Hello Friends. My son is having an amazing time in Italy. He has had dinner with several of the same members I ate with 34 years ago. Fun times for a dad, I guarantee! He sent us this email today and at the risk of boring everyone with a long post I thought Id share a part of it that some may find both fun and interesting. Here it is: The highlight of the week was, of course, yesterday. We went to sacrament meeting in Rome 1 where the speakers were Bishop Causse, Elder Perry, and Presidnet Eyring. President Eyrings talk was incredible. He was constantly making jokes and trying to say words in Italian, yet then other times he would get emotional and bear a really strong witness. His Italian went pretty well. He correctly said Buongiorno, nuovo, and ristorante, and with each correctly pronounced word, he gained more confidence. Then he tried to say tecnologia at one point, and he stumbled on it a bit and then laughed and said whatever and moved on. I dont think my description does it justice, but it was pretty funny. There was one point where he addressed us missionaries for what felt like 10 minutes, looking right into our eyes as he picked us out from among the congregation. Then sacrament meeting ended and it was time to start helping to prepare their dinner. Some sisters from the stake prepared a massive multi-course Italian meal for them which was delicious. I know, not because I was eating it with everybody else (we were serving), but because I sampled just about everything before it could be served. And then I ate some after too for good measure. We served them some classic Italian salad, pumpkin soup, lasagna, gnocchi alla Romana, meat with porcini mushroom sauce, fruit, and tiramisu. I think they were pretty full by the end. The best part of the whole day though was probably right before we began dinner. We were in the kitchen when they all arrived at the mission home and we saw President Eyring enter, but we decided not to rush him, and just stay put in the kitchen. The next thing we know, his tall frame is in the doorway and hes shaking my hand saying Hi, Im Hal Eyring. I smartly responded with a deer in the headlights expression, Hi Im L. Tom Pe- I mean, Carso- I mean Elder Perry. (just kidding) I did manage to introduce myself correctly, but I was blown away by his humility, first by coming straight away to greet us in the kitchen, and second by introducing himself as Hal Eyring The rest of the night he always went out of his way to make us feel important and ask us about our lives. It was great. He looked really healthy too, as did Elder Perry. All this despite the fact that they were probably running on very few hours of sleep. Elder Perry is huge. Not just tall, but he is just a massive human being. Hes a tank of a 92 year old man, or however old he is. And hes great too. He had plenty of things to say about my last name as expected, and we got to talk to him for a while. Bishop Causse was great too. He reminded me of President Uchtorf. He ate all of his food too. Nobody else ate all of their food. President Eyring spoke to us a bit about this conference in the Vatican as well. After sending in his written talk, he was selected to speak last (The Pope will be speaking first), and we all thought that was pretty appropriate. Its a three day event. I hope that sooner or later a copy of his talk will be released to the public. Theres lots more to say, but its not coming to mind right now, and Im running low on time anyway. I will add this tough: It was really fun to clear President Eyrings plate after every course and then take pictures with the remains. Its one for the scrapbooks, folks. Actually, I did want to add one thing. I loved comparing and contrasting the difference in this occasion (specifically in Sacrament mtg.) and when I saws the Pope in Caserta. One was like a rock concert and the other was like... well, a sacrament meeting. It was kept a secret which ward they would attend, so there werent all that many people there to what there could have been. They were reverently conducted in and out of the chapel, and even though it was a great honor to have them there in the meeting, they made sure that the focus was still on the Savior the entire time. Thats what really hit me. It wasnt about the Apostles big visit to Rome, it was hey we happen to be here in Rome for a conference. Lets go to church at a small ward there and see if we can add to the spirit of the meeting. I could go on, but Im probably not making much sense anyway.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 00:09:47 +0000
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