P-day in Giovinazzo with Tommaso

A faithful attender at our EnglishConnect classes, Tommaso is a widower who lives about a half an hour outside Bari in the lovely seaside town of Giovinazzo.  He invited us out to spend some time with him.  He has a lovely two story apartment with a circular staircase leading to a beautiful sun room on top of the roof.  His wife passed away last year after a long battle with ALS.  

After our walk around downtown Giovinazzo, we ate lunch at this BEAUTIFUL seaside restaurant, Toruccio.  We all had seafood.  

Tommaso and I had this mixed grill of shrimp, squid and small herring.  

Sister Cannariato had her very own single grilled fish.  

The view from out table was fantastic!

This is a monument to a retired air force general. Seems kind of out of place for a seaside town.  

The main cathedral in Giovinazzo

The beautiful harbor made me want to take out a sail boat. 

Just how narrow are some streets?  

Just how small are some doors?  The sign says, "The Elves Workshop." 

Michael, the archangel

This school is where Tommaso went when he was a boy.  

   

What Do We Do as Senior Missionaries?

Having served for over 7 months, we thought it would be a good idea to summarize what we do as a Senior couple here in Bari.  We are grateful to be anxiously engaged!  

Stake young adult specialists - 

• Hold weekly family home evening for young adults (live/zoom)
• Meet with YA reps from the stake
• Work with stake pres. & high councilor YA budget and program
• Help YA reps plan YA activities
• Attend YA and youth activities 
• Organize and take YA to the temple
• Counsel young adults
• Attend Institute classes
• Teach Seminary classes
• Attend all units throughout the stake to meet YAs
• Privately tutor YAs with English
• Turn in receipts to wards/stakes for reimbursement 

Support young missionaries - 

• Assist with transfers (shuttle, host overnight)
• Weekly meal for Bari missionaries
• Inspect missionary apartments every 6 months
• Buy stuff that missionaries need
• Take missionaries to appointments, vaccine center, doctors
• Attend district council 
• Set up for, get food for and attend zone conference
• Go on P-Day trips with missionaries
• Teach with missionaries
• Give missionaries blessings
• Counsel with missionaries
• Make sure missionaries have Thanksgiving Dinner and a Christmas stocking
• Assist with finding new apartments, moving missionaries, meeting with landlords, contractors, etc. 
• Attend weekly mission family home evenings
• Attend weekly "Friday calls"
• Lead BYUPathway awareness program and assist with registration and questions
• Help teach EnglishConnect classes
• Administer driving tests to young missionaries
• Turn in receipts to mission finance secretary
• Be eyes and ears for the mission president in our Zone 

General - 

• Car fueling, washing and maintenance and logging kilometers
• Attend ward council for two Bari Wards
• Speak at sacrament meetings
• Play piano/organ at various meetings
• Teach Come Follow Me lessons
• Do Laundry, shopping, hair care, clean apt. etc. 
• Make treats for everything
• Stay in touch with family a and friends
• Create social media posts 
• Manage affairs at home

Zone P-day to Alberobello - Trulli Amazing!

We are so grateful to be able to join with the young missionaries on their p-day trips.  Today we met the Elders and Sisters from Foggia, Bari, Lecce, Taranto & Statte in Alberobello.  The domed shaped "trulli" are world famous, and this magical city has clean streets and no graffiti.  

Saturday...in the park...I think it was the 12th of February

We stayed close to home for p-day on Saturday with a walk to downtown Bari. First to Parco Garibaldi, one we'd not yet seen, then ...

we walked past this dog walker, then

we meandered along this boulevard with lots of different styles of buildings, and then 

Deloitte has their office in this building, then

we turned a corner to find a live band singing in front of a beauty salon for a promotion.  They sang Route 66 in English.  It was cool.  

Happy 7-Eleven Day!

 February 11, marks 7 months that we have been set apart as missionaries and that means we have 11 months to go.  Oh thank heaven, for 7-11!  

As a matter of fact, it IS all about the food!

Dawn made valentine sugar cookies which we shared at our Thursday night English class.  

At our Friday evening activity, we had Panzarotti night, like a deep fried scone stuffed with tomato and mozzarella, a favorite with the missionaries.  

And then on Tuesday, we had our entire district of missionaries over for lunch. Si mangia bene in Italia.  In Italy, one eats well.  

Fun in Foggia

I thought our Sunday February 6 was a perfect missionary day.  We attended church in Foggia and bore our testimonies, we saw/spent time with two young adults, inspected a mission apartment, took the elders some much needed new dishes, had lunch with a great 3 generation member family, the Dicarolos.  Their son Davide, is currently in his third semester of BYUPathway and plans to attend in Rexburg in April.  

This sweet sister was Dawn's kindred spirit, right down to the leopard print facemask!

 We finished the evening back in Bari holding YSA family home evening in person and on Zoom.  

Zone Conference

We look forward to Zone Conference when all our Puglia zone elders and sisters come to Bari to be instructed by the ZLs, Assistants and President and Sister Smith.  30 of us in all.  

Our Bari Missionaries 

Anziano Myres and Anziano Marcello

Anziano Wilde and Anziano Lott

Sorella Prettyman and Sorella Dwomoh

Anziano e Sorella Cannariato

We always enjoy focaccia from Paneficio Santa Rita for lunch.  This is Anziano Lusso from Alessandria.  

Anziano Dransfield e Presidente Smith

Sorelle Dwomoh, Prettyman, May, Spach e Guanuna

The training is always top drawer and that evening, we got to walk around Bari Vecchia with the Smiths and the assistants.  

We stopped by this shop that sells sgagliozzi, kind of a deep fried block of polenta.    Very enjoyable day!