Been to Milan . . . And We Now Love Siena Even More!!

On Saturday of last week, we worked hard putting the final touches on a missionary fireside that we were having at our little branch.  One of our members is Spencer Nelson, a former USU basketball star who has been playing professional basketball in Europe for the last decade.  He and his family, which now include three little ones, the last born here in Siena just a month or so ago, are a wonderful addition to our branch.  Our Mission President thought it would be a great idea to have Spencer speak at a fireside and talk about those things that are much more important to him than the fame and money he gets playing professional basketball.  We found interpreters and prepared the food for after the fireside, and we prayed that we would have some investigators come. 

Julie Nelson bearing testimony

Spencer Nelson Working the Crowd
Also in Italy no one sits in the first two rows!

President Lee conducting the meeting. 

A spread of goodies made by Bonnie and the Sisters of the Branch.

After it was all said and done, we did have a family come that is interested in learning more about the gospel, and we had a number of our less active members come as well.  It was a good presentation, with both Spencer and his wife, Julie, bearing their testimonies about the importance of the family and the gospel in their lives.  Our Mission President and his wife drove down from Milan to attend, and they would like Spencer to do similar firesides in other, larger venues, such as Florence, Pisa and maybe Milan.  That will be a great way to get new investigators inside our chapel doors.

Bonnie got the fun job, watching Tommy while his parents talked.

 This week has been a busy one, with lots of travel.  On Monday we took our new sister missionaries with us to District meeting in Florence.  We had a good meeting with our new District Leader, Elder Gneiting, who is also with us here in Siena leading the way.   Bonnie, of course, needed to exercise her motherly instincts, and made her special apple crisp for district meeting.  However, two other districts in our Zone were meeting in the Florence chapel at the same time, and they were quite envious of our little district members who got to eat homemade apple crisp.  But that is simply the bad breaks of not having a senior couple in your district.  Bonnie did have pity on one poor district that was salivating outside the kitchen, and she gave them some leftovers in the pan.  Those elders cleaned that pan so well that Darryl felt there was no need to wash it when they got it home.

After District Meeting we, with the sisters, headed for the Autostrada for our trip back to Siena.  But just as we were getting on the connector, we could see the traffic was stopped for miles.  So, relying on our Tom Tom, we avoided that wait, thinking that we could find a faster way home.  Well, four hours after we took that detour (and the trip is usually only an hour) we finally arrived back home.  But that isn't the entire story.

We followed Tom Tom for a nice drive through Florence.  Then, when we got ready to get onto the Autostrada, we saw the signs for Castellina in Chianti.  This is a beautiful little Tuscan town in the hills of the Chianti region, and one that we visited last year when we were in Italy.  And, as we have an inactive member that lives in this little town, as well as an investigator that the prior senior couple told us to go visit sometime, we decided this would be a great time to visit these folks.

Little did we know, however, that we had a sister that got carsick quite easily.  The little country road we followed weaved in and out and up and down the beautiful Tuscan countryside, but this sister looked a bit blue as a result.  She was a trooper however, and Darryl did not take the curves in usual style, so we made it to Castellina just fine.  We knocked on the door of our member, but learned that she was working, and wouldn't be home for hours.  So we tried to find the investigator, but his photo shop was closed for a month.  We did get to know our two sister missionaries much better, and they did get a nice pizza lunch out of our trip, so all was not lost.

Sister McCann and Sister Hunter

The ancient ones!  Darryl broke out the Christmas tie!

 On Wednesday we got on our "service" clothes and drove to Montepulchiano, another gorgeous mountain town in Tuscany, where we helped a family in our branch paint an apartment that they were moving into.  We took the elders with us this time, and we got quite a few things done.  What amazed Darryl is that this family intended to paint the entire home, ceilings and all, with a couple of six inch paintbrushes.  They weren't aware of paint rollers.  Darryl realized quickly that this job could be done in a quarter of the time with some good rollers, so he asked where the nearest hardware store was, and he ran off to get some rollers.  With the rollers the work went much quicker.  However, the paint is not the same as we have in the states.  It is more like a whitewash.  It is very thin, and doesn't cover very well.  But, we did the best with it, and the place looked better when we finished.

Elder Gneiting - He's tall, so he gets the ceilings!

Sorella Gori and Bonnie - One with a brush and one with a roller.

A candid taken from the open window.  Cleaning up.

