My companion is amazing

Yesterday, Paul started to tear apart the drain pipes under our kitchen sink to see why we get this awful aroma throughout the house from the kitchen drain.  Sure enough, one of the pipes had a hole in it that didn't  cause a leak of water but did allow the bad smell to come in.  So he took apart everything and while he was on the way to find a plumbing store, he met up with ur landlord who lives a few floors down from us, and he had a replacement part.  So the two of them were both under the kitchen sink at the same time, fixing the problem.

They thought they got it all fixed, but alas, now it leaked water instead of bad smells.  So Paul took it apart again this morning.  We tried to find the plumbing parts store while we went out on our morning walk.  We were guided to one that was no longer in business and we were directed to another one, but they didn't have the part we needed. After we walked back to our apartment he took the car and found a store that did have replacement parts for our drain.  He worked on it for an hour or more and finally got it fixed.  What a chore.  But he was amazing and got the job all done. I know how frustrating my dad thought it was to fix leaking pipes when I was growing up.  But Paul just kept at it till it worked and stopped leaking.  It sure is nice to not have the bad smell nor the leaky water pipe.

We made contact with this lady named Nadia, from Russia, a few weeks ago, on our morning walk.  We got her phone number and called to invite her over, but at the last minute she cancelled on us
 but did make an appointment for this afternoon.  She was a very special lady and we so hoped that she would want to come over to our apartment.  We walked up to the corner, where there is a Catholic Church that she knew of.  She wasn't there.  We waited and waited.  Paul finally tried calling her.  She was walking from the train station and was just late, but she was coming.  She made it shortly after that and we all walked back to our house together.  Paul had asked her to bring some pictures of her family, which she did.  She showed them to us and then she started asking us questions about what church we were missionaries for. We had a good talk and we talked about coming to her house next week to meet her boyfriend and to hear her play the accordion, which she loves to play.

We had an appointment at 5:30 to check out an apartment for the missionaries.  We are getting a set of sister missionaries by May 1st and the elders need another apartment and the sisters are going to move into their apartment that they currently live in which is across the hall from us. The landlady was thrilled that the elders might live in her apartment that we saw.  Her  brother lives next door to our church building here in Battipalgia and he thinks the Mormons are the nicest people.

We stopped by our favorite pizza place tonight for dinner.  It's cheap and absolutely the best pizza I have ever eaten.

I made Sue's Meltaway cookies yesterday, which will be  for the lunch before the baptism this Saturday.  We are having several of Flavia's family and friends here for lunch.  It will be like having Sunday family dinner.  I think there will be 16 or so.  This apartment is small but I think we can all squeeze in.  I made brownies today for it, and the rest we will make Friday.

It was sunny all day today and the day was one of the best yet on our mission.  We are excited for the baptism Saturday.

Tender mercies

February 25th
Today we had an appointment to go to Salerno to get fingerprinted.  They printed every fingertip, every finger and both palms.  There were quite a few immigrants there from Albania, some from Africa,  and a lady from Georgia, near Russia.  Salerno is like the county seat for Battipalgia.  Its the beautiful city on the sea that is built right into the mountains that we showed everyone on the Internet.  The main problem with Selerno is there is no parking.  There are a million cars but no parking.  The houses and apartments go right up to the narrow narrow streets.  Check out Paul 's blog to see a little video of driving in Salerno.  We are trying to follow the Tom Tom directions and it is pretty much directing us in circles.  We ended up in two very long narrow alleys that dead ended and we had to back up with only inches to spare on both sides.  Paul did a very amazing job of backing up and not even scraping our car.  I couldn't video that because I was way too scared and was praying as hard as I could..  Tender mercy #1....we didn't run into any parked cars.  I said another prayer that we could find a parking space and then we just happened to find one that was big enough to get into.  That was tender mercy #2.  We found the Questura where we had to get fingerprinted.  We were on time for our appointments and tender mercy #3 was that they took us right in and we didn't have to wait the hours and hours that other people told us about.  We made it out in time to drive to a nearby city for our district meeting.  The elders in our district are so good.  I feel the spirit as they teach us how to be missionaries.
Last night we met a young man who is an inactive member along with his girlfriend who is not a member.  While i was talking to her, I felt the spirit so strong as we both tried to communicate with  each other....her with her limited English and me with my very limited italian.  She would like to take the missionary lessons but I don't think her boyfriend wants her to because then he knows she would want him to live the commandments.
tonight we visited with a lady in our branch who joined the church a few years ago.  As we got the tour of her little apartment we could see all her catholic statues and pictures of the Madonna and child all over her house.  She is such a dear loving sister who hasn't been able to let go of her old beliefs yet.  As we talked with her we were amazed at what a difficult life she had.  She never went to school, even when she was young. Her mother was always sick and she was the oldest.  At 5 she kind of had to take over all the household duties.  At 7 she added helping her dad on the farm too because he became infirm also.  She would have to carry rocks on her head when she was very young.  She stayed working  on the farm til about 20 years ago when she moved to Battipalgia.  She is about our age. Two of her friends came over who have both been investigating the church for a long time.  We had a good talk with all three of them.
Paul worked on replacing part of the pipes under our sink this morning.  We hope that will fix the bad smell that keeps wafting through the air.
We are going to have about 16 people over for Pronzo (lunch) Saturday about 1.  Flavia is getting baptized at 4 and she is coming along with  many members of her family who are not LDS.  They will be traveling from 1-3 hours to get here, and I knew they would be hungry.  It will be a good chance to talk with them and introduce them to the missionaries.

