Oh, It Is Wonderful!

Wonderful thing for Friday, 29 May:

One of the great personal benefits of being a Pathway missionary is that I get to teach the Institute class.  The students, Jenny, Elton, Melvin and Daniela, are wonderful; and the course, a new Religion course recently published, "Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel", is beyond marvelous.

Yesterday we talked about how important it is - and how much an example of the condescension of God - that Jesus be born of a mortal mother and of an immortal Father.  An utter marvel.

We talked about how our trust is confirmed and our faith grows as we realize that Jesus was mortal as we are -- and, on the other hand, how our trust and faith are strengthened by the fact that Jesus inherited the traits of his immortal, celestial Father as well.  Writing about it in my journal this morning, I kept setting my pen down to think about it, to ponder the significance of his suffering in the garden.

The garden... "For as in Adam [the Garden of Eden] all die, even so in Christ [the Garden of Gethsemane] shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22).

How perfectly He did and does His part:  "For this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39).

It has all helped me to be more committed to do my little planting, hoeing, dunging, nourishing and harvesting.  He "marked the path and led the way" (Hymns, 195, "How Great the Wisdom and the Love").

Fun thing:

In fact, we were just given a taste of the fruit yesterday:  the oldest daughter of one of our neighbors, who knew us in our most excruciatingly dysfunctional times as a family,  sent an email yesterday:  she is a member of the Church now!

She commented, "Bet you didn't know I was watching..."

The fact that she saw something, was testimony to the power of the Holy Ghost working in the lives of people desperately but prayerfully trying to weed their garden.

Hallelujah!

(our garden after 30 years of effort)

growth at a cost

Wonderful thing for Tuesday, 24 February:

Increased sense of personal accomplishment.  Unfortunately, I arrived at this achievement at the expense of Blaine's health.  He hasn't been feeling well lately; first we thought it was the flu, but it wasn't bad enough to actually be the flu.  Then it turned into more of a cold, but felt worse than the almost-flu.

After a fairly full day, he just wasn't up to going to Pisa for the afternoon to visit GANS, and for the evening to attend their Institute - especially considering today's schedule, which was to travel to Reggio nell-Emilia, Modena and Bologna to inspect six missionary apartments, necessitating leaving Prato at 7:00 a.m.

Therefore, it fell upon me to make the hour-or-so drive to Pisa and back by myself.  Have I mentioned that if one of us goes anywhere alone, we always feel kind of vulnerable?  Add to that the challenge of driving the Italian way, which means basically "a way with which I am not yet completely comfortable."  Add to that driving in the evening and at night.  in the rain.

I did it!! Even though the one GANS we were able to make an appointment with missed her train.  I ended up sitting in on the free English class that the missionaries do, which was super.

I am so proud of me.  Folks were curious about where Anziano Hyde was; they didn't know that senior missionaries, according to our understanding from the MTC, can be separated as long as they're back together before the end of the day. Arrived home ready to go straight to bed.

Fun thing:

Missionary correlation meeting.  Elton Sejko, our newly returned missionary, is now the ward mission leader.  Missionary correlation meeting was held at the family pizzeria, Il Cipollotto, where his gracious and lovely mother, Edlira, and her husband treated us to lunch.  How cool is that.

There's an appetizer, a Tuscan specialty, that is basically liver pate' on bread.  Hers was the best I've tasted.

I kissed the devil

Wonderful thing for Friday, 20 January:

Okay, this is "wonderful" and "fun" together, because whenever you talk about children, it's both, unequivocally.

I have never seen so many cute kids together in all my life!  Not true.  Whenever our family has been together, there's no contest on cute kids.  That said, the one thing to like about Carnevale is all these adorable little people in quaint and charming costumes.

Our ward had a Carnevale festa for the kids.  I know, it's kind of like having a ward Halloween party...doesn't make a lot of sense if you really think about it.  There was Buzz Lightyear, the cutest witch I've ever seen, an elf, Charlie Chaplin, the "Corpse Bride", two Superman(s), "Wonder Dude", Princes Merida (the child even had wavy auburn hair), Pebbles, ... I know there were more - and yes, Alessia and Diletta, two of our Young Women, were a princess and a devil; and true to Italian form, I kissed them both.

Setting aside the slightly bizarre idea of a ward Carnevale party, it was just one more opportunity for some much-needed fellowship.  Dear Sister Betty DeRobertis, who's in charge of such goings on, is always up for a party.  There were confetti ribbons everywhere and party streamers hung from the ceiling (thanks to Blaine on a ladder).  We watched some fun games, and even partook in some - have you ever tried to move an egg with a slab of styrofoam, without touching it (the idea is to create wind)?  There was music the entire evening.  "A wonderful time was had by all."

And another wonderful thing:

Our new Institute presidency.  We still have Ivan as the president, and Andrea as the secretary, with Elton (newly returned missionary) and Matteo (newly baptized member) as assistants.  We had a presidency meeting, and feel encouraged.  Time for a fresh look at things, time to ameliorate.  Love those Italian-derived words - okay, Latin-derived - close enough.

And another fun thing:

I made a "flourless orange saffron cake".  Perfect.  Yummy.  Yay!  For some reason it means a lot to me that people like what I bring.  To make it, I had to put two [yummy Sicilian] oranges in the microwave, covered, till they were tender and exuding juice, then puree them.  There's something I don't do every day!

Dynamos, dynamic, dynamite. Look out! Out of small things...

Wonderful thing for Tuesday, 3 February:

Sometimes when I make these entries, I ask myself, how can I limit it to just one wonderful thing?  But I'm committed to keeping it short, so, let's see... Institute in Pisa.

It was our second trip to the Institute class.  Sorella di Ruscio, the instructor, may I just say, is a dynamo.  I love meeting vibrant, fun, committed people, who know what's what and who are wholly invested.  She knows what it's like to give your best effort to preparing the lesson, only to see one or two show up; however, her  enthusiasm is not curbed, one or two is as good as a dozen.  Her lessons are fast-paced, insightful, doctrinal.  It's a pleasure to be there.

Yesterday her one student, an excellent young returned missionary, brought his fiancée, an excellent young returned missionary from the Montevarchi branch.  Also in attendance were the Perez family, who have the responsibility for the GANS of Pisa. They are also excellent people:  they met on his mission to Brazil, so she is Brazilian.  They are American military.  She understands Italian, he can speak it!  They have a sweet six-year-old, Mellany.

We had an in-depth discussion of part of D&C 76.  I feel more committed to set my sights on il Regno Celeste, and more grateful for the principles in Moroni 10:32-33.

And we are so blessed and privileged to know these people.


Fun thing:

We went with the sisters to lunch at the Pascuzzo's.  The sisters were on "scambio", which means in this case that one of our sisters was in Siena, and one of the Siena sisters was here.  She has only been in the mission for three months, but speaks Italian like a pro, and with a great accent.  All missionaries who  "go foreign" receive a portion of the gift of tongues, but some already have it as a natural gift.  She is another dynamo.  We all had a fun time and, of course, great food.  Gotta get that recipe for risotto con zucca.