Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, I made my very first Thanksgiving meal! It was tiny and just for me, but I was still proud of it. I got to think about how extremely thankful I am for my family and friends! I miss you all SOOO much and hope you are having a wonderful holiday! I can't wait to share Christmas with you!

Here it is! Tofurky and veggies, beans, corn, and mashed potatoes! It may not look like much to you Americans, but after pasta everyday for the past 2 months, those mashed potatoes were like heaven!
By the way, that is the top of a pineapple in the background that I had absolutely nothing to do with.

This week's lessons went very well. I feel like I am really getting to know some of my students. Rina even brought me flowers cause I have been sick :) So sweet!!

I haven't seen them yet, but I heard David and Debbie made it back safely from Puglia! I'm sure they had a wonderful time, and I look forward to hearing about it.

Tomorrow, I am leaving town with some friends for the weekend. My wonderful, fabulous parents got me tickets to see Coldplay in Birmingham, England for my birthday!
THANKS MOM AND DAD!!!!!

Sweet Melissa

Our darling Melissa moved back to Catania today. She has been serving as the assistant director of the Freed Hardeman campus this semester. We were lucky enough to have her as a guest here for the past week. It seems like everyone is leaving here and going to Catania! Chad heads down next week!

This has been "sick weekend" here at the Bible School. All of the healthy HUF students left for free travel, and all of the sick ones stayed here and we all watched movies. It's no fun being sick, but it's always better when you are not alone. Chad is the only one who has stayed healthy...for now...

You can now read Debbie's and Chad's newsletters for October and November here.

I have some very sad news from Chris Boyce:

"After 3 weeks of fighting infections in her body, Bianca is now at peace, free from pain and
suffering, and safe in the arms of Jesus. She died Saturday morning around 10 AM. The funeral will be Sunday morning at 9 AM. Both Duda and Branca expressed to us just how much the cards, phone calls, letters, emails, and the prayers from all of our brothers and sisters all over the world meant to them. Teresa printed out several and gave them to them. They told me to tell you: “Your prayers encouraged us and we thank God for you.” Please continue to pray God will comfort them."

Extra Info and Prayer Requests

I was looking back over some of the posts and realized that there are so many things I haven't talked about!

For example, Anna Maria and her mother left on Saturday to move down to Catania. We are very sad, but I know that she is very happy to be back with her husband! Pray for her new life there and her sweet baby that is due in the next couple of months.

In case you don't know...we have guests come and stay here ALL the time! I don't want to write about all of them, cause I am not sure how they would feel having their names and whereabouts on the internet. Just know that it is extremely common for people I have never seen to walk past my room looking for the bathroom. Haha. I don't think there has been a single night since I arrived that there was not at least one guest staying somewhere in the building. They are all very welcome here!

I also haven't said anything about the friends I have made here that are not connected to the Bible School. I don't want them to feel like they are a part of some reality show or something-ha. Just know that they exist, and you might occassionally see some pictures on my photobucket. I am very thankful for them, especially when I get a little homesick. They are wonderful people!

I don't think I have mentioned that Debbie made it back safely from her cruise. I don't think she would mind me telling you about some of the people that she worked with. She was working as a sign language interpreter for the deaf. One couple was both deaf and blind. I can't even imagine what that would be like. She said that they love to travel, and they study up on things before they go to "see" them. The way they see things is by touching them. They must be very brave. Stories like that are so humbling.

David and Debbie are leaving tomorrow for a week to go visit Rosa and her family down in Puglia where she is from. They will be helping them with their olive harvest and visiting some churches in Sicily. Please pray for their safe journey.

Also, for those of you who followed my blog from Recife, you might remember Danny and Lee! They have set the date for their wedding to be December 13 of this year! Congratulations, love birds! To continue following the work in Recife, click here!

