Crotone Transfer 6 Week 5

March 13, 2017

So in Italian the word "Ciao" is hello or goodbye and the same with the word "Salve" it's just more formal. What many Italians don't realize is that these words are most definitely not interchangeable in the English Language... so when we have a conversation with people we will end it saying "Ciao Ciao" and instead of saying "Bye Bye" they often say "Hello Hello" sometimes we correct them, sometimes we just let them be... but most of the time it's hilarious! 

Today is one year since I opened my mission call and went through the Temple! I can't believe its been a year! I'm so grateful for all the changes that have happened in my life in the last year! 

How was your week? What has been your biggest miracle this week? Heavenly Father is in the details, are you looking for the miracles???

We had a pretty good week with some pretty good work! Monday night we got cancelled on by a member so we hit the streets with the Elders from Catanzaro and the Sisters and did a Gesso with the Book of Mormon... (Gesso is the chalk thing!) It went pretty well and we had some really good conversations. Unfortunately most people see that we read the Book of Mormon and think we don't read the Bible. A talk from Jeffrey R. Holland explains this super well! He says: 

"We love and revere the Bible... ...The Bible is the word of God. It is always identified first in our canon, our “standard works.” Indeed, it was a divinely ordained encounter with the fifth verse of the first chapter of the book of James that led Joseph Smith to his vision of the Father and the Son, which gave birth to the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our time... ...Continuing revelation does not demean or discredit existing revelation. The Old Testament does not lose its value in our eyes when we are introduced to the New Testament, and the New Testament is only enhanced when we read the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. In considering the additional scripture accepted by Latter-day Saints, we might ask: Were those early Christians who for decades had access only to the primitive Gospel of Mark (generally considered the first of the New Testament Gospels to be written)--were they offended to receive the more detailed accounts set forth later by Matthew and Luke, to say nothing of the unprecedented passages and revelatory emphasis offered later yet by John? Surely they must have rejoiced that ever more convincing evidence of the divinity of Christ kept coming. And so do we rejoice."

The Book of Mormon is a good thing! We read from both the Book of Mormon and the Bible, they go hand in hand and compliment each other! 

Tuesday we had DDM and the Sisters gave the training, they focused it on miracles and how miracles are not earned they are given from Heavenly Father, however we as servants of the Lord (and all of you as well!) can be diligent in this work and help create a place for Heavenly Father to work miracles! 

Wednesday we headed to Cutro to see Antonio, we wanted to give Antonio a little gift for his one year baptism "anniversary" and he really wants to go on a mission in America. He's studying English and sometimes we help him with homework and stuff, so we got him a new copy of the Book of Mormon in Italian and a new one in English, we wrote our testimonies in English in the English one and Italian in the Italian one. He really liked them and he's started to read again in the Book of Mormon and is praying everyday! 

The Anziani from Catanzaro we're here to do an exchange with us, from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday morning so we were headed back early, we were walking to the bus stop 12 minutes early and we watched the bus blow right by us, so we missed it :( I was kinda ticked... the weather here has been sooooo windy and rainy, it's like a tornado at times. All the members are telling us to stay inside but I don't think they understand what missionaries do... we're always outside! So anyway we were both trying to fix our wind blown hair in the window of this Café and the people told us to come in and wait inside. They really didn't speak much Italian, mostly all dialect so I didn't understand much but I got that we could sit and wait! 

The scambio went well, Anziano Haws and I went to see Vincenzo, we played some games and are still trying to get him to say his prayers, he always forgets! I'm not sure if I've explained this before but Vincenzo isn't all there, but he's the best guy ever! 

Thursday the scambio continued and we went to visit Sister Siniscalchi, we talked about what Faith really is to her and how we can spread our faith. She amazes me every time I go over there, she's 82 years old and she is the energizer bunny! Sweetest Lady there is and it just makes her day when we stop by and share a message with her. She's our little Grandma of Crotone! 

I tried miserably to make little chicken pot pies for lunch, they tasted good but they were kind of falling apart and my veggies were kind of crunchy still. I think we decided to not try those again... After lunch the Catanzaro Anziani left and we did our language study, got caught up on 12 weeks and got ready for English Course, we did some finding on our way to the Church and then English Course went really well! 

Friday morning we did weekly planning, something I'm trying to love a little more is weekly planning... I don't always love it. I love it when it's done and we have our whole week planned out and things go really well but as I do it it's for sure not my favorite! Then in the afternoon we worked on making invitations for the activity we're planning in two weeks! We got that all figured out and just had to have it proofread by an Italian. We stopped by one of the members furniture shops and said hi, did some finding in Centro and that was pretty much it! 

Saturday we had 4 things planned in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, we were supposed to go to the Hospital and visit the friend of a member who was in an accident. We went but their visiting hours are the worst, they have lunch and then they open again at 7 PM... so we went to go to the other 3 and one by one they weren't there! We had an appointment with Salvatore and Eleanor's for lunch and so we took the bus to their house and had a great lunch, we talked a little about that talk that I mentioned above, he talks about a miracle of healing a sick boy in the Gospel of Mark. Without getting preachy, I really like this part! 

23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

He says "I believe!" Which shows how much faith he does have and then he realizes that his faith isn't perfect but he has enough faith to ask for help! "Help thou mine unbelief!" I thought it was really cool to focus first on the faith that we do have and then to have enough faith to ask for more. 

They gave us a ride back to Crotone and then helped the Sisters type up the Baptismal Program for Precious, she's decided to get baptized! Precious is a young girl from Africa, she's been in Crotone for a few months and she's ready to get baptized! Her Baptism is scheduled for a Friday and she asked me to baptize her! I'm super excited and we're doing it in the ocean! Anziano Allen and I tried on our white clothes (mostly to make sure they fit still #TooMuchPasta Stay tuned for pictures next week! 

Church went well on Sunday, we had 5 people... we're working on it! Then after lunch we went to see Antonio and Oriana with Sister Mercadante. We had a good lesson and they fed us some dinner and then we went to the D'oppido's house to share a message with them and that was the day! 

Today we're heading to Tropea, you guys should look it up online, it's beautiful! We're excited! Hopefully we can send pictures today! I love y'all! Have a good day! Have a good week! I hope Spring comes soon in New York!

Anziano Bellucci