Week 3  (Sorry for the delay)

Our dearest friends and family,

We have completed week three and are beginning week four of our mission journey.  Last week was our first amazing week in Rome and our heads are spinning!!!!  We have met several other senior missionary couples, but two in particular, the Guercio’s and the Thacker’s have REALLY taken us under their wings.  We can’t begin to thank them enough!  We feel their sincere love and love them in return.  Their selfless and kind acts of service have helped make us feel at home and have helped soften “the blow”.  We did not expect the adjustment to be as hard as it has been, since we are here each with our best friend.   The separation from the rest of the family and being in a new place where communication is so difficult, has proven to be a major challenge for us both.  We KNOW however that we are where the Lord would have us be, at this very time, serving His children in Italy whom He loves so dearly.  We feel His comforting and reassuring presence.    

The Italian people are lovely, extremely gregarious and kind.  They speak by singing with both their mouths and their hands! It is delightful to observe.  We just wish we could understand what they are saying.  We have both determined that the language we have been studying for the past several months has been something other than Italian!  The Church provides a tutor, if we want/need for an additional six months.  HELLO!  That would be yes.  This time we are going to be more specific and insist that they teach us Italian. 

Cynthia is now receiving calls from the missionaries in the mission and she is providing loving care for each one of them.  The Lord will be using her skills that she learned in school and developed in the hospitals over the past 15 years plus adding to that, the most important ingredient of all, His guidance through the Spirit.  Since most of her patients in the past have weighed in the range of 1-5 lbs.  she is having to make some adjustments in the care she delivers.  Fred is being trained in the office utilizing the vast I-T skills he has developed over the years…NOT! 

Also, driving will be a SIGNIFICANT challenge!  This is not meant to be a slam to the Italian people but they drive CRAZY!  The streets zig and zag in each and every direction with a traffic light every 35 feet.  The motorcycles are coming at you from behind, in front, and from all sides.  Horns are honking, lights are flashing and some are yelling.  The pace of Italian life is very slow until they get behind the wheel.  Then things CHANGE!  The traffic laws seem to apply only to the foreigners who are trying just to survive.  “Everyone says, just be patient and you will get it.”  We are hoping and praying so! 

For Fred’s birthday on Friday night, we walked to the subway station and headed off to a special destination.  As we exited the subway station what did we behold…The Colosseum!   It was magnificent.  We did not have time to tour it, so we just walked around and imagined what was going on in the very place that we were standing 2,000 years before!  YIKES, in America we think 100 years is old! 

Saturday the six of us headed out for a day road trip with our final destination the town of Tivoli.  It is magnificent, at least 1000 years old and sits up on the top of a mountain.  Unbelievable!

As stated above, this is the Lord’s work and we are so privileged to be part of it.  We thank Him every day for His innumerable blessings.  Until next time…Ciao! 

Love

Fred and Cynthia

Anziano and Sorella Knies

Just seated on the plane to Roma

First stop upon arrival to Roma was in front of our Temple, rainy but wonderful!

 With our Mission President his wife, Sorella Pickerd and Brother Bassett, who is the third person?

 Driving crazy, parking even crazier!  This is how they park.

 Another shot.

 On the subway to the Colosseum

 Coming out of the subway station, this is what you see!

 A "facey" in front of the Colosseum

 Amazing Italian Pine Trees

 Service project on Saturday, cleaning a walkway from the mall leading toward the Temple.

 Finished product!

Olive tree orchard.  The trees are amazing and it reminded me of the allegory of the olive tree found in the Scriptures.

One of the many breath taking views we observed on our way to Tivoli.

A beautiful lake-view.

Just like House Hunters International!

Typical view in the old towns located on top of the mountains.  This town is over 1000 years old and people still living there.

Our new found friends, the Thacker's and the Guercio's.  

The city of Tivoli from afar.  We visited the interior and will be back for a

Cynthia is not quite ready to buy, but she is getting there.

When we arrived in Roma airport.

 Fresh made spaghetti we purchased on our way to Tivoli.  WOW it was delicious!

The city of Tivoli from afar.

