Buon Giorno tutti!
Let's start off talking a little bit about the differences between
Italian culture and American culture.
First things first: where's the carpet at? Carpet is literally
nonexistent here... Everything is hardwood or stone or tile. I miss
walking on big fluffy carpet. The one good thing is it's too dang hot
for the floors to be cold when you wake up in the morning. It's just
so weird to get out of bed and not be touching carpet.
Second thing: No one lives in houses here, they're all apartment flats
or condominiums. Which is so different from America! This week I will
be going up to Oristano for an exchange with my District Leader. If
you want to check it out on the map it's to the NorthWest or Cagliari,
but anyway it's a little more rural so I'm interested to see what the
housing is like out there. One thing I didn't think about until today
is that no one has a backyard. That would be so sad to me... And a lot
of the parks here are kinda ghetto. But on the other hand some of them
are really nice! I just think it would have been weird to not hear my
Mom say "Go outside and play!"
Number 3: They don't have living rooms... For the most part, at least
not American style living rooms. There will be like a random room with
a couch, that room might be the kitchen, it might be the dining
room... It's just so different. In America I feel like we organize the
furniture to face the television and that's the main room in the
house.
Fourth thing: They don't eat things mixed together. You probably got
this from explaining the meals and stuff but everything is separate.
You eat pasta, then your meat, and so forth. AND They use different
plates for everything. AND they don't use dishwashers. So after every
course you change plates (Sometimes you can eat pasta and meat on the
same plate but I'm not sure what the rules are on that sooo yeah) and
then someone has to wash all those plates! That's so weird to me...
Also they don't let you help pick up. We try to sneak dishes to the
kitchen without them noticing but you have no chance of washing a dish
before they yell at you.
Fifth! There are no like big super stores... There is one called
Auchan that's kind of big but it's still really different. Every store
sells pretty much one thing. So where as we would go to Walmart to buy
laundry soap and food, here you have to go to Acqua and Sapone for the
laundry soap and then depending on what you want for food you could
end up at 10 different stores.
Number 6 and then I'll be done for this stuff... The Claxon is real. A
Claxon is a horn, like for your car, ya know "beep beep" well
everyone's horn in Italy works and gets used VERY frequently and it's
never like a "toot toot" it's a "I'm going to hold this button until
you get out of my way" kind of horn. And once one person in a line of
cars starts honking, everyone feels like it's their right to join in.
As if the person in the way will get the point any faster if we all
lay on our horns together. We live across the street from one of the
biggest markets in Cagliari and things start happening real early over
there so the horns start really early too.
Ok... Onto the week!
On Monday we went to a family's house to teach them how to do a Family
Home Evening together. For those of you who don't know, the church has
set aside Monday night as the night for families to be together and do
FHE. So we started with the Liahona which is just the Italian version
of the Ensign and the Mom asked us what things we were self sufficient
in... I hadn't read the article so I just heard the words self
sufficient and I don't know if I just wasn't paying attention but when
she asked me what things I felt I was pretty self sufficient in my
brain went to spiritual things and so I was talking about the
different parts of my testimony that were pretty strong. Anyway, the
article was literally about being self sufficient during times of
crisis such as having enough money, food storage, clean drinking
water... So I made a fool out of myself. It was embarrassing but I
learned how important it is to pay attention to context!
