New Missionaries, and Soon a New Branch President

In the past 10 days we have had to say goodbye to Elder Johnson and Sister Remund, who are off serving the Lord in other areas of this beautiful vineyard.

Elders Moa, Johnson and Lee

Elder Johnson waving goodbye to Siena

Sisters Salmond, Lee and Remund

Sister Remund waving goodbye to Siena

On Thursday, Elder Moa returned from Milano with his companion, Elder Driver, a brand new missionary fresh from the MTC.  Elder Driver is from Washington, and we think he will be a great addition to the missionary team here in Siena.

Elders Moa and Driver return from a long train ride from Milano

On Friday, after spending time in Milano and Verona on visa issues, Sister Salmond returned with her new companion, Sorella Rincoń.  Sorella Rincoń came to Siena from Verona where she spent her first three months of her mission.  Sister Rincoń is from Florida, with a heritage from Columbia.  Thus, she spoke Spanish in her home and English in school, so her language skills are quite high.  Already she speaks Italian very well.

Sister Rincoń arrives to team with Sister Salmond

Sisters Salmond, Rincoń and Lee

Both of these new missionaries will be great assets to our missionary work here.

We took our Elders with us yesterday to visit a less-active sister that lives about an hour's drive from Siena.  We took the Elders because this sister's friend, who comes from Romania, is interested in learning more about the gospel.  The Elders taught him a great lesson about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration, and Elder Driver, even with his limited language abilities, bore a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.

On January 19th, our branch added another member!  Not exactly; but Lorena gave birth to her little baby daughter, Eleanor.  We visited her in the hospital, and we even got to hold the little one.  Just look at the joy in Darryl's eyes.  It was ALMOST as good as being able to hold one of the five grandchildren that have been born since we have been out on our mission.  Almost; but not quite.

Lorena, Eleanor, and Darryl

As our mission experience draws closer and closer to its conclusion, the Stake President has decided to call a new branch president for the Siena branch at our upcoming Branch Conference that will be held on February 8.  In this way, since the new branch president will be coming from another unit in the stake, and not from our Siena branch, Darryl will have a few weeks to help the new branch president with all the transition issues.  It will be good to be around while he is learning who the members are and where the greatest needs might be.

To prepare for this transition, Darryl has been very busy in writing and revising the branch history for 2014.  He became the de facto branch photographer also during the year; so he was able to call on his cache of pictures to add flavor and interest to the branch history.  It ended up being about a 60-page document.

In evaluating what we have done while we have served in Siena; some of it has been of the mundane, administrative variety.  But we feel good that we have been able to upgrade some of the equipment and facilities for our members in the little branch of the Church.

During this past year, we have led the way to make the following improvements.

New table and chairs for our Primary

A new storage unit for the Primary

A new bulletin board for our Young Women's room

A new hot water heater and an enclosure to hide it

New cabinets for our library materials

We have a brand new entry door.

And we got  new stove and oven.  But we liked our old gas one better.

A new microwave for our litte kitchen

We also got a good TV and stand

New chairs and tables for our foyer

And new, padded chairs for our little chapel

Today is the first day that we had real snow in Siena.  It came down hard and heavy for a couple of hours, and it even started sticking to the roads.  But the weather has since cleared, the roads are fine, and we are back to normal.

Snow in Siena, who would have thought it?

That is good, because tonight we held our second fireside, in a two-part series, on the evidences supporting the Book of Mormon.  Even though the weather was bad, we had four investigators and one less active member come and listen the very interesting presentation about the Book of Mormon.  After the fireside, Bonnie prepared her special spagetti alla Carabonara, and also a pumpkin chocolate chip bread.  Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely!

Listening to Brother Rotelli explain the evidences of the Book of Mormon

Spagetti alla Carabonara made by Bonnie.

We continue to work with our less active members, and we are starting to see a few of them more and more often at activities and in church on Sundays.  It is great to see!  We love serving these fine members of the Lord's church.

Piano, Piano, Lives are Touched

We have been fellowshipping and teaching a mother and daughter who have been members of the Church for many years, but live in a small (and beautiful) hilltop town about 30 miles outside of Siena.  The Mom, who is now in her seventies, served as Relief Society President many years ago when they lived in northern Italy.  However, they don't have a car and there are no trains that run to this town.  There are the occasional buses that go to Siena, but there is absolutely no bus service on Sundays.  Thus, they haven't been able to attend church.

When we first arrived in Italy more than a year ago, we would stop by when we were in the area but we could never find the Mom home.  There was a woman who would always answer the door, but she never indicated that she was the daughter, and just said that our member was not home.

After months of attempted visits and some phone calls, where we were always told that she was too busy to see us, we finally had a break through.  The woman that had always opened the door was the daughter, and she had recently moved back in with her Mom.  Her records, however, were not in our branch.  One day while she was at the bus station in Siena, she saw the elders.  She was going through some major addiction recovery efforts, and felt the need to draw closer to the church that she had known as a child.  Plus, there were some serious problems in the home, and she asked the elders to have us call her Mom.

