Annoucement of Rome, Temple: Responses in Rome
Posted By karen on October 13, 2008
Karen Acerson, wife of Mormon Mission President, Jeffrey Acerson, journaled her thoughts as they flowed during the historic announcement of the Rome, Italy temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
On Saturday morning in Utah (Saturday evening in Rome), our prophet, President Monson announced that five new temples would be built. As he started naming each temple, I thought in my mind, “Someday, a prophet will say, ‘Rome, Italy’.” I remember repeating it wishfully a couple of times in my mind as he named each one. When he got to the end of the list of temples and said, “Rome, Italy” I let out a small scream, buried my head in my hands, and cried. We all cried.
The assistant to the Mission President described what happened as the announcement was made in the local meetinghouse, or Stake Center, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons):
He said that when President Monson said, “Rome, Italy” in English, the person translating it into Italian paused and said, “What?” and then took a half second to let it sink in, then said, “Roma, Italia.” The congregation leapt to their feet, cheering and clapping. He said, “The women were crying, the men were hugging each other, and everyone was overwhelmed with surprise and joy.
Those responses paralleled those in the States. Exultant cries, gasps, sighs, embraces, tears, all accompanied the announcement of this and the Cordoba, Philadelphia, Kansas City and Alberta temples.
About The Author
I too was a Catholic convert when 19 years old in New Zealand and made history as the first sister missionary out of my tiny lovely branch of Timaru in the South Island. My oldest brother is a Catholic priest and my mother would have liked to be the Mother ‘superior to the Pope I’m sure (such was her fervour) and my education was in private Catholic girl schools, so to be called to the Italy mission was mind boogling at first but when I looked back at my mission call paper and took in the word ‘Rome’ a calm settled over me and I felt’ ah this is a mission for my family’. None of them have joined, except by proxy, but my daughter (born under the eternal covenant of marriage) has been studying over in Sicily recently on an Overseas Trip Aboard semester and is now preparing to serve a mission once she graduates from Utah State University in Aug. Wouldn’t it be something to have her turn up in Italy too?
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karenrose Reply:
April 26th, 2010 at 11:31 am
Wow, have you videotaped or written your story? We’d love to have that in English and Italian for our sites. Where in Sicily is your daughter?
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