel out on the lawn.

The cathedral, in which Gallelleo watched the swinging lamps to learn about the mechanics of pendulims, or is it penduli.

And, of course, the torre pendente, or leaning tower.

With silly tourists all trying get that perfect picture of them holding up the tower.

It really does lean, the vase on the pedestal is straight up and down.

There was a good shot through a gate in the old city wall.  All ancient Italian cities had walls around them for protection.

Then we went to Firenze (Florence), about an hour east.  Megan found a three room, two bathroom apartment in the center of the city, where we comfortably spent the night.  This is  the ceiling in our living room, which must have been a home for a wealthy family in the not so distant past.

David took us to an ostaria (little restaurant, which wasn't really so little), to eat dinner.  We had appetizers, which were salami, cheese, etc.  For some the excitement of the day was catching up with us, e.g. Josh on the end waiting for his calzone.

Myrna and Abby had Tuscan bean with kale soup, served on bread (underneath). Tuscan bread is interesting, it has no salt and sort of needs it.

David had a seafood plate, with big homemade pasta, called tortellone, underneath.

I had grilled chicken, with oven baked potatoes.

Josh had a calzone.

Outside of the ostaria where we had dinner, the name was Ostaria Pizzeria di Centopoveri (one hundred poor people), but it wasn't really that expensive.

We walked a couple of blocks after dinner to the river, and saw Ponte Vecchio, the famous old bridge, which my Dad said was the only bridge (there are many) which wasn't bombed out during the war, because it wasn't wide enough to drive a tank across.  He said the Germans were on the north side and the Americans on the south, and during the day they shot at each other.  At night all the electricity went out, and so my dad went into the homes of Italians to have dinner and spend the evening in pleasant conversation.  It was during those times he tried to teach them about the gospel. The kids may remember the big print we had in our home of this famous old bridge.

Walking the streets of Florence in the evening is very pleasant.  There are lots of beautiful store windows, from world famous shops.

Selling things like ladies shoes and purses.

And jewelry, like this for Christmas.

In the morning we headed over to the Academy, getting there as soon as it opened at 8:30 am. There there wasn't a line and we got right in.  Here is Michaelangelo's David, in all his glory

He has had a bath since I last saw him our honeymoon in 1972.

He is still absolutely amazing in every detail.

I hadn't remembered there is so much art in that museum, other than David.  It took about an hour to see the Academy Gallery, and it would have taken about 2 to 3 to see the Uffizzi, so we did well to just see this one.  The kids were arted out after we finished.

There was an entire room full of plaster casts of marble statues.

And a bunch of real ones

Including this Pietà attributed to Michaelangelo.  The most famous Pietà that Michaelangelo did is in St. Peters in the Vatican in Rome

The pianoforte was also invented in Firenze, and so this gallery has a special exhibit of old musical instruments, including many harpsichords and stringed instruments, including those by the famous Italians, including Stradivarius.

There were lots of other rooms with paintings and statues in the Academia, for which the entry fee is €12.50 per person, no discounts due to old age, but children were free.

After doing our Christmas shopping we walked a few blocks over to the piazza duomo.  The octagon shaped building in the foreground is the baptistry, with the cathedral (duomo) to the left and the impressive bell tower, which does not lean, to the right.

The ceiling of the dome is frescoed to the max, but hard to take pix of because it is fairly dark and a long, long way up.

But we strained our necks trying to take it all in.

The best piece in the duomo is, of course, the organo, with two divisions of pipework on either side, for wonderful stereo effect.

Dante is shown in a famous painting in the duomo, and I don't think the cardinals even liked him all that much.

In the back of the duomo is an interesting, and very large, clock, but I wasn't sure I could tell what time it showed. Actually, I just Googled it and it said it still works and tells 24 hour time.

The bell tower from the bottom, which one could climb, for a nominal fee.

The happy grandparents about ready to leave their grandkids, who were going on to Rome (out of our mission), and we went back to Opera on the train (Freccarosa, the red arrow), which is very quiet, comfortable and fast (great for sleeping), for only €33 each.

The Rogeredo train station where we changed trains to go to Locate, which is within walking distance (we have done it, in the rain, uphill both ways), but the APs came to pick us up.

It is now Friday evening and we are waiting for David's family to arrive from Rome.  We will post more about our adventures with them, and look forward to the other kids coming.  They found black Friday sales and are actually coming.

Ciao for now.