We woke up bright & early Sunday morning to catch a 7:30 bus to the Rome Temple. It was only our own family, Opa & Oma, & Tuhk this time. Everyone else decided to do some exploring on their own while we were going to church.
As we were on the bus, we noticed a family dressed in similar church clothes trying to catch the bus. We tried to stop the bus driver, but these Rome bus drivers are kind of ruthless. The poor family was left chasing the bus & we felt so bad for them.
After 40 minutes on one bus, we exited & waited for a 2nd bus that would take us directly to the temple. About 5 minutes after we got off the one bus, another bus came & that same family was getting off so they could catch the same bus we were getting on to the temple. They were visiting from the states & were going to church too. The dad had served his mission in Rome & was bringing his cute family to visit. It was fun getting to know them on our last 20 minute leg of the trip to the temple.
The temple is gorgeous. I had heard the Rome Temple was above & beyond, but I was speechless. It was STUNNING.
We hurried over to the church building located on the temple grounds & made our way Inside. It was packed! I've never seen a ward so big! It was crazy because the majority of it was all TOURISTS. The poor ward has to deal with all these tourists every week. We felt very welcome & enjoyed our sacrament meeting even if we didn't understand it because it was in Italian. It felt good to just feel the spirit.
Afterward, we were walking down the hall & we heard "Cadence! Cadence Potter?!" We turned around & Cadence's old seminary teacher was there. Brother Bailey had taught Cadence's seminary class her freshman year in Mountain View, CA. They just so happened to be in Rome picking up their daughter (Cadence's friend from high school) from a study abroad semester in Rome. We laughed & talked for about 30 minutes catching up on life & everything going on. He was very excited to learn that Cadence is going on a mission to Mongolia & they exchanged email addresses so Brother Bailey could be added to her mission emails.
After church, we started walking around the beautiful temple grounds. There is so much peace there. It felt wonderful.
We stopped inside the visitor's center to look at the beautiful Christus statue & the statues of the 12 apostles. I've seen them on church videos, but it was nothing like seeing them in person. They were carved in marble by an Italian artist & they were gorgeous. The painting of the sun shining on the Italian countryside just added to its beauty. Having Christ as the central focus makes it perfect.
In the visitor's center, there is an area with Books of Mormon in several languages on a table. Cadence actually found a Mongolian Book of Mormon (the first we've seen since she's been called to serve there as a missionary.). She got SO excited when the missionaries there told her to keep it! She was SO happy.
The kids especially loved this model of the Rome Temple. It allowed them to see how the temple was set up into different rooms for different ordinances & they got to see what it looks like inside.
After exploring the visitor's center for a while, we went back outside to take some more pictures of the temple.
We ran into Brother Bailey again & had to get a picture of him & Cadence together.
And then CRAZILY we asked a man to take a family picture of us when he looked at Trek & said "Trek? Trek Potter?" It was one of Trek's mission companions from when he served in Germany. So of course we stopped & talked to him for about 30 minutes too.
They had a blast catching up & learning about what each other have been doing for the last 22 years.
After enjoying the temple, we hopped back on a bus & headed back towards Rome. We decided to go back to our hotel for a short 30 minute nap, then we'd meet back up with the family & walk to a few more famous Rome sights (like the Trevi Fountain & the Spanish Steps).
Of course, most of of fell asleep on the bus ride home. We were exhausted!
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