Crawfords On A Mission

2011-02-12T14:54:00.000-08:00

2011-02-07T11:39:00.000-08:00

2011-01-30T14:49:00.000-08:00

2011-01-30T13:29:00.000-08:00

2011-01-30T13:00:00.000-08:00

2010-11-29T15:17:00.000-08:00

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2010-11-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

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2010-11-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

2010-10-27T04:10:00.000-07:00

2010-10-27T02:13:00.000-07:00

Rome Temple Site

2010-10-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry family that this post is so poorly done. I could not see my pictures until they were posted. They are cleaning off the land, laying a white gravel pathway for people and cars for Saturday. It is a beautiful site with umbrella pines and a gentle slope. The grove of olive trees is pretty as well.

2010-10-20T14:01:00.000-07:00

2010-10-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

2010-10-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

Rome Temple Site

2010-10-20T13:10:00.000-07:00

Brother Ballard and his wife in Rome.

2010-10-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

2010-10-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

2010-09-06T06:43:00.000-07:00

District Meeting in Roma Due (2)- Some of these young people transfer out on Thursday so we took a picture today. Marcucci's, Burt's, Sorelle Urban and Riffaldi, Anziani McDaniel, Mickelsen, Hale and Herrick.

2010-09-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

2010-09-03T13:37:00.000-07:00

2nd Pic- A Bernini Fountain built 544 years ago for the neighborhood to give water to people and horses; A Bernini scuptured angel- breathtaking. Three missionaries on a whirlwind tour of Rome with me- in front of Castel St. Angelo.

2010-09-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

2010-08-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

Second picture is the beautiful "Pieta'" by Michaelangelo in St. Peter's. (Mary holding her son.)

2010-08-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

2010-08-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

2010-08-16T04:25:00.000-07:00

2010-08-11T13:24:00.000-07:00

This first pic is from the Man Family and cousins, friends and family who all came to church to see us off. Many of them received furniture and items from our apartment as we gave stuff away. One of the families is now taking the lessons from the missionaries in Catania. I had to throw the next photo in because I figured the castle looking building would catch the grandchildren's interest. Actually, it was a small part of a stronghold in Erice. Next, Rick and I in front of a beautiful church and piazza in Siracusa. And next, just so you don't think that all we do is play, a picture of our last Zone Conference in Catania (Boo Hoo).

2010-08-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

2010-08-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

Buona Sera Carisime, We finally have email in our apartment. We went with a company that has a connection with a small device, like a thumb drive, so we had no hook time or fees. What is the type called Derek? The pictures I have posted are from Sicily. The Temple is Segesta, near Trapani. It's amazing. We are in front of a church in Erice. Such beautiful architecture- Rick is in front of the Siracusa chapel with Anziani Cox and Rogers. The last is a picture of the Siracusa Anziani and Sorelle with us on their p-day. We had a great day and the Meduri's (in the back of the picture) had us over for lunch at their home. They are the Italian couple that worked part time with us in the office.

2010-08-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

2010-07-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

2010-07-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

First picture is Rick with Anziani Knuteson and Hutchinson in Erice, a beautiful old walled city next to Trapani. Next are the men in black- 4 missionaries receiving vehicles that haven't had them in the past so they were pretty excited not to be bussing every where. From right- Anziano Sapio (Salerno, Italy), Wood(England), Dicataldo(Milan, Italy), and Rogers (Spanish Fork- His Dad and Grandpa are podiatrists there also, Clark.) Next photo is RS in my kitchen being taught to make yummy Filipino food by two of our sisters. Next is me standing by our car with the Catania Mission Home in the background.

