We were invited today to meet Anziano Gianfranco and Sorella Trudy DeAngelis, who live in Santhià, between Vercelli and Torino, to go with them and a friend, former mission president (Catania, 2002-5), Sebastiano Caruso, to Torre Pelice, where Lorenzo Snow dedicated Italy in 1850, and where Ezra Taft Benson re-dedicated it in 1966, when I was on my first mission here. Below is a not so good pix taken out the car window of rice growing country near Vercelli, where we also stopped off and delivered a used, but still good, washing machine (which is small enough it fit in the back of our car) to the missionaries there.
We drove on the freeway, which is a toll road autostrada nearly all of the way, through rice growing country. They had planted the fields, and the rice was up about an inch, and some of the fields were being flooded with water, which is apparently the only way to grow rice.(We saw rice being harvested in Indonesia.) The fields are rectangular and not very big, but there are many of them) and they have banks to retain the water. There are a lot of rivers (we crossed the Ticino many times) and streams, from which they get the water for the agriculture. We drove around the outskirts of Torino, where we picked up Bro. Caruso, and I could see a couple of familiar sights in Torino (the Mole, a famous tower and church on a hill,) which I had not seen for 50 years, but recognized.
When we finally reached the Pellice valley, the road became very small and windy. Here is a crossing of the Pellice River. Torre Pellice means the tower at Pellice, but we did not see the tower, if there still is one.
Below is the first sight we saw of the famous (among Mormons who have a tie to Italy) of the outcropping of rock known as the Rock of Prophecy on Mt. Brigham (also known by Italians with different Italian names which have nothing to do with Mormon folklore or history.)
Below is a closeup of the outcropping on the top of the mountain climbed in 1850 by Lorenzo Snow, from where he dedicated Italy for the preaching of the Gospel to the mostly protestant (Valdesian) inhabitants of this mountain valley. He also prayed here for Divine intervention to help heal a little boy, which softened the hearts of the parents and the people who knew them, and made it possible for baptisms during the time this mission was first organized, and continued for about 17 years. About 175 people in all were baptized during that 17 years and most of them moved to Utah, among whom were the Cardon family, of which a descendant (Craig, a little younger than me) has been an Italian mission president and is now a member of the Seventy. (They are from Mesa, Arizona and know my sister Jean and family.)
Mt. Brigham at Torre Pellice.
The missionary couple DeAngelis. They work in the family history center in Santhià, and used to film records for indexing. This is sort of a wide spot in the road near Mt. Brigham. The DeAngelis have been married for 22 years. She is a native of Monticello, Utah, and moved to Pordenone to teach school at the US Air Base, Aviano, and met Gianfranco DeAngelis, who did not speak English. She said they had an interesting courtship. She is now very fluent in Italian and they are retired.
The missionary couple Hoopes, who work in the mission office and have adventures like this on their Saturday P days. During 1966, Ezra Taft Benson re-dedicated Italy from this place, but he did not climb to the top of the mountain--in fact, no one knows exactly where Lorenzo Snow did it, they can only guess, and that site would be a 2 to 3 hour not very easy climb up the mountain. Lorenzo must have been a good hiker to get from town to here and up the mountain.
The former mission president, Sebastiano Caruso, explaining, in Italian, the Mormon history of the area. He was a wonderful tour guide. He told me, while holding my arm while we were walking down the street (Italian style--men sometimes walk arm in arm), and after hearing that I like to play the organ, that all of the religions and churches have some truth, like keys of the organ, but ours is the only one that has the full keyboard and can play all of the music. (Professionally, he was a CES administrator for the Church.)
Our group, from a distance, taken by me when I wanted to see the "park" (there were some fire pits, but nothing official) where Fratello Caruso said once they had an inspirational picnic-meeting for all of the Italian bishops and stake presidents, etc. I actually walked down to see a sign, which I had not paid attention to when we first passed it. I hoped it told about the history of the area, even if it didn't mention Lorenzo Snow. Unfortunately, it only talked about the biodiversity of the area, which Italians are into these days.
