A busy, exciting, sad, thoughtful, beautiful, spirit-filled week!
On June 16th my oldest brother, Kenny Teeples, passed away. What a difficult piece of news to receive when you are so far away from home and so unavailable to go be with family at a tender time like this. Kenny’s wife, Audrey passed away in November of this past year. Between missing her and being in very poor health, I’m certain that Kenny was ready to go “home.” There is a saying: “to take mourning out of death, is to take love out of life.” Ken and Audrey were such good people and I will miss our visits tremendously. Ken and I were 17 years apart in age and yet, we were really quite close. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the knowledge that we can see loved ones again. Thank goodness for a husband who understands my need to reminisce about my brother and who gives me comfort in my temporary loss.

Five new missionaries from the MTC arrived at the mission home on Wednesday. They were two weeks late getting to Rome as they were all detained for a time in Provo due to a swine flu scare at the MTC. They look like fine young men and women and we are excited to have them serve in our mission.

Our mission president has given us an additional assignment and the week has been a busy one. So, by Saturday we were looking forward to our first train ride to Anzio. It is a fishing village on the shores of the Mediterranean. On our way there, President Acerson called and invited us to travel with him and his wife to LaSpezia in the northern most corner of the mission the next day. We were delighted.

Sister and President Acerson - Sister Pearson - Will - Elder Pearson
At 4:00 a.m. we were ready to be picked up for the 4-hour drive to LaSpezia. An overcast day was perfect for driving, and we attended our 3-hour meeting block there at an active branch of the church. After the meetings, the President encouraged us to take a train to Cinque Terre, a beautiful rugged coastline area of Italy. Pearson’s, the other office couple and ourselves, enjoyed three hours of incredible beauty. The overcast burned off and the day turned out to be warm and sunny.


At the end of that time, we met back up with the President and Sister Acerson to travel to Prato for two baptisms. That part ended up being the highlight of the day as we witnessed the baptisms and listened to the testimonies of these two converts. The spirit of the Lord was so incredibly strong. (We JUST NOW felt about 10 seconds of another earthquake move our building gently back and forth!) Then toward the end of the meeting, Sister Leckie and Sister Stephensen sang the hymn, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives,” in Italian. During the singing, as their voices blended with amazing skill and thrilled all of us, we looked at one another and mouthed the word: WOW! The perfect ending to a beautiful Father’s Day! We are being so very blessed. What an awesome experience a mission is for a couple. We highly encourage it.





Looks like snow? Actually, it is marble in the mountain where it is being mined.

Zone Conference was on Wednesday of this past week. Napoli Zone was joining Roma Zone since we were enjoying a visit from Elder Kopischke, a member of our Area Presidency and a seventy. Elder and Sister Warner, who are serving in Caserta, close to Napoli attended the Conference. We have stayed with them twice so we could shop at the navel base there. Elder Warner is ex-military and can get us on base to grocery shop. So, we were excited that they would stay with us this trip and attend the conference with us.


On Thursday, we took them to downtown Rome to see the coliseum and while we were there, Will took some very interesting pictures of it. The wall was built after Rome had a major earthquake to try and shore up the coliseum enough so that it will not all fall down.

As we walked around to the opposite side than you normally see, we could see the wall that was built. On the front side, you can also see how shaky the huge pieces of stone seem to be. Another earthquake and we would probably really be in trouble.

Afterwards we climbed a hill inside a park and Will got these beautiful pictures of the flowers and palm trees with the coliseum in the distance. (about a block away)

Wow! What a great way to get around Rome. Unfortunately, we walk! But this sure looked like fun.

We have a flavor to ask everyone: please pray that the government officials of Rome will allow the building of the temple to go forth at this time. We were told that major decisions will be made in the month of June as to whether we are recognized as a church in this country and given permission to built the temple. We are anxious to have a beautiful temple in this beautiful land.

Today at the bus stop we were visiting with an African woman from Ethiopia. We couldn’t give her a pass-along card because she was Muslin, but she spoke very good English and we had quite a conversation with her. Italy is such a melting pot of different countries and peoples. We invited her home to dinner, but she wasn’t brave enough to take us up on that. Besides, it was only 6:00 p.m. and she thought that was way to early for dinner. The Italians eat “cini” much later in the evening.

The Roman Forum, the mission newsletter, is completed and run off for another 6 weeks. The missionaries look forward to receiving it, but it is sure a lot of work. Elder Kopischke, our Area Presidency counselor, is visiting the mission Zone Conferences this coming week. The Rome Conference will include Napoli this time and it is on Wednesday. We look forward to hearing from him.

Sister Bennion, our favorite missionary to date, has returned home after completing a successful mission. My, how we hated to see her go.

Friday night took us to downtown Roma, and we stumbled onto an outdoor music theatre with concerts nightly during the summer. The open-air theatre was constructed about 100 A.D. We will probably attend a concert a little later in the month.


