Beautiful people...changing our lives!

We continually talk about the truly beautiful people we associate with as missionaries! All the senior couples, the missionaries, and the Southern Italian people in general are full of love, life, light and goodness. We are blessed to serve amongst them, and we will forever cherish the sweet friendships! The Castellanos bless our lives on a daily basis. Sorella Miller and Sorella Austin had a special season together as companions, and we know the close association we had with them was divinely orchestrated.

The Castellamare branch is filled with angels! We feel so loved and at home with them.

A huge blessing occurred in May, as our dear friend Marco D'Andolfo was put in as a counselor in the Stake Presidency, AND he was assigned to be over the GANS (YSA's). We LOVE him and his family. They are the ones who spearheaded the humanitarian clothing drive we did for Light the World - "Scaldiamo Salerno."

Marco's wonderful daughter Josy is getting married to Taylor in October, and we are so happy we are able to help them with their wedding!

Every transfer the missionaries serving in Napoli get together for a p-day and an in person meeting. Otherwise, the weekly meetings are over Zoom. We had lunch in this beautiful park overlooking Napoli - Capo dei Monti. This was the last district p-day before Anziano Bezan, Anziano Knighton, and Sorella Austin finished their missions. We love all of these missionaries so much! They do a top notch job and are stalwart disciples of Jesus Christ.

We absolutely love that our GANS (YSAs) want to get together as much as possible, and they love attending our Institute classes. We have been teaching the course, "Jesus Christ and His Everlasting Gospel."

As missionaries, we teach about the Doctrine of Christ - which is faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring the the end. Baptism is a beautiful step of renewal - a covenant with God that you desire to follow Him and do His will. I can't think of a better beginning! Massimo and Elena, pictured below, desired to have their baptism in the sea, which is right behind the Church in Castellamare.

What a fantastic experience it was to witness their baptisms! You could see the joy in their faces. So many members of the branch, as well as many who were not members - came out to support them.

We had a funny experience taking Anziano Bezan to the train station, as he concluded his missionary journey. He's walking next to the President of the Napoli soccer team. You would have thought he were the President of Italy - the way he and everyone nearby was reacting. Soccer is a BIG DEAL here!

We had to go up to Rome for fingerprinting for our "Permesso" - permission to stay here. We have no adequate words to describe what we saw. As we arrived and went to wait in line, there was this mass of humanity - rushing, pushing and intensely trying to be ahead of others in the line. Lots of police came out and stopped the stampede and forced everyone into a civilized line. It was something else! We were too shocked to capture it while it was happening.

Each time we are in Rome, we of course go to the temple! One of our BYU kids was passing through with her father, so we met up with them in the Visitor's Center.

We also ran into the Pulsifers, dear friends of my brother Bobby and sister Callie from when they all lived in the same ward in Boston.

For our upcoming anniversary, Cliff bought me my favorite flower bush - of red bougainvillea. She rode home with us to Pompei.

Our 35th wedding anniversary was on a Sunday, and we took a drive toward along the Coast and enjoyed the sunset while Zooming on our mission call.

Our dear Sorella Miller had been waiting forever for this package to arrive from her mom in England. We had the craziest experience going to pick it up. They gave it to her, then yanked it back, saying they got an email to send it back. No amount of logic or explanation - or a call from her mom saying she indeed didn't want it sent back, or a call from the carrier in Milano, saying to give it to her - would persuade them to release it to her.

In the end, it was sent back to England.

That evening we went with our besties, the Castellanos to see a movie for our anniversary. We attended the first showing on the opening day of the new movie theatre in Pompei. We saw Mission Impossible and had a great evening together! (Senior missionary couples can go to movies, unlike young missionaries.)

And as always - our fabulous GANS are our "WHY"! They are the reason we are here - to love, lift, inspire, teach, support, and mentor them along the covenant path of discipleship.

We are so proud of each one! They are accepting the challenge to be ALL IN. We feel of their great worth and will be cheering them on forever!

We love you, our dear family and friends - and we thank you for supporting us in our missionary efforts!

La Coppia Montagnoli,

Martha and Cliff