Some more pictures of the monastery

 

This is the outside yard that was used in olden days by the town to sell vegetables and food to the inhabitants of the monastery.  Paul is going up the steps to the monastery. It is called La Certosa di Santi Lorenzo.  It is one of the largest Convents in Europe. 

Below is a picture of  a huge inner courtyard that is called the Great Cloister.  The  monks would walk and meditate in this area.  At the entrance portal there is a sign which reads:

" Here peace is guaranteed, here is the entrance to Heaven.  Remain here in tranquility, true peace awaits.  We are in the zone of strict enclosure, the place of meeting with God."

There are 24 rooms surrounding the big open space ( which is so big that if it were 10 meters longer it could fit the colleseum in it.). Each the the rooms surrounding this open yard would house  four monks.  The town of Padula is up on the mountain right above the monastery as you can see in the picture below.

I want to take pictures of gates

As I was reading in 2nd Nephi I found a scripture that made me want to take pictures of Gates here in Italy.  Today I found the perfect picture to illustrate  2 Nephi 9:41

O then my beloved brethren, come unto The Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous.  Behold the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of  the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for The Lord is his name.

Trip to Padula

We drove two sisters to a little town south called Padula, today.  They love genealogy and they were meeting with a man who has a small museum for italian surnames.  I wasn't too excited to go but Paul wanted to help them and he said that we would enjoy seeing this little town way up high in the mountains.  It was the prettiest day of the year so far.  Blue blue sky and lots of sunshine.  We first stopped at a monastery that was built in 1304.  It was in such a beautiful setting and I loved taking pictures of everything.

We toured it for a couple of hours and then went to lunch up on the  mountain side overlooking the monastery and the valley.  Here is a picture of the valley below and another one of  Paul and I.

English class

Here is a pictured of all the kids who come to English class each week.  None of them are members except the girl in the orange scarf.  She is a member of our ward and she teaches the beginning class. Paul and I teach the intermediate class and have 4-6 students each week.  Each of the kids are really sharp and would make such good members of the church. They stay for an hour of English class which starts with a prayer and ends with a short gospel principle as well as a closing prayer. I Bring cookies which they all seem to enjoy and which they eat afterwards.  Then many of them stay to play ping pong and or fussball out in the garage of the church.

 Transfers came in this week and we are loosing one of our wonderful elders.  I can't say which one because his mother would find out from me instead of him.  We are so sad to loose him.  Both these elders are tops.  It is our lose and another's gain.  He will be terrific though wherever he serves.

Today was another very busy day.  I cleaned the church for 3 hours this morning.  Our workers have finished with painting and repairs and so the floors needed mopping and everything had a fine coat of gesu (chalk) dust on it.  There is still lots more to do tomorrow, but I got a good start on it.

This afternoon Paul and I went to visit a lady in a nearby town, named Christine.  She is about my age I guess.  Her husband is not a member.   Her son use to be the branch president maybe 12 years ago, but he has moved north.  She said she didn't come to church anymore because she helps take care of her mother who has Alzheimer's.  Although her mother does not live with her.  I mostly just sat and listened to a sister (we brought with us from the branch who wanted to visit Christine) and her talk.  Paul asked her if  she would like him to give a blessing to her mother.  She agreed.  We all went out into the pouring rain and drove  five minutes to her moms apartment. We met her sister and her uncle who were there taking care of the mother who was sound a sleep.  They kept trying to wake her up and tell her that the president had come to see her.  Her mother wouldn't wake up.  After about ten minutes they finally got the mother to wake up, but she didn't  really acknowledge anyone or say anything.  After another ten minutes Christine asked her mother if she would like a blessing from the

 President.  (The Italians love to call people by their titles and the Branch president is pretty important to them.)  the mother didn't  say anything, so they took that for a yes she would like a blessing.  I had been feeling not that interested in Christine or her mother or sister up until this moment.  The sisters were all talking fast and I couldn't understand hardly anything of what was going on.So I was just sitting there trying to be patient.  We had another sister we were suppose to visit afterwards and it looked like we were going to be late for our appointment with her.  Paul asked Christine if she would offer a prayer before he gave a blessing to her mom.  Something incredible happened to me as I heard her pray.  Even though I could not understand her words, the Holy Ghost filled my heart so full that I thought it was going to. Burst.  Tears started running down my face so hard that I was almost sobbing.    After the prayer, her sister went out of the room and came back to hand me a Kleenex.  Paul then gave her mother a blessing, which was very spirit filled.  Ad then Christine started talking about how she felt the spirit so strong and she came over to me and just hugged me a d hugged me and said that I felt it too.  I don't think that I can describe how strong the spirit was in that room.  It shouldn't amaze me but it does.  I went from feeling kind of restless and impatient to being overpowered with the spirit.  