Week 2 –

I feel like my brain is fried after four days of medical and computer training.  We had training from Monday thru Thursday, and then it was time to say good-bye to some of the other senior missionaries that are off to various areas around the world.  It was so hard to leave some of our new friends behind.  It’s amazing how close we became after working together for just two weeks.  Our new friends, the Keyes, will be serving in the Boston, Massachutes mission.  The Anderson’s will be serving in Mongolia, and Sister Tucker will be headed to a small island off of New Zealand.  After hearing about some of the challenges regarding weather, housing, and food choices, I sure am grateful that we will be going to Italy.

We packed up last night, and then finished stuffing our suitcases this morning.  Thanks to a really nice man and a twenty dollar bill, we were able to get all of our luggage checked in at the airport without any penalty.

We had dinner with the Keyes on Wednesday night at the Joseph Smith building on the rooftop overlooking the Salt Lake Temple.  Dinner was good, the company was great, and the views of the temple were incredible.  I am in awe every time I think about how much the early saints sacrificed to build this beautiful temple.  We were also able to attend a temple session last Saturday.

Sunday morning we attended Music and The Spoken Word at the tabernacle put on by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Afterwards, we were able to attend Sacrament meeting nearby.

Friday morning, and we are FINALLY on our way to Italy.  We leave Salt Lake at 11:15 to fly to Detroit, where we will have an hour and a half layover before boarding a 9 hour flight to Italy.  We are so excited to finally be on our way to Italy to start our new adventure, but finding it a little harder than expected to take off.  So grateful for a patient companion to be on this journey with me.

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Noi amiamo.  Ciao!

Music and the Spoken Word

 On the plane to Detroit

 In front of the Temple

 Surprise!  No winter clothes.

From the top of the Joseph Smith Building

 Our new found friends, the Keyes!

Week one.

To all our friends and family, Buongiorno from Utah!

Our first week has been a whirlwind, but it has been absolutely wonderful!  We moved into our room on Monday afternoon, after getting up at 4:00 a.m. to be at the airport and takeoff at 8:00 a.m..   We might as well have gotten up at midnight since neither of us got any sleep that night.  As a result, we went to bed "uncharacteristically early that night."

As you all may know we were allowed to bring a total of 4 suitcases, weighing a maximum of 50 lbs. each, but we were over limit by 2 lbs.  The skycap let us go through after we tipped him $20!  He was SO NICE.  We also were allowed to bring two roll-on bags weighing 40 lbs. each and two back-packs.  We felt like and looked like a couple of pack mules.  In several of the suitcases, we packed them using vacuum bags to conserve space.  What that means is that we can't use those clothes until we get to Italy, because we would never get them back into the suitcases.  Kind of like letting the genie out of the bottle, you can never get him back in.  How we will fit the clothes into the suitcases in 18 months is a different question, but we will cross that bridge later.  The question now remains, will we remember what goes where, when we pack up to go to Rome, since each bag was perfectly packed and weighed and is now scattered all over our room.  That's a bridge we will have to cross in a little over a week.

The pictures of our room say it all.  It simply looks like a bomb went off.  When we unzipped the bags, everything blew up and went everywhere!

We got to the Mission Training Center (MTC) at noon on Monday and had our first class at 1:00 p.m.  We have been in classes ever since.  The Spirit of our Father in Heaven is so strong here that we feel like we can almost touch Him.  We are learning and teaching about His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ and each day gets better and better.  We attended a wonderful devotional on Monday night by Elder Bednar, one of the leaders of our Church, whom we recognize as an Apostle of Jesus Christ.  He  spoke about the attributes of Christ and how we should pattern our lives after Him.  He gave example after example of how the Savior treated those sinners he encountered each day.  Never judgmentally, always with perfect and unconditional love.  Never excusing the sin, but always loving the sinner and calling them to come unto Him.  That of course is what we hope to do over the next 18 months, help bring others unto Christ and help them to feel of His incomprehensible (but real) love. Our testimony is that He does know and love each one of us and wants us to return to live with Him and Our Heavenly Father forever as families.  Be watching for our weekly posts.  Remember, "Its a wonderful life" and Che Bella Vita (What a Beautiful Life).

Love, The Knies'

 Our exploded room!

 At the entrance of the MTC as we entered.

 In front of the world map where Cynthia is attempting to point out our destination.

 Cynthia pointing to a picture of our Mission President and his wife.