Lasagne lesson

Wednesday February 20, 2013
Ivan Sepio is our ward mission leader and is a returned missionary who is a professional chief.  Wednesday he came over and taught us how to make true Bolognese style lasagne.  Instead of a layer of ricotta cheese with egg, he made a wonderful white sauce that he layered like we would with the meat sauce and the cheeses.  It was yummy.

Today is Friday, and here are a few pictures I took when we were out on our walk.  The first one is the town square where there are several ponds that are tiled and are pretty.  The big door with the hand holding some wheat is the front door to the town building which is in this same piazza.  The town name,  Battipalgia , came from all the wheat that use to be grown here.  Anyway, the handle is quite unusual.

My view from my apartment

This is my view from the living room balcony.  You can see that we are surrounded by mountains.

When I look out my kitchen window I see all of the other apartments of our complex.  We are on the fifth level.  I wear my ear plugs at night and so I am not bothered with any crying kids or barking dogs.  :)

Bread to die for

We found the yummiest bread store today as we were out for our walk this morning.  The name of the store is "Non solo pane". (Not only bread). We ordered two different loaves and Paul asked the girl helping us which bread she thought was the best.  She picked the above loaf and said it was her favorite.  She then put it in the bag with the other two loaves we picked and said at it was free.  She wanted us to try it!  She  also put in a partial loaf of some rye bread.  Bread is really cheap here in Italy.  Usually it is only one euro for one loaf.  This  morning we got all four loafs for 1,70 which is less than $2.00!  You can bet we will be going back.  Apricot nectar is real popular here.  I love it and have it every morning.

I took a picture of the mini garbage truck you see here.  It goes around and collects all the neighborhood trash and then comes to dumb it in the regular size truck which you can see in back.  I guess they use these mini trucks because a full size truck would never make it through all the narrow streets and tight driving conditions here.

