Crotone! Transfer 5 Week 4!

Crotone Transfer 5 Week 4 

Exhaustion, morning runs, and oh yeah... an exorcism...  

Some interesting things happened this week in this beach side city! As always we'll start at the beginning! 

Monday was a dang good day, we did some shopping and bought some Italian pants (I might have mentioned that last week) so now we don't look so American! After Pday we went to one of my favorite member's house and he decided to fix us dinner. His name is Vincenzo and he has some mental disabilities but he is so loving and so kind! He started off by slicing some Italian bread and slapping on some fish spread stuff. I explained to Anziano Allen that it was fish and he asked me if it was raw or cooked so I asked Vincen and he said "Its not raw perse..." and explained that it was raw but theres so much salt in it that its basically cooked. I wasn't sold but you have to try it! So I took the smallest piece on the plate with the littlest amount of what we are going to call "Not raw, raw fish spread" and left my comp with the bigger one... ya know, always being generous! I made it through that one just in time for him to slap another one down. This time I took the bigger one and had mercy on my Greenie. I made it through mine and Anziano Allen made it through about 3/4 of his before a piece of fish slapped down on his chin... That was it, he was out! Well on to round two... Pasta with his homemade sauce made with sun dried tomatoes and some spicy peppers, it was actually pretty good! I was watching him make it and he cooked like 750 grams of spaghetti for the three of us... which is like a pound and a half. Ugh. Two plates of spaghetti later and I was stuffed! Well there was still some pasta left so that means it was time to make a  frittata... He scrambled about 6 eggs and poured it into the pasta and put it in a frying pan. It was like a spaghetti omlet... so strange. We made it through alright but we were both ready to heave on the way home. I'm sure other missionaries in other countries eat much worse but there is a reason I was called to Italy!

On Tuesday we had an awesome District Meeting! My assignment was the "Get to know you questions" so you just pick a question or two to get to know the other people in your district. So I started out with a pretty spiritual intense question, I asked "What is the strongest part of your testimony AND why?" It was so interesting to see how each one of us said something completely different and shared testified of some of the most basic tenants of the Gospel and where we have found that testimony. The answers spanned from Prayer to the Joseph Smith vision to the Plan of Salvation and all across the board. The second question was a little less heavy, we each had to give the person to our right a car that fit their personality. Just so y'all know Anziano Haws said I am a blacked out Cadillac Escalade. Hint hint everyone if you want to have a car ready for me when I get home ;))) I said Anziano Allen was a Ford Raptor... he was pleased with that! 

We finally got to teach a new investigator! On Sunday this guy came into church and was asking to see one of our members that wasn't there anymore, he had left early. He said "Ok" and was about to leave and I snagged him and asked him what he knew about the church and if he had studied with the missionaries before. He said that he had investigated the church years before but he wasn't in the right place in his life. We set up an appointment and we met with him on Tuesday! The lesson went really well and Anziano Allen invited him to be baptized. At first he said "Vediamo" which means "We'll see" and I asked him what he thought would be holding him back and he said he doesn't know enough yet to commit. Which is fair enough but we really want him to make that goal so it gives him something to work for! We would love some prayers for Antonio if y'all wouldn't mind helping us out! We got "Bidoned" by everyone else that day (My Mom says I put too many Italian words in me emails so if I notice I will try to translate them! A bidone is a dumpster so when we have appointments set and they don't call or show up we say that we got bidoned!) but we had English course so that was great! We teach the advanced course so a lot of the time we just try to talk to them and get them involved in conversation. Since this is the first week that most of them have come since the holidays they asked Anziano Allen to tell them about his life and his family so it was a good lesson and we had a lot of fun telling them about our selves. English Course students love to ask us for our first names and so we always have to say "Okay, but if I tell you, you still have to call me Anziano Bellucci!" They say yes every time and then by the end of the night I have been called Jacob 7 times. Italians really just do what they want... 

