Building Buildings

Winter has arrived in Italy! I am freezing once again. It certainly makes one count their blessings at home, with central heating, attached garage, fireplace, and jetted tub. I guess that is part of the flavor of living in another country – to find out how people there really live.

Across the lane from us a new building is rising. To get the heavy equipment onto the land, they razed the fun entry way and driveway to the property.

The palm tree was the next to go – not destroyed, just moved to a different location. Now we are watching the building process in earnest.


Will often takes pictures, and as the workers see him in his white shirt and tie with a camera, they don’t like it much. They must feel someone is checking up on them.
The funniest part of the construction so far was when they poured high footings and then filled the spaces between the footings with plastic tables.

A layer of cement was poured over the plastic.

They have used so much rebar we think they must be building an apartment complex. We had hopes of it being a single dwelling so it wouldn’t block the sunrise, but that is probably not the case.

Anyway it provides us with considerable entertainment as we wake up to the pounding in the morning, and check up on the progress after work.

Pompeii

After an extremely busy week of work for transfer week, we played with the Burt’s by driving to Napoli and on to Pompeii.
The city of Pompeii was originally built about 600 BC and was located near modern Naples. Pompeii was destroyed, and completely buried, during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in AD 79. Pompeii was buried under 60 feet of ash and it was lost for nearly 1,700 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1748.
Interestingly: It seems to be well known fact that Pompeii was a very wicked city.

The sights we saw and the facts we enjoyed the most were:
When people were living in Pompeii, the streets had water running down them with raw sewage in the water. Large stepping stones were placed across the street so the people didn’t have to step in the water. (Here's the Burt's crossing the street on the stepping-stones.)

Original lead pipes exposed.

2-3 inch deep ruts made from chariot wheels in the stones of the streets.

30 brothels in a town of 20,000 people

Eating establishments which offered pots filled with hot soup to purchase. The holes where the pots were placed in kind of a hot table.

The remains of some of the people who were covered with molten volcanic ash. Some of the bones are still visible.



Mosaic and original painted murals and walls still visible.

Nice homes.


Egyptian Temple of Isis

Will felt bad he was one of over 2,000,000 people a year who paid an admission to see Pompeii. He did love seeing the Amalfi coastline afterwards though.


A funny aside that happened during transfer week:
During the week, President and Sister Acerson were hosting a large group of youth at the Villa. Sister Mandala was returning home after completing a successful mission and her mother was here in Rome to meet her. We were asked if they could stay at our apartment overnight and then if we would take them to the airport in the morning. Of course we said yes even though Sister Mandala speaks very little English and her mother speaks none at all. It actually turned out to be a delightful evening. I cooked dinner for all of us and then we played Rummy Cube and with poor English on their part and horrible Italian on our part, we seemed to communicate and even enjoy one another.
Two of the elders who were being transferred out of our district stopped by briefly and we dropped water over the balcony in front of them (this is almost a tradition in the Sommerfeldt apartment), with Sister Mandala and her mom watching and enjoying every minute of it.
Then the sisters who were being transferred stopped by so I could repair Sister Tramacchi’s skirt. (She had one whole side seam safety pinned shut and the hem was coming out.) When they rang the buzzer to come into our gate, Mandala’s wanted us to go throw water over the balcony at them. We brushed that off, saying we didn’t do that to the sisters. Unbeknown to us, they had a scheme hatched up to come into the apartment while Will was out on the balcony and throw water on him. It didn’t play out exactly as they planned, but Sister Skabelund did douse him with water,

so the sisters felt the evening had been a success. I guess that is what happens when you always play jokes on others. Sister Marangoni had even brought her umbrella so that they could safely walk under our balcony.

Veni - Vidi - Vici

Check out our fancy new mission T's. As you can see, on the front it says: we came, we saw, we conquered. On the back is a representation of the coliseum with the angel Moroni on top.

On General Conference weekend, we had an 8-hour delay to hear conference, since our time is 8 hours ahead of Salt Lake time. So, Saturday morning, we went downtown with Burt’s and visited the “Bone Church.” The elders have been telling us about it for some time.
The bones in this crypt were nailed to the wall and arranged in patterns: cross, floral, arch, triangle and circle, as well as forming objects. A large clock is composed of vertebrae, foot bones and finger bones. The single hour hand represents the idea that time has no beginning or end.

The bones in the six-room crypt represent over 4,000 individual monks. It is said monks fled the French Revolution (1793-94) and took refuge at the Church in Roma.

A plaque in one of the chapels reads, in three languages,
"What you are now, we once were;
what we are now, you shall be."

