Chris and Pat's Italian Mission Adventures: Bus trip to Monticchio Laghi

One of our very favorite people is Vescovo (Bishop) Mongelli (below right) He and the ward council organized a ward bus trip to Monticchio which is about 2 hours away by bus. Chris and I commented afterwards that we had never seen such a great bunch of people having so much fun together as this ward had. They often take bus trips together and about 3 or 4 times a year go to Switzerland to the temple in Zollikofen.

Above is Angela DeSantis (YW Pres) with Maria and Eugenio Losito who we consider our great friends

Monticchio Laghi lies on the slopes of Mount Vulture and has 150 inhabitants. There are two little volcanic lakes here where tourists and locals love to visit. Reminded me of Montana.

Above is our group after we just got to Monticchio and Maria and her daughter Kimberly (16) are posing for us. We really spent most of our time with this family and had a blast. Kimberly is my new bff as she speaks English very well (The mom is from Venesuela and the dad from Italy but they lived in South Carolina for quite a few years too where Kimberly and her brother Tony were born.) It's been so fun to get to know this family and teach them the gospel.

With one of Chris's favorite people and mine too--Ettore Pappagallo who is the Liberta mission leader and went on a mission to England so he speaks English.--along with my buddy Kimberly.

Kimberly wanted to take a picture with Chris's camera so she took a shot with her dad--to the far right and her brother Tony in front (and Ettore) Tony is such a fun 11 year old. He is the most sociable boy I have ever met. He wanted us to adopt him so we said OK--then he started telling everyone that his name was now Tony Fizzer....His sister said--"If you can't pronounce it you can't be adopted" So he finally said Tony Fitzner so I pretended to be his mom the rest of the day by holding the stuff he didn't want to carry--his jacket!