Further up and further in

I think we go in ever-ascending cycles throughout life, learning the same principles over and over, but on ever deepening levels.

I was a "kid missionary" once - I served in the "Italy South Mission", even here in Naples, forty? years ago.  I was out there on the street, opening my mouth, keeping the rules, hoping to share what I felt - and still do feel - to be my greatest possession, my happiest truth.

Somehow, though, finding myself again in a similar position over the last couple of weeks, there on the sidewalk outside the main employment office, or circulating among groups of parents waiting for the children to exit a school, hoping to offer them an opportunity to achieve "autosufficienza" - self-reliance - with a possible next step of receiving the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, it all seemed kind of the same but completely different.

(Taken outside one of the schools where were handing out invitations to the self-reliance seminar.  I found these two little girls with their arms around each other irresistible.)

Here's why:  I've been losing myself.  Or perhaps, more accurately, letting go of my self.  The self that sees things and people in a certain way, that has expectations based on...I don't know, experiences, personal filters and perceptions, fears, doubts.  There is a sense of safety in the vision we build for ourselves out of known experiences, out of what people we trust have told us, perhaps out of what people we fear have told us.  Letting go of that safety, letting myself be vulnerable, storing up instead treasure through the simple things - prayer, scripture study, partaking of the Sacrament...service - trusting that "in the very moment" I will have what I need to say given to me...I'll say it:  it takes courage.  It takes trust.  Faith.

The awareness of a larger world - a MUCH larger world - than the one I hold on to is growing in me.  I'm getting lost in it.  But what I'm finding...ah, what I'm finding.

Love this place, love this work, love this process.  Maybe I'm beginning "to fly up, and to know the meaning of kindness and love", as Blaine had inscribed on my wedding ring (re:  Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull).  It's a cycle that goes on and on, deeper and deeper, "further up and further in" (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity and The Last Battle).  If I dare hope that it is true at all, I have to give credit to the Great Creator of that larger world, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Here's what we've been sharing - 1500+ invitations in two weeks:

https://www.lds.org/topics/pef-self-reliance/manuals-and-videos?lang=eng&old=true

And now some photos.  I'm going to put an album of the Royal Palace of Caserta on Facebook, but I'll include a couple here as well.

The latest in senior missionary fashion.  We went to paint some furniture in one of the elders' apartments.  I didn't know my help would be needed so I hadn't brought clothes.   We improvised with a sheet and tape.

This was taken about six weeks ago.  I like it.  Sorella Crandell is in Rome now.

The current sister missionaries here in Pozzuoli, Sorella Fielding from Utah and Sorella Bellomo from northern Italy.  This is our apartment; they came to take showers because their plumbing was broken!

Buying chairs for the elders in IKEA.  Lots of cheese from Anziano Hyde.

In Prato they didn't make that big of a deal of Carnevale; judging from this display in the toy store next to the church building in Naples, I'd say Carnevale is going to be a big deal.

This is Angelo, an artisan who makes ceramics with Napoli themes.  TVB means Ti Voglio Bene, or I Love You.  He graciously gifted us a ceramic "cornucopia" with peperoncini - little red peppers - in it.  It's a symbol of good luck.

Always have to put in the view from Pozzuoli.  It's a marvel everyday.

We took a rare "P day" (preparation day, the young missionaries take one every Monday, but we usually just take a day off every now and then, maybe watch a movie every couple of weeks) and went to the Royal Palace of Caserta with the Williams, another missionary couple, last week.  Very big.  Lots of rooms.  Huge gardens.  I couldn't help asking, What was all the fuss about?  I'm a hopeless plebeian, I guess.

On our horse-and-buggy ride around the grounds, we saw this "play house" used by the royal offspring.

Huge waterway, used for fishing as well as sight seeing.  Dolphins and a sea monster.

Queen Linda and King Blaine

Royal consorts the Williams of Colorado...or was it Arizona?

Lots of fascinating ceilings.

Very ornate place.  Obviously.

Joachim Murat's bed.  He did not live here; his furniture was brought here to show period furniture.

I like the whimsy.

Okay, this was all my camera would do.  You'll have to check it out on wikipedia for the size of the thing.  It was patterned after Versailles but is actually bigger.  I am sorry to say it is not well maintained; I don't know what they do with the 12 euros they charge everyone, but I don't think they use it to keep the place clean.  All those Murano glass rococo chandeliers coated with grime.  Sheesh.  More on FB, ciao for now!

Me and Maria Von Trapp

Not the best photo in the world, taken with my phone as we passed by.  This is Castello Aselmeyer/Grifeo.  I don't know anything about it, we just passed it yesterday returning from a dinner appointment in the Chiaia region of Napoli.  I read that it is neo-medieval, built at the turn of the 20th Century.

Three missionaries, Elders Parkinson, Pyper and Morril; one not-yet-a-member, Cono Riga; President and Sister Pickerd of the Great Italy Rome Mission; and a senior missionary couple, after lunch in our apartment.

Some sort of ear infection that kept me from a missionary zone conference...a family home evening before which 5-year-old Manuel sat by the front door for an hour waiting for Anziano Hyde to bring his games..."splits" with one, two or three missionaries...talking in Sacrament Meeting about Self-Reliance and seeing our friends whom we had invited, who are not members, walk in the door...standing outside an employment office or an elementary school as parents pick up their children, inviting people to improve their prospects by taking part in our Self-Reliance program...visiting with the wonderful coppia Simoncini and son Ether in our home (about Self-Reliance!)...receiving news that family will visit in March and April...seeing inroads created as a result of our holiday goodie runs...viewing a 10-day difference between the way an elderly brother looked before and after a priesthood blessing...finally being able to make some visits to two families after four months of trying to set them up...unusually wintry winter weather...so blessed to have a coat, a scarf and a hat...every day working with and learning from my sweetheart.

These are a few of my favorite things... well, not the ear infection...!