Stores of food and stores of memories

Wonderful thing:

If you go far enough along carsick-inducing roads up into the hills sufficiently away from Florence as to be actually in the province of Arezzo, you could come to a place where traditions are still wholesome and people still live simply.  This place might be called Cetica (Chet-ika).

A lot of the people in Cetica are still self-sustaining.  They have fruit trees and chestnut trees and grow potatoes and have abundant gardens.  They store up for hard times.  Most of them live in single family homes, some very old structurally, but hardly any terribly old within, because the nazis burned the town as punishment for the death of a German soldier, and out of rage that the inhabitants were able to escape first.  Since the outer walls of the old houses were formed of stone, they seem to have come through intact.

To me it is a particularly attractive town; there is such a wholesome atmosphere in Cetica in general and at the Rogai homestead in particular, it seems as though the very air is nourishing you.

The Rogai house is full; full of books, full of places to sit, full of food, full of beds, full of good will, and most often this summer,  full of people:  family, and, in our case, guests.  Guests who use it as the center of the beehive of activities that made up Young Women and Young Men Camp - or, as we named it, "Campeggio Express 2015."

Sorella Rogai and daughter Sara

For one week, Blaine did not don a suit and I wore jeans or capris and t shirts.  Once in awhile, I forgot my missionary name tag!  We slept in the curtained-off room just past the main kitchen (one of three on the premises - three kitchens), but most of the time we were outside with, for the first three days, the Young Women (Giovani Donne), and for the next three, the Young Men (Giovani Uomini).

I can't go into all the details; suffice it to say that we had a big hand in the planning, preparation and execution.  The main stars, though, without a doubt, were the youth and their leaders.  They jumped in to the adventure, tents, outdoor latrines and showers, open air dining and all.

We always had discussions on the gospel principles exemplified in our activities, for example what was to be learned from the team building game of having everyone’s legs taped to the person’s beside them, and then having to move as a team from one zig-zagged circle to another to the finish line (learning to communicate and work together).  That game was particularly challenging to the guys wearing shorts, with their hairy legs!

We challenged abilities and did things they’d never done before, like an orienteering course after ascending a steep but scenic trail; the guys, instead, ascended a nearby summit under a full moon,  and spent the night there under a lean-to.

Every girl or guy belonged to a pattuglia or squadra (patrol, squad), and every group had duties to fulfill.  There was much making of new friends and little of contention.  There were no cell phones.  There was scripture study and journal writing, devotionals and firesides.  We packed those three days full!

The leaders and the Rogais were great examples of Christlike brotherly kindness and leadership.  The scene from the main gathering place looked out over tree-covered hills rolling off in the distance.  How could the Spirit not but be there?

I gotta say it:  these are some chosen young people.

We are exhausted.  It was worth it.

All of this  was also the fun thing.

Plus the fact that the Rogai’s daughter Sara and her four daughters were there, and that the baby, Robin, became my particular friend.

I thank God for this bellissima esperienza!

Fratello Rogai, the stake patriarch, drenched at the end of YM Camp.  Good sport!

angels and videos unawares

Wonderful thing for Wednesday, 25 February:

What else can you say, when you spend the day calling on angels?  In reality, it was a rather physically tiring day (especially for Blaine, who is fighting some bug) traveling to Reggio nell-Emilia, Modena and Bologna, inspecting missionary apartments - but angels answered every door.

In nearly every case, the apartments were a picture of missionary propriety - and in the one not-so-well maintained apartment, they were a bit shackled with overmuch furniture, belonging to the landlord, in a large place meant for four, while they were only two...I know, it's no excuse.

Each and every visit, however, was a delight.  How else would you feel when welcomed by angels?
Bright faces, engaging smiles and open countenances; all, even in their "P-day clothes", of a pleasing and neat aspect.  They were thoroughly delighted with our company, eager to accommodate us, anxious to hear our pronouncements - which in  most cases was something like, "Your mammas would be proud, " as expressed by Blaine.

