The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days here at the MTC so all in all I think it balances out! Not too many exciting things happened this week, lots of Italian, lots of studying and lots of work!
We went to the temple last week and did Initiatories, I got to do them for seven family names including my Grandpa! Temple work is amazing!
Sunday we heard from Brother Heaton who works at the MTC. He brought up 4 converts out of the audience and had them tell us their stories. Each one of them had some inspiration or an experience that helped them to know that they needed God. Some part of each of their stories had something to do with how the Lord prepares His people to be taught the Gospel and how the Lord works through His Missionaries and guides them to help those who need it the most in their time of need. It was really neat to see the strength of their testimonies because they know what it was like to not have the Gospel. They had lived without it and now know the happiness that comes from following Jesus Christ.
We practice teaching our teachers a lot here at the MTC and we've been teaching Sister Francom as "Alessia" for about two weeks now. Alessia's fiance was just diagnosed with MS and so Alessia decided to ask her ex boyfriend who is LDS for some spiritual support. Sister Francom said to us the other day "Would you like to see a picture of "Alessia?" We said "Certo!" which means of course! Turns out Alessia is really Andrew, Sister Francom's ex-boyfriend and its his fiance who was diagnosed with MS and Andrew is asking her for spiritual support. So some of the things that we are sharing with her she is sharing with him. It's really cool to know that even though we are teaching our teacher there really are real life applications and what we receive through the spirit can help us and ultimately help them to feel God's love and receive the message of the restored Gospel.
My favorite part of the week this week came yesterday! My district got to host the new missionaries! So we go out and stand by the curb and wait for them to pull up and then in the nicest way possible we pry them away from their families and take them to their rooms and get their new language materials and them take them to class! Yesterday 781 new missionaries came into the MTC! We were down to about 1400 missionaries and now we're back up over 2000! The first guy I took was pretty cool, he's headed to West Virginia, I got him all settled in and headed back to the curb. As I got to the curb I saw this big red 15 passenger van pull up and I thought "That looks like the Geilman's van, I think I've ridden in that van" and then I saw who was driving and I knew it was them! I called off the other Elder that was heading towards the van and out came one of my favorite missionaries John Geilman! His little brother Joseph is headed to Thailand and I totally forgot that he was coming yesterday! It was so cool to see a face that I knew from the outside world and to get a hug from one of my best friends! I only got to see them for a few minutes because they can't stay at the curb for very long but it totally made my day!
I ended up hosting 6 missionaries yesterday headed all over the world! North Carolina, Thailand, France, West Virginia, California, and Argentina! They all seemed like really nice kids and it was cool to be a part of their first MTC experience!
In the Teaching Resource center we taught a man that served in Milan 45 years ago but he keeps up with his Italian still! He works for doTerra as a graphic designer so we talked as much as I could in Italian about my Mom being a consultant which was pretty cool! We talked about making sure that our testimonies are based in the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ and relying on Moroni's promise in Moroni 10 he say "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things" My favorite part is that we can receive a witness of all things! We have a prophet and apostles that speak to us and receive revelation for the whole church but we don't have to believe what they say on blind faith. We can and should pray to know the truth of all things as Moroni says in verse 4 I would exhort you that ye would ask God the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. I want to leave the same challenge with you guys this week. When you study, the book of Mormon or the words of our modern day prophets pray to know the truth. Pray to know that what they are saying and what you are feeling as you read are the words of God.
I hope you all have a really good week! I can't believe I am halfway done with my time at the MTC and I am itching to get to Italy! I just want to be there already! My Italian is coming along pretty well. The other day I taught a lesson for 30 minutes completely in Italian and my companion didn't speak a whole lot but it went really well! We're both understanding so much more which is really nice! I know when we get to Italy it won't sound anything like what we're learning now but that's ok too! It's kind of surreal that we're going to a completely different country in just two and a half short weeks!
Don't forget that you can send me letters for free online at dearelder.com I love seeing them and hearing all about whats going on in your lives! I forgot my camera in my room so I can't send any pictures this week :( But I love getting pictures from you guys! So keep them coming!
Anziano Jacob Bellucci
Italy Rome Mission
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