Tuesday we didn't have District Meeting because this week was Zone
Conference! We wouldn't have been able to go to District Meeting
anyway because I had an appointment to get my permesso stuff done. So
my appointment was for 9:57. Pretty specific I know... Anyway I asked
Anziano Segura if we would just head over after Personal study. He
said no we need to be there at least two hours early! I was so
confused... So we head to the Questura which is the Immigration office
and there is a man from India there standing outside and then we show
up, a few minutes later an African nun shows up... (I know this sounds
like the beginning to a bad joke but it's not I promise) Anyway my
companion tells me "We need to kind of stake our claim in the order we
got here or we'll never get through" to which I was thoroughly
confused. I had an appointment, why does it matter? Well it does. So
we got there at about 7:45 and they opened the gaits at about 9:10. By
this time there were about 50 people from just about every country
standing outside this building. Side note, the building was under a
parking garage and was real sketchy. So the man comes out and gives us
a number as we go in. I got number 5, I was pretty close to the front
but the nun definitely got in front of me. We walk in and there's this
big room, it smells like mold, the lights are flickering, the seats
where you're supposed to wait are like metal park benches and as we
waited it started to smell like BO real bad. Turns out that number
they give you doesn't mean anything because if you're not right there
ready at the counter when they call your number then someone else will
just hop right in! And they let you! One thing I've learned this week
is that Italians don't wait in line. So we finally get up there, and
the dude is super nice! Which was a relief because I've heard some
horror stories about the Questura. So he takes my documents and puts
some stuff into the computer and then he brings over this big 2016
book that's for like appointments. (Now remember this is an official
government office and he is making an appointment for me to be
fingerprinted and allowed to stay in the country) He opens it up,
finds an empty spot and says "How about September 1st?" And promptly
writes my name down in this calendar like I'm making an appointment at
the hair salon... It's incredible to me... So that was all morning
Tuesday. Then we had all of our appointments cancel on us so we did
some bus finding until English course. The Sorelle were late so we got
to teach! Finally something I'm good at! I can speak this language! So
the topic was "Going to the Dentist" they were more interested in how
American Insurance worked and why we didn't have to pay 400€ to have a
cavity filled like they do here. Then Sorella Hatfield made a comment
about how in America you can insure just about anything. It was pretty
funny but the Italians didn't get it...
Wednesday! We went to Quartu which I'm not sure if I've told y'all
about but it's the second largest city in Sardegna and it's pretty
much continuous from Cagliari. We have both cities and there are a ton
of less active members out there so we tried to hit them up! We talked
to the guy that gave us the free watermelon last week, and he gave us
3 kili of clams which is like 5 pounds so my companion and I did a big
clam bake for Pranzo! They were soooo good and so fresh! While we were
talking to the guy his neighbor came over and picked up a clam and
took out his pocket knife, slit it open and slurped it up! Not my
thing but apparently it's good! Our less active finding was less than
successful but we were able to update the ward list with some people
who had moved. The zone leaders did an exchange with e Anziani in
Sassari, so Anziano Bellini came down to Cagliari. He's 6'7", he's so
tall! We had a great time and it was cool to meet other missionaries.
Thursday we had to help get ready for Zone Conference, we had 12
Elders staying at our apartment that night so we had along to do to
get our apartment ready! We had to drag out a ton of mattresses, blow
up mattresses and get all the beds made and ready to go! We bought a
bunch of food to make burritos for everyone that came in late Thursday
night and had been traveling all day. We got cancelled on all of our
appointments on Thursday... But with President flying in that night
and Zone Conference the next day we decided we needed to get a hair
cut. So during our lunch hour we went to his salon, it was super nice
and we asked if they had any openings. They did so we sat down. They
don't teach you how to talk about getting a hair cut while you're in
the MTC... So I sat down and had no idea what to tell her. I said "My
faith is in you" and I did t end up bald so all is well! Haircuts in
Italy are so different... They pay so much attention to the details.
She used like 6 different size clippers and was so precise with my
neck and sideburns. AND everyone gets a shampoo when they're done
cutting. So you don't end up with hair everywhere all day! It was so
nice and the chair gives you a massage while they wash your head. I
could have stayed all day. Then you go back and they style it, she had
me stand up and said I was done and so I did and then she started
freaking out and had me sit down again, she put the apron thing back
on me and she trimmed maybe 3 hairs on my side burns and then said it
was perfect. Also you don't tip here... Weird. Thursday night was
good, the Assistants flew in at around 9, all the other Anziani took
trains into Cagliari and we did a big burrito night and off to bed!
