When in Rome.....

January 22-27

Bright and early Monday, January 22, 2018 we left the MTC for the SLC International Airport through Atlanta to Rome, Italy.  It was an exhausting day but one without incident.  Smooth connections, short layovers and an early arrival on Tuesday morning in Rome, what is not to like about that?  

The excitement started when we started our drive from the Rome Fiumicino Airport. Our driver from the mission office was Anziano Knies from Houston, Texas.  He became so enthralled in telling us about his family and living in Rome that he missed the exit to the Rome Temple.  In an effort to take the next exit and make a U-turn to return to the appropriate exit an impulsive left turn set the whole day into a tailspin.  As he pulled out on the busy street to make a left turn, I saw the oncoming van in the left lane headed straight to broadside our van, at the exact same time a speeding car on the right side hit us scraping all down the right side of the vehicle throwing us directly into a head on crash with the van headed for our left broadside.  This didn’t end well; we were in the middle of the street with both sides of the van smashed, hubcaps flying and all of us shaken.  The traffic began to back up on both lanes for miles honking frustrated drivers came to a stand still on this busy street in Rome, Italy.  Eventually three police cars arrived to direct the stalled traffic and began the slow arduous process of measuring and interrogation of all parties.  We were at a huge disadvantage since we did not speak Italian and did not have our residence permits; they took our passports!  We spent the remainder of the day waiting for the process to take its course, thankful that we were able to just wait on the roadside and not in the hospital.

Wednesday morning found us at the mission home taking our International Driving test,(interestingly enough Anziano Knies was the trainer) financial training, and more paperwork! We went to dinner with the senior couples at a hamburger place called Cidos! No Italian food yet!

Thursday, back to the scene of the crime to get that infamous photo in front of the construction site of the Rome, Italy Temple.  We took the metro to downtown Rome for a quick drive-by of the sites in Rome. Best Italian pizza ever on the way to the Trevi Fountain. 

 

Rome Italy Temple

 President and Sorella Pickerd

 Apostles at San Giovanni in Laterano

 Ascending the stairs of Scala Santa  on the knees.

 The Colosseo

 Moses by Leonardo Di Vinci

 Graffiti on Rome Metro

 Trevi Foutain

 Pantheon

Friday and Saturday we took our 2018 Toyota Yaris hybrid, our international driver’s license and all six pieces of luggage on the road. Rome to Sigonella, Sicily; with an overnight in Cosenza!

 Cars in line for the ferry

 Ferry across Messina

Sicily from the ferry

MTC- Provo UT

We spent three weeks in Taipei with Garrett and Cindi in late April, Mother’s Day and Garrett’s Birthday in May.  We were fairly confident that Taipei, Taiwan would be the perfect spot to serve a mission; it was beautiful, we like the culture and best of all Garrett, Cindi and Charlie were there.  We proceeded to put the things in place that would move us towards that goal.  We discussed this possibility with CES, MLS, ESL, temple options as well as office couple options without anything positive.  The language barrier was putting kinks in our plan.  We completed our medical and dental requirements, turned in our papers then left in October for Arizona.  In early November the big white envelop arrived and we discovered we were going to Rome, Italy assigned to Military Relations on Naval Air Station Sigonella.  I definitely needed to do some research for what this might entail. 

During General Conference October 1849 President Young announced the first missionaries to begin preaching the gospel in Italy, France and Scandinavia. Lorenzo Snow was called to lead the new mission to Italy. On October 19 a party of 32 missionaries bound for Europe gathered at the mouth of Emigration Canyon and departed for the journey East.

             

Lorenzo Snow was well educated and already married with children when he was called to missionary service at the age of 35.  They traveled east, through Cheyenne territory to Council Bluffs, St. Louis, Nauvoo and Carthage Illinois to NYC where they departed on 25 March 1850 on board the Shannon arriving in Liverpool, England four weeks later on 19 April. After a two-month stop over in England three missionaries left Southampton on 15 June 1850 crossed the English Channel to France.  They proceeded across the farmlands of southern France landing in Genoa on the 25 June 1850; they completed the journey from SLC to Italy in about 8 months.

