The Olive Tree

We have been working on the yard at the church quite a bit.  The neighbor asked if we could trim some of the trees that were encroaching on her fence.  Gino, (pictured below) came to help us.  There is a medium size olive tree up close to the church building.  I have been reading in Jacob about the allegory of the olive tree.  I can understand why he included it in the Book of Mormon.  There are olive trees everywhere in this part of the world.  Olive oil was used for cooking and for oil for lamps. It was used for medicines and was and still is the most basic item for cooking for every italian.  I have been chastised for buying cheap olive oil that is light and has no taste I guess.  I have not come to appreciate the full taste of quality olive oil yet.

Here is a picture of Gino in his little itty bitty Fiat that is ancient.  He is an investigator who comes to help us trim our trees at the church.  

This is a picture of Deco which is one of the grocery stores that we go to here in Battipalgia.  It has about four rows of food.  One row is of every kind of pasta that you can imagine. One row is full of cookies and sweets. One aisle is fresh vegetables, and milk and eggs. One aisle is full of olive oil and all kinds of bottled olives.  The olive is one of the most basic dietary items here in Italy.  There are olive trees everywhere.  We have one at the church.  They symbolize peace and at Easter people bring you an olive branch to wish you peace for the coming year.