Samy Hamed is baptized December 16, 2012

We have had the wonderful opportunity to participate in helping teach Samy Hamed from Egypt!  He is very interesting and we have really enjoyed getting to know him!  He asked for a Book of Mormon in Arabic, which opens from the opposite side of the book, and the words read in the opposite direction! 

On the right page, you can see "The 10 Commandments", and it is interesting to see how he marks his scriptures with a circle around some of the symbols.

Samy asked Larry to baptized him!  His baptism was so beautiful, and he asked two new converts, Stefano Rossetti and Alberto Garcia to bear their testimonies.  They were both awesome!  Samy even bore his testimony!  We feel very thankful and very privileged to be a part of this wonderful work and glorious Gospel! 

HAIL TO KRISTEN "THE AMAZING PACKAGE SENDER AND EMAILER"!!!

Kristen, our daughter, has been absolutely wonderful and amazing!!!  We are so thankful for the countless and daily emails!!!  The packages have been so wonderful and the postage for just one package is so expensive!!!  That hasn't stopped her from sending us anything we need including heavy vitamins, taco seasoning,  even Instant pudding.....you name it and she has sent it!!! 
She made the bracelets I am wearing, and I am not displaying everything that was in my birthday package.....because there were sooo many things!!! 
Thank you, Kristen for your diligence and love!!!  YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!  WE LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!!!!

 Aria, our grand-daughter made us this "pop-up" Christmas card!!!  Very clever and cute!!!

 Kristen, our daughter made me a very stylish apron for Christmas!!!

Kristen is so clever....she puts stickers of Jesus to let the postman know these packages are going to missionaries!!!

Above, I am holding my birthday package which was filled with so many amazing things!!!  Below are our Christmas packages...which had everything from medicine to candy to homemade items!!!  Thank you, Kristen and family!!!  We love you!!!

Leandro and Alan Garcia received Mission Calls!

This is Leandro (left) and Alan Garcia.  They are brothers and they have been coming to our Center/Institute classes for over a year!  Alan is the younger brother, and received his call first, to the Milan, Italy Mission, which is in Northern Italy. Alan reported to the Madrid, Spain M.T.C., October 26, 2012.   Leandro was called to the Rome, Italy Mission!!!!  He leaves for his mission in January, 2013.

This picture was taken at Alan's setting apart to become a full-time missionary!  He gave a long hug to his girlfriend, before being set apart!  Ha ha!

We are very proud of Alan and Leandro!  They are great examples to all of the young adults!

We have a great group of young adults!  They are very supportive of each other!  (From the left) Jarome, (Sisters of Leandro and Alan), Denise, Leandro, Alan, another sister, and Stefano (their really close friend).

This is Alan with his proud parents!  They are a great family, and we are so privileged to know them!  Congratulations to Alan and Leandro!

Fireside with Fighter Pilot, Dan Gillespie

Dan Gillespie and his family of six children and his wife just moved here from the United States.  We were able listen and watch his Power Point presentation on some of his accomplishments which includes a PhD, and all of the aircraft he has been able to operate over the years.
He had a very interesting presentation, and the young adults loved his stories and experiences!  We had a great night!

Happy Birthday from Bishop DeMatteis!

                           



















As we were leaving our apartment to go to Church, we turned around, and there stood our Bishop!  We were very surprised because we live on the top floor and usually never see anyone up that high!  He was holding a pumpkin pie that he had made himself!!!  He gasped when he saw us, hurried and reached for a candle in his pocket and lite the candle as fast as he could, and then proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday" in English!  He was very proud of his pumpkin pie, because that is very unique and not known to the Country of Italy!  Actually, he made 2 pies!  The first pie he made was right before my birthday, and he called to see when he could bring is over, but our schedules never seemed to coordinate, so he and his wife ate the first pie, and he was so diligent to make a second pie and come to our apartment on foot, and surprise me with a wonderful dessert and song!