To make a long story somewhat shorter, we finally were able to visit with the Mom and her daughter.  Our first few visits were nothing short of explosive, as there was bitter fighting between the daughter and a brother, the Mom and an older daughter, etc., etc.

We decided to have our sister missionaries teach the daughter separately, and we concentrated on helping the Mom through some serious issues.  Piano, piano (slowly, slowly as they say in Italian) we were able to bring gospel principles of love and forgiveness back into the home.  We wouldn't let either of them spout hatred and disappointment during our visits.  We brought the gospel to them through singing the hymns, prayer, and simple gospel messages.  Yes, even Darryl sang in these small encounters, and the Spirit seemed to come in spite of it!

Bonnie, Aleandra, Sisters Remund and Salmond, and Letizia

The sisters were helping the daughter get through some major issues as well, focusing on the positives of the gospel and not dwelling on the negative.  We have moved ahead and now we can teach the Mom and the daughter together, without the problems we encountered at the beginning.  It has been, and will continue to be, a long road, but with the help of the Lord and the good will efforts of all concerned, spirituality can be heightened and joy can be found!

Our last visit was at the end of our young missionaries' P-Day, so we arrived in this small town a bit early and we all enjoyed a great pizza cooked in a wood-fired oven before our visit.  This is the same pizzeria that we took two other sister missionaries to in December 2013 when we first knocked on this good sister's door.  It takes time and "stick-to-it-ness", but miracles can happen.

Sisters Salmond and Remund

And Bonnie, enjoying pizza!  That wine wasn't for us!

The current team of missionaries in Siena is about to change!  Sister Remund, who has been with us since August when she came into the mission as a greenie is being transferred this week to Brescia where she and another great sister will be opening up that city for Sisters.  Elders are there, but now the ward and branch in Brescia will be blessed with Sisters again.  We know there have been Sisters there in the past, because our daughter, Kristine, served there about 15 years ago.

The oldies

Elders Moa and Johnson

Sisters Remund and Salmond

Also, Elder Johnson, who has only been with us for about three months, is being transferred to Switzerland; yes Switzerland.  We have one city, Lugano that sits right on the Italian/Swiss border in our mission.  Most of the residents of that city speak Italian.  However, because of Switzerland's strict visa rules, it is almost impossible to assign our U.S. citizen missionaries to that city.  So the mission needs to find missionaries that are citizens of one of the European Union countries to serve there.  Elder Johnson holds dual citizenship; U.S. and British, so he can serve in Lugano.  He will be senior companion and district leader in the beautiful, and expensive, lake city of Lugano, Switzerland.

Knowing that two of our missionaries would be leaving us this week, we had our missionary correlation meeting on Sunday after church, over one of Bonnie's great, home-cooked meals.  We enjoy rubbing shoulders with these great missionaries, and they help keep us young, at least in our own minds.

Sisters Salmond and Remund, Bonnie, Elders Johnson and Moa

Last evening we had our branch FHE, and we celebrated the birthdays of all members and missionaries that have birthdays in January.  We also used the occasion to say goodbye to these two missionaries that will be leaving us.

Elder Moa, our district leader, will be training a brand new missionary, and Sister Salmond will be a senior companion to Sister Rincon who has been in Italy for about three months.  We look forward to meeting and working with these new missionaries, once they make it to our beautiful city.

While we don't have many of our members come to our weekly FHE's, as most of our members live outside of Siena, some of our single members who live close by come regularly, and we have many investigators, friends of the Church, and members who are coming back into activity participate with us at these events.

For example, the picture below shows our two elders, Moa and Johnson, with Paolo, an Elder that is coming back into activity, Kleis, an investigator with a February baptismal date, Enrique, a member who is a great friend to the Elders, and Eugenia, a long-time attender of our English classes, but who isn't yet ready to learn about the restored gospel.

Paolo, Elder Moa, Kleis, Elder Johnson, Enrique and Eugenia

It is beautiful to have a church that opens its arms and tries to serve all those who have a need.

And here is a picture of our Sisters last night at FHE with Azzurra, a wonderful young lady who they have been teaching for months now.  She wants to join the church, but is struggling with a Word of Wisdom hurdle.  We are here to help, and to love her and accept her as she continues on the path towards the gospel.

Sister Remund, Azzurra, Sister Salmond

And here is our good friend Angela.  She comes to our activities often, and we have taught her the gospel.  She doesn't want to change; content with her spiritual life.  That is her choice, and we open our arms to her as well, providing the friendship that she needs as she walks her road alone, without family or loved ones close by.  Her current thing is her new IPad that is stressing her out to no end.  So she wants Darryl to teach her all he knows about this new technology.  She was blown away by what Siri could do.

