Celebrating 37 Years of Marriage in the Bella Toscana

On the day after Easter, Darryl attended a mass with two of our members, Lucy and Francesca.  The mass was for their husband/father who died unexpectedly about a month ago.  It was held in a small, beautiful Catholic Church nestled in their neighborhood, just outside the old city walls.  Not too many attended, mostly family.  It was important to be there to support the family.

Catholic funerals, burials and masses are quite different from those LDS folks are used to, but they are similar in some ways as well.  They celebrate the life of the deceased, and express hope for the future based on the great gifts we have all received as a result of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  The Catholic ceremonies are much more structured and ritualistic, but they help the family with the transition.

Bonnie has really taken the bull by the horns as she leads our small branch in its weekly Family Home Evenings.  She gets everyone involved, and plans wonderful thoughts, games and refreshments. 

Last evening, Darryl was so very proud of her as she confidently stood before the group and taught a 15-minute lesson based on Bishop Stevenson's recent General Conference talk entitled "Your Four Minutes".  Sure, she made some mistakes with the language, but she taught it all in Italian, needing help only occasionally.  The members, missionaries and investigators understood her well and appreciated her efforts.  She then had everyone laughing and working together as she split us up into two teams, the guys against the gals, for some "Olympic Games" of our own.  It was close, but the gals prevailed, 3-2.

We did a lot of home teaching this week, visiting members far and wide.  We took the sisters with us on one of these trips, and tried to find some "long lost" members.  We found some relatives of one member, but we are still trying to drop by when this sister is at home.  We will return!

We celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary this past Sunday.  We had a nice late dinner together, after three hours of church, and after Darryl returned from a 5-hour trip to Florence for a 3-hour bishops' meeting and a quick home teaching visit to a family that lives an hour or so out of Siena.  No rest for the wicked!  We are postponing a big celebration of this historic event until next week, when Kara and Chris come to visit us.  We are very excited about their visit!!

Our missionaries were quite sweet about our anniversary, making us a homemade card with some very nice sentiments.

Sister Roth is the artist for the front of the card, depicting the four missionaries who are currently serving in Siena.

Elders Axson and Robb, Sisters Boscia and Roth.  Pretty realistic!

Sister Boscia, our Italian sister from Sicily, is the artist for the inside of the card, where she put together pretty good caricatures of both of us.  But Darryl really doesn't have pants that are that blue!

Maybe we still look that young, but probably not!

We are busily planning for May 11 when we will have a number of General Authorities here with us to create a new stake!  This will be a very large stake, geographically; going from the west coast city of Livorno to the east coast city of Ancona, and taking in about 12 other cities in between.  We believe that they will make at least five wards, and the rest of the units will remain branches.  Our little branch of Siena will surely remain a branch.  But, our missionaries and members are working hard, and we hope to grow this little branch in the months to come.

It is a privilege and an honor to represent the Lord here in this part of his vineyard.  In the past 40 years since Darryl started his first mission in the nearby city of Pisa, the Church has grown tremendously in this country.   And, when the temple in Rome is completed some time next year, we are convinced that the work of salvation will skyrocket in this beautiful country.

We see small miracles and tender mercies all around us, and we are blessed to have this wonderful opportunity.

"He is risen!" - Buona Pasqua to all!

Spring is here in full force, and that means new life!  As we celebrate new life, may we always remember Him who willingly gave His life that we all might live eternally.

It is wonderful to be here in Italy, called as full-time missionaries to proclaim the restored gospel to all who will listen.  We constantly invite investigators and less active members of our branch to plant the seed of the restored gospel in their hearts and minds and see if it blooms into a testimony.  Those who do so, with faith and real intent, feel it grow within them until they receive their own witness from the Holy Spirit that the message of the restoration is true.

A couple of weeks ago we received great news from Church headquarters.  The Church is going to combine two districts, the Florence district and the Rimini district, and create a new stake in Italy.  On May 11 a few general authorities will visit our area and create this new stake.  Our little branch will remain a branch, but they will make at least five or six wards, call bishops, ordain High Priests, and move forward with the work of the Lord.  It will be exciting!!

Last Sunday we had a couple from Florida visit our branch.  The Casablanca's are originally from Puerto Rico, and they have served two missions, one of them as a Mission President in Columbia.  They gave us advance warning that they were coming, so we invited them over for lunch after church.  It was good to get their impressions of missionary work.  They plan on putting in their papers soon for a third mission.