2 weeks in Italy

Friday, February 15, 2013

We did a lot of visits today.  We had an appointment at ten this morning to visit with Guido Falcone who is a single gentleman in our ward who serves as the ward clerk. He lives in Paestum, which is a cool town with Ancient Greek ruins from 700BC.   He is a retired Economics professor. He has a very crippled body but he is so strong and valiant in spirit.  I can not even imagine how he even gets across a room.  Every step is so painful and painstakingly slow.  He walks with two braces.  He is very independent and does everything for himself.  His apartment is so full of books, it could be a library.  His apartment was not heated, and although the day was sunny and nice outside, his apartment felt like it was about 40 degrees.  I hadn't brought a coat, and I had a skirt on with bare legs that got colder and colder the longer we stayed.  He and Paul talked excitedly for more than 3 hours.  I know he loved having company.  I doubt he gets anyone to talk to ever except at church.  I still don't understand most of what I hear so it was a long 3 hours for me.  We came home for a quick bowl of hot soup and then we got a call that a ward member needed a blessing.  So off we went to a sister's home who had 5 dogs and four cats!  We stayed about an hour and a half, and finally gave her a blessing with the help of our ward mission leader, then we left for Salerno to visit with a non member family there.  It was raining like crazy as we drove there. We couldn't find anywhere to park but finally did.  We had to use our gps walking guide to find his apartment.  But we finally found him and had a lovely visit with the man who plays the organ in church for us every Sunday, even though he is not a member.  His wife was so sweet and their two children were as nice and polite as could be.  Oh how wonderful it would be to have their family sealed in the temple.
We got home safely which is always so nice.  I am warm and happy to rest tonight.
I decided that Paul and I are having two very different experiences here in Italy.  He gets to talk for hours in Italian to members and non members alike, while I sit and smile for hours on end.  He gets to
be Mario Andretti as he drives like all the other crazy italian drivers, weaving in and out of traffic and being very aggressive as he drives so that he can get in and out of intersections.  I, on the other hand am sitting in the passenger seat, helpless with fear at every start and stop.  Prayer is my only help.  I am trying not to be so fearful, and I am trying so hard not to gasp every other second!  Anyway, those two things are my main challenges so far, along with the bad smells from my kitchen drains.  I did find a huge cockroach today in the kitchen.  I am sure he has many friends and neighbors who are hiding.  Yikes!  I will work on finding a good spray for them all tomorrow!

Happy Valentines Day

Thursday,
Today we decided to try and walk to the train station and take the train to Salerno which is about 20 minutes away by car.  We walked about a mile to downtown Battipalgia and found the train station.  We bought two tickets and ran to catch the train which was just leaving.  It was only about a 10-15 minute ride.  We arrived in Salerno which is a beautiful town on the sea.  Several ward members live there and parking is next to impossible so we wanted to see if the train would be a better option when we go do our visits.  The train was great but didn't return to Battipalgia for several hours, so we decided to take a bus back and see how that was.  We waited for about an hour before we found the right one. We had to get back to do a visit with the missionaries to Flavia, who is getting baptized in two weeks.   The bus took about an hour because it made several stops along the way.  We even had a little excitement as a lady ran into the back of the side of the bus with her car.  We did make it home though.
I did a few loads of laundry this morning.  I think the washer puts  more dirt on the clothes than it removes.  Three of Paul's shirts got the pockets all stained.  The corners of his white shirts are now all grey.  I think I will wash his shirts by hand from now on.  I read online abut italian washers.  They heat the water and the cycles take between 1.5-2.5 hours to run one load.  Mine makes so much noise you would think that it was a rocket launching anytime!  We did have a sunny day today and so I could hang the clothes outside to dry.  I do love seeing all the laundry flapping in the breeze.  Everyone's was out today because it was the first sunny day in a while.

We had zone conference in Rome yesterday.  Kent Richards from the 70 is in our area presidency.  He spoke and so did his wife.  It was great to see all the elders and sisters.  There were about 70 younger  missionaries along with 4 senior couples.  All the missionaries serving on Sardinia, flew over for the conference.  We rode up with the Willis's who work on base near Naples.  They got us several items from the commissary which I was very thankful for. We stayed overnight Tuesday with the Steurers who are the office couple.  They had all four of us senior couples over for dinner that night.  It was great to visit with everyone.

My bed was a bit dubious though.  I think that the frame was lower on the left side than the right side so I felt like I was sliding out of bed all night.  I was actually thankful to get back to my bed in Battipalgia last night.  I cleaned out a couple more drawers in the kitchen last night so I now can use four drawers.

The other good news is that the trash man took the trash I put out last night, so I must have put out the right bag of recycle items. Yea! One less bag of trash in the house now.

Tender mercies February 11, 2113

Before I forget, I need to jot down a few tender mercies that we have had the past few days.  Paul went to get the oil changed in our car, and the mechanic was just checking the tires on his own and found a long screw embedded in the tire.  It was really a blessing not to get a flat tire out on one of these mountain roads in the rain.  Another tender mercy was that I found three separate large shards of glass in the kitchen as I just happened to look down and see them before stepping on them in bare feet.  I was very grateful for that!
We are on our way to Rome today for zone conference tomorrow with Elder Kent Richards of the 70 as our speaker.  he gave a great talk in conference last April titled The Atonement covers all pain.  I have read it many times this last week and have learned so much from it. I think you all would really enjoying reading it again.  He quotes Orson F Whitney, "No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted.  It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. ...It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we came here to acquire."

