BUSY MAY

Hello again, Family and Friends,                   

It is already into the last week of May--or at least the last 10 days and things are really F-L-Y-I -N -G  B-Y!!! I just wanted to really touch on a few things that have been happening here. Our Temple President, James A Toronto, is such a gifted man and he and Sister Diane Toronto, his wife and Temple Matron, have really led a life of service to the Church. He has served as a young man in this beautiful land of Italy as one of the early Missionaries, as did Anziano Ron.  He went on to study languages at BYU and received MA and PHD degrees in Islamic and Arabic studies from Harvard University.  He served as President of the Italy Catania Mission from 2007-2010 and was President from 2015-2017 of the Central Eurasian Mission, covering Turkey, Central Asia and Azerbaijan. And now they are here, since September 2022, to serve for 3 years as President of the Rome Italy Temple. We are so blessed by his and Sister Toronto's quiet ways of providing leadership and organization to the ongoings of the Temple.  He has also co-authored several papers and studies and books. One of those books entitled "Mormons in the Piazza, History of the Latter-Day Saints In Italy", is a compilation of stories, facts, time-line-type historical accounts to the early founding of the Church in Italy when Lorenzo Snow, one of the early Apostles of the Church and Joseph Toronto (born Guiseppe Taranto in Sicily, Italy--and James Toronto's Great Grandfather) were called by Brigham Young in 1850 to go to the Land of Italy and begin Missionary Work there.ACROSS THE YEARS to the eventual Re-Opening of this land for Missionary work in 1966. (Brigham Young also called others at this same General Conference of the Church to go and start Missions in Denmark, France and Scandinavia) Now these were new lands for taking missionary work INTO---the land of Great Britain had already started "taking off" with mass conversions and wide-spread acceptance of the Church --and the hope was that the rest of Europe might be ready to do the same. In his book, President Toronto  tells of the landing in Genoa, italy, of this Missionary 3-some (Lorenzo Snow, Joseph Toronto, and another Missionary named T. B. H. Stenhouse  (whom Elder Snow had called to come with them from their stop in Southampton, England.) They very quickly found that Catholicism had a huge hold on people and they (the Catholic Church) DID NOT like these new-comers preaching their "new-found religion".  

ANYWAY, I digress--my point in bringing this up was that President Toronto presented a Fireside for us missionaries and Temple workers that he entitled "The History of the Early Saints in Italy" and he said one of his reasons for this Fireside was to show the Italian Saints that they Do Have a Pioneer Heritage. 

But--so as to not leave you "hanging", I'll just give a brief summary of that TRULY INTERESTING History that President Toronto talked about. So from 1850-1867 or so--these early Missionaries trudged a rocky road to try to establish the Church in Italy. They found some success with the Waldensians in the Piedmont Valley of northern Italy. This group were determined to follow their Protestant beliefs and through centuries had endured much persecution --mainly from the Catholic Church. Eventually they "retreated" to the mountains of this Piedmont Valley and found some relief from the persecution and were able to live somewhat in peace. Having studied about this Waldensian group, Lorenzo Snow felt these early Missionaries should go away from the cities of Genoa and Turin in Italy --and go up to where this Protestant group were living and preach the gospel to them. And so they did--taking up residence in a place called Torre Pellice There were no "mass conversions" as the early missionaries in Great Britain found, but it was a one-on-one conversion--mostly among the Waldensians, that helped Italians find the Gospel. And many of these early converts, were encouraged to emigrate--and so they left italy to join with congregations of Saints in the Salt Lake Valley and beyond. Since there wasn't much being established in Italy--it was in 1867 the decision to "close" the Italian mission was made.  There were some early converts who had remained in Italy and they just had to try to live the Gospel as best as they had been taught. So for almost 100 years, the Gospel of Jesus Christ was not preached in this land. There were still "miracles" happening--as we know from the story of Vincenzo di Francesca and the film entitled "How Rare a Possession" putting forth Brother Francesca's journey to find what religion this book "that he found in a garbage can and without a cover or title page" belonged to. He read it and wanted to find out more. This was in 1910 and he was a Protestant Minister and felt the truths he found in the (Book of Mormon) were so true--he began teaching them to his congregation. Well, his search for the name of the book--which as we know was the Book of Mormon, lasted over 20 years, but finally in 1930 he found the name of the Church and began his search for more knowledge about it. But he had many ins and outs with the Protestants in several countries and finally 1951, at the age of 63, he was finally able to be baptized. His story is one of searching and strife, but never one of losing faith in what he had found. There are so many more fascinating stories of ways that people "found" the Church even though it was not a "practising religion" in this land. President Toronto in presenting Why send Missionaries to Italy?(this was the first time) said there were basically 3 important reasons that were looked at:

                    1. Historical---Roman Empire

                    2. Birth of Christianity—a land “sanctified” by the presence of some of Christ’s original Apostles

                    3. Vital geographical location as a nexus between Europe, Asia and Africa

Well, apparently things had been happening that convinced Church headquarters in 1965 that there might be another chance to establish the Church in italy.  Long story, short--it started with a District of Elders formed from 3 other Missions: Bavaria, Germany and Switzerland. There were 5 major cities that these Elders were sent to open the preaching of the Gospel in.

