Christmas in Caserta

This was my first green Christmas in memory. I mean, even when Calgary gets a really warm Chinook-like Christmas, it's more like a brown Christmas, right? This one was green in the true sense in that there is still green leaves on many trees (although some have lost their leaves too) and there is green grass. Oh and there's palm trees too. I mustn't forget the palm trees.   
     
In Italy, we could use a wet Christmas rather than a white Christmas because some rain would be welcome. It is unusually dry and a bit warmer than it should be for this time of year with not enough wind. Consequently the air quality is quite poor. We've had days when we couldn't, by law, drive our car during certain hours without risking heavy fines. One day, those with even number license plates can drive all day, and the next it's those with odd numbered licensed plates. I'm trying to pray for rain but I also want to be very specific (some rain but not too much, please) because I've seen the pictures in England of the floods. Not to mention I remember well the 2013 flood in Calgary.

But we had a very nice Christmas spending it in a city called Caserta which is a couple of hours south of Rome. It was a gathering for the senior missionary couples including President and Sister Waddoups. We were in a very empty hotel with few guests other than us. They even kept the restaurant closed over Christmas so consequently it didn't cost too much to stay there. Here's a picture of it here: 

And this is the picture of the main lobby:

In the center of the lobby was a very elaborate circular nativity scene. In fact, I'm happy to say that big beautiful nativity scenes are often prominent in business settings here. A pharmacy down the street from our apartment has a beautiful one in it's window. In Italy, nativity scenes are not just the manger scene, a few animals, shepherds and some wise men. They have the whole village working and doing things all around. Here's a couple of pictures here to give you an idea:

The trip gave us a chance to meet and get to know other senior couples serving in the mission. Most are doing MLS (Member and Leader Support) work such as helping run small branches of the Church. We have one couple here running the BYU Idaho Pathway program. Others are here to run programs for the young single adult members. On Christmas eve we did a potluck together, mainly because there was no restaurant open in the hotel, and little chance of finding much open in the city. Here's a shot of that here: 

Afterwards, Sister Waddoups brought out her nativity re-enactment clothes again and we did something similar to what happened at zone conference. Because I was recovering from a bad back, they let me keep my place on the couch so this time Hermes and I got to be Mary and Joseph. This is us trying to look angelically at each other:

You can tell we were having a hard time keeping a straight face. The group shot is here. Sister Waddoups is in the white sweater and camel ears in front and President Waddoups is the tall one in the dark suit on the other side.

On Christmas morning, we went together to see an aqua duct outside Caserta. It's not an ancient Roman one; it's more about 300 years old built about the same time as a Versailles-like royal palace that is in Caserta. It had a mysterious foggy look that morning as you can see from the picture here:

In the afternoon we had dinner at a Trattoria. Seafood is more the traditional Christmas fare in Italy and we had a lovely meal with lots of seafood. Here's another picture of that.

Afterwards we walked to the lit up tree in the city center:

The next day on our way back to Rome, we stopped at an ancient Roman amphitheater similar in shape to the Colosseum in Rome but far less touristy. Of all the Roman amphitheaters still in existence in Italy, this one has the best preserved underground part. Here's some pictures of that.It seems so peaceful and nice down there but if you get to thinking too much about the cruelty and awful things that used to happen there (gladiators, sending Christians to the lions etc.), it's not such a nice thing. But here's a picture to give you an idea of how it looked down there.

As we came out, this old Vespa was sitting there. In Hermes' youth, he drove one of these. This one is a beauty. I wish I could have one of these to use in Calgary in the summer but knowing me, I'd probably have an accident and be permanently maimed.

On Sunday, we had for us a rare treat. Elder Dallin H Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was in Rome and he and his wife spoke in the morning in a combined sacrament meeting of two wards. Elder Oaks seems to be the apostle of our mission since we had also heard him speak on Thanksgiving in the MTC. An interesting thing he said is that everywhere he goes in the world, everyone asks about the progress of the Rome temple. He says everyone in the church is excited that a temple is to be built here. Many ex-missionaries who served here have asked him if he could get them tickets to the dedication when it happens and he laughs and says he doesn't even think he can get a ticket. He made it clear that Temple Dedication tickets will only be for Italian members. I think that makes sense but it will make for a lot of disappointed people from outside the country.

