We had our District Meeting and one of the Sisters was asked to share her miracle of the week. She has been in Italy one week today. She too has had to start her paperwork for her License to Preach and Teach. Which she has. She and her companion needed to go to another city for some training. The Train ride was a 6 hour trip with a few stops and change in connections. The last half of their trip several police boarded the train and were asking for passports and documents. This Sister had not brought her passport and her companion had not brought her license, they had forgotten. They were both in danger of being taken off the train and detained. She said that the police went to each compartment and looked through paperwork and whatever the passenger had. They prayed very hard to somehow be able to return back to our area. She said as the police came through their car they stopped at the couple behind them and started to visit. They seemed to be acquainted. The Sisters waited, PRAYING all would be well. While the police were visiting with the passengers behind them the train made another stop and a couple more policemen came on board. The police gathered together and went to another train car. The police remained on the train but did not check any more passengers for the rest of their trip. The Sisters were very grateful they were able to return without incident.
Faith proceeds the Miracle.

Working in the MUSEUM

January 28^th Wednesday ( Along with Tuesday and Monday)

Found this map to help us with where the other districts are and the travel we will be doing to attend, district and zone conferences. Branches of our District are in Crotone, Catanzaro and Cosenza.

We have made some progress in understanding our role in the area. It is much the same as anywhere, but it is full time. ‘Invite people to come unto Christ.’ People are the same, with little differences, we all desire to know who we are, to understand why we are on this Earth, what happens after death and while on the journey, to be loved and to love. I have to keep reminding myself of that because the customs here are unfamiliar to me and I keep making blunders, even without speaking. The saying is ‘open mouth, insert foot’, I don’t even have to open my mouth. One of the Sisters told me, “oh get used to it, it’s just part of missionary life as a greenie.” Hopefully there will be a time when it is not so often.

We took a ride out to see the olive groves and run into a chapel outside of town, all by it’s self. The unfinished structure next to the chapel is not uncommon. Once again our wonderings in the day helped to locate a member’s home at night. Somehow it’s always harder to locate addresses after dark.

Superette is one of the stores we use, at the side you can see shopping carts. You put a euro in and then when you return the cart you get the euro back or you should, much like the carts at the airports. Our luck has not been so good. We just take a bag in now. There is only one store, that we have found, where you can purchase all kinds of things, Food, household goods, a small scale wal-mart of sorts. This store is outside of town.  The area where we live you cannot purchase food in a store that sells soaps and cleaning products, food is separate, household goods separate, bakeries, jewelry, party supplies, cake decorations, pizza, all stores in town specialize in one thing.  (Just to make you drool, Brother B tried a bakery today that he says is Top Notch, French Pastry standard. The fruit tart was .50 euro. He will be a repeat customer!) Anyway all the shops are small and are squeezed in side by side and line the street.

I’m not sure how the other missionaries get laundry done on P-day when it is raining but if we want to have dry sheets to sleep on, you have to get creative.(this is the laundry room tied to ceiling hooks)

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We were not able to go to the national museum on Monday because it was closed, so Tuesday , today we went. It is a place we thought we can be of some help, trash clean-up for one thing, the area is huge that with castles walls and ruins. We spent an hour walking through and reading then we asked if there was something that they would have for volunteers to do. At first they were sure there was little that we could do, then the director came out to meet us and he was delighted Carl could speak Italian. He asked Brother b to translate all the little plates in each display case. We have some work, and we are excited to have something that would be helpful and we will like to do! We have to return and get the particulars of how they want to do move forward this afternoon. We will get to know these pieces of history very well.

1. The first case has items, arrow heads and stone hammer heads dating back to 4500 BC! Yikes!

2. This pottery is 700 BC, it looks like some pottery we have seen at Mesa Verde and other places.
3. Greece vases almost everything shown is from that time period,  600 BC to 4500BC
4. Hera"s ring, it looks like the original CTR ring.
5. Hera's Crown, the prize of Crotone.
6. Coins, were they always round? 
7. Most interesting, Men riding , looks like dolphins , carved into slabs , several in case, not many showed up!

