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Mission Conference & Castellamare fun!
- marthamontagnoli
- Sep 5, 2025
- 7 min read
What a rejuvenating and powerful blessing to have all the missionaries in the G.I.R.M. - "Great Italy Rome Mission" come together for our Mission Conference, "The Majesty of this Moment!" 3 Nephi 21:25 was the scripture theme: "And then shall the power of heaven come down among them; and I also will be in the midst." We were blessed to have the Europe Central Area President, Elder Rubén V. Alliaud and his dear wife, as well Sister Amy A. Wright, 1st Counselor in the General Primary Presidency and her husband; they joined us the second day of the conference.
Gospel literally means "good news" in Greek, and that's the message we share. We love the joy felt in this photo - as close to 200 missionaries gathered at the Rome, Italy temple to be strengthened and edified as we go out to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ!
The most beautiful missionary angels sang the new Primary hymn, The Miracle. The spirit was so strong. This song brings us tears, as we imagine our grandsons Avi and Luke singing it. Sorella Petty later sang, "Savior Redeemer of my Soul" - with Sorella Fairbanks on the violin. That is the song of my soul, and it was glorious!!!
Inspirations and teachings from our conference:
Alma 17:2-4 - Strengthen the principles taught.
Search scriptures diligently; much prayer and fasting.
Alma 31:34-35 - A prayer of faith leads to action.
Prayerfully study Jeffrey R. Holland's General Conference talk, "Motions of Hidden Fire."
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/13holland?lang=eng
"We say yes at baptism." - When we accept a calling, we are doing nothing more than keeping our baptismal covenants.
Missions are specifically tailored for each missionary, called by a prophet/apostles.
Ours is a mission of miracles! Heavenly Father will provide. He will lead us... "mine elect hear my voice."
D&C 46 - Study gifts of the spirit.
Heavenly Father wants us to need one another.
Gifts are complementary, not contrary.
Recognize and seek to develop the Christlike attributes of your companion and others who inspire you.
Matthew 2:11-12 - The wise men went home another way. Go home from your mission another way (not directional) but having a spiritual transformation.
Embrace the majesty of this moment!
The Rome Mission has a hymn that we sing every time we are together at a conference. Everyone locks arms and sways in the sweetest form of unity. We then watch this incredible videography presentation of each stunning, historic, magnificent area in this mission.
At the end, they show this collage of everyone, and it gets us every time that we are once again the missionaries!
We love reconnecting with all the missionaries with whom we have served. We love them all so much! They are imprinted in our hearts forever! You may recognize them from other posts throughout our mission. Can you believe we have almost been serving for a year!
We will reintroduce you to a few of these AMAZING missionaries...above we are with Sorella Gillins.
Next we have Sorella Demmerly, Sorella Baxter (our neighbor from American Fork), and Sorella Petty.
It was so fun to meet Anziano Johansen, who is the grandson of our former neighbor Lisa Sandor!
And here is the lovely Sorella Slöef.
And Sorella Demmerly again.
And Sorella Roney (about to finish her mission) with her new companion Sorella Jorgensen.
These are some of our Campania lders we hosted while in Rome for the Conference. Anziano Coward, Anziano Bowen, Anziano Gill, Anziano Kärn, and Anziano Garff.
Anziano Gill and Garff.
And a wild boar Cliff saw by the apartment as he was transporting elders.
It was hard to say goodbye after the second day! We just love Sorella Gubler & Gillins! We were so thrilled that Sorella Gillins had recovered so well from her broken foot!
We finally were able to see Anziano Gilardi. He is a dear family friend of our dear friends, Daril and Dana Magleby, who served their mission in his home area of Scotland. We first met him in Provo when he came to visit the Maglebys. At that time we were all serving as leaders at the MTC. We were so excited he was coming to the Rome Mission! We hope he serves one day in Campania.
We just love Anziano Zepeda and Anziano Carrigan!
And Anziano Marziale, Anziano Coccimiglio. We met the other elder for the first time, and can't remember his name.
Speaking of random connections, we met the new senior couple in Bari, who replaced the Jepsons. Sorella Standing is the sister of one of our neighbors, Darin Baird! The world is definitely small in the Church! Well, at the conclusion of our glorious two conference days, it was time to shift gears. We switched clothes and headed with the Castellamare sisters back home to quickly prepare for the next activity!
We stopped by a Chinese store and bought a volleyball, then headed to the Castellamare lungomare to meet some of our GANS (YSAs) from Napoli, Caserta, and President Aprea, his lovely wife, and their two daughters (from Castellamare). We all got gelato at Mago del Gelo, then played volleyball on the black sand. It was so fun!
