il tempio per roma

Considering there is homework to be done and midterms to be studied for, this blog post shouldn't really exist. Except that it's been such a weekend that I can't keep away. Unfortunately, that means this needs to be quick---when I least feel the need for brevity.

Plans for a temple in Rome, Italy were announced yesterday in the Saturday morning session of my church's General Conference. Our small branch in Siena absolutely erupted. Shouting, crying, jumping, laughing joy. Children were running the halls of our tiny meeting house. The missionaries were celebrating like there'd been some miraculous winning touchdown. We are counseled to mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that stand in need of comfort---those moments, when they come, are always full of a shared humanity. But yesterday, we rejoiced with those that rejoice. And I have never felt a more sweet and eternal joy.

And that was only within the first few minutes of our weekend-long meeting. What I've felt the past twenty-four hours could fill pages. As it is, these paragraphs will have to do. But if I had to sum it up in a sentence, I would simply say this: the Church is true.