Bonnie is also teaching piano to one of our sisters here in the branch.  We don't have a real piano, but this one will do.  However, a number of keys don't work, including the D on the main scale.  So we just have to pretend we hear that note.

Bright and early Thursday morning we took off for Milan to join the other fourteen senior couples in our mission for an "oldies" conference.  We stopped to pick up another senior couple in Prato (just north of Florence) and drove the 3 1/2 hour drive to Milan.  We spent an afternoon with the Mission President and his wife for training.  We now get to inspect about seven apartments of our wonderful young missionaries to make sure there isn't too much mold growing and that they aren't hanging up their wet clothes over any hardwood floors.  We get to do these inspections once a quarter, so the missionaries are going to have to look out for Sister Lee and her white glove test.  Darryl is afraid that she will have pity on the poor missionaries and jump in and do the cleaning for them.  We must avoid that at all costs!!

On Thursday evening the Mission President took all the seniors to a nearby restaurant called the Roadhouse Grill.  We suppose he thought that we were all missing a good American hamburger and fries.  We say it was "nearby", but when Darryl missed the last turn and got on the Autostrada going the other way.   There wasn't an exit for about six miles, and there was a major accident on the freeway coming back.   Patience is a virtue, and Darryl is trying to incorporate that into his being.  It is hard, very hard!

We finally did make it to the restaurant, where we learned we weren't the only one who made that mistake.  That made Darryl feel a bit better.  The hamburger was quite good, as were the fries, so it was worth the aggravation.

The next day was the "reward" for doing what we do.  The President arranged for us to see Da Vinci's "Last Supper" fresco.  We also visited the Duomo in Milan, and went to La Scala Theatre, which is celebrating its 100-year anniversary.  That is were all the great operas are staged.  They were getting the theatre ready for the opening of La Traviata the following evening.  The theatre was magnificent!

You can't take pictures of the real thing, so this was the alternative. 

Senior Missionaries walking to the Duomo.

A cute couple outside the Milan Duomo.

The "original" Galleria (which means tunnel in Italian).

That cute couple again under the Duomo where a 5th Century baptismal font was uncovered.

Inside the Teatro della Scala

 We also went out to an exhibition featuring items from every region of Italy and almost every major country in the world.  It was overwhelming, and Darryl was ready to leave about the moment he entered.  Bonnie wanted to find a nativity unique to Italy, but after looking and looking (and looking and looking) we found nothing.  Maybe we will find it somewhere else a little less crowded.

Darryl finally sat down and refused to move!

After an early dinner of chili and corn bread at the mission home, we got into our car with the other senior couple for the 3 1/2 hour drive back home.  Five hours later, we arrived home.  There were a number of accidents on the Autostrada, and we were actually stuck in a long tunnel for about 20 minutes.  With all that patience that Darryl learned the day before, he weathered the storm and got everyone home safe and sound, albeit a bit later than everyone anticipated.

 The weather is starting to turn colder now.  Frost is coming, we see our breath more often, and we even had to scrap ice off our windows this morning.  The winter has been mild so far, but the snow and cold will be here any day now.

We marvel at the endurance and faith of our little band of saints.  Everyone has struggles to overcome, but those who rely heavily on their faith in God and His ability to answer prayers are seeing blessings in their lives.  The financial crisis that has hit Europe has hit especially hard in Italy.  Many are without work, or are working part time for little pay.  Some are even working for months on end without getting paid, as their companies are going through what is similar to bankruptcy in America.  They are afraid to leave their jobs, because there are no other jobs to go to, and if they do leave, they are afraid that they will never see the pay that they have rightfully earned.  It is definitely a hard time for many.

We need more members to give strength to the others, and to form a solid nucleus for our branch.  An apostle of God instructed the new mission presidents in July that they were no longer in the spring of the season planting seeds, but they are in the fall of the season and are to go forth and begin the harvest.  We must all do our part to harvest the fields that have been prepared, and to bring in those elect few who recognize the truth and are willing to grasp it with all their might, ignoring those mocking souls in the great and spacious buildings that surround all of us.  We are trying to do our best to move the harvest forward in our small part of the Lord' vineyard.

Highlight of the Week:  Finding new families to teach!  Listening to members share their testimonies with family and friends.  Serving our members in any way that we can.

Lowlight of the Week:  The many opportunities to learn patience through mistakes and trials.  But how else can we learn!