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.

The Neighborhood

I thought that it might be nice to show some of the sights in the streets near our apartment.  This is the view taken outside from our balcony.  From this angle it looks pretty good.  Now to show the other directions.

This building is across the street from us.  Some of the bottom businesses are empty and others seem to be auto repair shops.  There are several of those near by.  The upper stories are some kind of institute or school.  We will confirm that next week when school starts.  It's very difficult to know where the schools are.  We don't see any play yards or signs.  They are just there.

This is the end of the street to our left.  Who knows where true north or south is because nothing is laid out in perpendicular and parallel streets.  We tell direction from the rising and setting of the sun. There is a car dealership to the left of the picture and we see them unloading cars from time to time

This is one of my favorites.  There are a lot of small things here,but this is one small thing I like.  I want to bring it home. I also have my eye on a little pickup thing.  I've yet to get a good picture of it.  It's basically a motorcycle with a framed body around it.

Here is a bigger version of the one I want.  They are so awesome.  I also like all of the motor scooters in town.  When Jesse served here many moons ago the missionaries had mopeds and motor scooter.  They were banned before he left the mission.  One elder even had his sent home because he was so attached to it.  It kind of makes our elders here a little envious as they walk or ride the bus.

This is the apartment building right next door to us.  We figure that it has around 60 apartments here.

To our right is the gym which sometimes plays loud music as we listen to them dropping their weights on the ground.  In the front of the picture are our garbage cans.  They require explanations.

The green is for glass and metal.  The brown, organico, is for the food scraps.  Black designates indifferenziata, miscellaneous.  White is for carte e cartone, paper and cardboard.  Last but not least is for plastico, plastic, which is always overflowing because everyone drinks bottled water. (It's very cheap)  You can have naturale or frizzante. (plain or carbonated)

Some places in town actually have to lock the garbage cans to stop street walkers from using their cans,  I love this concept.  At the elders apartment they have a electronic fob that unlocks their receptacles. That is pretty neat.

Across the street from the gym is a huge warehouse/hardware store.  It's busy all day long hauling stuff in and out.

Here are some of the prettier sites near by. Even though there are many high-rise apartments in Ancona there are still some single dwelling homes.  This is one of my favorites.

The entrances are wonderful.  Of course, they are all gated and locked.

These are found on the outside wall of one of the single dwelling homes on Palombare, two street over.  This home also has a gazebo and 2 satellite dishes on top.  There are huge chimneys or smoke stacks on the roof which reminds me of the exhaust flumes at Haren-Wood in Ontario for use during cremation.  Just saying.

This is Maggini, one of the few semi straight streets.  It is all up or downhill, depending on your perspective.

If you go up Maggini far enough you can find this structure hidden away just off the street behind a hedge.  It is very old and there are no signs to indicate what it once was. It has been preserved and set apart with this little garden.  Jesse's best guess is that it was used for grain storage.  There is a hole in the top and then the entrance that is visible here.

The little puffs of whatever were on the tree just outside our apartment.  They were there for a long time, dried up and blew away.  

We watched this cantaloupe plant grow during the summer and then last week someone picked the 3 unripe cantaloupe.  I sure hope they enjoy green fruit.  I guess they were afraid that someone else might get them first.  It was growing in a flower bed along the street.

Lastly, if you are ever in Ancona and want to look us up just follow the signs for Ancona Entrante.  We live right above it. It seems that this is the place where some kind of taxes are paid.  That is our balcony.  It runs along the entire 2 sides of our apartment.  People watching is a great past time from here. We love Tuesdays because the office is only open for 2 hours in the afternoon.  People come all day long and are disappointed because it is closed.

On July 17 -18 we attended the couples conference in Verona, Italy.  We drove up to Verona on Thursday.  It took us 3 1/2 hours to drive there.  The conference was enjoyable as we were informed and inspired.  The best part was having a chance to meet the other couples who are serving in the Milano Mission.

After the conference we all went to Roadhouse grill for dinner.  What a treat?  What's more American than hamburgers and french fries?  It tasted so good!  We retired to our hotel room for some shut eye while 2 or three couples went to the opera.  We didn't have tickets so we lost out but I didn't feel too badly as it didn't start until 10:00 pm. Half way through the event they got rained out as it was held in the Roman Arena. Placido Domingo was one of the performers for the evening. I was a little bit surprised to see a Best Western in Italy but that's where we stayed.

Friday morning we headed out on the downtown Verona adventure.  This is the entrance to the main piazza Bra.

 These are the Harmers.  They are the mission office couple.  Anziano Harmer is a great leader.  He seems to always know where to go and how to get there. We should know because we followed him from Milano to Ancona when we first came to Italy.  He informed us at the conference that we each only got 2 tickets that day for driving where we shouldn't have been driving.  They don't stop you in Italy for infractions like in the States.  They have cameras everywhere and they just send you the ticket in the mail. (Big Brother is watching you)  Right now those tickets go to the mission office where they are paid but if we get too many we will have to fork over the dough for them.  Anziano Harmer took full responsibility for those as we were greenies following our leader.

 Here we are in front of the Roman Arena. It is the third largest in Italy.  Much of the outer ring was destroyed in the earthquake of 1117 but the inner ring is still intact.

Here you can see a portion of the outer ring that remains.

This is the walk way as we headed to see Juliet's house. We know Romeo and Juliet are fictitious but there really were the Capuleti and Scaligeri families. Juliet's house is a huge attraction because so many are enthralled with the love story.

 Here is the infamous balcony.  It wasn't added to the home until 1936 as a tourist attraction.

This is where people add their chewed bubble gum to the wall.  I guess it's a way of showing your allegiance and leaving a piece of yourself there.

This is the view from inside off the balcony.

Inside the home.

Taken outside on the street.

This is The Giardino Giusti one of the most beautiful gardens in Italy.  I prefer to see some flowers but the greens were quite amazing.  The maze is in the same pattern as the original maze but this one is only waist high.  I suppose it's so you can really find your way out.

This is the Roman Theater.  Showing above is part of the original walls.  It is still used for performances today.

This was just some random wall along the streets.  Pretty cool.

A few more shots of Verona then on to the Verona Duomo.