2010-07-13T11:08:00.001-07:00

2010-07-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

2010-06-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

Hello All, Just a few new pictures to post. First is Rick and I in front of Le Castella near Crotone. We stopped there with friends on our way to Maxi Conference.
Next comes Typical Sicilian Puppets- these are at Taormina.
Rick contemplating the replacement car we may want to buy when we get home.
Last, Matera, a city near Taranto that we stopped to see on the way home from the Maxi Conference. Matera is where Mel Gibson filmed "The Passion of Christ".
It has been a tiring week with the mission auditor here for 3 days (whew- we passed so they are not going to fire us), packing tons of stuff to be delivered to the other side of the mission, starting to pack up the office, sorting, labeling, tote and carrying (don't remember those in the job description). All is good and we work with wonderful people!! Love sharing the gospel because it makes us all better..

2010-06-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

2010-06-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

OOPS!! Ok so I forgot I already uploaded one. Well, these were taken at Siracusa. Rick is in front of the Ear of Dionysius (huge cave, Good echo sound inside, used as a prison and they could hear their enemies talking). The Greek Theater, 3rd century BC. A stage being built on it for performances this summer, which they do every year.
Yesterday President and Sister Toronto's belongings were boxed up and shipped home. It is getting close to the end for the Catania Mission as well as for President and Sister Toronto. We are very busy getting things wrapped up. We had Zone Leader Council last week and it is always terrific being with the wonderful missionaries. 8 Baptisms in May.

2010-06-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

2010-05-18T10:53:00.000-07:00

We had visitors from Draper- YIPPEE!! Brett and Kathy Andrizzi came through with their two sons and stayed with us Sunday night. Quinton had served here until last August so he came to visit the mission. Chase had completed his mission to Zurich, Switzerland a year before so they first journeyed through his territory. It was wonderful to visit with Kathy who I had been a counselor to in the stake relief society. I talked and talked and she listened and listened. We visited with President and Sister Toronto on Monday morning and then spent a few hours at Taormina. We ate lunch overlooking Isola Bella on the Ionian Sea- BEAUTIFUL! We wandered through the Roman amphitheater and the wonderful little town of Taormina. It was a wonderful but way too short visit.

2010-05-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

2010-05-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

2010-05-05T13:51:00.000-07:00

Another shot of our Maxi Conference in Catania. We received good news on Sunday. Sicily is getting its first Stake in June. It will be the Palermo Sicily Stake and will include all the branches and hopfully, soon, wards on Sicily. The Italian members are SOOOO excited. We are glad it is happening while President and Sister Toronto are still here. What icing on the cake for President Toronto who served here as a missionary, whose Great-great grandfather came from here and came with Lorenzo Snow to dedicate the country, and has now served as Mission President here.

