A Very Busy September!

With Liz testing positive for COVID this week, we’ve been quarantined to our tiny apartment.  This on the heels of a very busy month that has seen us on the road 15 out of the 30 days of the month.  So now that we have all this unscheduled time on our hands, I thought it might be prudent to resurrect this blog!

Since our schedule has slowed significantly, it is quite fortuitous that this is conference weekend.  We had plans to have the young adults in the area along with missionaries join with us for at least a few of the sessions at our home.  Being eight hours ahead of Salt Lake City, this puts the Saturday morning session at 6:00pm Saturday evening.  The Saturday afternoon and evening sessions are then late during the night, making them perfect candidates for watching on Sunday during the day.  Since we’re quarantined, its also nice to watch them in English.  Watching them in Italian is always a challenge, since the translators need to speed up to keep up.  So, later on when we do watch them in Italian, we always slow them down a bit!  Thank goodness for modern technology!

Last night we watched about half of the afternoon session, turning it off at around 11:00pm and then picked it up again this morning.  We sure did enjoy Elder Rasband’s invitation to all senior couples to consider serving as senior missionaries.  For Liz and I, this has always been a goal and a dream of ours, and it was so sweet and exciting to turn it into a reality!  As an added benefit, several of our young missionary companionships started “sending extra love, to our very own senior couple”, and “we just listened to Elder Rasband’s talk. AMEN! Ellsworths, we love you so much!”, and “we thought about you too!!! We love you!”.  Their love for us is very sweet and much appreciated. 

The work we do here in Italy, along with all the work we see from the other senior couples we have the privilege of serving with is really remarkable.  We spent last weekend in Catania on the island of Sicily, so I could meet up with my old missionary companion, Vicenzo Fiscella.  We had the privilege of staying with Elder and Sister Hill, who serve as military relations missionaries attached to the Sigonella Naval Air Station on Sicily.  What an amazing ministry they have there, working with these families and individuals.  We also spent time with Elder and Sister Jones, who live and work in Crotone, helping to fortify a tiny branch there where he serves as both the Elder’s Quorum and Sunday School president and she serves as a counselor in the Relief Society.  What a hole they’ll leave in that tiny branch when they complete their missionary assignment—hopefully there will be another couple available to fill their shoes!  Liz and I spend most of our time working with young adults and young missionaries in Bari and in Taranto, and we love the friendships we’ve made and we will cherish the memories we have with these amazing young people.

Here are some pictures from September:

Our young adults from Puglia at the GANS Italia conference

Playing Cuccù (an Italian card game) with other senior couples in Rome.  The Vecchiarelli's each ended up with the lowest cards and were eliminated from the game!  But don't worry, you can always get back into the game if you can get someone else still in the game to talk to you!  We were in Rome for our "Permesso" or the application of our long-term permission to be in Italy.

One of our Cosenza YSA's trying his first ever s'more!  Yum!

Crossing the Strait of Messina to Sicily by ferry

P-Day with the Taranto District at Matera

Having Chicago Dogs for the Taranto District Lunch.  Elder Dastrup (behind Liz) is from Chicago!  The hardest condiment to find was the sweet relish, which Elder and Sister Hill in Catania (serving at the Sigonella base) provided us from the commissary (they also got us canned pumpkin and cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving!!).  Thanks!

Lunch in our home with the sisters serving in Bari.  Mexican is always a hit!