Kleis, an investigator, Elder Moa, and Angela

We have learned that the gospel of Christ is for all; and those who take upon themselves his mantle as members of his church have the lifelong obligation to love and befriend all who come through our doors.  Yes, there are requirements for membership in God's church, and people can lose their privilege to be members through their actions, but those hard decisions are left to those with the mantle to be judges in Israel.  As for the rest of us, the less judging we do, and the more loving and accepting of all we become, the closer we will be to what Christ wants us to be.

Christ taught us all an important lesson in love and service, no matter the circumstance, through the story of the Good Samaritan.  May we use that principle as a guiding light in our lives is our hope for us in particular, and all our loved ones as well.

Let's Hasten the Work in 2015!

We closed out 2014 with a New Year's Eve party for our branch.  One of our main goals for this activity was to give our four full time missionaries something to do after 5:00 p.m. rather than sit in their apartments.  Because New Year's Eve in some Italian cities can get pretty wild, our Mission President instructed all our young missionaries to be in their apartments by 5:00 p.m. that evening, unless the ward or branch had an activity and someone would be available to accompany the missionaries to their apartments at 9:30 p.m.  Who wants to ring in the New Year staring at the four walls of a small apartment without a TV to watch the ball drop at Time Square?

So, we invited all who wanted to come to the church for a movie and dinner.  We gathered at 6:00 p.m. and started the evening watching "We Bought a Zoo" in Italian (with English subtitles).  In Italian, the titled the film "Our Life is a Zoo".  We popped popcorn and watched this delightful movie.

Then, Darryl made a big pot of spaghetti and his special carabonara sauce for everyone to enjoy.  We cut some great Italian bread, Bonnie prepared a salad, and we sat down to a nice dinner.

Darryl cooking in the kitchen

After dinner, everyone enjoyed way too many treats; but oh well, it was New Year's Eve after all.

As mentioned above, the missionaries still needed to be in their apartments by 9:30, so we didn't have time to play any games or do much else before we had to take them home.  And after we took them home, the party sort of fizzled, so we cleaned up and got home ourselves before 11 p.m.  We did stay awake until midnight, because we didn't have much choice with the fireworks going off right outside our window.

To start the New Year right, we, together with our full time missionaries, decided to do a thorough cleaning of our branch building.  We gathered on Saturday morning and washed windows, cleaned floors, and made everything pretty for Sunday!  We appreciate all the support and help we receive from the four great missionaries who are serving with us at this time!

Sister Salmond handling the floor cleaner

Elder Moa taking out the garbage and Elder Johnson cleaning windows

Sister Remund taking a break from mopping the floors

On Sunday we had just as many less active members at sacrament meeting as we had active members.  That is a good sign; now we just have to increase the number of both!  We had a joint Priesthood and Relief Society Meeting where Darryl introduced the three-prong plan of the Europe Area.  All the stakes, districts, wards and branches in Europe will be focusing of three main goals in 2015.

            1.         Double the number of active members in attendance at church.

            2.         Become self sufficient, both spiritually and materially.

            3.         Find your ancestors and take their names to the temple.

Simple goals, and ones that we can all work hard to accomplish.  We will now begin the process to structure our branch goals around the Area's goals as we move the work forward in Italy.

On Monday evening Bonnie taught another wonderful FHE lesson, driving home the importance of having an example or model to follow as we live our lives.  She asked each of us to draw a horse.  After we all tried our hand at doing so, some more successfully than others, she then put on the board an example of a well-drawn horse, and asked us to try again.  Once we had a model to follow, we all were better equipped to follow that example and draw a much better picture.  She then taught us that in our lives we have an example or model to follow, that of our Savior Jesus Christ.  If we simply look to Him and follow in His footsteps, doing the things that He has asked us to do, the end product of our lives will be much closer to what He wants for us, than if we simply walked blindly.

This week we visited Lorena, a dear member who will be having her first baby in just a week or two. We have loved to help her through the process, giving moral support and "tips of the trade" to keep her anxiety level down.  We both miss our grandkids a lot, and this has been a good substitute and helps us keep in the groove!

Lorena ready to pop, and Bonnie ready to help

Even though it is January, and the dead of winter, the Toscana is always beautiful.  As we were returning to Siena one evening, we marveled at the beautiful vistas of this medieval city.  It is a wonder to behold, and we will surely miss it when our service has concluded here in God's country.

Siena the beautiful

Darryl had the great opportunity yesterday to spend most of the day with the Second Counselor in our Stake Presidency, visiting some families in the branch that need some extra care and counseling.   In the end, it is the one-on-one time that we spend helping others that counts.   And the pure love of Christ is the elixir that calms and cures.  It is our hope that we may we all go forth with faith, applying that balm in our daily interactions with all our brothers and sisters.