Temple Model is Now on Site.


The model of the site has been kept at the mission home for the past year or so and now has a new home. David has wanted to bring it here for some time now feeling it would be a good thing to help the work here. So the AP's helped David load it into the mission van and carefully transported it across town. It is nice to show the site workers what the site will look like when it is finished. They seem very interested and it helps to start so many conversations about the church.  It was made as part of the announcement and presentation of the temple to the city and has kind of traveled around in the past years... We love having it here!

  A View of the Temple from across the street.

An office building behind the site has a set of outside stairs and the members in the ward like to climb up them and see how things are coming along with the temple. I thought I'd do the same and  check out the view.  The work is going forward.. it seems slow day by day, but looking back over the month sooo much has been done. I love the construction sounds outside my window.

Two of the very capable hardworking men here with Elder Fenn

        In a member's home... Families are Eternal...  I loved it

2 Saturdays:

A Countryside Lunch

Life here really is different than what we are used to. Some of it is hard, but some of it is a true adventure... for instance, take this lunch at the countryside home of the owner of the construction company who is building the temple. Now this was authentic!!

Their home is situated on a slopping hillside overlooking a beautiful Lago Bracciano. We asked if the lake was man made and the answer was... this lake has been around since prehistoric times. Kind of like a lot of the buildings here.  Just kidding... But you can see the setting from this picture. Very serene and lovely. The other side of the slope was covered with Olive trees from which he produces his own olive oil... Somewhere around 600 liters a year. A good "hobby" and gifts for friends. I can't believe I didn't take a pictures of the trees. They were very pretty. The pool was pretty simple compared to a pool of this nature at home, but he was quite proud of his "Infinity Pool".  It was very lovely and open to the kids to just climb and play around... something that you would not see at home either.


Lunch was 5 courses... Starting with Italian cheeses , bread and green olives... We ate those until we were full....

Then the 2nd course was you guessed it... PIZZA! Cooked in their outdoor brick pizza oven :)

                                                         It was fun to watch the cooks !!

The pizza's just kept coming and coming and coming... it's customary ;) to try every kind. I wonder if we will still want to eat pizza after we get home... will we be sick of it? or will we expect it...? I think I already know the answer to that...

                                  The 3rd course... Grilled steak, bacon, sausage, ribs.....

After that a Green Salad, which was mostly lettuce with some vinegar and oil. I think we do that part right in America... who wants a bowl of lettuce at this point? But it's about the only green I've ever seen at a meal and  they say it helps you digest your food. 

No pictures of the lettuce or the dessert which was Italian pastries and cookies. But it was an adventure for me... fun to watch the way they keep the food coming!!  I DO miss the balance of an American meal, but was most grateful for their hospitality and generosity in having us to lunch!!

But to me the best part of the day was meeting his wife. I noticed she was passing out books to some of the ladies and I asked her if she was the author. She said yes would you like one of my books? YES! She didn't give me one because she wants to get me the first one in her series and didn't have it there... so I said, this is cool I'm meeting a real live author! She said, don't be too impressed, but I do sell out.

Dresden and I decide she could be "Joan Wilder".   When she brings me her book, I'm going to trade her for a Book of Mormon. ;)

And an Old Castle: "Orssini"

It's kind of fun what you just run into while driving around this crazy country!! We planned to come out and find this castle but its just sitting there right on the edge of a little town. Like it was no big deal... just part of the town.

 It was amazing... the tall carved beds and fancy, but very old bedding, the big rooms and fireplaces.  Beautiful in it's own way, but so dark and cold. The weapons room was a little overwhelming...I tried to imagine putting on an armored suit and I just couldn't do it!! Indeed grateful to live in the times we live in. 

The castle Prison

Thanks for peeking in on our blog. We miss you and love you!

A LITTLE TASTE OF ROME

Saturday afternoons, things get a little quieter on the temple site so we took the bus downtown and walked around town some. Here are a few pictures of "LIFE" in Rome.

A street downtown near the Pantheon. :)

The Coliseum

Some folks enjoying their GELATO

A Street Painter who should be famous!! AND.....

PIZZA PIZZA everywhere

 Per Il Mio  Insegnante :)

This is David talking with Andrea. Andrea is the contractor's representative on site. He pretty much runs the site! Great guy!

David and Domenico. His guys made him a tag like David's. David thought it was funny, but I didn't really get it... :) Just for fun!!

Next time I have a couple of stories to tell, out of time for now...... we send love to all.