Biodiversity sign.
On the way back to the town we passed by many old houses with slate roofs. Most roofs in Italy are made of orange or red tiles, but these are grey slate. It was hard to get a good pix while driving.
We went to a part of the little town where the Valdesians, a protestant group which was began by Peter Valdo of Lyon, France, in about 1000 AD or earlier, have a church (yellow in the back) and a school (to the right) and a place (foresteria) where people can be accommodated, sort of like a hotel. Fratello Caruso said they once rented it for an LDS youth conference.
The pix above I cut and pasted from Google showing the Valdesian church, school (in front of it) and Mt. Brigham in the background. Our weather was rainy and you could not see the mountain from the Valdesian church, in which Lorenzo actually preached, until they realized he was there to baptize their people.
Sign on the door to the Foresteria Valdese. We waked down to this road (pix belos) where we stopped at a restaurant where we had the best risotto (rice with asparagas) I have ever eaten. It was raining a little bit, but we didn't get very wet.
We all had a plate of risotto (first course, we did not have a second course, this was enough), which Fratello Caruso demanded he pay for (9 euro a plate). They served it along with the best bread sticks (called grissini) I have ever eaten, perhaps because they were so fresh, along with wonderful bread, and perhaps the most famous of the Italian sparkling (frizzante) water, San Pelegrino, from Bergamo (I toured the spring near Bergamo while on my first mission.) We have a spring for frizzante water near the mission office and, frankly, I can't tell the difference between expensive or free firzzante water.
Plate of bread, always served at Italian restaurants.
Bottle of San Pellegrino, frizzante (carbonated), which you can even buy at Costco, WalMart, etc., in the US. They also sell it all over Italy, where it is the most expensive brand, although they are all fairly inexpensive. A liter of less well know brand, generally in a plastic bottle, is .35 euro, and one of S. Pellegrino is about .60, although most people buy water in 1.5 liter bottles,
Addition from Sunday, May 1, 2016. This is a national holiday in Italy, Labor Day. It is raining. We went to fast and testimony meeting and the other meetings this morning. When we got there the executive secretary told me the girl who plays the piano would not be coming and asked me to play the piano, which I did. While I was playing the prelude one of the assistants to the President, who attend our ward, as does the President, when they are in town, came and whispered in my ear that I should confirm Danilo Peralta, who was baptized on Tuesday evening. Myrna and I attended the baptism in the church in Milano (Naviglie Ward), which is our ward. I assumed that he was asking me to stand in the circle of the confirmation--I don't hear well while I am playing. The APs taught him. He is originally from somewhere near the Phillipines (but he does not speak Tagalog, although he speaks Italian well, he is single and about 35 and lives in Milano with his mother.) Anyway, after the opening hymn and prayer, the bishop looked at me and said I would confirm Danilo, so I went up and did it, in Italian, with no time to even think about it. The high priest group leader, a former bishop, who is also a high counselor, stood next to me and whispered some of the pertinent words to me. Had I known, I would have studied and practiced, but it went fairly well. Then, after sacrament meeting the high priest group leader gave me a slip of paper with four names written on it and asked if Myrna and I would home and visiting teach those 4 families. They are the bishop and one counselor, a sister whose husband may not be a member, and a sister from Ireland, who is married to an Italian, who came for the first time today (at least since we have been here). I got their addresses and phone numbers and made appointments to visit them next Sunday afternoon. I also visited after church with a visitor, from Norway, who served a mission in France, whose English is excellent, but who does not know Italian, even though his wife is Italian. There is another guy, who arrived about the same time we came, who is attending a university in Milano. He said they teach in English, although he served a mission in a Spanish speaking country. His course is over at the end of May. Another interesting day at church.
The smiley guy on the right, sitting next to me at a party we had at the ward building a few weeks ago, is Danilo Peralta, whom I confirmed a member of the Church today.
It was another wonderful day in Italy.
Ciao for now.
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