Come journey with us to Italy! Weeks 2 & 3

Our main assignment the next 18 months is to find, love, serve, strengthen and minister to Young Single Adult (YSA) Church members (ages 18-35) and new YSA converts in the Campania region of the Rome, Italy Mission. President Morris (our Mission President) has also given us several other assignments. You can take a look at this map to see our day-to-day car travels.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has congregations... a branch (smaller group) in Castellamare di Stabia (nearest to our home in Pompei), a ward (a larger group) in Naples, a branch in Salerno, and wards in Pozzuoli and Caserta.

After a day of logistics in Rome, we headed south to our new home in Pompei.

In Rome just for a day, but it felt like coming home.

We LOVE the Guidaras, on a service mission in Rome.

We loved seeing missionaries from the MTC!

The Millers, us, and President & Sister Morris

We hit the ground running. Life began in Italian, and we love it! We love the Italian people, the culture, the language, and the food - and most of all, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the beautiful messages of God's fabulous plan of happiness, which includes our favorite doctrine - that families can be together forever. We've been so busy, we're just now coming up for air and posting on our blog (which our daughter Lucia beautifully set up).

We live in Pompei, 2 1/2 hours south of Rome.

Behind Cliff is our apartment; the dark grey car is ours.

This is home, and we LOVE it! Our apartment is so nice!

We've gotten used to small things & spaces - and no dishwasher, disposal or dryer.

We stocked up on some food, unpacked a little, set up our office, and began compiling paper lists into a Google Doc. We jumped right into long, productive days...assisted missionaries in Salerno with a car issue, met new friends, shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ, attended Church and ward council in Naples, participated in a Zone Conference (a larger training meeting for all the missionaries young and old) in Campania, and began assisting with an Italian language training class via Zoom 2x a week for new missionaries. We taught our first institute lesson (a religion class about Jesus Christ, which we teach weekly in Naples), had a get-to-know-you YSA activity in Naples (we already LOVE them), and attended a baptism in Castellamare. We give rides to the sister missionaries near us and to a dear service missionary who lives near Caserta. We have grown to love each one so much!

This is where we live, and it's perfect. We study, cook, eat, and plan in this beautiful space!

We met the kindest man, Federico, on our second day here. We shared the Gospel, and he gave us an "occhio di Santa Lucia", which he personally harvested from the Gulf of Napoli - and said it is a talisman, or good luck charm. You can see Mt. Vesuvius in the background. This area we live in is volcanic and would have been covered in ash when the volcano erupted in 79 A.D. Let's hope it behaves while we are here!

Missionaries have to eat - and we've been enjoying our favorite foods - tortellini, pizza Napoletana, panini con prosciutto cotto, fresh mozzarella, Pan di Stelle cookies, Fanta, pear juice, cornetti, and let us not forget - gelato. Of course, we eat healthy things too; we just don't take pictures!

We watched General Conference (which is every six months, when the Prophet and his counselors, the 12 Apostles, and other Church leaders speak and give beautiful, relevant, and meaningful counsel). Anyone worldwide is invited to watch. It is translated into over 100 languages. You can hear any of the talks afterward - they are posted on the Church website: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=ita

We are tasked with checking in on the missionaries in Campania. We have visited all 6 apartments; which is a time I get to share my "Martha clean" philosophy and Cliff checks to make sure everything is working. What's not - he will either fix or get fixed. In our first two weeks we were logging about 10,000 steps a day, which gives us room for a gelato or pizza splurge!

When we first looked on Google Maps after we got our mission call, we had hoped we could walk to the water; however, near us, the whole seafront is one continuous concrete jungle of old dilapidated, abandoned buildings, or port buildings in use. Sadly, in our living area, it's pretty dirty; lots of trash everywhere, graffiti and nowhere to safely walk - without dodging scooters, buses, cars and trucks. (Although we did see some happy graffiti - LULU!) I'd like to organize a city-wide clean-up campaign! We live right off the highway toll booth, where we pay a $2.60 toll to drive out, and a toll again to drive back home.

At our two week mark, we finally felt like we could relax for a few hours and enjoy what they call a P-day (or Preparation Day). We can drive 10-15 minutes to a nice waterfront area with a boardwalk, where the Castellamare sister missionaries live. The sand is black, because of the volcanic nature of the area. We have enjoyed a few walks there and on Wednesday loved our sit down lunch together.

We knew the "real water" was close, and we'd seen it at a distance while driving here and there - but we were surprised to find such beauty 30 minutes from our home.

Stay tuned to next week. We promise it will be much shorter! We shared today what we've been up to; our next focus will be on WHY we decided to leave our beautiful family and home to serve a mission for a year and a half. We love you all! You are in our thoughts every day and our prayers always! We feel so abundantly blessed, humbled, and honored to serve as full-time missionaries together in the Rome, Italy Mission. #ForzaItalia!