On Saturday, at Venezia Square, I really wanted to go inside a certain church. We waited for it to open at 4:00 p.m. and when it did, there was a wedding party that arrived and went inside. Tourists were also inside, and so we went in and looked around, then watched the bride come in for her wedding. Before she came down the isle some young children were preceding her. The little boy leading the procession couldn’t have been more than 2 years old. He was well practiced and did very well. It was interesting that they played the old standard wedding march as the wedding party came inside and down the red carpet. We only stayed long enough to watch the bride come in, and then we felt we needed to leave.

We purchased some beautiful watercolors on Saturday. They are small, but have good detail, and are very well done.



Just a few flower pictures this week. This is what we see on balconies and along the streets everywhere. So beautiful . . . This is a beautiful country in many ways.

NOW THIS IS WHAT WE ARE ALL ABOUT!

Karol Brigitte Nunez Pacuri baptized 30 May, confirmed 31 May 2009.

Baptism of Karol

Sister Bennion and Sister Cheesman found Karol, taught her, Elder Ingersoll baptized her, and Elder Christensen confirmed her. We love her and greet her with enthusiasm. After her baptism, she bore a strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are so very proud of her. It was especially sweet as Sister Bennion and Elder Christensen both go home this transfer.

On Wednesday, we were asked to drive to Pescara which is on the east coast of Italy to pick up two sister missionaries who needed to come to the Mission Home for a week or two. One of the sisters had burned her face and hands when some hot oil she was cooking with exploded in her face. She needed some mothering so Sister Acerson asked us to go and get her and her companion. While we were in Pescara, we decided to dip our toes into the Adriatic Sea.

The Beach

A picture of Francesco and us at our American dinner for him. Remember he had cooked a real Italian meal for us. Well, we returned the favor by inviting him to a real American dinner. Roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, tossed salad with Zesty Italian dressing (that you cannot buy in Italy), and banana cream pie. The sisters also have been teaching Francesco, but he actually lives within the Rome 3 boundaries so the elders there are now teaching him. He will be baptized. It is just a matter of time. He loves reading and understanding the Book of Mormon, and even his roommates can see the change in him.

Francesco, Sister Bennion, Sister Sommerfeldt, Elder Sommerfeldt

One last picture of our Saturday jaunt to the Mediterranean Sea. This fisherman caught this octopus. I ran over to him to see the octopus and I asked him: “Lui lo mangia?” “Oh, si, si,” he said. I just can’t imagine ever eating it, but hey, this is Italy!

Italian fisherman with octopus he caught

An octopus - ready to eat - yum - yum

Francesco cooking "Real Italian" in our kitchen

Two pastas - different than you have ever tasted - absolutely delicious

Leg of lamb, potatoes, done with garlic and rosemary

Delicious beef, bacon, cheese, rosemary dish with cherry tomatoes

I think all we do is eat!

Suddenly, we are getting all sorts of invitations to eat at member’s homes, and have investigators to our apartment for an American meal. One investigator, Francesco, came to our apartment and cooked us a several course real Italian meal. It was our first one and WOW – good stuff. I am taking Italian cooking lessons by helping him in the kitchen, and helping with the meal at the several members’ homes. Some of the meals are simple, and some are several courses. Pasta has a whole new meaning to us – no red tomato sauce, but very delicious food.

The members here are so totally dedicated to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It takes many of the families from 45 minutes to an hour and a half just to drive to church. (or take the bus, which many of them have to do) Friday night there was a talent show and dance (and of course food) at the church. It was so much fun and allowed us to get to know people in the ward better.

Tonight we are inviting Francesco to our apartment and serving him a roast beef, potatoes and gravy, salad, rolls, banana cream pie type of dinner. The Italians are just as interested in trying our food as we are in trying theirs.

We suggested last night at Vacarono’s house that they pray about a family that we could teach the gospel to. Then we suggested that we cook an American meal for them to try. They thought that would go over great. If anyone would like to invest in the missionary fund, send money for food – roast beef costs money. Jokes – kind of!

We will probably extend the same invitation to the Garcia family on Wednesday. I love cooking, everyone loves to eat, and that seems to soften up the hearing glands so the gospel can be taught. The young missionaries love it because we can’t speak the language well enough to go it alone, so they come along to translate, eat, and teach the lesson. We bear testimony and it seems to work well for everyone.

So, our more relaxed schedule has changed. Now we have scripture study in the morning, work at the office all day, coming home at noon for language study, and then are out in the evening to English class or at someone’s home. Or they are at our home. Missionary work is not for the faint of heart. But it is so exciting that we love it!

On the weekend, we traveled to Terni by car. This is a city to the north of Rome where we have missionaries living. It is fun to see the different areas. The drive was beautiful and we ate an interesting meal at noon at an outdoor patio type of restaurant. The travel is also good for us because we are in charge of train schedules during transfers, and as we see the countryside we are more aware of where the missionaries are traveling and what routes they need to take.