 This is the street market, well one of many, closest to us. No pictures of the fish part, have to concentrate hard on not breathing, A strong smell is putting it mildly. Our favorite produce friend is below, Take a look at the lemons, some are grapefruit sized!

Today, January 25 is a very important day , Sweet Ella arrived on this date. It has become historical!
Happy Birthday Ella from the city by the sea, Crotone! We love you!

 One last Museum piece. This was used to store grain in, wheat storage has a whole new look.

From the  castle, Roman to medieval , there is a pot with holes in the bottom to drain pasta with!

Oil Lamps, Note the one in front with a baby on it.

That invites good spirits.

 There is a tool in the back that looks like our roof hatchet.There was no date on this display.

 Picture time with the floor titles dating back to Roman times as our back drop.

The people were very concerned about the spirits around them. They had vases to invite good spirits and others to scare evil ones away. The face on the pot was to frighten way the bad ones.

   One of the stops we made yesterday was to the Castle. We are hoping to understand and appreciate this culture through learning more about it. The Museum was small but the attendant was very informative and anxious to show us his treasures.  We were able to ask questions in my next to no Italian and his next to no English. We explained we are missionaries living in the area for the next 18 months. He said yah I see your tags! He had pottery from as far back as Roman and Medieval through 1500 to 1700 centuries. The castle walls are massive, I thought they were a couple of 100 feet high, Brother B not so much. The area is huge though. The largest one we have seen, mainly because the walls go in forever. We drove outside the city and found more along a road. The map that was drawn of the ancient city plan has the evidence in plain view all around. What the map did not include are the cities built on the mountains tops. The construction is of some kind of white material because they stand out against the green around them, the scripture “a city set on a hill cannot be hid” comes to mind very quickly when can see the cities both day and night.

It is a little hard to see but the cars below give an idea of the size. That is a 8 story apartment beside the walls.

We are standing on the top of the ruins where the big guns were used to protect the city.

The dwelling places of the army.

 Lend a hand?

 We took pictures from the top and the bottom.

 People here are out on the street from 8 until 1 so you hear the noise and bustle of business and then almost all go back to their homes until 3:30. It is really rather quiet and very little traffic, then everyone is back out until 8 or 9 pm.   They are on the streets walking and going to the market and visiting. We see many, many groups with anywhere from 2- 6 older men standing on the street visiting. The women have small shopping bags for food, they shop each and every day except Sunday. There are very few shops open on Sunday. Daily Noon Mass is also part of their lives. The Church bells ring though out the city, it is such fun to hear them and be reminded of the Blessing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is in our lives.

 Jan, 24, our street

Our apartment with our laundry out before 8am.
Which laundry is ours?

The entry to our casa

Welcome

The neighbor had her laundry out by 7 and it rain at 10, How does she do it. The best forecaster around.( Brother B is no longer in the business.)

January 22, 2015

As missionaries from the USA teaching in Italy we must have a ministerial license. It is a long process that takes several steps. We have started our first step, we applied and paid one of the fees. Part of the requirements is to have the permit showing we are licensed upon our person at all times. ( or the receipt as evidence we are in the process) You have 8 days from the time you arrive in Italy to apply. We were in that time frame, but I had somehow miss placed my receipt. There was no worries for the eight days but now that we are pass that probation time, the receipt needed to be found. We had prayed to locate it and felt confident we would. We have looked high and low, in all possible and logical places. My first fees are sizeable 130 EUROs and the paper work that is required comes from the Milano Mission. So no easy task. Yesterday we needed to do some work all over the area and felt the need to have the receipt. Once again I knelt down and asked for help to find the receipt. We started to look through all the documents and the thought occurred to me to check my mission booklet. A tiny book with mission information that I keep in my purse. That would have been the logical place to put it in the being, and I thought I had, but time and time again I had looked and no receipt. I opened the book and there was the receipt. As it turned out we were never stopped and we could have been, but I was comfortable going throughout the area. Fear and faith cannot reside together, it is necessary to have the Holy Ghost in this work. It was a gentle, sweet reminder that the Lord is helping His work along.

