L'Aquila

This weekend, we took a quick trip to L'Aquila. We did not know they were planning to celebrate Thanksgiving after church.

One of the beautiful families from the branch.

This photo was taken Thanksgiving Eve during the English group celebration in Rome. We were blessed to celebrate Thanksgiving twice!

Welcome!

One of the highlights this week has been the arrival of another wonderful senior couple. We are so glad they came to Italy!

This last weekend was the Palermo Stake Conference which was held in Catania. It rained and was cloudy most of the time we were there. I took this picture from the hotel of the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. 

At the conference, we saw a wonderful young couple. Their son had received a blessing on another visit. We were glad to see him so healthy even if he was trying to tell us all how hungry he was!

As we left Catania to come home, I looked up and saw this beautiful rainbow that filled most of the sky.

Right after I took the picture of the rainbow, President pointed out that there was snow on Mt. Etna. There are so many clouds in this photo that I don't know if you can see it, but that is snow.

After we got back, we took a little time to see San Giovanni in Rome.

We passed the Colosseum on our way home.

Gratitude

Perhaps it is because it is November and the season of Thanksgiving, but today as I post these pictures I feel so grateful for the wonderful people who have touched our lives here in Italy. This week has been full of emotions of joy as we greeted new missionaries and sadness mixed with gratitude as we sent so many wonderful missionaries home.Here are a few of the events of this week for which we are grateful.

Words will never be enough to express our gratitude and love for this Elder who trained us when we arrived in Italy!

With the departure of one elder, we received another wonderful assistant!

This week, many wonderful missionaries headed home. We are so grateful for their faithful service.

In the early 1970's, a young missionary found the Villa. He took a picture in front of the Villa. This week, we recreated that photo with the same missionary. We are so grateful for this wonderful couple that has served our mission so faithfully for so long. We will miss you!

With the departure of so many wonderful missionaries, we were happy to receive 19 new missionaries.

This was taken just before they went out on the metro to contact for the first time.

This week, we were grateful for a new friend at church.

We also spent a wonderful afternoon with a sister President baptized years ago.

Memories

I don't have a lot of new pictures this week, so I will share some of the wonderful pictures from the past weeks.

Our mission after the President Nelson conference. We love them all!

The couples from the MTC who serve in the Europe area as presidents and companions.