Modena

I missed a week last week because of an upset weekend with new missionaries.  We were all ready for transfer week with 12 new missionaries coming in on Wednesday and a large group going home on Friday.  Wednesday morning when we went down to the office there was an email that the new missionaries were going to be late (no big surprise because they are several hours late about half of the time). However this time they had rode the shuttle bus from the MTC to SLC airport and were delayed for a long period of time because of a small electrical fire in a bathroom of a flight control center near Chicago.  The control center was evacuated and 6 hours later they got going again.  In the meantime over 1100 flights had been canceled.  The new missionaries had to ride the train back to the MTC where they stayed for 3 more days until their flight was rescheduled.  They arrived here in Milano on Saturday.  We abbreviated their welcome and training from a normal full 24 hours down to about 3 hours which included transportation from the airport, a few minutes of training, transportation to a restaurant, dinner, match-up with their new companions, pictures, and transportation to the train station for their trip to their assigned areas.  It was a mad rush on Saturday!

During the transfer week, the departing missionaries got off on a normal schedule but we had 2 missionaries loose their wallets and all of their cards. Here is the story from a sister who had her wallet stolen.  She was getting on a train with her new companions suitcase when the suitcase fell down as she was stepping onto the train.  A "nice" person helped her get the suitcase on the train and in the process she has set her purse down.  After they were settled in their seats she thought it was strange that this person jumped off the train just as it was leaving.  She checked her purse and her wallet was gone!  She was devastated because this was the 2nd time on her mission she had her wallet stolen!  On her train ride to their apartment she called me and reported her stolen wallet. As they arrived in their city just north of Milano she received a phone call from the police. They had her wallet and needed her to come into Centro Milano to ID the thief and pick up the wallet.  When they got to the Milano police station the policeman who caught the thief told her that he saw it happen and grabbed the thief as he stepped off the train. She got everything back - all of her cards, ID, and cash!  When she called me to report she had it all back, I told her this it was a Miracle!  She immediately exclaimed: " Elder Harmer, Heavenly Father answers all of my prayers!" I was in awe of her total faith.

Monday was a normal day until about 8pm when the president gives me a call and asks if we can come over to the mission home for a bit. We get there and the Assistants are already there.  He tells us that he went to the doctor to see why he has had this persistent cough and difficulty sleeping laying down.  They had spent the whole day doing tests and found that he his heart has a bad mitral valve.  We took him to the airport early Tuesday morning and he and Sister Dibb flew to Salt Lake.  Friday the surgeons repaired his valve and he is recovering nicely.  He expects to be back in Italy in 3 - 6 weeks.  In the mean time Elder and Sister Lee, the branch president from Siena, have been asked to come to Opera and serve as the interim Mission President.  They got here on Wednesday and have been coming up to speed.

We scheduled three apartment north of Milano for inspection on Wednesday.  One of the apartments we were inspecting was the Sister who had her wallet stolen and returned by the observant policeman 6 days earlier. I told her that I had told her story to several people about the stolen wallet and her exclamation of total faith.  Her face immediately lit up and she said "You have not heard the rest of the story!"  From her contact with the policeman and another lady she talked to on the train as she was on her way to the police station to get her wallet, both the Police man and the other lady were now taking the lessons and the lady was already committed to baptism! While I have always thought of this sister as a little ditsy (for not being more careful with her wallet), obviously he Lord had used this experience to put her in contact with those who were searching for the truth.  This is a testimony to me that we need to open our mouth and just talk to the people around us.  If they are interested they will let us know.

Saturday we went on a trip to three cities in the mission delivering apartment stuff.  Friday afternoon I loaded up the van and made a trip to three different stores buying apartment furnishings.  We left early and delivered bed frames and mail to the Zone leaders in Alessandria. Next we went to Reggio Emillia and installed two white boards and some mail.  Last stop was the Modena Zone Leaders where we delivered a refrigerator, two white boards, chairs and mail. We may end up doing more of these type trips.

