Still here

Wonderful thing - the mission hymn.  It's good to remember when we don't get to bed till midnight:  Roughly translated, it says:

We will never tire of serving the Lord,
We will serve with great faith, giving our whole heart.
If we are faithful, we will obtain the prize:
The Restored Gospel will flourish in Italy!
On the mountains and in the cities,
From Milano to Torino to Padova,

Our voices we will raise,

And all will hear the truth!

All will hear the truth.

Then come, brothers, let us serve the Lord,

Let us baptize with great faith,

Let us give all our hearts!

The field here is ready,

And Zion will rise,

Will rise in Italy!

Written and composed by "R. Gee", it is a masterpiece both in word and in music, rousing and inspiring.  We sing it at all zone meetings and often at district meeting.

Fun thing:  A laugh on us:  we spent hours a few days ago, waiting at the Questura to receive our “permesso di soggiorno”, the card that verifies that the government is allowing us to live here for a while.  The expiration date says, “02 09 15”.  We’re like, oh great, they messed up – again.  We’re scheduled to leave in February of 2016, and they have us leaving in February of 2015!  That’s like two months!  PLEASE tell me we don’t have to go through all this again in two months!!!  We spoke to the guy at the desk and he said to come back the next day and go to Room 5 upstairs.  Blaine’s like, I know we’re going to have to come back here and stand in line for hours again.  So we go back the next day, and one of the policemen at the front takes our cards and disappears, then he comes back and says, you have till September, a year from when you arrived.  We’re like, huh?  Then it hits us:  here in Italy you read dates differently.  So 02 09 15 doesn’t mean February 9, it means 02 September!  We messed up - again!  Too funny – but we still have to go through all this again in September.  They said, hey, don’t worry - the second time the card lasts two years.