Up at 6:30 as usual to get the Anziani to the church for their
meetings with the President because they had to hop on a train right
after the conference. Typical Italian breakfast (no joke) of cookies
and milk and then we were at the church all day for conference! It was
an incredible conference and the spirit was so strong. I had been
feeling like we weren't really accomplishing much all week, almost all
of our lessons had cancelled on us and we weren't finding new
investigators and I was stressing. We had a great council on what our
mission should be. President has established a vision for out Mission
and it goes something like this:
"The Great Italy Rome Mission is a consecrated Preach my Gospel
Mission that teaches repentance and baptizes converts"
So the ZC was centered on that, specifically the last part, teaching
repentance and baptizing converts which was the topic from the new
mission presidents conference this past week. President has asked us
for the past few weeks to think about and search for scriptures on
repentance and bring them to ZC. So we did! We spent about an hour
discussing different scriptures that we can use to teach repentance so
it is better understood by investigators. It was incredible, e spirit
was so strong as we talked about the blessings that come from true
repentance and a true change of heart. One thing that I've really been
noticing about repentance is that it should be a positive thing. Yes,
sometimes it stinks and it's not always a pleasant experience. But
True repentance, true change, brings true joy. The joy of eternal
life. Like Elder Holland said "Salvation is not a cheap experience"
that's why this work isn't easy. We have to work, we have to have a
desire.
The assistants gave an adestramento (training) called "Come and See"
which was great! It was about inviting people to come to church. Like
Christ said to the early Apostles when they asked him where he was
going, he said "come and see" and hat is exactly what we are to do as
missionaries. We are to be fishers of men like Peter in the book of
Luke. They shared a statistic that people are 120% more likely to be
baptized if they come to church. How cool is that?!?! All we have to
do is get them to church! So how do we do that? Well one of my
favorite things that I got from conference was making our invitations
personal. Instead of saying "Would you like to come to church with us?
By the way it's three hours long." Share a bit of your testimony with
them. "We'd like to invite you to come to church with us and the
reason is because we know you will feel the spirit. The sacrament is
an ordinance that Christ instituted himself in His earthly ministry
and it's my favorite part of the week because I know how weak and
flawed I am, but with the sacrament, I can become clean again. Would
you like to come and see what it's like for yourself?" Obviously every
scenario is different but when we make our invitations personal,
people have a desire to come and see, to come and find out for
themselves. Soooo as always I have an invitation for you. The first is
to go back and watch those "Patterns of light" videos that you wanted
to watch last week but got distracted and forgot. And the second is to
invite someone to church, whether it be an activity, or for a church
tour or a baptismal service. Think of your friends and your family and
invite!
After zone conference our week started to look up! Our investigator
with a baptismal date met us at the church and we had a great lesson,
recommitted him to baptism, and he came to church on Sunday!!!!!
Saturday we started off doing service... Soooo Italians are cheap.
They call it short armed, they will do anything possible to save a
Euro. So we go to this members house and she's trying to remodel her
kitchen. So she gives us this bottle of chemicals that I'm pretty sure
would be out lawed in the states because it's so strong. She tells us
to spray the mold and then paint over it. Ew. Anyway, we do what she
asks. Then we start painting. SHE KEEPS ADDING WATER TO THE PAINT. Do
you have any idea how hard it is to cover a wall that had black mold
on it with white paint that has a ton of water in it? It's real hard.
And I began to be a little bitter about it. The paint was so thin that
it would just run off the roller and never make it so the wall and
what did make it to the wall was straight water. No paint involved. So
I took a break because I was getting annoyed. But I started thinking
about why we do service as missionaries. I mean, she's a super active
member, we could have been out contacting, we could have been
contacting less actives. Why are we here? Then I looked at my name
tag... We are literal representatives of Jesus Christ. All he did was
serve and he served with charity. Which as we know, charity is the
pure love of Christ. Service has less to do with getting the room
painted and more to do with the love that we show when we serve. When
we act as Christ did, people notice, and Heavenly Father notices and
he blesses us. So I got up and I grabbed my roller, sloshed it around
in the paint/water and went to work. She had a neighbor there so that
we could have another male in the house while we were there and so we
got to know him as we painted and we have a return appointment with
him. The Lord blesses your efforts, especially when the intents of
your heart are where they should be!
