2013 Ends at YSA Conference at Lake Garda!

Christmas day found us feeding the missionaries again!!  We invited our Siena missionaries over for a Christmas brunch.   Bonnie made her now famous cinnamon rolls, and Darryl put together one of his breakfast spreads of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, grilled onions and mushrooms, fried potatoes with all the fixings.  Before the brunch, we all sat around our living room and read the Christmas story and talked about the gifts that we might be able to give Christ during the upcoming year.  Since we weren't able to do this with our own children and grandchildren this Christmas, we enjoyed our time with our adopted kids, the elders and sisters that are currently serving in Siena.

Sisters Hunter and McCann with their Siena calendars we gave them.

Elders Robb and Gneiting with their calendars.

After they left, we had the chance to exchange a few Christmas gifts.  Darryl got a new printer for the apartment.  He can now print out some nice color pictures of the branch's activities and other things.  Bonnie got a new bathrobe and some more cooking materials, since it seems that feeding the missionaries and the branch members is a major part of her assignment here in Italy.  We also gave each other a couple of appropriate movies that we can watch while ironing and doing laundry.

In the afternoon we went to the Nelsons' home, our American family in the Siena branch, where we shared a nice Christmas dinner.  Bonnie made a tremendous banana cream pie and hand-dipped chocolates (in honor of Grandma Lee) for the occasion, and it was loved by all.

The best part of Christmas day was the day was the evening when we were able to call our kids and grandkids.  We used the modern technology of Skype to speak first to Kathleen and her family.  We were able to talk to each of our Minnesota grandkids and watch them open their presents from Babbo and Grammy (that's us). We then called our other kids who had all gathered for a Christmas lunch at our home in North Salt Lake.  Again we were able to speak with each of our seven grandkids that had congregated there, and we watched them open their gifts as well.  We also talked with each of our kids and their wonderful spouses.  It is bittersweet watching them grow up from afar, but at least we can talk to them on occasion and watch their progress thanks to Skype and Facebook.  We also got to talk to our Moms, and that was a great blessing!  (Darryl's sister, Cheryl, her husband, Kim, and his brother Dave, were also on the call.)

On Friday we were back at it, doing home teaching visits and helping the sisters teach an investigator.  It is always a blessing to visit our members in their homes.  They feel much more comfortable, and we are able to get to know them on a much more personal level.  We visited a family in Certaldo, and after our home teaching message and enjoying some cinnamon pull apart bread that Bonnie had brought, they invited us to take an evening stroll up to the old city.  We hiked up to a beautiful, old hilltop town where Bonnie was able to find an interesting Christmas ornament to hang on our tree.  It is on these informal occasions, walking up and down the old streets, that we can have one on one talks with these members and learn exactly what they are struggling with and how we might best help.

Bonnie is learning the language better and better every week.  On our evening hike up to the old town of Certaldo, Bonnie was chatting away with the family's 17-year-old daughter.  They were really communicating well.  "Piano piano" (slowly, a step at a time) Bonnie is becoming more comfortable with the language.

On Saturday we attended a baptism of three new members in the Montevarcchi branch of our district.  The other missionaries in our district work in this city, and these wonderful three sisters (a Mom and her daughter, and younger friend) were taught the gospel by the great sister missionaries working in this area.  It was wonderful to see three more of God's children accept the covenants of baptism and begin on that straight and narrow path that leads back to the presence of our Heavenly Father.

 

Michel before her baptism, with friends from her new branch family.

Sisters Yost and Lopez (with ZL Torgensen) and the three new members.

On Sunday morning we gathered at the church and left the branch in the capable hands of our ward clerk (a former Branch President of our branch), and we loaded three of our Young Single Adults into our little car and headed off for the All-Italy YSA New Year's Eve conference.  The conference is being held at a small mountain town called San Zeno di Montagna, which is north of Verona overlooking Lake Garda.  It was a 3 1/2 hour drive, but we arrived safely.

The view from our hotel window.

Simone, Darryl's 1st Counselor, making the moves.

150 YSAs eating together!

Simone and Anthony from our Siena branch.

Jessica and Bianka from our Siena branch.

About 150 YSAs from all over Italy are attending this conference; including four of our own YSAs from our branch.  They are eating, dancing, learning, and interacting together.  We hope that they are being filled with good things, both spiritually and physically, that will help them in their daily journey along the straight and narrow path.  And we also hope a few of them will find their future spouse among the valiant YSAs in attendance.  That is always a goal of the leaders of these YSA events, is it not?

Lake Garda 

The Piano Man

Cinderella goes to the Ball

Sunset over Lake Garda

They have a big New Year's Eve dinner planned for tonight, but the dinner doesn't even start until 8:30 pm.  Then a big dance that will last until who knows when.  We will see if we can stay up until midnight tonight.  This work is mighty tiring and trying, but someone has to do it, right!?!?

Christmas Eve Greetings from Siena!!

We have been focusing on visiting our members this past week, including finding those "lost sheep" that haven't darkened the Church doors for many, many years.  Darryl has also been doing tithing settlement with the members.  That has been a very humbling, and eye-opening experience for him.

