evolution of a mission

Wonderful thing for weds., 21 January:  It's a toss up between our first missionary prep class with Andrea and our skype call with the Pathway rep at BYUI.   Andrea has only been a member of the church for a little over a year, and she is earnestly anxious to serve a mission to bring to others what was presented to her (her words).  She is ready to submit all her documents, so she ought to know where and when she'll be going in the next couple of months - perhaps Peru, land of her ancestors?  I'll keep you posted.
 Pathway is an innovative, inspired program that brings education to anyone in the church who truly desires it.  We first heard about it in August when we went to a Church Education System training meeting for our institute duties, in Pisa.    Actually, that's when we heard it was coming to our mission, Milan.  We knew it was already available in Rome because we had met two service missionaries bound for Rome while at the MTC in Provo, the Memmotts.  It was so exciting at the time, but then we came to see that it wasn't likely that our folks would participate, because it entailed one trip a week to Milan.  Now it's coming to Florence, and we've been asked to facilitate it.  Wow!  It's too much to explain here, just go to pathway.lds.org - and you can donate, as well, for the idea is to make education affordable for anyone who really wants it.   It's for sure going to bring about some mighty changes.

Fun thing:  maybe that whole neighbor-feeding-the-cat thing was for real.  Yesterday we called again, and the response was a click that opened the door to building.  We went on up, and were met on the stairs by a young man who said he was a neighbor, and apparently when they aren't home, the doorbell rings at his house as well...?   I don't know, it's all a puzzlement.  He said his name is Alessandro.  We talked about soccer and gave him a pass along card.