Anyone want some fish?

One of our members likes to fish.  Yesterday he gave us a whole box full of fish.  There were about 100 small shrimp, 10 nice small size white fish and 4 or 5 eels!!  

I wanted to throw them away and get the fish smell out of our kitchen.  But Anziano Scherbel hates to waste anything.  He called our friend Ivan, who is a cook, and asked him to come over tonight and to show us how to cook these fish. 

After about 1 and 1/2 hours of gutting and shelling the fish, we were ready to cook them.  I was very leery about eating the eels.  The shrimp looked good, and the other fish looked ok.  Ivan cooked about half of the shrimp and fish and all of the eels.  The rest, he is going to come over tomorrow at noon, and cook into a Risoto.  

I don't have any pictures of us eating the fish.  But just let me say that it was delicious. I ate some shrimp first and they were so good, then I tried a small white fish.  Yummy.  I didn't want to try the eel, but Ivan looked so sad that I wouldn't try it, so I broke down and  tried a small piece of eel.  And I liked it so much that I had two more pieces.  It was the best tasting of everything.  We just squeezed a bit of lemon juice on top and picked out the bones, and it was very very good.  

Homemade tortillas!

Wednesday we had a great  DM with our new district leader in Battipaglia,  Elder Duffin, from Sandy.  He is a tall drink of water, 6'4" or 5".  He was just transferred here to take Elder Ostler's place.  He organized our district meeting really well.  I appreciated Sister Ghio's spiritual thought.  She shared a testimony that her sister wrote her about, of a man in her home ward who said that he had trouble with road rage.  He would yell at bad drivers or at cars who cut him off etc, but he wanted to do better.  He said that he thought he wouldn't act that way if the Savior were sitting next to him in the car.  So he trys to imagine that Jesus is in the passenger seat and if there is an occasion when he might get angry at another driver, he looks over at the passenger seat and tries to think what would be the best reaction.  It has helped him change his attitude when he drives. We all need to remember that the savior is close by always and that we should try to act as we would around him.

Elder Duffin talked about the word "trust" and how we can trust our companion, trust ourselves, and trust God.  He showed us 2 Nephi 4:19-25 which lists 6 or 7 ways that Nephi trusts The Lord.  The chapter shows us a time when Nephi is going through a hard time.  His father dies, and his brothers are angry with him.  He probably is doubting himself because of the difficult circumstances.  He is grieving because of his temptations and weaknesses.  But he says he knows that he can trust The Lord, because 1. He has been his support in the past, 2. God has led him through the difficult times, 3. God has preserved his life, 4. God has filled him with love, 5. God has protected him from his enemies, 6. God has heard his prayers and cries for help, 6. God has sent his angels to minister unto Nephi, and 7. God has shown him great and marvelous things.  

We thought about how we could liken this to ourselves and how we know we can trust god  and how we can trust others, as well as be one whom others can trust.

After our DM., we fixed homemade tortillas and refried beans and homemade salsa and ate lunch together as a district.  It was a yummy lunch.

Anziano learned how to make the worlds best tortillas, taught by Sorella Ghio.  Everyone helped.

Anziano Duffin rolled out the tortillas

The sisters cut up tomatoes and roasted them and made delicious salsa.

   Elder Phillips cooked the tortillas. We made at least 50 tortillas and ate every one of them.

Two new missionaries

Today was transfer day.  Goodby to Elder Ostler, who has been here almost as long as we have.  He is going to Gela, Sicily, where they have only four regular members attending church.  We love him like a son, and we will miss him so much. 

 Sister Buckley, our quiet, calm, adventuresome sister, went to Fogia and we will miss her too.  

But we got two new missionaries that look fantastic.  We are excited to get to know them and work with them.  

Sister Motsvotai is from Manti and she is tall and lovely.  She is a foot taller than Sister Ghio...and they will have fun with that.  They will definitely attract attention.

  Here they are at our favorite pizza place, "Donna Sophia's".

Elder Duffin is our new Elder and District Leader.  He is tall also, and from Sandy, Utah.  He seems like a very hard working elder.  I like him a lot already.

Today, my son, sent me the following quote by President Benson.  I think it describes these missionaries very well. I have read it before, and believe it is very true.

Singing at a Catholic Mass

Last night, our whole branch went to Selerno to sing at the catholic Mass for Epiphany.  We combined with their small choir and had such a fantastic unexpected experience.  Alfredo, who plays the organ for us at church, every Sunday, is Catholic, and this is the church he has gone to since he was born.  He plays the organ there every Sunday afternoon.  For the past 6 years our branch  has joined them for singing on the 6 th of January for this special mass.  

We got there an hour before and went over about 8 songs.  Some were very short with a lot of Gloria's, and Halleluahs.  A few were  familiar Christmas songs like "Silent Night" and "Come all ye Faithful".  They had a few melody changes and of course they were sung in Italian or Latin, but they were pretty easy to learn.  There were some that I had never heard before, but they were all really fun to sing.  We sang each one after a different part of the mass.  The catholic ladies in the choir were excellent strong singers, so we just followed them.  It was an amazing experience, and one I never dreamed of.  I am still smiling as I think of it.

