Doner Kabobs

For dinner tonight we had doner kabobs with the missionaries.  The zone leaders, who serve in Casserta, were here on Scombi with the Battipaglia elders.  They arrived about  8:30 tonight after appointments in Casserta after zone conference.  We figured they would be pretty tired after a long day.  So we had a quick dinner and got them home in time for curfew.  

VIETRI SUL MARE

On the way home from zone conference we got to stop at one of the prettiest sights at the southern east point of the Amalfi Coast.  A little town on the Mediteranean Sea, called Vietri Sul Mare.  Sul mare means on the sea.  The ceramic domes on the churches below, are so beautiful.  We got a few pictures of us and the sister missionaries. 

At the pull off spot, there were these darling tiled pictures, on small columns at the edge of the sidewalk.  I thought they were so cute.

Pozzuoli Zone Conference

                                     Napoli Zone Missionaries April 30, 2014

                                                  Pozzuoli, Italy

Today we had such a good zone conference.  Our zone leaders organized it and carried it out so wonderfully well.  I was very proud of them.  We had 5 destramenti and I learned something from each one.  I felt the spirit teach me along with what they said.  Comments and testimonies from other missionaries brought the spirit double strong.  I loved every minute.  Afterwards we got some fun pictures.

  

              

Elder Duffin,  Elder Line,  Elder Scherbel,  Sister Mitzvotai,  Sister Webster,  Sister Scherbel

                                     The Battipaglia Missionaries/ Battipaglia District

                                Our wonderful crazy beautiful sister missionaries!

Pday Lunch

Today, it was rainy and cold.  So, this afternoon, all six of us missionaries, cooked lunch together.  I taught the Elders and Sisters how to make 2 different Lasagnas.  One was a vegetable pesto one, and the other was a traditional Bolognese one.  The missionaries all learned how to make the Bescemela sauce that both recipes call for.  Oh my, they turned out so good.  My husband bought some profetorolles, which sister Webster is holding in the photo.  Anziano Scherbel is holding up a jar of anchovies which he likes to put on his green salad. 

We love spending time with these terrific missionaries.  They all laugh at my husbands jokes, which makes him so happy!  They ask for our advise about different things, and they keep coming over so they must like us.  We sure like them.

Branch Conference

Yesterday was Branch conference.  Our new stake president and his wife came down this weekend, from Rome, to be here for our branch conference.  They are both very young.  They have three little kids.  They both served missions in Greece.  I loved both of their talks Sunday in Sacrament meeting.  They each speak English really well.  He is a professional translator.  He is usually President Monson's voice for the Italian translation of conference.  So I got to know his wife well as he did interviews.

We took them back to the train station, Sunday Afternoon.  It was really cold, so Paul gave sister Diniciaci his suit jacket.  But this is the only picture of them I have.

They are strong in testimony and I can picture him as a general authority in the near future.  You can feel the spirit so strong whenever you hear him speak.  

Loving our friends

I spoke with Christy yesterday and she told me about how much she loves teaching her little primary class.  Yesterday, the lesson was on "how can we show love to others".  She said she asked each of her 6-7 year olds how they can show their love for their friends or family.  Each child gave their individual answer.  When she got to Collin, he sat thinking for a long time without answering.  So she gave him a specific situation to help him along.  She said, "what if your best friend fell down and scraped his knee, and it was bleeding a little and he was crying.  What would you do to show him love?"  He quickly responded with, "I would run home and pick out the most perfect bandaid and then I would put it on his knee, and it would be all better!"

She and I loved his answer.  "I would pick out the most perfect bandaid.!"  

I need to do a better job of picking out band aids!  Sometime I just pick out a "one size fits all wounds."

Everyone needs the most perfect bandaid!  

Thanks Christy for sharing this with me.  Children can certainly teach us so many precious truths.

