This fireball cooks

wonderful thing for Monday, 19 January:  Lorena Bagni.  Don't you just love salt-of-the-earth kind of people?  Lorena, or Sorella Bagni I should say perhaps, is the director of the Institute program in our Prato Ward.  In other words, she is directly responsible for the young single adults, and we work under her.  She is fairly young herself, and what a fireball!  We had the pleasure of dining with her and her husband Alessio yesterday, combined with a meeting to discuss our GANS (I remind you again that GANS is an acronym for Giovani Adulti non Sposati, or Young Single Adults).   It is a pleasure to work with her!  She is full of life, spirit, good will, dedication.  I believe she has the hearts of these young people.  I may have given the impression that we're the Institute teachers, but actually, she is.  We just teach the ones who can't make it to the regular class.  She has been working closely with them for the past year and a half or so (she's also a counselor in the stake Relief Society presidency!); before that, things were kind of haphazard, so there's still a lot of picking up the pieces to do, but she's on it!  We really work hard, but we've only been here a few months and we are pretty clueless about the group dynamics.  It really helps to get her input.  She is a go-getter, and a blessing to us all.

Fun thing:  She's a good cook, too.  She made a yummy minestra (soup), the kind her mother always made in the wintertime.  She grew up a couple of hours east of Rome.  I love that homey touch.  She also made a super spinach salad - I love it when people put fresh greens on the table - and turkey cutlets made two ways.  I brought the dessert, peanut butter chocolate cheesecake, a very American offering.