Saturday night we got invited to a member family's house to mangia la
pizza! It was soooo good! I'll add some pictures as well as the sign
on the door, y'all can google translate it ;)
Sunday! My favorite day...
Sacrament meeting was great, I love Fasting Testimony meeting! It was
great! Hen in Gospel Principles we talked about Honesty and the
importance of being honest in all things. The Italians broke out in an
argument about the difference between types of lying. And stealing and
when it's OK to lie. I can never tell when they're actually arguing
because they all just talk over each other which 1. Makes it really
hard for me to understand 2. Gets us nowhere but off topic. So after a
big giro we turned the conversation back to honesty and it was a
really good class! Priesthood was about Family History! Which turns
out I don't know those words either! So I did t get much out of it so
I just looked at the family history app on my iPad.
A bunch of members invited us to come to Pranzo right after church at
the church with all eight missionaries! It was so good! Then we spent
the evening weekly planning because of Zone Conference! Not too much
exciting going on!
P-Day is here! We spent the morning after studies shopping. It's Saldi
season which is kind of like Black Friday but spread out over like a
month and it happens every August and January. We saw some cool stuff
and I bought an Italian cook book! I'm so excited about it! We also
checked out some sweet Italian suits and shoes. I can't wait to buy
some right before I come home from my mission! We're going to have a
ping pong tournament after emailing which is pretty sweet... I wish
the churches in America had a ping pong table... But they have carpet
which is sooo much better haha
Anyway, I hope you have a great week! I love you all! I can't wait to
hear what you have been up to!
Anziano Jake Bellucci
Let's start off talking a little bit about the differences between
Italian culture and American culture.
First things first: where's the carpet at? Carpet is literally
nonexistent here... Everything is hardwood or stone or tile. I miss
walking on big fluffy carpet. The one good thing is it's too dang hot
for the floors to be cold when you wake up in the morning. It's just
so weird to get out of bed and not be touching carpet.
Second thing: No one lives in houses here, they're all apartment flats
or condominiums. Which is so different from America! This week I will
be going up to Oristano for an exchange with my District Leader. If
you want to check it out on the map it's to the NorthWest or Cagliari,
but anyway it's a little more rural so I'm interested to see what the
housing is like out there. One thing I didn't think about until today
is that no one has a backyard. That would be so sad to me... And a lot
of the parks here are kinda ghetto. But on the other hand some of them
are really nice! I just think it would have been weird to not hear my
Mom say "Go outside and play!"
Number 3: They don't have living rooms... For the most part, at least
not American style living rooms. There will be like a random room with
a couch, that room might be the kitchen, it might be the dining
room... It's just so different. In America I feel like we organize the
furniture to face the television and that's the main room in the
house.
Fourth thing: They don't eat things mixed together. You probably got
this from explaining the meals and stuff but everything is separate.
You eat pasta, then your meat, and so forth. AND They use different
plates for everything. AND they don't use dishwashers. So after every
course you change plates (Sometimes you can eat pasta and meat on the
same plate but I'm not sure what the rules are on that sooo yeah) and
then someone has to wash all those plates! That's so weird to me...
Also they don't let you help pick up. We try to sneak dishes to the
kitchen without them noticing but you have no chance of washing a dish
before they yell at you.
Fifth! There are no like big super stores... There is one called
Auchan that's kind of big but it's still really different. Every store
sells pretty much one thing. So where as we would go to Walmart to buy
laundry soap and food, here you have to go to Acqua and Sapone for the
laundry soap and then depending on what you want for food you could
end up at 10 different stores.