Our Relief Society President and her counselor wanted to visit the Nelsons, our professional basketball player and his family, so we took them over to visit.  They brought large chocolate eggs for the two older kids, and they had a blast opening the wrappers, eating the chocolate, and finding the hidden toys inside.

Julie, with her two kids, Logan and Hannah

Hannah taking a big bite of chocolate!

We are working hard with our members, inviting them over for dinner and visiting them in their homes.  It is important to get to know everyone outside the environs of the church house.  As we get to know people better, we are more able to serve them!

Darryl continues to teach Institute, and Bonnie is working hard in the Primary and directing the branch's weekly Family Home Evenings.  We help the missionaries with the English classes they teach twice a week, and we accompany the missionaries on their teaching appointments when they ask.  A Senior Couple's life is filled with a mixture of opportunities to serve, and we are striving our best to take advantage of all the opportunities that come our way.

We took a couple of hours out of our weekly duties to drive through the countryside to enjoy the coming of spring.   As we drove through the Bella Toscana, we captured a few shots of the beautiful land to share with you.  Here you go.

Even though Easter is near, they don't seem the least bit worried

Trees in bloom!

Wisteria in bloom, and cascading over the wall 

Fruit is growing!

A red poppy for Bonnie

The vineyards are finally starting to leaf out

Rows and rows, as far as the eye can see (almost)

Monteriggioni in the background, over newly planted and plowed fields

Today was Easter Sunday.  Because we have many part-member families, we were aware that some of our more active members would be away for family events on Easter Sunday.  As a result, one of our elders was called upon to teach the Priesthood lesson, and Darryl jumped in to teach Gospel Doctrine.  One of our sister missionaries was supposed to talk in Sacrament Meeting, but she called Darryl at 8:00 a.m. this morning and told him she was too sick to talk.  Not a big problem.  We sang an extra song and Darryl gave the closing talk, reminiscing on his and Bonnie's trip to the Holy Land in 1997.

As he shared with the branch today, we wish to share with you our knowledge that the tomb is empty, that Christ is resurrected and lives to guide His church today, and that He is our Savior and our Redeemer. 

In reality, the way back to our Father in Heaven and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is easy.  He has given us a detailed roadmap on how to return, he has shown us the way by His example, and now it is up to us to follow the map and His example.  Our individual weaknesses and our tendency to trade immediate gratification for eternal bliss are the stumbling blocks that get in the way of our progress.

Since we are so far away from our five kids, their wonderful spouses, and our ten (soon to be 11) grandkids, we had to find substitutes.  Thus, we invited our missionaries over for Easter dinner, together with two of our members who probably didn't have anywhere to go for Easter dinner.

Bonnie prepared a beautiful table, wrapped Easter gifts for all our guests, and we enjoyed a nice dinner together.  Darryl attempted to recreate his wonderful marinated flank steak.  It turned out OK, even though he couldn't find the exact cut of meat he wanted and he didn't have a BBQ on which to grill the steak.  Nonetheless, our guests enjoyed their meal, and were filled.

Easter setting, and gifts for our guests

Elders Asxon and Robb, and Sister Boscia, waiting for food

Sisters Boscia and Roth, with Anthony from the branch

Anthony and Elder Robb, reading our Reunion book

Sisters Roth and Boscia, with Emily from the branch

Dinner is served!!
Sister Roth, Emily, Sister Boscia, Bonnie, Elders Robb and Axson, and Anthony

Bonnie made a wonderful carrot cake, and our English member, Emily, brought homemade brownies.  Needless to say, we had a wonderful meal with cherished people.

We wish all our family, friends and loved ones a marvelous Easter, as we all look forward with hope and faith toward the great gifts of eternity that are made possible by the sacrifice we celebrate today.

Prophets and Apostles and Seventies, Oh My!

These past days have been spent preparing for General Conference, and then feasting upon the words of living prophets and other leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Mormons").  See, we did learn from Elder Ballard's talk!

We first visited with many of our members to encourage them to come and join with us to watch conference on Sunday (instead of watching it at home on their computers), so that we could feel each other's spirits and rejoice together.

Here we are eating pizza at a great pizzeria in Siena that is tucked away in the corner of a small piazza where most tourists would never find it.  Our wonderful English sister, Emily, found this place and we are so glad she did.  We talked over pizza and encouraged her to join us on Sunday for conference, and we were so happy when she came on Sunday to feast on the word of God.

Emily and Bonnie, and our small, individual pizzas!

Yes, Darryl ate it all.  Bonnie only got through half of hers, so we had great leftovers.

