La Dolce Vita!

We are embracing the Italian philosophy of savoring every moment and appreciating the beauty and joy of everyday experiences. Could it be that living "La Dolce Vita" is making us younger?

Actually, its the magic photo filters our GANS love to use, that erase all wrinkles and blemishes. Speaking of blemishes, it is in this beautiful Easter season that our hearts are turned to our Savior Jesus Christ, who removes all of our unwanted blemishes - flaws, imperfections and inadequacies, through His great atoning sacrifice that brings us hope, renewal and everlasting life. It is through Christ we can be cleansed and sanctified as we desire to believe, to increase our faith, and to let Him heal us and bring us peace.

It was such a joy to feel this spiritual renewal with Alexandra and Michele, who came to the Rome temple for the first time. It is in this sacred place that we feel the hope and eternal joy of Gospel truths. The spirit testifies of our divinity within, that there is more to life than temporal pleasure. We have the promise that through the atonement of Jesus Christ, we will all be resurrected. This life is not the end; we will see our loved ones again. As we turn our hearts and will to God, trust in Him and follow His will, He can make more of us than we would ever imagine. This is why we are on a mission!

We love watching others embrace the joy of coming unto Christ. Each time we attend the temple, we feel strengthened. It is the closest place on earth to heaven; it is a holy and sacred sanctuary - where we feel the spirit of our Heavenly Father.

Especially at the temple, we feel God's love - and our hearts connect to the divine, as the spirit witnesses that we are all beloved children of a Heavenly Father, who knows and loves us, and so greatly desires to help us along our mortal journey. We loved watching Alexandra's countenance glow as she took in all of those feelings.

Michele said he had never felt so much peace. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

United in faith and purpose, we are all changed as we strive to follow the commandments of God and live the Doctrine of Christ - which is faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

It is so fulfilling to be a missionary, and to help others come unto Christ and partake of His joy. We loved introducing Alexandra to our lovely neighbor from home, Sorella Rosie Baxter! She serves at the Rome Temple Visitor's Center and we love seeing her so often!

We also loved running into one of our favorite families, the Smiths.

And the very best blessing for us was that our former Mission President and his beautiful wife (from when we were young missionaries in the 80's) have been staying in Rome at the Patron Housing the month of April. President Conforte is a Patriarch and Temple sealer. Sorella Conforte is so full of love and embraced our little group as if we were all her own.

She is full of love, light, faith, compassion and kindness. No one would know she is 86! When we finished at the temple, she had a full meal waiting for all of us.

Afterward, President Conforte filled us all with wisdom, counsel, love, hope and invitations to more closely follow Jesus Christ. He ministers to the one, just as we imagine the Savior would do. What a great blessing they have been to us for over 38 years.

Everything at the temple is so beautiful and inspiring, and the flowers are so magnificent!

When we got our mission call and assignment, we had no idea how much we would see our neighbor, Sorella Baxter. She is such a light and is a fantastic missionary!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ truly changes you. We have watched that in new converts, such as Uii, who was baptized by one of our faithful GANS, Michele.

Peter, the ward Mission Leader in Napoli, is always such a good friend to new members of the Church. We are so inspired by his faithful discipleship.

We are so proud of Michele; he is a great man and had a special experience baptizing Uii. Knowing English was his first language, Michele carefully said the baptism prayer in English. Anziano Snow and Bezan taught Uii, and we loved witnessing the change in His countenance as he desired to "Come unto Christ" and be baptized.

"And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water!" 2 Nephi 31:5

Roberta always puts together a beautiful baptismal program, and Anna and Angy help make sure every detail is perfect. They are helpful in every way, and all the little things they do make a huge difference!

After the baptism, we had the pleasure of watching a session of General Conference together. General Conference is every six months, when the Prophet, Russell M. Nelson, the 12 Apostles and other Church leaders address the world - with inspiring messages applicable for our day. We were so happy our GANS from Pozzuoli came, and we are over the moon thrilled to have Samantha with us. She works as a contractor for the Navy and will be moving from South Carolina to Naples. She is a returned missionary from Chile, an Institute teacher, and just the best person ever! We all love her!

Afterward we enjoyed yummy pizzas from "Friggi Friggi!'

Are these not the most beautiful GANS you've ever seen? Inside and out - each are truly lovely. Isamar, Paola, Luisa, Rosa, Angy - con Salvatore, Anziano Snow and Bezan behind.

Meet amazing Rosa (a professional baker) and Salvatore - the cutest couple ever! When we first met Rosa, it seemed like we had been friends forever!

Ping pong competitions are always a highlight for the GANS and missionaries in Napoli. No one has yet to beat Cliff.

On Sunday we gathered again to watch General Conference. Fabulous "Chef Cliff" made pasta al forno, and I made brownies and cupcakes. And we all savored the yummy strawberries in season.

We truly love all of these fantastic people!

