Crotone! Transfer 5 Week 6!

Crotone Transfer 5 Week 6!

Wow I can't believe transfer calls are tonight and me and my "son" have done almost 6 whole weeks together! Ahhhhh It is so crazy! This last week has been a good one with two exchanges, lots of food eaten and a little sickness going around...

SO as always we start off at the beginning! Monday after emailing we did some finding and spent some time in "Centro" which is just downtown where all the shops are. We met the Anziani from Catanzaro at around 8:30, grabbed a pizza and walked home. So there is an on going joke in the house this transfer, our first week together I broke 3 if our six glass cups, I have been good since then except for last week. The black pepper shaker fell out of the cupboard and onto a plate and that shattered too. Well then Anziano Gunnell from Catanzaro swung his arm across the kitchen table while we were eating pizza and took out number 4 of our 6 glass cups... So now we're down to two! And I am only aloud to use plastic cups. 

At 9:30 the Zone Leaders got to the apartment from Taranto, they were here to sit in on our District meeting and then to do a scambio (Exchange) with us afterwards! We had a good night but we were all so tired!

Tuesday morning we went to see if we could figure out anything more with Anziano Allen's tablet... turns out Samsung Italia is different than Samsung United States so they don't make the same one... its a mess. Hopefully it will get worked out soon! (I think its stressing him out a little bit!) Then off to District Meeting, the Sisters from Taranto were here to do an exchange with the Crotone Sisters and so our DDM went from 6 to 10, it was pretty big! It reminded me of Cagliari! DDM went really well and we had a lot of fun. We decided to go out for lunch together, there is this place called Romana's which is where we usually go, it has Calzone for 1.20 so its pretty cheap. Well this other place has been under construction but it is also called Romana's that Anziano Allen and I may or may not have tried on Monday and it was dang good! So we decided to go back there instead of the usual! Well we got there and I asked them if they could make 22 calzones and they said they were out... what a let down! So back to the usual place! Still good but we were excited to show everyone the new place! 

After lunch we had language study and then started our exchange. I got to work with Anziano Bertoldo who is from Colorado, he is about 20 months into his mission... getting up there! But we don't mention it, I think he's in denial! He is a hard worker and a really nice guy, we both want to go into the medical field so we had quite a bit to talk about! We had 5 appointments set up for Tuesday evening to split between the two companionships and every single one of them bailed on us! So our scambio turned into some finding efforts! We did quite a bit of house to house and actually set up three appointments for this coming week with some families that we are pretty excited about! 

English course... I love English course but there are for sure things that I don't like to teach about... one of these things is "Going to the Hair Salon!" Haha probably one of the most boring lessons to teach but we made it through! 

Wednesday we decided to go to Cutro to see Antonio, the stud kid that just got back from the temple! We were just planning on sharing a message with him and then heading back to Crotone! But First we had to make a pit stop at Vittorio which is a "Pasticceria" (Bakery) in Cutro and they make the best Grafe (Pronounced Graw Fay) I have ever had... they are heavenly. Its like a little pastry with a thick cream inside that pours out the top and its rolled in sugar. Its a good thing that Cutro isn't super close because I would get one every day. Heaven. We got one for Antonio too and when we got there he was making lunch. He invited us to stay so we had a great chat with his family and ate lunch. His Grandma has been in the Hospital for a long time, she wasn't doing very well. We went and visited her in the hospital a few weeks ago and she is finally home now. She has some mad thrombosis in her left arm and so its obviously very swollen and she still isn't doing very well. We were able to give her a blessing and Anziano Allen was able to do the anointing for his first time in Italian. He did a great job! We ate and then went and looked at the mountains that are basically in his backyard. 

We came back and were waiting at the bus stop and saw some drunk guys absolutely beating the snot out of each other in the street... Antonio turns to Anziano Allen and says in English "Its Normal" haha Italy is never boring... they hugged it out afterwards and then got in their cars and drove away... 

Walking home on Wednesday from the bus station was definitely interesting... So I've told you about the hill by our house, its huge and at the bottom there is a ton of really tall grass there is like a little retaining wall there. We're walking home and just chatting like usual and all of a sudden Cujo hops out of this grass and starts tearing after us! Anziano Allen is closest and he looses it! It wouldn't be a mission if I wasn't chased by a dog at least once! We made it out alright but it was scary for a minute!

