“No problem, I will absolutely take you to the Vatican on Sunday. Whatever you want!”
J Love it!
Needless to say he was a little surprised when I pulled out this address to some place outside of Vatican City. For the first bit he was kinda like, “you don’t know where you’re going…this is wrong…there’s no church there…” So, to try and prove it to him I google earthed it so show him that there in fact is a church on Via Bra #24.
“That’s a church?” He said with a look of confusion and disappointment on his face. “Cam, I can take you to a more beautiful church.”
I tried to explain that to me, this was the most beautiful part of all of Roma. He still didn’t believe me and though by then I felt totally comfortable follow directions I’d been given for how to get there he reluctantly lead the way.
We got off the metro at Battistini and from there could have caught a bus closer to our destination but for some reason he didn’t believe me. So, he went and asked some drivers for his own directions and we began to walk accordingly. I made sure we left like an hour and a half early so that we would absolutely not miss sacrament and that turned out great given the whole walking thing.
We started up some hill which was the last turn before the street we would reach Via Bra. Now, I know I already described my church shoes to you and I was doing totally fine walking in them up the cobble stone, uneven, and broken up concrete road and sidewalk and our stroll was accompanied by the ever identifiable sound heals make as you walk. Suddenly, my train of thought and our conversation was joined by a really loud,
“Tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock…”
I looked back at Babak thinking that he was doing it and then Janise looked forward at us both…we quickly realized that the “tick-tock” wasn’t coming from any of us and looking a little back and off to my right an adorable, polished, little old man caught my glance and with a wink at me and a nodding glance in the direction of my feet, his smile stretched with mine as I realized that he was the source of the tick-tock and that he was making fun of my loud boots. Hahaha! He carried on for about 1 minute or two (literally) and then with the commencement of his almost teenage girl giggle we all ruptured into laughter, hello’s, goodbyes, and good day’s. I glanced over my shoulder again and could help but want to take a picture with him as he started into it again with a laugh. Tickled by my request, he struck a valiant pose and with due bace he began bearing his testimony of Jesus Christ with arms a flyin’ and then, “Ciao!” and we carried on, all smiling ear to ear.
Much to Babak’s surprise, we got to the church and it was in fact a church and there were people inside of it. We were followed in by a cutie little Italian gma who excitedly welcomed us in and ushered me in the direction of an English speaking member. I ask him for Marilena and Fabrizio and we were off to Sunday school with her. As we sat down, right before the class began, low and behold who comes struttin’ in? The tick-tock gpa!!! Ha! I knew it! You know when you just know someone is a member? I totally felt it when we met. We immediately recognized each other, began giggling, embraced, exchanged some broken Italingish and sat just as the opening hymn was announced.
We attended both Sunday School and Sacrament meeting and they were both wonderful. It was fast and testimony meeting and Janise and I had decided to fast and had a pretty interesting conversation with Babak as we tried to explain why we didn’t want breakfast or lunch on our way there. Now, I totally know that testimony meeting is not always a great first impression of the church for people because you never know what you’re going to get, but this testimony meeting (which is the first Sunday of every month, the members of the church on their own fruition can approach the pulpit and share their beliefs and understandings or wisdom about the gospel that they have learned through their own experiences with the rest of the congregation…really cool opportunity) was incredible! I’ve never been more grateful for a testimony meeting in my life. What a perfect way to introduce Babak to Christianity and the LDS Church then through the members speaking a language he understands and sharing their experiences and gratitude from their heart in their own words. And you might be thinking, “How do you know if anyone was crazy or saying something impactful?” Well, after about the first testimony this nice young man named Jeffery brought us some headphones and the first brother that had directed us to Marilena was translating for us in the back. So, really really the meeting was beautiful. Actually, you know when you’re sitting there and taking the opportunity to bear your testimony that day has never been further from your mind and then, “BAM!” You’re hit right in the chest with that pounding feeling from the Spirit, also referred to as the Holy Ghost and it is a spirit that we believe the Lord works through to guide, direct, and communicate His will for us through. Yeah, that happened. It was actually while Marilena was up bearing her testimony and I just had the strongest feeling that I really needed to take this opportunity to share my testimony with Babak and maybe others in this public setting. Umm, remember how I don’t speak Italian? Oh yeah, right, like I forgot. Initially, I wasn’t really sure how to go about following that prompting but felt really at peace about doing so I did the only thing I knew how and turned to the Hymnal. I immediately knew what testimony I wanted and was to share: I know that my Redeemer lives. With my basic Spanish and budding Italian skills I flipped through the “First words and Phrases” index in the back and began looking up hymns that I thought might be it. I quickly figured out what “redeemer” was in Italian and after a couple of tries found false by humming the first lines, I found it. Next, I started reading through the lyrics as best I could to figure out which verse I would read. The second. It was perfect. I waited for this beautiful sister to finish her testimony about how she wishes she can “stay awake for the Savior” and then followed another white girl (who happened to be from Rupert, ID) to the stand that Marilena had just introduced me to.
