We have arrived in Italy!!!!

Not only have we arrived, but we have been here for a month now. Our first post in Italy comes from Mike:

Ciao Tutti,
One month in Italy. The time has flown. Flight over was pretty uneventful, just exhausting. Two days in Rome (need at least 10 to see anything, but can come back); two days in Firenze (lots of mosquitoes); three days in Taranto; lunch with Salvo (the great young man who daniel baptized)in Crotone and on to our new home in Siracusa. Not much grass growing under our feet two days later, as we head to Palermo for our first training with our area coordinator from France. It was great to see my former mission president, Felice Lototo, and one of patti's elders, Maurizio Bellomo. They are both leaders over the program we have been assigned to and we will be working with them from here on out. I am now an institute director for the east side of the island. That’s good, right? I will teach classes. In Italian. I even took some of them, a LONG time ago. In English. The Lord qualifies whom he calls. There’s going to be an awful lot of qualifying going on around here, folks. Patti will be teaching seminary to the students in Siracusa. they are moving from once a week to five days per week.

We are getting settled in the apartment. Sometimes it seems like our calling is really to shop for the missing utensil in the kitchen, or straighten out the cell phone (lots of that). America has some kitchen tools we miss. We have had trouble finding a cheese slicer and potato peeler.

Cars are little here. A Chrysler PT Cruser is a big-ish car, and the occasional Dodge mini van is just in the way. No place to park it. Nearly everything is turbo diesel. 40+ mpg is normal town driving. And they still go 100 mph. Not that I have tried it or anything… We traded in the expensive Peugeot 5008 and are now in a FIAT Punto. Interesting info on Wiki, if that sort of stuff absorbs you.

We visited Messina today. Good people doing good things. The bishop is in his mid-thirties and a fireball. We went over the list of YSA and identified the active, less active, already married, about to marry, moved out, and other categories. A BBQ- beach activity was planned and institute (see above) classes discussed.

There is a similar couple in Palermo, the Norths. She served her mission a few years before us, and is doing well. Her husband knows Spanish and is coming up to speed quickly. They recently finished a mission at the Mormon Battalion center in Old Town San Diego where they had their two pianos shipped for performances. He sang in the Mormon Tab choir for years and she is a concert pianist. I can sing Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree if you give me a starting note.

The girls are still nervous to even go and buy something. Junae has had three years of us quizzing on vocabulary, and is just now feeling the pinch. We had a large YSA (Young Single Adult) conference this past week, and she was relieved to find many who had gone on English speaking missions and could converse with her at length. The kids downstairs from our apartment are great to make her feel at home and teach her vocabulary words. I hope she is picking it up! School starts soon.

Mt Etna has been a little active lately. Nothing we can’t run from. Yet.
Lots of windmills and photovoltaic panels here. We are way behind on that sort of stuff. Likewise, much more fluorescent and LED light usage here.
Patti and I go out finding daily. This entails contacting the YSA in their homes and friend shipping them first, then inviting to participate in activities and institute. The members here are much different than 31 years ago. In our day, we taught them to pray, the word of wisdom, chastity, etc. Today they run the wards and stakes like pros, but in a different language. The gospel discussions are mature and deep. The auxiliaries are run efficiently. The people are well versed. Still, they are happy we are here to lend a hand. We have been out tracting and finding less-active members. The responses from those who want to be left alone have not evolved in 30 years. And our desire to help them has not changed either. The Catholic church has a little less influence on them today (good and bad), but the traditions remain strong. But We’ll keep plugging away. Training and conferences and meetings and prep for teaching round out our time.

For pictures, see our individual Facebook pages. Anziano Adams (Mike)