We have two brand new missionaries in our area. We met them each day for Dinner at the MTC. It will be a pleasure to work with them both. Brother B went around and picked up all the luggage Wednesday night for the departing missionaries and met them at the train station Thursday morning. As it turned out it was a blessing we did drop off the luggage, the Elders thought the departure was at 6:50 and it was at 6:26. They were still several miles away when we called to see where they were. We run and picked them up.  Side note, we had forgotten our phone and when we took off to get them we realized we had no way to know how they were coming only about when they were when the Sisters called. You can guess we were praying hard. Once again Elder Mika appeared in full view, It was not light yet, and we had 5 minutes to get them there, get tickets and loaded on the train! They all made it, one elder loaded luggage, one bought tickets and one helped the Sisters! We then went back and picked up the new missionaries Thursday evening. Going over the cobblestone with roller suitcases is a rough deal, and with rain and several miles walk. Well you can guess how fun that would be. 

Cooking in Italy

January  24

We visited the market early this morning because the man we like to get our Mandarin oranges from sold out yesterday, they are that good! We have also been getting seasonings from him. This is a bunch of Laurel leaves, when we have bought before they have been in bunches like this as well. I just clean them and freeze the leaves. They have a wonderful flavor.

Jan 23, 2015.  Today’s blog is dedicated to the lady across the street who has her daily wash hung out to dry by 8 am and to our youngest son who appears to be calling out his father for not contributing to the blog.  Sister Bullock decided that getting the wash out to dry by 8 am was the right way to go since it would be dry by the end of the day.  I hope that is true, however their side of the street faces south so they get some actual sunlight whereas we only get the reflection of the real thing…. Kind of like the sun and the moon, the celestial kingdom and the terrestrial etc.  Anyway today we got a couple of steel brackets to bolt onto our balcony and ran almost 20 meters of clothes line, so we are ready to hang out with the best.  I would attach a picture but I don’t want the whole world to see our dirty laundry; hmmm, I guess it would be clean though.

We applaud the Italians for the ecologically correct decision of hanging their clothes out to dry instead of using energy consuming appliances.  Of course it helps to have a climate conducive to that.  If we were to try that at home this time of the year everything would be stiff as a board by the end of the day.  It has also been fun to see all the wind generation units on the hills nearby, they seem to be turning a good part of the time so chalk one up for renewable energy.

Since we have a mission vehicle, we are expected to get it washed and cleaned weekly which we did today for the first time.  While we were waiting for the car to be cleaned we had a chat with the owner.  He asked what we were doing here in Crotone and we talked about our mission.  Like most Italians he thought maybe we were just representing a particular catholic church.  Once we explained that he asked how old I was and I told him.  He told me I looked well for my age.  I asked him how old he thought my wife was and he said 40-50. When I told him her age and he was somewhat amazed.  So that was an opportunity to talk about the Word of Wisdom and how we believe our bodies are a gift and as the scriptures teach, a temple of God.  We gave him a pass along card with the address of the church.  I think we will probably be going back there again.

Now that the car is clean I can actually see where I am going; it will probably scare the daylights out of me to see all the other drivers coming at me in the roundabouts.  Whenever I try to stay within the speed limits I seem to become a traffic hazard with all the others trying to pass me, unless the drivers are older than me then I am trying to pass them since they are always under the speed limit.  The Italians seem to have their own set of rules for driving, but it seems to work for them.

Tonight we had a welcome home party for a newly returned missionary.  She served her mission at Temple Square for most of the time.  This is the second returned missionary here in the branch, which I think is quite remarkable since the branch has fewer than 70 members and very few of missionary age.  We are trying to think about what can be done to serve the needs of that age group here.  We didn’t realize how good we had it back in Colorado with the singles ward and weekly Institute class; how that would bless the lives of young single adults here.

Getting to know Crotone

Today was P DAY.

We had several plans----- Get internet service 1^st! We were sure we had but right now no. We have 3 Elders in our Branch with the people going home and transfers so they wanted an extra computer, my laptop. WE thought we could come home and make it all work, not working??

