Reggia di Caserta (Castle of Caserta)

The sisters wanted to visit the Castle at Caserta during their p-day this week.  So we drove them there and got to see this incredible castle.  It was constructed in1752 for the Bourbon Kings of Naples. It is the worlds largest palace by volume, with more than 70 million cubic feet.  It has 1200 rooms as opposed to Versailles with only 700 rooms.  This place is enormous!  It has a beautiful grand staircase.  It  has been the filming location for Mission Impossible and Angels and Demons and Star Wars I and II.  The layout of the gardens resembles Versailles.  Below are a few of the pictures I took.  They wouldn't let you take any pictures of most rooms inside.

Pictures of the park in back of the castle

Here are some pictures of the park in back of the castle.  The long alley of fountains and water ways stretches 3 kilometers.  There are beautiful statues, fountains, waterfalls, and walkways flanked by lawns and trees.  They built an incredible 42 km aqueduct by drilling through 4 mountains, in order to bring water to the lakes and water ways.  They keep up the park beautifully.  There was a lake built to have fake ship battles for the entertainment for the kings and their courts. This was all built in the mid 1700's.  We had a picnic amongst the trees that line the water way. I brought all the fixings for a salad bar.

Venus and Adonis Fountain

A beautiful walking path off to the side of the castle

Anziano Scherbel in front of me as I am trying to take pictures and walk fast enough to catch the bus back to the castle.

New things keeping popping up in my scriptures!

I found something totally new to me in the scriptures this morning.  It actually listed the three most used excuses we make for not going to the temple, or church, or why we don't do our visiting teaching or fulfil our church callings.   It is found in the parable of the great supper which is in Luke 14:16-27.  Christ invites everyone to a great supper and verse 17 says they all began to make excuses.  The first one said he had just bought a piece of ground and he had to go see it, and please excuse him. The second one said that he had just bought 5 yoke of oxen and he had to prove them, please excuse him.  The third said that he married a wife and couldn't come.

So I could imagine how these excuses compare to the ones we give over and over again for not participating in the feast that The Lord has for us now.  It boils down to one of these three things.
1.  The piece of ground is like our worldly things or even the earth.  We might want to go see a movie, or go exercise,  and go see this beautiful world by going on a hike. It might be sports or a concert that we just have to go see.
2.   The oxen can be compared to our work - we have so much we have to do at work
3.   It's easy to see how often we use our family for our excuse not to serve The Lord.

I don't remember reading those excuses before and thought I would share them.  Vs 33 says that "whosoever he be of you that forsaketh  not all that he hath, he can not be my disciple."
Here are a couple of pictures depicting the three examples above.  I didn't have a picture of an oxen, but I did have a cute one of a water buffalo that gives milk for the famous Mozzarella di Buffala cheese, here in Battipaglia.

Ostuni

The second town that we visited was called Ostuni.  It was a city with white buildings on a hill that looked stunning as you drive up the winding roads to get to it.  It is a part of the Puglia Region of Italy which is at the top and middle of the heel of Italy's boot.  We had ice cream after walking through the town.  They had some very different flavors.  Mele is apple, melone is cantalope and is the bright orange one in front next to Mango.  I had chocolate of course which is my favorite.

Polignano a Mare

The third city we visited was Pilignano a Mare which is a very old city perched on top a 20 meter high limestone cliff which overlooks the beautiful Adriatic Sea.  It is famous for cliff diving, right from the spot I am standing at as I took this picture.  The famous Red Bull diving competitions have been held here.  The town is also famous for the song writer whose name I have forgotten, but he wrote and sang, Volare, which is a very popular Italian song.  The town dates back to the 4th century BC and was founded by the Greeks and named Neapolis.  We had a beautiful time walking up and down the narrow picture perfect streets and looking out at the sea from several terraces.

(You probably know this, but in case not, if you want to see any of my pictures on this blog, in a larger size, just tap the picture and it will go screen size. )

We had such a beautiful day with Hectore and Gabriele who were so kind as to take us to see these fantastic places.  They were our friends from the minute we met them.