2010-04-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

Missionary Life

2010-04-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone, Well some of our friends have asked for more detail on our mission experience so I will attempt to give a little more. We work in the office from Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 5:00 (often later). Rick is primarily the financial secretary. He makes sure apartment rents are paid, utilities, repairs, supplies and missionary travel and various and sundry other expenses. We have an Italian couple who are serving 1/2 time and come in for 6 hours on Tues., Wed., and Thurs. They do all the Italian communicating and Italian permisso work(like visa's). Rick has fun with his Italian getting all the work organized. I do secretarial stuff. I order, send out, and keep track of supplies. I send letters to parents after each transfer (6 weeks) to update parents on their missionary's progress. I order travel, make flight reservations (Malta flights come up quite often), and keep President Toronto informed of all travel times, dates, etc. I have several reports to complete- weekly, monthly, annual. I do lots of secretarial "stuff". I am constantly getting calls or faxes from missionaries needing supplies and need to organize their deliveries as the assistants travel for district, zone conferences or scambi (exchanges with other missionaries to train). I also organize the delivery of mail and packages in this same way. We have no one else working in the office. I know many offices need missionaries to help out but our president is quite a stickler that their job is missionary work. They seldom even stop by the mission office because they know the president wants to see them organized and working hard all of the time. But even without missionaries stopping by the office it stays very busy and bustling. President Toronto has been District President until recently and that entails all the work that a stake president usually does- he is a very busy man. The office has church people in and out everyday, mailmen, delivery people, people needing to be paid, repair men and now many people helping to organize the closure of our mission. Rick and I have definitly improved a great deal with our computer "skills". Most of our work is on a church program called IMOS (Internet Mission Office System). We learned on a different program and then Europe joined IMOS in December so we learned a new system- always fun. It is a good program but they are constantly upgrading it. They are finding that they had to change a lot of things once they opened Europe. The banking system is so different here as are many other things. We have had to push ourselves to gain computer knowledge that wasn't there before. It has been a good thing.
We are scheduled to move up to Rome the second week of July. President and Sister Toronto leave at the end of June and then we will help supervise the moving of a ton of stuff to the Rome and Milan Missions, Rome and Milan Offices and some things to the couple's apartments. For the last few months we have been making list after list of items in the mission home and senior couple apartment and and lists of our 34 apartments, and what is needed in each apartment, how soon it is no longer needed, when is someone headed that way to deliver the items. After 28 years, the mission home has a lot of stuff (21 twin beds, pictures, book shelves, furniture, books, fold up tables and chairs for conferences, all the kitchen stuff for serving lots of large group meals, etc.) I can't even begin to express all the stuff that has to be sorted out to missionaries first, then members. I have an entire room of office supplies and missionary pamphlets, Book of Mormon's, etc that I have to box up, lable and have ready for the movers. And we are hoping no Italian feelings get hurt in the process- not an easy task. Once we get the mission moved we will get trained in the office in Rome. We will replace a couple that are going home at the end of July. They have two couples in Rome just as we do but they don't have an Italian speaking couple. So we will be doing much of the same stuff we are doing now but with a little different division of labor. We will move right into the Sommerfelt's apartment so we won't have to set up an apartment.
Saturday is our p day. We clean, shop and sightsee (and watch a movie occasionally.) We get to Sigonella every week and I do a lot of the shopping for missionary dinners, conferences, etc. We enjoy reading a newspaper or two at the library, getting mail, eating lunch at Subway. When we move to Rome we will head down to Naples (a two hour drive) every month or so to shop. I'm sure we will want to do some sightseeing in Rome so we won't go every week. The base that we knew in Naples is gone now but they have a new one so we will check it out. We attend the Sigonella Branch, English speaking. Rick is first counselor, I am 1st counselor in RS. A girl has been called to lead the music in sacrament but she has never shown up so I always lead the music. Then we often teach a lesson or give a talk. It does make you stretch yourself a little. We usually pick some people up and drop them off after church. We have a very international flavor to our ward. Our new Sri Lankin member (Rick baptized him) comes, a Filipino family and a sister, Lilian from Nigeria, Ingrid and her sons from Brazil/Italy, Leah who is Chinese/American. Then we have 7 or 8 good solid American familes that are wonderful! When we move to Rome we will attend an Italian Ward which I am looking forward to doing.
As we have mentioned, part of the reason the missionaries are being sent elsewhere is because of the amazing growth in some countries. But, our mission has had increased numbers of baptisms each year for the last 3 years with decreasing numbers of missionaries. Some of that can be attributed to our mission president who is strict but very focused. He is a wonderful teacher and I love to hear him teach. The spirit flows. And some of the growth can be attributed to the focus of using the members to bring the gospel to their friends and neighbor. There has been a great deal of teaching to the members and they are sharing the gospel in greating numbers and reaching out to investigators. Most missionary lessons are taught with a member present. It is a great way for everyone to grow in the gospel. I am so impressed with these young missionaries. They are so obedient and to see their growth through their hard word and obedience is truly amazing.
So, one last thing. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings we help the Catania missionaries teach English course. It is a service offered to the community and we have quite a few show up. We started out with 63 the first night and we have dropped a little in numbers but are still having from 30-45 each night. It has been a good experience and has opened our eyes to a lot of cultural things. We have made some good friends through it and have shared a spiritual message each night. Rick loves to share the word or words of the night. I usually have a story to read or song to sing (in English of course), discussion, question and answer, grammar. We will finish in two weeks and then have a break.
One of the best things about the mission is our scripture study, personal study time. It is amazing the growth I feel from that. I understand so many gospel principles in a more complete and thorough way. President and Sister Toronto have taught such wonderful lessons at the many mission conferences we haave attended. I can see such value for our young kids to go on missions and learn these skills early in life. Of course, they need to learn them in the home as well so they will be able to go on missions and ready to be obedient and hard working. Make no mistake, missions can be hard but so worth it.!!.. Enough- Basta! Buona Sera Buon Amici

