We haven't spent much time at the mission home because we have been on the road all the time with Zone Conferences. I cooked an egg one time, but that has been the extent of cooking. The one or two times we have been here, we ate yogurt. I hadn't even looked in all the cupboards or drawers in the kitchen. There's just nothing like baptism by fire. As we were on our way to the airport to fly to Malta, we got an e-mail saying Elder Evans and his wife were going to be in Rome and would we please pick them up at their hotel and take them to church and then to the Rome Temple site. We immediately agreed and invited them to lunch afterwards.
I've never cooked in Italy. I had no idea what food if any was at the villa. I didn't even know where a grocery store was. I have walked to the little market down the street for milk and fruit, but that's the extent of it.
We didn't get home from Malta until after noon on Saturday. I walked to the little market and got cheese, fresh fruit and bread. The assistants came and took us to a grocery store where we bought pasta and drinks. I made a pasta and a green salad for lunch. It's much too hot to do anything else right now. We got gelato from the corner store and called it good. (It actually turned out very nice.)
We have been told it is next to impossible to visit the temple site. You can drive by and take pictures from the outside of the fence and that's it. Very few people are allowed on the site and they have to have approval from headquarters. Imagine our surprise when we were allowed to tour all the buildings on the temple campus. The assistants acted as our chauffeurs and thought they would have to park outside the gate and wait for us. They were pretty excited when they got to drive inside the gates, but then they were escorted into one of the construction offices and had to sit and wait for us. Even that was pretty exciting for them. At least they got temple dirt on their shoes.
Everything is still under construction and has a long way to go before competition. In addition to the temple, the site also includes a visitor center that will also house a family history center, a patrons housing unit, and a new stake center. We stood in the center of the visitor center right where the statue of the Christus will be and then stood in what will be the Celestial Room in the temple. I can just imagine the peaceful, beautiful serenity when the project is complete.
After a trip to the temple and some lunch at the villa, we drove Elder and Sister Evans back to the center of Rome where they were staying in a hotel near Trevi Fountain. We drove past the Colosseum and stopped long enough to take a picture on the bridge. Their hotel was a half block from Trevi Fountain and one of the elders with us had never seen the fountain before so we hurried to the end of the street so he could see it. While we were at the Mission President's Seminar in Provo, Sister Oaks asked me to throw a coin in the fountain for her and wish that she could come back with Elder Oaks. While we were there, I threw a coin in the fountain just for her and then asked Elder Evans to report that I had completed my assignment.
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| Presidente and Sorella Waddoups & Anziano and Sorella Evans |
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| Visitor Center |
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