The first two pictures were taken on December 23rd at the mission home. The Harris's drove down after a baptism in Messina so we ate lunch on the deck of the mission home. Anziano Hervey, an Assistant, and Anziano Scotchi also joined us. The temperature was 72 and the birds were singing loudly. Just had to take a picture to show our lovely weather so far. The 3rd and 4th pictures are of Motta, about 3 miles from Sigonella Navy Base. Part of Motta is on the hilltop. There is an old castle, now a church on top of the hill. Lovely winding, narrow, laundry strew roads everywhere. Little bit of rain today.

We have come to the end of our four Christmas Conferences. This has been a true labor of love as we have helped transport, feed and house the entire mission, divided by their Mission Training Center dates. But what a joy! President and sister Toronto have been at the front in everything (and have encouraged us to advise the new Mission President NOT to do this next year!)and will surely rest well on christmas day.

Today marks our 41st wedding anniversary. I remember clearly our wedding date (not bad for kids aged 8 and 6!) and being told this would never last. Thankfully, Jan was wrong.

We have had the privalege of sharing the Gospel with a young man from Sri Lanka and will see where he goes from here. Our little Sigonella Branch is amazingly diverse in terms of countries represented: China, El Salvador, Slovakia, The Phillipines, Nigeria (visiting) Mexico and of course the US and Italy. Plus our friend from Sri Lanka.

It is a joy to serve...may you each have a most Merry Christmas.

New pictures of Rick and I with our visiting missionary couples here for Christmas Conference. The Elephant out of lava rock is the Catania Symbol and was made in 1736. The ruins in the center of Catania are of a Roman Amphitheater. There is only a small part remaining but it once held 16,000 people and was built between the 2nd and 3rd century.

This huge pile of garbage is what is piled on many of the streets here now as the garbage hisn't being picked up. Who knows why. It might be that the city is out of money. We'll see if the trucks start picking up on Dec. 1. The other pictures are of a young girl that comes to English class. She invited us to her 18th party, a big one here because then they can drive. The one picture is also of the 7 Catania missionaries.