Just wanted to show you more beautiful scenes of Malta. One is from the balcony of our hotel in Mosta. The other is in front of the chapel in Malta. The Beresford's actually live in the church and then half of it is chapel, RS room, office, primary. Loved the colorful fishing boats.

So I have a few minutes and the Doyles asked a few questions so I will attempt to answer them. Sigonella is about 20 minutes away, an easy mostly freeway drive (on the tangentciale). It always feels so relaxing to get there with wide clean streets, driving rules that are followed, and English spoken. We enjoy the BX and Comissary and have an FPO box that people can send mail to for only .44 but we can only receive things that weigh 16 oz or less. Its great that we can send things so cheaply. We have also been to the 2nd hand shop (got some silverware there just the other day). We have been to the library which has a rather outdated selection of books. There is a movie theater, bowling alley and fast food restaurant of which we have only tried the food. There is also a laundromat that I will probably use to wash blankets and such because our washer holds about 8 items. It won't even wash both the top and bottom sheets at the same time. And of course I hang most everything on racks to dry in our apartment. There is a beautiful 2 year old school for kids K-12 (we talked to a couple of high school girls and there are 126 kids in the high school.) Stephanie Doyle- good place to come teach for a year and they even pay your way to go home for the summer. Gotta go- I'll write more later.

These are pictures of Malta. The Beresford's are the English couple serving in Malta. The picture of them is in front of the set for Popeye (Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall). It is now an entertainment park. The other two pictures are typical of hundreds just like them in Malta. Very beautiful place.

As I was leaving Sigonella Navy Air Station I passed this sight right across the street from the entrence to the base and couldn't resist taking a shot. Can you get a closeup? I'm guessing it's a father and son.

Spent today at the tri-district conference. Very nice with lots of sweet testimonies and instruction/discussion/visiting.

This is Rick with our new Branch President, President Collins and his wife Lisa. Chapel on the left, right is primary/young men/young women/relief society. Another gorgeous day. We have about 70 in the branch. The Italians meet at 9:00 and have a much larger branch. Our 8 Catania missionaries meet with the Italian branch and then take turns meeting in our branch 2 each week. We have 92 missionaries in the Catania Italy Mission, 74 young men, 12 young women and 3 senior couples. 1 couple is from England and they serve on Malta. Another couple are on the lower boot of Italy and we are here at the mission office. Tomorrow Rick and I will attend a 3 District Conference at this chapel. It will be held for all of our missionaries serving on Sicily.

Another good week. Getting busier as we understand and do more. WOW!! We just skyped with Chris and they will be going to Dili, East Timor for his first assignment, leaving right around Christmas. Amazing! It's the newest country in the world. And he will get a chance to use and improve his Portuaguese. Kelly will get lots of beach time and maybe live on the beach.

Hello Doyles, Kroffs, Family, You've been asking questions so I will write an update. Rick and I were on our own in the office this last week and all went well. We are starting to get the hang of things. This week was a fairly quiet week because President and Sister Toronto our gone to Cosenza (heel of the boot) for a Zone Conference. We have no missionaries working in our office but the Assistants to the President come by occasionally to do their stuff. They are very helpful in answering our questions. The Italian missionaries are parttime and the are in the office M, T, and Th from 9:00 to 3:00. I listen to their calls to landlords and am so grateful we don't have to try to do that in our halting Italian. We work from about 8:30 to 5:00. By the way Kroff's and Doyles, we will be going on the imos system in two weeks. We have internet in our apartment which is great and only took about a week to get set up. The driving in Sicily is very similar to the driving in Naples but with less horn honking(thank goodness). Catania is a city of about 300,000 with chariot paths and vegetable cart roads that are now paved. Very curvy and hilly. We don't have a view of the ocean from our apartment but don't have to go far to see it. We do have a view of Mount Etna from our kitchen balcony. (Yes that would be the live, active, very near volcano. Who me scared?) We were pleasantly surprised when the president called us in his office Monday and said he had booked us on a flight to Malta in two weeks to go to the Malta Zone Conference. We were hoping to get there sometime on our mission but so surprised to go so soon. WoW!! We registered on Sigonella on Tuesday so now we can drive on and off base. We were also able to get an FPO mailbox as retirerees. We will get up more tavelling pictures as we get more accustomed to our job and surroundings. Hope you have all had great weeks- Jan