Love it when a plan comes together

Wonderful thing:  I worked that talk over good today.  I love the flow of ideas that helps me to feel that I'm headed in the direction the Lord wants me to take with this talk.  When I finished the last draft and read it over, timing myself, it was exactly 12 minutes!  Ever since I heard someone compare using more time than you're given for a talk or a lesson, to stealing from someone else, I've been pretty careful about that.  I was overcome with emotion to think that all that effort fit into just the right time; again, it helps me to feel that what I'll be saying is what the Lord wants to be said.  I've been shooting emails to dear, dear Lorena Bagni, our Institute director, asking for help translating General Authority quotes, etc.  She finally suggested I just send her a copy of the talk!  So now I'm secure in the knowledge that, at least if I pronounce it correctly, I'll be giving the talk in real Italian.

Fun thing:  Again, this post is a day late.  Again, it's because we got to bed late - even later than the night before!  Did I mention that it's not uncommon to eat dinner at 8:30 or later in the evening?  We had invited four GANS for dinner, as we usually do once a week, after Institute last night.  This meant (in our calculations) that we'd be eating somewhere between 7:45 and 8:00.  Well, one had an appointment with the bishop afterward, then their ride fell through (it's really not that far to walk, but we'll set that aside), then one of them had to go to the pharmacy first for something for a headache, poor dear ...we sat down to eat after 9:00.  So what!  We had a wonderful time, they're wonderful young people, they loved the food (Rachael Ray's Pasta Puttanesca and Bitter Greens salad, plus my mom's Congo Bars - with variations, because you can't buy vanilla, baking powder, or brown sugar here.  I googled substitutes.  You can use 1/4 the amount of baking soda as baking powder in the dry ingredients, and twice that amount of lemon juice, vinegar, yogurt, etc, in the wet ingredients; they do sell vanillated sugar; and you can make your own brown sugar by adding 1/10 the amount of sugar called for, of molasses - which is also hard to find - I used honey and turbinado sugar- to the sugar, and stirring it till it looks like brown sugar).  It was worth it!  We had to take two of them home because the city bus in Prato stops running at 8:00!  One of them lived a fair piece away.  He happens to be the president of our Institute program, so it was a super opportunity to get to know him better.  His name is Ivan, he's Honduran, and has lived in Italy three years.  He works at one of the many fabric/clothing factories in Prato.  Very funny, very intelligent.  We feel privileged to be serving him and the other GANS.