Zone conference

President and Sister Kelly were there and all 24 missionaries in our zone which includes two senior couples.  The first thing we did just before the meeting was to start was to do a flash mob song for sister Kellys birthday.  The zone leaders started singing "I love to see the temple" and then another set of elders joined in and by the end of the first verse everyone was singing.  Then as they began the second verse they all walked up to the stand and surrounded sister Kelly.  They ended by singing happy birthday to her.  It was fun to see that.
President Kelly spoke first and gave such good advice for all of us.
He asked everyone to take notes when prompted by the spirit.  But take notes like Nephi's small plates, not the large ones so you won't miss out on being led by the spirit.
There will be 94 brand new missionaries in our mission  with in the next  4 transfers.  There are a total of 120 missionaries now and we are loosing 40 so our numbers are growing.  There will be 50 new sisters by June 12th.  There are only 30 now.

He told us to not take our blessings for granted.  He asked us to picture everything that we love and have today, and then imagine that it were all taken away from us, but then given back to us the next day.  Wouldn't we really appreciate everything we have so much more?

Go and do like Nephi did. Don't worry if you and your companion don't seem to have a lot in common.  Learn from your differences. Serve each other and think how you can bless each other.  He said he and his companion have been together for 320 transfers now and even though they are very  different from each other, he still learns so much from sister Kelly.

We had pizza and I brought Shelly's maple syrup pecan and apple green salad.  The zone leaders gave us a great training after lunch.

All the new missionaries gave their testimonies, including Paul and I.  The new missionaries are only in the MTC for 6 weeks now.  Their language is amazing though.  Most of them have a good start on their italian.

We love being missionaries.

Zone conference March 29

We had our second zone conference Friday in a town near Naples called Potsuoli.  The church there is one of the nicest in our mission.  It has a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea.  It even has a baptismal font.  It has lots of class rooms and is so nice.  None of the church buildings look like churches from the outside.  They are in apartment buildings and usually cover two or three levels. 

A beautiful day in the mountains

From up in this mountainous region you can see down to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea by Acropoli.  The views were breathtaking and the drive up all the switchbacks reminded me of the road to Hana in Maui.  This first house we saw had so many cool things to take pictures of.  I loved it.

These old stone steps all covered with moss were just inside the double front doors.

I even found this handsome man around the back of the house!

We drove to her house and got the computer.  Across the street from her house was a little old church and 100 steps up to the town square.  I took a picture of the town grocery store.  It was no bigger than my bathroom at home.

Perdifumo

This morning we got up early to visit a little town in the mountains named Perdifumo.  Sister Barretta, from our branch has a house up there that was her grandparent's house.  She wanted to get a computer and printer from the house, that she could use for the genealogy library that she has been organizing at our church. As we got up into the mountain area close to her house she pointed out the old house that is pictured above.  She said that when she was very young, before she turned six, they lived in this house.
I have no idea when it was built, but it had to have been many many years ago, or as they say in italian :
"Tutti anni fa"

 

The house was set up on top of a hill overlooking fields of green dotted with yellow and purple flowers.

Saturday we went to Paestum to visit Carrie who is a new convert of about a year. Here she is on the roof top balcony porch, with her husband Maximo and son Mario and our new missionary, elder Ostler from Salt Lake City and of course there is elder Taylor and Anziano Scherbel.  The missionaries are starting to teach her son.  She is an American who came to Italy for an archeological dig in Pompeii and met max and married and had Mario.  She investigated the church for three years.  I thought she was a lifetime member.  She is darling.  Their house is on the top floor of the apartment building, and overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. There are gorgeous views of the mountains to the south.  

1000 egg Fittata (omelette)

While we toured the monastery, we peeked in at the kitchen which is pictured below.  We heard the story of the 1000 egg omelette, which was prepared in  1553,  by the Carthusian  monks for the emperor, who was Charles V. There are bright yellow painted tiles all around the kitchen, (which you can see in my picture) that  seemed like they could not have been the original color.  Our guide said that they were painted that bright yellow, many centuries ago because it was thought to attract flies, and the flies would all go to the wall and not on the food! There is a big celebration very year on grandma and grandpa Minson's anniversary, August 10th, to celebrate this 1000 egg omelette.

The buildings and grounds cover 2,250,000 square feet.  This monastery is sometimes called a charter house.  And it is not a huge tourist place because it is so far up in the mountains and way away from everything else. It was a delight for us to go visit it.

Paul and I in a garden in Padula