As a good bye gift to the 2 missionaries leaving the area, a member told of a place they needed to see before they left. It is the ruins of the Temple built for the Goddess Hera, wife of Zoos. One Pillar still remains, there were 36. It is about 5 to 8 miles around the coast from Crotone. Crotone comes out to a point. It is astounding that there still remains the foundation and a large massive site for digging. There was a protest going on when we went today because the city is putting cement over part of the ruins to make a parking lot. There are ruins from the Greece and the Romans everywhere. The tower we did take pictures of was only from medieval times and so not that interesting , or it seemed. The ruins are 8 century B.C., as I said earlier but we walked up and over walls made nearly 3 thousand years ago!!  There was some old pottery laying on the sidewalk, thought of as no value, just a couple of hundred years old.

This is a map of what was once the grand city.

 This is the only pillar remaining of the Temple of Hera that tiny stick in the skyline. The other building is  lighthouse.

  

 This is some of the foundation of the temple.

The chapel has a solid metal door the tower is medieval.

 The cement you see in front of the chapel is the cement being protested. The Roman ruins are to the left of the chapel and in front. This just a small area uncovered with the arches visible.

 This is Sorella Ogla and she is doing better today!

The Giovoni who showed us the area said they have  seen pottery from ruins. They  were uncovered when he was a boy, he is maybe 25? He was unsure how old but was sure they were roman. He said they had a piece of land in front of their apartment, where a building was planned to go up, they uncovered a new sight of ruins. He said they woke up one day and the whole place was being dumped on with sand. It is still a vacant lot with cement over it. The whole area covered some 15 to 20 miles of forts and 100.000 soldiers in it’s Greece hay day. The Romans saw the value and took over and improved upon what the Greece had left. One of the protesters took us though some of the fences and gave us amazing back ground history of all that had happened. He was very intelligent, and kind to guide us as far as we could go outside the locked gates. < Dad will be sad, I knew I should give him a card with the church information on it. I needed to dig around in my purse, he went down to talk to the other Missionaries and when I found the card he had left. I was sure we would catch him at the gate again, but no he had left for home. It was almost dark. No fear though, The Giovoni ran into 2 friends from school they visited for some time. They asked about who the Elders were, the missionaries gave them a lesson.( I have put the cards in my coat pocket so I’ll be ready next time.) 

January 20^th ….

WE have Heat!!!

January 21, 2015

Tuesday and Thursday evenings are English classes open to the public.  They have a good number showing up.. Last night they had 15, up from last week by 5. The Sisters work with beginners and the Elders advanced. One guy has been coming for almost 5 years. He works with prisoners and teaches them. Our first meeting with him he said Carl was Italian and I was for sure Americana. 

We were told that was told that English is the language of the restoration. That is why it is important to teach it.

My language is coming, (SLOWLY SLOWLY) they do speak differently here, not just an accent, as Elder B puts it “they clip off the end of the words”. There are very few who speak English in Crotone, outside the missionaries, so it will help the learning process.

We have a great landlord , Guiseppe and he has been helping us to navigate the area with supplies and where best to go. He has two stores, all run by his family so you know where he would like us to go. 

Guiseppe gets thing done. He knows everyone and requires their best, but is also there to help each step of the way. Example, when the gas man came to the apartment to put the meter in and the box was wrong, we called  Guiseppe ( Joseph), he talked to the Gas man, and in 10 minutes he was there with the right box. That afternoon was another step to install heat and this time he was here before the workmen were. Connections were not right and they said the box was wrong, Guiseppe talked them through what the other gasman said and the three of them came to an agreement. Guiseppe got the supplies they wanted and helped to do the installation. We got heat. That is unusual for Italy. Now you can see some of the reasons why the Temple is behind, each set of workmen seem to have their own idea of how to do the job, We sure appreciate Guiseppe. We call he comes! And yes we went to his stores today and bought some supplies and food. (Not sure what we bought, some meat that looked like pork. The price was about $30 a pound. We got 3 oz. We will have a taste tomorrow and find out what gold tastes like.) The slices are paper thin.