Our apartment

Here are a few pictures of our apartment.  The first one is the entry hall.  The picture on the wall is of our landlord.  He was a fireman.  He is now about 75. We have a lot of pictures up on every wall.  there are also a lot of framed certificates and I think I counted abut 18 calendars hung up everywhere!

As you enter the apartment, the kitchen is off to the right. It smells terrible still even after I have cloroxed everything.  I think it's the drains that get a sewer backup smell.  It's worse early in the morning.  Anyone have any ideas.  I have poured Clorox down the drains several times a day.  But I think it's from the whole apartment building which is 6 stories high.

You can see that I have no dishwasher.  I was so happy to buy a dish drainer!  We also bought a microwave.  The gas stove works for two burners.  The oven didn't burn the cookies I made.  All the floors are beautiful marble.  The chairs in the kitchen are pretty rickety

One week in Battipalgia

Here is a picture of the village center in Cava di Terrini where the Tavenari's live.  We visited them on Tuesday and they helped us with any questions we had and showed us how to shop and get italian Internet and telephone.  They are a darling couple with a six month old baby boy.  Jonathan plays with a pro basketball team here in Italy.  His wife Kiri is from South Jordan.
today is Saturday. (Sorry about the no capitals and typos.  My iPad is great but often doesn't respond like a normal keyboard.  ).
Yesterday we had a good missionary day.  Our first day that we didn't have to worry about getting organized and  set up in our apartment.  On our morning walk we talked with a lady from Russia who is a widow and was so so nice.  We got her name and number and will try to get to know her.  We drove the elders to a nearby city, called Avellino, and visited an older man who is a member, and he was in the hospital.  We picked up his wife and drove to the hospital.  we were able to give him a blessing and visit with him and his wife.  We then drove way up into the mountains and had a lesson with a sweet girl named Flavian, who wants to be baptized.  she has an amazing testimony already.  she committed to be baptized on March 2nd.  I started to cry when she said she would be baptized.  he spirit was really strong and we all felt it.
We stopped at Ikea on the way home and I got a dish drainer.  yea!  I can wash dishes in style now!  Our kitchen had a bad gas smell this morning.  I closed the door to the kitchen so we won't get it throughout the house.  I will try to call someone about that.
We are at the church doing our blogs since our Internet is to slow at our house.  we got up before six this morning so we could get over here. We have a missionary planning meeting here this morning later.
Thanks for your emails and prayers.  We love you all.  Have a fun weekend next Saturday with Grandpa Minson's celebration.  Everyone give him and grandma a hug from me.
Ciao Ciao

