Random Thoughts By Me

Spring has sprung officially, although I feel like I've been experiencing Spring off and on since early February. Saturday Hermes and I visited Ostia Antica, a Pompei-like ancient Roman archeological site near Rome. Little white daisies were everywhere with a few pink and yellow flowers mixed in. I don't think I've ever experienced an Easter where it truly looked and felt like Spring. It's bliss.  

On that smiley thought, I'd like to share some of the things that make me smile about Rome:
 
The people are generally warm and kind and easy to talk to. They are family focused. It's not uncommon to see young people walking slowly down the street helping an elderly grandparent.

One morning on the way to work, I noticed a young man with Downs Syndrome standing at a corner. Suddenly a big smile broke out on his face as an older man came across the street toward him. He went towards the man and hugged him, then the older man led him back across the street while he rested his head on the older mans shoulder. It was such a sweet scene.

The dogs make me smile. Oh I know I'm a cat person with a penchant for giving treats to stray cats, but Romans have a lot of dogs and they take them everywhere. Big dogs, little dogs and they mostly seem like pampered pooches. Unlike stray cats, I can't really take pictures of them because thee owners are right there. But just the same, the dogs make me smile.

The fact that a magazine called "Selfie" exists here. Yes, I saw it for sale at a newsstand. And I wondered, who would buy a magazine with pictures of selfies in it? Somebody must or it wouldn't exist.
 
The young missionaries make me smile. Is there a better bunch of kids anywhere? And they are kids who come to us nervous and scared many of them and are faced with trying to learn a language and share what we believe with those willing to listen. As older missionaries, we can see the ones who are homesick or struggling and we worry about them. But we also smile and laugh with them when they crack jokes or have miracles happen in their work. These are such great kids and we so hope for the best for them.

Here are two that make me smile, the A.P.s Anziano Flynn and Toronto. I've told Anziano Toronto that he always looks like he's up to something and he says that women always say that to him but men never do. His great great grandfather, an Italian by heritage, was with Lorenzo Snow when he did his first missionary trip to Italy in the 1850s. This Anziano must take after his great great grandfather because he speaks very good Italian.

This is a picture of my zone from zone conference last week:

Here are the local senior missionaries from our Easter pot luck:

Here are a few things that make me sad in Rome:

The young immigrants mostly from Africa but some form the Middle East too who beg in front of grocery stores or who try to sell socks, or packages of tissues on street corners. They risked their lives to get here, they might even have lost family members on sinking migrant boats, and the better life they hoped for is spent trying to get a bit of change from people to eke out a living. It makes me sad to see them. I always try to keep a bit of change in my pocket as I encounter at least one nearly every day. I hope life works out for them somehow and in some way.

The helplessness many Italians feel about their political situation and economy. So many are struggling to get by.

The struggle of health problems of loved ones at home.

The fact that the Rome Temple won't be finished while we're here. I'm told it will probably Spring 2018 when it's finally open. Some leaders have said wryly that it took 40 years for the Salt Lake Temple to be done and perhaps it will take Rome that long.
 
Okay enough of that.

Now aside from that, I want to share something I learned from reading the scriptures recently. I was reading in the Book of Mormon in probably the most famous chapter, 3 Nephi 11 and something really leapt out at me that I'd never noticed before. In verse 28, one of the first things the Saviour tells the Nephites is "that there shall be no disputations among you..." And in verse 29 he says, "...he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me." Verse 30: "Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men win anger, one against another, but this is my doctrine that such things should be put away."

It struck me that before He went on to teach the Nephites in the Americas all the doctrines of the Gospel that he taught in Jerusalem, that the people were admonished to not be angry with each other. Before he could go on to teach them, they had to get along. And I was thinking, nobody can learn much of anything when they are angry. How can anyone learn to love others if they are disputing with each other? And wouldn't it be nice if governments everywhere would try to learn from each other instead of arguing and trying to get the upper hand or worse, like in the case of Syria, go to war with those they don't agree with. So I was really struck by this. And I realized that I myself have to learn to be more respectful of other people's opinions even when I think they're dumb opinions because maybe I can learn something from them all the same.

Anyway, that's one of my random thoughts.

I love The Book of Mormon. I'm always learning things from it. I love the Bible too but so much of it can be befuddling (like Leviticus!) in the way the Book of Mormon isn't. But it's interesting how something can always leap out at you from the scriptures that just inspires you to be better, to improve, to love others better and be kinder. I hope I'm learning those lessons well.

It's grand to be a missionary. I recommend this life wholeheartedly. See you next time!

Lights! Camera! Action!

