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!!