In the afternoon, he and his wife did a devotional for the missionaries so we all got a chance to go up and shake his hand before it started. Anytime he spoke, it was always powerful as one would expect for someone in his position. After the devotional, he took a picture with us. We're second row from the back so you may have a hard time finding us.

So that was our first Mission Christmas. Not white. Not even wet but a lovely Christmas all the same. 

Happy New Year or as we say in Italy, Buon Anno!

Baaaa! I'm a Sheep!

Doing this blog weekly has proven to be a challenge. Work is busy in the office and then I'm dead tired when I get home. But here I am again to give you the latest update!

So I did the driving test last week but I cleverly did it on a public holiday so that the traffic was light. And my parallel park wouldn't win any awards but it was good enough for Elder Sears who gives the permissions to drive mission vehicles. But quite frankly, I only want to be a backup driver in case of emergency. Hermes says that driving here is like playing a game of chicken all the time. He's constantly having to figure out who's going to blink first, him or the other driver. Honestly, if people drove like this in Calgary, I can't imagine the incidents of road rage. But there really isn't road rage here. There's lots of honking, sure, but people don't get enraged like they would at home. Italians are artists and they're very artistic in their interpretation of lane definition and crossing roundabouts and... well, traffic laws in general. I think I'm almost getting used to it. Almost, I said.

Well, our office trainers, the Stevens, went home so now we are on our own in our roles in the mission office. Hermes has been very worried about keeping up on things and remembering procedures but I think it won't be long before he gets it down pat. Here he is at his desk:

Now this is not to say that I have my role down pat, but I think I'm keeping up so far. Hermes and I share an office but not work and I think that's good for us. We learned early on in our marriage that we couldn't get along cooking in the same kitchen, but it works fine if we are sharing space doing our own thing. Actually it's rather enjoyable this way. You know, if we each had our own kitchens at home side by side, that would be our ideal. Ha ha, as if.

In the Mission Office there is also the office manager, Brother Calabrese, who has been volunteering there for 16 years. Here's a picture of him:

He is such a good man. He retired from the navy at 48 and his wife eventually told him he needed to get out of the house and do something so he began working in the mission office. He deals largely with the missionary apartments, contracts, etc. He is also the Stake Patriarch. One day we will have to ask him his story about how he came into the church.

There are also two office elders, both from northern Italy, Anziani (Elders) Calvagna and Gavez. They are great fun to work with as you can see from the picture of Anziano Gavez:

And Anziano Calvagna is always smiling and laughing. We'll miss them when they get transferred out of the office and/or go home.

In addition, there is another senior couple, the Sears. He is in charge of computers and technology, and she is the health liaison for the young missionaries. In other words, when health problems arise, they call her and she makes sure they get appropriate medical attention. That such a person exists in the mission field now really blew my mind. When I was a young missionary, I can't recall us doing much of anything when we got sick. We stayed home. We put up with things. Maybe we had to phone the mission president though I don't remember much. But if we did, it meant going out on the street and finding a phone box (we would say booth in Canada). All the missionaries have cell phones now. Now I probably sound like one of those people who say, "When I was your age, we had to walk to school up hill, barefoot in the snow both ways." Okay, okay. It's true. I do think these young whipper snappers have it easier than we did back in the 80s. Maybe I'm just jealous. 

Anyway, there's also an office for the Mission President and his wife (the Waddoups) but they're hardly ever there. They are constantly travelling all over southern Italy. It must be exhausting! When I was a brand new convert to the church of 18, I thought it would be so cool to be a mission president's wife. Then I went on a mission and realized that it's the last thing one should ever aspire to. What a tough job! But I have to say that they seem to handle it with grace and positivity, as did the  McKays back in the England Coventry days. 

The mission home where the Waddoups live is a beautiful old Villa that was apparently originally built by Mussolini for his "niece"(nudge-nudge, wink-wink). I understand the mission has had it now about 40 years. We got to have dinner there last week with five new missionaries that arrived. Yup, I forgot my camera. No pictures this time.

This past week was our first zone conference which involved two districts. The first part was run by the Zone Leaders and the Sister Training Leaders. They asked all the young missionaries to write down a moment when they felt really good and accomplished. Hermes turned to me and said, "When I paid the garbage bill yesterday." It made me laugh.

