We have been here in Bari for a week now. The weather has been unseasonably cold and we are looking forward to it getting warmer so we can get out more and explore our new home. We are slowly figuring out what to do with our time. There is no set schedule for senior missionaries so we get to decide how to fill our time with meaningful activities. Right now most of our responsibilities happen in the evenings. I am sure as time goes by we will get busier and find more to do.
On Saturday the missionaries welcomed us with a get together at the church. We were hoping to meet some of our Gans (Giovani Adulti Non Sposati or YSA) that evening but due to last minute scheduling it ended up just being the missionaries and one other sister, Sister Viterbo who is serving as a service missionary here. We were delighted to meet her and look forward to getting to know her better.
On Tuesday we attended District Council with our district in Bari. We have four Anziani (Elders) who work and live in Bari as well as the two Foggia Anziani. We have four Sorelle (Sisters) who are in Bari also. After the meeting we invited the Anziani to have pranzo (lunch) at our home. Next week we will have the Sorelle. We enjoyed getting to know Anziani Sorenson & Stafford (Poggiafranco), Whitney & Olson (Liberta) and Seamons and Reynolds (Foggia). We have been so impressed with all the young missionaries we have met!
On Thursday we drove to Taranto which is about an hour away from us. Driving in Italy is always an 'exciting' thing. Cars will whizz past us on either side of the vehicle whether there is a passing lane or not! My favorite move (and I use that term loosely) is when the cars pass on the left and basically go between the two lanes on a two lane road with cars coming at them. Nobody seems phased by this behavior and I wonder how long it will take for us to get used to it! Luke is unflappable as always and I have vowed to never drive here!
In Taranto we attended the District Council for the Taranto area which consisted of two sets of Sorelle (serving in Statte and Lecche) and four Elders (serving in Taranto and Brindisi). After D.C we toured the empty sister apartment near the ward building. Taranto has a rather large group of GANS and we are thinking of using the empty apartment as our home base when we visit Taranto.
The Taranto apartment is huge! It is sparsely furnished (a typical missionary apartment) but it is in a safe, modern building. It hasn't been used in over a year so it needs to be cleaned. The heat, water and gas are all turned off right now, but we are excited about the possibility of using the apartment to we can be more present in Taranto.
One of the fun things about being in a new city is discovering the area. This week we went to the amazing open air market down the road. They have an excellent variety of fruits and vegetables for sale. We think we will shop there for most of our produce. We also have had fun sampling local cuisine. The missionaries pointed us to the best place in town for focaccia. Yum, it did not disappoint. Everyone is telling us we need to try the panzarotti (a deep fried pizza pocket), we look forward to trying that soon.
We are so happy to be here in Bari. The members are wonderful and the missionaries have been so fantastic. We are hoping to start teaching English classes this next week which will give us more to do. We love it here already and are excited to be a part of this wonderful work.
The open air market near our apartment!
Back Row: Anziani Sorenson, Stafford, Olsen and Whitney
Front Row: Sorelle Beus, Viterbo and Cheney
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