Giving Thanks in Italy

Thanksgiving Meal

Serving Turkey to the Pilgrims and Indians

Missionaries loving the Turkey

Amazingly, we turned the page on our calendar to December today! We can’t believe another month has passed! We are enjoying the time here and also enjoyed talking to many of our family members this week for Thanksgiving. We have so many wonderful people to be grateful for. Monday, Julie prepared stuffing for the Thanksgiving dinner to be held on Tuesday evening with the English class and Missionaries. The turkey turned out great! Everyone had a great time because the missionaries helped them make pilgrim hats, and they loved the turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy.

Farewell to Sister Piccirillo

Transfers

Andrews, Elder Bennett, Amins

We met the missionaries at Termini that were being transferred. Julie made some chocolate chip cookies, and Greg wrote notes for Elder Bennett and Sister Piccirillo. Elder Bennett was transferred to Naples, and Sister Piccirillo was headed home to San Remo, Italy. Gamal and Martina Amin were there to see Elder Bennett who had baptized them. When missionaries are transferred, it is hard on the members who have grown to love them, but there are always great missionaries to replace them.

Karaoke YSA

YSA Karaoke night

Friday evening we had a fun Karaoke party. Greg taught the Institute lesson, and then we went to the multipurpose room for Karaoke! Janus, from the Philippines, had the karaoke machine, so the songs were in English, which the students loved because they listen to lots of American music. One of the fun songs was by the Backstreet Boys. We had the YSA members from Ladispoli (45 minutes from Rome), so it was a good-sized group. All in all we had a great turnout!

Service

Elder Andrew, Gamal, and Billy

We went to the open market to buy a coat and boots for Julie and gloves and scarves for both of us. We volunteered to help with collecting donations for the food bank at a local grocery store, and we were going to be outside in the cold most of the day. We have had freezing weather here several times this week, which is unusual for this time of year—usually it gets colder in January and February. We worked with some great people and made some new friendships.