Italy’s prominent role in Europe’s religious and cultural history was an important reason for the decision to make it one of the first European mission fields, preaching Mormonism in the birthplace of the Roman Empire, The Renaissance and especially the Roman Catholic Church was one that captivated church leaders and missionaries.  Church leaders and missionaries also viewed Italy as a land sanctified by the presence of some of Christ original apostles and wished to establish the church in a land where the ancient church once flourished.

Lorenzo Snow dedicated Italy for missionary work in September 1850-1851

Last missionary left Italy in 1865. By 1867 most families that were baptized had immigrated, the church ceased to have an official presence in Italy. These were the one hundred years of solitude.

In early 1965 missionary work resumed in Italy.  A key figure in that was apostle and future church President Ezra Taft Benson.  His impact as President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Secretary of Agriculture took him to Italy several times including in 1957 he received the prestigious High Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in recognition of his work to resolved Italy’s serious post war food shortages.

Ezra Taft Benson rededicated the Italy mission in November 1966.

Mike served in Italy 1993-1995, there were four missions Milan, Podiva, Rome and Catania.

Today there are two Missions Milan and Rome.

President Thomas S. Monson broke ground for the Rome, Italy Temple 23 October

2010.  That event was nothing short of a miracle and a strong signal to the saints in Italy that great things were in-store for Italians and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Mormons on the Piazza

As of 31 December 2015

26,284 members

104 Congregations in 83 cities

10 Stakes

1 District

2 Missions

60 Wards

44 Branches

Anziano Anderson and I are assigned to the Naval Air Station Signoella branch for 18 months January 2018-June 2019.  We just completed two weeks of training in the MTC; we leave SLC on Monday morning through Atlanta and arrive in Rome on Tuesday, January 23 all set to try out our new skills. The Sparrows our trainers,  The Tolmans- South Korea, The Marrows-New York,

The Spanos-Japan, and The Paxtons -Germany, were part of the Military Relations training

It has been an historic two weeks for all church members, but especially in the MTC! Seems like just a few years ago, I was the teacher in Freshman Honors English and one of my students was Justin Wilkins.   I had the rare privilege this week to be the student and Bishop Justin Wilkins taught me seminary and institute training.   It was a little overwhelming to contemplate that blessing.

Elder Bednar spoke at our Tuesday MTC Devotional.  I felt that I had been taught by the spirit for an intense hour as we sat together in the auditorium with 1200 Young Men and Young Women and 120 senior couples.  When we stood and sang “Called to Serve “ together the deep baritone and tenor voices touched my heart and gave me chills to realize our participation was part of something bigger than us!

 

The Next Adventure

In November of 2017 we opened our mission call in Mesa, AZ with Kaci, Bill, Rex and Olivia, and Mike, Jessica, Griffin, Ella and Taegan were on Face Time.  We were assigned to Rome, Italy with a Military Affairs assignment at Signoella Naval Air Station on the Island of Sicily.  Interestingly enough, exactly where Mike had served some 25 years earlier.  When Mike was in Italy there were four missions and Mike was assigned to the Catania mission. What does all of that mean? We would spend the next few months defining that question.

 Immediately we knew we wanted to visit our family before we entered the MTC. Taipei was the complicated one because we needed to turn in our passports on December 5, 2017 as we met face to face with the Italian Consulate for an interview for our Italian Visa. 

We needed to go to Taipei right now! We spent the week after Thanksgiving with Garrett, Cindi and Charlie;

 

An Early Christmas with Bill, Kaci, Karli, Rex, Olivia and Ralph in Mesa, AZ! 

 

Christmas week with Jeff, Ashley, Marley, Cade, Carter, Hudson and Crosby in Newport Beach California;

 

And New Years week with Mike, Jessica, Griffin, Ella, Taegan and Roxy in Colorado Springs! While we were with Mike, Craig took advantage of some expert Italian tutoring!

 

We have an amazing family; they are blessings in our life.  It is going to be so hard to leave and know we can’t pop in for a quick visit or attend an event they are involved in.  Thank goodness for Face Time we can still see their faces and hear about what is going on in their lives.  I am excited to see what changes happen in 18 months.  We have been  greatly blessed!

 Bill dropped us off at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, AZ Monday morning January 8, 2018 at 6:30 AM.  We began our journey to begin our MTC preparations to go to the Rome Italy Mission assigned to Military Relations. We have spent one week with 2,000 18 and 19 year old young men and women and about 200 senor citizens! I know for sure that it has been a week of amazing experiences with an extraordinary conglomerate cross-section of a wide spectrum of adults both young and old!