They had Paul come out toward the end of the mass and be recognized as the President of our branch in Battipaglia.  He shook hands with the Priest.  We all got sprayed with the insense smoke that the priest sprays on each group in the congregation.  Everyone was given communion that wanted it.  Towards the end of the mass the Priest took a little wooden Baby Jesus statue that was baby life size and took it around the congregation and everyone kissed it.  

      Pictured below is me with our two elders (who each have fantastic voices).  We are all standing in a little nook at the side of the front nave of the church.  The organ is there and we were all very crowded as we stood for the hour and half of the mass.  Our voices echoed back and forth to each other, as we sang, so it was easy to stay in tune.  I really loved the whole experience.

Here is a picture of our combined choir afterwards in front of the nave. (Sorry it's out of focus, but I was happy to get this from someone else!) The short white haired man in front, is the priest of this church.  He is so nice.  I would come to church just because of him.  Our organist is the man in back of the Priest.  He is wearing the grey sweater and he has been playing the organ every Sunday, in our branch for maybe 10 years.  

Here is the nativity that was set up inside the church.

Befana

Yesterday was the 6th of January and it was a big holiday here in Italy.  It was Epiphany which is celebrating the day the three wise men came to bring gifts to the baby Jesus.  The Italians celebrate it with Befana, who is an ugly old witch.  She rides on her broom stick on Epiphany Eve and brings candies and gifts to good boys and girls.  She sweeps the floors of each house she visits because she is a very good tidy witch.  She is covered in soot because she enters and exits each home by way of the chimney.  Here is a typical picture of Befana.

She is very ugly but very very nice.  All the stores were selling little Befana dolls, and lots of red Christmas-like stockings with Befana witches appliqued on the front.  She leaves coal, sticks, onions or garlic to bad little boys and girls.  Many people I have talked with say that many years that is all they got!  She will bop you with her broom if you see her flying about.  That threat is to ensure that children will go to bed early and not peek when she comes.  

Paul and I were out walking yesterday and came upon Befana outside a bakery.  I suppose she was hungry after flying around Italy all the night before.  I asked her if I might get a picture with her.  Mind you, I don't have any makeup on and I wouldn't ordinarily show this picture to just anyone, but I do want to have it for a keepsake to Journal our experiences here in Italy.

She didn't bob me once!  I suppose I caught her at a good time of day!  I thought a witch was such a strange symbol for bearer of gifts, but I suppose it is no stranger than Santa.

I read about the history of Befana.  It was quite interesting.  The Italians believe that when the three wise men were looking the the Baby Jesus! that they got lost.  They ran into Befana and asked for directions.  She had no idea, but invited them in to eat and rest.  Her house was so clean because she was such a good housekeeper.  She sent them with candies and small gifts.  Later, she wanted to find the baby Jesus herself.  So she loaded up her broomstick with all kinds of candies and gifts and she flew to all the houses she could find, to look for the baby.  She left something at every house, in case it was the baby's house.  She has continued doing this every year on Epiphany.  

Happy New year

2013 is over and 2014 is here.  We were amazed at the amount of fireworks that went off on New Year's Eve.  It truly sounded like world war 3 had begun.  About 7 pm the bombs starting going off.  With all the tall apartment buildings everywhere, the sound would bounce from building to building and shake the windows and pierce your eardrums.  At midnight the fireworks were going off in every direction.  From our fourth story window, we had a panoramic view and saw no less than 30 huge displays of fireworks in the sky that lasted for more than an hour.  They were beautiful.  The bombs kept going off every five minutes or so.  By two in the morning, we were able to put earplugs in our ears and go to sleep.

New Year's Day, we drove up to Rome, to the Mission president's home, which is called "The Villa". We had a yummy pot luck lunch with 18 of us senior couples.  There were a few couples who are overseeing the building of the temple.  We enjoyed getting to know everyone and talking with them.  Each couple is wonderful.  I only wish we could rub shoulders more often and get to know them better.

We had decided on staying over night at the Steuer's apartment. They had an invite to dinner from a family in their ward.  The dad had been their bishop and was recently called into the stake presidency.  They said we were invited to come along.  So we went.  Two other couples went who were also in their ward, who are working on the temple.  We really like them...the Finns and the Wilkins.  

This family, whose home we went to, has 6 children...5 boys and the last is the cutest little girl, who is two.  The oldest boy is serving a mission in Scotland.

As we arrived, the dad asked us if we would mind bearing our testimonies about the blessing of being missionaries.  He wanted his boys to hear and feel the spirit.  So we all sat down in a circle and had an hour of sweet testimonies.  We all felt the spirit and were filled with joy.  What a wise father, to think of doing that.  Three of his sons are teenagers and were very very sharp.  They all spoke English very well.  Their 18 year old son, was just called as the stake executive secretary.  In Italy you have to go to high school until you are 19.  So he has one more year before he goes on his mission. What a fantastic missionary he will be.  

They live in a four bedroom apartment which has a very small kitchen and living room.  They said they moved there two years ago when their little girl was born.  Up until then they lived in just a 500 square foot apartment!  With five boys!  Imagine!!

After testimonies we had dinner, and visited for several hours.  It was a wonderful night....a wonderful start to the new year.

I hope that we all have a great 2014!