The Final Closeout

It is always difficult to make changes in your life, whether you elect to change something or the change is thrust upon you. Some research tells us longevity is dictated by the way you are able to make changes. Changes are coming our way as we change from serving a Military Affairs assignment in the Rome Italy Mission to returning to civilians back in the U.S.  Some things will be difficult; some things will be welcomed.

Top of the list of difficult will be people!  President and Sorella Pickerd are among the finest, spiritual giants I have known. We have had the great blessing and honor of meeting and working with amazing missionaries both senior couples and young Anzaini and Sorelle, Catania Ward, Sigonella Branch and military personnel on NAS Sigonella. We had the great privilege of serving military families through the USO, The Red Cross, MWR, and the Sigonella Base Library.  We never say, “goodbye “we always say, “see you next round” in the military and I certainly hope that become my reality. 

NAS Sigonella Branch May 2019

We worked with and taught four people in part members families assigned to Sigonella, who were baptized along with one child of record baptism. We actually used the Base Chapel Baptismal font for one, it was an interesting combination of an infant baptism font and adult baptismal font all in one, to suit the needs of all faiths represented in the Base Chapel, one was a beach baptism in Aci Terreza, twins and a 22 year old in the baptismal font in the Catania Chapel.

We were the only senior couple on the island of Sicily; we did apartment inspections in 20 apartments every six weeks.  While that sounds like drudgery, we tried to make it an adventure.  We always took an American treat from the base commissary to each set of missionaries.  It seemed like Christmas as we delivered Dr. Pepper,  A&W Root Beer, Pop Tarts, Twizzlers, Doritos, Reese’s peanut butter everything, cake mixes, bathroom spray, all kinds or cereal, any random item was always much appreciated.  They were so delighted and fun to watch. Sometimes we found appliances at the Base Thrift Shop that military families couldn’t return back to the U.S. so a toaster, blenders, sharp knives, crock pots, things we always take for granted were delivered to missionary apartments.  They always knew there would be a surprise! We loved it.  On the flip side we drove and experienced all the wonders of the entire island as we traversed for apartment inspections.  Our favorite was crossing the Straits of Messina with the car on the ferry to Reggio Calabria.  That was always a mystery and a little intrigue as that was a Mafia controlled business.

The Apartments on Sicily

P-Day Zone Conference with the best missionaries ever!

It will be difficult to change from fresh farmer’s market produce to the shinny produce section in most American grocery stores that have been on a boat, sprayed and stored before they every make it to the consumer.  We often just pulled off the road to a truck or stand and picked up garden fresh fruits and vegetables daily.  Italian food is amazing, but it can be credited to “food genealogy.”  Every ingredient is carefully selected every day fresh. The known quality is understanding where the cheese is made, where the bread is baked and what type of flour is used, where the produce is grown and whose farm it came from, whether pesticides have been used. Food preparation begins with the shopping in Italy and each ingredient is carefully selected fresh each day.  That is going to be a difficult change.

Gelato, granita, cannoli and bombas are in a category of their own and the main reason we needed to go to the gym every day!

The NAS Sigonella Base Gym became our regular entertainment.  At the end of the day wherever we were we always tried to swing by the base gym.  We always carried or gym clothes in the trunk of our little Yaris just in case we had extra time. It was a great facility and we became first name friends with the gym attendants.  We were never asked for our ID, we were always greeted with a smile.  It was a delight!

Navy Awards for the Optometry Clinic

Carrying water and groceries four floors will not be missed! Although we did count that as part of our daily exercise. Carrying garbage down four floors daily will not be missed. No garbage disposal will not be missed; no clothes dryer will not be missed. Italian drivers will not be missed, horns honking constantly will not be missed.

I consider it among the blessings of my life to have lived and served as Military Affairs Missionaries in the Rome Italy Mission assigned to Naval Air Station Sigonella. That experience will certainly be missed.

The Monday Night Crowd

Monday nights have been spent with this amazing group of eleven year olds around my table. Leonardo lives on the first floor of our apartment building with is parents. His mom is from Latvia and speaks English, she wanted Leo to speak English so she put together a group of Leo’s friends and I started an English class. Leonardo Bruno, Iulian Navalici-Valentino, Luca George Mitrache and Stefano Mihail Zibrava thundered up four flights of stairs each Monday. They teased and joked with each other in Italian but once they set foot in our apartment it was “English only!” All four of the boys had studied English at their local elementary school so they had a basic foundation to start with.