The Boyce's are an amazing missionary family in Brazil, that I had the opportunity to spend some time with when I was there this summer. I received a prayer request from Chris, for a 7 year old girl named Bianca, that I would like to pass along:
"... Bianca's sickness is going on 3 weeks now. Over the weekend, Bianca's condition worsened. She has a staph infection in her heart and the bacteria moved to her lungs and she has pneumonia. What caused more concern was she was hemorrhaging in her lungs and that some of her organs had shut down. The doctor told Bianca's family that it would take a miracle for her to live. He even told them to get ready for the possibility of her dying. Glory to God, today, we understand she has improved some. Her platelet count is higher (all of the brothers in the church here are donating blood to her; she is receiving platelet transfusion). Her hemorrhaging has stopped. She still has pnemonia and the staph infection. The fight is far from over. We need you to continue to pray for her."
To see a picture of Bianca and her family, and to follow the work of the Boyce family, click here.

A Crazy Weekend

This weekend was jam packed! I'm exhausted! A group of people came in from Rome on Friday and spent the weekend here working, visiting, passing out fliers, and holding a conference. It was great to see some of the people we had met at the convention, and meet some new people, too!

This is inside the church building here in Florence. The conference was The Resurrection of Jesus: Myth of Reality. The speaker was Vittorio Vitalone from Rome.

Virginia, Chad, Andrea
Virginia is Vittorio and Tonia's daughter

This is a darling little girl whose family is from Albania. I wish I knew how to spell her name. I went with Sarah and Vittorio's wife, Tonia, to visit her, her mother and her new baby brother.

Happy Birthday Mario!!!

Dinner at the building. That is Tonia and Vittorio on the end.

More pictures

Last night, we had the HUF group to the Bible School for "Sunday Night Church." Debbie made chili for everyone! It was a lot of fun!

Today I got to meet 2 of my new students. Matteo, who is Rina's son/Lisa's brother and his girlfriend Sarena. They were really nice. They seem to have about the same level of English which is really helpful since they will be coming together for lessons. They did really well with the reading comprehension and repeating back to me the story, in their own words. Rina laughed about the fact that her whole family is taking English lessons now. Lisa and Francesco also came today. Both of their lessons also went well. I am thinking about having a time where all of my students can come over for dinner one night to practice their conversation with each other and with us, before I leave for Christmas.

Yay for Holidays and Babies!

Things around here have REALLY picked up, and we are all so busy that I hardly have time to update! Have patience, eager readers! English lessons have gone really well this week. I am beginning to get comfortable with all of my students and it is getting easier to have more meaningful conversations. Alessandro and Manuela are both sick this week, so please keep them in your prayers. I have 3 new students that I will tell you more about as I learn more about them. Sabrina studied with me for the first time yesterday. She seems very sweet and interesting. She studied in Paris for a while and is an architect! Matteo is Lisa's brother, and Rina's son. He and his girlfriend, Sarena, are planning to come for a lesson on Monday. The other student is a girl about my age from Romania. She works in a restaurant that David often goes to, and expressed an interest in studying. I have not met her yet, but she is planning to come on Tuesday.

It is getting quite chilly here in Florence, and I have heard that it is the same there in Memphis. I absolutely love this time of year because of all of the holidays coming up. It's exciting to see all of the preparations being made. It's neat to notice the similarities between here and there.

I hope you are all doing well. I miss you all so very much, and can NOT wait to see you all during Christmas! I want to congratulate Paul and Ericka Maple (my cousins) on their brand new beautiful baby, Elizabeth Blake! Also, congratulations to Nick and Amanda McNabb (also cousins:) on the baby they are expecting!

Pistoia

This morning we made our first visit to another congregation! We went to the church of Christ in Pistoia.

Pistoia is only about a 30 minute drive from Florence. The congregation was so friendly and welcoming! Actually, everyone we met in Pistoia was extremely friendly! I really liked both the congregation, and the town. Roger and Heather Mahan are the American missionaries there. They have 2 adorable children, Noah and Elena. When asked if he was the Noah that built that big boat, Noah said, "I'm not THAT Noah, I am the kid Noah from the United States. That's an English place!" They have several children's English classes that they are teaching during the week with some help from some A.I.M. workers in Prato. I was asked to come back and help with the classes, so I am very excited about that!