We planned a full afternoon of conference on Sunday.  We first split into groups and the sisters listened to the General Women's Conference from the week before, while the brethren listened to the Priesthood session.  We hooked it up so we had some rooms in Italian and some in English.

After listening to these sessions, we prepared a wonderful branch dinner, where Brother Natale made two kinds of pasta; one with a rich red ragù, and then a wonderful Carabonara.  We supplemented that with other things that the members and investigators brought to share, and we had a marvelous feast.

After a great dinner!  Brother Natale, our great cook, is standing on a chair next to our 6'8" elder.

Then, when 6 p.m. rolled around, we gathered around the computers, monitors and TVs again, where we all watched live the Sunday morning session of conference.

We were truly fed by living prophets who warned us that the tides of opposition and persecution against the precepts of God would continue to rise.  And as Elder Holland so eloquently stated in his Saturday morning discourse, "we must defend the gospel with courtesy and compassion, but we must defend it!"  Man's laws, no matter how much popular opinion might be shifting to accept what is contrary to God's commandments, cannot and will not change God's laws.  The time to stand is now!

Bonnie followed up a wonderful Conference weekend with a branch family night centered on the things that we learned in Conference.  It was wonderful to listen to our members' thoughts about General Conference and the important truths that they pulled out; those that were answers to their own personal prayers.

On Tuesday the elders asked us to assist with a lesson on the Book of Mormon with one of their investigators.  It was a great experience watching them teach this fine sister, and then having the chance ourselves to share our own testimonies of the Book of Mormon, the First Vision, and the divine calling of the Prophet Joseph Smith.  She committed to read more in the Book of Mormon, and to seek and pray to see if it is a good seed that will grow into a testimony.

That same afternoon we took our sister missionaries with us to visit a sister and her son who live in Poggibonsi.  This good sister is working hard to support her little family, and we are trying to help her return to activity.  While she isn't coming to Church quite yet, she is reading the children's illustrated Book of Mormon stories to her six-year old son, and he is truly learning the stories of that great book.  In fact, Darryl showed him some of the pictures from that book that went along with the home teaching message that he was teaching, and this six-year old was able to recall and share the gist of the story.  It was fun!

It seems like the card game "Bang" has become quite popular with the elders in the mission.  Many play that game on their P-days (hopefully not on other days).  One of our Siena elders got a set of cards and wanted to play on P-day.  So we went down to the Church on Wednesday afternoon and schooled them quite nicely.  Bonnie won two games, and Darryl won the other.  They may not invite us to play again.

Yesterday two Senior Couples serving in our mission came to visit Siena. 

Brother and Sister Keefer, Bonnie, Brother and Sister Harmer

So we took a few hours out of our day to show them around this beautiful city.  Bonnie and two others decided to climb the tower at the Piazza del Campo (the tallest "secular" tower in all of Italy), to take in the spectacular views from the top.  (Darryl is saving his energy to tackle this climb in a few weeks when Kara and Chris come to visit.)  The day was gorgeous and the views tremendous!

The Tower

Looking down on the Campo

And over toward the Duomo

Bonnie at the top!  Proof she made it!

San Domenico from the top of the Tower

We also toured Siena's gorgeous Duomo, with its Museum, Baptistery and Crypt.  Some very great stuff!

The baptismal font

Christ standing in the River Jordan getting water poured over his head.
A bit incongruous, but that was the belief in the 1400's when this painting was done.

Finally, although we are here in Italy preaching the restored gospel with all the keys of the Priesthood and the authority to act in the name of God, we are always reminded that the world is filled with wonderful people not of our faith who are striving to live the teachings of the Savior.

We walked by Siena's Catholic Charity center that does so much good for the homeless and hungry in the city, and we snapped a couple of shots of the great goals of this Christian service organization.

The Seven Spiritual Works of Charitable Service

1.  Counsel the doubters.

2.  Teach the ignorant.

3.  Admonish the sinners.

4.  Console the afflicted.

5.  Forgive offenses.

6.  Patiently support molested persons.

7.  Pray to God for the living and the dead.

The Seven Temporal Works of Charitable Service

1.  Give food to the hungry.

2.  Give drink to the thirsty.

3.  Dress the naked.

4.  House the travelers.

5.  Visit the sick.

6.  Visit those in prison.

7.  Bury the dead.

As we strive to serve our Lord to the best of our abilities, it is our prayer that all of us will look beyond ourselves and reach out to help those in need, wherever we might find them.  Let's not get so caught up in our own small spheres of existence that we don't see the greater community and ignore those we can truly help.

Remember, we are the Lord's hands in accomplishing His great work!