Update & Kimberly's address

We had to say goodbye to a few of our missionaries as they returned home with honor this week. What a great group of missionaries -- we're going to miss them. (The man in the back right is Brother Calabrese who is our Stake Patriarch and right-hand man in the office. He volunteers his time to help with apartments, helps us work through Italian red tape, translates official documents, and so much more.)

I just had to add a couple of pictures from this transfer that require a bit of explanation. The missionaries are very busy, especially when they are getting ready to go home, so they might not have had the time or money for a haircut. (They usually cut each others' hair to save both time and money.)

Such was the case with this wonderful missionary who also served as a branch president in Olbia. He was so busy that we decided he deserved a little trim before meeting his parents at the airport.

These three Italian missionaries also served as branch presidents during their time here. The Elder in the middle is one of President Acerson's assistants and will be with us one more transfer.


The other two have something wonderful to look forward to when they get home: going to the temple in Spain with this sweet family who was in the branch where they each took a turn as their branch president. Just look at these beautiful children! In order to go to the temple, this little family had to take the overnight boat from Sardegna with their two small children, go to their separate embassies to get their visas and other documents in order (because they are from different countries in South America), and finally come to the mission home for their temple recommend interviews. They had not eaten all day so we were able to feed them and take them to the train to catch the boat that night. Such sacrifices. We pray for a temple here in Italy daily.

Here's a picture of our new group of missionaries! The three missionaries from the United States served with Kimberly (now known as Sorella Acerson) in the Missionary Training Center. The other two are Italians, and all of them are great! We're going to love serving with them.

Sorella Acerson's new companion is Sorella Sheffield and she is currently seving in the beautiful city of Como just north of Milan. (President Acerson is jealous as he always wanted to serve there!) Letters and packages can be sent to:

Sorella Acerson
Italy Milan Mission
Via Gramsci, 13/4
20090 Opera (MI),
ITALIA

(The address is also listed at the right under her picture in case you need to find it again quickly and don't want to scroll through the entire blog to find this message again.)

Also, Happy Birthday to Aersta! Thanks for all you do for us and for being such a sweet daughter-in-law.

Scott just returned from Sicily where he played (and won) volleyball, Marianne is diligently studying, and Stephanie and I took one of her new friends and the friend's mother with us as we visited Paestum, a well-preserved Greek city at the southern end of our mission. (We'll share more pictures on Paestum soon.)

President is in Milan for meetings (no, he's not going to see Kimberly while he's there) and we continue to miss all those who aren't with us.

Looking forward to church tomorrow. The talks and lessons are always so powerful and uplifting here. We have great members and they always show us a lot of love. Have a great Sabbath day!

A special day indeed

Thirty-five years ago on this day, my father was in the University of Utah hospital. He was finally "out of the woods" as they say, after having had encephalitis (a virus that causes inflammation of the brain), being in a coma which left him paralyzed and unable to speak, and pneumonia which collapsed one of his lungs. After a few months there, he was moved to the hospital in Moab in a long-term care situation. He was able to communicate only by blinking his eyes as we went through an alphabet chart and wrote down each letter, spelling the things he wanted to say. One day, we noticed one of his fingers was moving. Excited about the possibility of more improvement he was sent back to the University of Utah hospital for physical and speech therapy.

When my father contracted this virus, my mother was expecting, but neither she nor my father knew it at the time. When she realized she was expecting, she tried to hide it from my father so he wouldn't worry about her and the baby. There was already much to worry about. They had six other children back at home, including my sister who was born with cerebral palsy. My older brother was a senior in high school and was left to run the business as best he could. Of course, we had help from many people who took us in and brought us meals when we returned home. My mom and dad had helped many people through the years and now it was their turn to be helped.

Now, back to where I started this story. Thirty-five years ago on this day, it was my father's birthday. Of course he now knew about the baby that was to be born. As he worked hard to improve his speech and physical movement at the U of U hospital, my mother was at home in Moab and decided that she wanted to give him a very special birthday present. She had an appointment with the doctor and he said the baby was ready to come. He gave her a dose of pitocin to start labor, she came home to feed Debbie, and then went to the hospital with her best friend, Sister Raymond, to give birth to her new baby girl.

And that's the story of how my sweet sister, Ellen, came to be born on my father's birthday.

She has been such a blessing to our family. She was born eight years after the next-to-the-last child and brought joy into an otherwise difficult time. She and dad had a special bond. As dad improved, he was able to ride in an electric wheelchair. As a little girl, Ellen would sit on the wooden desk that was strapped onto the wheelchair, we would pull dad's arm around her, and off they would go. When dad needed the radio turned on or a pen or any number of things, she would climb up onto his feet, then pull herself up onto his desk and reach whatever it was he needed. When she got too big for the desk, she rode on the back of the wheelchair. Sometimes, she could understand what he was saying when no one else could.

Life has, indeed, been different for her, but let's face it, she never had to go to work with him and throw rocks out of a new road he was making, drive the loader back and forth across a dam that he was building to compact the dirt, or drive a backhoe down from a mountain work site when she was 12 years old! (Yes, I'm talking about me, but I wouldn't give up those experiences for anything -- they taught me how to work hard, to take pride in a job well done, and that I can, literally, do anything. Those things have come in handy throughout my life. Thanks Dad. You're the best and I love you.)

Even though Ellen was the baby of the family, she also learned to work hard and has a great deal of compassion for others. She has a beautiful family (with a husband and four children), volunteers at school, community, and church events, and is always looking for ways to better herself and make life easier for others. Thanks for all you do, Ellen. We love you.

Also born 14 years ago on this day is our nephew Zackery. He is a great young man and we are very proud of him. Happy Birthday Zackery!

One additional note: Also on this day 185 years ago in 1823, a heavenly messenger named Moroni appeared to a 17-year-old boy named Joseph Smith and told him that God had a work for him to do. That work was to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ as it was when Christ was on the earth. He was told of an ancient record that he would translate that is now known as "The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ." That book tells us of the importance of faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It tells us of Christ's atonement where He gave His life for each and every person on this earth so that they could overcome physical and spiritual death. It is called the plan of salvation, the plan of redemption, the plan of happiness. It is this plan that reassures me that my father and sister, Debbie, will be made whole after this life. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks Dad, for raising me with the knowledge of this gospel and for being a great example of service, strength, and love. Happy Birthday.