Lunch and waterfalls

As we headed home, we stopped and ate lunch at a very cute restaurant which you can see below, where Anziano Scherbel is standing outside of.  Our branch member was a friend of the owner and they gave us a beautiful four course lunch that they would not let us pay for.  They make all their pasta fresh each day.  Here is a picture of three different kinds.  The one on the right is Fusilli which is cut in thin long strips and each one hand wound around a thin wooden stick to make it's spiral shape.  The round one is called, "little ears" in Italian, but I can't remember the Italian name, and the one on the left is called "little caves", which you use two fingers to press down and roll to make each piece curl.  The owner was about 85 and was missing most of her teeth in front.  She had the kindest eyes and was so darling.

 

After Lunch we stopped at a beautiful tucked away spot, our friend knew about and we went on avery  short hike to see some beautiful waterfalls.  I felt like we were on the road to Hana and had taken a little hike off road to see incredible waterfalls.

A beautiful Tuesday

After visiting the hospital we drove through the mountains and saw that autumn is just starting to catch up with the leaves turning colors and we saw more orange, gold and reds than we saw green. We stopped to buy bread at a very famous bread place.  We took a few pictures of the owner and the ladies who were baking bread in a very hot oven and removing the loaves with these long sticks that had a paddle like end which they could scoop the bread out without getting too close to get burned by the oven.

The yellow house across the street from the bakery had its sheets drying in the breeze and darling geraniums on the window ledges.  I love all the bright cheery colors that they paint their buildings and I love seeing their clean clothes flapping outside every each window.

The glory of God

Today we drove about an hour away, up to a beautiful mountain town, called Pescapogono,  where Paul was taking two members of our ward for a hospital visit. While they went in for their appointment,   I took a little walk down the hill and found a beautiful park called "the  park of remembrances."  There were benches everywhere to sit on.  There were crunchy autumn leaves covering the cobblestone path.  The birds were singing high up above in the pine trees.  Sunlight filtered through the canopy of old tall trees.  I felt like I was in the secret garden.  It was a wonderful place to meditate and read my scriptures.  I loved reading Isaiah 6:3.  Which says, ".....the whole earth is full of his glory". I truly felt his glory while in this park.  Here are a few pictures to share that glory!

Prayer

Someone dear,  shared a scripture with me yesterday that is really good.  It was found in D&C 101:7.
                     "They were slow to hearken unto the voice of The Lord their God;
                     Therefore,  The Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers,
                                        To answer them in the day of their trouble.
This scripture totally makes sense to me.  I have been thinking about my prayers a lot in this last week since we had a district meeting where our lesson from Preach My Gospel was about prayer.
There are two really good quotes in PMG that I thought I would share with you.

" The trouble with most of our prayers is that we give them as if we were picking up the phone and ordering groceries -- we place our order and then we hang up.  We need to meditate, contemplate, think about what we are praying about and for and then speak to The Lord as one man speaks to another. ". -- President Hinckley

" If prayer is only a spasmodic cry at the time of crisis, then it is utterly selfish, and we come to think of God as a repairman or a service agency to help us only in our emergencies.  We should remember  the Most High day and night -- always-- not only at times when all other assistance has failed and we desperately need help."  -- President Howard W. Hunter

I love D&C 46:30
                      "He that asketh in the spirit asketh according to the will of God,
                                        wherefore it is done even as he asketh."

We need to recognize that Heavenly Father knows what we need better than we do.  We need to rely on the spirit to know what to pray for.






As missionaries, we pray many many times during the day.  I was thankful for this district lesson because I can improve so much in the way I pray.  Some tips given us were:

1. Pray to know how to help others
2. Pray with love and charity
3. Pray for the help of the Holy Ghost and then courageously follow those prompting a
4. Pray for people by name
5. At night, give The Lord an accounting of your day's activities
6. Pray to overcome temptation
7. Pray about and ponder the scriptures.  The scriptures will open the window to revelation.
8. Believe God will answer your prayers.  Trust him to answer them in his own way and in his own
time

I know that we see so many miracles everyday that are answers to our many prayers.  It's amazing to me that we have this gift from God -- that we can approach him at any time in Prayer and that he always hears our prayers.  That's incredible!  We are so blessed to know that God hears and answers ours prayers.