The Long Road Home

In August of 2015 we attend the BYU workshop for China Teachers and booked our flights both to and from Guangzhou.  Knowing that flying home the end of December would be chaos, we elected to fly with Delta instead of a Chinese airline.  We just implemented the return part of that ticket for the longest journey ever taken; we estimate 40 hours!

Sunday morning, December 20 in Guangzhou, South China University of Technology, after long hours of packing, weighing and repacking four suitcases and two roller bags we started our day at 2:00AM. The last preparations and final cleanup had us ready for our driver arriving at 3:00AM. We had really “hit the wall” and were ready to be on that flight to the U.S.  Our schedule was really a repeat of our arrival in September: Guangzhou, Shanghai, Seattle, then Salt Lake City.

The only Guangzhou dilemma was trying to determine whether we check-in with domestic or international.  Since we don’t communicate well in Chinese it became necessary to stand in both lines before Shanghai Airline (Delta’s partner airline) decided how to check-in through domestic and check the bags international all the way to SLC.  Two security check lines later we were at the boarding gate for our 7:30AM flight with only minutes to spare from our three hours early for the international flight, no time for breakfast here!

Enter Shanghai International Airport.  For a country that does not celebrate Christmas both Guangzhou and Shanghai were crazy busy.  We navigated the maze and stood in the lines directed to transfer from domestic to international only to find that we needed to claim our luggage and recheck it, that information after we had stood in a very long line to check in for an international flight. Back to the luggage carousel to discover that only three bags had arrived the fourth was who knows where from a direct flight?  Back to the check-in line with a missing bag notice, this was not a very positive beginning!  Yet again two more security check lines.  Did I mention that in China security does not use those invasive screening machines that flash your photo, no, no, no they use a full body wand and pat down, sometime referred to as a full body massage.  Not only is it intense, up close and personal, it takes four times as long to get through a long line. We again were running tight on the three-hour exchange time!  We were running down the concourse only to discover that we needed to board a bus to be transported out to the tarmac to board the plane.  Really, Delta cannot get a gate assignment at the Shanghai International Airport!

Finally lift off from Shanghai we are in the air for the U.S. great relief spread through the atmosphere of our seats. I had just selected my first movie, settled in for a 14-hour overwater flight when the announcement came that there was a mechanical equipment problem and this plane needed to divert to Tokyo International Airport for repair.  I had really wanted to go to Japan at some point, however this was not the time.  The anxiety level just replaced the great relief in a matter of minutes.  Tokyo happens to be the Delta hub for Asia so the chances for repair are better in Tokyo! We were a captive audience so let’s get on with this. 

Upon arrival in Tokyo we were informed by the crew that we couldn’t get off the plane because no one on the plane had a Japanese Visa, so they would proceed with the repair while we all waited on the runway.  Sure they served water and pretzels regularly, they couldn’t do food service, no breakfast and now no lunch! Our crew were committed to keep the passengers informed every 15 minutes, so every 15 minutes we receive the same update: they were continuing with repair no further information.  Two hours later they figured out how to get 250 passengers through the Tokyo airport to yet another Delta A330 that was destined to Honolulu.  Great we are now going to Honolulu from Tokyo; SLC is beginning to feel a lifetime away.  We were police escorted down the concourse, quite a site to behold and boarded on the second aircraft.    We now had crew rest issues, so someone important at Delta made the decision that the new A330 would continue with the Honolulu crew to Seattle leaving the original crew to rest and later take the Honolulu route. Yahoo no security pat down in Tokyo! The luggage was transferred from plane to plane, we were down one bag before we boarded, it would be a miracle if we landed with any luggage at all with this unscheduled middle of the night transfer! Once again we are off to who know where, never trust the destination until to see the ground!