We went to Vincenzo's house for dinner that night, he's such a homie, probably one of my favorite people I have met on my mission. I think I've told you before he's not all there upstairs... but he's there enough! He loves to cook for us! Italians eat dinner really late like 8 or 9 or even later so we had to wait a little when we got there at 7... he said he had a game that the Anziani in the past had never heard of but they were always good at once he explained it. My first thought was darn this is going to be hard, I have to understand the directions in Italian so we can play and I said to Anziano Allen, "This better be matching!" And he started to lay the cards out and we were in luck, it was matching! Then he asked us to play UNO for a little bit so we said sure and we played for a little bit. We decided he's a little cheater... we all had draw two cards and they stacked up to draw 6 ♣️ and he was freaking out about having to draw six! It was so funny! We settled it as we would each take two... it was a lot of fun and it definitely helped him, he had a good time! He made us some good pasta too! He can't read so we read some scriptures to him and talked about them. He likes the scriptures but he can't read so it's kind of hard... but he has a desire and that's what is important! 

I had woken up with a sore throat on Wednesday and it had gone away but I woke up on Thursday with a crazy bad sore throat, cough, the whole 9 yards. We didn't have any plans set for the morning so we decided we would stay home for the morning and I could get some rest. Well being a missionary makes you incapable of sleeping in so I laid in bed for almost all the morning, Anziano Allen actually got some sleep lucky kid! I kept laying in bed and I got up at 11 and Anziani Allen had swept and mopped and cleaned the whole house, it was sparkling! He went house wife on me for a little bit! We stayed home the rest of the morning and then went and taught English Course that night and that was about all we did! We had a couple appointments but we got ditched which I was actually okay with because I just needed to go to bed.

Friday I was feeling a lot better but definitely not 100% but we had another exchange scheduled with Catanzaro so we shipped out to Catanzaro after our morning studies. We ate lunch with them and then I worked with Anziano Haws. I think I have told you guys a little about him but anyway he is one transfer ahead of me and he is our District Leader. He is from outside of Fresno California and his Mom is Italian, she is from Palermo. They wanted him to learn English so they never taught him Italian... He is a cool kid, loves Basketball and Mexican food! We went to visit a less-active older lady, we walked her dog and then read the Book of Mormon with her. It went really well and then she asked us to go pay her lawyer for her because she was too sick to leave the house... It was random but we did it! Then we went down by the beach and did some finding and talked to some really cool families! 

There is this really cool Gelateria that has the "World's best hazelnut Gelato" and let me tell ya they were on point... that stuff was dang good! I got a milkshake made with it and it was so good! 

Then Haws talked me into buying a 10 dollar burrito... he told me it was huge... lies. Haha it was good but I was still hungry and I blew $10 on a burrito. I miss mexican food for sure and I know I will get crap for calling Costa Vida mexican but I miss that for sure! 

The rest of the scambio went well, we spent some time doing house to house, ate at McDonalds and then we headed back to Crotone! Sat in on Branch Council, and we got a lot done for the branch and that was pretty much it for Saturday, I still was feeling pretty junky so we went home and I went to bed early... Sunday I was feeling much better but I still had a low grade fever and the cough was still lingering. It went really well, I bore my testimony on the power of testimonies which is something I have definitely felt lately. As missionaries if we don't know exactly what to say we are taught to always testify of Jesus Christ and I have definitely seen the power of it lately. I shared a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants section 62 verse 3 that says 

 3 Nevertheless, ye are blessed, for the testimony which ye have borne is recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon; and they rejoice over you, and your sins are forgiven you.

When we bare our testimony it gives an opportunity for the spirit to testify of the truthfulness of the things you say. SOooo get out there and share your testimony! There are people waiting to hear it and remember I want to hear about your missionary experiences! We made lasagna for lunch and it turned out really well! We had a good afternoon and then got a pile of cancellations and thats pretty much it! The week went by pretty fast with all the exchanges but it was a good one! We are pretty sure that Anziano Allen and I are staying together, we hope so but we will get the transfer calls tonight! It still makes me nervous, I am not ready to leave Crotone yet! But who knows, we'll let you know next week! 

Today we are having a huge P-day together today with the Anziani and Sorelle of Cosenza and then a District Meeting together tomorrow! This should be a good week! I hope you all have a great week and know that I am thinking about you and I love you all! 

Anziano Bellucci