2010-04-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

2010-04-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

An April greeting from Catania. The last couple of weeks have been quite busy with a trip to Malta (to conduct an audit, speak in sacrament and, oh okay, a little site seeing) followed by a week end of General Conference (not too bad viewing on the computer) and a fine Easter dinner with branch members. The dinner had a mini United Nations feel to it with a fine family from the Philippines (the Manas), our great newly baptised brother from Sri Lanka (Jayasinghe) and sweet sister Lillian from Nigeria. We felt blessed to dine, watch conference, and reflect on the reality of the Resurrection with such good friends.

The English class is still a fun challenge. Last Tuesday, we departed from the usual instruction to view a concert put on by 6 sister missionaries. Such talent! Violin, piano and beautiful harmonious singing with testimonies of the Savior by each young woman. A truly special evening.

We are also working towards the upcoming mission merge. July 1st is the target date for closing the doors in Catania and heading north to Roma. We have two more transfers with one coming next week, a lot to pack (and some to toss) to say nothing about our own move. But hey, we have a new mission car....a 2010 Opel Meriva. It is smooth riding and spacier than our little Ford Fiesta but the transmission leaves something to be desired.

This is a week of birthdays with grand daughters Caitlyn and Ashlyn earlier this week, Robyn (who is expecting!) having her birthday today and industrious Jan's tomorrow. Enjoy the springtime and have a little Italian food this week!!

2010-04-08T12:35:00.000-07:00

2010-03-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

When you look at the cemetary you can see Mount Etna in the background. Rick and I walked around and it was beautifully kept up- unlike anything we have seen here in Italy. It was a busy weekend but good. We had a branch social, bowling at Sigonella on Saturday. We took Sister Lilian. Sunday Dad conducted and spoke, I led the music (another sister has been called to lead the Sacrament music but we haven't seen her since the call.) I spoke and then taught joint RS/Preisthood. Whew! Glad that Sunday is over. Lilian has returned to our branch after 4 months visiting family in Nigeria. She has two children there. She came to Catania 10 years ago and left her children 12 and 8 with her sister. She said wages are so low there that she could not make enough to send her kids to school and support them. So she has a little shop here and sends money home every month. Her son has finished university and is starting law school. Her daughter is 2nd year university and is planning on medical school. It is so amazing to think what others have to do just to get a better life. Kim, in Dad's talk on "Eternal Families" he talked about how you teach your children and hope they learn good things. Then he read your card out loud to demonstrate what a good job we had done. It says- "money doesn't grow on trees before their hatched.......the early bird gets a job worth doing well.....and two wrongs don't make a penny earned....and you thought everything you said goes in one ear, and walked a mile in their shoes. It was the perfect foil to his talk.

2010-03-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

2010-03-06T02:14:00.000-08:00

It's March in Catania Italy and spring is in the air. Of course by Utah Standards we never really had a winter. No frost or snow and only a few days where you really needed a warm jacket and/or sweater. Yet everything is relative weather wise. On days we thought were merely cool, some of the locals would be dressed in parkas and heavy gloves.

Below are pictures of the Sigonella Navy Support Activity, our good Sister Toronto...the mission President's wife, and the office in which we work. The mission office and mission home are located in the same rather pleasant 'residence' at the end of a scenic street. The Jesuits have a quiet home next to us so you can tell this is a wild neighborhood!

Your perhaps are aware that the Church is creating several new missions and consolidating several others. The new missions (and missionaries) are going to areas of the world that are exploding with Gospel growth...Africa, South America and parts of Asia.

