Latter-day Saints Temple Brings Curiosity to the People in Rome

ROME, Italy — When President Michael D. Pickerd of the Italy Rome Mission and his wife, Sister Marian W. Pickerd, welcome missionaries to the mission home — whether it be new arrivals, those currently serving or the elders and sisters departing for home — they have a pretty good sense of what the missionaries are feeling.

The 1920s villa on Via Cimone, situated northeast of the Eternal City’s historical and tourist-laden central district, has functioned as the mission home since the early 1970s. In fact, both President and Sister Pickerd served as Rome-assigned young missionaries in the ‘70s, and the mission home they have resided in as mission president and companion for the past 30 months is the same from their service as young missionaries four decades ago.

“The missionaries walk through the same doors we walked through, they get interviewed by the mission president in the same office we were interviewed in, and we have their final testimonies in the same room that we did,” said President Pickerd.

Also recalling her weekly district meetings in the same villa while serving in that area of Rome for seven months, Sister Pickerd says her husband reminds their missionaries they are among the thousands to spend time in the multi-level mission home that can easily sleep 30-plus arriving or departing missionaries.

Read the rest of the story at the church news.