January 21 - English Classes

Tuesday and Thursday evenings are English classes open to the public.  They have a good number showing up.. Last night they had 15, up from last week by 5. The Sisters work with beginners and the Elders advanced. One guy has been coming for almost 5 years. He works with prisoners and teaches them. Our first meeting with him he said Carl was Italian and I was for sure Americana. We were told that at one of the conferences the Mission President was told that English is the language of the restoration. That is why it is important to teach it.

My language is coming, (SLOWLY SLOWLY) they do speak differently here, not just an accent, but as Elder B puts it “they clip off the end of the words”. There are very few who speak English here, outside of the missionaries, so it will help the learning process.

We have a great landlord and he has been helping us to navigate the area with supplies and where best to go. He has two stores, all run by his family so you know where he would like us to go. He gets things done, he is Dad and Uncle Dan’s dream come true. He knows everyone and requires their best, but is also there to help each step of the way. Example, when the gas man came to the apartment to put the meter in and there was not the right box, we called the Landlord, he talked to the Gas man, and in 10 minutes he was there with the right box. 

That afternoon was another step to install heat and this time he was here before they were. Connections were not right and they said the box was wrong, The landlord talked them through what the other gasman said and the three of them came to an agreement. The Landlord got the supplies they wanted and helped to do the installation. We got heat. That is unusual for Italy. Now you can see some of the reasons why the Temple is behind, each set of workmen seem to have their own idea of how to do the job, with no code to follow. Anyway that was what we witnessed.

January 18 - First Branch Meeting

January 18, 2015,

Our first day at church in the Crotone Branch. Each visit we have made to see members, we have been greeted with a kiss on each cheek, and church is the same. As Paul says, “Greet thy brethren with an holy kiss”. You greet with a holy kiss and leave with a few more holy kisses. It is all good, bene, just surprised at how we are received with such warmth. Yes, I know it is because we are missionaries and the works of many before us have forged the way of loving relations, it is just complete and unquestioned devotion.

We watched some sweet acts of kindness today. One of the Brothers, in his late thirties, unmarried, and has some disabilities helped one of the investigators with her son. She has come from Africa; her son is not 2 yet. She has opened a small shop that supplies unusual foreign goods, like candies, makeup, perfumes, etc... Her son is full of energy but he did remain on his chair through most of Sacrament. Each and every member who came into the meeting greeted the small boy with a pat on the head, held his hand or kissed him on his head. Brother Vincenzo picked up toys he dropped, made faces to him and encouraged him to be good, bene. When all else failed, he walked up and picked up the little bambino and held him in his arms and rocked him and comforted him until he was all but asleep. This boy resembles the Selph babies, he is extra-large. Brother Vincenzo is a block of a man, solid, square, powerful hands, round strong head on top broad shoulders, he is a  rough piece of marble about five feet high and 200 X LOVE.

There is not enough that can be said for good, bene, about our Elders and Sisters, the Branch has suffered a rip between members with falsehoods. The Elders and Sisters have been trying to mend feelings and keep the Branch afloat. It has been a lot to bear for such young shoulders, but they have done so with respect and dignity for all involved. Elder Kiser will miss Elder Mika and vice versa, they have forged a strong support and friendship through this rough time. Elder Kiser is worthy of praise and has carried a heavy load as Branch President, Elder Mika has carried what he could and handled the building needs and running classes. Both Elders and Sisters have been a force for good, bene, each one in their own right, and it has been a privilege to witness.

This is our sitting room, living room in US but we don't put table and chairs too

Our bedroom closet covers part of the wall that is dad's side

All windows have shutters that roll up and down, security and private

This is the bay of Crotone in the far distance is where we live

January 17 - Angels of Mercy

Today, January 17, 2015, is Laurel’s Birthday. So I hope she has a wonderful day, we are 9 hours ahead so she is just starting her day.