They each have a special place in our hearts!

They are faithful and good.

They have become our dearest friends!

Serving them is a great blessing to us...

As are our marvelous sister missionaries in Castellamare. We watched a session of General Conference together in our home, and we loved listening to them teach a lesson afterward.

Castellamare is truly a beautiful place.

In its glory days, 100 pasta factories filled the lively little town.

Before transfers, some of the missionaries wanted to hike Mt. Vesuvius. They made lunches at our house. And filled our hearts with love.

We live next to a fresh fish market and don't really have a typical balcony - but we do have some cute little plants outside our door that make us happy!

These two - Sorella Austin and Miller are SO very dear to us!

Sadly, the last minute tickets they distribute to hike to the crater of Mt. Vesuvius on a lottery basis every 10 minutes only yielded fruits to Anziano Muir and Lee. It was especially sad, because Anziano Carrigan organized the effort, and he ended up transferred the next day. Note to our readers, if you ever want to hike Mt. Vesuvius, you need to book your tickets on line at least a month in advance.

The views were still amazing.

And you could clearly see the island of Capri in the distance.

We ended up back in Rome the next week for a retreat for the senior missionary couples in the Rome mission. We came up the night before to attend a welcome home party for our dear friend Nicol Virzo. When we were leaders at the MTC, we spent lots of time with Nicol and her companion, Sorella Di Manzano. Little did we know back then, that we would be missionaries in the Rome mission when Nicol came home. And better still, Sorella Di Manzano served in Campania with us.

We also got to see Anna Maria, our long-time friend from Rome. She is SO talented! Isn't this the most adorable gift she made to welcome home Nicol?!

While at the Temple Piazza, we ran into our dear friends from Naples - Peter, Martina, and Anna - who was attending the temple for the first time. She is the one who lost her sister to a stroke last month. Anna found much needed peace in the temple.

I know this isn't the greatest picture, but we wanted to remember this fun dinner at La Flacca with 22 Senior Missionary couples. Afterward, we enjoyed a marvelous meeting, where Elder Dini-Ciacci shared his experiences being in charge of the Rome Temple open house. He was spoke of being present when President Russell M. Nelson met with Pope Francis during the Rome Temple dedication.

The next day we all loaded into this green bus to spend the day touring. As is always the case, we got to see our favorite Sorella Rosie Baxter - our neighbor and friend.

We were charmed by the area surrounding Castel Gondolfo, which used to be the Pope's summer residence. Pope Frances felt that was ostentatious, and he had it turned into a museum.

We toured the Castle and the gardens and are sure you'll love these photos.

Rome is never without statues of beloved Apostles Peter and Paul.

We then drove out to the Sabina region outside of Rome.

The views were stunning!

The olive orchard and home in the distance belong to our friends the Guidaras. Michele Guidara was our guide on the bus, and Silvia (his mom) gave us a cooking class.

The Rome mission is nicknamed the GIRM (Great Italy Rome Mission). The Chipmans were in charge of organizing our retreat, and they gave each couple an apron and hat.

Everything was fantastic and so much fun!

The women were all assigned to make home-made pasta.

We made tagliatelle fresh pasta noodles.

The men made tiramisu.

We loved being together and getting to know one another better. Our mission is huge! It begins north of Rome all covers everything all the way down to the end of the boot, then includes the islands of Sicily and Sardegna and the nation of Malta.

Of the 22 couples, the assignments range from Visitor's Center, Office (secretary, housing, finances, cars, health adviser), Member Leader Support, Family History Center, Family Search, Humanitarian, Seminaries & Institute, and YSA (Young Single Adults) - which is what we do. We are also Institute teachers and are in charge of apartments in Campania and Cliff is over a 2x week Italian class for new missionaries.

And of course our Mission Leaders, Presidente e Sorella Morris (standing in this photo) - are ABSOLUTELY phenomenal leaders! Their time is up in June, and we will all be so sad to see them go! We could go on forever about the wonderful work they are doing.

All of these couples left behind the comforts of home, children and grandchildren to serve the Lord and make things a little better in their assigned area of service in Italy. Typically one of the spouses had served a young mission in Italy. We are the only ones who both served here when we were young.

We have such great love and respect for all of these couples! Above are the Parkers, who were our hosts. She is the health advisor for both the Rome and Milan missions and he is over finances.

After making our pasta noodles, we took them to a kitchen where they were cooked, then we enjoyed a wonderful meal together in the most picturesque setting!

Anziano Castellano is unique to our bunch, because both sets of parents, all grandparents, etc are from this mission - specifically in the Naples region. He's the real deal! Cliff's half the real deal, but we'll take it. He completely passes for an Italian.

The weather was perfect, and we all felt so blessed!

I am in love with chef Montagnoli!

We've got a good thing going!

I have to end with a photo of this bus, because it was very memorable!

