More background than you ever wanted to know

6-7-08

Becky has shared with me on more than one occasion that I may have a slight tendency toward longwindedness (new word there?) when I tell a story. Our friend Alex once said to us, "With Becky it's just the facts, but Pete never let the facts get in the way of a good story." So if you've already heard this (or really don't care to), you can skim this post without offending me (mostly because I'll never know, but I'm a pretty hard guy to offend anyway).

Many of you may know that I was a missionary for the Mormon Church from 1991 to 1993. During that time I worked in the French-speaking western end of Switzerland and in a geographic chunk of eastern France. Near the end of my mission, I became very close with a particular family who lives in Switzerland. (Like last year, I will only use first names because that's what someone told me I should do because of Internet safety issues. Whether that's necessary or not, I really don't know, but better safe than sorry, right?) Anyway, the mother, Maria, and father, Dominico, of this family were originally from the Naples region of Italy, but they had moved to Switzerland, and all of their children had been born there. When I first met them in 1993, their oldest son, Franco, was recently married but lived nearby, and they had two children still at home, Fabio (about 16 at the time) and Noemi (13 or 14 at the time).

About a year after my mission, Josh, my best friend from high school, and I backpacked across Europe. We stayed with this family in Switzerland a couple of times over that summer. In 1997, Becky and I had been married for nearly two years but didn't have any kids or a mortgage payment yet. We had just finished our first year of teaching and figured if we didn't go to Europe then, we might not have another chance once kids came along. So that summer, we stayed with our friends in Switzerland as a home base to rest up and plan as we made round-trips into other areas of Europe.

Later, both of the younger children from this family, Fabio and Noemi, travelled around the United States, and we had the opportunity to repay in a small way their family's kindness by showing them around Northern California. For a few years, the oldest son of family, Franco, had a job working in Southern California so we were able to see them a few times down there. His parents, Maria and Dominico, came to visit their son so they were also able to stay with us for a few days once and we went down to see them in Southern California another time. The also happened to be in the US about four years ago when my mother passed away. They came up along with Franco and his whole family to her funeral, and they even sang a hymn in French at the service (in the early 1960s my mom had also served a French speaking mission). Even though there are many things that this family has done for me, for this particular act more that anything else, I will forever be grateful and in their debt.

Alright, back to my overly-detailed narrative. Like, I said, skim if you're bored, but I want this down for future generations who may not have the opportunity to experience one of my stories out loud. Anyway, Noemi got married in the summer of 1999. I went to Switzerland for the wedding, but Becky decided that she wouldn't go because our first daughter, Alex, was only about four months old. She was supportive and encouraged me to go though. At that time, Fabio was recently home from his mission, and he is actually older than Noemi. I made a promise to the family on that trip that I would come back again - this time with the whole family - when Fabio got married. Well, it's nine years later, and as I mentioned my friends have visited me here a few times but I have not been back. I talk to them on the phone every two or three months, and they ask me when I'm coming for a visit. I tell them that if were to come, and then Fabio got married a year later, I wouldn't be able to afford to come again.

Well, the time has arrived. Fabio will be married in July, and I will be there along with my whole family to be a part of the celebration. In a nutshell, that's the main reason we're going at this particular time, but since we're there we decided to make a full trip out of it and show the kids some of the history and culture of a new part of the world for them. There are also other friends that I hope to catch up with. We have some cool stuff planned, and we'll be winging it for a little while too (my favorite way to travel). So a couple more days of packing followed by a long day of travel and then the real adventure begins. Come along for the ride.