Just before this transfer week, we had the several of the elders over for a birthday dinner. Two of the elders are going home during this transfer. They invited Jonathan over and he showed up with fixings for Italian food and Filipino food.

I think our roast, mashed potatoes and gravy were upstaged by the delicious pasta and rice dishes Jonathan prepared. We did have the final delicacy though - banana cream pie. As we move into Transfer Week, a very busy time in the mission, we realize once again that we give up our favorites and welcome new faces into our district to feed, mentor, and love for a space of time.

On Monday night we met some Cardston people at their hotel as they were visiting Rome. It was fun to give hugs and see familiar, much-loved faces again.

We just want to say how much we enjoyed General Conference once again. It seemed to us the over-riding message of conference was love. Love of the Lord, love of family, love of one another. We pray that we can live those important messages in all that we do and say.

The Church of Jesus Christ in Action!

(Doesn't Will look angelic?)

This has been a very interesting and fun weekend. On Saturday there was a grande Relief Society party that has been in the planning for months. Italy is truly a melting pot of nationalities. The Stake Relief Society invited sisters from different countries to participate in a dance festival of sorts. First the Stake Relief Society President and then the Stake President spoke to us. (In Italian, of course)

Then, each country (13 in all) was introduced by their national anthem being played on a large screen. Missionaries and priesthood also attended the evening. All those born in that country stood during the national anthem and sang along with it.

Then dancers from that country, in fantastic costumes, danced for all of us.





Surprise, surprise, Will and I were asked to represent America in the dancing. We asked the other couple in the office to join us so we weren’t doing a floor-show number all alone. When it was our turn and we went onto the dance floor, it became very silent. Then the Elvis music began and the crowd went crazy. Will doesn’t know if it was Elvis or the fact that the “old” missionaries were doing the dancing!

Afterwards, every country had a tasting table out in the courtyard. The tables were decorated with items from that country.



A beautiful evening formed a perfect backdrop for great food, friendly associations, and fun dancing with incredible costumes

– gulp – except for our costumes, missionary drab. Our best feature was our black and white name tags.

It just doesn’t get better!

Today we invited 2 girls from Finland to our apartment for Sunday dinner. They were visiting our ward and spoke very good English. They have only been members for 2 years and we figured they could use a boost in American hospitality and Italian love. It was a fun day getting to know them. They heard about the church in Finland when the temple was built there and they attended the open house. Actually, they didn't know each other at that time. While listening to the discussions, they met each other and both joined the church and became friends. Where else besides the church, could you meet total strangers at church and invite them to go home with you, feed them, enjoy one another, and send them on their way.

Actually, when they were leaving the house, they wanted to know if we knew of a FHE going on tomorrow night. We told them, yes, at our house. We assured them they were invited. We are having a scone night for the missionaries in our district, investigators, and a young man (Jonathan) who joined the church just over a year ago and wants to open his mission call at our house.

(This is Jonathan from the Philippines who is waiting for his mission call.)
We can hardly wait to see where he will be serving. The work goes on!

Calcata

Anziano and Sorella Sommerfelt discovered a new quaint little town called Calcata. Our friend from English class, Andrea, told us about it. Anziano and Sorella Burt wanted an adventure this weekend, so they went with us. The town of Vecchio Calcata means old town. It is built on a rock foundation that is jutting out of the edge of a mountain. Calcata was built in 977 AD. The town only has one road into it, so it could be protected against invaders. Now it is a tourist’s dream with all the narrow streets, old apartments in old buildings, steep stairs, unique doors, tiny patios, and colorful flowers.







While we were there, a band lined up outside the church to play when those inside came out. A woman about 68 years old, was around the corner and was tying firecrackers onto a wire. We didn’t know if there was a wedding or a funeral going on inside the church. Finally those inside came out, the band played, and the women set off her fireworks with a very loud and sustained bang. We still don’t know why there was so much attention at the church since neither a bride or a casket came outside. Afterward we went inside the church to look around.




Later we drove around Lake Bracciano and strolled along the waterfront as we ate gelato.
It was a great day.

Here is Karen and Will standing by a tree growing over a large rock.

On Friday we finally visited the Mouth of Truth to see how truthful we are. As you can see, Will is really worried about whether the Mouth of Truth will bite his hand off. Karen is pretty sure she’s okay, so she is laughing. (Nervous Laugh)


This is the view from our balcony. There is a major building project going on and we enjoy checking out what has happened on it during the day when we return home in the evening after our day at the office. Just over a few yards from the project they are making a new park. It is moving much slower, but also provides us entertainment.