Dear Friends in Cosenza

We first met the Pereira family last fall when Giovanna and Pedro were in our Zoom seminary class and stayed afterwards to speak English with us.  Their family came to Bari for a visit in October and we had them over for lunch.  Brother Pereira was recently called as branch president and asked that Dawn and I teach the second hour combined class on being member missionaries.  We enjoyed team teaching with the Elders.  We had a lovely lunch at the Pereira home after church.  They are such a great family and examples of living the gospel no matter where you live.  

Giovanna's strawberry cheesecake was fantastic!  

Pedro is writing a graphic novel.  

They have quite a following of cats as well.  Two have recently had babies and there were 9 kittens under the back balcony stairs.   

Weekend in Calabria

 We took a 3 day trip to Calabria to do apartment inspections and to take much appreciated household supplies to our three sets of Elders that serve in Crotone, Catanzaro and Cosenza.  

"Santa's sleigh" was loaded full with stuff the Elders needed.  Between buying this stuff for the Calabria apartments, taking some things to the Taranto Elders and Statte Sister's apartments, and fitting up the new Sister's apartment in Bari, I managed to MAX out my mission credit card's $2,000 limit!  

Ho, Ho, Ho!  

We got to teach a lesson with these Elders in Crotone.  

Here's the view from the Crotone apartment. 

Catanzaro Anziani loved getting their office chairs and new toaster

The Opera House in Catanzaro is beautiful.  

As is the view of the Ionian Sea from the Elder's balcony. 

And the view from our Hotel in Catanzaro wasn't bad either. 

From Catanzaro to Cosenza.  These Elders showed us their favorite place for street contacting.  

And, of course, their favorite pizzeria!  

Not only was this our hotel in Cosenza, but the branch meets here for church on Sunday.  

Snow capped mountains in Calabria in April.  Who knew? 

English Courses Return to the Church

Since the pandemic, we have only been able to hold English classes on Zoom or at a public park.  We are so excited to return to the church for in person classes.  And attendance is way up.  Here are Sisters Keil and Prettyman with one of our students, Mimmo, who owns a fruit and vegetable business.  We think he looks like Sylvester Stallone.  

Young Adult Activities Continue

We had a fun game night at our most recent YSA activity.  

Carmen's cookies were a hit.  

District Council Grows

We enjoy our weekly district council meetings.  Now that we have added 3 sisters to our district, we are 13 total including the Anziani from Foggia.  When they come in person, we just don't fit in our little apartment for lunch.  So, we decided to hold it at the church.  Sister Cannariato's meatloaf and oven roasted potatoes were a big hit!  

Transfers

We knew our district would be impacted by transfers, but we didn't think so many of our missionaries would be leaving.  

Anziano Wilde (red) is off to Catania, Anziano Stewart (yellow) is off to Messina, Sorella Dwomoh (green) heads to Pescara, and Anziano Marcello (blue) goes to Siracusa.  We will miss these fine young missionaries.  At the same time, we are excited to receive new missionaries including an additional set of sisters.  Counting Sister C and me, we will have 11 missionaries in Bari and 13 in our district.  

Bracciano and Luciana

We took an hour long train ride north of Rome to Bracciano to tour the famous castle that sits atop a hill overlooking a lovely lake.  

Our tour guide, Melissa, spoke perfect English. 

My companion looks stylish in her new short haircut, don't you think?

After the tour, we met our longtime friend, Luciana, at a restaurant for lunch.  It was wonderful to see her again. 

Rome Temple Square

While the temple is still closed for repairs, we still enjoyed our tour of the visitor's center.  

Dinner at Porta di Roma with obligatory gelato aftewards. 

Off to Rome for a Few Days!

We feel so blessed that we have the opportunity to do some sightseeing with our family.  We all flew to Rome from Bari and enjoyed 3 days there together.  

We loved our tour of the Vatican Museums.  Our guide, Sara, was excellent.  

Getting around on the subway worked well. 

Well, that's one way to wait at the bus stop!