Beautiful Day

Saturday we visited with some Italian friends from Bari.  They took us to several beautiful towns that were incredible. One was a town called Alberobello which was built in the 1500's.  All  the houses are white with rock roofs shaped like cones.  The roofs do not have any mortar to hold all the rocks in place. They have a capstone on top like the middle top rock in an arch that keeps everything in place.  They were such cute little houses.  It seemed like little people should live in them.  But they are all lived in by regular size people or they are a shop in front and the people live in the back.  It was one of the most unique towns I have ever seen.  After walking up and down many streets, we had a picnic of focaccia which is a specialty of this region.  It looked like pizza, but wasn't anything like it.  There's a picture of it at the bottom, with Gabriella and her son Marco .

Good quotes

quotes by arthur william ward

"God gave you a gift of 86, 400 seconds today. Have you used one to say thank you ?"

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” 

"Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records."

"The optimist lives on the peninsula of infinite possibilities; the pessimist is stranded on the island of perpetual indecision."

"A warm smile is the universal language of kindness."

"Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character."

“Happiness is an inside job.” 

"Blessed is he who has learned to admire but not envy, to follow but not imitate, to praise but not flatter, and to lead but not manipulate."

“Optimists enrich the present, enhance the future, challenge the improbable and attain the impossible."

“When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves."

"Today is a most unusual day, because we have never lived it before; we will never live it again; it is the only day we have."

"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it, if you can dream it, you can become it."

Luke 9:2

This morning as I was reading my scriptures, I discovered a new dimension of our responsibilities as missionaries. Luke 9:2 says, "and he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick." Vs. 6 says, "they..went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where." Then vs. 11 describes what Christ did, ..."he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing."

Anziano Scherbel has often said that our little branch here in Battipaglia, is really a spiritual as well as physical hospital.  It seems like we spend most days either visiting someone or taking someone to the hospital. I truly think that our particular calling here is to help heal where we can, or rather to inspire our members and investigators to seek for The Lord to heal them.  The elders and Anziano Scherbel have given more blessings than I have witnessed in my lifetime.  When I read chapter 9 of Luke today, it rang true in my heart that we are here not only to share the gospel but to help heal.
The husband of one of our members is in the hospital and expecting to die any day.  His liver is destroyed.  Watching him get worse each day is so awful.  His wife hasn't  slept for weeks. She is trying to still go into work each day because she doesn't want to loose her job.  She needs the money so badly. Another family in our branch is out of work and have only 5 days to have to move up of their current house, with no prospect for either a job or a house.  Anziano Scherbel takes the father out to look for work everyday, but no one is hiring.  The economy of Italy looks bleaker than the USA by far.  Many are thinking its going to be bankrupt soon.
There are so many people in our branch very very worried about how they are going to provide for themselves. A couple eat at the catholic soup kitchen everyday.
I hope all of us who have so much will be more grateful for all that we have.  I hope that we can seek out someone to help today who has need.

Amalfi Coast

The sisters wanted to see the Amalfi Coast while they are serving here. It is a part of our branch area. Our branch includes all the way up to Positano.  So we left about 10:30 and had a delightful drive on a beautiful sunny day.  There were white fluffy clouds and we couldn't have ordered better weather and temperature.  We drove all the way along the coast.  The roads are as narrow as can be.  They were designed for horses, not cars, I am pretty sure.  And when two buses going in the opposite direction have to pass each other, it is incredible to watch his close they come to each other and also to the side walls. If the scenery ever lacks, you are constantly entertained by the scary, curvy, narrow drive.
Here are a few of my favorite pictures.  The first town after Selerno, is Vietri Sul Mare.  They have a cathedral and bell tower which are tiled with majolica which looks like ceramic tile.  So this first picture is of that.  The other pictures were taken all along our path.  I wish that I could show each of my family and friends this beautiful part of the the world.  Every turn seemed more beautiful than I could even wrap my mind around.  Every view was breathtaking.

Amalfi

It doesn't get better than this

We stopped in a small town called Maiori to buy a guide book to the Amalfi Coast.  We really stopped about every Kilometer to take pictures if we could find a spot to pull off the road.  Here are a few of the pictures I took.