We're not in Rome; we're in heaven!

Will you forgive my long absence?  I am working on forgiving it myself.  I know, however, that getting our experiences as missionaries called to serve at the Rome Temple Visitors Center written down, and then sharing them, is important.  Please enjoy what I am about to share, and please come back; so will I!

First.  A lot of photos.  Just a random selection to help you get a taste of what's going on.

 

This is a passalong card that we hand out.  It has the address of the temple and our phone number.

Before the temple open house commenced in January, we took a quick trip to Naples to make a personal invitation to some of our dear friends there.  The photos above show the building where our airbnb room was housed!  It was in fact a nice room in a nice apartment.  The other photos show the huge open market that we saw from our bedroom window.  We loved it, it was quintessential Napoli.

During the open house, we kind of worked in the background, usually not mixing directly with the visitors.  However, one of the few times when I was actually out among them, who should notice my name tag but two of Laura Grayson Newton's friends from Florida!  What a pleasure it was to snap this picture, to show Laura that the Lord is mindful of her, and brought friends together to prove it.

I love this photo!  One of the numerous former missionaries who returned to lend a hand with the temple open house was Michael Hendriksen, who had lots and lots of photos from those days.  This photo was taken in 1973 or 74.  On the left is Sorella Peggy Derricott, with whom I shared the "LTM" experience.  On the right is Sorella Amy Howell (now Amy Howell White), from whom I learned so so much from our days in Bari.  That's me in the middle.  I cannot believe I actually wore that dress...or those glasses...

                                                                                                      

I'm including these two photos to show Blaine's genius.  He's the mastermind behind putting up the cords on the right, which greatly facilitated keeping folks from wandering onto the piazza instead of continuing forward to where the tour commenced in the stake center, as demonstrated in the photo on the right.  The corner of the building in that photo is the church/chapel/stake center.

       

These are a few of the wonderful people we know from former missions.  Mario, the one on Blaine's left, is from Napoli.  He brought a friend from England.  The second one shows that I kept the wrong photo!  The four on your right are our dear friends Venerina (face covered!) and Carlo Malara, whom Blaine confirmed a member back in 1972-73, and their two sons Alberto and Federico.  The best!  The visitors center is behind everyone.

This and the following photos are just some of the folks who volunteered to help with the temple open house.  We got to be a pretty tight-knit group.  Above are the Ingles, he has Italian ancestors and we discovered she is a good friend of my sister Viki!

These great folks, the Pitchers, and four other couples had a few weeks off from their service at the Paris Temple, and decided they could spend the time in no better way than helping out at the Rome temple open house.  What an impressive bunch of service-oriented people!  Oh - and that's gregarious Elder Ratto photo bombing behind Blaine and me.  He and his wife Nora are missionaries serving in Castellamare.  They are adorable!

The top one is an awful photo but these three men played a large role in the success of the open house:  David Martino, who was the president of the MTC in Provo shortly before traveling to Rome with his wife, Deanie; Elder Dini Ciacci, the Area Seventy and Temple Committee Chair; and Paul Scherbel of Star Valley, WY, who almost literally wore himself out being the mastermind behind the whole volunteer effort.  David and Paul were two of many, many volunteers who are former missionaries in Italy.  Jona from Switzerland is shown in the guard shack, one of many things he did as a volunteer.  He was kind of a jack-of-all-services.  Not only did he do regular volunteer duties, he was also a guide because he is multi-multi lingual!

The Pownalls.  They came all the way from "Down Under" to serve.  She speaks Italian because she grew up in an Italian home in Australia.  Such wonderful people.

Nina, who came from Albania just to serve. and serve. and serve.  Wherever, whatever.  An angel.  Same goes for the next two.

Cory, who grew up in Germany, lived as a student in the US, then married an Italian and lives in Verona.  More angel material.

On the right is Bryce Barney.  We go way back; we were in the same "family home evening" group at BYU.  He had just returned from Italy and I was getting ready to go.  On my left is Janice Hileman.  They both taught at the Language Training Mission (precursor to the MTC) when I was there, but I didn't know Janice until the open house.  She's amazing.  It was sooo wonderful to see Bryce again.

More sweethearts from Naples, in town for the dedication:  Sisters De Blasi, Morra, Migliatico, and Scavone.  We are standing in front of the Cristus statue and the surrounding statues of the apostles.

Here is a video about the dedication and the historic gathering of all fifteen modern prophets and apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVzIptrAHmM

I love this.

This is the Rome Temple Visitors Center.  We work here as of March 17.  If you go to this link, you can see lots of great photos of the whole temple site, which includes two other buildings as well as the temple and the visitors center.  One is a housing facility for temple workers and one is a meetinghouse for two Rome wards and the two Rome stakes (a stake is a group of congregations or wards and branches).  https://www.facebook.com/pages/LDS-Tempio-Di-Roma-LDS-Rome-Temple/642456975768756

As we prepared for the dedication of the temple, we were privileged to have these two sweethearts from Naples stayed with us for three nights.  They were part of the choir for the cornerstone ceremony.  That's homemade pizza Napoli style that we're enjoying.  They are Angela Manzella Ariante and Betty Manzella.

All right, since we've introduced the subject of food, here's two favorites:  a "tarocco" orange - like the blood oranges, but bigger and not quite as red but soooo good; and two different vegetarian types of Roman pizza.  It's served in a big long "pala" - stick, so to speak.  Large and long.  My Neapolitan sisters said that's not true pizza, it's focaccia with toppings.  So.  As you wish.  Pretty darn good.

Now to where we live.  If you look closely, you can see the spires of the temple in the middle background.  That's the view from the "small balcony" attached to the extra bedroom.

Our neighborhood on a foggy day.

Our neighborhood on a sunny day.  It doesn't really feel like living in Rome; it's a bit too modern and has waaaay to much parking space.  It's in the northeast quadrant of the city, a "newer" part of town.  That said, it's quiet and it's nice and we like it a lot.  Four other senior missionary couples live in the complex, as well as two families who work on the temple site, as well as twelve sister missionaries in two apartments, who work at the visitors center with us.  This is a big change from both previous missions.  It's nice to have other couples nearby; sometimes we eat or watch a movie together.  And the young sisters always add a touch of liveliness.

So that's an introduction to this, our third mission in Italy, and to what we'll be doing here.  In short, welcoming people in, and inviting them to find ways to come closer to Christ.

I love being here.  I love the spirit that pervades the place.  I love the people I work with (especially my "companion").  I love the people I am privileged to meet and talk with.  I love the art work, the displays, the videos, the activities.  

We are so pleased to be here.  We miss our family.  They mean so much to us.  They are in God's care.  This work will help us become better spouses, parents and grandparents.

Alleluia!