Bari/Foggia District

We are grateful to be part of the Bari/Foggia district.  Here's our district photo for this transfer. From left to right around the table: Anziano Bryant DL, Sorella Marshall, Anziano Meredith ZL, yours truly, Anziano Garrity ZL, Sorella Hunter, Anziano Warner.  And on the table from Foggia, Anziano D'Empaire and Anziano Pedersen.  And of course, behind the camera, Sorella Cannariato.   

Visit from the Seamans

John and Mary Seaman serve as family history missionaries and labor in the large family history center located in the Rome Temple visitor's center.  They needed to pick up some family history stuff from Taranto, so they made a little sight seeing giro out of their trip.  We hosted them in the famous Bari bunk beds on Saturday night.  

We enjoyed dinner at La Fornace.  

Sunday church at Poggiofranco and then pranzo at our house.  

We loved the afternoon stroll through Bari Vecchia.  It was a perfect afternoon to be out walking.

Monday we joined them in Matera for some sightseeing.  We never seem to tire of this amazing city.  

Nice Neighbors

We have developed a good relationship with our neighbors upstairs and across the hall, Lia Carnimeo and her 87 year old mamma.  We help Lia get her groceries up the stairs and have taken them cookies and brownies until we found out Lia is diabetic!  Last Friday, they invited us up to dinner.  Lia served homemade panzarotti with lots of yummy side dishes and watermelon.  They sent us home with the extra panz, and a container of yummy ricotta as well as giving me a nice writing pen.  

Lia on the left and mamma on the right.  Lia is Dawn's age and was born in the apartment.  

Beautiful homemade panzarotti.  

August Transfers

We've had a busy week preparing for and assisting with transfers.  As Bari is a central hub in southern Italy, missionaries come through on their way to or from their assignments.  Here in Bari, we sent three missionaries out and got one new Elder.  

Sister Keil is off to Oristano, Sardegna. 

Sister Johnson, center, finished her mission and is heading home.  

Saying goodbye to Sister Johnson.

Anziano Jones heads to Catania.  I awarded him a potato pin and made him an honorary Idahoan. 

Two new missionaries on either end.  Sister Mackay from Farmington, UT and Elder Tuai, from N. Las Vegas, NV. 

We've known Anziano Campos for a long time.  He served in Taranto, then after a stint in Salerno came back to Foggia, and now goes to Crotone.  

I had to make him an honorary Idahoan as well.  

It takes some organizing to get everyone where they need to be.  But we love helping these wonderful missionaries get to where they need to be. 

August Potpourri

Here are some miscellaneous photos of our comings and goings this week.  

On our morning walks, we sometimes pass by this huge eucalyptus tree.  Dawn is very dutiful to stop, talk to it and give it a love pat.

We're all familiar with Cheerios, right?  Well, in the US they are made by General Mills.  Here in Italy, you can see that Nestle must have a license agreement to produce them. And they taste more "sturdy" than the ones I ate back home. And just like cereal at home, you can enter contests to win a PS5.  

I took this picture to share with my two VW Vanagon buddies back home, Trent Christensen and Dan Dahl.  Notice this one has already been personalized for me. How thoughtful!  

Monday was Ferragosto, a national holiday.  It is also when all missionary apartments get their semiannual deep cleaning.  Here's Sister C with all the cleaning supplies we bought to help the missionaries with the big clean up.  

Speaking of Ferragosto, We were invited to lunch at the Ramunni's.  Here is Sister Ramunni's mom, Sister Palmisano posing with dessert, a wonderful cream & fresh peach cake.  

His wife was out of town visiting relatives, so we invited this faithful member, S_____, over for lunch.  He is so grateful to be a member of the church.  He was raised in Iraq and was a member of the dominant religion there.  Then he met the missionaries while working in Sweden.  We attended their sealing in the Rome temple back in June. 

"Lasts" of this Transfer

We had our district pranzo on Tuesday and celebrated Elder Jones' birthday.  

And no end of transfer district meeting would be complete without "the chairs" for numbers of transfers completed. We are holding up 9s (9 transfers x 6 weeks = 54 weeks).

Then we joined in a Zone p-day to Alberobello.  

Elder's Quorum Social - Bari Poggiofranco

Along with Elder's Jones and Bryant, we picked up brother Ramunni and drove out to Polignano a Mare, to the home of Rodrigo Tramontin, a counselor in the Poggiofranco Elder's quorum.  A native of Brazil, he grilled up a fantastic churrasco of beef ribs and chicken for the Elders.  Attendance topped 20 and what a nice evening.  Due to Covid issues, it has been over 2 years since this kind of event could happen.  What a great opportunity to feel some quorum brotherhood.