In the second part, the Waddoups had us all re-enact the Nativity story. And I was... you guessed it... a sheep! Baaaa! Hermes was a shepherd. Here's a picture of us.

I know it's hard to tell I'm a sheep. I've got white cotton ears clipped to my hair. But if you think that's difficult to decipher, you should see the camels:

Brown ear muffs means they're camels. And here's one of Anziano Calvagna (office elder) being Samuel the Lamanite:

And here is the cow and the donkey. I have to say, this one you could probably have figured out on your own.

And of course you have to see Mary and Joseph with the Star.

Okay and I have to show you the picture of the four sisters who had matching sweaters. I thought they were pretty cute.

So that's our life right now. To end, I hope many of you have seen the following video that the church just released on social media, but if you haven't, here it is. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Driving in Rome: Not for the Faint of Heart

We arrived in Rome on Saturday close to about Noon after an uneventful flight. We were met by the Stevens whose places we are taking in the office as well as two Italians elders who also work in the office. The Stevens drove us to our new home via the temple construction site and took a picture of us. Here it is here:

The bad news is the temple is not likely to be completed for another two years so any prediction that we would be involved with the opening of this temple is likely not to be. There have been enormous problems with completing this temple and those direcly involved are rather tight-lipped on those problems, but the good news is that work has resumed on it after about a 15 month period where no work was done at all.

We are so happy with out apartment. The building complex is pretty new and modern and the apartments they give the senior couples are very, very nice. Our complex even has a small weight/workout room and an outdoor swiming pool in the summer. I was pleased to find out that there are no rules against senior couples going swimming. Actually, the senior couples really don't have rules at all; we are pretty much self-governing. Anyway, here are some pictures of the apartment including our super deluxe balcony.

And our bedroom has an additional small balcony. 

We are part of the Rome II ward which is actually a fair sized ward with lots of young families and a young bishopric. They had their childrens primary presentation on Sunday which is always good fun. There are earphones for those who want the English translation of the talks and lessons (one of the elders does the translation over a radio microphone) but I chose to just sit in church and try to understand what I could in Italian. It wasn't a lot but perhaps over time.

One of the things we love is the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables because so much of it is grown here. It's a little thing but the fact that the oranges still have leaves on the stem delights me:

The Mission Office functions mainly in English which is not good news for my feeble Italian. I am the Mission Secretary and Hermes the Financial Secretary. The Stevens are training us until they go home week after next. One of my main responsibilities is to oversee that the missionaries get their Permessos which is essentially an extension of their Visas giving them permission to stay in the country fo a period of time. It is very complicated with lots of steps so I will have to be very much on top of things. I'll admit, it has me a little worried. Hermes has similar concerns about his duties but in time I'm sure we'll both be fine.

We were assigned a car which only Hermes has been driving so far because I haven't had the courage! Everywhere one goes in this city is like Rush Hour on the Deerfoot Trail times 10. If a driver hesitates for even a moment, a car will jump in front of them. The other day Hermes was attempting to make a left hand turn. There was solid traffic coming from the left and the right but still the cars behind us were honking away wanting him to push into the traffic anyway. There are speed cameras on the street disguised as garbage cans - sneaky, eh? Usually any tickets that come, will arrive at the Mission Office via mail. And parking is difficult. No matter what time of day, if we are pulling out of a parking spot, there's always someone waiting to take our place. When I decide to take a driving test, I have to prove I can do a parallel park, an essential skill in Rome. Fortunately, our car is small (most cars in Italy are small), and I usually find it easier to parallel park in small cars. And another essential tool for driving in Italy is the Tom Tom. Blessed be the Tom Tom. We couldn't manage without it.

We've met  many young elders and sisters (anziani and sorelli) most of whom are Americans but quite a few from northern Italy. I think it's fairly common for young people from the northern part of Italy (the Milan mission) to serve in the Rome mission and those from the south then serve in the Milan mission. It makes sense to have Italians serve in Italy since the Church is often perceived as only an American church. 

Quite a few of the Italian sisters we've met are originally from South American countries or their parents are. We met a young sister from Florence the other day who is originally from Peru. She is a convert and was baptized in Italy. She has a cool conversion story. She was invited to stay over at an LDS friend's house over night and to come to church with her the next day. While sleeping that night she had a dream in which she was trying to get away from a person who would harm her and then she ran straight into the arms of a  young man in a white shirt and tie who smiled at her and told her she was safe now. The next day whe she went to Church, she instantly recognized one of the missionaries as the young man in her dream. I'm told that dreams are a common element in the conversion of Italians; actually a dream was part of Hermes' conversion.

