Partita di rugby!

Hey guys!!!

I am so glad that everyone is doing well! Thank you for your emails!

This has been a fun week! We spent a lot of time getting our recent convert, Deejay, ready to get the Priesthood. He asked me to give it to him and on Sunday after church I had the wonderful experience as I laid my hands upon his head and conferred to him the Priesthood and ordained him to the office of priest. Deejay is doing great and he is excited to pass or bless the sacrament next week.

This has been the week of birthdays since on the 22nd it was my companions, on the 23rd a sister in our district, and 24th, Ottavio, the member from Siracusa living in Rome getting ready to head on his mission to England. We got permission to go to the champion tournament of rugby with Italy vs Wales and I kind of fell in love with rugby. It is so intense! Italy lost, but I had so much fun singing their national hymn with them and wave my tiny Italian flag around! I almost lost my voice cheering so much and rooting for number 3- Giovanni Castro, a beast with long hair and a beard that looked more like a bear taking those guys,

The funny thing was I destroyed three umbrellas while on the way to the humongous Stadio Olimpico. It was raining and the wind was pretty strong in parts of the city and the umbrella I brought from home in America that I've had my whole mission was quickly taken out. I then bought one on the street (there are hundreds of vendors all over the place in Italy and in about three seconds of rain hitting the ground the hundreds of vendors come in the thousands and they all have umbrellas) and that cheap thing broke within a few minutes so I used an extra one that a member had and also that one was destroyed. We were ALL very wet and very cold!

Giovanni is progressing well and we are still hoping that he will be baptized in March. I saw the temple the other day and I didn't realize how beautiful and strategic a location it is! There is a mall called Porta di Roma that is the biggest in Rome and everyone in the city goes there. When you take the escalator (the one tens of thousands of people take daily) to go inside, you see a very large building under construction that is difficult to understand what it is. It is the temple and it is going to be spectacular when finished. It already has so many people asking questions and it amazes me how marvelous it is even as an 'unknown' project.

Well today we have a lot to do! It's nice being in Roma and always having something completely amazing to do on p-day! Maybe we'll see the Traverse Fountain, the Pantheon and Villa Borghese all today! I'll take lots of pictures! I love you Dad, I love you Mom, I love you Morgan, I love you Brooke, I love you Heather, I love you Greg. Have a great week! Vi voglio un sacco di bene!

Anziano Clay Lacey