m-m-m-m-m-MALTA!

This past weekend, we had the privilege of accompanying the mission president and his wife, along with the two young elders who are the Assistants to the President, to Malta, a small island nation south of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. It is a part of our mission and there is one small branch of the Church in the town of Mosta. We were asked to go so that Hermes could do the bi-annual audit of the Branch finances. We were also there to participate in a dedication of their new Branch building and Branch Conference.

Malta is really different because it looks somewhat like a peaceful Middle East country with a whole lot of Britishness thrown in. They were a British colony until 1964 when they became a Commonwealth nation like Canada and then ten years later they voted to cut ties with the monarchy and become a Republic. The British influence remains, however. For one thing, they drive on the left hand side of the road, the electric plugs in the hotel were British and you see red phone boxes and post boxes everywhere. There are two official languages in Malta one of which is English and the stores and business signs are only in English. Maltese is the other official language and it's a hybrid of predominantly Arabic with a little bit of Sicillian dialect and a few Italian words.

The dominant religion of Malta is, of course, Catholic and some people say that Malta is more Catholic than the Pope. They certainly have some gorgeous Cathedrals everywhere. Another claim to fame of Malta is that it is where the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked for a time which is referenced in the last two chapters of the Book of Acts.  In the Bible, Malta is referred to as Melita.

We were picked up at the airport by the Hancocks, the senior couple missionaries who are assigned to Malta. They were wonderful to us all weekend. There are also four elders who serve in Malta. We dropped the two Assistants off at the elders' apartment as that is where they were going to be staying for the weekend. We and the Waddoups, however, got to stay in a very nice hotel.

The Hancocks, the Waddoups and the two of us took an excursion on Friday afternoon to see the capital of Malta, Valletta. Malta is very small so all their cities are very close together. We wandered through the old town and took some of these pictures:

The above was a Roman theatre which was heavily bombed during the second world war. They have made it into an outdoor concert venue.

 

That's my guy looking over the harbour!

 

What was fun was after our sight seeing as we were walking to the car, we came across the six elders doing a street display with a picture diagram of the Plan of Salvation laying on the sidewalk. Several people were talking to them:

The next morning, we went with the Waddoups to the Presidential Palace gardens which was about a half a block from our hotel. There were feral cats everywhere in the garden along with Peacocks, pigeons, swans and a turtle pool.

 

I visited with as many cats as would let me touch them.

I think many of them are abandoned pets and so most are not too afraid of people but I wished I could adopt some of them or at least get one or two to a Vet. I did see one man come and dump some canned food out for them on a wall but I think only the dominant cats were getting it as some of the other kitties were hanging back. Later on in the day, we saved some of our lunch and went back and fed a few of them.

Now let me get to the good stuff - the dedication of the Branch building on the Saturday evening. I'm not sure if calling it a building is quite correct as the new meeting place is the upper two floors above a Kebab shop on a busy street. But it's a very nice facility with a small chapel and a few classrooms between the two floors. Apparently it used to be a computer school.

The meeting was meant for not only the Branch members but also the general public, governmental leaders and clerical leaders from other churches attended. The mayor and vice mayor of Mosta came and a representative of the President of Malta (a minister responsible for religion, I think) came. Also, we had a Methodist minister, a Seventh Day Adventist minister, a Russian Orthodox Priest, an Imam from the Islamic community and two leaders from the Bahai faith attend.

The Branch President gave a wonderful talk. I should explain to my non-Mormon readers what a Branch President is. A branch is a smaller congregation of the church and a Branch President is equivalent of a Mormon Bishop only he has a smaller flock to tend to. Here's a picture of him delivering the talk:

Anyway, the Branch President's talk acknowledged that there were people of other faiths there and although we may not agree doctrinally on everything, we believe in respecting all faiths and ideas and extending the hand of friendship.

I believe he quoted our late prophet, President Gordon B Hinckley, who said this in 1998:
We can respect other religions, and must do so. We must recognize the great good they accomplish. We must teach our children to be tolerant and friendly toward those not of our faith. We can and do work with those of other religions in the defense of those values which have made our civilization great and our society distinctive.