Number 6 and then I'll be done for this stuff... The Claxon is real. A
Claxon is a horn, like for your car, ya know "beep beep" well
everyone's horn in Italy works and gets used VERY frequently and it's
never like a "toot toot" it's a "I'm going to hold this button until
you get out of my way" kind of horn. And once one person in a line of
cars starts honking, everyone feels like it's their right to join in.
As if the person in the way will get the point any faster if we all
lay on our horns together. We live across the street from one of the
biggest markets in Cagliari and things start happening real early over
there so the horns start really early too.
Ok... Onto the week!
On Monday we went to a family's house to teach them how to do a Family
Home Evening together. For those of you who don't know, the church has
set aside Monday night as the night for families to be together and do
FHE. So we started with the Liahona which is just the Italian version
of the Ensign and the Mom asked us what things we were self sufficient
in... I hadn't read the article so I just heard the words self
sufficient and I don't know if I just wasn't paying attention but when
she asked me what things I felt I was pretty self sufficient in my
brain went to spiritual things and so I was talking about the
different parts of my testimony that were pretty strong. Anyway, the
article was literally about being self sufficient during times of
crisis such as having enough money, food storage, clean drinking
water... So I made a fool out of myself. It was embarrassing but I
learned how important it is to pay attention to context!
Tuesday we didn't have District Meeting because this week was Zone
Conference! We wouldn't have been able to go to District Meeting
anyway because I had an appointment to get my permesso stuff done. So
my appointment was for 9:57. Pretty specific I know... Anyway I asked
Anziano Segura if we would just head over after Personal study. He
said no we need to be there at least two hours early! I was so
confused... So we head to the Questura which is the Immigration office
and there is a man from India there standing outside and then we show
up, a few minutes later an African nun shows up... (I know this sounds
like the beginning to a bad joke but it's not I promise) Anyway my
companion tells me "We need to kind of stake our claim in the order we
got here or we'll never get through" to which I was thoroughly
confused. I had an appointment, why does it matter? Well it does. So
we got there at about 7:45 and they opened the gaits at about 9:10. By
this time there were about 50 people from just about every country
standing outside this building. Side note, the building was under a
parking garage and was real sketchy. So the man comes out and gives us
a number as we go in. I got number 5, I was pretty close to the front
but the nun definitely got in front of me. We walk in and there's this
big room, it smells like mold, the lights are flickering, the seats
where you're supposed to wait are like metal park benches and as we
waited it started to smell like BO real bad. Turns out that number
they give you doesn't mean anything because if you're not right there
ready at the counter when they call your number then someone else will
just hop right in! And they let you! One thing I've learned this week
is that Italians don't wait in line. So we finally get up there, and
the dude is super nice! Which was a relief because I've heard some
horror stories about the Questura. So he takes my documents and puts
some stuff into the computer and then he brings over this big 2016
book that's for like appointments. (Now remember this is an official
government office and he is making an appointment for me to be
fingerprinted and allowed to stay in the country) He opens it up,
finds an empty spot and says "How about September 1st?" And promptly
writes my name down in this calendar like I'm making an appointment at
the hair salon... It's incredible to me... So that was all morning
Tuesday. Then we had all of our appointments cancel on us so we did
some bus finding until English course. The Sorelle were late so we got
to teach! Finally something I'm good at! I can speak this language! So
the topic was "Going to the Dentist" they were more interested in how
American Insurance worked and why we didn't have to pay 400€ to have a
cavity filled like they do here. Then Sorella Hatfield made a comment
about how in America you can insure just about anything. It was pretty
funny but the Italians didn't get it...