On the other hand, areas that have established Church populations with 3rd and 4th generation members are assuming more and more responsibility for sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Soooo, for us it means the Catania mission will close on July first and be consolidated with the Rome mission. Jan and I will probably be heading to Rome sometime in July; after we turn out the lights in Catania.

We will miss many delightful things here in Sicily but look forward to new challenges and opportunities in Rome. In less than a year we will be home and plan to make the most of our remaining months in Italy in doing all we can to build the Church of Jesus Christ in this wonderful country. Talk to you later...Rick and Jan

2010-03-06T01:56:00.000-08:00

2010-02-14T14:21:00.000-08:00

We actually took a much needed day off on Friday as it was Carnevale here and not much work for us. We went to the World War II Museum in Catania- surprisingly well done. On Saturday Sister Toronto and I took a fast walk and then ended up at the outdoor market near our house. Found a few fun things to buy. Then we went out to Sigonella shopping and saw "Have you heard about the Morgans" -cute. Sister Toronto went with us because Pres. Toronto is up at a Mission President Conference in Germany. Still too cold to enjoy outdoor touring. Nice day at church and then home teaching.

2010-02-14T14:05:00.000-08:00

2010-02-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

These past few weeks have been truly delightful. Elder Causse' of the Europeon Area Presidency presided at our Catania Conference which included all the Missionaries on Sicily and Malta. This fine French General Authority brought a simple yet straight forward message of the restored gospel and how best to share it.

Speaking of sharing the Gospel, we had the honor to teach and then baptise and confirm Duwage Chandrapala Jayasinghe, a most delightful gentleman from Sri Lanka. He is working here in Catania, met the sister missionaries on the bus, and attended our English speaking branch. He hasn't missed a Sunday since. His warm smile and kind demeanor have brightened our lives.

Jan and I are teaching the advanced English class...not because our English skills are 'advanced' but because we are least likely to be able to respond to questions in Italian! We are averaging between 15 and 20 students each Tuesday and thursday evening.

The Church is slowly and steadily growing throughout Italy and Europe. This growth is being led by established members of the church...those who are 3rd and 4th generation members. Meanwhile, growth in the Church is greatly accelerating in parts of South America, Africa and Asia and with no established local leadership. As such, full time missionaries are being sent in ever greater numbers to those areas.

So our numbers of missionaries are declining necessitating organizational changes. On July 1st the Italy Catania mission will merge into the Italy Rome Mission with the northern part of the current Rome mission moving into the Milan Mission. So it appears Jan and I will be 'merged' also, heading north to Rome. This is still not firmly set (our daughter Cori is hoping we 'merge' into a Mississippi mission!) and we should know more in the next couple of months.

It's a calming joy to know the Lord is leading this change...we will be delighted to serve wherever we are sent.

2010-02-01T13:47:00.000-08:00

2010-01-25T08:28:00.000-08:00

2010-01-25T08:17:00.000-08:00

2010-01-15T13:26:00.000-08:00

So we drove about two hours away, west and south, took an electric heater and some other items and a picnic lunch to 4 missionaries in Agrigento. Then we toured through the Valley of the temples- WOW....AMAZING....Beautiful.. We definatly want to go back and spend more time. And it was a little cold that day. Hopefully some of you will come and we can explore together. We only saw part of it and didn't go inside the museum. As you can tell from your father's picture he is always trying to be helpful. That and he can;t stand to just look boring in a picture.

2010-01-15T13:14:00.000-08:00

2010-01-14T12:37:00.000-08:00

2010-01-11T13:20:00.000-08:00

First two pictures were taken at the Mana's home, a Fillipino family in our ward, and the wonderful meal they made for us. The second one is of Emily, German and their son, Genesis, who was celebrating his 18th birthday that night. Next we went to the Bay Family's home to finish celebrating. There were three other families there from the ward. I did manage to talk the sisters into playing one game of 5crowns with me. We also played a mean game of charades/pictionary- 5 adults against 5 teenage girls (most of our young women) and barely beat them. The last picture is of our day in Agrigento at the Valley of the Temples- More on that next blog.