Let's just say our driver almost hit things more times than we could count! He was texting while driving, and making turns no one should attempt in a big long green bus! However, at the end - when President Morris thanked him, he held his hand and with tear filled eyes thanked him for the opportunity to be with such a special group, who touched his heart. It could have been the classic Italian music we played, or the 2 truths and a lie we attempted, but I think it actually was when we all sang the Rome Mission song. It was powerful and brought a beautiful spirit.

And back we came to the temple, and to be greeted by Sorella Baxter. We called it a day, then met up again in the morning and attended a temple session together. It truly felt like heaven.

We were greeted afterward by President and Sorella Conforte.

We absolutely can never spend enough time with them. They fill our hearts and souls with so much love, kindness and wisdom. We want to be like them when we grow up.

They are life-long disciples of Jesus Christ.

They love Him, know Him, and serve Him.

Our lives are so richly blessed by their love and example.

The next day we were in Pozzuoli, in the Flegreo ward. After Church, they had a linger-longer dinner. It was so much fun! We sat with the Parisi's, parents of one of the missionaries from back in our day. Then we were so blessed to spend time visiting with a dear sister named Katia, who we had hoped to visit. She lives in Ischia and has a daughter who is a GANS. Tomorrow we will take the ferry to Ischia for a couple of days and spend time getting to know these lovely people.

Then we were off to Naples to teach our Institute class.

It was SO happy, because Elder Jordan Knighton (from Portland Maine - best family friends with my sister Callie and her family) was transferred to Naples! We feel like we prayed him here! It really is a blessing, considering he served in Naples at the beginning of his mission, so it was unlikely he'd come back a second time.

Our GANS were as happy as we were! We have a new addition to our group - the lovely Summer, who is taking the missionary lessons. She fits in so well - like we have known her forever!

I had to snap this picture outside the Church in Naples. Now that the weather is getting nice, the zone leaders put chairs outside and greet people passing by. The man they were talking to was quite a character.

Our lovely Sorella Austin had to go to Rome for Mission Leader Council, so her beautiful companion, Sorella Miller got to stay with us for a day. It was such a tender mercy, because she is a baker, and we needed a birthday cake and cupcakes for a birthday party of one of our GANS. We had a really special time together - very memorable and divinely timed.

Anna was so happy. She was feeling down about her birthday, so we felt she needed a party! I downloaded a jeopardy game, and we had a blast playing it together. All the questions were to get to know Anna better.

The party was a big success, and she felt very loved - which was our main objective!

These are some of her fans.

Samantha

Roberta

Gabino, Angy, (Anna), Kekko

The lovely Summer

Angela

Isamar

Anna - BBB Brava, Buona, Bella

The party was over, and it was back to the job we seem to do more than we ever anticipated...clean! We dressed for success and headed to Pozzuoli.

We first took the anziani to their favorite pizza place. I had wood oven envy and wished I could blink this wood oven to our home in the states. It would totally fit in!

Once we were well fed, it was time to "Martha clean."

We're not sure why this is a favorite pizza for most every young adult.

We magic erased all the doors and walls, scrubbed the kitchen, and mommy cleaned each room in the house...

The elders made the bathrooms literally shine!

Cliff cleaned the balconies and the floors, and the landlord was pleased by the deep clean and the respect the missionaries have for his family's property.

After recovering from our 8 hour clean, we cleaned ourselves up and had the most lovely visit with Anna's mom.

Then we visited one of our GANS in Pozzuoli. We just love Gaia! She's an art history major, and we had so much to talk about!

Her dad has quite the incredible hobby; he built the ships above and made the hanging house below.

We were in awe of his talent!

We finished the week with a walk in old town Naples with the Castellanos. I personally had the best pizza I have ever eaten!

Saturday concluded with an Institute lesson and dinner together.

We were SO happy for Rebecca (black shirt/with braid); she just graduated from University and was just glowing! We are so proud of her! We are also thrilled Paola moved back to Naples! And of course, our new GANS Samantha is the greatest! We just love everyone sitting around this table... Rebecca, Luisa, Paola, Kekko, Anna, Summer, Anziano Hodson, Anziano Bazan, Samantha, Anziano Knighton, Anziano Lee. We were a smaller group, because of the Easter weekend, but as we sat together, filled with gratitude, the word that filled our souls was BLESSED. We are so blessed!

We close our post today with the words of President Thomas S. Monson. "The Lord is in all of our lives. He loves us. He wants to bless us. He wants us to seek His help. As He guides us and directs us and as He hears and answers our prayers, we will find the happiness here and now that He desires for us. I pray that we may all be aware of His blessings in our lives."

As we rejoice this Easter season celebrating the Great Atoning Sacrifice and Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, we pray that we may all more fully recognize this life-altering blessing - the greatest one could bestow upon all those whom He loves. We are blessed indeed. Happy Easter dearest family and friends.

We love you forever,

La Coppia Montagnoli

Martha & Cliff