Happy 96 th birthday to my father-in-law

Happy birthday today, October 21st to Paul N. Scherbel, who isis amazing!
Last year for his birthday, we had a huge 3 day birthday celebration in Big Piney, Wyoming,, to celebrate his 95th birthday.  He wanted all of his family to be there.  So everyone of his family made it except Matthew Scherbel who was on his mission.  But all the rest of his kids, grand kids and great grand kids made it, and that amounted to something like 123 of us.  We had a family 5 k walk/run along the walking trail from Marbleton to Big Piney that Pampa got the town to build.. We  had an incredible flag raising one morning with all of his great grandsons, wearing their Cub Scout uniforms and his grandsons wearing their scout uniforms.  They had flags to represent all the states and countries that his family lives in.  We all sang America the Beautiful.  It will be forever one of my favorite earthly experiences.  Everyone had matching t shirts.  The little kids played on the giant swings in his back yard.  Judd and Debbie Rackham took pictures of each family.  We had a service project to pick up trash all over town,  Pampa has been doing that for 60 years.  The kids played basketball with cousins and we ate such good meals.
This year for his birthday,  many of us are gone and couldn't attend his party.  We are in Italy, and his daughter Annette and husband are serving a mission in Japan.  More than half of his family did make it.  They had a dinner all together in Orem.  He had had a hernia operation on Monday, and went down to Provo for that and went back to Big Piney Tuesday, and then back down to Orem on Saturday.  He had broken two ribs about two weeks ago with a fall, but that didn't stop him from going down to Provo for Dallin's wedding dinner a day later.  I don't know anyone half his age who would be so tough.  That's why I call him the bionic grandpa.
We were able to face time him during his birthday party.  And i was so glad that we could do that. But today I wanted to pay a special tribute to him because I am so thankful to be a Scherbel and to have married his son.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAMPA.  I THINK YOU ARE INCREDIBLE!!!!!

Love,
Geri

 remember the

Anziano Scherbel's new favorite

Anziano Scherbel discovered a new favorite scripture.  We thought it might be a favorite also of many of our children who like to eat as we do. I can hear him quoting it to me every day for the rest of our lives!   The scripture is the last line of 1 Nephi 16:23

                                         "WHITHER SHALL I GO TO OBTAIN FOOD?"

                                                 We think the answer is, "Go to Italy"!!

The food is seriously so good.  It is hard to describe.  We have had so many new tasting experiences.
For example, just in this past week, there were three different  Italian dishes that we never had before.
 
Last Friday we ate at Flavia's house.  Her grandmother had gathered wild mushrooms in the mountains around their house, (their house is way up in the mountains).  She also gathered walnuts that grew on trees around their home.  And they  fixed a pasta dish that was incredible.  She sautéed the mushrooms in olive oil with some garlic.  Then she added a cup and a half of cream and then the walnuts.  She tossed this into the pasta and voila we had such a yummy lunch. For desert we had fruit, and we got to try an Italian persimmon.  It was quite crisp almost like jikama, and sweet like an apple.  It  seems that the ones I have tried in the US are much softer and not as good as this one.  After lunch she gave us a huge squash that was about 2 1/2 feet long and about 6 inches around in a perfect cylinder shape. I never saw a squash like this.  We didn't know how to cook it.  So Paul asked Ivan, our resident professional chef, what do we do with this.  He said he would come over and show us.

So on Saturday, Ivan came over and showed me how to make Risoto.  He cooked the squash.  He
cooked rice in a very unusual way and added the cooked squash and walnuts and we had a delicious lunch.
Saturday night, we visited with a non member family that we really like.  They invited us to eat dinner with them.  We had a very simple meal.  The tomato salad was just cut up tomatoes, salt and olive oil.  It was so good.  That was our main meal, along with bread to dip in the olive oil of the tomato salad, and a few slices of proschuito and cheese.  We had fruit for dessert.  It was perfect.
Sunday we had the missionaries over to eat lasagne that I made. Monday and Tuesday we were in Napoli all day.
Wednesday morning I had a cooking class at my apartment for the relief society sisters.  We had lots of fun and there was plenty to eat.  I showed them how to make lemon meringue pie, melt-a-way cookies (thanks to Sue's wonderful recipe), and Mrs Fields Chocolate Chip cookies. The picture below is with everyone eating pie.
So we have truly found the answer to the above scripture question.  The answer is "Italy"!

Italian pumpkins

Here is a picture of the pumpkins for sale at our little supermarcato in Battipaglia.  Way cool looking.  They do celebrate Halloween here too.  Many stores and shops have decorations up similar to what you would see in the US

Here I am with two sisters in our branch last Sunday.