There was a lady sitting next to me up there and she translated my introduction and then I just read through the hymn. Stumbling, heart pounding, and beat red face through the first two lines turned into calm, peaceful, flowing recantation as the spirit took over and some of the congregation began saying some of the words with me. Other than staring at the book, I directed my words to those I knew in the congregation. In the end, I was grateful to be done and grateful for the prompting. Church in Roma, what a beautiful experience.
Afterward everyone came up and talked to me and it was almost an hour before we left the building. Everyone was sad to hear we wouldn’t be staying longer in Roma, but excited Babak lives in Roma J
Marilena, Megan (my new friend from Rupert), and I set up dinner plans, and Marilena and Fabrizio gave us a ride to the metro stop near their home so we’d know how to get there. From there Janise, Babak, and I walked to the Vatican
and sat for a few hours in the sun and talked about religion, the LDS church, “the superior power” as Babak calls it, family, and life. It was a remarkably eye opening, interesting, and perfect Sabbath day afternoon. The afternoon was ended by this funny conversation:
Me: “Babak jun, let’s go make dinner (we were going to be making a Persian feast).”
Babak: “Wait what? You will be eating? What about your fasting?”
Me: “We do it for 2 meals remember?”
Babak: “So you will eat dinner?”
Me: “Yeah totally.”
Babak, raising his hands and head to the sky: “Thanks God! We will be eating! No more fasting! I thought I would die!”
Here’s the cast from Church…Love these darling people:
Marilena: She’s sooo pretty and stylish, she was beyond excited to meet me, she’s super helpful (as soon as we met she immediately was on a mission to find the other girl and introduce us), everywhere she went she just talks to everyone and serves them, she just bounces all over the place.
The cutie tick-tock gpa (Brother Aquilino…I think): He was so cute, totally well dressed, a bright smile you could never wipe away, and seemed to be “that gpa” for the church members. Like, when they announced that testimony meeting would begin, everyone’s sitting there all reverent and stuff right?, he just hollers something at the Brother conducting. Everyone in the congregation just laughed, except for the little old lady sitting next to him, the one that had welcomed us originally, she hit him and scolded him. We sat right behind in during the Sacrament/testimony meeting and it was the best seat in the house, I assure you. He was just like a little kid. He just kept playing little jokes on those sitting around him. The best was when he flicked this little girl sitting in front of the old lady on his right and then pretended he was paying attention. The little girl, kinda all nervous, looks over her shoulder but could not figure out what had happened. She turned back around and the gpa just starts convulsing with giggles. The old lady hit him again and started chastising, this time with a stern finger pointing his way.
The regal old man: You know sometimes an older gentleman from church starts talking and all you can think is, “The Church should hire him to read scriptures out loud (or something)” ? Well, I met the best Italian version of that. Just imagine one of those thunderous voices and then add the most amazing Italian melodious rhythm to his voice and perfect up and down inflection. Wow, that was him. We all could have listened to him talk all day!
Relief Society President: She was really cute and apparently it’s like celebration of women’s week so as soon as we walked in she excitedly rushed over with two bouquets of some of these yellow, fluffy, pom-pom like, flowers, which I think are now my favorite flower, and invited us to their Relief Society party on Tuesday night. All the ladies around joined in the chorus of invitation.
Beautiful old woman: This one older sister got up and bore one of the most beautiful testimonies of the Savior His love that I have ever heard. It was glorious and made everyone relax, smile, and have a look of great love on their faces. And as is that wasn’t perfect enough she was wearing an ankle length fur coat, had big huge pearl earrings, a designer bad, and bluish-silver hair like what I picture when I imagine the gma from “gma got run over by a reindeer”. Amazing! I want to be her when I grow up.
Cilvio: There was this funny little old man that just followed me around the building. His name was Cilvio. He has pretty great English and he’s quite possibly the most inquisitive people I’ve think I’ve ever met. And I think that it must be pretty normal for him to stalk new comers because a couple members came to my side as though “coming to my rescue” but I just let him carry on because I was far from annoyed. He said he pegged me for American right off the bat, soon became aware of my Islamic decent and he had a lot a lot a lot to say and ask about it. He was kinda funny.
Brother Carlo Denti: He was this absolutely delightful brother that I rather enjoyed speaking with both before and after sacrament meeting. He was sooo nice! I also liked him because he took particular liking to Babak. They spoke for quite awhile. He also on his own found that Babak was not a member so he explained sacrament meeting and testimony meeting and some other things about church. Thank you Brother Denti!!! I had previously tried to explain some of those things to Babak but I could tell that he didn’t quite get it because of his facial expressions.
Oh yeah, and there was a new Bishop and apparently people weren’t there last week because it was all the buzz and mentioned a number of times during the testimonies.
What a remarkable day.
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