Darryl has learned, as he has looked inside, the deeper meaning of the scriptures that speak of faith; as Darryl had his own "I believe, help thou mine unbelief" moment.  (Mark 9:24)

Without disclosing confidences, suffice it to say that Darryl sat in a small living room of a less active member who is struggling mightily with the financial crisis that has hit Italy very hard; is struggling with problems with children; and is experiencing serious health challenges and unreasonable work demands.  After listening for almost an hour to the challenges and struggles of this good member, Darryl was seeking ways to help.  Even though his ward clerk had set up this meeting as a tithing settlement interview, Darryl didn't have the faith (or the courage) to raise the topic.  He thought he knew what the response would be. 

However, this good member, through tears and pleas for blessings from Heavenly Father, went and gathered the last 40 Euro the family had for the rest of the month, and placed it in Darryl's hands for tithing.  This was clearly a "widow's mite" event.  As a branch we are doing all we can to assist this member, and now the windows of heaven can open to bless this member's faith and action.  It was a wonderful and humbling learning experience for both Darryl and Bonnie.

On Friday Darryl and Bonnie loaded up the car and set out on an all-day adventure to find members that live more than an hour or two from Siena.  We wound through the mountains and valleys of the Toscana as we headed southwest, with our ultimate destination a small town on the Mediterranean below Grosseto.  The weather was gray and it was very foggy for most of the day.  We played detective most of the day, going to old addresses and finding that many of the members had moved.  We spoke with neighbors and former employers, and we found some leads on where some of them might be.  Bonnie made gift baskets for each member, and Darryl put a letter together, with some reading material, and we dropped these off to those members who actually still live at the addresses.   Although we didn't actually meet with any of these members on our trip (although we did talk to one by phone), the Spirit led us along our way and helped us with this assignment.  For example, we had prior information that one member was no longer at the address listed on the Church records.  Bonnie felt that we should go to the old address anyway.  We went, and the name was still on the list of residents by the main door.  The main door was unlocked so we went in, and climbed to the top floor where we found his name on the door.   We knocked, and a woman answered.  She confirmed that he lived there, but he wasn't home at the time.  We left our materials with her, and now we know where he is.  We had a number of similar experiences that day.

 

One of the mountain-top towns we passed on our travels.

On Sunday we had our Christmas sacrament meeting.  As we have such a small branch, while Bonnie was teaching the children in Primary, Darryl taught the elders, and he also taught a family relations class during Sunday School.  (He has been teaching this class to the married couples since he arrived.)  In addition, he gave the closing talk during Sacrament Meeting, and Bonnie played a piano solo, "The First Noel" It was a full day. 

 

Sister Nigi, our Primary Pres, with our Primary kids

Sister Nelson with her three great kids!

In addition, we had our branch Christmas lunch at the Church right after Sacrament meeting.  We had four investigators at Church, and they joined us for the lunch after.  The missionaries are excited that they have investigators coming to church.  After the luncheon, a group of members went to Siena's main hospital and sang Christmas carols, first in the main lounge, and then down in the Pediatrics ward.  Our visit was particularly important for one family who had lost a child to cancer.  They brought smiles to the faces of many patients and their families who are in a place where they really don't want to be during the Christmas season.

On Monday we had our entire district of missionaries over to our apartment for the weekly district meeting.  As it was just two days before Christmas, our Mission President allowed us to make the missionaries a Christmas lunch after the District Meeting.  We fed these wonderful servants of the Lord turkey, stuffing, gravy, ham, yummy potatoes, green bean casserole, fresh fruit salad, pumpkin pie and banana cream pie.  They ate well.  We wanted to make sure that they had a Christmas dinner that might be similar to what their parents blessed them with when they were home with their families.  They were very appreciative of the gesture.

Sisters McCann, Hunter, Lopez, Yost, Bonnie, Elders Torgeson, Burr, Robb, Gneiting

After the meal we exchanged some white elephant gifts, and the missionaries had a lot of fun with these gifts.  Our newest elder even dressed up in the Santa suit that was his white elephant gift, so we had to take some pictures of this fun time.

Sisters Lopez, McCann and Yost

Bonnie, Sisters Hunter, Lopez, McCann and Yost

Elder Burr, one of the Zone Leaders 

Sisters Yost and Lopez, Santa (Elder Robb), Sisters Hunter and McCann

Top row - Elders Torgeson, Gneiting, Robb, Sisters Hunter and McCann
Bottom row - Elder Burr, Sisters Lopez and Yost

Today is Christmas Eve, so we went and did a little shopping for each other and for some of our friends here in Italy.  It is surprising, but we have been in Italy almost three months, and we can count of three fingers the number of times we have eaten gelato.  We thought we would have a gelato each day of our mission.  Even though it was cold and foggy outside today, we splurged on a gelato, and ate it in 40 degree weather by the big Christmas tree on Siena's old town main street.  It was fun!!

