DINNER WITH DOMINIC CLEMENCE AND FAMILY

Hello from Rome!  While we were teaching Institute at the Stake Center one night, we were surprised to meet  one of our friends from our home ward in Whittier, California, Dominic Clemence!  He is now living here in Italy with his wife.

                                      This is Dominic, Lorenzo and Dominic's brother in law.

This is Dominic's wife, Fiorella.  She is a very good cook and made us some wonderful homemade food from her homeland, Venezuela!

                        Lorenzo and Anziano Krueger are happy, because they are about to eat dinner!!!

Jacqueline and Sorella Krueger

 This is Fiorella's mama and sister, Irene

Irene and Jacqueline's kids

We had a wonderful evening and had lots of fun and food and we really enjoyed getting to know Dominic and his family!!!!

YOUNG ADULT ACTIVITY IN LADISPOLI

We were able to go to a beautiful city named Ladispoli...located on the coast, about 45 minutes Northwest of  Rome.  We were surprised that 22 young adults came!  The Bishop of the Ladispoli ward came and spoke to the group.  He is very young.  He served a mission and came home in 2009, was married in 2010 and was made a bishop in 2011!!!  He spoke to them about Virtue and modesty.  Then we had lots of great food!

This is Mariana Garcia.  All of her friends surprised her with little play with a sign and balloons and a "cardboard missionary"!  She was due to leave on her mission in one week to Uraguay!

                                     

This is a great group of Young Adults!  Natalia is on the far right.  She is going to the Ukraine Mission and leaves March 13th!  (Anziano Krueger's birthday)

                                         We have a really handsome group of young men!!!

                              We are having so much fun getting to know all of the Young Adults!

VISITING THE VATICAN (with Lorenzo Loverde as our Guide).

We were able to travel on the Subway with Elder and Sister Valentine and Lorenzo Loverde to downtown Rome to see many beautiful sights!  Lorenzo was our tour guide and we really had to walk fast to keep up with him!  Pictured below is Lorenzo and Larry hanging on for dear life!  The Metro is very FAST!!!

        Right when we came upstairs from the Metro, the Coliseum was right there!  They have been working on cleaning the outside of the Coliseum, and it is amazing how beautiful it is!  In the background, you can see where they haven't cleaned it and it is still black on the outside.

Lorenzo took us to a hill on the side of the Coliseum, which gave us a whole new perspective.  Here we are standing with Elder and Sister Valentine.  The sun was going down and it was beautiful!

This is the Arc of Constantine.  This is only a few hundred feet from the Coliseum!  This is so beautiful!  The detail and beauty of this is amazing!

                   This is the Monument to the State!  There is no words to describe how huge this is!  The Statues and carvings are beyond amazing!  There are two guards that stand at attention 24 hours a day !

     We were able to see the changing of the guards!  They wear Military uniforms with capes.  A third guard adjusts their uniforms after they take their places!  Everything is done so perfectly!

Everywhere we went there was such wonderful architecture and beautiful sights to see!  The church in the background is right across the street from the Monument to the State.

The streets are lined with lights for the Holidays!  Beautiful!

This is the Tevere River.  The moon is in the background and it was a beautiful night!

This is part of the Vatican.  (Sorry it is out of focus!)  There are statues or Angels above each column!  This area of the Vatican is a big circle and it had a beautiful Nativity and gigantic Christmas tree set up right in the middle of the circle!  The tree was one of the largest in the world!

 This is the other side of the "circle of Angels".  Way up on the top of the far building is where the Pope lives.

Every branch of the Christmas tree had tinsel, huge balls and lights decorating the tree!  It was gorgeous!

This is Saint Peter's Cathedral.  It stands at the top of the "key" or circle in the Vatican.

There are countless Columns lining the Vatican!!!  Beautiful!!!

Seeing downtown Rome at night was so wonderful!!!

Larry is standing on a beautiful bridge lined with statues!  The bridge goes over the Tevere River.   Castle Saint Angelo is in the background!  Wow!

We really had a wonderful day and we love exploring the city of Rome on our P-day!  We hope you are all doing well and feeling our prayers!