A Walk to the Pantheon

A Walk To the Pantheon

The other night, Ramon, one of the project managers, and his wife , took us downtown to see the Pantheon.  They kept saying, " You're not going to believe it, you're not going to believe it." They were right... we couldn't believe it!! My jaw dropped and didn't get back to normal until we were walking back to the car. It's massive and so beautiful. We just couldn't believe it! This is the only picture we have, but we will take more next time.

We're getting used to the site and still aren't sure what kind of pictures we can post...  here is one of David and Ramon going through something on the plans.  When the weather gets better and when we get a car.... we will get out and get some more pictures. For now we are a little office and house bound :)  We have learned to walk a lot  and it's really quite OK!

A wonderful Italian sister in her most charming kitchen... she just made dinner for 16. When I commented on her wonderful kitchen she said... "E tropo piccolo"... It's too small... We women!!

          Her son in law(on the right). They share the same house... daughter and son in law, and family live in one side,
mom and dad live in the other side with the"charming"kitchen in the middle. They say it works out "Happily".

                                                      

Snow in Rome for the first time in 28 years!

They don't know what to do with it either! The mall closed down, the freeway closed down, no one came to church except all of the missionaries and the Bishop. We couldn't even get money from the "Bancomat" :)
 In the middle of the night we heard a bunch of noise and thought a fight had broken out. It was just a bunch of Italian guys in the parking lot having a snow fight and laughing their heads off.

Missing this little girl!!

  and this little skeleton!

                    

We do have warm water and heat now!! And just in time! So no worries.

A step outside the city:

Saturday... David and I went for a drive on the outskirts of Rome. It was good to get out of the busy city. And Ramon let us borrow his car.

                                          

                                                     We found this street on our walk :)
                                                   And just around the corner we found ...

 

                                                             THIS LITTLE BABY!!
                                              Way too old to live in, but Sooo Romantic

                                                 Our First Dinner With Members in Rome

Daniele and Norma Salerno had us over for dinner the other night. She made pasta with tuna, tomatoes, and green olives. A typical meal. It was very good too.
While we were eating Daniele started to tell us about his experience while singing in the choir for the Temple Ground Breaking. I grabbed my notebook and pen and started taking notes. He said that it was such a good experience for the choir members that they were talking amongst themselves afterwards and said it was as if "Heaven and Earth had joined together" I felt so good hearing him tell this story and what a great experience he had had. Then he said that in April conference when the prophet was speaking he mentioned his experience at the Ground Breaking and how much he had enjoyed the choir. He used the words that it was as if Heaven and Earth had joined together.  Daniele said ... " It brought me to tears"
I was glad that I jotted it down while he was telling me... I'll use it in the history!!

Norma also had a story:
As you can imagine there are Ruins everywhere in Rome. Whenever someone builds here the law is that an archeologist has to be on site . If ruins are found the building is either stopped or delayed. When it came time to start the temple no ruins were found so they were able to go forward with no delays. The members in the area had fasted and prayed together on several occasions that all would go well. AND it did!!

BUT here are pictures of a mosaic found in the ground  a few hundred meters away. It is preserved in the bottom of the mall next door.  You can see it's quite big.   I still need to get the exact facts on this story but I'm excited to add it to the history..... a good start.
We decided that the Prophet would be sad if a temple were built in Rome and no one wrote down these stories... so we are going to dig to find all of the stories we can. These people are so excited about their temple. It's going to be so nice for them to have it here.

                                               Hey Dres!!  Here I am in my Italian scarf!!

Other than the sink and a refrigerator, this is the whole kitchen. Just fine for a couple of missionaries.. don't you think!?

  

    

 We are still smiling despite all of the adjustments we are experiencing......

 Haha... they don't call it a foreign country for nothing!! The traffic is CRAZY. I don't think I'll be driving anytime soon. No thanks!! And thankfully David's Italian is coming back rather quickly,  I understand a lot of what is being said and have a few phrases I use to get around. :) 

We still don't have gas in our apartment so it's cold showers and blankets!! Maybe next week.

 But we're still smiling :) 

Trevi Fountain

 The project manager here took us on a nice little outing our second evening here.

I can now actually say I've been to the Trevi Fountian. Even made a wish and threw a coin over my shoulder :)

Arrivederci

We're ready to go!! We leave SLC International at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow. :) We will miss our family and have had a great week together. Thanks to all who came to our open house. It was so fun to see all of you. We will miss you all, but are looking forward to serving at the temple site in Italy.

 Our good friends Russ and Dee Lawler

Steve and Marlene Fenn

Arrivederci