Okay Joel put some really fun soft wear on my lap top but the blog will not allow me drop in pictures after they are cropped --- Joel found HIS STORE.

Presidente Bullock was also cropped in better but as you can see not here. He is sporting RYAN'S apparel and headed to take the trash out and then go play FOOTBALL, (Soccer) with the four young men in the Branch. He came back looking great , thanks to Ryan's good taste, but walking with a limp. 

Cousins

Joel found a wonderful Bed and Breakfast for us while we stayed overnight in Cosenza for our District Conference. The owners were VERY kind and gracious.

 She made a breakfast cake and fresh squeezed orange juice. Her husband went out and found gluten free cookies for me! Wow , just a little embarrassed, but they were really good!  

 This is our Branch who were able to make the trip to Cosenza on Sunday, there are no buses or trains  on Sunday, and only a few members have cars. We were taught  Saturday night that we should not let ourselves be tied down by our own limits. We were baptized into God's Church and God expects us to do our best and let the glory be His. Presidente Bullock and I spoke Saturday night and Joel , Carolee and our Sister's, Marsh and McFarland joined us in a special musical number , "Love is Spoken Here", accompanied by Sister Harmond. Our Elders, Nessen and Morgan were home sick with the latest flu bug going around. They were doing much better on our return trip.( Just for the record, this last attempt to speak Italian went better!)

 Juliet is preparing for baptism and Joel (and his wife returned from their mission to Africa about a year ago) was in heaven with the opportunity to visit with her about Africa and several other members who have joined the Church from Africa.One of the speakers Sunday was just baptized, he too comes from Africa. We were touched by his story. He had been looking for God and wanted to know " What does God have for my Life?". He said he prayed to know and then he found the missionaries. They talked to him and gave him the Book of Mormon. He said," I pray about the Book of Mormon and then I ask to be baptized, I thank God for my past and for the Holy Ghost now. God has so much blessings for me and so much surprised." Another convert who was baptized a month ago (and we got to witness it!) spoke also. She has been studying and meeting with the sisters for almost 6 years. She said she learned not to look for riches, but to look for Eternal Life, which is the greater wealth. " Coming to church I feel RICH WITH THE SPIRIT. I know coming to church and reading my scriptures is a life long commitment. I lost all my family, this church has blessed me." ( She does have a 10 year daughter.)
This is through a translator, her Italian is prefect, my understand is not. But you can get a feel for the level of her commitment!

 The new Sisters, Sister Hamilton  and Sister Marsh are wonderful additions to our area!
Sisters, Harmond, Hamilton, Carolee, Me, Waddoups, Marsh and McFarland

 Yes, this could be in Colorado or Utah or Wyoming or Montana, but this is ITALY!!!

 We had to stop and enjoy the view with Sorelle McFarland and Marsh, there is a lake in the far distance. They drove up and back with us. Our Crotone Sorelle. Your Italian lesson for the day, Sorella singular-Sorelle -plural 

 We said farewell to Joel and Carolee. What a blessing to have them stay with us. They were supportive to all they visited with and encouraged us all! They wanted to get a feel for missionary life here and we gave them the whole 9 yards! We live in paradise when compared to what they have experienced on their mission. They are ready to sign up for PARADISE!  

Sorella Olga and her sister really enjoyed their visit from the American Cousins, especially that Joel could speak Italian and say a prayer and bless their home!

 I could not believe the Blue of these flowers, Had to share!!

 Transfer time is here and we lost Sorella Arnold, she is excited to be back in Rome!

 Good Bye Dinner for Sorella Arnold. Grazie Brother Sarcone.

 Last good byes at the train station.

 This is one of our favorite Grocers. He was Italy's champion boxer a few years back. He is so lots of fun. He asked us to pray over his store on our second visit.

 Hello Cousins, The Scovilles arrived in Crotone all the way from Denver--- So fun to have family!!!

The colors of the SEA !

