Domenica a Milano

I've been here almost three days, but I haven't even started to get over jet lag. I have insomnia often at home on a normal schedule, so being in a different part of the world has caused me to develop a terrible sleeping pattern.

This morning I was able to visit my friend Noemi, a girl (now woman) I taught right before she was baptized. My third evening in Italy, on my mission, I went to an appointment to teach this teenage girl. She was friends with a member and had heard all of the discussions. She didn't feel like she was ready to get baptized, so my companion had started teaching her the discussions again, not knowing what else to do. Her mother is American and had taught her English while she grew up, so I was able to participate instead of being lost during the whole lesson, which made it an even better experience than it would have already been. That night, she decided to get baptized. Starting my mission seeing Noemi gain a testimony helped me to have faith that investigators really can feel the Spirit, and, when they do, they will let the Gospel become part of their lives. I kept in touch with her often enough since my mission that I knew she had moved to Rome, where we are going on Tuesday. I contacted her, hoping to see her there, but she had moved. The funny coincidence is that she had moved to Milano. She has only lived in Milano since September, and she is moving away soon, so the timing of this trip was perfect. She has a four-month-old baby and seems very happy. Another funny coincidence is about her husband. When I asked her what he does for a living, she told me that he works at a bank but she could not explain what he does. When I asked her more about it, she asked, with a look on her face as if I wouldn't understand, if I had ever heard of derivatives? Later, I told others in my group about this and they laughed at the irony. Derivatives are what brought me to Italy on this trip. I am doing a presentation on the derivatives legislation pending in Congress and whether Italy should follow.

Speaking about my derivatives presentation, I had an inspiring experience very early this morning. This class has been frustrating for me because of how little time I have been able to give to it. Our professor has expected us to become experts in the area of corporate governance we were assigned to. We have written a report for the Italian securities regulators, and I am in charge of our recommendations for what Italy should do about derivatives. I have been able to research what is happening in the US, but, with my calling, new Journal responsibilities, my other classes, pro-bono hours, etc, etc, I have not had enough time this semester to think about the problems in the derivative markets and how to solve them. All I could write in the report was, basically, that the proposed law sounds like an okay idea. My professor has given us almost total autonomy, and I am one of only two people in my group with enough background in finance to understand in-depth what we are talking about. So I know that the others would defer to my opinion, but I have not had an opinion to give. Not being able to contribute or take advantage of this chance to help solve a significant problem has been especially frustrating.

I told Bethany's mom how I was feeling right before I left, and she reminded me that the Spirit can make up the difference when we do not have enough time. I found out this morning that she is right. At 4 am, I woke up and could not go back to sleep. There was nothing to get out of bed for, so I started thinking about the derivatives problem. Almost immediately, I was able to visualize it in a way that I have not seen or thought of before. And the way that I visualized it led to some really interesting solutions. For almost half an hour, I laid in bed thinking about what had just come to my mind and how great it would be as a next step to the solution that Congress has decided to pursue. I got out of bed and quickly sketched all of the graphs and diagrams I would need for my presentation. Then I went back to sleep. We are discussing our report with the Milan Stock Exchange today, so the timing of this inspiration was perfect. It also gives me tonight to prepare a Powerpoint for the more formal presentation I have to make on Tuesday to the professors and PhD students at Bocconi, Milan's business and law school. I don't know that these ideas are persuasive, but I'm glad that I get to take my shot actually prepared, instead of just repeating and explaining what other people think.

After I visited Noemi, who lives in the northern part of the city, I rode the Metro to the south part of the city where a branch had their Sacrament meeting. A branch in Milan, unlike the small towns I served in, has over 100 people. They also have three wards. Since it was fast Sunday and the Church is close to getting approval for the temple in Rome, I was able to fast along with them for the next step in the growth of the Church in Italy.

A baby was blessed in Sacrament Meeting, and this prompted the counselor, who was conducting, to tell a story about the baby blessing of his son, Pablo. (They are Italian; they just liked the Spanish version of the name.) This counselor, when he had blessed Pablo as a baby, said that he was named after the Apostle Paul and that he would follow in Paul's footsteps. He had forgotten this, naturally, but someone in the ward had remembered because of how unusual it was. Pablo is now serving his mission in Greece. His first city was Athens, and he was just transferred to Thessalonica.

After the regular Church meetings, which ended at 5 pm, I got some dinner and rode the Metro to the western part of the city to attend a Stake Priesthood meeting. I have never seen that many Italian priesthoold holders in one place. So in one day, I visited three parts of the city and had four faith-building experiences. By the time I made it back to my hotel, I was so tired I went right to sleep. If only I could have slept for more than three hours...