Originally we were scheduled to land in Seattle at 7:30 AM complete customs and take an 11:30 plane to SLC.  That certainly wasn’t going to happen.  We landed at 2:00 PM missing the 11:30 and the 1:10 flight to SLC.  There were two flights left to SLC, at 4:00 and at 6:10, what are the chances there would be any seats?  We started through the customs and immigration process, one more security check, thank goodness for the invasive photo screening devices! Miracle of all miracles we picked up all four bags in Seattle to take through customs! Some how Delta automatically rescheduled us for LAX, we were later told that there were no seats available on the SLC flights.  So our luggage was loaded on the flight to LAX, however when we arrived at the LAX gate there were no seats! We were now standby on the 4:00 and confirmed on the 6:10 to SLC.  To yet another gate for the 4:00, stand by was only a wish; of course everyone shows up for a flight on December 20, most trying to get home before Christmas.  No seats on the 4:00.  Yet another gate change to check in and confirm the seats that had been promised.  Yahoo we actually were given a seat assignment but the flight had been delayed from 6:10 to 9:40 PM.  Thank you Delta Airlines.  That gave us time to experience Ivar’s clam chowder. 

We finally arrived in SLC just after 1:00 AM with all four pieces of luggage! We drove into the driveway just after 2:00AM! Quite the adventure to go home for Christmas!

Each time we transferred and changed flights we were issued a new set of boarding passes.  As I look through that stack I have 14 boarding passes for lots of different destinations.  I am happy to announce that Delta has apologized for any inconvenience that flight may have caused and sent 10,000 points to my account! Shame on you Delta Airlines!

The Last Week in Guangzhou 2015

The last week of pretty much anything presents a flurry of activities. This week has not been an exception to that generalization.  Final Grades were due on December 18, which in and of itself is a task. We were required to submit electronic and hard copy grades dated and signed, along with a final copy of eighty student’s final paper that could theoretically be submitted for publishing.  Paying our electricity, water and gas bill was on the list as well.  That adventure required a limited conversation with each utility organization. Chinese speaking students saved us with our limited Chinese vocabulary.  Exchanging RBM to dollars at the bank is always at least a 3-hour adventure.  First is the waiting in line with a number, minimum wait this year has been 2 hours with two tellers open, a passport, bank card, and original application paper work are required to receive dollars.  Again a Chinese-speaking student was required to get that accomplished.

Chinese customs and traditions are complicated but protocols are important and need to be respected.  Delivering gifts to the university departments that we have worked with turned out to be a pleasurable experience.  They are always very gracious and extend their appreciation for your effort to make a difference in the lives of Chinese students.

We provided one extra class that was optional for students to attend to learn about American Culture and Customs with three sections together.  We packed in 60-70 very curious students anxious to learn about America. Classroom activities included Skype to Colorado and Arizona.  It was a great idea but the university equipment and limited Internet provided a less than adequate experience for SCUT students to try their English on English speakers.  Both Mike’s family and Kaci’s family were troopers to pick up the slack that was created.  We ended up typing our questions, back and forth between bad connections.  Larry Cooke, a China Teacher from Wyoming is a very talented musician and joined us to sing American songs.  Larry plays both the guitar and mandolin; Craig being the music buff explained Elvis, The Eagles, Taylor Swift, John Denver, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John Lennon, The Beatles and Alabama while I ran the PPT.  It was a fun gig for all. 

C14

 

 

 C4

 Last Class American Culture Day

 Last Class American Culture Day

Board chalk art

 China Teachers Dinner@ GDUF

 Dinner with Gary and Michael

Chinese Uber

Christmas Holiday Openhouse in 350 Square Feet!

One more event before we leave! We have had many student volunteers help us this year with all kinds of projects and even just basic support, like getting internet connected to our apartment, setting up a Chinese bank account, campus ID photos, Campus Orientation, and departmental meetings it seems like a great idea to say thank you to the whole group.  Twelve volunteers were invited to an open house at our little 350 square foot dormitory apartment on December 14.  We wondered if they would all come together or if open house style would work well. 

I made Jessica’s Carmel popcorn and bought tangerines from the fruit market for the menu items. We quickly became the entertainment spot for the evening.  I wondered how many we could really get into our little spot but the students were very adept at squeezing in many bodies in a small area.

 

Larry Cook also a China Teacher from Laramie Wyoming, in #304 just above us brought his guitar and we have taken advantage of his gifts and talents to sing non-religious Christmas Carols.  He became our entertainment for the evening.

They all came together, they all stayed together and they all loved to sing the English Christmas Carols.  I put the lyrics on a PPT so they could see the words, Larry played the guitar and we had a regular sing-a-long.  It was an exciting surprise to watch them enjoy American culture.