brotherly kindness and mimosas

Wonderful thing for Saturday and Sunday, 7 and 8 March:

Livorno Ward, no doubt about it.   Some wards you visit, you just get a sense of the greater vision that they have.  Things seem to go forward a little more serenely, with a greater sense of purpose.  You feel a little more a part of things.

I rather think that it helps a great deal to actually have a real life Mormon Church building.  It's a lovely white chapel in a new part of town, with no problem for parking (yay!).We went there Sunday with the intent of making a Pathway presentation after the three-hour block of meetings and "pranzo".  We were welcomed with great "brotherly kindness", and invited to share our testimonies during Sacarament Meeting.

We really didn't know what we were suggesting when we advanced the idea of a "pot luck" after church before our presentations.  The one at Prato was a little confused; the one at Florence didn't materialize; and the one at Livorno took a couple of hours of preparation.  Getting together at church for pranzo is a very serious affair here; further, crockpots are relatively unknown.  And the oven is European-small.  Things have to be heated up in phases.  Half the membership went home to do their own pranzo; some of them returned for our presentation.   Half those who stayed to eat went home right afterward.

We ate at several tables placed end to end in the Relief Society room.  We got to know some great families, including one baptized last August, who said their acquaintance asked them one day if they'd like to come to church, and they did, thinking it was a Catholic church.  However, they liked the way it felt to be there, and were baptized two month later.

The  presentation was well and avidly attended, with lots of questions and lots of interest.  Even though it was after 5:00 when we returned, we felt the day well spent indeed.

Fun thing:

Yesterday was the Festa delle Donne - the International Womens Day.  I was given a sprig of  mimosa, the official flower of the day, from the tree outside the ward building.  A wonderful reminder of a wonderful group of people.