The first day in the mission is hard. Most of the missionaries are exhausted from traveling and really just want to go to bed. Past experience tells us that they are much better off to stay awake and then go to bed on Italian time. They seem to do better adjusting to the time change that way. Therefore we keep them busy and don't give them time to really take a break.
After everyone arrives, our first stop is the Rome Temple Site. They all love that. From there we go to the villa where all the luggage is unloaded and then we have lunch. By this time, some of the missionaries are getting really droopy. The Assistants know the importance of keeping them going so they give each missionary some pass-a-long cards and walk 25 minutes to the metro. This is the first time many of them have been on a metro. It's exciting when they reach their destination and come up out of the underground and the Colosseum is right in front of them. At that point, they really know they are in Rome. After a quick trip past the Colosseum, Constantine's Arch, and Victor Emmanuel's Monument, they return to the villa where President starts the interviewing process.
While President does interviews, the other missionaries send e-mails home to their parents telling them they have arrived in Rome. After doing some of the interviews, we take a break and walk to the local kebaberia for kebabs. As usual, they eat everything in sight. Most of them have never had a kebab. Kebabs aren't even Italian. We explain to them that they will eat lots of Italian food while they are in Italy. Just like they didn't expect to come to Italy and eat kebabs, they will have lots of experiences they aren't expecting, but they will still be good experiences.
After a few more interviews, everyone is ready for bed and it's lights out. Tomorrow they will truly be Italy Rome Missionaries and they are anxious to do the Lord's work.
What a wonderful day!
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| At the airport |
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| Provo MTC missionaries waiting for Spain MTC missionaries |
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| Rome Colosseum |
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| Constantine Arch |
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| Victor Emanuel Monument |
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