Military PCS moves and Missionary Transfers

Summer has traditionally been PCS time for military families in conjunction with the school year ending and facilitating moves during the summer to get military families at new duty stations before school starts in the fall.  Interestingly enough our six- week rotation for missionaries transfer occurred at the same time.   It has been a crazy few weeks supporting all the movement. Lots of miles on our little Toyota Yaris both early in the morning and late at night getting everyone situated. I ended up taking a tray of cannoli from my favorite bakery to the Voelkel family as the movers were loading the final pack out to provide a treat for a” job well done” as the truck loaded and pulled away with all of their earthly possessions. 

 

Voelkels on their way to Fallon, Nevada.

 I made an autographed branch photo with a mat that could be signed by everyone as a keepsake for the four PCS families left our Sigonella Branch. 

Sigonella Branch already to be packed for parts unknown!

Dinner in to the Funicane family so Chrissy can recover from a back injury, fruit delivery to the Folks family and the Renfeldts as they prepare for their final pack-out.

Folks are off to Germany

Fonsecas returning to North Carolina

Funicanes ending the baseball season on high note!

Hawkes family finishing off an amazing dance performance at the Teatro Metropolitan in Catania

It has been hard to keep a smile and cheery word as my heart breaks to see these good friends leave for new duty stations all over the world; some to other bases in Europe and some back to the U.S.

In addition to that we have had our Catania Zone of six missionaries together for 12 week (two transfers) and now three of the six are going to serve in different areas in the Rome Italy Mission They have been a great group of missionaries, we have worked hard together to support them in a very difficult area with summer in full swing.  They are a great blessing to us and to Catania.  Now they are moving on to other challenges.

Missionaries always love going out to dinner!

Our Chinese selfie stick has come in pretty handy more than once.  Catania Zone June 2018

So we will begin building again, we have not received any new families in our Sigonella Branch, but we have received three new missionaries to round out our missionary companionships.

VBS-Sigonella

The Chaplin’s office asked for volunteers to support their Vacation Bible School for military families.  We have spent six months trying to befriend the two base Chaplins; we would like to be able to support programs sponsored by the Base Chaplin’s Office.  This seemed like exactly what we were hoping for.  So we volunteered to help with everything available on his sheet.  We were given two slots, the Decoration Committee and the Games Team.  Both worked out great, we met some really great people and come to understand what VBS is all about. 

Most places we have lived from California, Kansas and Alabama there was VBS available to enroll our four kids but I never did that. I was on the learning curve again.  The decorating committee met before VBS started to design and produce the decorations for the Base Chapel, the Fellowship Hall and the upstairs classroom.  This committee was highly creative and dedicated workers to transform the base chapel into a “Fun Factory!”

 Monday’s theme: God Made You. (Psalm 139:14,Genesis 1:24-2:4)

Tuesday’s Theme: God is for you. (Romans 8:31, Joshua 1-2)

Wednesday’s Theme: God is always with you. (Joshua 1:9, Judges 6:11-7:25)

Thursday’s Theme: God will always love you. (Psalm 89:2, Luke 22:66-24:12)

Friday’s Theme: God made you for a reason. (Jeremiah 29:11,1 Samuel 25)

Approximately one hundred kids from 5-18 appeared on Monday to participate from 4:00-7:30pm in the Fun Factory extravaganza. Fifty volunteers were responsible to make this happen. I found myself checking my scriptures to reference the activities they had planned for the kids.  They ran a very efficient and effective VBS with all the activities tied to the daily themes from the Bible. The culminating event was to watch a movie of the week’s activities.  They really needed Griff to be on their staff to pull that one off; his videos are amazing. The kids were served dinner each evening just before their parents picked them up to go home.

No BYU shirts among this crowd!

I am thankful to participate with the Chaplin’s Office in this event. It was great to get to know many more people we share the base chapel with on Sundays. I loved the hard work of the volunteers to present the Bible and help kids understand that God loves each one of us.  Good things were happening all week at VBS Sigonella.

Father's Day 2018

Father’s Day 2018 finds us in Italy.  We are serving a Military Relations Mission at NAS Sigonella.  I would never have guessed or anticipated that I would share my 70^th birthday with Father’s Day in Italy.  My life is amazing!

I have been greatly blessed in the Father department! My own dad was a strong figure in my growing up years, my husband has been a strength to my children.  My sons, Mike and Garrett and my sons-in-law, Bill and Jeff are great blessings to my grandchildren.  All four are participating fathers no “arm chair quarterbacks” in this family.

I can remember as a child learning to dance on my dad’s shoes.  I stood on his feet as he taught me to waltz in the living room watching Lawernce Welk. That resulted in many years of dance lessons. He taught me how to drive a stick shift on his Farmall tractor.  He taught me how to bridle a horse and ride bareback when I was too little to lift the saddle on the horse. He taught me to work hard and never give up, he taught me to solve problems with what ever I had!  Figure out how to make it work! He gave me huge responsibilities and expected them to be done right! He taught me to respect and trust those who deserved it. I have carried those character traits with me through my life, they have provided well for me.

Mom and Dad in Salt Lake City!