I considered using the Italian words in my title but that would be "Luci! Macchina fotografica! Azione!" The "Luci" and "Azione!" would work but I'm not sure any Italian movie director would actualy yell "Macchina fotografica!" when cueing the camera, would he/she? And the word "camera" means "room" in Italian so I'm not sure if they'd use the English word either. Oh, "non importante," I suppose.              

         

The point is, we went to see Cinecitta (pronounced Chin-ay-chee-ta) last Saturday. Never heard of it? Well, it's only the movie studio where Ben Hur and Cleopatra and where one of my all time favourites, Gladiator, was filmed. And we had so much fun! We went with the Sears, another senior couple serving here. Cinecitta does two English tours a day (hourly in Italian) and so we took one of them.              

            

Our favourite set was Ancient Rome, which was the set for the HBO series called Rome. I wouldn't recommend the series - I tried it once and had to turn off because it was too risqué - but I would recommend seeing the set. It's made largely of fibreglass but it looks so real!

And for some reason, my iPhone switched into black and white mode for this picture but in the end, I kind of like it that way:

Another backlot she took us to was their Jerusalem set which we couldn't take pictures of because of copyright rules. They had just finished a film there about Jesus Christ as a youth and the film hasn't been released yet. Then we went to the Middle Ages / Renaissance set.

This church facade here had the top that looks like the cathedral in Assisi, and the bottom looks like the one in Florence so depending on the camera angle, they can use it for either.

I'm so in awe of the artistry it took to build those sets.

As you can imagine, Cinecitta was the home of famous Italian directors like Frederico Fellini. He is known as one of the great filmmakers of all time and was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1993. He was quoted as saying he never felt so at home as when he was at Cinecitta. We got to see the outside of his favourite soundstage, but we couldn't go in because of some big thing they were doing in there.

Sophia Loren also started her film career at Cinecitta. Cinecitta was originally started in 1937 by Mussolini as a propaganda tool, but in post war years, it became and remains the biggest movie studio in Europe.

After our backlot tour, we went through the museums there. The Fellini tribute room had these beautiful outfits. I would so wear that red outfit if I could!  

There was also the submarine set that is now in the museum. 

And you can stop in several rooms and watch clips from Italian movies.

This cauldron that we're standing in front of was in the movie, Gladiator:

This weird statue was from the Fellini version of Casanova. You can find the clip on You Tube where the statue is pulled out of the Lagoon in Venice and the eyes appear and then sinks. It's kind of a weird scene.

And then there are the fake Rome statues. Hermes is leaning against the one for the Roman god Mercury, known to the Greeks as Hermes - ha ha!

Actually the Greeks had him first and the Romans took him over and called him Mercury. So if you're ever on Jeopardy and get asked what the other name for Mercury is, now you know. You're welcome.    

  

So yes, we had a fun day. I don't think Cinecitta is all that well known among English speaking tourists (there's no end of other things to see in Rome) but I think it's worth a stop if you have extra time in Rome.

Well, back to talking about my real purpose for being here which is not being a tourist all the time. Our office work is busy and sometimes challenging. We are seeing off a group of missionaries this coming week, but unfortunately the new group doesn't come until a week later because their visas were arranged for later than we expected them. Long story but I have felt sorry for our mission president who has to arrange things for this week and arrange again when the new ones arrive.   

A new senior couple arrived this past week who will take over from the office elders. Elder Calvagna is one of the ones going home this coming week. What a sweet boy he is; I will miss him. The Guercios seem like they're fitting right in, however, and I can tell we will all get along just fine.

    

Now just to add an addendum to my last blog post, I was starting my usual morning walk to the office this past week, when I stumbled a bit over an uneven sidewalk, so I said a little prayer to "help me not fall on my way to work." And right away I got the impression: "Well, pick up your feet then!" And I'm like going, "Oh. Okay," realizing that I do have a tendency to drag my feet when I walk. It all reminded me of the talk heard at the last church general conference which was given by Elder Larry R. Lawrence called "What Lack I Yet?" This talk references the story in the Bible in Mathew 19 where the rich young man approaches the Savior and asks what he needs to do to obtain eternal life. At first he Savior goes through the Ten Commandments and the young man responds that he has kept all the commandments since his youth but then asks "What Lack I Yet?" And the Saviour told him that he would need to make the major sacrifice by selling all his belongings, giving away all his wealth and to be come His disciple. And the story goes the young man went away sorrowing. Now, obviously my answer to "pick up my feet" is not even comparable to being told to give away all your wealth but I think sometimes we are told to do big things in answer to the question "what lack I yet" or in present day words, "what do I need to do to improve" and sometimes we're told we need to do little things. I need to pick up my feet when I walk so I'm working on that. It's not as difficult as giving away all my wealth and it might just keep me from permanent damage. I like answers to prayers like that!

So I'm now going to finish this blog post just like they do in the movies.

                                                THE END