Wednesday started off great with a trip to the fish market down by the beach! Anziano Allen's Dad is a stud cook! He sent him a recipe for a shrimp and chicken pasta with a red pepper white sauce. So we had to hit up the fish market to grab some shrimp! We then had an awesome lesson with a less-active member. She was in the hospital a few weeks ago and was not doing well at all. Since she got out she has stopped smoking (She was a chain smoker) and is feeling so much better! We decided to share something from the Ensign of December 2016, by Henry B. Eyring called "Pace in questa vita" or "Peace in this life" and it talks about how we can remember the savior in everything we do and through partaking of the sacrament we can renew the covenants that we made at baptism. It is such a powerful article! People who are less active in the church know that they should be coming so telling them to come is not going to help but when you can help them to feel that spirit by sharing something so powerful and sacred such as your testimony of the importance of the sacrament it is so much more helpful and effective! Lunch turned out to be soooo good! Shout out to Darrin for the recipe! We got sort of bidoned by another investigator and so we decided to take a bus to the other side of town and visit this less active that just randomly showed up this last week in Church. I have taken a bus in Crotone like maybe twice in the two months that I have been here and so I asked the Autista (Bus Driver) if the bus went to the station and he said yes so I thought we were good! We get on and like 15 minutes later we are out in the boonies, theres no traffic lights and we are the only ones on the bus. I was on the phone with a member so I didn't really notice but then when I hung up I was like "Where the heck are we???" About 30 minutes later we finally made it to the station and it so it was kind of late to pass by this family, we should be heading home but I felt like we should go so we went! They opened the door and let us in and we excused ourselves for it being so late! They said no problem and we just had a nice little chat by the door and I learned so much about this family and their needs and the spirit was testifying so strong to her and her son about the need to come back to church. We talked about the blessings of the temple and how their lives will change as they prepare for the temple in Rome. The spirit is so cool... 

Member Present Lesson! Member present lessons are like Christmas morning for missionaries especially in foreign speaking missions! This was my first member present lesson here in Crotone. Our investigator Roby is such a homie, and we brought Salvatore who used to be a Catholic Priest before joining the church and he was a priest at the church that Roby attends. We were so grateful for Salvatore, we taught a lesson about faith and the principle of action, how faith leads to repentance and baptism and I botched part of it... So I gave Anziano Allen the signal to invite him to be baptized without explaining the importance of asking Heavenly Father for an answer. Salvatore did an incredible job of explaining that we make these goals to be baptized in the sense that we have the faith that we will receive an answer from Heavenly Father whether or not the church is true and then if we receive an answer by the date will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God. We were really grateful for our Member present for sure! At the end he said "So what we are really asking you to do is ask Heavenly Father if what these two scemi (Idiots) are teaching you is true!"

We got bidoned twice that afternoon and so we went to pass by Giovanni at the furniture store he works at, turns out his whole family was there so we got to have a good chat with them! Also we got a pranzo (Lunch) appointment for next week so we are pretty stoked about that! And then English Course was actually pretty big! People are starting to come back after the holidays finally now that its almost February! We both got called fat and that we needed to start running in the mornings so we won't have pasta face. Well its the Italian's fault that we have pasta face so... I told them it was their fault! So we decided that if we just decided to go by ourselves that we would never get up, we would just talk each other out of it every morning. So we talked to the Sisters and decided to meet them at 6:30 and run to the pier. 6:10 the alarm went off and we both fell asleep and I woke back up at 6:22... I knew the Sorelle would judge us so hard if we didn't get up so we got ready super quick! The Sorelle were doing step-ups when we got there... over achievers... but that run was so worth it! As we ran down to the beach the sun was coming up over the sea and it was so beautiful, the sound of the waves breaking on the reef is something I could sit and listen to for hours. Key word sit... We took some cool pictures, I'll send those too! 

We were exhausted all day... we had weekly planning for the morning which usually takes the whole morning and I'll be honest it was pretty rough and we didn't get a whole lot done... it was 12 and we were sooo tired of eating pasta for lunch so we decided go out and do some finding on the way to the grocery store and get stuff to make tacos... definitely worth it! We actually talked to some really cool people on the way! 