We have many things to report but I’ll just start with today.  Each trip out of the apartment is an adventure. In trying to locate a map of the city because we had just one such adventure. Brother Bullock asked 3 different men where the book store was. One man said, ‘Follow me’, as it seemed like a long way away, Carl said just tell me, we will find it.  The next man was much the same but in a different direction, the third the same, completely new directions. We walked around in a new part of town that is the oldest, looking much like VENICE or some cities in Spain. Very narrow walk ways and cobblestone paths (a different kind of cobblestone than the rest of Crotone with high walled buildings and doors opening right onto the walkway). 

Crotone is a city of hills so up and down the narrow paths we went. At times a challenge and fear of siding down the steep wet stones. By the way, when you see puddles, look up, laundry is drying.

The walls around the sea

Laundry day, no dryers here you hang everything up to dry, the spare room is the dryer!

After the adventure we found a policeman and he pointed to the area we should go, we found the map and it was free!

It was helpful to have been sidetracked earlier in the day because when Brother B drove to another area to pick up an Elder who’s companion went home today, I went with the Sisters to make visits. One sister lives in this very unique part of town. She is 85 and is maybe 4’ the sisters are 5’3” and 5’ 5” and they looked very tall next to her. We had an interesting discussion, the Sister repeated herself quite often. It was my first visit so didn’t know what to expect. She asked to say a prayer and after some 10 minutes and repeating and repeating one of the sisters ended the prayer and asked if she was well. Things quickly went worse. She has diabetes and she was going into shock. I hope you can see this picture of love in your mind, Sister Cluff knelt on the marble floor and hand feed her tiny teaspoons of milk with sugar and Sister Arnold held her hands and tried to claim and communicate with the sister. It was a 2 hour process to get her back on her feet. They had called her son, but because he ran a business and he was at the demanding hour, he gave instructions over the phone. I witnessed the sweetest, kindest and most tender love for this sister by these two angels. Sister Cluff cared for her grandmother with diabetes for a time and knew some of what could and should be done including giving her the shot. The sisters were gentle and patient and so in control I was completely unaware of the fear and concern they felt. When the sister was able to make sense, stand, walk, and saying she was fine, we left and that is when they turned pale with the strain of the events.

Brother B was looking for us and with no phone and no idea where we were he too was having a bit of a concern. I had the keys to the apartment and we were an hour and a half late. The day had a happy ending though, one sister saved, one elder delivered and the Lord in control!

Good byes, Elder in blue tie and the Sister in the blue blouse will be transferred.

(The Bullocks for once in their life look like short people next to these Elders!)

January 12 - New Life, New Way of Living

We are having a China experience here. John will know what that means, no heat. Our apartment is spacious; we have a 40 foot hallway that runs from the front door to the back hall. 

There are separate rooms on each side of the hall. A sitting room 15X12, bedroom 15X12, another bedroom on the other side of the hall same size, maybe bigger, a spare room that is locked same size as bedrooms, we believe it holds the landlords Grandmother belongings, a long narrow laundry room, small kitchen and full bath. 

The owner has been remolding and there has been no heat. We have a couple of small room heaters. When they say you will need long johns they mean it!  We get heat Tuesday; well there will be wall heaters in two rooms. We believe the building is around 50 to 75 years old. There is a covered hole in the kitchen that looks like it may have been for a wood burning stove. The floors are made of a marble tile mix and the floor boards are marble, the walls are plaster and thick, it is a new world for us in this ancient world of 8 century B.C.  IT”S ITALY, enjoy!

American pans versus Italian stove/oven!

Elder Kiser has a sister with celiac and so he has been on the watch for gluten free produces. Crotone has a gluten free shop not far from us. Several stores here also carry gluten free foods. We are getting along just fine.

Sister Bullock looking homey in apron and around a full dinner table!

Having a car here is a blessing and a curse.  It is wonderful for getting to stores that are more than a few miles away, a curse in trying to find parking!!!!!!. We live on the second floor of a 7 story building. No parking other than the street and we are one of countless apartments. Narrow streets add to the limited space. We walk almost everywhere, it is easier! I have to thank my walking buddies for getting me prepared for life on your feet. I could not have done it without them! It’s Italy, enjoy!