As we left, the sister went to th other room and brought me out a lovely black coat that she wanted to give to me. Ad Christine told me three times that she would see me on Sunday at church.  .

Yummy enchiladas

It was a good Sunday. I had a funny thng happen in Relief Society today.  At the beginning, when the president was giving the announcements, I thought she asked me if i could bring a jello salad to a branch party they were having the day after Easter.  I nodded my head and said, "si,si.". She looked very happy and nodded her head and said, "si,si". Then  she went on with some more annuncements.  I leaned over to ask a younger sister, who speaks a little english, what I had agreed to.  She said that Maria asked me if I could crochett something for someone!  Oops, I cant crochett worth beans. i asked Rita to tell her that.  I learnd not to say "si, si" if i really dont know what they are talking about!

We had a good Relief Society lesson on Emma Smith and D&C 25. I love verse 1 where The Lord calls Emma by name and says, "Hearken to the voice of The Lord, while I speak unto you, Emma Smith, my daughter;". The Lord know me too and if I liken the scriptures to myself, he could be saying , " hearken to the voice of the Lord, while I speak into you,  Geri Scherbel, my daughter;" It is wonderful to know that I am his daughter and he knows my name too.  I found several verses in that section that could apply to me in my relationship with Paul who is serving as branch president here in Battipalgia.  Verse 8 says he shall lay his hands upon thee and thou shalt receive the Holy Ghost, and thy time shall be given to writing and to learning much.  It was interesting that Paul did lay his hands upon me today to set me apart in my new calling which is the building coordinator.  ( I will organize the cleaning of the church each week, just like Bart and Rhonda Johnson do in Star Valley.  Up until now, the missionaries and the branch presidents family are mainly the ones who clean the church each week.  Paul wants all the branch members to take ownership and responsibility for their church.  So I hope that I can help call and remind people to come help.  Plus  I can mow the lawn each week and that will make me very happy.  We have a really nice grass area that is about 1/2 the size of a football field.)

The rest of verse 8 in section 25 applies to me as well. I feel that my time will be spent in Writing and in learning much.  I am amazed at how often The Lord gives us what we need to know or do, through the scriptures.  This lesson was tailor made for me
Our high councilor Broer Collins, and his family came to our ward today.  He spoke and gave a good talk on keeping journals.  This  blog will be my journal for the next two years.
After church, I got set apart, and then the Collins family, who are Americans, came over for lunch.  Their father, teaches Spanish at the military base  in Casserta.   I made two new enchilada recipes and they both turned out really good.  I made Sarah's refried beans in the crock pot.  I will forward the honey, lime chicken enchilada recipe to anyone who wants it.  Everyone had seconds or thirds.

This week we have a full calendar already set up with appointments or visits all week long.  One girl from our branch offered to help me learn Italian.  I am excited about any help I can get.
It is already late at night, so I will hurry off to bed.  I am thankful for the chance to be a missionary even though I get frustrated about not being able to say too much yet.  I will be able to soon!
Thank you to all of you for your support and prayers.  We need every bit of help we can get.

Rain rain go away

Today is Friday and it has been raining since Tuesday when I finished mowing the lawn.  Luckily, I got it mowed before the torrents and winds came.  Yesterday was the worst.  It rained all day and was so dreary.  I was fine in the morning, but for some reason had a mini meltdown in the afternoon.  I felt like I would never learn Italian and I was feeling a bit sorry for myself, I am sad to say.