Monday Night English Class

Pronunciation again was the difficult part. It seems like once they have the first English class from a non-English speaker the speech patterns are set. Most of our time is spent in conversation to change those pronunciation patterns and some phrase and vocabulary were added to their war chest. The NAS Sigonella Base Library became a great resource. When they thinned out their outdated kids magazine section and I became the recipient of the throw away magazines. National Geographic, Animals and Highlights became a favorite with my Monday Night Crowd. They loved to read the stories in English, so that became their homework, to read English aloud to their families.

It was a pretty good combination, we spoke conversational English on Monday night class and they read English magazines during the week. They have made reasonable progress, their moms are very pleased and excited!

Missing Loenardo at the dentist office.

Bozichs check out Italy

Craig’s sister Sarah and her husband Craig came to visit Sicily.  Their visit provided us one more opportunity to visit all of our favorite restaurants and the need to have gelato at least once a day sometimes twice! We tried desperately to cram in as much as we could to each day, Sarah reminded us daily “I don’t like to be rushed,” but we continued to go from city to city.  We really wanted them to see and experience all of the amazing things we have enjoyed! Every evening as we finally managed to stop for dinner, Sarah reminded us again the she wasn’t ready to leave yet and wanted to enjoy and absorb the moment. 

Elephant Square, Catania

The Catania Fish Market is older than America but the fish are caught each morning!

 

244 Steps each with a different tile pattern in Caltanssetta!

The Christian section of Randazzo

  The weather is always unpredictable, but this year seems to be full of surprises.  The annual Sahara Sand winds started early in the week and continued most of the week.  They blow sand all the way from Africa that appears like fog or smog hanging in the air.  It is horrible for allergies and worse on the lungs as you inhale the dust.  That was a wicked combination with the already existing Etna silt we always have.  There were a couple of days that it was difficult to see out the car windows!

Washing the car windows so we could see the sights!

 We did make one unfortunate choice, Thursday turned out to be Italian Liberation Day, a National Holiday, as we arrived at the Roman Mosaic baths in Piazza Armenia the crowded parking lot was the first indicator, as we got closer to the ticket venue the mile long line was the cincher.  This was not a good day to visit a UNESCO sight. We were able to compensate with an amazing lunch at the historic center of the city.

Outside lunch on a sunny day in Piazza Armenia!

 We continued each day and enjoyed the time we had together in spite of whatever else cropped up! That is the Anderson Spirit! 

Gelato Stop #1

Two-A-Day Gelato drills!

Bouna Pasqua 2019

Easter is a huge holiday in Italy, actually it lasts for a minimum of a week beginning on Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday and for some longer than that.  Easter Sunday Italians spend with their family, Easter Monday is a National Holiday and is typically spent with friends. The festivities include processions and religious services throughout the week and fireworks.  Traditional foods are artichokes, roast lamb, sweet breads and lots of Italian chocolate!  There is no Easter bunny it Italy!!!

Caltanissetta is in the central part of Sicily easily accessible and advertises a procession with floats.  It takes  about an hour and a half to drive to Caltanissetta but it takes most of the evening for non Italian speakers to figure out where to go to see the procession. The weather was perfect!  

The Last Supper along with the band that accompanied the float down the street to the Piazza.

The soldiers capture Christ outside The Garden.

Christ appears before Caiphas.

The Trial of Christ.

The judgment being read to Christ.

Christ carries the cross through the streets.

The Roman soldiers accompany Christ.

The Crucifixion.

Christ removed from the cross.

Christ prepared for the tomb.

So where did this coffin come from?

Although this was an amazing cultural event to watch, it was a refreshing change of pace to attend Easter services at the Catania Chapel this morning and again at the Sigonella Branch to partake of the sacrament and renew covenants made at Baptism; to refer to the New Testament events of the last week in Christ's life in Jerusalem, the Crucifixion and the most  important event of all the Resurrection. "He Lives" and "Because of Him" we all do. Please know of our love for each of you and our testimony of Him who we celebrate this Easter morning in Italy.

