Sunday at the Temple Site

Last Sunday was our Fast and Testimony meeting at church. (For those who don't know what this is, on the first Sunday of the month, we don't eat or drink for two meals. We feel that this makes us more sensitive to the spirit and helps us draw closer to God. In addition, we take the money normally spent on those meals and donate it to the church as a "fast offering" which is then passed on to the needy through various programs in the church. At sacrament meeting, the members take turns going to the pulpit to express their feelings about Jesus Christ and the restored gospel.) Of course many talked about the temple which had just been announced the previous Sunday. Here are a few that I remember:

"I don't know if I'll ever get there, but I'm so happy for those who will." (From an elderly woman who is not sure if she'll still be around by the time the temple is finished, but who is still pretty spunky!)

"I am grateful to have a house of the Lord coming, but I have always felt like I have a home--and a family--with the members here in Rome."

"God lives and answers prayers. I'm grateful he listens. . . . . He's a light in us when we walk in dark paths."

"This (the announcement of the temple) is not the end. We must keep working. We must be full of energy, happiness, and joy. Before it was sufficient to be a good example of followers of Christ. Now we need more commitment. President Monson was inspired to announce the temple here in Rome. Now we must give the part that God requires of us."

"I'm grateful to receive my testimony through prayer."

"I have seen miracles in people's life because and through the gospel of Jesus Christ."

We were so grateful to have been there at that special sacrament meeting. We're sure there were many just like them around Italy.

After sacrament meeeting, we had a bit of time before we would finish fasting, so we decided to go to the temple site. We bring all our new missionaries here between training meetings and lunch so that they can have some time to pray and dedicate themselves to the work here in Italy but the kids hadn't had a chance to wander around the property. (They were in Utah during the youth conference this summer.) The Calabreses (he's our stake patriarch and man-of-all-trades in the mission office, she is perhaps the most beautiful woman in all of Italy) and our friend, Artan, wanted to come along as well. (Remember that you can click on any picture to view it at full size.)


Many have wanted to see pictures of the property. Here are a couple from the front. First, there is a shot on the left side of the property. Next, there is the long driveway to a small villa where the missionaries used to live. The next two shots are to the right of the entrance. The tall trees are called Roman (or umbrella) pines. The smaller trees are olive trees.





Here are some more pictures of the olive grove. Brother Calabrese told us that three years ago, there was a fire on the property and it scorched the Roman pines to the left of the grove, but it came to a line near the olive trees, but would not cross the line. The trees were not harmed at all in the fire.






Marianne wanted a little olive branch and Sister Calabrese pointed out that she might want a branch from the laurel bush as well. The laurel bush is the source of bay leaves used for flavoring soups, lentils, and stews. She said you can also boil the leaves and drink the water (like a tea) for an upset stomach, that the Italians use it to make a crown of leaves for someone who is graduating (the word "laurel" helps form the word "baccalaureate"), and that it was used in ancient Greece for the winner of athletic games (the term "resting on your laurels" comes from this). Wikipedia says that, "In the Bible, the sweet-bay is often an emblem of prosperity and fame. In Christianity it is said to symbolize the Resurrection of Christ and the triumph of Humanity thereby." Interesting!


See what I mean about Sister Calabrese being the most beautiful woman in Italy? And she's just as sweet as she is beautiful!


She told me that when she first visited the property years ago, that there were a lot of vases and pots filled with oil, vinegar, marmalade and such in the villetta and other buildings on the property. She said there was a good feeling about the place and she knew that there must have been a good woman who lived there who knew how to make the land productive and preserve the bounty that came from the harvest.

This is a picture of the back of the villetta. President Acerson is away from the group on the phone--most likely with a missionary. He takes a lot of calls, but he loves it and never complains.


It was a beautiful day and we're glad that we had the opportunity to visit it and make some memories before demolition and construction begin (and no, we don't know when that will be).






For more information on the temple site, click here.

Youth Conference at the Temple Site in Roma

Finally! I've been itching to get to this for amost a week and it's just been too busy to justify the time it would take. So, while I'm waiting for our ever-helpful office elders to record my district conference talk (so I can practice the Italian pronunciations before my talk on Sunday), I am going to steal a minute and get this written!

This past summer (June 2008), we had a youth conference here in the mission home for the youth of the Napoli (Naples) and Firenze (Florence) districts (unfortunately, Sardegna could not come because of the expense of coming from the island). We are always impressed at the strength of the youth here. Because President Acerson is over three districts (Firenze, Napoli, and Sardegna), we decided to invite them to the mission home for some fun, learning, service, and for opportunities to feel the spirit. They are the future missionaries and leadership of the church here in Italy, so no investment in them is too great! Here's a picture of them at the villa (mission home) on the morning of the last day.


We had all kinds of miracles happen to help us pull off this big project in only a couple of weeks. One of which was the service project opportunity that appeared at just the right moment! I had hoped to have some type of service project planned for them, but didn't really know how to go about finding one. I thought we'd just pick up trash from the neighborhood if nothing else came up. Just before the youth conference, I met with the missionaries in our area to finalize some plans for classes they were teaching and other activities they were going to help with. While I was there, they mentioned a "Helping Hands" service project that had just been announced at the "church property" as the members like to call it. I got very excited about having the youth help, but they said it was only for the men in the stake. I didn't let that stop me and called the stake president who said, of course, let them come. Not only that, but he invited us to bring our lunch and enjoy the property after the project was finished. We decided it would also be the perfect spot for our closing testimony meeting.

What a blessing it was to be there. What a tremendous opportunity for the youth to help clean up the property where, it was hoped, a temple would be built someday!

