Malta - Week 18

Institute, Zone Conference & General Conference!  This week has been a spiritual feast!

We had such a wonderful English Class on Monday night.  We have such amazing students, and they are all serious about learning. Sometimes I can't understand their accents at all, but I just nod and hope I'm answering their questions right. 

Tuesday night was our first Institute Class.  They had Institute last year on Tuesday nights, but they turned it into a game night for the summer.  We decided it was time to start Institute again.  We had some very real concerns.  Would people come to Institute to learn about the Gospel when they were used to coming to play games each week?  How do we teach so many people who speak so many different languages?  We have a lot of friends (non-members) who come to game night.  What would they think about a religion class?  We had a lot of details to worry about.

Last year, they made pulled pork sandwiches and served them every week.  We knew that would be a lot of work for us and originally, we weren't going to do that.  But then we decided it if would help get them there, it would be worth all the work and expense.  We went shopping on Monday to buy the food.  We bought the largest pork roast we could find. We also bought Heinz BBQ Sauce hoping that since it was an American brand it would be good.  Then we looked up all kinds of recipes for pulled pork.  We were used to cooking it in root beer, but they don't have that in this country, so we decided to try Coke instead.  We got up early on Tuesday morning to put it in the crockpot so it could cook for 10 hours.  It filled the entire crockpot!  We kept wondering how much we'd be bringing home at the end of the night.  We were planning on 30, but thinking we'd be lucky to have 15!  

Steve spent hours preparing the lesson. Knowing that the majority of our non-English speakers were Spanish speaking, he meticulously added translations to each PowerPoint slide. Additionally, he set up a translator to display Spanish subtitles at the top of the screen as he spoke.

We were thrilled to see more than 30 people in attendance! Over a third were friends, and the remainder were church members, some we hadn't seen for a while. The sandwiches were all eaten, leaving Steve, me, and a few missionaries without any. Yet, we were overjoyed!

The excitement continued as everyone was eager to stay and socialize afterward. But the highlight was Steve's lesson on the Book of Mormon. In my view, he's an exceptional teacher who wonderfully highlighted the value of delving into the scriptures to discover the hidden gems they contain.

We also celebrated Sister Martinez's birthday.  Simone, a YSA in our branch has a cake business, so I ordered one of her delicious bundt cakes to serve for dessert.  We all sang Happy Birthday.  

Although a few people had already left, Sister Martinez wanted a group shot with all those who were still there, so we all jumped in the picture! 

For Pday, we took Matt and Judy Batschi to the Dingli Cliffs.  We had gone there when we first arrived in Malta, but it was so brutally hot, we really didn't enjoy it.  This time the weather was perfect and we enjoyed the views!

Matt and Judy Batschi & Us

Back Row: Filippo, Mauricio, Steve, Faroo, Edson
Front Row: Beatriz & Sofia

Tonight, our class size was smaller than usual. However, we discovered that one of the students had closed the door, which led some other students to believe that no teaching was taking place.

After class, I invited all of them to join us for church on Sunday.  I temporarily forgot that it was General Conference. I hurried and let them that we would be showing the conference on the TV and gave them the times.  Sofia immediately said she wanted to come to the 10:00 AM session!  Yay!

ROME

On Wednesday, we were off to Rome for Zone Conference.

Most of us had aisle seats right in a row, so we had to get this picture!

Upon our arrival in Rome, we were greeted by cold, heavy rain. I glanced around to see everyone bundled up in sweaters, while I stood there in sandals without a jacket. It hadn't occurred to me to check the weather beforehand. The sisters found it amusing that I hadn't thought to do so, especially since I'm a mom. I was afraid I would be cold throughout the weekend, but fortunately, the rain cleared up by the next morning.

For dinner, we chose a charming little Italian restaurant. We arrived at 7:10 and had to wait 20 minutes for it to open, which was quite different from restaurants in the US. After savoring a delightful pasta meal, we headed to the Leavitts' apartment for the night. Our visit was wonderful, and their apartment was impressive, featuring an upstairs loft where we slept. The room was spacious, yet the sloped ceiling was a bit of a challenge for us. We kept hitting our head on it!  The Leavitts were exceptional hosts, and we enjoyed the time spent with them, as well as their friendship.

The next morning we got up early to go to the Temple Visitor's Center for our Zone Conference where we were given a spiritual feast!

This was our third Zone Conference, and it's hard to tell if the conferences are just getting better or if we are simply becoming better at discerning the spirit, thus making the messages resonate more with us. Their teachings on studying the Book of Mormon and comprehending the language of the Spirit were profoundly impactful.

President and Sister Morris are both gifted presenters, and they gave some beautiful presentations!  It is such a blessing to have the opportunity to serve with them.

Some fun pictures after the conference.

The Malta Sisters & Cindy Morris!

Zona De Roma Ovest

After the meeting, we had an enjoyable lunch and then we were whisked back to the airport to catch our flight back home.  We took this BeReal while waiting in the airport! 

That Sister Hobby is the cutest!  As soon as we got on the plane, she immediately offered Steve her aisle seat and she sat right between us as if she were our own kid, or I guess I should say grandkid! (I'm in denial that I'm that old!)  Then she and I talked all the way home! Best flight ever!   

I took a few pictures from the plane of the rock we live on!   

Loved this sunset!

Filfla Islet

Pretty Beach - The one with the cranes where we had our branch social back in August

When we arrived in Malta Airport, we were greeted by this beautiful sunset!  A beautiful ending to a wonderful day!

Saturday and Sunday, we felt so blessed to be able to listen to General Conference.  The first session was as 6:00 PM here on Saturday night!  The next one was at 10:00 PM.  We watched that one on Sunday morning in our little chapel with all the missionaries, a few branch members and a several friends who accepted the missionary's invitation to join us.  We met a young lady, Evelinn who is a medical student here.  She is from India and the Elders met her on the bus and invited her to join us.  I love meeting people from India, since my daughter-in-law is from there.  We had a great visit with her after the meeting.  I proudly showed her my picture of Neeha and Alice.  Binson, one of our students from India was also there.  He has been attending our church for several months. We also had several friends there from South America.  It was wonderful that so many people came.

I was so touched by the many messages that were shared in General Conference.  I was especially touched by Elder David L Buckner's talk.  He said, 

"Jesus Christ has long called His faithful followers His friends.  The Savior used the term friend to define a sacred and cherished relationship."

"The Savior’s ministry included bringing together disciples with diverse backgrounds and interacting with people from various situations and social status."

 “We must heed the Savior’s call to build higher and holier relationships with all of God’s children. We must live our faith.”

Living in Malta has afforded us the privilege of working with individuals from a variety of backgrounds and social statuses. It has been a joy to get to know these wonderful people. We've delighted in teaching them, playing games with them, and getting to know each of them personally. We are pleased to call them our "friends".