Oscar Blanc: remembering his Mormon mission. by Giuseppe Martinengo
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on October 1, 2008 |
I was greatly surprised to see a big picture of a group of young men and women with the background of the Roman Forum in the beautiful and for me very special city of Rome in the September 2008 issue of the Liahona. I wish to share some thoughts but it is difficult to express in words so many memories and feelings. I just hope that they will be of inspiration to some…
In March 1971 I went to Italy as a missionary and my first assignment was to proselyte in the city of Rome, which, in time, I learned to love so much. My companion was the Branch President, certainly a very small branch since the church was still young in Italy. The Mission headquarters had been recently moved from Florence, its first location, to Rome in Via Cimone 95 where I had my first spiritual experiences of my mission.
In our preparation days (P-days), my companion and I used to go take pictures of the many historical places of Rome, real tourist postcards known all over the world. One of the photos I remember very well has me in the same place and perspective of the one picturing the youth in the Liahona…How many things to ponder, to remember and to be grateful for! Allow me to share some of those:
• I remember well my feelings of being new in the mission field and of being the Branch Clerk (also we used to call the junior companion to a missionary serving as Branch Presidents “wife”)…those were natural feelings coming from being part of such a small congregation. We used to meet in an apartment on the first floor of a building in a much unknown area (Piazza Vescovio), which even the same Romans did not know where it was. Hence, these feelings of being very small as compared to the majesty of Rome and the rest of the Roman Empire.
• I asked myself how it was for Paul and Peter to preach there. Just a few meters from the place where the picture was taken, there is the old jail that they say was the prison of Paul in Rome. I understood much of his great missionary spirit, which is the basis of the comments in the Liahona article written by Sister Maddy, who I don’t know, but whose thoughts I share.
• Can you imagine some of the feelings that I now feel after 37 years?…Because there is something glorious about this picture in the Liahona which teaches me many things and it is the reason why I am sharing my feelings. In the middle of the photo dressed in a colourful attire that distinguishes her from all other young men and young women in the picture there is Denise De Feo.
You may wonder why glorious…here it is some of the story.
After the first two months of my mission, we received the visit of Elder Thomas S. Monson who came to that small apartment that was the branch in Rome. At that time he was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and had come with the assignment to announce that the Italy Mission was being divided in two missions: one in the North of Italy with headquarters in Milan and the other one in the South with headquarters still in Rome. That would take place in only two months.
I remember Elder Monson’s visit very well, his wife and daughter with him, his good spirit and his great personality, giving us encouragement to give our best in whatever mission we would end up. In the following weeks, I remember thinking: “I would like to go to the North” and as some transfers took place we knew who was staying in such a mission. And so it happened with me when in those days I received a transfer to go to the city of Taranto, deep South, and I was assigned as a senior companion to a new elder that had just arrived in the mission field and we travelled together to this town in the South. It was one more challenge in my mission. Certainly Rome was not very fruitful as of my learning of missionary work, first of all because it was a very big town for the beginning of the work in Italy, then for lack of interest to listen to our message, and, in my case, because I had to dedicate sufficient time to assist the Branch President, I being the clerk of that small branch. That’s why I also value very much the vision of a prophet, the current President of the Church Thomas Monson, his thoughts and fortitude in that small apartment of that remote Piazza Vescovio in the immense city of Rome. They were certainly more profound and positive than mine! And I mention these feelings so that it is understood that we can learn even 37 years after.
Going to Taranto brought great challenges: teaching to my new companion and starting both to preach in Italian. I had used English much in those first months and it was hard to understand the language with its different tones and to adapt to the new customs of the region. I also think that my companion seemed to have another challenge: elder Nelson was from the United States.
Both of us proceeded to labor and started to knock on doors and to offer our message in our own “unique” language. But the Lord blessed us with results. To the baptism of the De Bartolomeo’s family followed the baptisms of the Galizia family and Franco and others. Finally, we knocked on a special door where one of the most powerful experiences in my mission, which is not easy to describe in a few words, expected us and has accompanied me since 1971. I remember reading the names of the families on the nameplate on the doors of each apartment of a certain house (in Italy, the majority of people live in apartment buildings with two or three apartments on each floor and each one of them has the habit of putting the surname on the door to facilitate the task of identifying that certain family). So, we knew the names of the families before they opened the door. Then I remember reading the name at the door we knocked: De Feo. Something that in Castilian sounds singular as surname and that provokes smiling. I made a comment to my companion and he smiled when he heard what it meant in Castilian but the Lord had us something more glorious prepared that quite these anecdotal details and it is what in the Mission we called a golden contact. Two very kind and amiable children, Alberto and Massimo De Feo, together with and supported by their aunt, received the discussions very well and progressed towards the baptism. It was touching to see their conversion and acceptance of the missionary message.
I did not have the privilege to be present the day of their baptism and elder Nelson had been transferred to another town. Elder Mason had accompanied me and finished teaching the discussions and baptized them. I, on my part, was called to be Branch President of the Catania Branch, in Sicily but I received the photo of the De Feo brothers and a card from their aunt on the day of their baptism. They were both dressed in white. Their aunt decided not to be baptized, which gives more value to their conversion and also the fact that their parents always authorized their baptism. I keep those two photos with the written greetings from Alberto and Massimo like a treasure. And it is at this point that you discover why something glorious came to me when I saw Denise De Feo in the middle of the picture in the Liahona. Because Denise is the daughter of Massimo withs whom I had not had much contact but not long ago I was informed that had been called as the first Stake President of the recent created first Stake of Rome.
Perhaps you can perceive my feelings of gratitude still learning after 37 years by only comparing the thoughts of excitement and of great humility mentioned previously from the times of the small Branch of Piazza Vescovio to this fantastic article
Could I imagine that day that I visited the Roman Forum for the first time and at the same time being awed at the sight of such show of grandeur of the great Roman Empire the relation of my picture with that in the 2008 Liahona? No.I would have never imagined but one of the things I wish to share is that Someone knew. Because our Lord is at the centre of missionary work: the centre of that message that was shared with our poor Italian by my companion and me but that connected through the Spirit with Alberto and Massimo and also with their aunt Anna. That day that we read the name De Feo prior to knocking on the door, the Lord had already in store this glorious experience that has no limits.
Today, after many years, I was able to speak to Massimo (President De Feo) and he informed me that his brother Alberto, who lives in Canada is Branch President there. He told me of their aunt, of their good parents who even if they were not members allowed them both to serve as missionaries, of his achievements and of his son who just finished a mission in Spain and therefore speaks my very own language that I could not use to teach. However, at the end of this story I testify that all teachings must be from heart to heart through the medium of the Holy Ghost who is the only one who can penetrate the heart and “teach eternal truths”.
I have a feeling of gratitude for the Lord for having taught me after so many years and especially to all those mentioned in my story, from Denise to her father, from my companions to our current president and prophet Thomas S. Monson and to many others who are parts of this chain that we have formed. That is how we described it with Massimo in our beautiful phone call.
As one of my companions in my mission used to say, recalling the scripture “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts”. And often the Lord has spiritual experiences prepared for us that we would never imagine to live.
David Rogers 2:47 pm on March 22, 2009 | #
I was in Stake conference today in Mesa, Arizona. The General Authority was Elder Perry Webb of the 6th Quorum of the Seventy. During his talk he mentioned the creation of the Stake in Rome. He said that with the creation of this Stake their is for the first time in nearly 2000 years an authorized Bishop in Rome.
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karenrose Reply:
June 20th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Wow.
K
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