We talked to Christy last night, who is a lucky duck and gets to be in Hawaii.  She made me laugh and I felt much better, just getting to talk to her. She said that they had been to the beach to do some snorkeling at Napili Bay.  The waves were quite big and kept knocking her down and rolling her back toward shore as she was trying to go out to snorkel.  Finally she didn't fight it any longer and just let herself be rolled over and over right up to the shore.  She was laughing as she told us the story.  I could just picture that happening.  It tickled my funny bone and made me forget feeling sorry for myself.
She also told us about the night before they left for Hawaii.  She got home from work and was alone down in their basement apartment.  She heard someone crying upstairs and didn't think too much about it, supposing the girl upstairs must be babysitting someone.  Then it kept getting more and more distressed and she could tell it was someone just sobbing and sobbing.  She got an urgent feeling to get upstairs as fast as she could.  She didn't even take time to put her shoes on.  She knocked on the front door and no one answered but she could hear the crying really loud, so she just went in.  The girl, who is about  Christy's age, was lying on the couch drenched in sweat and was crying uncontrollably.  Christy kept asking her what was the matter, but the girl was unable to make any sense or speak.  Finally Christy heard the worded " blood sugar too low" and she ran to the frig and got some soda. The girl was almost in a coma .  Christy had to cradle her head and force a few drops at a time into her mouth.  So she finally came to and could talk and said that she was diabetic and also was pregnant and had been vomiting so hard all day that her blood sugar levels must have fallen way too low, & too fast and she could't think straight and was trying to call her mom but couldn't remember how to. They were finally able to call her mom, who came over and took care of her.  But it was such a miracle that Christy came home when she did and that she heard her crying and followed the promptings of the Holy Ghost to get upstairs before it was too late.  A great example of following the promptings we get from the Holy ghost.

Tuesday night and Wednesday night were spent at the hospitals with different ward members.  One hospital was 1/2 hour away + half an hour to find a parking spot, and the other hospital was an hour and a half away to the south and a half an hour to find the hospital after a wrong turn, and then an hour to find where in The hospital this branch member was.  There were no information booth



M. s with patient information.  We took a sister from our branch with us, who is her friend, and she must have asked 20 different people where to go.  She finally asked a doctor if he knew where this lady ppwas and he had no idea, but a lady overheard the name, and said, that's my mom, I know where she is.  So we found her with another tender mercy from The Lord.
There use to be a branch down in her town, when she joined the church about 20 years ago.  Her husband had died before she was baptized and all of her kids were grown.  No one else joined in her family.  The branch was closed and the missionaries were taken out of the town due to persecution from the town.  So she is a member of our branch now.  But unfortunately we are so far away
 and she is in her 80's and can't make it to church on her own.  I know that she was so happy to have us come.  Italian hospitals are certainly different than we are use to.  There are about six patients per room.  No dividing curtains when the doctors come in to check you.  The word privacy doesn't exist in italian.  From 6-8 pm  are visiting hours.  It must the the social hour of the day.  Every room was overflowing with visitors.  I bet there were 20 visitors in the room we were in.  Everyone is talking as loud as can be and it all sounds like italian to me!  One patient in the room had just gotten our of surgery and was still very out of it.  The patients family sees to a lot of care that nurses normally help with in the states.  I really don't want to have to go to the hospital at all while I am here.  I am adding that to my list of things I pray for, along with the "gift of tongues"
Paul went over to the church at 6:30 this morning to try to fix the printer there.  He worked and worked on it, and finally got it fixed!  He is now working on one of the computers there.  Sister Baretta wants to have a genealogical library at the church.  Paul is trying to get 3 or 4 old computers fixed that were up in the top floor attic of the church so they can be used for genealogy.
We visited with a family from ur branch this morning.  The mom is the Relief society P

Yeah! I got to mow the lawn at the church today!

We got a call this morning from Gino, saying that our lawn mower was fixed and that we could pick it up.  There was an 80% chance of rain today but it was sunny this morning.  We got it and brought it back to the church.  We found some gas in one of the utility rooms, outside the church.  It started up and I got to do what I love doing.  I got to mow the grass.  It's not my wonderful ride on mower, but I got to be outside under a blue sky, and I got some exercise as I mowed the grass at the church.  We have quite a nice bit of grass.  The members love to play soccer outside and after it was mowed, it looked  a bit nicer.  The rain clouds came as soon as I finished and now it's raining and watering our nice lawn.  I couldn't be happier.
I received a great letter from Jonathan today.  He shared some advise for his missionary parents, (which I just loved!). He suggested we read Alma 17:10-12.  When I opened up my scriptures, I realized that these were the exact  verses that we went over in district meeting yesterday.  I am sure that I need to read them and really internalize these verses.  Out of all the scriptures that we have, I think it is a tender mercy from god where he is telling me what he wants me to do through these exact verses.  Thanks Jon for being inspired and sharing.
We see tiny miracles each day.  It is wonderful to be a missionary!  I love it!!