Church in Milan

Sorry there have been no posts this week. Scott and I have been stuck at the hotel all week long, so there has been nothing to blog about. Hopefully we will find an apartment soon, and also trade in our rental car with standard transmission for one with automatic transmission that I can drive. No, I can't drive a standard. I've never had any need to learn, and I don't intend to start in Milan with their crazy drivers and roundabouts. All of that resulted in a pretty boring week for the two of us.

Today, though, we went to church. We didn't go last week, having slept through our alarm. For those of you who remember my first Milan post, we also went to McDonald's last Sunday. It was a bad day all around! But today we made it to church.

My impressions, again in list form:

1. The church is the 2nd floor of an office/apartment building. It's nice, but not your typical LDS chapel. There's no A/C, which wasn't bad today since I think it was only in the 70's in the morning. It did get warmer inside than it did outside. But the weather should start cooling off here soon, and I'm assuming we have heat during the winter!

2. They do things backwards - Relief Society/Priesthood, then Sunday School, then Sacrament Meeting. I've been in wards where it's been done like that, and I don't really like it. I'll have to get used to it.

3. Since it was a 5th Sunday, we all met together for Relief Society/Priesthood. Except the Aaronic Priesthood and Young Women also met with us. And we kind of thought they would have been better served with their own lesson.

4. I am going to have to get used to a translation device. We had them for Relief Society/Priesthood and Sacrament Meeting. I'm glad I can hear the services in English, but it's weird wearing an earpiece and listening to a missionary translate. Plus, I know there were times he didn't translate anything at all! But, as I said, I'm grateful the missionaries are there to translate. I think we have the only ward in Milan with translation devices.

5. We went to an English speaking Gospel Doctrine class. There were only about a dozen of us. Some Americans, some other nationalities. It was nice to hear everything in English.

6. The Young Men President went to Scott's Sunday School class with him and translated. I thought that was really nice. Apparently though, that class (which includes all of the youth) has had a sub while their teacher has been on holiday, and the sub can't control them. Scott said the kids talked and texted and listened to music during the whole class. Hopefully that will get better when the regular teacher returns.

7. Scott passed the Sacrament today. It was nice to see him up there. He looked very pale compared to the other boys! He wants to work on learning the Sacrament prayers in Italian, since they really need Priests to bless the Sacrament.

8. Today when we sang the hymns, we just sang along using our English hymnals. Next week I think I'll trying using an Italian hymnbook. I'm sure I'll butcher the words, but it will be good practice.

9. We met some very nice English speaking people today. Some Americans and some other nationalities. As Scott said, it was nice to hear English! I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

10. The church is about 15 minutes away. That's a real bummer considering I lived 3 minutes from church back in Richmond! I miss that! And I miss our pretty stake center!

11. It was very different from what I'm used to, but there were also many similarities. We had a 5th Sunday lesson, just like you will back home. We had a Gospel Doctrine lesson from the same manual that's used back home. And, most importantly, the Sacrament was prepared, blessed, and passed by the Priesthood, just like back home. And that's what's important.

There you have it - our first Sunday of church in Milan.