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

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!