It is difficult for me to believe, given the climate we are living in, that Christmas is coming. I mean, the grass is still green, there are still leaves on the trees and, although the nights and mornings are chilly, the afternoons have been sunny and pleasant. Mind you, I'm not complaining! I'm looking forward to having two snowless winters (presuming that will be the case). And I'm also looking forward to seeing Spring arrive when Spring is actually supposed to arrive. 

Anyway, that's this week's blog/update. Arrivederci!

An MTC Thanksgiving

Our final day at the MTC is American Thanksgiving and I can say I am so grateful for the time we spent here, but we are ready to get on with things so I'm also grateful that first thing tomorrow morning we will be shuttled to the airport and we are off to Rome. Now before I get on with things, I have to show you another picture that hangs on the walls of the MTC:       

This photo was taken in Russia and you can see that they had to cut  a hole in the ice to baptize. Brrrrr! Granted it doesn't seem as life  threatening as last week's picture from Papua New Guinea, but still quite eye opening as to what people are prepared to do in order to join the Church. 

So this week there were only three Senior Couples including us in the MTC and today there is only Hermes and I. We had four days of office training condensed into two days because of it being Thanksgiving week. It was fine because we were all used to using computers. One of the couples, the Pedersons, are leaving on Monday to work under President Thomas (fellow North Stakers take note) in the Democratic Republic of Congo Lubumbashi. They are the couple on the left. We became very good friends with them.

They live in Utah so of course they left to spend Thanksgiving with their family. Hermes and I did received some Thanksgiving invitations but in the end we decided to stay at the MTC so we could go to the Devotional and participate in a scheduled service project. Also, we need time to pack!

The Devotional this morning was awesome because we had the Apostle Dallin H. Oaks come and speak to us. Also, he had a lot of his family there including his rather famous violin virtuoso daughter, Jenny Oaks Baker and she and several other family members played for us as part of the Devotional. She is a tremendous talent! I was reading about her afterwards on-line and it turns out she has a Master's from Julliard and played at some very famous venues. Some of the family members that she played with were her children and they were all wonderful. Their rendition of Amazing Grace sent shivers up my spine. Here's a You Tube Video of her:

What I can also identify about being at that Devotional and many other times being at the MTC is the tremendous peace that has accompanied these experiences. The Spirit of God fills this place and in turn fills my heart. I really have treasured these few weeks here.

Our Thanksgiving dinner came at lunch and it was yummy. It's amazing how they can make such a great turkey dinner for 1500 people. Then later in the afternoon we joined up with a service project. A Christian charity called Feeding Children Everywhere teamed up with LDS Humanitarian Services to do this project. What they do is they fill small plastic bags with about a tablespoon of Himalayan Salt, what I think is about 1/3 cup of dehydrated vegetables, a cup of rice and maybe a bigger cup of Lentils. This apparently can make a nutritious meal for six people. They put up long tables all through the cafeteria and we all worked in teams. I was the rice girl at first but the Hermes and I switched places after a while and I became the Dehydrated Vegetable scooper. There was this large cone and one person would hold a plastic bag underneath it and then each of us in turn would scoop in our quanity of food. Then the bag would go down the line for sealing and then boxed. Whenever a box was completed, the table that had completed it would give out a cheer. You can imagine how noisy that got. We kept hearing some Elders, we think from New Zealand or the Pacific Isles let out what sounded like a Maori chant whenever they completed a box. I would love to show you some pictures of the event but we were told we couldn't bring cameras because Church News and Deseret News have exclusivity on photographing the event. So the best we could do was go back to our room and do this selfie in our red hair nets:

Just one half of all the missionaries were in that first round and the other half were watching a film. Then at 5:45, the two groups switched places so we went to watch the film. I thought that we were going to see a documentary on the Church's Humanitarian Services but it turned out to be the feature movie, 17 Miracles. I've previously watched that movie, twice in fact, on Netflix but Hermes had never seen it. It was certainly worth viewing a third time. If you've never seen it, I would recommend it highly. Here's a thing on You Tube about it in case you want to check it out.