 We visited a few members and then went to the castle, the museum, it was great to see how excited they were to find all the treasures there and be thrilled , as we have been.

 Carolee and me, and Joel and Carl

This is Endurance. He came to Italy three years ago and yesterday he was baptized.

 Giovanni has been translating for him at church( Endurance speaks English and a African language), but the Sorella's have been teaching him. Endurance asked Giovanni to Baptize him.

This baptismal font is portable and so filling and emptying it are a real experience !
After Endurance was baptized we had some songs and Endurance asked to say a few words. 
He told us he had such joy after waiting so long to be baptized. He is happy to be a part of the true church of God. He had been sick and was worried he would not be able to be baptized, but he was glad he was made better to be baptized.
We had been worried ourselves about the baptism. The town of Crotone has been on and off with water. We were first told there was a big problem, that needed to be fixed, we took that to mean broken pipes. We found out a few days later the workers were on strike and they shut the water off.

 We had been warned when we first arrived that this has been a problem here in Crotone and so we have been storing water. It was needed and handy! We have been told the strike in not over so next week the water will be turned off again. We had a couple of days without water and the rest of the week we had water in the morning and in the evening. You just fill the tube and all is well!

 Elder Nessen was asked to Confer the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Endurance was given many wonderful blessings and promises.

 Sorella McFarland and Sorella Arnold really worked hard to prepare Endurance and prepare for the baptism. Desmond was baptized in December. Sorella Arnold will be transferred this next week so this was her last Sunday in Crotone!

Endurance is a good man and has worked very hard to be apart of this church!

On our way to do a visit, we caught a view of the sea, it was shimmering and icy blue.

 On a visit later in the day we made a trip to Le Castelle to do a visit as well. We had this castle on the blog  a few weeks back, but it was a night shot. It was closed yesterday when we arrived but we could walk around it.

 This is the cliff on the opposite side of the castle.  

 It may look small, and it smaller than the one close to us, but it has a sizable area around it, and the location is perfect.

 On our way to our next visit, we came across this valley, 

 too bad the pictures are so small, the view was spectacular!

This is a clinic we have been to before. They are expectant mothers and coaches for the birth. All the women are married but two have husbands that cannot be in the room for the delivery. Some hospitals will not allow it, so one has a sister helping( she is taking the picture) the other has a friend. We have been invited to give a spiritual thought and talk about the blessing and importance of family. Those in attendance are happy to have such encouragement and expect a prayer as well. The Proclamation on the Family is wonderful to use and hand out. 
Our final visit for the night was with a gentlemen we have now visited twice and has asked us to teach him how to pray like we pray, on our next visit. What a blessing missionary work is!

 We tried to make the Russian Easter Eggs, We need a few more steps, as the leaf was hardly visible on the egg.--- If you don't succeed the first time, try, try again.---

 This is what those eggs were suppose to look like, well the leaf one anyway.

 Easter Sunday we watched General Conference and had Lunch with one of the members. She cooked up a storm! Outside on her balcony we could see the sail boats and the sea and turning around you could see the Ruins of the Castle  up the narrow road, what a location!

 Never get tired of looking at the sea, and either do the our fellow missionaries.

 Easter Lunch---- Large dinner!

 Here are some of the colors of the sea, 

 On our way back to see 2 more sessions of Conference, 

Little Easter is the day after Easter and here it is a major holiday, nothing is open and everyone is gone or housing other families. So the mission uses this day to do DEEP cleaning. We have washed and scrubbed everything we can think of . Presidente B is doing his best to clean this rug and make the colors vibrant. He has been working on it for weeks, but a sister told him the secret ingredient to really get the dirt out and it is working. It is a product we have never heard of but they sell here in Italy.