It rained as we drove home from Rome, and when we parked in Castellamare, the rain stopped! It was a sweet tender mercy.
Cliff gave a little seaside spiritual thought. While he was teaching, Sorella Barcellos and Sorella Williams were off productively teaching other passersby on lungomare. They are fantastic, top shelf missionaries!
It was perfect, as he taught about Peter walking on water, as we were all looking out at the water and pondering our own faith. Cliff is a fantastic teacher! We loved this activity and hope to repeat it before we leave.
Everyone headed home, and we stayed to watch the sunset, eat a kebab, then walked along lungomare to the port and checked out this gigantic 5 story yacht.
Since Castellamare is the topic, we do want to share how fun it was last week for Sorella Barcellos to have a sleepover and be my companion while her companion Sorella Williams, our one and only Sister Training Leader, went to Rome for the Mission Leadership Conference. We worked hard, following a carefully planned minute by minute productive schedule, and I loved every minute of it! We taught lessons, studied, made calls, and made the most delicious chocolate chip cookies! We felt like one of our daughters was with us, and we quite loved it! Sorella Barcellos's language is phenomenal for her second transfer. She's from Brazil, but lived in America for years, then in Portugal. I'm sure the Portuguese background has helped her Italian. On one of the video call lessons with a referral who spoke Spanish, one of our beloved GANS converts, Alexandra, did the lesson with us. She was fantastic, and I loved being Sorella Barcellos's companion for a day!
We still had ingredients from when Francesca took us grocery shopping at the Naval Commissary when they were here visiting. We had our last Mexican food dinner, which we all loved and devoured. We saved some for Sorella Williams and brought her back to eat after we picked her up at the train station in Napoli.
On the way home from Napoli, they taught a "lesson 0" (kind of a pre-lesson) in the car to a young adult man who had inquired about the Church. Our dearest friend Peter, the ward mission leader in Napoli, was on the call with them. They were speaking English, and the sisters weren't sure they heard their new friend Collins correctly who said he wanted to get baptized. Then Peter said with great fervor, "My brother, you cannot postpone the things of God!" He then invited him "to be baptized in 5 weeks time", and Collins said yes! So there was that; a very memorable car ride! When we went inside our apartment to get Sorella Barcellos's things and feed Sorella Williams, they did another video lesson. These sisters are on fire!
Still going backwards, we also had the most amazing "end of summer" barbecue with the Castellamare members on the Church terrace. In the picture above are Monica and Irineau (the Brazilian couple who live upstairs from us), then President Aprea and his beautiful family. We love these faithful, stalwart, fun and happy members with all our hearts!
Five people in attendance were friends the sister missionaries are teaching. The two in the white shirts (Catello and Giovanni) both have baptism dates. In between them both is the lovely Luz, who I think is serving in a self reliance missionary capacity. Pasquale (in the blue shirt) was baptized earlier this year. Sunday (in the hat, from Napoli) came with Peter.
We celebrated Lidia's 17th birthday; she is truly lovely, inside and out! Monica brings so much fun and joy to everything! The ward has really missed them while they have been traveling.
Antonio (in the dark blue) was baptized shortly after we arrived, and his mother Anna and brother GianCarlo have been almost regularly attending everything. Their mother wants nothing more than for her sons to marry a good woman of faith.
Lidia and her sister Giulia are so adorable and I love them so much!
Sorella Barcellos has the fire of a new missionary!
It was so sweet of Peter and Sunday to come from Napoli. They were hoping Collins would come, but I think they enjoyed the night and the camaraderie of sharing a meal together.
These are some of the greatest women you'll ever meet! Nena, Rosaria, Ida, and Monica.
You can't see Carmine all the way in the back, but he is a GANS friend we have been fellowshipping for many months. He told Cliff that night he would like to get baptized.
Irineau is the best! Everyone is so happy to have them back.
Ida is SO FUN! She is a truly fantastic woman, so full of faith and perseverance. She is the most dedicated and faithful Relief Society President, and we just love her!
The sister missionaries bring so much light and hope to others searching for truth and meaning in life.
We share three things Italians love; American cupcakes, brownies, and Karaoke. We couldn't begin to count how many batches we have made of American goodies. We love that our treats warm their hearts.
We close with a "sweet" message. "Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul." - Doctrine and Covenants 59 verses 18-19
- Psalm 34:8
Life is sweet and life is good. We invite all to partake of the sweetness of the good word of God. We know by doing this, by trusting in Him, we will be blessed in all things!
Of this we know to be true,
Sorella and Anziano Montagnoli
Martha and Cliff
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