Veni - Vidi - Vici

Check out our fancy new mission T's. As you can see, on the front it says: we came, we saw, we conquered. On the back is a representation of the coliseum with the angel Moroni on top.

On General Conference weekend, we had an 8-hour delay to hear conference, since our time is 8 hours ahead of Salt Lake time. So, Saturday morning, we went downtown with Burt’s and visited the “Bone Church.” The elders have been telling us about it for some time.
The bones in this crypt were nailed to the wall and arranged in patterns: cross, floral, arch, triangle and circle, as well as forming objects. A large clock is composed of vertebrae, foot bones and finger bones. The single hour hand represents the idea that time has no beginning or end.

The bones in the six-room crypt represent over 4,000 individual monks. It is said monks fled the French Revolution (1793-94) and took refuge at the Church in Roma.

A plaque in one of the chapels reads, in three languages,
"What you are now, we once were;
what we are now, you shall be."

Just before this transfer week, we had the several of the elders over for a birthday dinner. Two of the elders are going home during this transfer. They invited Jonathan over and he showed up with fixings for Italian food and Filipino food.

I think our roast, mashed potatoes and gravy were upstaged by the delicious pasta and rice dishes Jonathan prepared. We did have the final delicacy though - banana cream pie. As we move into Transfer Week, a very busy time in the mission, we realize once again that we give up our favorites and welcome new faces into our district to feed, mentor, and love for a space of time.

On Monday night we met some Cardston people at their hotel as they were visiting Rome. It was fun to give hugs and see familiar, much-loved faces again.

We just want to say how much we enjoyed General Conference once again. It seemed to us the over-riding message of conference was love. Love of the Lord, love of family, love of one another. We pray that we can live those important messages in all that we do and say.