Cagliari Transfer 1!

Ok wow. So I'll start at the beginning... We woke up at 3 AM on Monday morning, a bus, a train, and a shuttle later we made it to the Salt Lake airport! Called the "genetori" (parents) from the airport and talked to them for a while, our flight to Atlanta was delayed because the window in the cockpit was broken or something like that so they replaced it and got us "pronti" and we headed out to Atlanta! Anziano Pesci, another Elder in my District at the MTC his parents were on our flight, they were headed back to Knoxville Tennessee so it was really cool to meet them! Because of the delay In SLC we missed our connecting flight to Rome so thankfully there was another flight just three hours later with a ton of extra seats that they rebooked us on. So the Pesci's skipped their connecting flight to Knoxville, decided to drive home and stayed and bought us all dinner at this fancy Italian Restaurant in the airport! It was so nice of them and our first real meal in six weeks!

So 6:40 PM came and we shipped out to Rome! Pretty uneventful flight, we landed in Roma at around 11 and got all of our bags, everyone's bags made it except for one of Sister Bishop's which never left Atlanta but we got it so its all good! As soon as we went through Italian Customs we saw President and Sister Pickerd waiting with smiling faces at the door, with the assistants to the President Anziano Toronto and Anziano Kelly. What a beautiful sight after 9 hours on a plane!

First things first we headed to the temple site of the Rome temple, it's huge! The temple grounds are 1.5 times the size of Temple square in Salt Lake! We took lots of pictures and it is already so beautiful! Then we went to the villa which is what they call the mission home. It's this beautiful four story house just on the outskirts of Junio Roma. It was built by Mussolini and was one of the first church owned buildings in Italy! Drop off our bags, no rest for the weary... We walked to the metro and hopped on with a handful of pass along cards for Mormon.org and we started contacting anyone and everyone on the Metro inviting them to learn more about the Gospel. When we got off the subway we came up to Ground level face to face with the Colosseum! It's huge! It was such an incredible site, we all took pictures in front of it and just took it all in for a few minutes. Then we kept going and did some street contacting. I stopped with Anziano Caliò who is a Native of Milano who went to the Madrid MTC and is VISA waiting In Rome to go to Mesa Arizona, to talk to an Africano man and when we finished talking to him we looked up and the rest of the missionaries including the Assistants were GONE! No where in sight. Anziano Caliò barely speaks English and I barely speak Italian. I looked in my bag and found my travel plans which has the phone number of the mission office. Caliò approached this lady and asked her if we could borrow her phone and she said in English "I don't speak Italian" so I said "Perfect!" We called the office who called the assistants and we met right back up with them. On to the fountain of Trevi! Beautiful! Then back to La Villa for interviews with President and dinner.

Our first night in Italy and we ate Turkish food... Kinda weird but it was good! We went to this little whole in the wall restaurant a few blocks from the villa and we ate Kabobs (Kay-bobs) which is like a tortilla with shaved meat, a mix of pork, sheep, and beef and then cabbage, French fries, and a bunch of other stuff, it was so good! And the soda here is way good too, I had a Fanta and they put real sugar in their soda so it tastes so good. Back to the Villa (with no water because they were having plumbing problems) and off to bed at like 8 to try and get over our jet lag ASAP!

Wednesday was training... All day long in the Rome Chapel we heard from the office senior missionaries, we got our iPads and learned about spending money in Italia. Nothing too exciting until we went back home for dinner. Lasagna! So good, with real mozzarella cheese and then Italian Gelato for dinner... When we finished eating Sister Pickerd said "that Lasagna is the Italian version of Costco pre made lasagna. It was Heavenly so I'm totally not upset. Then we all gathered in the living room to find out where our first assignment in the mission would be and when we leave.

President puts our assignment in a gold envelope with a picture of our trainer. All the sisters went first and I was the first Elder. I opened the envelope and read "Il tuo primo città e Caglieri!" Which is the biggest city on the island of Sardenia! By the way you'll want to look up how to pronounce Cagliari because the G is silent and it's a really pretty word. After everyone opened their envelopes we all stood together in a circle to sing the "Lina del Roma" which is like our mission fight song! If you YouTube "Italy Rome Mission Song" you can find a video, not of us but it's cool to hear it! I found out after that that I would be staying in Rome for another day because they couldn't get a flight to Sardenia until Friday. It never crossed my mind that I would have to fly around my mission! So I went and worked with Anziano Brown in the heart of Rome on Thursday we went contacting in a few parks and picked up some other Elders from Termini the train station in Central Rome.

The last thing we did on Thursday was teach a lesson to a member couple that live in Bologna, he is the project manager for the temple in Rome so they both speak English! I got to teach my first lesson in English which was actually kind of hard because we only practice in Italian at the MTC. It was a beautiful lesson and the spirit was so strong. We shared the Restoration and invited them to invite someone they know to their home so we could teach the same lesson to them. They accepted the invitation so hopefully Elder Brown and his companion will be able to find a new investigator!

Off to bed and up bright and early (5) to head back to the Rome airport! Anziano Guercio who is part of a senior couple in the office picked me and two other Anziani up at 6, we went to the villa and grabbed Sorella Bishop who will also be serving in Sardenia but in Sassari on the complete other end. Headed to the airport, and took the short flight to The airport in Cagliari where I met my trainer! Anziano Segura!