Sister Olga has been in the Hospital for 2 weeks. She fell to the bottom of her full length stairs. Every home has stairs. She hurt her shoulder and foot, but no broken bones, a real miracle. 
We were going over every other day to visit and help out, then got colds and had to stop. This last week. The Sisters and Elders have been dropping in. We thought the Hospital was not as we would hope, but Elder Morgan told us it was the cleanest hospital he had been in. In the hospitals here the family is to care for the patient, not the hospital. The hospital does not furnish any soap, personal care items, or clothes. That is all to be done by the family. The nurses only attend to medicines  and medical needs. The family is to take care of all other problems. 
I was a little taken back by the process , but as we observed, it may be the better way. The only draw backs are for those without family. We were told about an accident that happened and the victim was from out of  town so they were without family, & no one to care for them.  They finally were able to call the church on the third day in the hospital and get a blessing and some help. They were too weak before that time. 
Back to Olga, she went home yesterday!! Because of the visits and the fact that there are 5 other patients in the same room, the Sisters got to share their testimonies and do some teaching with the other patients. 
One of the English students works at the hospital, when she heard they were going to visit Sister Olga,  she asked them to call her when they were in the hospital.
Graziela, the student, came down and introduced the sisters to all her co-workers.( They felt like it was the whole hospital, and Graziela introduced them as her 'Friends'!) The night before, Wednesday night, the missionaries had shown the movie about Joseph Smith and Graziela was telling all the  co-workers about the movie and that we 'do' believe in Jesus Christ and we are not Jehovah Witnesses. There is a large Jehovah Witness Church here and we are very often mistaken for Jehovah's Witnesses.
All in all the Sisters were very well pleased!

Wednesday Evening the Missionaries planned a video night. They invited all the English class to come. They showed the  video , "Joseph Smith the Prophet", with Italian subtitles. We had 6 class members come to see it. The video is so wonderfully done! We cried , we laughed and we were all amazed at the courage and faith of all those portrayed in the movie. Most everyone has a Book of Mormon who came but one family, Mom , Dad, and 2 sons, they just started to come to English Class, they did not have the book. They asked for it last night and tonight the Mom came to class with her book marked with questions.  We were all notably impressed. 

 Primary activity, we had two primary aged children show up and they loved their time with the Sorella's. They played games, made crafts and learned what Easter is all about. They are investigating with their Mom.

 We had dinner some time ago with an investigator, She made a fabulous  dish called Eggplant Lasagna. It was so good, I got up the nerve to ask if I could make it. She told me how through the Sorelle, she explained what was in it and how to make it. Today we tried our first attempt.
We bought 2 eggplants, (we were suppose to have 5 we found out tonight!) We washed and sliced them thin.

 This next step is important , place the sliced eggplant in a colander  and press out the extra juice with weight. When we started the eggplant was up over the colander top and within minutes (20) we had to change the bowls and plates because , as you can see they were down to the top. You are to press for 4 hours. We took 1 and I/2 hours. not enough time.

 The next step is to fry the eggplant, FORGOT  as you place the egg plant in the colander you salt each layer. When you fry, you sprinkle salt in the oil and the oil does not spatter so much.

 After frying you place the slices on paper towels to lessen the oil.
The next step is to put a little tomato sauce in the bottom of the pan, lay out the fried eggplant and then put fresh chopped tomatoes, basil, garlic, sliced Provola cheese, 1 beaten egg( we used 3 eggs because to had ONE layer), tomato sauce and then  cover with eggplant slices and start the toppings over again. We did not have enough slices to do hardly  2 layers so we learned. Finish the top with sauce and Cheese. bake for 30 to 40 minutes , we did one hour-- to long-- We forgot the garlic and it was still wonderful! We are also going to try it without frying it next time. 

 May not look it, but it is way good!

One of the English students brought Easter Eggs for all of us. She has a step she does to imprint the leaves on the eggs. The colorful egg has a plastic cover, but the leaf was done, we think--- no one could quite understand how she did it. She puts a parley leaf on the egg, then wraps onion skin around the egg, ties it on with string and then boils the onion covered egg in water. All eggs here are brown so not sure how white eggs will look but we will try this tomorrow and see how OUR Russian Easter Eggs come out.