Branch Activity for Pasquetta

The day after Easter is called Pasquetta.  Everyone is off work and school.  It's not a religious holiday, but just a national holiday.  Our branch has hosted a Pasquetta party for a number of years and has always invited the other branches that were in our district to come too.  Because we have a big lawn area, the kids really enjoy coming and playing soccer together and eating and playing other games.  Our missionaries are forbidden to play soccer, and they were very obedient and didn't play.  I know they would have loved to because there was a great group playing, but they had other games going and were involved with being in charge of the whole party.  They did such a wonderful job planning and follow through.

We had a service project for the first two hours.  We got the lawn mowed and the long driveway adjacent to our lot, all cleaned out of trash, weeds and ten years worth of pine needles.  None of our branch members came to the service project, except our new convert family from last summer, and a new convert young man from last summer, who brought his non member mother.  Of course us six missionaries were all there!  At the very end, one of the boyfriends of one of the ladies from Napoli, helped us, and two new converts from Casserta helped us the last 1/2 hour of the service project.  So we got a lot done and the yard looks so nice.  I just wish that the long time members would take ownership and come together to keep their building and yard nice. Not one of them came until the project was over and the party began!  

We had lots of food, games and visiting during the afternoon.  I counted 52 people that came to the party.  6 missionaries

          20 members. 3 of which are totally inactive

           2 new members from Casserta

           1 member from northern Italy who is the boyfriend of one of our young adults

            9 non members

            7 adults from Napoli branch

            7 ragazzi  from Napoli at least two are members, I don't know about the other 5!

The kids played soccer, and then a fun version of water balloon battleship.  Everyone played ping pong and fooseball.  The winners of the scavenger hunt were:

We had lots of good food:

The adults had fun singing:

I would say that it was a very good party.  Everyone drew closer who came.  We had a marvelous turnout, thanks to the people who came from Napoli and Casserta and thanks to all the publicity the missionaries gave out and calls made to remind people to come.

Easter Pictures of our nipotini

I have just received a couple of darling pictures this weekend of our cute grandkids.

Paul's girls:  

Paul holding baby Liam.

Shelly's kids: 

Roland's girls:  

Mike's kids with Shelly's: 

Dan's kids: 

Tommy's new baby: 

And the youngest cousins met for the first time.  Mac was born February 23rd and Liam was born March 28th.  Fresh from heaven.

We are so thankful for every single one of these beautiful grandkids.  18 at the moment.  19 next month!  We are blessed to be together forever!

Easter Symbols

A sister in our branch gave me the lentichi sprouted center piece for Easter.  Here in Southern Italy, this is a popular symbol of Easter.

They take a plateful of lentils which are on a piece of paper towel, and then they cover the lentils in water, and set the plate In a dark place for 6-7 days....and voilla ... This is what you get.

Everyone also gives giant chocolate Easter eggs to each other.  Many of them have a toy or surprise inside.  We received this one last night.

I discovered the chocolate is very good to break up into little pieces and make chocolate chip cookies with.  

In Ameica, we color Easter eggs.  Here are a few of our grandkids dying eggs with no help from mom.

And we do all of these things to celebrate the greatest day and the greatest event ever.  The day that they found the tomb empty after Jesus Christ had died.  

Primary Activity

Saturday morning, we had a primary activity at the Primary President's house.  We colored Easter eggs.  They don't have that tradition here in Italy.  So it was a new experience for the children.  We colored eggs, and put together Easter baskets.  It was a lot of fun. You can only buy brown eggs here.....no white eggs are sold.  So our eggs turned out much darker than the typical white ones do.  But they were very pretty.

Paestum

Friday, we were able to take a quick trip to Paestum with President and Sister Waddoups. 

                       We swung by the beach and got in a nearby boat!

                                      The sun was so pretty and sparkly on the water.

         Just as the sun was setting, we walked by the Ancient Greek temples.  The oldest one was built in 700 BC.  

It was a beautiful night.  There were a lot of vendors with booths set up along the walking plaza near the temples.  Apparently we arrived toward the end of the artichoke festival.. They were roasting whole artichokes and giving them away to everyone who happened by.  The artichokes had garlic and parsley and salt stuffed into the tops and they were so good.

We went to Donna Sophia's for pizza afterwards with the missionaries, the mission president and his wife and also an investigator was there.