This is me modeling my new birthday skirt!!!  Thank you Larry and Trine!  

It is so fun to receive presents and have a fun birthday!  Thank you everyone for remembering my birthday!

Thank you for all of your support and love!  We appreciate all of your prayers on our behalf!  We are very humbled and have learned so much while here in Italy!  Love you all!!!

Institute with the Young Adults

We have the great opportunity to work with many wonderful people.  

One of the wonderful privileges of serving here is to be able to teach Institute class.  We have been able to learn so much!!!  We were asked to go to the city of Ladispoli and teach an Institute class to the young adults there.  Ladispoli is about 30 minutes from Rome and is in the Rome Stake.

Activity for the Young Adults!

This is Marcos (left, who is the President of the Young Adults), Leandro and Stefano.  You might wonder why Leandro has a roll of toilet paper on his head.

This is Andrea, Denise and Diego.  These are all great young adults!  For one of our activities, we played a game called the "Mummy Game."

This is Gustavo, Emma the Mummy, and Alan.

We had three teams!  Marcos was mummy #1!

Denise was mummy #2!

Emma was mummy #3.

Each team was competing to be the most clever mummy in 3 minutes!

Emma was wondering if she would be able to breathe!

These guys were fast!!!  It looked like Denise was going to be the first mummy finished!

These guys were really good!

Poor Emma!  Gustavo was doing his job alone!  His partner left to go talk on the phone! 

The toilet paper was flying!!!

The final touches!  Denise is looking awesome!

This is Alan, Emma the Mummy and Gustavo.  They are finished!!!

Bam!  Diego, Denise the Mummy, and Andrea.  They are finished!!!

Marcos is finished!  Cast your vote!

Yikes!  Scary Mummies!!!

Hurry and judge the Mummies!  The toilet paper is falling off!!!

Baptisms in Rome!

Guiseppe D'Amore is 82 years old and he was just baptized!  

He is very sweet and soft spoken.  He was very interested in Eternal Families!

This is Sorella Perez and his family.

This is Lorenzo Loverde, (left), Michelanglo (on the right), who was just baptized a few months ago.  Lorenzo was baptized last November (2011).  I can't remember the name of the guy in the middle.....

This is Guiseppi Macario.  He was baptized a couple of months ago.  He is actually a young adult, but he just moved to Milano.

This is Floridana Flores.  She is from Honduras.  She has four children and they are all members of the Church.  She was never interested in the Church while she was living in Honduras.  In fact, the missionaries tried to meet with her and she refused to meet with them.  She would always tell them "no".  Then she moved to Italy, without her children.  She noticed something was missing in her life.  She couldn't figure out what she was missing.....until one day she had a feeling.....she was missing the missionaries!!!!  She took the missionary lessons and was baptized without telling her children!  After she was baptized, she called her children, and told them the happy news!!!

This is Alberto Garcia.  He has been attending our Institute classes for 5 or 6 months.  We have really enjoyed getting to know him.  He is an attorney!  Alberto is 28 years old and very sweet.  Anziano Krueger was asked to baptize him on October 20, 2012.  We had a wonderful day!

We are so thankful we are able to participate in these wonderful baptisms!  The people really do change and they are happier!  Alberto is kind of quiet, but when he was listening to General Conference a few weeks ago, the Tabernacle Choir starting singing and he had never heard them sing before.  The Spirit was so strong....  He started to cry!  This is the first time, Alberto had really felt the Spirit!!!

These are the missionaries that help teach Alberto.  (Left) Sister Clark, Anziano Davids, Alberto, Anziano Telaroli and Sister Heiner.

This is Anziano Krueger, Dima Scotchi and Marcos Bendezu'.  Both of these young men are young adults who come to our Institute class.  This picture was taken after Alberto was baptized.

This is (left) Sister Lovell, Alberto, Stefano Rosetti (who was just baptized a couple of months ago) and Sister Miles.