Zone Conference

Wednesday was a long, cold, and rewarding day. We left at 7:30am for Zone Conference at the Rome 1 chapel, on the other side of town. Traffic was not as bad as we had feared, so we got there well before 8:30am, for the conference to start at 9am. This was our first ZC with just one zone, far smaller than the other conferences we have had since arriving. We are in a different zone from the other missionaries who live nearby, since we attend the Rome 3 Ward. It was very nice to have a much smaller group, about 20 young missionaries, half of them female, two senior couples (the Spragues and us), the APs (young elders, assistants to the President), and President and Sister Pickerd.  This way we could all have a good group discussion when required. Sister Pickerd said this is the first week since July when she has felt ok, having gone through all kinds of treatment for her cancer. 

It was also very cold. The low overnight dipped below freezing, and the high was below 50 degrees. The humidity makes the cold more intense -- all the missionaries from Utah seem surprised by how cold it feels for these temperatures. In the chapel itself, it was quite chilly most of the day, with the heater kicking in only occasionally. ZC means that the Anziani wear suits, and I wore a sweater under my suit coat, plus my wool coat that I draped over my legs. The suits I bought to bring on my mission are nice summer suits, so the pants fabric is very light and breathable, not exactly helpful in weather like this. Silly me -- I thought Rome was a warm climate! For Christmas my wife has offered buy me a winter suit, helping to stimulate the local economy. 😀

The conference was wonderful. President Pickerd decided to spend some time reviewing doctrine, particularly of the atonement and the plan of salvation, starting with 2 Nephi chapter 2. He began with a well-known quote from Boyd K. Packer:

"True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior."

Then the President led us on a good group discussion of the topics, reading from a number of scriptures along the way. The APs taught us for a while, giving some good challenges to improve how we work, and the Zone Leaders (ZLs) and the Sister Training Leader followed that with a nice discussion on our fears as missionaries and how to overcome them. In the middle of the day, the Knieses brought in a lunch with big American-style hamburgers, quite a treat here for most! At the end, President and Sister Pickerd reviewed the recent baptisms throughout the mission. They do this by showing a photo of the convert's baptism with the missionaries who were involved. Several of the baptisms included missionaries who were with us that day. It was wonderful to have them add a bit to the story. Three missionaries about to finish their missions had the chance to  bear their testimonies. These young missionaries are really exceptional, and it's wonderful to be around them. The spirit was very strong all day.

At the end of ZC, we sing the mission hymn in Italian. My wife and Sister Pickerd got together earlier in the day and sang the old English lyrics from the 1970s (same tune, very different words) for a few young missionaries, who had never heard it. After the closing prayer, they take pictures of various groups of missionaries to post on the Pickerds' mission blog:
   pickerdsitalyromemission.blogspot.it
You should find photos of our zone (Roma West) there within a few days. They take a group shot of everyone in the zone, then just the Anziani, then just the Sorelle, as well as one of each missionary companionship and some other shots during the day. The official meeting ended just after 3pm, followed by the photos, and then a Christmas skit composed of songs and narration. The young missionaries all had parts assigned and were dressing up in cute costumes they had concocted. Afterward, they were going out caroling together. It's very nice for them, because it's usually only the first or second time they have ever been away from home for Christmas, so the Pickerds try to give them a bit of a family feel here. 

We left before the skit started, because we had some food shopping to do at Metro for our refugee activity Thursday night, and it was getting toward rush hour. First, however, Anziano Dunn (from Poway in the San Diego area) needed a quick ride to a local store to buy a secret Santa gift for his companion, since he dropped the one he brought and it broke. So we ran him down a few blocks in the car; he and I were in and out of the store in about 30 seconds, and then we dropped him off back at the chapel and headed out.

Unfortunately, traffic was already pretty bad, and it took us almost 90 minutes to get to Metro. There's a beltway around Rome called the GRA. If you think of the beltway as a clock, the Rome 1 chapel is roughly at 9 o'clock, our house is at noon, and Metro is at 3. So we had to go 180 degrees around the clock to get there, with bad traffic much of the way. Going through town instead would have been even slower, in case you were wondering. By then we were tired, cold, and hungry, but we shopped fairly quickly and filled up the car with food. On the way home there luckily wasn't much traffic in the other direction on the GRA, and we stopped at Lidl for a few more things. Once we arrived at home, it took two trips to/from the car to carry it all in. It was very good to finally get in where it's warm, and we enjoyed eating dinner very much!