FEBRUARY 4, 2013 Tuesday

Here are a few notes of things that I am thankful for.
1. Today I used the wonderful knit hot pad holder that Julie Challis made me.  It was a bit from home that reminded me of love and friends.  The hot pads that are here belong to the  landlady, and they are all so grimy and greasy that I really don't want to even touch them, let alone use them.
2. I have the family book of pictures up above my desk on a little glass shelf.  I put it to a new page every day, so I can look at two of my kids and spouses or two grandkids each day.  Today it is on Jon and Christy and Mike.  Thank you Shelly for making that for me.  I love my family.
3. Yesterday, the handle broke off my washing machine so that I couldn't open or close it.  We called the office couple and they arranged to have another one brought by today, and they just came and delivered it, so I can do the laundry again!  There are no clothes dryers here to use, so I get to hang up all the Laundry out on my balcony, Italian style.  I always have loved that.  Really I do!  The clothes smell so fresh.
4. I cleaned out three cupboards today in the kitchen and had a place to put our food and the few dishes I bought yesterday at Ikea.
5. I am  so thankful that IKEA is close by, (20 minutes away).  I was able to buy a clothes hanger thing to dry laundry on when it rains outside,  and some kitchen things.  They were really good prices.
6.  The two cute missionaries across the hall from us have helped us out so much.  Elder Taylor and Elder Vitali.  Elder Vitali goes home this week, and although we have only known him for 4 days, we love him.  Jonathan gave me a good idea before we came on our mission.  He suggested having each elder we know, highlight their favorite scripture in my scriptures and sign their name and date it as they leave to go home.  I already got his favorite scripture and it was  Mosiah 4:11-12 & 20.
7.  I made Jessica Crosby's  Peanut Butter bars (which I really made into cookies.) from the Afton Cookbook today.  My oven worked.  I had to guess where to turn the dial to as there were no marks at all to know the temperature of the oven.  I just cooked 4 cookies at a time for the first three batches as I experimented on how far to turn the dial.  Lucky thing.  The first four cookies were baked at too hot of an oven and after just 5 minutes they were done.  The next four took too long to cook as I turned it down too much.  The third group were just right, and I think I found where 350 degrees is.  I felt like Goldilocks, trying out all the beds until she found one that was just right!
8.  Yesterday in our District Meeting, which was in a cute little town about an hour away, called Castellammare, the District leader, Elder Decker, from Provo, gave a really good spiritual thought.  He quoted Proverbs 13:22.
"A GOOD MAN LEAVETH AN INHERITANCE TO HIS CHILDREN'S CHILDREN"  He asked us what is an inheritance.  There were a lot of good thoughts.  Paul and I each  thought about each of our parents and how they have left such a good example for our children as well as for us.  Thank you mom and dad for being such good examples not only to Paul and I , but especially to our kids.  We all want to go on missions when we grow up because of your example.
9.  After the District meeting our whole district was invited to a nearby town to have lunch with Jonathan Tavernari who use to play basketball at BYU.  He is playing Pro Ball in Italy and he and his cute wife Kerry fed 14 of us a Cafe Rio style lunch.  It was so yummy.  They were so cute.  They have a 6 month little boy who was adorable.  We all talked and enjoyed getting to know each other.
10.  After lunch  we got to take a couple missionaries to the train station in Salarno.  Wow,  that is the most beautiful town I have ever seen.  All the pictures of the Amalfi coast, that we showed you on our computer must have been taken in this town.  We got there just before the sun set, and it was incredible.
11.  I have stayed at home all day today waiting for our permisso papers to arrive from Milan.  They were suppose to come and they haven't yet.  Hopefully they will.  We need to take them with us as we sign up at the police station by Thursday, or something bad happens.  I don't know what!
12.  Hopefully we can get hooked up with some internet real soon so I can add on to my blog.
13.  We are enjoying most all of everything, everyday.  It has really been an adventure so far.  We will keep you posted.

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Sunday, fast Sunday.
We walked to church with the elders whose apartment is right across the hall from us. The church  is right across the street from our apartment building. Church started at  9:30 and Relief Society was first.  There were about 15 sisters in Relief Society.  The interesting thing I noticed during the lesson was that all the sisters were very engaged in participating in the lesson.  In fact some times they got so excited about the lesson that 2 or 3 would all be talking at the same time.  A young adult girl sat next to me, named Alexandra and she interpreted for me when ever I asked.  Our lesson was on prayer and they went into quite a bit about not using their Catholic ways to pray.
Sunday school was next and the Branch Presidents wife taught the lesson.  She even asked me to read a few scriptures.  She did a great job of teaching because I could even understand her lesson for the most part. One of the verses she wanted me to read was DC 6:27 which says,

And now I command you that if you have good desires-- a desire to lay up treasures for yourself in heaven--then shall you assist in bringing to light, with your gift, those parts of my scriptures which have been hidden because of iniquity."