Wednesday! We went to Quartu which I'm not sure if I've told y'all
about but it's the second largest city in Sardegna and it's pretty
much continuous from Cagliari. We have both cities and there are a ton
of less active members out there so we tried to hit them up! We talked
to the guy that gave us the free watermelon last week, and he gave us
3 kili of clams which is like 5 pounds so my companion and I did a big
clam bake for Pranzo! They were soooo good and so fresh! While we were
talking to the guy his neighbor came over and picked up a clam and
took out his pocket knife, slit it open and slurped it up! Not my
thing but apparently it's good! Our less active finding was less than
successful but we were able to update the ward list with some people
who had moved. The zone leaders did an exchange with e Anziani in
Sassari, so Anziano Bellini came down to Cagliari. He's 6'7", he's so
tall! We had a great time and it was cool to meet other missionaries.
Thursday we had to help get ready for Zone Conference, we had 12
Elders staying at our apartment that night so we had along to do to
get our apartment ready! We had to drag out a ton of mattresses, blow
up mattresses and get all the beds made and ready to go! We bought a
bunch of food to make burritos for everyone that came in late Thursday
night and had been traveling all day. We got cancelled on all of our
appointments on Thursday... But with President flying in that night
and Zone Conference the next day we decided we needed to get a hair
cut. So during our lunch hour we went to his salon, it was super nice
and we asked if they had any openings. They did so we sat down. They
don't teach you how to talk about getting a hair cut while you're in
the MTC... So I sat down and had no idea what to tell her. I said "My
faith is in you" and I did t end up bald so all is well! Haircuts in
Italy are so different... They pay so much attention to the details.
She used like 6 different size clippers and was so precise with my
neck and sideburns. AND everyone gets a shampoo when they're done
cutting. So you don't end up with hair everywhere all day! It was so
nice and the chair gives you a massage while they wash your head. I
could have stayed all day. Then you go back and they style it, she had
me stand up and said I was done and so I did and then she started
freaking out and had me sit down again, she put the apron thing back
on me and she trimmed maybe 3 hairs on my side burns and then said it
was perfect. Also you don't tip here... Weird. Thursday night was
good, the Assistants flew in at around 9, all the other Anziani took
trains into Cagliari and we did a big burrito night and off to bed!
Up at 6:30 as usual to get the Anziani to the church for their
meetings with the President because they had to hop on a train right
after the conference. Typical Italian breakfast (no joke) of cookies
and milk and then we were at the church all day for conference! It was
an incredible conference and the spirit was so strong. I had been
feeling like we weren't really accomplishing much all week, almost all
of our lessons had cancelled on us and we weren't finding new
investigators and I was stressing. We had a great council on what our
mission should be. President has established a vision for out Mission
and it goes something like this:
"The Great Italy Rome Mission is a consecrated Preach my Gospel
Mission that teaches repentance and baptizes converts"
So the ZC was centered on that, specifically the last part, teaching
repentance and baptizing converts which was the topic from the new
mission presidents conference this past week. President has asked us
for the past few weeks to think about and search for scriptures on
repentance and bring them to ZC. So we did! We spent about an hour
discussing different scriptures that we can use to teach repentance so
it is better understood by investigators. It was incredible, e spirit
was so strong as we talked about the blessings that come from true
repentance and a true change of heart. One thing that I've really been
noticing about repentance is that it should be a positive thing. Yes,
sometimes it stinks and it's not always a pleasant experience. But
True repentance, true change, brings true joy. The joy of eternal
life. Like Elder Holland said "Salvation is not a cheap experience"
that's why this work isn't easy. We have to work, we have to have a
desire.
The assistants gave an adestramento (training) called "Come and See"
which was great! It was about inviting people to come to church. Like
Christ said to the early Apostles when they asked him where he was
going, he said "come and see" and hat is exactly what we are to do as
missionaries. We are to be fishers of men like Peter in the book of
Luke. They shared a statistic that people are 120% more likely to be
baptized if they come to church. How cool is that?!?! All we have to
do is get them to church! So how do we do that? Well one of my
favorite things that I got from conference was making our invitations
personal. Instead of saying "Would you like to come to church with us?
