Yesterday morning we were sitting in our Suburban with the 5 youngest kids watching the oldest, Peyton, play soccer in the rain.   We were also listening to the morning session of General Conference.  When President Monson announced that 5 new temples would be built, Julie and I both looked at each other and said hopefully, “maybe Rome?”  The stake was established in Rome a few years back and since then we’ve always been hopeful when a temple is announced that maybe it would be in Rome.  When President Monson finally said “Rome, Italy”, Julie and I both broke down in tears.  I admit it.  I’ve got a HUGE soft spot in my heart for the wonderful Italian saints.  And they have longed for a temple for a LONG time.

I think it’s extra close to my heart, too, because Julie and I were both there when the “official” temple talk started 13 years ago in late 1995.  I was a Zone Leader in the Trionfale zone which encompassed a ton of the historic Rome tourist sites and the Vatican as well.  The zone also included a little beach city called Ladispoli where Julie happened to be serving at the time.  My apartment was a short walk from St. Peter’s Basilica and we went there often.  Anyway, I was in a meeting with the other Zone Leaders and Assistants to the President where it was announced that we needed to have a stake in Rome.  It was an unusual request because usually a request for a stake comes from the local level up to the General Authorities.  But in this case, we were being requested by the General Authorities to get the number of active members and priesthood holders required to support a stake because President Hinckley really felt strongly that we needed a temple in Rome, and you can’t have a temple without a stake.  We hashed out all the “numbers” and made a goal that we felt was pretty realistic that we could establish a stake within about 3 years.  We got permission to purchase land for a temple and a site was found that would accommodate a temple and a stakehouse along with parking for both.

There’s another awesome story about what happened in the months following that meeting that plays into this temple story, but I won’t share it here.  If you want more info, ask me sometime.  What’s important here is that instead of 3 years to establish the stake, it took about 10.

So yesterday, 13 years after that meeting where the stake and temple talk began, the announcement was finally made that construction will soon begin on the temple.  I was overjoyed to say the least.  It’s felt like Christmas ever since then and I can’t wait to go over for the dedication in a couple years or so.  Julie was surprised when I said we were going, but there’s nothing, short of deathbed illness that could keep me away from that celebration.

I have to post a favorite quote from Lorenzo Snow, who dedicated the land of Italy for missionary work back in the 1850s.  Of Italy he said:

Here reposes the dust of millions that were mighty in ages gone by, and flooded the earth with the fame of their deeds. Here are the fields that have been crimsoned with the blood of royalty, and have become the grave of dynasties. Poets who sung the praise of nations, and princes that wielded the sceptre of power during many a crisis of the world’s history, are laid low beneath the dust of thy fields and vineyards!

But is there nought here save the tomb of the past? O, Italy! Hath an eternal winter followed the summer of thy fame, and frosted the flowers of thy genius, and clouded the sunbeams of thy glory? No: the future of thy story shall outshine the past, and thy children shall yet be more renowned than in the ages of old. Though the triple crown of earth’s proudest apostate shed a tinsel splendor over thy boundless superstition, Truth shall yet be victorious amid thy Babylonish regions. Where triumphant warriors were stained with gore, and princes reigned in the pomp of tyranny, the sure, though tardy working of the Gospel, now weaves a fairer wreath, and will wear a brighter crown.

I see around me many an eye which will one day glisten with delight at the tidings of eternal Truth, many a countenance which will adorn the assemblies of the living God. There is yet the blood of heaven’s nobility within the hearts of many amid thy sons and daughters; and sooner will that blood stain the scaffold of martyrdom than dishonor the manly spirits with which it is connected.

The Rome mission hymn states “L’italia fiorira’, come promesso fu” — “Italy will blossom, as was promised”.  I heard that the words of the hymn have been changed since we were there to say “L’italia sta fiorendo, come promesso fu” — “Italy is blossoming, as was promised”.  The temple announcement is a fulfillment of Lorenzo Snow’s promise.

Here are a couple of articles regarding the temple:

LDS Church plans temples in Rome, 4 other locations

October 4th, 2008 @ 10:00pm
By Carole Mikita and AP

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints heard a big announcement in the opening session of general conference Saturday.

President Thomas S. Monson surprised tens of thousands of people in the Conference Center and millions more gathered around the world when he said, “This morning, I am pleased to announce five new temples.”

“Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Cordoba, Argentina; the greater Kansas City area; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Rome, Italy,” he said.

When Pres. Monson said one would be built in Rome, surprise shot through the crowd at the Conference Center. Conference-goers called it unexpected.

Linda Ann Taala, of Taylorsville, Utah, said, “That’s the headquarters of the Catholic Church, and it’s interesting to see we’re going to have representation there, too.”

Russell Ferry, of Corrine, Utah, said, “The Rome temple, I was really surprised that we had that much church membership there. That’s really neat that we have that.”

A viewer wrote on our KSL.com comment board that land for the temple in Rome is 10 acres within the “circle road” that surrounds the main city. Besides the increased membership, he said another thing needed to happen, and that “included official government recognition of the LDS Church as a ‘church,’ which happened last year.”

He also said, “As an emissary to Italy, I have been waiting for this day for six long years and am very happy it has finally come.”

From Google Earth you can see Vatican City and St. Peter’s Basilica. Others on our comment board say property being discussed for a temple is to the north and east.

The Rome temple will be the church’s first in Italy, first in the Mediterranean region, and the twelfth in Europe. It will serve church members from a variety of countries and greatly reduce travel time and expense to the Latter-day Saints living in the area. The church has had a presence in Italy since 1850, although its missionaries have not always been allowed to proselytize there, according to information on a church Web site.

First Temple Announced in Rome

SALT LAKE CITY 4 October 2008

In 1850, three years after the Mormon pioneers arrived in Utah, Jean Antoine Bosc became the first member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Italy. Since that time, Church members have waited for the day when they would have a Latter-day Saint temple on Italian soil. That dream came closer to reality when Church President Thomas S. Monson announced plans for a temple in Rome on 4 October 2008.

Latter-day Saints have a rich history in Italy. The first Latter-day Saint missionaries in Italy left their homes in the United States and arrived in Genova on 25 June 1850. Elders Lorenzo Snow, who later became the Church’s fifth president, Thomas B.H. Stenhouse and Joseph Toronto, a native of Sicily, began their missionary work in the mountainous Piedmont region near Torino. Religious freedom had just been granted in that area by the King of Sardinia a year earlier.

Over the next three years, between 1850 and 1854, a total of 221 people were baptized and organized into three branches of the Church in Angrogne, St. Germain and St. Bartholomew. During that time a missionary tract, The Voice of Joseph, and the Book of Mormon were both published in Italian.

Most proselytizing in Italy ceased in the early 1860’s because of local opposition and a request from Church leaders for Italian members to immigrate to Utah in the United States. The Italian mission was officially closed in 1862. An attempt was made in 1900 to re-open the mission, but legal permission was refused. It would be another 40 years before the Church would have a formal presence in Italy when foreign servicemen were stationed in the country.

The Church was established again among the people of Italy when Vincenzo di Francesca joined the Church in 1951. His conversion resulted from his chance finding of a burned copy of the Book of Mormon whose cover and title page were missing. During this period, Italians joined the Church in other countries, bringing their new faith back to Italy with them. They began attending Church services with LDS servicemen stationed in the country which resulted in the establishment of several new branches (An LDS branch is similar in size to a Catholic parish.) The first of these was in Naples, organized on 28 April 1963. In 1964 the Church republished the Book of Mormon in Italian and by year end Church records showed 229 Church members living in Italy.

That year Elder Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who would later become the Church’s 13^th president, petitioned the Italian government for permission to resume missionary work in the country. Permission was granted and 20 Italian-speaking missionaries entered the country on 27 January 1965 to begin working in Turin, Milan, Brescia, Verona, Vicenza, Pordenone, Como and Varese.

Membership growth was slow but steady throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s with new missions created in Rome, Padova and Catania. By 1978, Church membership in Italy passed 7,000. By 1990 it was 14,000.

To accommodate Church growth, stakes (similar in concept to a diocese) were organized in Milan (1981), Venice (1985), Puglia (1997), Rome (2005) and Alessandria (2007).Today Church membership in Italy exceeds 22,600 in 102 congregations, with many Church members being second and third generation Latter-day Saints.

For information on the construction and any news, photos, etc, I just found this site. Hopefully, it will contain a bunch of good info soon.
http://www.rometemple.info