Finally tonight the Christmas lights were turned on at the MTC. I had originally hoped to see the ones at Temple Square but it turns out they don't get turned on until tomorrow night. But these MTC ones were beautiful and a consolation until the day comes when I will see the Temple Square Christmas display.

My love for the gospel has grown over these last few weeks. It has been great to be here but I am very much looking forward to beginning our life and service in Rome. So once again, Arrivederci!

The Happiest Place on Earth

Now, I know Disneyland says that it's the "Happiest Place on Earth" but I'm telling you the Missionary Training Centre (MTC) in Provo has got it beat. We are having the most awesome time here. Everyday is a spiritual feast and I have learned so much from the wonderful young teachers here. More on that in a moment but first I have to show you this picture that hangs in the hall here at the MTC:

This is a picture of a baptismal service in Papua, New Guinea. The missionaries and the people being baptized are all ankle deep in mud and you can see that they are baptizing in very muddy water. But that is not the most jaw dropping part. Do you see those men on the shore nearby standing with  axes and spears in their hands? Hermes and I stood in front of that picture for a few moments wondering why on earth there would be people there with axes and spears. And then it dawned on us. It was to keep the crocodiles away! They had to baptize people in a place where they could have been attacked by crocodiles! Holy cow, I can't imagine. I just had to share this picture with you. And if you're wondering if our interpretation of that is correct, it was confirmed by a leader here in the MTC.

Here's a picture of Hermes and I arriving at the MTC:

So, as I said, we love it here. I am a little bit in mourning that all the things I am learning on how to be a good teacher were not things I learned 34 years ago when I went on my first mission to England. The young people they have teaching us old fogeys are fantastic. In the morning, we've had three young women team teaching us; one went on her mission to Russia, another to Peru and the third to Italy. In the afternoon we have a young man and a young woman, both of whom went on missions to Honduras, although different missions. I'm pretty sure they're all BYU students. They are all so much fun and make our classes interesting. In our class we have two other couples, one going to Mexico City and the other to Chile.

There were 34 couples who entered the MTC this week which they say is a small group, probably because of the time of year (right before Thanksgiving). There are about 1400 missionaries here, most of which are young 18 and 19 year old men and women. They are a sight to behold! Sometimes they are so cute, I just want to pinch their cheeks, but I don't. While the majority are Americans, there are a number from all over the world. We see big tall African  young men who remind me of some of the lovely Sudanese young men I helped with resumes back when I worked at Father Lacombe High. There are a lot of Spanish speaking missionaries from Latin America. The other day, we talked to two young men heading to the Milan Italy mission, one from Florida and the other from Budapest, Hungary. Today we talked to the cutest young girl from Italy who will be heading to the SLC Temple square mission along with her companion, another cute girl from South Korea. 

We checked into the MTC on Saturday afternoon, two days earlier than we needed to, and I'm so glad we did because I got to attend a special Women's Conference on Sunday morning and we both attended a terrific devotional on Sunday evening. I have to tell you about an experience shared at the Womens Conference that I thought was pretty cool. One of the speakers had served with her husband as Mission President/Matron in the Czech Republic mission. They were concerned about how to help the Church gain legal recognition in neighboring Slovakia. There was a small branch of the church there with a very dedicated Branch President who had been fasting twice a month for years that the Church would gain legal status and the missionaries would be allowed in. The only way they could get legal status was to have a petition signed by 20,000 Slovakians saying they wish to allow the Church in. This was a daunting task because most Slovakians had lived for years and years under a suspicious Communist regime and were not a trusting or open people. Furthermore, the petition would require not only their signature, but also their address and the equivalent of what Canadians call their Social Insurance Number and what Americans call their Social Security Number. So, since many Slovakian students made a part-time living collecting names for petitions as a part time job, the Church at first hired students to see if they could collect these signatures. The students quit after two weeks having collected less than 100 signatures. More fasting and praying happened and in the end, the leadership decided to bring in all the missionaries from the Czeck mission to collect the petition signatures. The missionaries were taught that if they were obedient and had faith, they could expect miracles. Some of the missionaries stated they were sure they could collect 200-300 signatures in a day. And so they went forth. The Sister who spoke said she went out and sometimes people would seem angry that they were approached but would sign anyway and this would happen over and over. They had given themselves one week to collect 20,000 signatures. At the end of four days, they had collected 25,000.