This verse made me cry when I read it, I think because the Lord was telling me that I have a good desire to be a missionary now and that I will be able to assist in bringing to light his word to the people here in Italy. It was like a mini revelation that came in an instant as I read those words.  It was a special experience, that I was very thankful for.
Sacrament meeting came at the end.  There were three investigators and one non member there.  The non member plays the organ every Sunday for this small branch.  He travels about a half an hour each way, and has done this for 14 years.  He is very staunch Catholic.  He read one day about the early saints who came to SLC and how they helped the Catholics build a church and how someone played their organ for the Catholics because they didn't have anyone who could play.  He thought that that was something he could do to help the Mormons in Italy to pay them back for their kindness to his church so many years before.  Can you imagine what a good person he is.
It was testimony sunday, and I have been practicing saying my testimony for the past month.  Before I go to sleep each night, I try to say it and remember what I want to say. This morning  I forgot to say 2 or three parts but the 
rest I remembered.  I felt the spirit strong and I was very thankful that I could say what was in my heart.
After church was over we stayed for lunch with about half of the members. We had such yummy pasta and soup and oranges for desert.  Maria brought some pastries as a surprise at the end.  One of the missionaries here, elder Vitalie is going home this week, so this is his last Sunday in Italy.  We have enjoyed getting to know him these past few days.  He has been a really good missionary and I know the members will miss him.
It started pouring as we left the church to walk home.  By the time we got halfway, it was hailing and raining and we got really soaked.  I dried off with a hair dryer when I got home.  We turned on the radiators which are never used here because it is usually so warm, but today was cold.  In fact when I finish writing this, I am going to hop into bed under my covers to get warm!
We are not sure when we can get internet, so I don't know when I will be able to post this.  But hopefully soon.

February 2, 2013

February 2, 2013

OUR FIRST DAY IN BATTIPALGIA, ITALY

We arrived Thursday afternoon, in Rome, Italy.  The 2 assistants to President Kelly, picked us up about an hour after our plane arrived.  We had a look at the progress on the temple, and they are putting marble up on the exterior walls now.  about one quarter done .  We had dinner at President Kellys house along with the office couple the Steurers.  We talked a bit and then went to bed.  We woke up bright and early and were anxious to get on our way to Battipalgia.  No one was awake yet so we got our e'mail checked up on and read a bit.  About nine we saw the Kellys.  Presdient gave us some contact phone numbers and we ate breakfast and then got in our blue opal and off we went to our new home away from home.  We thought we had a Diesel engine but when we stopped for gas the diesel hose didn't fit.  We put in regular gas and hoped we weren't wrong.
When we finally arrived about after three hours of driving, we met up with the missionaries here, Elder Taylor from Idaho Falls and Elder Vitalie from California.  They introduced us to our landlady, Rita, who brought us up to our apartment, which is really her apartment.
My first reaction to the apartment was the smell.  Wheweee.  It was a mix of old folks home and gross something else!  Then second impression was that she hadnàt moved out any of her stuff and in fact it looked like she had moved in several apartments full of furniture and knick knacks.  Words can not describe the number of knick knacks this lady has.  She is in her mid 70s and I am pretty sure she has not thrown away any container, paper or calendar in 70 years.  She showed me every every drawer in her kitchen, which were overflowing with greasy, smelly, stuff, and she has drawers full of bay leaves, chamomille, and something else.  Bottles and bottles of greasy oily old stuff that smells and is so gross, i didn't know what to do but smile and nod my head.
There were so many things covering every square inch of horizontal tables, dressers and pedastals that we no place to set our keys, let alone anything else.
We went to bed after taking the missionaries out to pizza.  She told us she washed and ironed the sheets on our bed, but I am pretty sure that she didnt
Our bed is two skinny twin beds pushed together.  The mattresses are so hard.  They are on a wired bed base like a bunk bed.  I tossed and turned all night.  I didnt know if it was from the awful smell in the house, or if it was because i had to turn to a new spot that didnt hurt from the uncomfortable bed.
We woke up this morning to our land lady ringing our door bell.  When she came in, Paul asked her if she would please clear some of the knick knacks off the table tops so that we could have a place to put our stuff.  She did box up a bunch of stuff, including the hairdryer that I borrowed from President Kellys wife and a new flat iron I bought yesterday for $90.  I didn't realize that she did that until she and her husband were gone.
Paul went with the missionaries today to find some toilet seats, and  wastebaskets and cleaning supplies. I cleaned and organized.  By the end of my first full day in Battipaglia I feel like this apartment will be just fine and everything will work out as it is suppose to.
Tonight Paul and I went over a few towns to the Maxi Mall which is really nice. It was some sort of celebration for the children to dress up in fancy cosutmes and spread confetti everywhere in the Mall.  We went to a huge walmart like store where we bought a printer, a microwave, and a bunch of food.  We should be able to eat for the week.