At the end of the day, I mused, "If these 16 young adults, added to the 12 we work with on a regular basis and the other 34 or so in the Florence zone, are an indication of the 80-some-odd-thousand missionaries across the globe, the earth truly is well salted.   There is a shining city on many a hill.

There is a famous clip of President Hinckley surveying the hundreds of missionaries waiting to hear him speak at the MTC, quipping, "Well, you're not much, but you're all the Lord's got!"  and that's true, too - they do put on their pants one leg at a time, as it were.

I'm just saying, there's a full blown apple tree in every one of those bright, blooming seedlings.

Fun thing:

Okay, this is funny.  No, hilarious.  No, uproarious - at my expense.

Somehow, every bishop and branch president in the Florence stake received, instead of a quick informative video touting the benefits of BYU-I Pathway, a puzzling demonstration of Sister Hyde eating lunch while talking to our granddaughter Kenzi via video.

Not sure how it happened.  We found out about it at the very moment when Bishop Ferrini, on the phone with Blaine, clicked on it.  How many other bishops and branch presidents have puzzled over it, I wonder?  Or maybe, in their busy lives, they haven't opened that email yet - or perhaps just not had a chance to view "the video".  Today we sent out the proper video.

For your viewing pleasure:  This:

Versus this:

Go ahead. Have a belly laugh.

Happy 7th Birthday, Kenzi!






  

Aspire Higher

Recently I heard our principal say over the morning announcements that everyone needs to practice safe sex so that they can avoid sexually transmitted disease. That was painful on many levels, not the least of which has to do with the fact that there were undoubtedly, and contrary to popular opinion, many tender, chaste young hearts pierced in the hearing of it. Nevertheless, too many young hearts have also become inured to the gentle promptings to the chaste life: A few days ago I substituted in an English class and found it necessary to mention to at least two young women that the amount of cleavage their attire showed was unacceptable (actually, that's a very low number compared to what I see daily in the attendance office). Occasionally I see students fondling each other in the classroom. Often in the hallways I see “public displays of affection” from which I must abashedly turn away.

It seems to me that what we are dealing with here is a spiritually transmitted disease. We have foresworn ourselves from teaching values, however, from teaching the sanctity of the human body as the temple of the spirit God placed in it, and from teaching purity and morality.
We leave ourselves therefore with very little to back up our pitiable rules and dress codes. If there is, ultimately, no real right and wrong, what is the reason for doing anything?

Is there any wonder that from this little beginning, the individual and the society that produces him stumble around in a moral miasma, floundering in the swamp created by failed relationships, tepid education, and an amoral economy?

We have to have some kind of standard; people realize this: "Because things work out better that way, because it contributes to the common good."

Guess what, though? When it comes to selfish desires, those reasons simply don't hold sufficient sway to direct a person's conduct. I see such reasoning in modern textbooks on citizenship and I am torn between shaking my head that someone actually went to the trouble of publishing such banality, and outright guffawing - except it really isn't funny at all.

"Because God gave us commandments, because he loves us and because they are therefore for our best good, and because we stand to lose a great deal on the eternal scale if we ignore purity and morality."

Now those are reasons to do something.

Most of all, because Jesus Christ set the example, paid for our sins, heals our sorrows, and makes up for all that we miss out on in this life, through his infinite and eternal Atonement; we owe it to Him to do our little part, to show our gratitude and our obedience, and to shine a light for those of His children who do not yet know these things. A solemn obligation is upon us, in fact, to repent, or perish.

"Aside from Jesus Christ and his program of giving," I remember C. Terry Warner saying in a speech at BYU, "there is no real reason for doing anything."

I am looking for ways to share that message, because basically I am persuaded that most of those young hearts are yearning for something loftier, something, as Viktor Frankl would say, more meaningful. Pray with me that they will find it, and blessings upon you as you too strive to share it.