January 2008 Update

I am sitting outside of Stephanie’s art room right now. And I do mean outside. Luckily, it’s not raining today—just a bit foggy. But that just adds to the beauty of this place. The children have a beautiful school that they attend called Marymount. It is a Catholic international school and is located on a beautiful piece of land with an old villa as their administration building and several other more typical multi-level school buildings there. They have early childhood education, elementary school, middle school and high school all on the same campus. This means that they are all here together and can see each other from time to time and ride the bus together. They have good teachers and an excellent administration who really care about how the kids are doing.

In fact, I just had a pleasant conversation with the college counselor who has known several other mission presidents and their families. He served as the principal here for seven years and also taught at the American school here in Rome. He was excited when I told him that one of the girls who was here in Rome with her family in the 90s while her father served as mission president, will soon be coming here to serve as a missionary! What fun. All the families who were here previously have set a great example of what kind of people members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are.

I feel very blessed right now. Many of you found our address (even though we haven’t been overly helpful about it!) and have sent Christmas cards and thoughtful gifts (like the Relief Society manual in English!!) and we were very grateful to be remembered during the holidays.

We had a very special Christmas with Mark and Kimberly and Mark’s girlfriend, Aersta, here. That is, she was his girlfriend until the day after Christmas, when Mark proposed to her in Venice and she became his fiancé! They will be married on May 10th in the Salt Lake Temple. She’s a beautiful young woman who is almost finished at BYU studying speech therapy. She is on one of the ballroom dance teams at BYU, plays the flute, and is kindhearted and serene (I know, I know, a bit different than our family—sure, we’re kindhearted, but certainly not serene!). She and Mark have known each other for quite some time as they both played in the Utah Valley Youth Orchestra and attended Pleasant Grove High School. As members of the orchestra, they traveled to Europe and Carnegie Hall together and Mark took her to her junior prom even though he was a freshman at BYU at the time. We are very excited to have her join our family.

On Christmas morning, Scott, Marianne, and Stephanie opened letters that let them know their cousins were coming to visit! Jennifer (my sister) and Randy, their four kids, and Nate, a friend of Scott, came a couple of days later and stayed for a week and a half. Nate was a big surprise to Scott because Nate had told him earlier that he would not be able to come this year. You should have seen Scott’s face at the airport! Priceless. We also had some dear friends, Donald and Merle, who came during that time. They had chosen to be in Rome for Christmas this year and we were the beneficiaries!

Lisa and I had worked the schedule, packing everything in as tight as we could before and after their visit so we could spend time with everyone. President Acerson spent four days during that time in interviews, but the rest was spent visiting and enjoyed Italy together. We were quite a mob of noisy Americans—16 of us—running around Rome and other parts of Italy and even singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas�? to the people whom we have befriended in the shops around us!

One note about Donald and Merle. Donald is a national storyteller from North Carolina who tells a heartwarming story about his fourth-grade teacher, Miss Daisy. Miss Daisy didn’t pass out text books at the beginning of the year. Instead she “took�? her class on a trip around the world, learning about cultures and lands, using math to calculate distances and costs, using words from their “travels�? as spelling words, and so on. Donald had learned a great deal about Pompeii from her and he remembers that she had a box of three-dimensional slides that he spent hours looking at. He loved learning about this lost civilization that had been buried under ash from Mount Vesuvius and had hoped to go there someday. He was so excited when we asked them to come along on a day trip to Pompeii and we felt as if we were right there with Miss Daisy as he shared the wealth of information he had learned from her. What fun.

One of the most exciting things from the holidays was when our nephew, Devan opened his mission call. He is going to Uganda! On Sunday, I noticed a woman at church that I had not met before. When I introduced myself and asked her name and where she was from, lo and behold, she was from Uganda! She was being taught by the sister missionaries so we invited them to teach her at the house with Devan, Scott, and Nate and then had dinner with them afterward. She was able to tell Devan a great deal about her country and reassure him (and Jennifer) that the country was not dangerous, but a beautiful and friendly place that he would not want to come home from. It was a sweet tender mercy to have met her and have her in our home while Devan was there. She will be baptized soon and gave Devan her mother’s and sister’s names so he could return to Uganda and teach them.

