The ground breaking for the Rome Italy temple will be held on October 23rd!!!!! I have attached an email from President Pacini, a former mission president in the Rome, Italy mission.
Dear Elders and Sisters (and our friend s who love Italy),
Today, 10/10/10, throughout the length and breadth of our beloved land of service to the Lord, Italy, an announcement was read to all those present in Church. It indicated that the groundbreaking for the temple in Italy will be held on October 23, 2010. Presiding at that ceremony will be President Thomas S. Monson.
Sister Pacini and I wish to thank each of you once again for your faithfulness during your missions together with your fasting and prayers since that time in behalf of this and other Italian related events. Over the years these acts of devotion, coupled with those of the Saints in Italy, have both permitted the inspiration of heaven to fall upon President Monson in announcing the temple two years ago as well as to miraculously obtaining the permission to build the temple in such a short time from when the plans were submitted to the civil authorities.
We hope that you will generously thank the Lord for His influence and assistance in bringing the construction of His house to this point of beginning. In additional to our prayers of thanksgiving a renewed dedication on our part to live the Gospel to its fullest will certainly be one of the best ways of showing the convictions of our hearts. In a similar vein, to build the faith of both active and less-active members that you know during the next few years will be even more important. Take the opportunity to prayerfully encourage all to be worthy to attend the dedication once it is announced and then to regularly attend the temple to receive those blessings for themselves and their kindred dead. Your encouragement will be most meaningful as now that this work has taken another step forward the adversary will only increase his pace and desire to attack the faithful.
As you will each remember, there is almost no parking on the land selected for the temple site. As a result, the First Presidency has requested that only selected priesthood leaders attend the ground breaking ceremony. To make the proceedings available to all the Italian saints, the ceremony will be taped and rebroadcast to all the chapels in Italy the following day – Sunday October 24th, 2010. Should individuals or groups arrive and create any form of traffic congestion or disruption of public order, our first public event relative to the temple would certainly leave negative feelings towards us and in the worst case could cause even more difficult circumstances now or in the future as permission to hold a temple open house is requested. Given your spiritual maturity, we are confident that not only will each of you abide by the” invitation only request,” but that you will also with great love and tenderness encourage your many friends and Church members in Italy to do the same. We are confident that the Lord is aware of your great love for Italy and your desires and willingness to sacrifice to be there at such a wonderful time. And for those desires each will be blessed even though they are not physically present.
We hope that you will each realize that while this is the first temple in Italy, it will serve the saints in many other nations and will be a blessing to the Italian Republic as well. The Spirit of the Lord has a wonderful effect on all when they are close to it. The eventual linking of families eternally, providing courage to the youth, and having a lovely edifice build to the Lord in the “eternal city” will bring untold blessings and open the way for many more of our brothers and sisters to embrace the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.
While there was no public indication as to the length of time necessary to build the temple, when the open house might be, design of the temple, or many of the other details, as we hear something public we will share it with each of you.
Some of you may have heard indications of this announcement from a number of other sources recently, as did we. Until the announcement was official and public though, we deferred communicating anything. We desired that the information be correct and more importantly allow the faithful saints in Italy to hear such joyous news from their local priesthood leaders first.
As you now begin to communicate this to those who are near to your hearts please remember that many of those private communications that we choose to make over the Internet at times become public. Please ensure that all that is said and suggested is positive and does not reflect negatively on any one or any group. This is a great opportunity to build bridges and reclaim the souls of those who are wandering.
This announcement comes almost 160 years to the day (19 Sept 1850), from when President Lorenzo Snow by direction of the leadership of the Church officially dedicated Italy for the preaching of the Gospel. As you will remember, he spoke of the day when the “fullness of the Gospel” would be available to all in Italy. While the blessings of heaven have certainly been available to the Italian saints in the Swiss Temple for many years, this step will certainly be in partial fulfillment of President Snow’s prophetic vision those many years ago.
May the Lord bless you always for your service in the Italian part of His vineyard.
With love and appreciation for our association together and prayers for your continued happiness and success,
President and Sister Pacini
Have you found the picture of what it's going to look like yet?
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