Why not some gelato on Christmas Eve?!?!

It is Christmas Eve for us as we are writing this entry.  We are listening to Christmas carols, making some homemade chocolates, and thinking about all the many blessings we have in our lives.  At this special time we do miss our children, their wonderful partners, and our ten grandchildren.  It is sometimes difficult seeing pictures or short video clips of them growing up and us not able to be there.  But we know that they know where we are and what we are doing, and we hope they know how much we love them. 

For the time being, our family also includes the 72 members of this Siena branch, the dedicated missionaries assigned to this city, and the many thousands of residents of this fine city who have yet to find the happiness that comes through living the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are honored to be counted among the missionaries of the Italy, Milan mission.

We love our friends and family in the States who support us and love us, and we wish all who might read this blog a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

As Adam was the First Man . . . He Was Our First Family Visitor

As Christmas quickly approaches, we had the opportunity to serve the missionaries in our Florence Zone for the Mission President's Christmas Zone Conference.  So that means cooking for a bunch of hungry missionaries.  This time we teamed with one other senior couple, and we prepared an Italian feast that was capable of making the hungriest missionary cry "Uncle" and beg it to stop.

We fed our missionaries the following courses: (1) Antipasto plate with four wonderful selections; (2) homemade lasagne; (3) roasted turkey and beef with mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes; (4) oranges; (5) tiramisu; (6) and a selection of homemade Christmas cookies.

Bonnie hard at work on the Christmas cookies!

Getting ready to make special packages for the missionaries. 

Don't they look scrumptious! 

Setting the tables for the Christmas Zone Conference Feast!

Last year our branch in Siena decided to have what is called a "presepe vivente".  Translated that means a live nativity scene.  So on Wednesday we went down to the church to build the set, which included a stable, cutout animals, and even a star.  Of course there were no directions on how to put it back together, so we had fun figuring it all out.  But we finally did get it up.

Then, on Saturday evening all the branch members came to the church and many dressed up as the characters in the Christmas story.  One of our members read the Christmas story as the actors walked through the story.  During the "scene changes" the actors and the audience sang some wonderful Christmas carols.  We had a great time.  And, as you can see, our sister missionaries took the roles of Mary and Joseph.  Sister McCann makes a great Joseph, don't you think?

As the title of this post hints, we had our first visitor from the family.  And since Adam was the first man, it is only fitting that he should be our first visitor.  Luckily he had business that brought him to Italy; so he extended his return by a day so that he could spend a day and half with us. 

Bonnie and Adam in front of the Duomo in Florence.

We first showed him around Florence, and then we brought him to our wonderful medieval city of Siena.  We then drove him through the beautiful Toscana region as we took him to the train in a nearby city.  Even though he didn't bring Kathleen with him this time (but he did promise to bring her when he comes back), he did bring us a care package that Kathleen had lovingly put together with some things that we just can't get here.  The package included natural peanut butter, pumpkin pie spice, beef, chicken and turkey gravy mix, Four Seasons Italian salad dressing mix, and wonderful American candy like Skittles and Starburst.  It was a great early Christmas gift.

 

The nativity inside the Duomo.

The dome of the Duomo.

Darryl had the opportunity to conduct another baptismal interview for the Mission President for a convert who attends the Prato branch.  (Prato is just a bit north of Florence.)  It is a great blessing to see the humble seekers find the truth, accept it, give up longtime habits, and embrace the gospel.  We are so fortunate to be a small part of this great stone that is rolling forth all throughout the world.

Of course, driving in Milan and even Florence makes us more grateful for the assignment that we have here in Siena.  We love our small town with its beautiful walls and vistas, its strong members, and the diligent missionaries that serve here with us.  We now have two sisters and two elders, and we will find more people to accept the truth.

 

Traffic in Florence.  Two inches between us and the cars and trucks around us!

On Sunday when 9 am rolls around, the church seems rather empty, with just the missionaries and a small handful of members present.  This Sunday we started Priesthood with just the three male missionaries and Darryl's first counselor, an Italian returned missionary who speaks English.  A few minutes later Spencer Nelson, our American member who plays professional basketball showed up, so we thought we would just do Priesthood meeting in English.  About 10 minutes later a few other members showed up, so we switched to Italian.  And then the miracles started happening.  One of our members who has been struggling showed up, and he brought a non-member friend.  Then a few minutes later the father of the family that came to our fireside with Spencer Nelson came in, while his wife went into Relief Society and their 6 year old daughter went off to Primary with Bonnie. 

We had two different sets of investigators in church!  It was great!  Our missionaries taught lessons to these investigators during the Sunday School hour, and they all stayed for most of Sacrament Meeting!  We hope to see the fruits of our missionaries' labors as we continue to find and teach people about the restored gospel.

After a very productive and spiritual Sunday block, we had all four of our missionaries over for Sunday lunch.  They devoured Bonnie's pasta, Chicken Parmagiano, salad and cookies.  We love these wonderful servants of the Lord.

Elders Robb and Gneiting, Bonnie, and Sisters Hunter and McCann