I found that to be an amazing example of what faith, prayer and dedication can do. I have heard many wonderful experiences this week and I could go on and on, but this blog would get too long. Hermes and I will be at the MTC one more week. We will get office skills training next week. We will be one of the few senior couples here this weekend as many of the senior couples who are not doing the office work (they are doing MLS standing for Member and Leadership Support) are leaving for their missions. We, apparently will be the only senior couple here over Thanksgiving, but we are looking forward to it because apparently an apostle will come and do a Thanksgiving Devotional and then we will help all those hundreds of kids with a service project where they pack up meals for the homeless.  I'm sure there will be turkey dinner in the cafeteria too. The day after Thanksgiving, we fly to Rome. 

Lastly, I want to thank two of my former missionary companions from the England Coventry mission days. First to Kathy and her husband for hosting us during Italian Immersion and then taking us to SLC to see the Conference Centre on Saturday mrorning. Here's some pictures:    

And then to Adele and her husband, who I saw just last evening for dinner:

It was a thrill to see you both and hopefully it won't be as many years before we meet up again. 

Okay, one more picture. This is an MTC tradition to take a picture in front of this map and I have one from 34 years ago so we had to do another one: 

Arrivederci! Love to all at home in Calgary! 

Parli Italiano? Kind of...

By popular demand, this is my attempt to write a blog about out experiences as LDS senior missionaries. I will do my best to make this an exciting read for you all even if I have to make stuff up... just kidding.

Officially our mission doesn't start until Monday, November 16th but we went down early to do a three day Italian Immersion. We had a bit of a rough start to our trip. Our flight to SLC was at 6:15 in the morning which means we needed to be at the airport by 4:30 AM at the latest. A few people almost made an offer to drive us to the airport but when they found out it would disrupt their beauty sleep they happily let us take a taxi. So much for the grand send off with people weeping at the airport and waving handkerchiefs as we stumble into U.S. customs. Oh well.

Anyway, back to the rough start. We had our big honking suitcases ready in the living room for the 4AM arrival of our taxi and Hermes went out the door with his big suitcase and as I picked up his carry-on, he said to me, "just pull the door shut when you leave." So I did... forgetting that my big honking suitcase and carry-on were still in the house... and the door locked behind me... and we had no key... Ooops. So it became necessary to try to wake up someone in the house. Our first attempt to wake someone up was with Hermes' son who sleeps in the basement. We rapped and rapped at his window to no avail. He must be able to sleep through a hurricane. I phoned into the house and nothing, Hermes' father and sister were sleeping on the other side of the house but neither heard the door bell ring. Finally, Hermes got a ladder, and had to climb up to her window to rap on it which finally woke her up. She opened the front door and I apologetically grabbed by suitcases and with many apologies, said a quick goodbye. That, luckily, was the only misfortune of the day.

I, personally, have not been to Utah in 15 years which is the last time I saw Kathy with whom we have been staying. She and I were missionary companions in the England Coventry Mission back in the early 80s. She has hardly changed (still looks fabulous) though she would dispute that. She has been reminding me of things that happened and people we served with which has been great fun. Oh my, we were so young and naive in those days. And its crazy how much I've forgotten about those days. At the time, you think you'll never forget what happens on your mission, but life goes on and you do.

Hermes and I spent all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at one of the many, many LDS chapels here in the Utah valley. Honestly, it seems like there is one on every corner. Sometimes, I kid you not, there's even two side-by-side on a corner. The construction industry must be kept busy with church construction here.

Even though I chose to do this Italian Immersion and initiated it, I was dreading it. I thought it would be pure drudgery  and that my brain might explode at the end of it. Fortunately, no one had to clean up any gray matter. It was at times even lots of fun and I met Italian speaking volunteers whom I wish I lived closer to because I know we'd make great friends. I was told at the end of the day that I'm doing well and on my way to being able to converse in Italian. Nothing would please me more than to be able to converse freely with the Italian people.

Hermes spent the time learning the missionary lessons in Italian and simply conversing in order to get  the "rust," as he put it, off his Italian. Forty years living in Canada is a long time. I'll bet he'll forget how to speak English after a while, though.

Next, we're off to the MTC. I'll be interested in seeing how the place has changed in the 34 years since I've been there.

Arrivederci!