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.