Young Adult Pizza Party & World's Ugliest Car

We enjoyed pizza at our favorite pizzeria, La Fornace, with several young adults and missionaries. French fries for our antipasto, water, service, pizzas for all came to 65 euro.  Pretty reasonable for 10 of us.  

This has to be one of Fiat's worst offerings.  "Secondo me" it's the ugliest car in the world.  

In white or in green it is just not a pretty sight.  Warning, keep your kids at home or cover their eyes when this failure from Fiat rolls by.  

Missionary Birthdays!

We invited all the Bari missionaries over for ice cream to celebrate the 20th birthdays of Sorella Marshall and Anziano Warner.  

They both beamed when Dawn pulled out the cans of Dr. Pepper.  It's really hard to find here and they were over the moon for these birthday presents.  Who knew the joy a can of Dr. Pepper could bring? 

 

Zone Conference and Stake Conference

To change things up, President and Sister Morris decided to hold Puglia zone conference in Taranto this time.  We enjoyed this change of pace and as always, zone conferences are wonderful.

The training from the STLs, ZLs and Assistants was excellent.  The messages from the Morris's were inspiring.  This time, we had pizza instead of focaccia for lunch.  

 

Puglia stake conference will remain a highlight of our mission.  While it is our 3rd stake conference, it was the first one held in person since before the pandemic.  What a treat for these Italian saints to be together in a large hotel ballroom.  What a treat for Dawn and me to participate in the large choir/orchestra that provided the music.  

After conference, we hosted missionaries for pranzo at our apartment.  We had 14 of us in our little kitchen/living room.  Dawn's white bean chicken chili was a hit, along with that great Tillamook cheddar that Trent and Sindy brought us, chips, seedless grapes and brownies for dessert.  Wonderful weekend.

Visit from Trent and Sindy

We feel so blessed to have enjoyed a visit this past week from our friends, Trent and Sindy Christensen, from Rexburg. He served his young mission in Milano and Sindy lived in Italy for 9 years.  

Not only did they bring us our prescription drug refills, but they brought us cilantro and...Look at this wonderful brick of Tillamook cheddar cheese!  

We enjoyed touring the sights here in Bari, Matera and Alberobello.  How fun to have these capable Italian speakers with us for a few days.  

Here we are having dinner at our favorite pizzeria here in Bari, La Fornace. 

Two former Italy Milan missionaries in Alberobello. 

Two current Italy Rome Missionaries in Alberobello. 

Front door of the Church of Purgatory in Matera. Hmm, not sure I want to attend there! 

Thanks to them for making the effort to come to see us as part of their Italian vacation.  

General Conference Weekend in Roma!

The mission is receiving new cars and we've been tasked with driving the Puglia cars to Rome for the exchange.  This is the second such trip (the first was at the GANS conference the end of August).  This time, we stayed in an unoccupied senior couple apartment in the same complex as the Assistants' and the Gee's apartments.  

The back side of Mount Vesuvius from the autostrada. 

Keep on keepin' on! 

The Gee's took us with them to the Roma Institute for the GANS activity Friday evening.  

They prepared a meal for 20+. 

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These are the two "Ganziani" assigned to the Institute, Anziani Hammons and Aponte.

What a treat to spend time with these great young adults.  

Saturday, we were tourists in the heart of Rome searching out some fine souvenirs for family and loved ones at home.  

I actually ordered the salad and we swapped 1/2 way through.  

Piazza Navona

Who wouldn't want one of these to drive?  

We enjoyed watching conference at the apartment and eating a Pinsa (a rectangular pizza popular in Rome) 

The Gees, from Camas, WA were great hosts.  They have the same calling as we do, young adults. 

Sunday morning, we headed back to Bari, arriving in time to watch the Sunday Morning session (with the +8 hour time difference) with some of our favorite young adults. From left to right, Sorella Marshall, Sorella Ivie, Anziano Bryant and Anziano Whitten.    

Transfers once more - Parting is such sweet sorrow!

We were particularly busy this past week with transfers.  We said goodbye to Elders Zirker and Mack who have completed their missions.  Anziano Zirker left me a fly tying kit he found in a missionary apartment.  I appreciate this gift very much!  

 Elder Meredith, who continues as a zone leader in Napoli.  His new companion is Elder Wilde, who served here in Bari a while ago.  

We also said farewell to Sister Hunter, who is off to Palermo.

One last shot of the Bari missionaries before the transfer. 

New faces include Elder Whitten, Sisters Stevenson & Huggard.  In all, we welcomed 10 missionaries into the Puglia zone, including 6 freshly minted greenies.  Our Bari compliment returned to 4 Anziani and 4 Sorelle (along with us). Puglia zone now has 26 missionaries.