Elder Ballard in Rome

Today we had a special treat: Elder Russell M. Ballard of the quorum of the twelve apostles is in Rome and met with the missionaries at noon. Because our mission is so large, only three zones were able to be present in person, but the others were linked in by video. Elders Clayton and DeFeo of the Seventy were also there with their wives, and each of them spoke, with wonderful and inspiring stories, mixed in with some good humor. We all got to greet the entire visiting party and shake hands briefly. Elder Ballard just turned 90, but he was very sharp and handled all the stairs (ever present in Italy) without a problem! He told the missionaries how much we are loved by the whole church, and how all the apostles pray for us every week. He asked us to work hard and love the people. Nothing surprising, but all very inspiring. All in all, it was an awesome event.

The missionaries also sang the mission hymn together, which is in Italian and which we don't know yet; it's beautiful and fun, with a few unexpected rests right in the middle of the chorus. You can listen to a rendition of it here:
     www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLDobRGzhbM

We also got a suitcase full of stuff from home. McKayT and his wife just arrived here on vacation, and he had generously offered to fill a suitcase for us, which he will then bring home filled with stuff they buy. We both gave him bacietti (a light kiss on each cheek) to welcome him in Italian style; he was fine with my wife doing it, but looked quite surprised when I did it too. 😉 We got to tell Rich what to put in suitcase, including stuff gathered from around our house and stuff purchased from Amazon, plus some extra nice surprises from Jim and ClaireS. It's great! We also got a new (true chip-and-PIN) credit card, which had arrived in the mail at home. Unfortunately, it took some doing to make the connection with McKay; we just missed each other a couple of times during the day, so we ended up driving back across town to their hotel during rush hour -- well worth it!

Because of the meeting with Elder Ballard, the Institute was closed all day, which is rare. However, we will back at work tomorrow.