Happy 96 th birthday to my father-in-law

Happy birthday today, October 21st to Paul N. Scherbel, who is a bionic grandpa and he is amazing!
Last year for his birthday, we had a huge 3 day birthday celebration in Big Piney, Wyoming,, to celebrate his 95th birthday.  He wanted all of his family to be there.  So everyone of his family made it except Matthew Scherbel who was on his mission.  But all the rest of his kids, grand kids and great grand kids made it, and that amounted to something like 123 of us.  We had a family 5 k walk/run along the walking trail from Marbleton to Big Piney that Pampa got the town to build.. We  had an incredible flag raising one morning with all of his great grandsons, wearing their Cub Scout uniforms and his grandsons wearing their scout uniforms.  They had flags to represent all the states and countries that his family lives in.  We all sang America the Beautiful.  It will be forever one of my favorite earthly experiences.  Everyone had matching t shirts.  The little kids played on the giant swings in his back yard.  Judd and Debbie Rackham took pictures of each family.  We had a service project to pick up trash all over town,  Pampa has been doing that for 60 years.  The kids played basketball with cousins and we ate such good meals.
This year for his birthday,  many of us are gone and couldn't attend his party.  We are in Italy, and his daughter Annette and husband are serving a mission in Japan.  More than half of his family did make it.  They had a dinner all together in Orem.  He had had a hernia operation on Monday, and went down to Provo for that and went back to Big Piney Tuesday, and then back down to Orem on Saturday.  He had broken two ribs about two weeks ago with a fall, but that didn't stop him from going down to Provo for Dallin's wedding dinner a day later.  I don't know anyone half his age who would be so tough.  That's why I call him the bionic grandpa.
We were able to face time him during his birthday party.  And i was so glad that we could do that. But today I wanted to pay a special tribute to him because I am so thankful to be a Scherbel and to have married his son.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAMPA.  I THINK YOU ARE INCREDIBLE!!!!!

Love,
Geri

For Pday, Paul took both sets of missionaries up into our local mountains near our home, for a hike up to the ruins of a very old castle.  In the picture you can see both sets of missionaries at the top of one mountain , taken by Paul at the top of another mountain.  The castle ruins are between the two mountains.  

Are ye in this straight and narrow path?

2 Nephi 31:18-21

And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost which witnesses of the Father and of the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye enter in by the way ye should receive.

And now my beloved brethren after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path I would ask if all is done?

Behold I say unto you, Nay;

For ye have not come this far

Save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in Him,

Relying wholly upon the merits of Him who is mighty to save.

Wherefore ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope,

And a love of God, and of all men.

Wherefore, if ye shall press forward feasting upon the word of Christ 

And

Endure to the end,

Behold thus saith the Father:

YE SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.

And now behold my beloved brethren,

This is the way

And there is none other way nor name give under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God.

Just For Fun

Today before district meeting all the young missionaries opened a kinder egg to see the toy inside.  Kinder eggs are very popular here just as they were in Germany.  Our missionaries like to open them and try to guess whether they are staying at the next transfer, which is this Saturday, or if they are going, based on a clue from the toys.  They brought one kinder egg for Paul and I to share.  We opened ours and this was what was inside.  It was perfect for us.  We couldn't believe there was a pair inside our egg.  It was meant to be I guess!

What happens when we let Christ in our life

As I was reading in John 6:19-21 I was reminded of the blessings we all can have when we let Christ in our Boat.  When we believe that he can help us, he will.
Christ's disciples were in a boat and they rowed about 3.5 miles (it says they rowed five and twenty or thirty furlongs, and I found out a furlong is 1/8 of a mile). The sea was with high waves because of a great wind and they see Jesus walking on the sea toward their ship.  And they were afraid.  (I was a bit confused when I read this as to why they were afraid.  Was it because of the high waves and the wind or was it because they saw Jesus from a ways off walking on the water and they didn't know who or what was coming at them?)
I read the footnote to the word afraid.  It was D&C 67:3 The Lord is talking to the elders of his church.  He acknowledged that they wanted to believe they would receive the blessing which was offered to them, but there were fears in their hearts and that was the reason they didn't receive the blessing.  
So I guess we are often afraid because we don't think that our faith will not be strong enough help us when we need help.  They wanted to believe but they were not sure until they hear their master say "it is I, be not afraid."  Verse 21 says "then they willingly received him into the ship:" and it continues with the coolest part of the passage....."and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went."
I interpret this to mean that when we believe Christ is there for us with whatever problem we have, and we let him "into our boat" or in other words " into our heart" or "into our life",  our life will immediately take the course that CHRIST SEES FOR US. In this case, the  disciple's ship was immediately at the land where they were trying to go, and they were out of danger from the sea.
I know that fear squeezes out our faith.  I need so much more faith than I have.
I don't know how many times during conference that I heard Matthew 11:29-30 quoted.  But it seemed more than five or six times.  "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;  for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
I hope that I can learn this one principal and do it.  I know that it's possible.  This mission is a great opportunity for my faith to grow.  I want to let Christ get on my boat and help me get to where he wants me to go.