Love,  Larry and Lynne

AN AUTHENTIC ITALIAN DINNER

Hello from Rome!  We were invited to join our Bishop and his family for a traditional Italian dinner!  We had Polenta, which is a creamy cornmeal, topped with a meat sauce that has been cooked all day.  There were 18 people eating dinner together in their tiny apartment!  When the family has Polenta for dinner, they pour it out onto a large wooden board (pictured above) and everyone eats from the board!

We were each given a wooden plank (a little more sanitary), which was first covered in olive oil!  The meat sauce was made with tomatoes and sausage and other yummy things, and then it was covered with parmigiano cheese.

Our bishop has five boys and one baby girl!  They are a wonderful family!  Bishop Celestini shared his conversion story with us!  He was eleven years old and Italy hired him to be a professional soccer player!  He was paid very well!  After playing for many years, when he was about 21 years old he was asked to play on a church team and injured his knee.  The doctor told him he would never walk again!  He was so upset!  He was helping to support his family.....and now he was going to lose this great opportunity.  

                                                    This is a picture of the Celestini's. 

Bishop Celestini had to have serious surgery on his knee.  He was on crutches for a very long time!  He was starting to wonder why something like this could happen to him!  He started to question the church and his testimony started to waver!  Finally, he decided to pray, so he went to a park with a grove of trees.  He stayed there all day.  He read the Book of Mormon and prayed.  He asked Heavenly Father if the Book of Mormon was really true.  He received a wonderful answer and he felt the Holy Ghost very strongly!  He was blessed with the ability to walk again, but he was never able to play soccer again.

We have really enjoyed getting to know so many wonderful people and learning about their personal     conversion stories!

This is Brother and Sister Lushin.  Brother Lushin is the architect for the Rome Temple! The Rome Temple site is only about 10 minutes from our apartment!  Sister Lushin grew up in La Mirada, California,  and knows a lot of our friends and family! 

 The kids loved the Polenta too!

This is the Polenta being served onto the wooden plank.

We had a wonderful evening and we really enjoyed the company and the food!

Love,  Larry and Lynne

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

This past week we were able to visit Southern Italy!  We went to Bari, Bitonto, Foggia, Lecce, Brindisi, Taranto and Statte!  We have been asked by the Mission President to inspect all of the missionary apartments in our mission.  We check each apartment for safety and address any problems.  We are really enjoying getting to know the missionaries in our mission! We were able to meet with 22 missionaries on our trip to the South!!!   We also give each set of missionaries a spiritual thought, which has been really special!  Larry has typed up a three page study on the Atonement and the Book of Mormon!  Awesome!!!!

                                                 Elder McAffee and Elder Stewart

 We had to find lodging for the night and found the Park Hotel Elizabeth in Bitonto on the internet.  We were told it wasn't far....so we started driving and ended up driving....forever......and we finally stopped and we were directed to keep going......this was late at night and we couldn't see very far in front of us, because the little road was not well lit.  We eventually found this entrance and there was a huge gate!  We were starting to think we were in a movie or something!  As we drove up to the gate, we looked beyond and couldn't see anything but a very long road.....lined with trees....and with nothing at the end of the road!

         We called on the exterior intercom next to the gate, and the gate opened very slowly....

                                         We thought we were entering another world.....

           After traveling down the tree lined road for....a long time......

 we finally started to see civilization!!!!!

 We finally arrived at the Park Hotel Elizabeth!!!  We felt like we had been driving for days!  We loved this Hotel!  They had a restaurant inside, (good thing because we were in the middle of nowhere!)

                                                Elder Schwing and Elder Holland

                                                Sister Heiner and Sister Hicks

                                           Elder Pedreira and Elder Larson

                              

                                          Elder Mickelsen and Elder Wright

                                Elder Mickelsen made us Lasagna and Pasta for lunch!  Yum!!!!

We were able to have lunch at the nearby church with the Bari Zone!  We had so much fun getting to know all of the missionaries!  We also enjoyed the food!  

Thank you for all of your prayers!  Love,  Anziano and Sorella Krueger