Sunday was Fast and Testimony meeting, with confirmations of both our new members Russell and Fabrizio. There were several visitors from the US, including a family who lives in Richmond. The dad served in the Rome mission about 35 years ago, and my old friend FredM is their stake president. The bishopric had all the new missionaries stand up and introduce themselves at the start of the testimony portion of the meeting. There were five new young missionaries, including one young sister from Italy who finally just got her visa to leave for the Boston mission, so her stay here is short. Then the new senior couple (Simoncini) got up together. Introducing themselves like each of the American missionaries did, they said "we are from the state of Sicily", which got a good laugh. The spirit was very strong for the entire meeting.
Dee writes: Fabrizio, one of the new members, is so enthusiastic to be a member now. He is an active listener. You can tell he's with you. And when he sings, he actually watches the chorister!
My Sunday School lesson on Moses and the Exodus seemed to go well. I spent very little time going over the story, telling them that we all knew those details. Instead, I talked about how to apply the story in our lives today, with various questions on possible meanings of the rich symbolism. The class was very attentive and had lots of good comments. Because I was fasting I felt a little weak (as is typical for me), so I wasn't quite sure how well the lesson had gone over, but Dee felt that it was one of my better efforts.
We also made the small down payment (15 euros each) to reserve us a spot on the ward bus trip to the temple in Switzerland this August. It has been a long-standing ward tradition to go up together on the bus (14 hours each way) and spend almost the entire week there. Apparently it is quite a nice time to bond with members of the ward. Since the Rome temple will open next year, this will almost certainly be the last time the ward puts on such a trip, and we are excited to take part in it before it becomes history..
We were also asked to give talks next Sunday in Sacrament meeting: 10 minutes apiece, one on repentance and one on tithing. Dee chose the former, so I will take the latter. On the way to church in the morning I had commented that this week looked a little light on the lesson prep side, but that is now taken care of. 😉😊
I called my sister Marilyn, and we talked a bit about their upcoming trip here. It is getting close, so there are things to do. We are all really looking forward to it.
Sunday afternoon was quiet, and it was so nice to have time to study, write some emails and even talk with Jim. His business is growing by leaps and bounds, so he doesn't have much free time. We sure appreciate all he does for my parents. The weather was also beautiful, warm enough that I didn't need my sweater after Church. When the weather is like this, I love to go barefoot at home because the cool marble feels so good. Next week, we'll start the stake choir rehearsals.
The Knieses called to ask if they could cover for us at the Institute on Wednesday afternoons. President Pickerd had asked them if they were willing to help us out. The campus has been "dark" that afternoon of the week since the Spragues left last month, which is not ideal. It's much better if we're open every day. So we walked over to their place in the evening to discuss it with them. They are just wonderful, giving and fun folks, and they will offer gelato those afternoons to try to draw out some more kids. They have worked with YSAs before, and will fit right in.We had a great visit with them, sharing ideas on some tourist places to visit, though it seems difficult to find much free time with our busy schedules these days!