By the way it's three hours long." Share a bit of your testimony with
them. "We'd like to invite you to come to church with us and the
reason is because we know you will feel the spirit. The sacrament is
an ordinance that Christ instituted himself in His earthly ministry
and it's my favorite part of the week because I know how weak and
flawed I am, but with the sacrament, I can become clean again. Would
you like to come and see what it's like for yourself?" Obviously every
scenario is different but when we make our invitations personal,
people have a desire to come and see, to come and find out for
themselves. Soooo as always I have an invitation for you. The first is
to go back and watch those "Patterns of light" videos that you wanted
to watch last week but got distracted and forgot. And the second is to
invite someone to church, whether it be an activity, or for a church
tour or a baptismal service. Think of your friends and your family and
invite!
After zone conference our week started to look up! Our investigator
with a baptismal date met us at the church and we had a great lesson,
recommitted him to baptism, and he came to church on Sunday!!!!!
Saturday we started off doing service... Soooo Italians are cheap.
They call it short armed, they will do anything possible to save a
Euro. So we go to this members house and she's trying to remodel her
kitchen. So she gives us this bottle of chemicals that I'm pretty sure
would be out lawed in the states because it's so strong. She tells us
to spray the mold and then paint over it. Ew. Anyway, we do what she
asks. Then we start painting. SHE KEEPS ADDING WATER TO THE PAINT. Do
you have any idea how hard it is to cover a wall that had black mold
on it with white paint that has a ton of water in it? It's real hard.
And I began to be a little bitter about it. The paint was so thin that
it would just run off the roller and never make it so the wall and
what did make it to the wall was straight water. No paint involved. So
I took a break because I was getting annoyed. But I started thinking
about why we do service as missionaries. I mean, she's a super active
member, we could have been out contacting, we could have been
contacting less actives. Why are we here? Then I looked at my name
tag... We are literal representatives of Jesus Christ. All he did was
serve and he served with charity. Which as we know, charity is the
pure love of Christ. Service has less to do with getting the room
painted and more to do with the love that we show when we serve. When
we act as Christ did, people notice, and Heavenly Father notices and
he blesses us. So I got up and I grabbed my roller, sloshed it around
in the paint/water and went to work. She had a neighbor there so that
we could have another male in the house while we were there and so we
got to know him as we painted and we have a return appointment with
him. The Lord blesses your efforts, especially when the intents of
your heart are where they should be!
Saturday night we got invited to a member family's house to mangia la
pizza! It was soooo good! I'll add some pictures as well as the sign
on the door, y'all can google translate it ;)
Sunday! My favorite day...
Sacrament meeting was great, I love Fasting Testimony meeting! It was
great! Hen in Gospel Principles we talked about Honesty and the
importance of being honest in all things. The Italians broke out in an
argument about the difference between types of lying. And stealing and
when it's OK to lie. I can never tell when they're actually arguing
because they all just talk over each other which 1. Makes it really
hard for me to understand 2. Gets us nowhere but off topic. So after a
big giro we turned the conversation back to honesty and it was a
really good class! Priesthood was about Family History! Which turns
out I don't know those words either! So I did t get much out of it so
I just looked at the family history app on my iPad.
A bunch of members invited us to come to Pranzo right after church at
the church with all eight missionaries! It was so good! Then we spent
the evening weekly planning because of Zone Conference! Not too much
exciting going on!
P-Day is here! We spent the morning after studies shopping. It's Saldi
season which is kind of like Black Friday but spread out over like a
month and it happens every August and January. We saw some cool stuff
and I bought an Italian cook book! I'm so excited about it! We also
checked out some sweet Italian suits and shoes. I can't wait to buy
some right before I come home from my mission! We're going to have a
ping pong tournament after emailing which is pretty sweet... I wish
the churches in America had a ping pong table... But they have carpet
which is sooo much better haha
Anyway, I hope you have a great week! I love you all! I can't wait to
hear what you have been up to!
Anziano Jake Bellucci
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