Changes

Last week, President reassigned one of his wonderful assistants to go back into the field to teach repentance and baptize converts. We will always be grateful for the help this young man gave us as we arrived in Italy. He has been an angel for us and is an outstanding missionary. At the same time, President called a new elder to assist him. Since he was outside of Rome, the call was issued on the computer. I took a few photos of him and his companion after the call was over. We are so grateful for all of the missionaries who serve here in the Great Italy Rome Mission.

This was also time to say goodbye to some outstanding elders and a sister. We will miss you Anziani and Sorella--you are the best!

As we say goodbye to one group, we welcome another group. We are so happy to have these elders and sisters join us here in Italy. We received 4 from the Spain MTC and 13 from Provo.

We also had a visit from a friend from Florence on Friday. Thanks for coming! This photo gives you a nice view of the villa.

We were also blessed when President was able to call a counselor in the mission. We are already grateful for the service he will render.

Conference Time

Like many of you, we are loving listening to General Conference. This week, we have missionaries leaving and coming, so I will leave most of the writing for later when we have more photos.

This week we had a beautiful visit to our sisters in Ladispoli where we met a wonderful couple they are teaching. The wife will be baptized this week. On our way back to their house, we couldn't resist taking a picture of the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea and our lovely Sorelle!

Since we came to Italy at the end of June, we have been privileged to serve with these two wonderful elders. They have helped us above and beyond what we could have asked them to do. This week, they will help us again with our 3rd transfer cycle and the arrival of our new anziani and sorelle. Thank you Anziani!

Fall, Terni

Fall has come to Rome! The weather is beautiful, and we leave the windows open every day to let the fresh air come in.

On Monday, we took our first real Pday and went on the subway to see the traditional sites of Rome.
First, the Colosseum.

Then on to Trevi Fountain.  The sun was very bright, but we tried to capture how beautiful it is.

I love how old the Pantheon is. It has been here almost 2000 years.

As we walked from the Pantheon over to the Vatican, we took a quick picture of this familiar sight.

The Vatican is always an impressive sight.

On Thursday night, we met with one of our great senior couples for dinner. President chose one of our family favorites--spaghetti alla carbonara!

Our beautiful friends whose family owns the restaurant that we ate at.

This week, we visited the new LDS Institute in central Rome. It is across the street from the Opera and down the street from the famous Cathedral, Santa Maria Maggiore. The ceiling in the Cathedral is absolutely incredible.

On Sunday, we went to church in Terni, the home of our good stake president. We had a great visit with this wonderful ward and our elders there. I got a picture of 2 of our 4 elders in Terni.

This is a picture of the new Terni chapel that is under construction. Terni is a beautiful small town surrounded by mountains.

On Sunday evening, our senior couples came over to the Villa for a potluck dinner. They are wonderful!

Rome

We flew back to Rome from Palermo (see previous post) on Wednesday night. On Thursday, we continued our visit with Elder Kearon, Elder and Sister Sabin, and our other missionaries. They brought so much enthusiasm into Rome! We had 30 elders stay with us in the Villa on Wednesday night, and 29 missionaries stay with us on Thursday night. Friday, we had Mission Leadership Council with our Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. Again, I tried to get a lot of pictures in the few minutes I had. I am sorry if I left some out.