We loved having everyone here and are grateful that they took the time and spent the money so that we, and especially our children, could have a great Christmas. What a great memory!

The mission and missionaries are doing well. I do not mention them as an afterthought. They and the work here are the focus of our attention. We loved having a special Christmas zone conference with them and feeling of their gratitude for being able to serve a mission as their gift to the Savior. They each contributed a miracle or tender mercy that they, an investigator, convert, or even their family had experienced during or because of their mission. I compiled them into a “Book of Miracles�? and gave one to each missionary as their Christmas gift. What a treasure this has been as we recognize Heavenly Father’s hand in our lives through great and small miracles.

Another tender mercy: The reason I am at Stephanie’s school is because that was the only way I could get her to go back to school. She had been so happy since we’ve been here, but when everyone left after Christmas, the emptiness really hit her and she realized just how much she missed home and friends. She didn’t attend the first two days of school after the break because she was too sad and couldn’t stop crying. School was suddenly too overwhelming and the lack of friends had finally hit her. The tender mercy is that my schedule was completely clear this week so I could be a mom and take care of the children’s needs while President Acerson was gone doing interviews.

I had to put this on hold while we did transfers this week, but wanted to finish this and let you know “the rest of the story.�?
Stephanie is now fine and back to her usual self: happy and skipping through life. It took several days of constant love and attention, a couple of parties for friends from school and friends from church, and sending a cell phone to school with her so she could call me during lunch. Some of the missionaries who knew of the problem even sent cute notes, candy, and little items to cheer her up, teachers and administrators at the school did what they could to help, and all the girls from her grade opened their hearts and offered their friendship. Finally, after about a week of sadness and separation anxiety, she called from school during lunch and said that she wasn’t scared any more and that everything was going to be fine. I told her that I had been praying for her all day and I was certainly grateful that she had been comforted. What a blessing.

Marianne is doing well and approaching things with a much more optimistic attitude. I’m so proud of her. She loves reading Jane Austen books, is doing well in school, wants a tutor in Italian, and is more loving, helpful, and happy. Scott is on the basketball team at Marymount and loves it. He has good friends and, while school is difficult for him, says that he is learning a lot. Lisa will finish up her time here in Italy in May when she goes back for Mark and Aersta’s wedding. She will be missed, but like the missionaries, must return to “real life�? and school. She will start right away at BYU finishing her degree in elementary education. Kimberly has about a year and a half left in social work. She hoped to serve a mission this summer, but may choose to stay and finish the social work program because BYU has decided to discontinue that degree in two years. If she took a break for a mission, the program would be over by the time she got back so it’s forcing her to make a tough decision. But she’s a tough girl and will do her best at whatever she chooses. As for Mark, he and Aersta are having fun planning for the future. We’re so excited to welcome Aersta into the family!

The mission is doing well. The church is getting a lot of attention because of Mitt Romney’s run for the presidency and people ask a lot of questions. One woman visiting from New York asked me how we raised such good kids (she had sat next to Mark and Kimberly on their way here at Christmas). She said she would have expected to have seen at least one out of the six rebel a bit. (The kids laughed and promptly started debating about which child should be the rebellious one!) I told her that it was simply due to having the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. I explained that these children understand where they come from, why they’re here, and where they’re going. They have an eternal perspective of life here on earth. They follow Christ’s example as they treat others with love and kindness. They understand why it is important to live a clean life free of harmful substances. They understand the heart-breaking consequences of living an unchaste life. They know that they are a child of God and that they are loved not only by earthly parents, but by a Heavenly Father who listens to their prayers and blesses them, not necessarily with the things they ask for, but with what they truly need (like challenges that help them grow). These children have seen the blessings and happiness that comes from living the gospel—and they’ve seen the other side. We all wish it was easier to help others see how much better their lives could be with the gospel. That’s why we’re here. If you are someone who is curious and wants to know more, go to www.mormon.org. If you’re in Italy, call the mission office at 06 87 193 443. We have wonderful missionaries who would love to tell you why they are giving two years of their life to serve a mission. I promise, you’ll be amazed.