Craig has been a loving caring dad to our four children.  We were in the Air Force and he was gone from our home but never from our hearts.  We learned early on how to bridge that gap. Craig was at survival training preparing for his rotation to the Vietnam war when Kaci joined our family.  We found that continued to be the case on special occasions as Kaci, Mike, Ashley and Garrett grew up.  We learned that any special day we needed to celebrate could be moved until Craig returned.  I even moved Christmas one year when Kaci and Mike were small in Wichita, Kansas. We celebrated our own Christmas when Craig returned not the one the rest of the world celebrated.  We figured out how to make it work.  

Craig fathering in Catania!

Fifty years of parenting!

Craig and Mike fathering in Palermo!

It is the great blessing in my life now to watch Bill, Mike, Jeff and Garrett be amazing dads.  They are naturals, they participate in every aspect of fatherhood, they seem to never miss a beat! I have to say I scored big the Father department all the way around! So thankful for these great men in my life!

Mike fathering in Colorado!

Bill fathering in Arizona!

Jeff fathering in California!

Garrett fathering in Taipei!

Ragusa

June has added Ragusa to our apartment inspection list, so now we have both Anziani and Sorelle apartments to be inspected, nine apartments total.  That completes the “baroque triangle!”  Round trip, it takes about three and a half hours on the road. It is a tough job but we have been asked to do it!

Ragusa is a beautiful little city in southern Sicily. The 1693 earthquake reduced Ragusa to rubble.  They responded by building Ragusa Alta the new city n the hill.  But the aristocracy refused to desert their charred homes so recreated Ragusa Ibla on the original valley site. That made for double the pleasure!

Our newly constructed church sits in Ragusa Alta on the perimeter of the city.  Plenty of parking and on a hill to boot! Our missionaries are working hard to build the congregation and fill the church.  The Sicily missionaries are absolutely the best! After DDM, we were treated to Sorelle homemade lunch and sent home with a fresh loaf of zucchini bread along with clean, well-kept apartments.

We took the late afternoon for a walk through Ragusa Ibla.

Mike and Griffin come to Sicily

Mike and Griffin decided to wrap up Griffin’s junior year with a quick trip to Sicily. We were so excited to see them and spend a few days with them.  Mike spent two years in Sicily in 1995-1997 right after he finished his freshman year at Utah State University, serving a mission when Sicily was in the Catania Mission. He had some ideas about what he wanted to see and do so we had the opportunity to see and do some pretty amazing things for a “P-Week” with Mike and Griffin.

They had some flight difficulty getting out of Denver that caused a domino effect for connecting flights.  They arrived 16 hours later than first scheduled but we were happy to see them finally arrive, a bit jetlagged but ready to hit the ground running. I put a pillow in the back seat of our car for Griff to catch naps between stops, it helped!

First stop; Bronte and Maletto to catch up with Paride Pappalardo and his family.  Mike baptized Paride in 1997; now he serves as the second counselor in the Catania Ward Bishopric. 

We attended church in the Catania Ward @9:30 and the Sigonella Branch@ 1:30 on Sunday.  Mike was asked to speak in both sacrament meetings; Griffin also spoke at Signonella Branch. It was fun to hear Mike’s stories and memories, learned some things we had never heard before.

By Monday we were ready for a road trip.  The day started with a side trip to Delia, a small town in south central Sicily where Mike looked for genealogy and family history connections for a friend of his.  The big score of the day was actually finding the gentleman he was looking for and seeing the actual documents that were the family records that were needed.  

On to The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento.  After a late lunch and reposa we started for a late afternoon adventure through the Greek Temples.  It was perfect timing the sun was setting on the ruins and a slight breeze kept us cool.  We were the only ones enjoying the beauty of 450 B.C. temple construction and discovered we were locked inside the UNESCO Park at 9:00PM when we arrived at the exit!  Not a sole to be found and the gates were all secured.  Thank goodness for a little Griffin injunity we were able to leave the park that night.

Tuesday we left for Scala de Turki along the coastline. It is a natural site said to be the site of Arab and Turk Marauders shelter in the calm clear waters of this protected bay protected by this cliff. They climbed the steps to raid the villages nearby.

Day three found us driving inland to a hilltop city Caltabellatteo.

Griff wound up on both sides of town! So much fun to travel with Griff!

We became part of a traditional Italian Wedding at the Cathedral in Monreale!

Perfect timing again, arriving in Palermo early evening for dinner and an evening stroll to see the sights! Mike took us to a Gelateria by the train station that he remembered for an after-breakfast brioche jammed full of gelato! How could you possibly start the day better!

Domo in Palermo

Cefalu was the first dip into the water of the Tyrrhenian Sea for Mike and Griffin.  The water and the beach were beautiful!

Griffin had an appointment in Catania with Simone and Mikela Pappalardo at a music studio to play some music together. Then down to the Fish market for dinner! I think Griff had some interesting fish he hadn’t tried before in is cone!

Bellini Park

Siracusa became the last city stop.  Griff ran into some kids in the city that had been to a color activity of sorts, Mike was able to determine where the activity was but we arrived to late to see any activity.  We were able to see the Dromo and walk little alleyways of Ortiga.

Aci Trezza was gathering point for dinner with the Apappalardo family.  The rocks in the water were Polyphemus rocks thrown down from the cave after Odysseus blinded the Cyclops and escaped on the belly of his sheep.  

Mike and Griff brought a piece of Colorade to share with the Papppalardo family!

The most difficult thing we did was to get all the stuff back in the suitcases to fly back to Denver.  We have a few things that had to be left in Sicily; we hope that means a return trip to pick them up!