He also quoted one of our Articles of Faith which says: We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

I thought the Branch President's words to be quite inspiring and built bridges of friendship with others in the community. Some of the other highlights were a Cello Piano duet; one of our missionaries played the Cello and a non-Mormon music professor played the piano.

It was wonderful! The young elder has a great future as a professional cellist. He told me afterwards that it is his plan.

Another highlight was the Branch choir singing a hymn written by the Branch President entirely in the Maltese language.

It's beautiful! And of course President Waddoups' dedication prayer of the building was very nice. After the service, there were presentations to some of the government officials and religious leaders that were there.

This is, I believe, the mayor receiving a copy of the Proclamation on the Family in Maltese:

And these are some of the religious leaders receiving CDs of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir:

 

 

Then, of course, there were refreshments.

The next morning was the Branch conference. The Malta Branch is made up of a lot of retired British couples. I had a lot of fun talking to them about where they were from in England and explaining I went on my first mission there. In fact, one couple was from a town I spent six months in - Bedford. When I looked at her, I realized I did recognize her from the Bedford ward but my memory from that time is rather faulty. There are some native Maltese members there and a few people from other countries. There was an American couple (U.S. embassy workers) with two little girls who'd moved there only a few months ago from Germany. The little girls are pretty much the only members of the Primary aside from a couple of young children whose parents are investigating the church.

Hermes was one of the invited speakers of the conference but again, a highlight for me was hearing the Branch President relate the history of the Church in Malta. He said that Mormon missionaries first visited Malta in the 1850s when several British military officers joined the Church. The Branch eventually shut down when the converts either emigrated to the U.S. or were sent away to fight other wars.

I think he said the Church gained legal recognition in Malta in 1980 when the missionaries returned and a small branch was eventually formed. They met for many years in a rented Villa but they outgrew that space which is why they had found the new space that was being dedicated that weekend.

He told also of a remarkable experience that happened just this past November. Malta is a frequent cruise stop for people on Mediterranean cruises and the Branch received news that on a Sunday in a few weeks they would be visited by a group of 45 LDS people from a cruise ship and were asked if they could accommodate them. They figured they could accommodate 45 somehow in their space and said yes. A week later they received word that it would not be 45 but 85 people and it would include the reknowed LDS opera singer Michael Ballem. The branch asked if Michael Ballem would sing in the service and they were told yes. But they also knew they were in trouble and would not be able to fit everyone in their little villa. They hoped to get the new facility ready on time but it was clear they could not. Two days before the arrival of the group, they could not find a space to rent that would accommodate them. The Branch President prayed and prayed and a voice came into his mind to ask the Town Council for help. He was afraid because another voice said, "The Mayor is a devout Catholic and won't help you" but he decided to put aside his fear and went forth with faith. The town council not only listened to their request but they offered their own auditorium for the church to use. On the Sunday morning, the Branch members arrived and found exactly the number of chairs they'd requested to set up there but they also saw many other chairs stacked up. Again, following the promptings of the spirit, the Branch President instructed the members to set up more chairs all the way to the back so they did. As it turned out, the group that came from the Cruise Ship was over 100 people and the entire auditorium was filled. Cool story, eh?

After the Branch conference, I and Sister Waddoups waited in the Church where I had more nice conversations about England with some of the Branch members. I also hoped to get to see the beautiful Catholic Duomo down the street which is known for a particular miracle. During second world war, Malta was bombed like crazy by the Germans. In that particular Duomo there were many people cowering inside trying to protect themselves from the bombardment. A bomb fell through the roof of the dome but it didn't explode and the people's lives were spared. So that cathedral is famous for that miracle and they have a replica of the original bomb on display inside. The Cathedral finally opened up to the public after 3PM so I did get to see it and here are some pictures:

You might be able to see the spot on the left that is a little more faded. It's where the bomb came through and the roof was patched.

The bomb replica is above.

The weekend in Malta was such a great experience. The  Hancocks, the senior couple serving there, were wonderful to us including providing roast beef dinner on the Sunday evening and driving us around Malta was a good thing since they are used to driving on the other side of the road! Malta was a place I never thought I'd see in my life but I'm grateful I did. Malta is m-m-m-m-m-marvelous!