AND I CONCLUDE with these last few dates and facts:.

August 3, 1966            RED LETTER DAY for the Church in Italy         The Italian Mission was organized (once again)  And in Piazza Tabour the first District of the Italian Mission was organized.

The first time Missionary Work began in Italy, September 19, 1850—the land of Italy was dedicated in the foothills of Torre Pellice in the Piedmont Valley of Italy by Elder Lorenzo Snow

The second Re-opening of the Land of Italy for Missionary work under the name of the Italian Mission in July of 1966 was in Florence, Italy. It was no longer a part of the Suisse Mission.

June 6, 1980           First chapel was dedicated in Pisa, Italy

There was a long process to get the Church to be recognized in Italy. (Legally recognized)

Pres J Toronto indicated that there was so much paperwork and regulations and rules to be followed in order for Legal Recognition of the Church in this Land of Italy. The final attempt—letters were sent to the Presidents of the 27 Provinces in Italy—asking  “Should we allow this Church, THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS, to be recognized as a Church in Italy or Not.”

After asking the people within their Province in Community meetings, the answers that came back from all 27 Provincial Presidents was ‘YES’! Pres J Toronto expressed that many people had had such favorable interaction with Missionaries and Members alike, throughout all of Italy—he felt that was one of the things that made this unanimous vote possible.

AND SO ON MAY 12, 1993 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints received LEGAL RECOGNITION in the Land of Italy,  under the penned hand of the Italian Government leaders.

And so as I end my Church history in Italy Post-- I just mention that Anziano Ron (my Ron) was among the 2nd group of Missionaries out of the LTM (Language Training Mission in Provo) to land in Italy in Spring of 1969. The 1st Elders to be called here had no Language Training--so they were called for 30-months to help in getting established, learning the language and becoming productive Missionaries..  These 30-monthers became some of Ron's best teachers, mentors and life-long Friends (Bill/Rick Nelson, Gregory "Guy" Rose, Craig Cardon, Anthony Antonelli---just to name a few--all some of the very best!!).  

After the Fireside--we took a picture of President Toronto and some of those early missionaries that are serving here now. It stirs my heart to see how many have been called "back" to serve--and many of them in the Rome Temple.

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Missionaries now serving in Italy, who were some of the first to serve here in the late 60s and early 70s:

They are pictured with their wives in the picture below.

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Left to right:

Elder and Sister LeGrande and Jane Curtis ,Elder and Sister Rodney and Vicki Boynton ,Elder and Sister Vicchierelli

Elder and Sister Bruce and Colleen Dibb, Bro and Sis Bellu (both Standing), Elder and Sister Darryl and Bonnie Lee

Elder and Sister Jim and Laurie Alexander, Elder and Sister Ron and Carol Mumford

Elder and Sister Dolores and Greg Weed, President and Sister Jim and Diane Toronto

Bro and Sister Ventura (He’s also the voice of Elohim in the latestTemple film.) 

One more thing I wanted to just mention--and its only noteworthy because it just goes to show that Italians love their food--and don't Branch out to many other Cuisines.

Thursday. April 20th, 2023--The Torontos announced "TACO THURSDAY" and invited the Temple Missionaries and some Italians Temple workers to their apartment for the most wonderful array of Mexican/Spanish food I've seen in a long time.  But the most amazing thing is that the Italians DID NOT know what to do with Taco shells or Tortillas or how to build a Taco salad.And Cornbread and honey--a real treat for them and Chili--they didn't quite get that taste. But they were good sports and they LOVED the taste of this new "food". It was just one of those things that maybe you had to be there to appreciate it. My palate WELCOMED IT WARMLY!!!

Starting Left around the table: Pres Toronto, Pres Vardeu and Sister Vardue, Laurie Alexander, Beth and Frank Sano, Carol Mumford, Ron Mumford (standing), Nico and Elisabetta Calabrese, Jim Alexander, Elias and Tania Colleoni (Temple Missionary couple from Brasil) and Sister Toronto is taking the picture❤️.

Well, if i still have any Readers, I say "Thank You" for your love and support! We passed our 6-month mark and, though the language has not come like I hoped by this point, I do feel I am making strides. Like, I don't panic when someone comes up and starts speaking rapid italian--I truly do try to help them--even if it eventually means finding another Italian.!! BUT--I have had times just this past week--when the Italian Sorelle were searching FOR ME--to help an ENGLISH SPEAKER. So--I do have some redeeming qualities.

So we say, from Italy, "Hurrah for Israel!! Hurrah!!

Sorella and Anziano Mumford