Institute Visitors
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| Elder & Sister Foote visit Rome YSA |
Elder and Sister Foote who are missionaries over the
YSA program in Europe came to visit us from Frankfurt, Germany. We had an amazing
group show up that night, which included Annika (blue) from Germany, who
is visiting for the week. She is not a member but came because of her friend Diana. Afterward, a group of YSA went downtown for
the night walk of Rome. The Footes told Annika that they could find a group of
YSA for her to attend in Germany when she goes home, and she was happy about
that!
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| Gene Hayes from BYUI |
Pathway
Saturday
afternoon, we picked up Gene Hayes from BYUI. He came to Rome to introduce the first Pathway program in Italy. The Pathway
program will be available for church members in and around Rome so they can obtain
professional certificates, Associates degrees, or Bachelors degrees online through BYUI. We attended
meetings on Pathway with the two Stake Presidents, Elder DeFeo, Ugo Perego, and
Gene Hayes from 4:00-6:00pm. It was really an inspirational day for us. We had
a large crowd of interested Italians at the meeting and many were very
emotional to have the opportunity to get a degree from BYUI without having to
go to the US. What an inspired program! It will be such a great blessing to the
members in Italy.
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| Elder Andrew, Clariele, Chaly, Sister Andrew, Sister Furlanich, & Sister Sartena |
Church with Clariele
Clariele is a friend of our daughter-in-law, Ilonka, who also grew up in the Dominican Republic and joined the church. She contacted us earlier in the week and said she wanted to go to
church with us, so we made arrangements to pick up her and her daughter Chaly. The
members of the ward welcomed them—we actually have quite a few members that
speak Spanish too! Afterward, we took Clariele home and visited with her husband
Alex, who is not a member but very warm and friendly to us. Clariele made us
lunch, and we had a nice visit. Clariele's brother is serving a mission in Mexico City and
will be home in August or September.
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Elder & Sis Andrew, S. Haynie, S. Sorensen, Ranny, S. Furlanich, S. Sartena
E. Miller, E. Barone, E. Rutledge, E. Kunz |
Good-byes
Our good friend from the Philippines, Ranny Lacar, will be moving to Malta for his work. We had a District photo with him to say good-bye. The good news is that he found out later that day that he gets to stay for a few more weeks!
Mission Tour
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| Elder Patrick Kearon |
We
attended our first Mission Tour by a general authority, Elder Patrick Kearon, a
member of the Area Presidency. Three Zones met together in Rome (about 80 missionaries) and he began
the conference by shaking hands with and talking to every single missionary. Elder Kearon joined the church when he
was 26 and described what it was like for him. He gave the missionaries some
excellent ideas of what it is like for people who are learning about the church
for the first time. It was a great experience.
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| Wilkes and Andrews attend Birthday Party in Rome |
More Visitors
Saturday,
we picked up Tricia (Julie’s sister) and David Wilkes from the Rome airport in the
afternoon. We took them with us to a birthday
celebration for one of the members, Sabrina Staltari. Her mother, Sister Giovanna Galle, cooked
some wonderful food and desserts! It was fun to introduce Tricia and David to
all of the missionaries and ward members. They also received a warm welcome when they attended the Roma 3 ward on Sunday. We were able to do some sight-seeing with them on Monday, but they have all the photos!
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| Members of Roma 3 Ward |
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| Andrews & Wilkes near St. Peter's Basilica |
