One month zipped by

Okay, I'll have to get Jesse to help me reconfigure my blog so that I see actual photos that I post, instead of lines and lines of gobbledygook. Since I don't know where one gobbledygook finishes and another starts, I'll just talk in general about the photos. You can follow along, I'm sure. 1 - You may have seen the first photo on FB already, "the great Napoli District". These really are wonderful, wonderful missionaries. I know, I've said it in the past about other missionaries. It's always true! Soon I will take a photo of the great Pozzuoli district as well. 2 - We finally got our "family" display up. It always feel more like home when we do that. 3-5 - This is the Pozzuoli sister missionaries, the Granata family with whom we dined last Sunday, and Blaine. Ok, I thought Italian customs had changed when we were in Prato/Florence; but what I was really remembering is the HUGE spread they put on for you in southern Italy. Yummy food - the following two photos are only a sample (potato croquettes and mozzarella di bufala, fresh mozzarella that bears virtually no resemblance to the mozzarella most of us Americans grate onto our pizza) - and tons of it. Like you walk out thinking you should probably walk all the way from Napoli to Pozzuoli instead of drive home in the car. Fun fun family, though, so warm and welcoming. 6 - Blaine is viewed here on his way to our apartment. This is Via Tobruk, our street. We park in the piazzetta nearby and walk, because there's no closer place to park and because there's hardly room enough to drive anyway. 7-8 - The fact that this American military base park is located inside a crater is fitting - it felt TOTALLY OTHERWORLDLY to go to an American football game in the middle of Pozzuoli! "The Napoli Wildcats" - it's a side of Italy life one doesn't think of much unless it's military members themselves. They played the Vicenza Cougars. Bizarre! There is another senior missionary couple, the Williams, in nearby Caserta; they are military relations missionaries, and invited us to the game. It was fun; it fed Blaine's football appetite a little. As long as we serve missions on our current schedule, he'll miss every single football season; this is the third in a row. I wish I had lots of photos of the people we've visited in the last little while - they are, naturally, the high point of our time here. Every time we make a visit, we feel ever more grateful to be here. We feel how much God loves each individual, and they become precious to us as well. We feel fortunate to know them, and know that these relationships will deepen in the next year and a half. People have heavy burdens, but we can bear testimony that putting ourselves in God's hands and striving to live his commandments brings blessings. We love this place!