 

Nightmare at the Questura

Alright, I suppose to term our experience at the Questura as a nightmare might be a little over the top but I'm telling you it was not fun! What is a Questura, you ask? Perhaps I should start from the beginning.
   Last October when we were still at home in Canada, Hermes and I made a trip to the Italian Consulate in Vancouver to arrange our Italian visa. We booked into a very stinky hotel in downtown Vancouver, dressed up in business attire and showed up at the consulate with our papers and money. A week later, we got our passports back with an Italian Visa imprinted into it saying it was good for one year. So we're high-fiving and singing "Lah-de-dah-de-dah we're good to go" thinking nothing more on all this would need to be done for a year. Ha! Again I say, ha!
  
When we arrived in Italy, we found out our one year visa was only good for eight days and the next step was to take paperwork that was prepared for us by the mission office and by the church office in Milan to the post office to file. Before we go to the post office, we must purchase a Marca di Bollo stamp from the Tobacco Shop to fix to our paperwork. Then we take it to the clerk at the post office who goes over everything to make sure it's in order and, after we pay the next fee, then she files the paperwork to the Questura and issues us an appointment to go get our fingerprints done.

So I suppose you're asking again, what is a Questura? It's the department of the State Police responsible for immigration and foreigners in the country. Our appointment was issued for January 14th at 12:30 PM.
          
So remember in my last posting how I was saying that the weather was unusually warm? Well Roman winter has arrived and it arrived on January 14th. I had just the day or two before removed the winter lining from my trench coat thinking I didn't need it. I went with bare legs and some little shoes figuring that even if we were waiting, because we had an appointment, we'd be waiting inside. Ha! Again I say ha!

We thought it would be helpful to arrive early at 11AM but they told us that they were only just starting to process the 9:30 appointments and we had to wait outside. We went back to sit in the car but we thought it best to go and wait outside the building about 12:30 so we did. They were just getting to the 10AM appointments then. There was a lot of people milling about waiting with their appointment sheets. So we sat in the tent (glad there was a tent because it was raining) and shivered and watched the military police manage the crowd. These were guys in full army fatigues with large machine guns strapped over their shoulders. Sometime in there I took this selfie of Hermes and I looking grumpy:  

We finally got in the building about 3PM feeling rather hypothermic, passed through the airport like security screening and then went upstairs to collect the papers we had originally filed and wait our turn to see the police officer. At least we were finally waiting inside. We ended up seeing an officer in the A section who took a few fingertip scans with this electronic gadget (I had envisioned putting my fingers on ink stamps and paper but I guess things have advanced in the fingerprinting world) and asked us why we were here. Then we went back out to wait our turn to see the officer in the B section who took full palm print scans and finished our papers. At last about 4PM we were able to take out frozen little selves out of the building and back to the car after which our Tom Tom got us messed up on our way back to the office. What a day! Now we must wait for them to tell us when our Permesso card is ready which may require an appointment to pick up. If we are lucky, our Permesso will cover our entire mission. If we are not so lucky, we may have to do this again in a year or so. 

You might be wondering why Hermes had to do this as well as I. When Hermes became a Canadian citizen, there was not an agreement between Italy and Canada to allow for dual citizenships. Now such an agreement exists but it's complicated for him to get his Italian citizenship back. So for the moment, he is only Canadian.

Now on the lighter side, Hermes and I at last went downtown to see the newly restored Trevi Fountain on Saturday. It was a cold day but at least it didn't rain on us. Here's a picture of me in front of it.

We had all kinds of mini adventures that day including eating the worst Chinese lunch I've ever had in my life but which we ate anyway because we were cold and hungry. Honestly, I didn't know Won Ton soup could be that bad. We explored several beautiful cathedrals. Downtown Rome has old Catholic cathedrals and churches everywhere you turn -- it reminded me of Provo with the LDS churches on every corner. At one, there as a sign outside for an art show and available washrooms so Hermes went in to use the "facilities" and I sat inside looking at the art and resting my feet. What was funny, though, is that Hermes, while waiting for the washroom got talking with a couple there who at first spoke to him in English but when he found out they were from Germany, he starting talking to them in German. The man was amazed and asked where he learned German. He answered, "When I was young, I went on a mission for my church to the German part of Switzerland.The man looked startled and said "Are you Mormon?" When Hermes answered yes, he said "so are we!" So fancy that! Four Mormons find each other inside a Catholic Church in Rome. We had a nice chat with them. They said they were from the east part of Germany down for a mini vacation for the weekend. 

