Diane with her friend and Italian teacher, Roberta. Don't get your hopes up too high. I keep working on Italian, but we only get a couple of hours a month to work together! My Italian stinks!

The missionaries after the maxi conference in Taranto.

The Tarantos fixed tacos for the Foggia house. They were so excited they took pictures!

Another Transfer

This was just an informal discussion with the missionaries in the mission office. We love to hear comments from missionaries that show some real thought about life in general or about the gospel. We are blessed with top-notch missionaries. They are eagar to be obedient and serve to the best of their ability.











Ahhhh, another group of wonderful leaders from our mission depart. This is by far the hardest thing to do. I love new missionaries coming, but I sure hate to see the other ones go home. I am comforted in that a good portion do go to the Y or live in Utah. So we will have a chance to see them again in the future.

Anziano Tilini (from Hawaii) is the new assistant. We are thrilled to have him here and to serve with him. He and Anziano Belforti will do great work together.

Life Around the Mission

I see this "spontaneous conversation" happen all over the mission. Two missionaries stop to talk to each other and in the process put an arm around each other. Pretty soon another missionaries joins the group and then another. I love to see their love and concern for each other.
We have "mold issues" here in warm southern Italy. Here you see Anziano Allen with an invention to help with the situation. He taped a spray bottle (with a bleach solution) to PVC pipe and attached strings to the "squirter" part of the sprayer. Then he simply points the spray bottle in the right direction and pulls on the strings. Amazing--now he doesn't have to get out the ladder to tackle the problem!! It is a science project in the making!
Directly outside our driveway there has been a dead palm tree in the middle of the road--until yesterday. Yesterday the "tree crew" from the city came and cut the tree off and then proceeded to cut it into pieces to hopefully be carted off at some future time. It has been in a problem spot because it makes it difficult to back the car out of the driveway. Now the tree is gone, but the stump is still sticking up about 18 inches out of the ground. So we will still have to be careful about backing up--but at least the tree won't fall on us in some wind storm!!

Missionaries are Amazing!

This was zone conference in Catania. The assistants and President all showed up in purple ties. So I guess they all got a memo!!

Here you see Anziano Develter with a huge knot in his tie. When I asked how he did it. He pulled his tie out and showed me (see below).
We love our creative missionaries!!

More of Sicily

This is a picture of the Mission Home. It has four levels and a spiral staircase that goes from the top to the bottom (53 steps to be exact). The bottom level is the mission office, the next houses the kitchen, living room and dining room, next a small office 3 bedrooms and two baths, and the last is one large room that our daughter refers to as "the room for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". It has 13 beds!
As you can see by the palm trees and the GREEN it is warmer than Utah here!


The next photo it entitled "Let sleeping dogs lie". We were walking along a street next to the open market when we happened upon this scene. There were four dogs all in a line against the store all napping. I decided to let them lie!


The last photo shows where the the lava meets the sea. In 1692 Etna erupted and covered most of Catania. We live in the foothills of Etna and see signs of lava
and eruptions everywhere.

Connections

We discovered a significant Italian connection a few days ago in the mission home. As many of you know Jim is a descendant of Giuseppe Taranto, the first Italian member of the church. (Giuseppe is Jim's great grandfather). Giuseppe Taranto and Lorenzo Snow were missionary companions in the 1850s in Italy. And now we have President Toronto and Anziano Doxey (Assistant) serving together in Italy. Anziano Doxey's great, great, great grandfather was Lorenzo Snow!! It is a small world!

Here is Sister Toronto standing in the doorway of one of the missionary apts. It is affectionately called the Hobbit Hole because the doorways are short and the walls curve into the ceiling. Now Sister T. is all of 5'4" tall. We have missionaries living there who are 6'5" and some in the past have been even taller. We moved the missionaries out this week--not because of the size of the doorways but because the environment is conducive to mold--it is growing very well!!

The last picture is a picture of the daffodils that are growing in our yard. They are beautiful .

Around the Mission

When Jim was a "young" missionary is Taranto, he had a picture at this site. I made him take another one as a "mature" missionary. He says he doesn't want to compare the photos. I think he as aged much better than the lion! The lion had red spray paint and crumbling limbs!
When we lived in Utah, I used to watch for snow on Timp as the first sign of winter. Now I watch for snow on top of Mt. Etna (when you can see her--she is often covered in clouds).



We were at the Christmas Maxi Conference in Taranto when this line formed. It then turned into a circle with the missionaries all giving each other a massage. We love being around missionaries. There is always something fun and unusual happening in their presence.
Diane helps mend a few rips and tears as the maxi conference. Missionary clothing really gets worn out!