2010-01-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

2009-12-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

As everywhere in Italy, you will see amazing art and engineering right next to very urr, interesting stuff. Its a wonderful place to see art and history. Can't wait to show whoever comes.

2009-12-28T12:06:00.000-08:00

2009-12-28T12:01:00.000-08:00

Two places you will get to see when you come to visit us. The outdoor market is everyday except Sunday and sells just about anything. The art on the buildings is every where.

2009-12-28T11:40:00.000-08:00

2009-12-26T13:14:00.000-08:00

2009-12-26T12:53:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-21T13:33:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-13T12:12:00.000-08:00

2009-12-13T11:45:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-29T14:09:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-29T13:59:00.000-08:00

2009-11-29T13:30:00.000-08:00

2009-11-28T11:24:00.000-08:00

trying this again

2009-11-23T13:48:00.000-08:00

2009-11-23T13:41:00.000-08:00

2009-11-23T13:24:00.000-08:00

2009-11-22T11:34:00.000-08:00

2009-11-22T11:13:00.000-08:00

It's almost strange to think that 46 years have passed away since President Kennedy's death.

On a much more enjoyable note, we've spent the past two days attending the Palermo District Conference with Elder Gerald Causse of the 70 presiding. Elder Causse, the first general authority from France, is a member of the first Quorum of the 70 and serves as First Counselor in the European Area.

Yesterday's meetings took place in the little but lovely town of Pergusa located in the center of the Island. Today we meet at a hotel here in Catania. How wonderful to see nearly 1,000 Saints and investigators gathered together in this part of the world. Their enthusiasm and love for the Lord was evident. I've learned that Italians here are not all that much in a hurry to leave when the meeting is over!

It was also good to see some 40 or so missionaries, most with investigators or those thinking to come back into church activity. All told, a most delightful week end.

This past week, Jan and I received our official "permisso" (document) to allow us to stay in the country until our mission ends. This was especially fine in light of the norm being permissos are good for one year...we for some reason were given an extra few months. Considering the time and amazing level of bureaucracy needed in the process, not having to renew ours again is a real blessing!!

2009-11-17T12:16:00.000-08:00

Hello, Family and friends. We are fine and still thoroughly enjoying our mission but just haven't gotten on our blog lately. We haven't taken any pictures so then I don;t think to get on it. We just got home from teaching English class. We have a lot of fun with it. Rick always comes up with an Enlish word that has several meanings and they discuss the different meanings and spellings. Tonight I brought two Dr. Seuss books and we went around the circle reading them to help with pronunciation. They liked it and we read "Red fish blue fish" and "The Cat in the Hat". Thank goodness for the Sigonella Library where I can get stuff I am familiar with. We did other things as well. We had two new missionaries arrive today. They are both Italian so they went to the MTC in Madrid (remember when we went to the Madrid Temple and saw the MTC and Mission Home in Madrid- Robyn, Kelly and Amanda and Sam?) They seem like really nice youg men. Sister Toronto and I made a nice meal for them and their new companion and we held a meeting with them. By the way Melony, the barbecue chicken sandwiches were a real hit and I bought a huge (45) box of American chips that I noticed the next day were all gone. We topped off the meal with Marie Callendar razzleberry pies and vanilla ice cream (yea Sigonella). Enough about food- We had a wonderful conference last week and this weekend our Palermo District which is all of Sicily is having conference- like stake conference with a preisthood leadership meeting and adult meeting Saturday and Sunday meeting. President Causse' who is the first French general authority( 1st quorum of seventy, 1st councelor of the European Area) will be speaking. Still hoping to get the fisrt stake in Sicily soon. Our days fly by with so much to do in the office. Sure do miss all you cuties. Love Mom / Jan

2009-11-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

2009-11-05T13:32:00.000-08:00

Ok So we have hot water and our computer is working- all is well. The pictures are of Sorella Hostetter who just arrived and her new companion Sorella Wendorf. I am dropping them at the bus station (really just a bus stop) and they are catching the train to Bari, about a 4 hour drive away but it will take the bus about 8 hours and they will travel on a ferry across to the toe of Italy and then travel up the heel. The picture of me standing in front of the 3 towers that are about a block from our apartment. The road is called Le Tres Torres. They are obviously very old but I don't know anything about them and there is no sign there. Did I mention that Sicily could really use some promotional advice to market the amazing things they have. But there is no where to park and no signage.