Our last adventure for the day came as we were making our way towards the subway station. We started noticing that the streets were being blocked off and then there were police and carabinieri everywhere. We were wondering what was going on and then we saw that there was a big Peace March coming down the street towards us. There was a huge column of people waving flags and a man on a megaphone advocating the end of war in Iraq and Syria. I snapped a couple of pictures of the front of the March and then we decided it was probably best to clear out and get to our subway. I guess it was a peaceful demonstration (one would hope so if it's a peace march) but the amount of police there made us think that the potential for trouble could start. Anyway, here's the pictures. 

And on that note, I am going to start my own little peace march by marching off to bed with the hope of peaceful dreams. Buona notte! 

And the New Year came in with a bang...literally

You know, I've heard a criticism occasionally in my life that Canadians are boring, and while the Calgary Stampede and Stanley Cup playoffs would contradict that, I've decided that when it comes to New Years Eve, we can be a dull lot. True, it would be difficult to do what Italians do given Canada's cold winter climate, but still, perhaps we could liven up a bit more.

At any rate, you should know that they sell fireworks and firecrackers at the supermarket here so you can just imagine what that means. Every night between Christmas and New Year we heard fireworks and firecrackers go off sometimes close by which practically made me jump out of my skin. But on New Years Eve, they were going off all evening and you can just imagine what it was like when midnight hit. Since most people here live in apartments, they launch them off their balconies. You remember what the Grinch said? "All the noise, noise, noise, noise!" If he thought the Whos down in Whoville were bad, he's never spent New Year's Eve in Italy.

Now the funny thing is, the government leaders were asking people not to launch firecrackers and fireworks because of the smog conditions and the fact that it freaks out animals. Obviously nobody cared.      

And speaking of smog, I'm happy to report that since New Year came, we've had some rain and a bit of wind and the air quality is much, much better. I'd had a little bit of a nagging cough which has now disappeared and I've also started walking to the mission office which I was a bit leery to do when the smog was so bad. The weather for us is lovely and temperate even getting up to +17 some days. It should be a bit colder this time of year and maybe that will yet happen. I have to laugh, though. Hermes was saying to a lady at church today how nice the weather is today and she answered that it's too cold! She should try a winter in Canada and then she'll appreciate this weather more. I sure do!

So  on New Year's Day, we had a little bit of a senior missionary party at the Villa (Mission Home). Here's some pictures here:

 

  
It was a potluck so that meant lots of good food! Afterwards we watched a movie based on a book one of our senior missionaries wrote called "Christmas for a Dollar." Gale Sears is a well published LDS author and the original story is based on something from her Dad's childhood. The movie was a co-production between an LDS film company and a Catholic one. The movie was very Hallmark Hall of Fame-ish with Christian overtones but not specifically LDS which is why the Catholic film company got involved. We enjoyed watching it and Sister Sears and her husband even got to be extras in it. We spotted them toward the end of the movie. Here's a YouTube promotion of the movie in case you're interested:    

We have had a few missionary experiences largely related to people reading our name tags. We show them the part that says Chiesa di Gesu Cristo dei Santi Degli Ultimi Giorni (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and the next question is usually "Are you Christian?" I thought the name itself would make the answer to that question obvious but apparently not. But it gives us an opportunity to share a little about the Church.
 
Everday in the office we get mail deliverers and one day a postal worker came in and gave us all her parcels and had us sign for it, then as she was leaving she turned to Hermes and asked in Italian, "Do animals have souls?" Hermes answered, "Of course, we are all creatures of our Heavenly Father and when we die, we will see our animals again." She smiled and turned around and left. Hermes wished he could have explained more, but I guess she had work to do and was happy with that answer.

At any rate, if I sound happy, it's because I am. I feel so blessed to be here in Rome and love what I am doing and just being here in this wonderful country.

Now I think I mentioned in my last post about the wonderful crèche that was in the window of the Farmacia (Pharmacy) down the street. I took some pictures and I hope they do justice to it. This should be the last Christmasy thing you see on my blog until next year. Happy January, everyone. Stay warm, my fellow Canadians.