Catania Zone Conference April 2019

The Rome Italy Temple open house began in January and continued through March 12 with the dedication.  It altered all scheduled meetings in our mission.  President Pickerd was convinced that mission business would continue as usual even though a huge historical event was happening in Rome. “Fill the Rome Temple” was our quest! We all worked hard to make sure that came close to happening. We did have the opportunity to hold a separate Catania Zone Conference in Rome on the temple grounds. The Sorelle went to Rome early in January and the Anziani went the last week in February.  Every missionary was able to see and tour the Rome Temple.  However, we haven’t had a Catania Zone Conference together since December. Needless to say we were all happy to host the Catania Zone Conference in April!

Sorella Kaesler, Sorella Gonzalez, Sorella Dwomoh, Sorella Gisseman, Sorella Neff, Sorella Hardman
Anziano Hernandez, Anziano Nielsen, Sorella Ohran, Sorella Francom, Anziano Martin, Anziano Hahn
Anziano Andrel, Anziano Sabin, Sorella Chadbolt, Sorella Brock, Anziano Alder, Anziano Banning,

Anziano Bazan, Anziano Smartt, AP Anziano Huntsman, AP Anziano Wagstaff, President and Sorella Pickerd, 

Anziano and Sorella Anderson 

 And what do missionaries in Catania like for lunch????  A whole Pizza, Dr. Pepper,  A&W Root Beer topped off with a Bomba! Pure carbs and sugar!!!

Catania District "P" Day activity

Clearly they are all suffering from that high carb lunch!!!

Sigonella Spring Service Project

I have been working with Dr. Alberto Lunetta, the Public Affairs Officer at Sigonella to provide our branch with service projects the entire stretch of our mission.  He as proved to be a great resource to community involvement.  We want to be able to connect with the Italian Community around the base and provide service that is needed in their communities.  About 25 members of the Sigonella Branch gave up their Saturday to reach out to the Italian community of Carlentini.

Saturday Morning we landed at the “Parco Archeologico Di Leontinoi, which hosts the ruins of the Ancient Greek City dating back to 730 BC.  This was a spruce up, clean up, and exploration of the ruins kind of day.  The City Mayor came to thank our branch, hand out gloves and garbage bags to accommodate the clean up. It took us approximately 40 minutes to drive from our apartment to the location.  The weather was great and the location turned out to be quite an amazing spot on Sicily that I am sure we would never have found otherwise.  Another great benefit of service!

Kids are really the best at cleanup!

President Petersen with is broom is pretty fearsome!

Extra take home treasures can also be found!

The Sigonella Branch work crew!

Pizza, bread and oranges arriving for lunch!

Pizza arrived from the local Pizzeria, local oranges, local bread soaked in local olive oil.  But the best part of lunch was the sliced oranges served with a sprinkle of salt, a drizzle of olive oil and pepperoncini.  I would never have thought of that or even ordered it off a menu but it was such a nice contrast of flavors I served myself two or three!

Locals are always proud of their own olive oil!

Local Newspaper coverage of our service project!

Mike and Company Spend Spring Break in Italy

Nothing is more gratifying than to have your children come to visit. No matter where you are living a “kid visit” is always the best.  Mike brought Jessica, Griffin, Ella and Taegan to Sicily for Spring Break! I’d like to think they came just to see us but I know that I have to share that with other favorite people and things that Mike loves in Italy.  Our friends and neighbors asked what will you show them, where will you take them? My answer was “Mike always comes to Italy with his own agenda.  Mike served his mission in Catania 25 years ago, he has important things to show us and important people to visit.”  We are happy to just jump in for the tour and it did not disappoint! 

Pappalardos and Andersons at the Impressionistic Museum in Catania

Taegan 's impression of the the museum!

Elephant Square at night!

A relaxing game of Scopa!

Sunday at Church in Catania.

The Greek Theater in Taormina.

Haky-Sak at the Greek Theater!

The Gardens in Taormina.

More Gelato!

Mike, Griffin Grampa, missing Garrett !

142 stairs in Caltagirone!

Ceramics class with the Master! Just can't wait to see the products!

Archimedes's Museum

The Crypts at San Giovanni.

Farewell Dinner at the Papparlados!