Welcome New Missionaries!
It's a thirteen and a half hour flight without any layovers and they always have two or three of those, so it's not uncommon for missionaries to be en route nearly twenty-four hours. The missionaries are exhausted, but excited, when they finally land in Italy. I always tell them to pinch themselves because they really are in Rome. Most people only dream of visiting Italy and they will have the opportunity to live and serve here for 18 to 24 months. Life doesn't get much better than that.
Once they arrive in the mission, we have a very full, very tight schedule for them. If the flight schedule allows, we always make the first priority a trip to the Rome Temple site. (Most missionaries stay awake for that.) Amidst the training and getting a feel for the mission, we try to give them a glimpse of Rome and the Colosseum. We introduce the Provo missionaries to the Spain missionaries and then they go their separate ways. The Spain missionaries have already spent a day in Rome and now the Provo missionaries need to catch up. We always have the missionaries e-mail a picture home so mom and dad know they have arrived safely. (We attempt to delete the yawning pictures so they don't accidentally get sent home.)
Welcome to missionary life!
That's so good of you to try and show them some of the main sites as they arrive. I know I would appreciate that. Also, it's nice that you email a pic to their parents. Such great practices.
ReplyDelete