You can see more pictures of Pistoia by clicking here. By the way, I put all my pictures on Photobucket in albums, so be sure and click on "main" to get to a different album.

The building of the church of Christ in Pistoia

Pistoia

Fruits and veggies

This is Santo Spirito. I took is last night. It is right next to where I lived when I studied abroad here in Florence, and just happens to be one of my favorite church buildings here.

I also took this view of Florence last night

Tonight, we had an amazing worship service with the HUF students at the villa. It is always so good to have a lesson in songs in English, especially after it has been a while. It makes me realize how often I might take worship for granted, and how blessed we are to have the freedom to come together with our large church families in America for worship and fellowship 3 times a week!

2008 Election

Last night, the Tuscan American Association had a huge gathering for people who were interested in watching coverage on the election. There were live bands that played American music, a lot of American food, and a lot of Americans! It was so much fun!

One of the many bands that played

(Sigh) The American flag made out of balloons

This band was hilarious. They were Italian Elvis impersonators!

Oh yeah, and Obama stopped by, too

Yesterday, I had a lesson with Manuela. She brought some of her homework from school to work on. She is such a sweet girl, and really smart! Her English is probably the best out of all of the students I have. Tonight, when Alessandro's grandmother dropped him off, she expressed interest in some English lessons! She wants to come at the same time as Alessandro, so she is going to have lessons with Chad while Ales has lessons with me! I am very excited about it. Tonight, we talked about Moses and learned a bunch of new verbs. When Rina came, we read some passages in Luke. It's really neat when she gets halfway through a scripture, and she realizes that it is a story she has heard before! She gets very excited!

I fell in love this weekend...

...with a tiny town called Citerna. Many of you probably recognize that name because the Freed Hardeman/Faulkner campus is located there. Citerna is a beautiful medieval fortress located on top of a mountain, overlooking Tuscany from one side and Umbria from the other. There is only one main road, and has about 600 inhabitants. The actual campus is a hotel, perfectly placed on the side of the hill. It is very spacious and has a beautiful view.

I also got to see Elizabeth Nabors, from Great Oaks, who is studying abroad with Freed. She seems to be very happy and doing great! It was fun to see someone from home and share stories of our experiences so far.

This is the patio of the hotel. It was impossible to get a picture of the entire hotel because of its position. To see other views, you can click here, or in my links.

The beautiful view from Citerna

The main street in Citerna

The town has many different levels. This picture was taken looking down on the playground. Below the playground is the main street.

Entering the main square

Rina, Lisa, and Francesco all came to the Bible School for lessons tonight. It was fun having Rina and Lisa together again! Francesco has an English test on Wednesday, so I got to help him with that. He is also excited about the premiere of High School Musical 3, here in Italy.

We started our new Italian class today! We have 2 new students. One is from Michigan, and the other is from Slovakia. I still have Daniella as a teacher, but now I also have Ornella.
Speaking of Italian class, I have a funny story...

Reader discretion is advised:
On Friday, I had to give a presentation on the history of the English language, in Italian. Because of that, we had to talk quite a bit about the Anglo-Saxons. In Italian, "Anglo Saxons", is "Anglo Sassone." Because of a misprint by one of my group members, we proceeded to give our presentation, with more than a few mentions about the Anglo Sessone. The problem is this: "sesso" in Italian is "sex" and "one" at the end of any word causes it to mean "big." So, our presentation was not about the Saxons, like it should have been, but about BIG SEX. Yes, that's right. Our teacher knew the whole time, but didn't correct us until the end as he laughed hysterically. On top of that, we had a lovely power point so that everyone could see it, just in case they thought they heard wrong.