A temple is coming to Rome!
10/9/2008 12:38 AM
Buon giorno tutti!!
So for those of you who read the title and are thinking, «a what?» here is a brief explanation. This past weekend was something called General Conference, which happens twice a year. The leaders of the church (including people who I believe to be a living prophet and 12 apostles like Jesus had) speak to us, there are announcements made, and in summary, it is a way to hear the latest things that they feel are important things for the world to know and do. It is upon this rock of continuous revelation that our church is based.
This Saturday they announced that a temple will be built in Rome. These are not our normal meetinghouses, but places like temples in the Bible--where sacred ordinances such as marriages are conducted. The closest one right now to our members here is in Switzerland, so it will be a wonderful blessing for the people who want to attend who currently spend lots of euro and about 24 hours by bus or 4 hours by plane to attend a temple. The announcement is quite monumental for anyone who is associated with the church in Italy. The fact that I was sitting in a tiny chapel in Ragusa, my first general conference of my mission, and when they announced the temple...everyone was crying, laughing, shouting, hugging, calling people...the Italian translator sort of stumbled on the words, and you could tell he was crying too...overall a wonderful weekend.
This link explains more:
http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/church-continues-temple-building-throughout-the-world
This is about history of our church in Italy:
http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/first-temple-announced-in-rome
So this email is coming from Catania today. We (our whole zone i.e. all the missionaries from Ragusa, Gela and Siracusa) went to Mount Etna yesterday, and climbed up a lot of the volcano. What an amazing view of nature. There was a summit where we were looking out and the clouds, fog, chestnut forests, volcanos...it was so gorgeous.
I really am enjoying the work and the fun here. We found out a few days ago that Patrizia (35) got a job and really felt blessed. She has been searching for years now, and she can finally move out of her mom's house where she is taking care of her and her 2 alcoholic/otherwise troubled brothers. She is also going to start going back to school, get an apartment, and start stopping smoking. Finding and keeping a job is extremely difficult here in Sicily, but we know that her (and our) prayers have been answered.
Ok well I have to run, thanks for all your emails and support. It really means something to think that at least some of you probably even read this email all the way to the bottom!
Vi saluto,
Sorella Black
Italian word of the email: maldestra--clumsy (I fell going up Etna, dont worry mom I'm fine. just scraped up
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