Che Bella Vita

Week 4

Our dearest friends and family,

Hard to believe that we have now completed almost one month of our mission, with two weeks of it in the mission field. It is still a “whirlwind” but we are finally settling in. It is amazing how busy the Senior Couples are with all of their assigned responsibilities. As we are being introduced to our responsibilities we feel like we are drinking from a fire hose, not because the Guercio’s are piling it on us, but instead we are observing the volume of work they are doing and know that we need to learn it all in a relatively short period of time.

This week we had surprise visitors which came “out of nowhere”! We were working at the office and a knock on the door revealed Brother and Sister Bill Tate from our Stake back home. We had a wonderful visit including a hamburger lunch. Brother Tate shared that on his mission he was miserably homesick the first couple of months and would have given anything for a visitor from back home, so he wanted to be that visitor for us. It was a delightful surprise! Thank you, Brother and Sister Tate.

We have now been driving for a week and by the grace of Our Father in Heaven we have made it without any incidents, but every day we give thanks for our safe delivery and don’t take anything for granted! I KNOW that even after 18 months I will never stop being amazed at how they drive!

Next week is transfer week and we will be having one of the largest number of outgoing and incoming missionaries they have ever had. What that means is that Anziano Guercio will be “patiently” working with Anziano Knies to train him in the exercise. Anziano Guercio stated that during transfer week many times he works late-late-late each night until the work is done. Little sleep, but Anziano Knies does well on limited sleep. 6 months of waking up at 4 or 4:30 Monday through Saturday, training will do that to you. Isn’t that right Baby (Alden).

Sorella Knies is staying majorly busy, but enjoying the work immensely! I never cease to be amazed at what a wonderful nurse she is and how lovingly she provides care. The Lord really is in this work and we feel His presence and promptings daily.

Our P-Day (day off) is Saturday and we again spent the day in the car with the Guercio’s and Thacker’s driving through the country. We stumbled on the Monastero San Benedetto, a monastery that was started in the 9^th century. It was amazing. Below are pictures of it and other sites we visited.

All is well here in Italy. Till next time…Ciao!

Love

Fred and Cynthia

Eric Johnson where are you when I needed you to help me build our dresser? There were a total of 345 individual parts! Got it constructed, now will it last 18 months?