Three generations of saints in Italy
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NAPLES, ITALY
Mario Manzella was a young husband and father looking for answers.
But, he says, it wasn't until he began praying to God, asking why he felt nothing when he attended the church he'd been raised in, that he began to notice the name tags worn by the young men who frequently dropped in to his bakery.
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," he read.
He invited the elders to his home, and his wife, Anna, accepted their invitation to join the discussion. "As soon as they started using the scriptures, I recognized that what they were teaching was true," recalls Sister Manzella 39 years later.
She was baptized April 4, 1970, in Napoli (Naples in English), the city where she's lived all her life. Her husband followed soon after, and in 1976, they traveled to the Bern Switzerland Temple to be sealed to their four children.
In addition to being longtime members of the Church in Italy, the Manzellas are also perhaps the longest-married. The Napoli Branch recently feted them at a 50th anniversary celebration.
Brother and Sister Manzella can be found each Sunday at meetings held on the ground floor of an apartment building amid the narrow, twisting streets of Naples. A balcony at the back of the multi-purpose "chapel" offers a stunning view of snow-capped Mount Vesuvius in the distance.
The Manzellas are among more than 22,000 Latter-day Saints scattered throughout Italy. Anna and Mario joined only four years after the first Italian mission was established in Florence, north of Naples. The Church was formally recognized by the Italian government in 1993. There are now three missions in Italy.
Sister Manzella says, "The purpose of life is found in the family," and adds that the gospel has given her "great joy." Their family now includes several grandchildren – a third generation being raised in the gospel.
Two of their daughters attend the Napoli branch with the Manzellas. Daughter Angela, who met her husband, Aldo Ariante, four years after his baptism, attends with him and their three children, ages 9-13. The Ariantes were married in the Bern Switzerland Temple in 1995.
The whole family is happy about the prospect of a temple that will be relatively close by. The Rome Italy Temple, announced in October 2008, will require a far shorter and less expensive trip, allowing members to attend more frequently.
To Sister Ariante, having the gospel in their lives means "the opportunity to be sealed as a family, and the security of knowing you're raising your children in the right things."
Her daughter, Alexa, a 13-year-old Beehive, says she feels different from her friends who aren't LDS, but it makes her happy to be different. "I feel blessed to be able to speak freely with my parents and grandparents," she says.
Among her well-marked scriptures, with a Salt Lake Temple sticker on the cover, is her favorite, Doctrine and Covenants 68:6:
"Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you…" Alexa finds comfort in this promise.
"When we feel alone," she says, "the Lord is with us. Whenever I'm not near my parents or loved ones, I know I'm not alone, and I feel safe."
Her Grandfather Manzella is a firm believer in the power of prayer and the influence of the Holy Ghost. His prayers 39 years ago have resulted in 20 more members of the Church in Italy, all of those his posterity.