That afternoon we decided to do a gesso with the Sisters! Gesso just means chalk and so we take a sheet and lay it on the ground and write a question or a principle on it but more than anything someone sitting on the ground in the middle of the city just draws attention and people stop. So while one person draws the rest of us talk it up! We found some great potentials so that was cool! I love doing Gessos because it just makes me feel like a missionary from the District, we talk to so many people and it is such a non threatening thing. My favorite is when kids come up, we ask them if they want to draw on the sheet and so we give them some chalk and then talk to their parents about the Gospel! 

Saturday... IT POURED ALL DAY LONG AND I WAS SO WET. 

We didn't have any appointments set because on Saturday mornings the outdoor markets are full of people so we try to do some finding, talk to the venders and the people and its usually really fun. Well... when its pouring the outdoor markets aren't a thing so we did some studies and then passed by an English Course referral from the Sisters. He works at a shop that buys gold and he is interested in learning English. So we stopped by and he told us that he loves to travel but its very difficult because he doesn't speak English which is basically the universal language for travel and he would love to go to 🇺🇸 America. The only problem is that he works until 8 every night so he can't come to the actual course. So we are going to teach him after English course, when we left Anziano Allen and I said "I think we might have a new investigator soon!" We are hoping to teach him the Gospel as well as English!" 

We met with another English course student that night too, he told us he wanted to bring us ice cream at the church so we were down! We went and I decided to ask him about the Gospel, what he had studied with the Anziani in the past and what his religious background is. We had a good chat and he said his problem is that he doesn't understand the rules. WE can work with that! He then started asking some questions about the plan of salvation and where we will go after this life and what we can expect. We love those questions! So we are super excited to start teaching him too!

Sunday Bloody Sunday! I just went to write Sunday and that song came into my head so I thought I would throw it in there! Sunday was good, we had some great talks on the temple and the Book of Mormon. We got invited to Pranzo (Lunch) with Sister Zarfino and Anziano Allen was stoked to get his first real Italian Pranzo! Sister Zarfino came in clutch, I don't think he was disappointed. We had homemade pasta with a sauce that was to die for with some homemade Calabrian meatballs. Heaven. She then made this chicken and potatoes for the "Il secondo" the second plate. It was like a pan fried chicken with a creamy sauce and then fried potatoes. She makes homemade mayonnaise and she was super excited to share it with us... I thought it tasted just like Hellman's, it was good! Oranges to finish it off! We brought Antonio with us and had such a good afternoon! 

Antonio is the man, he is a new convert of a year and he wants to go on a mission this fall, he is 17 and loves missionary work! So we took him with us to some appointments. We went and passed by a less active that I have passed by probably a hundred times and she is never home. We rang the citofono with little to no faith that she would let us in and all of a sudden I heard the door buzz and it swung open! We had a rest lesson with her and it was really nice! As we were about to leave her niece and her 9 year old son walked in and we showed him a little demo with the book of Mormon that kids love, you fold a piece of paper to explain the Book of Mormon and then when you unfold it, it makes a cross to show that in the end the purpose of the Book of Mormon is to testify of Jesus Christ. Afterwards his Mom started to ask us questions about what we believe about the afterlife and where we will go, just like our English Course Student! So I told them that we make a dang good American Dessert called brownies and we would love to come and share what we believe next Sunday, two new investigators!

This has been a week of Miracles! Today we are in Catanzaro with the other Anziani and the Sorelle, we are going to the mall with them to see what we can find for some good Saldi sales... Italy goes on sale in January and August so we will see what we can find! 

I want to hear about your missionary experiences, whether you live in Provo Utah or Potsdam New York, there is work to do! I want to invite you to make a goal to have a Gospel discussion with someone this week, have no fear 

D&C 84:85

Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.

Heavenly Father likes to work miracles, he likes to bless his children especially in missionary work! So get out there and get some missionary work done! I hope you guys have a great week and know that I'm praying for you and I love you guys!