The highlight of every missionary's first day is opening the golden envelope that tells them where they will be serving and who their trainer will be. No matter how tired they are, they always wake up for "golden envelopes". It's a funny thing because there's really no gold involved. The envelopes are inexpensive and really more of a goldenrod color, but the information contained inside is worth much more than gold.
At the end of the evening we sing the Italy Rome Mission Hymn. It's the first time most of the missionaries have heard the song, but they immediately fall in love with it. We sing it at the end of every zone conference. You really have to be there to understand the power and love that fills the room whenever they sing the song.
The sing loses a lot in translation, but here is the English translation:
On fruitful soil, singing a happy song
we declare love, as the heavens have revealed,
to the humble and sincere, we say it is true;
that manna for the heart, mankind will know again.
Chorus.
With faith, we press forward doing His work
with strength, we bring back souls to the Lord;
great is the Priesthood that will save the world,
faithful to the mission, we serve Him with honor.
With laughter and love, the kingdom we sustain
and with the truth, we liberate humanity,
of Him we testify, who lives and reigns in heaven;
to God we give our life, but then we will find it again.
Chorus.
Italy is flourishing, as was promised;
and the saints advance, in the work that Paul performed,
the discomforts and problems, will vanish in the sun,
we will have blessings, if we look to eternity.
Chorus.
At the end of the evening, we let each of the new missionaries send an e-mail to their parents with a picture of them at the mission home with us letting them know they have arrived safely. Then it's off to bed and it doesn't take any coaxing to get them there.
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