Best of friends

When Chris and I first moved to Bari and I was feeling a little worried that I would survive 18 months in a new country without family and friends around, he told me--just wait and see--you will be very sad that you are leaving Bari when the time comes because you will have made so many friends.  It is so true.  I have some very close friends here that I will be sad to say goodbye to.

One of our most dependable friends here in Bari has been Vito Caricola.  He was a friend of Chris's when Chris was on his first mission 40 years ago and he has become even better friends now.  Not only is he his twin (same birthdate, time even!) but just a really kind person to us both.  

  

Two of the families are the two Bishop's and their families--the Valentini's and the Mongelli's.  They have been so kind to us and will always have a special place in our hearts.  We love them dearly.

The Valentini's went out with us to dinner one night along with Lucia Lapenna (we have been teaching her English--she is a good friend of Gabriella's and is an opthlmologist)  Above is Lucia Lapenna, Gabriella Valentini,(my English speaking friend), Ettore (Bishop) and daughter Valeria Valentini.(who also speaks English)

 Bishop Mongelli and his beautiful wife Pina are in the picture above along with

  Ruben, their son.  He  has been one of our GANS and we love him and his parents so much. 

Above is Fratello Ramuni and his wife Angela and their daughter Ludovica (missing is their other daughter, Silvia) along with Angela's parents the Palmisano's.  This family is very special to us as well.  Hard to say goodbye but hope to see them again in the future! Fratello Ramuni speaks excellent English so he always made me feel comfortable.

Above are Giulia and Piero Fierli from our English class (on Chris's right and my left) along with their family.  They have been like family to us and have made English class so fun to teach.  Sergio, their son in the back, is a chef and made us the most wonderful dinner, even giving us the recipe.  

These kids were our kids while we were on our mission.  They kept us feeling young and made our mission so much fun. We'll miss you raggazzi!  We wish you great success in years to come.  Please keep in touch!! ( I see we are missing a few--Gianni, Claudio, Ruben, Ilaria, Giorgia, Rosa) 💖

Above is Valeria and her little girl Elizabeth.  We were able to speak at Valeria's baptism and she is a very special person to us along with her precocious little girl. Ti voglio bene, Valeria!  

English with Lucia

We teach English to a lady who is friend of Gabriella Valentini (Liberta ward bishop's wife).  Her name is Lucia.  She is an ophthalmologist and is very busy so we meet her once a week at the hospital and do our lessons there. She is going to a medical conference right away and has to present her research findings in English.  We read what she has prepared and correct her English.  She is so kind and appreciative of our help.  One day she asked us if we wanted our eyes examined and so Chris hopped in her chair.

I think the look is very 21st century....

Baptism of Samuel Kalu

One of the best days of our mission happened on Easter Monday, April 17/17--Samuel got baptized and confirmed a member of the church.  We couldn't have been happier and so was Samuel.  He had Chris baptize and confirm him and calls him "my spiritual father".   He asked me to speak as well as Ettore Pappagallo who is the ward mission leader and his Gospel Principles teacher.  Everyone in the ward just loves Samuel and he will be a great asset to the ward.  He is a man of great faith and is a great example to all of us.

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! 

went for a little boat ride around the lake--took 5 minutes....Lakes are such a novelty to Italians but they have the beautiful SEA!

We hiked up to this Abbey--Abbey of St. Michael

The amazing Pappagallo Family.  We love these guys!

Above--the gang--Poggio Franco ward. Great ward activity!

And on the way home....Got a picture of Ettore and his little guy, Giulio --with Ettore's dad soundly asleep behind him!  All tuckered out....

Belated transfers

I neglected to post when we last had transfers of missionaries which happened at the end of March.  We saw 3 missionaries of very high calibre leave us and welcomed 3 more.

Above is Anziano Mariucci from England and we will miss his crazy, fun personality as well as his love of the work.  He brought such a wonderful spirit to our district and believed that you can have fun when you do missionary work!  We miss you! He headed for Malta....

Next is Anziano Brown from Ogden, Utah.  He has been one of our zone leaders for a while and was a dedicated, excellent leader.  His love of the work and the Italian people was so evident when he taught.  Hard to say goodbye...He's off to Pozzuoli

This is Sorella Sargeant who is one of the kindest, most caring sisters. (from Boulder City, Nevada)  She has been a blessing to 2 sisters that she has been companions to that needed extra care.  One broke a toe and couldn't walk, the other got appendicitis.  It would be very hard to feel positive in those circumstances but she managed well!!  She was always coming to me for hugs and I will miss her a lot.  Love you, Sorella!  Transferred to Caserta,

An elder got on top of another elders's shoulders for a picture and Chris mentioned that on his mission he got 2 elders on his shoulder so of course they had to see if he could still do it and Chris willingly agreed.  44 years and he hasn't gotten any smarter.  Yup, his back was killing him after....

(Here he is a couple years ago...)

Serious district picture

Back left:  Anz. Fitzner, Sorella Fitzner, Anz. Hinckley, Anz. Whitaker, Anz. Bowers, Anz. Carroll, Middle:  Sorella Holmes, Sorella Hess, Sorella Coz-Baccera

Front: Sorella Sargeant, Anz. Brown, Anz Mariucci

Crazy district picture

Another Road Trip--Cosenza, Catanzaro and Crotone

We were given an assignment by the president of the mission to go see some missionaries outside of our zone as they hadn't had apartment inspections for almost a year.  The senior couple that normally does these went home and it hasn't been done since so we got to travel about 400 km. to see these great missionaries.  Our car was loaded to the brim with new mattresses, dressers, fire extinguishers, office chairs--all from Chris's favorite --IKEA.  We finished up all in one day but by the time we were done it was too late to come home, so we stayed overnight in Crotone.

This morning we didn't have appointments until we had to be at church to watch conference at 6:00 so we explored a little. Crotone is a coastal city so we headed to the sea.  Along the way we saw these beautiful wisteria.  I had never seen these before and thought they were lilacs until we got up close.  Georgeous!

Every place in Italy along the coast has their castles and this is Crotone's. Castello di Carlo V.

Added this picture for you, Liz--Rotary  is everywhere!  this was in Crotone Vecchio (old Crotone) which we walked around and saw people's home which are right in the wall of the castle.  If you look at the picture above you will see windows on the left wall of the castle.  Yup--those are people's homes.

When we were looking out to sea, Chris got a little sad about the fact that we will be going home soon.  He loves the sea, so I had to take this picture of him.

One of the nicer homes along our walk in old Crotone.

I wonder how old this rubber tree is??

By the sea.  Huge sandy beach here!

We found this cute named street as we walked..it can barely fit a person down it!

Returning home....the following pictures were taken in a moving car, so please excuse the blurriness..

Took the above picture for my neice, Melissa--there's a town in Italy named after you!  

Everywhere we go in Southern Italy there are row upon row of grapevines..

and olive trees.  Not to mention, lemon trees, orange trees, apple trees, etc., etc...

There are also multiple abandoned buildings that were begun but were never completed.  I was trying to find out about this on the internet and found a women who had photographed multiple sights like these.  this was her comment about it: " the buildings are physical symptoms of economic and political malady. ‘Incompletion is the most important architectural style in Italy and it’s key to interpreting the architecture of the public sector since WWII. It’s also an excellent metaphor for bad management of public affairs and embezzlement of public money.’  Amelie Labourdette.

Sadly, very true

Another city by the sea.

Random castle right next to the highway..

White city on a hill..not the best picture of it..