My sheep hear my voice

Fruitless to try to play catch up!  And, as it is now 10:00 p.m., not a lot of time to write.  We are tuckered out (wonder how you say that in Italian?)

Today's wonderful thing:   We spent a fair amount of time doing repair work at the elders' apartment, and setting up a shelf for the sisters today.  Since we were in neighboring Pistoia, where the sisters live, we planned to visit some less active GANS, particularly a young woman named Diana, who, according to our "sources" is very sweet and willing to have contact, but lives a bit far out of the way, etc.  Blaine has done this Google Earth thing, pinpointing where everyone lives, and we noted that there was a young man near the sisters' house, on the way to Diana's.  This young man, according to those same sources, has had some run-ins with members of the Church and was rather antagonistic.  I was reluctant to go, but Blaine felt he at least deserved our effort; so, after prayer, we headed to his address.  His name was not on the doorbell list (I felt relieved), so Blaine said let's call him - which means that I had to do the talking, since he has difficulty understanding over the phone.  I was again relieved to hear a message that the number was not "raggiungibile"(not reachable), which I took to mean that it was out of service.  We went on our way to find Diana, a drive that would have been breathtaking if it were not close to 8:00 p.m. and dark, for we zigzagged our way up into the hills, on a very narrow, rock-walled road, lined on the other side by very gnarled trees that suggested Halloween as we drove by, casting weird shadows.  The street she lives on, according to the list, shows no numbers on the GPS - and indeed, all we had was a street name.  When we finally arrived at a collection of dwellings, we knocked on some doors, then went higher up the mountain after receiving a negative response.  Narrower road, more switchbacks, occasional views of the valley that made us long to try this drive again in the day time.  Some benches along the road, presumably to take in the view, more houses, dogs barking - no one knew the girl (we did leave a couple of passalong cards).  Finally we turned back, trusting our lost sheep to the Lord and to another day.  We had just heated up some pasta and thrown together some salad at home, when we received a telephone call - from Andrea, the "antagonistic" young man.  He was returning our call.  We had a brief conversation during which I told him we'd love to get to know him and invited him to our upcoming open house Friday.  He said some things I didn't understand, but which I know were not caustic; one thing I did understand was, "Io non sono molto bravo" - I'm not a very good person.  I told him I felt the same way sometimes myself.  He asked to be able to call back some other day, which I understood to say that he wanted to get off the phone fast - but who knows?  He did give me his new address, adding that he is rarely at home.  Blaine and I both felt that it was a wonderful thing to get a call back from this "black sheep" - and we all know that the Good Shepherd loves the black sheep as much as all the others.

Fun thing - we brought mail to the elders and sisters (went to Milano and back yesterday to switch out our car for a new, identical - except that it has no cruise control, which means I'm the principle driver now since Blaine's spine can't handle that continual pressure on the gas pedal for any great amount of time), brought a new lamp to the elders, fixed the toilet seat and the taparello - blinds - and a light switch cover, and a couple of other things (of course Blaine did most of the work), and brought them some homemade cookies.  You'd have thought it was Christmas - they said so themselves.  It's a delight to be around these fine young men and women.