BAPTISM OF LORENZO LOVERDE

Anziano K, Lorenzo, Sorella Krueger

 

On November 20, 2011 (a really great day, Lynne's birthday), Lorenzo Loverde was Baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!!!!! We met with Lorenzo the first Sunday we were in Rome! We had a great lesson with him after Church and he said he was not ready to be baptized. He had met with the missionaries many times......but did not feel the Spirit. We suggested he read in the Book of Mormon, Alma Chapter 22. He agreed. We felt an instant connection with Lorenzo! He is such a great guy!

We emailed our family and asked everyone, including our grandkids to pray for him! About a week and a half later one the missionaries walked into the Mission Office and said, "Lorenzo walked right up to me in Church, and said, I want to be Baptized!!!!" HOORAY!!!! Sister Krueger started to cry!!! We were soooo happy!!! Lorenzo said as he read the scriptures and prayed, he felt his heart change!!!

He was confirmed the following Sunday and we had him over for dinner that night. We really enjoyed getting to know him! He had a very difficult childhood and was orphaned at the age of nine. He was passed from Uncle to Uncle and not treated well. His wife died about a year and a half ago. He lived with his Aunt until she died about a year ago. He is very acquainted with the rigors of life, and has a depth of spirit and strength of character that we found to be very inspiring!

We are very priviledged to be a part of this great work and we are so thankful to be able to take part in helping others discover the happiness and truth that comes with being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ!

Thank you for all of your prayers on Lorenzo's behalf and on our behalf! We love you and appreciate you all so much!!!

Love, Anziano and Sorella Krueger

When in Rome!

Hello again from Rome!

We are doing very well here in Rome!  We are enjoying the people and the weather.  Our weather here is similar to Southern California....Maybe a little more humid......The people here are great!  We are making a lot of new friends and having lots of great experiences!

We were able to go to Ostia this past weekend!  

Ostia is the beach of Rome.  It is about 30 minutes from our apartment.  We were also able to go to downtown Rome and see the Coliseum and the Monument to the State!  

Wow!  There are so many beautiful places here and we took our lunch and ate right next to the Coliseum!

We just had our second meeting with the Stake President and we are working on starting up the Young Adult Program in Rome!  We don't have a separate place yet, so we are going to start meeting at the Stake Center and have a special room and set it up with a ping pong table, foosball, mini basketball and we are planning on doing lots of cooking and having lots of fun!

Outside of our apartment building

Our First Week in Italy!

Hello from Rome!

 

We are getting settled in and organized in our apartment in Rome!  We are happy to report we like our apartment.  It is a one bedroom furnished (my the Mission) with a living room, bathroom, and kitchen.  We are grateful the mission provides us with pots and pans and all the necessities that we need to set up our apartment.  We are about a ten minute drive from the Mission Office.  We are working in the Office everyday...but that will soon change as we will start traveling around the mission as of next week to visit all of the missionaries in the Rome, Mission.....we have a check list of things we need to check and make sure they are doing.

 

We were able to visit a really beautiful city called Bagnoreggio....it is an ancient city that dates back to 1300 years before Christ!!!  This city is built on top of a hill and all of the houses and buildings are jammed together.....during World War 1 the bridge was bombed and also a huge earthquake in 400 A.D. that almost destroyed the whole city!!!  We were able to go into a "house" that is carved out of the mountain and the floors, ceiling, and walls are all rock and dirt.

The City of Bagnoreggio, on the hill.

 

Anziano Krueger walking up to Bagnoreggio.

Sorella Krueger on the bridge going to Bagnoreggio.

Entrance to the City

Anziano and Sorella Krueger Entering the City

Anziano Krueger

 

Sorella Krueger

Inside the Ancient City

Views from the city

 

 

 Inside one of the houses, there is a olive oil press in the background and they used rope nets to strain the olive oil.  The press was

      very large, probably 6-7 feet in diameter with a lot of ancient equipment still in the house.

The "Dining Room"

Anziano and Sister Krueger in the Ancient City of Bagnoreggio.

There is a open area in the middle of the town and this is the church....we went inside and it is very beautiful with high ceilings lots of carvings etc....(and they even have glass coffin with an ancient Priest dressed in robes).

Our living room in our apartment

 

This is the inside of the front door to our apartment....the locking system is really incredible with five huge bolts that move and the  

      key has to be turned four times to advance the bolts completely.

Our little kitchen (Where is the refrigerator?)

Our frig is inside the cabinets!  (It's smaller than our frig in our motorhome).

Our bedroom

Our bathroom

 

Hello from the MTC

 

Hello from the Missionary Training Center!!!

 

We are very excited to report we have had a wonderful week!  We drove to the MTC on Monday the 3rd of October from Kristen and Zack's house....(We spoke in our ward in Orem on September 25th).  When we arrived at the MTC, we were instructed to go around to the north side of the building and as we drove around to the side, about 20 young missionaries were all wresting and jumping around and as soon as they saw us coming they started running towards us!  So we slowed down and when we stopped they all started pulling our luggage out of the back of our truck as fast as they could and started running into a nearby building.....we hadn't even gotten out of the truck yet!  When we finally got out, (we are senior missionaries you know), everything was out and one missionary came over to me and asked if there was anything he could carry upstairs????  I said, "well, I have a pillow you can carry upstairs"....he was so happy and ran upstairs as fast as he could!

 

 We have really had so many wonderful experiences!  We have been able to listen to wonderful speakers, like L. Lional Kendrick, an emeritus member of the Seventy, and the MTC President and his wife.  We are part of the largest group of Senior Missionaries ever to report to the MTC!  51 couples, 102 Senior Missionaries....going all over the world!!!  We were really surprised to hear where some of the missionaries were going!  Three couples are going to Guam!!!  We have been studying out of Preach My Gospel this week and we were able to meet investigators and practice our teaching skills!  We have made a lot of friends, and we are surprised we have supreme freedom!!!  We have been able to go shopping, go get ice cream and go for walks!