2009-11-03T12:12:00.000-08:00

Hello All, So we are staying so busy that it sometimes is days before we get back to this. Rick was called to be 1st Councelor in the branch presidency of the Sigonella Branch. We are teaching the Advanced English class on T. and Th. which sounds impressive until you think about the fact that we can only speak enough Italian to help those that can already speak fairly good English. They like help with pronunciation and definition so we are reading stories from the Liahona Magazine together. Dad gives a great lesson each night on American words and the different meanings. Tonight was potato and work. They like that. We have several that are now taking missionary lessons (not our doing. They have been with the missionaries for several weeks.) We had transfers last week and Zone Leader Council this week and that always gives us extra work. I make lunch for anywhere from 12 to 20. Rick has all kinds of requests for travel money, etc. We have also given a lesson at zone conference. Then thy pick up teaching supplies which I have to order and gather for each zone. There are always things that pop up to take care of. This morning we had no hot water to shower so cold quick baths had to do. I don't know if last nights winds blew out a pilot light or what. We called a person to come look at the caldaia and they said they would call us tomorrow- you know, domani, dopo domani. I guess here is where the sacrifice really comes in. Also, today I spent 6 hours on the phone trying to get my computer back online.. Tomorrow the Italian server guy is coming by to look at it because we determined it must be a local issue. I hope that's not domani, dopo domaani also because I've got to get orders out. We have learned to love these young missionaries. They are amazing people.

2009-11-01T09:16:00.000-08:00

2009-11-01T07:21:00.000-08:00

OK, so if you read the blog, you'll see that there is no correlation between our comments and the pictures. Ah yes, the joys of technology...we will keep trying to add the correct pictures. Sorry for any confusion.

2009-11-01T02:47:00.000-08:00

Here it is a most pleasant Sunday...the weather has been around '72 as a high and '58 as a low for the past week. It is with a sense (albeit slight)of guilt that we read of the conditions in Denver etc.

We joined our Mission President and his great wife along with the 6 missionaries here in Catania for a delicious dinner at a Morracan restaurant. It's interesting to note how close Sicily is to Northern Africa and there is a definite influence. We have two 'threesomes' of Anziani (elders) and Sorelle (sisters) for about two weeks awaiting some mid transfer arrivals.

The second picture is of our apartment building. All things considered, quite nice and starting to feel a little like home. When you rent a new apartment here, you basically receive four walls, some outlets and a few plumbing fixtures. Everything else needs to be purchased...everything from closets (wardrobes) to the kitchen sink. All shelves, cupboards, light fixtures etc need to be purchased. Thankfully, we've had couple missionaries here before us who put most of it together.

The Halloween picture is of some members (and mostly non members) who attended last night's fun party. The English classes that the missionaries... ourselves included included...have been teaching, has paid off in investigators (or at least party goers!). We were dressed simply as American tourists, with Sister Crawford's camera playing a key role in the costuming.

We are the only full time couple in the officee. A fine Italian couple serve for 6 hours, 3 days a week which helps us greatly with things requiring a greater knowledge of the language. We're really busy but happy. Zone Leader conference starts tomorrow...always something.

What a delight to serve the Lord and the good people of Southern Italy.

2009-11-01T02:44:00.000-08:00

2009-10-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

2009-10-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-20T07:35:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-19T23:15:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-19T23:02:00.000-07:00

2009-10-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

2009-10-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

2009-10-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

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.