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!).

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!