Here are quite a few pictures of that day. I hope you will enjoy seeing members, missionaries, and the youth of the church here in Italy work together in making the future temple grounds beautiful.






















After the property was cleaned up, we had lunch and then our testimony meeting. Some very sweet things happened that day. The youth expressed their love of Jesus Christ and of the restored gospel that was now on the earth. A special forces officer who is stationed at the American base in Napoli told them what we were all thinking: that someday they would return to this property with their children and even their grandchildren to visit the temple. That they would try to find this very spot and tell them about the day when they helped clean the temple grounds and then stood and bore a strong testimony of the divinity of our Savior, Jesus Christ and spoke of their commitment to living the commandments so that they might be worthy to go through the temple that would be built there someday. It was an experience I'll never forget.

For more information on the temple site, click here.

Marianne, Marianne, We Love Our Marianne!

Marianne turned 15 today. I told her that she even looks 15 now! I'm not sure how she stayed so happy and pleasant because she's been going to bed very late and waking up way too early with massive amounts of homework, but she did. She loves a challenge and is doing well, so the results are worth the effort.


The best thing about her birthday this year is that I didn't once hear the phrase I heard a hundred times last year: "This birthday is going to be the worst birthday of my life!" She had only been here three months at that time. She had left all her friends back home, didn't feel like she had any new ones, was in a strange school with hard classes, and didn't speak the language. We tried to make it special by inviting all the missionaries in our ward over for Navajo tacos between conference sessions (it was on a Sunday last year). One of the assistants was also celebrating a birthday and he always tried to make Marianne feel special. However, not much worked that day.

What a difference a year makes. Today she got phone calls, dozens of emails and messages from friends (old and new), treats from a good friend, two presents from girls at school, and Scott and his friends sang "Happy Birthday" which prompted other random groups of kids to sing to her throughout the day. She did a presentation on the Sistine Chapel, finished projects, studied for tests, and wrote an essay today -- all with a smile on her face. After her dinner of special requests (white chili chicken soup and poppy seed cake), we opened presents with Lisa on the webcam. (We actually knew where to find presents and even wrapping paper this year!)

She's happy, confident, and a joy to be around. She's been more of a "big sister" to Stephanie now--and even Scott's antics elicited laughter tonight instead of disdain. But I think I should stop there. As she went to bed, she asked me what I was doing. I told her and she said (with a smile), "Just don't embarrass me, OK?"

Marianne, Marianne, we love our Marianne.

A Temple in Bella Italia!

On Saturday morning in Utah (Saturday evening in Rome), our prophet, President Monson announced that five new temples would be built. As he started naming each temple, I thought in my mind, "Someday, a prophet will say, 'Rome, Italy'." I remember repeating it wishfully a couple of times in my mind as he named each one. When he got to the end of the list of temples and said, "Rome, Italy" I let out a small scream, buried my head in my hands, and cried. We all cried.

The only thing I regret is that, for the first time since we've been here, we were at home watching on the internet. The satellite equipment had been moved from our church nearby to a church in L'Aquila (over an hour away) so the members there wouldn't have to travel to see conference as they have done for years. The Italian translation was to be shown in the chapel and two other rooms in the church would be used for English and Spanish. Stephanie and I had made brownies and attended a women's luncheon and stake enrichment meeting just before a delayed broadcast of the Relief Society broadcast earlier that day. We then returned home to watch the Saturday morning session that evening on the internet with the family. Scott had just returned from an afternoon with friends, Marianne had too much homework to drive back and forth between home and the church, and we had friends here who hadn't returned from doing some genealogy work south of Rome. So we had decided to stay and watch that session at home and return to the stake center for the Sunday sessions the next day. Again, how we wish we could have been there to see the sheer joy of the Italian people who have waited for so long for this day!

When I talked to one of President's assistants this morning, I asked him to tell me every detail of what happened at the stake center. How we wished we would have been there to witness it for ourselves! He said that when President Monson said, "Rome, Italy" in English, the person translating it into Italian paused and said, "What?" and then took a half second to let it sink in, then said, "Roma, Italia." The congregation leaped to their feet, cheering and clapping. He said, "The women were crying, the men were hugging each other, and everyone was overwhelmed with surprise and joy.

We have received a lot of emails and phone calls from former missionaries (some of "ours," and some from those who have served years ago), friends, family, members from Italy, and even a call from the Deseret News. I'll tell you what we told many of them: no, we didn't know about it. (Otherwise, we would have been at the church when it was announced!) We always talked about "when" a temple would be built, but I have to admit, I didn't have much hope that it would happen while we were here. But President Acerson always had faith that it would happen and would say things like, "We're not leaving until a temple is built!"

It is so very hard to express what this means to the members. (See my previous blog where I talk about the little family who is planning to go to the temple. Airfares went up unexpectedly so they are now waiting for cheaper airplane tickets so they can fly to the Madrid Spain Temple.) The members here in the Rome Stake rent a bus twice a year and drive overnight and into the next day (about 14 hours) to the temple in Switzerland. Young couples are married here in the church, but then must travel to the temple a couple of days later to be sealed. These saints have been so patient and faithful--praying for a temple, but certainly not waiting on it; they continue to faithfully attend another temple whenever they possibly can.

Today, the national media in Italy attended the Sunday morning conference session. They took pictures, conducted interviews, and listened to President Monson's talk. From what I hear, they enjoyed it. The investigators we brought were very touched by his talk and said that what he and the other speakers said was absolutely true.

What a joyous time for the members and the missionaries alike. We realize how very blessed we are to be here at this historic time and honor all those mission presidents and missionaries who laid the foundation for this moment. Thank you to you all.

P.S. I will have a section on www.acerson.com for updates on the temple when I have them. Watch for it next week (after we complete our zone conferences!).