All about the Ancona Branch

This is the gated entrance to our building.  There are apartments to the right of us and apartments above us. The area behind the gate is all that we have for parking.  Anything else has to be done on the street. That's usually not a problem as only 5 members have cars.

There are two entrances and they both look like this.

This is what we see to the right of our parking area.  Above our door way looks very similar to this.

This is President Fleming, our branch president.  He lives an hour and a half from Ancona so only comes on Sundays and for baptisms.  He is 78 years old and has some difficulty with his legs.  Jesse serves as his 1st counselor and in that capacity conducts sacrament meeting each week and assigns talks for that meeting.

This is the Relief Society Presidency.  Center is Marina Guigliarelli our president.  I serve as 1st counselor and Rhoda, on the right, is the second counselor. They are both very dependable and diligent in their callings. I have a special place in my heart for Rhoda because she was the first person I met the first week at church.

These are some of the first Anziani that we worked with.  This was taken at a district meeting.  This is in the chapel area of the church, which serves in many capacities.  Elder Moa top right by Elder Fry lost his father very suddenly about a month ago,  What a valiant young man. He is from Hawaii and decided to stay here instead of going home.  He and Elder Orso (district leader) serve in Pesaro.

Several times we accompanied Elders Gomez and Berg to visit the Faustino couple.  They live at the very top of the city.  From here you can see all over Ancona.  Beautiful!!

I also serve as the Young Women's President.  It's pretty easy with only one Young Woman.  During the summer we had Rachel from the U.S. join us.  She was actually too old for YW but she loved being with us and being able to speak English.  She was here living with an Italian family trying to help the 11 year old daughter learn better English.  Kimberly is in the pink shirt.  She and her family are from the Philippines and have been here for about 14 years. She speaks very good Italian, Tagalog, and English.  She is such a joy to work with.  They don't come any better.

This was the first Branch activity after we arrived.  It was planned and executed by the elders.  In case you can't see tell, it was water balloon volley ball.  Some of the members had never heard of it.  Thanks to many phone calls the turn out was very good.  Everyone enjoyed the watermelon and other treats that were brought by the member.

This is Kimberly's mother, Evelyn, visiting with Marina.

I do need to tell  you about Anziano Hallulli.  He is on the right here.  He comes from Albania.  First time on a plane was to fly to the MTC in Provo.  While there, he not only learned Italian, but became fluent in English as well.  What an amazing young man.  We will miss him.  He just got transferred.

Pasta is part of every meal it seems.

On Tuesday Sept 9 we had a European Broadcast from the church.  It originated in Germany.  What a treat to hear from Elders Bednar and Ballard.  This broadcast was for the woman of Europe in 33 countries.  We invited the whole branch and had a wonderful meal afterwards.  Dinner hour in Italy is 8:00 pm. (or 20:00)  I'm trying to get used to that.

This is Elder Pugsley.  He was the newest elder until last week when they transferred 3 of the 4.  I will still need to get pics of the new 3.  It's called a white wash when they take all of the existing elders out and bring in new ones. We discovered, via our son Curtis, that Elder Pugsley's sister (who's going to BYU) was a dinner guest with Cameron (Curtis' son) who is also going to BYU.  Small world.

We had a Relief Society activity concerning sewing.  Rhoda,below, showed us how to make our own patterns.  She doesn't really make a pattern for herself, she just measures on the fabric and cuts.  Pretty amazing!!

Very good instruction.  Next month we will be cutting out our own dresses.  Rhoda is from Ghana and has been in Italy for several years.

Here we have the captive audience. Felicitas on the left is Kimberly's grandmother.  She is the happiest person in the branch.

The finished product being modeled by Marina.  Now all I have to do is find some fabric. Sometimes you will be lucky enough to find it at the market.