So... Anziano Segura is the man, he's way cool and we're getting along really well! So he's been out about a year and a half, he's from Houston Texas, he played Football in High School  and is pretty athletic. He's been doing this diet where he eats rice and tuna fish like 7 times a day which sounds kind of gross but I guess he's lost a bunch of weight so that's cool, maybe I'll join him and see what happens. So we took a train and a bus to our apartment where I got to unpack and get settled in for a while before heading to the church. Cagliari is one of the most established wards in Italy, they have about 90 active members so they have a really nice building. The sisters that work in our area were blown in which means that both of the sisters are new to the area, they have never been here so Anziano Segura helped the three of us learn a little bit of the ward and the area before we jump in! Then a recent convert couple showed up and we had a little spiritual thought with them talking about the importance of testimonies and making sure that we acquire our own. This lesson was in Italian and let me tell y'all they speak SO FAST. I was doing pretty well with the understanding but sometimes I would have this deer in the headlights look on my face and they would slow down for a few seconds and then forget and go back to full speed. I'll learn eventually right!?!?

So Saturday we spent the day getting adjusted to the area, making language study plans and doing a lot of "new missionary training" not the most fun day but I learned a lot!

We did a gesso on Sabato sera (Saturday night) which means we took a sheet and drew a temple on it in chalk and a bunch of other stuff on it and we chilled in the street inviting people to learn more about Jesus Christ and handing out pass along cards and information cards for the Rome Temple. We did it with the other Sorelle in the district in the centro here in Cagliari and we were getting packed up and all night I had just been asking people if they were interested in a free English class. I saw this older man on the side of the street and I decided to go talk to him. We talked for probably 7-10 minutes in my less than satisfactory Italian, I grabbed a restoration pamphlet and explained some of our basic beliefs and asked him if we could meet with him sometime to talk about them. Sorella Hatfield helped me to exchange numbers with him and hopefully we'll get to have a lesson with him this week! That experience was just a small testimony to me of a couple things, one is that the gift of tongues is real, I've been in Italy for 5 days and was able to hold a conversation and without some divine help there is no way that could have happened. The second part that I learned was about working until the end and not coasting across the finish line. I'm a greenie, I passed out about 20 English course cards that night, l could have called it a day and my trainer and probably myself would have been satisfied but Heavenly Father knows our potential and knows what we can accomplish so I want to make sure that I consecrate all of this time that I have to the Lord. No regrets and no part-time missionaries.

Domenica
Sunday was quite a treat... Up and out the door, our ward meets at 9 AM! In true Mormon standard fashion we show up 10 minutes early and not a single person is here! Apparently their ward hasn't started on time in 10 years... So we set up chairs in the chapel, they have one of the nicest and biggest buildings in Italy, it's actually owned by the church which most of them here aren't. Then comes the talking to people part! They all want to say hi to me and the four other missionaries that are new to the area so everyone shakes hands and kisses cheeks and says a bunch of stuff that I don't understand and we sit down for sacrament. The bishop asked all 5 of us new missionaries to come up and bare our testimonies and tell the ward a little bit about ourselves. I was so nervous I could barely think but it went really well and I got lots of compliments after, saying they couldn't believe I had only been here five days! Then naturally they asked if I had any relation to Monica Bellucci. I told a couple of them that she was my Mom but we shut that down real quick! Haha

Afterwards I met a bunch more members and we went to the outskirts of Cagliari for a true Italian Style Pronzo... Oh my heck was it solo good or what?!?!
In true Italian fashion we started with pasta in an amazing butter and garlic sauce with basil and artichokes which I would have been ok if that was the whole meal. But no. Definitely not. Then they brought out this whole pig. Head and all, it still had teeth. Coolest thing ever, I didn't eat the head, but the guy put the whole head right on my companions plate. He also got an ear that still had hair in it... He didn't eat it... The actual pork was amazing though, it was so good! Then they brought out a platter of sliced tomatoes and olive oil and onions and some garlic toasted bread. Then a huge platter of watermelon and cantaloupe that was heavenly. All the fruit here is Heavenly to be honest... Then the dolce or dessert, it was a deep fried pastry freshly made with cheese that's made from the Rhine of the lemon. Then you put some honey on it while it's still hot out of the oil. Heaven on a plate let me tell ya.
Then we had a really cool spiritual thought from Alma Chapter 50 about how we need to guard our families and make a fortress and the basic things that can be our safe guards are simple yet powerful. The basics are family prayer and scripture study, going to church and spending time together as a family. There is no substitute for these things in our lives. So my invitation to all of you is to think about your family whether it's just you, or you and your spouse, or you and your spouse and 10 kids it doesn't matter, think about what you can do to make sure you have that fortress built to protect your family and what are some other things you can do to continue to build that strength.

I apologize that this email is soooo long but I wanted to make sure I shared everything! Congratulations if you read the whole thing! I hope you all have a sweet week and I can't wait to hear from you! Remember I can read your emails through out the week so feel free to send them whenever. I love being connected to y'all!

Anziano Jacob Bellucci