While we were in Modena we walked to the city center.

 Some interesting door pulls

 Here is the cathedral.  There was an antique market going all around it.

 Lions guarded the doors on all four sides of the cathedral.

 Above one of the doors was this stone work of the creation and Adam and Eve.

 The tower was very tall.  Unfortunately we got there after they closed for lunch and were not able to climb the tower or go in the church.

 This is an iron grating that expands and swings over to lock up the customer door to this store at night.

 We found a wonderful place to eat.  It was great!  I think it was the best tortolloni I have ever had in my life.  It was fresh pasta with ricotta & spinach stuffing and the cream sauce was fabulous!

 On the way back to the car we saw this door.  Old style pulls with modern locks? Not very nice. 

 This is the Luciano Pavorotti Theater.  Modena is his home town.  It is also the location of Ferrari and Maseratti factories.

 Even little kids bikes are locked up.

This church is just one street away from the elders apartment.  Oh yeah, the Elders apartment address is on Via Ferrari.

Cremona

It was Saturday and we had no place planned to go.  I suggested going to Cremona, a small city about 1 hour south east of Opera.

 We got there and it was market day.  Here is a traveling shoe store.

 We went to the cathedral and it was closed.  But the bell tower was open and it only cost a couple of euros to climb 400 steps to the top.!  So I went and Peggy went shopping.

 A view looking down on the baptistery (octagonal building) and the cathedral.  The view was great!

 The last series of step was up this very rickety spiral staircase that swayed as I took each step.  It was rather scary.

 A view of the back side of the cathedral on the way back down.

 Almost down and here is some of the market in the town piazza.

 At this level the Church had life size statures of various saints.

 We then walked around the block where the tower and church were and saw this Viola hanging in the window.  This is the birth place of Stradivarius, and there are many violin makers and shops still here in this town.

 The side facade of the church.

 Yes,  they sell cheese at the market.

 After walking around for a while we found this place to eat.  A wonderful sidewalk cafe on a side street looking at the cathedral.  It was really good.  By the time we were done, this place was packed.

 Here is the local fountain - no water flowing today.

 How would you like to drink the stuff that comes out of his mouth!

 We then went to the Stradivarius museum.  Wonderful grounds with this modern sculpture of a Bass.

And here is a statue of Stradivarius him self.

Lago Di Orta

This week was another quirt busy week.  It was end of the month with all of those reports due on top of the other daily activities.  Plus Friday was consiglio.  The strange thing was that we attempted to go to the grocery store several times during the week but put it off thinking that we would need to go on Thursday to buy food to cook for lunch for Consiglio.  Thursday was May 1, which we found out is another holiday here in Italy, labor day.  So when we head out to the grocery store and every thing is closed, even the bakeries. We began to panic because we had to feed Hawaiian Hay stacks to 40 on Friday. We did find the big stores at the mall open in Rozzano so we were saved.

Saturday we decided to go to Lago Di Orta - a small lake about 1 hour west of Milano.

Here is a hotel that we drove past as we came into town

Which way would you go?

 We turned right towards the lake and saw a lovely little town with access to a gorgeous island on the lake.

 We walked down to the town of Orta.  Very narrow walking streets. Nice shops and restaurants.  I walked down to the beach and took this picture of the island.

 The lake was beautiful

 They had this full sized rocking horse - Even I could ride this one.

 In the main piazza we saw this picture of Fairies.  My grand daughters would love this.

 We got on a boat and went over to the Island which has a convent in its center.

 These carvings were in a very fancy boat house on the island.

 From the island looking north to the alps.

 Zoomed in to the north

 There was a walking street around the island one house in from the waters edge.  It took about 7 minutes to slowly walk around the whole island.

 Here is a little guy on one of the columns

The bell tower on the island had a full scale of bells that played for us at noon.

Island as we left on the boat

Here is the town of Orta as we approach on the boat.  

  We found a place to have lunch in town and then bought some little cookies for the ride home.  It was a wonderful place for a visit.