Crotone Transfer 6 Week 6

March 20, 2017

Broken Windows, Branch Activities and Baptism! 

Transfer Calls are today! I'm kind of nervous... none of us have a clue what is going to happen and President Pickerd is all inspiration so there's no point in guessing! I'm going to be super sad to lose my "son" but I've taught him all I know and he's taught me even more! So we'll get the calls tonight and who knows, maybe I'll be emailing home from a different city next week! 

This week has been a pretty busy one! On Monday we went to Tropea and then stayed in Cosenza that night. The Sisters from Crotone, the Anziani from Catanzaro and Anziano Allen and I did a Gesso in Cosenza without the Anziani from Cosenza, they were doing an exchange with the Zone Leaders. It was interesting especially because none of us know the city so we would tell people the address and they would be like "where is that?" And we had to describe it with some real bad directions (Go straight down this road until you pass the dry cleaners and the place with the cacti and then turn right, there will be some stairs walk down there and it's on the left) Pretty ghetto directions but they worked! I keep meaning to take a picture of one of our Gesso sheets but I always forget! We went to this pizzeria after called "Walters Pizzeria" and I had the best pizza I've had in Italy! It was soooo good! It was hand tossed and I took a video, this guy was a pro! I got fresh sausage and Gorgonzola cheese... good stuff. 

Wednesday we had DDM in Cosenza and Anziano Saffer gave the training as this was his last week in the mission, he is in Rome right now and will fly back to Sweden tomorrow! It's so weird to see missionaries finish their missions... it makes me realize how quickly a mission goes! He did a great job and explained a lot about the importance of loving the people. This made me think a lot about my mission call as last Monday was a year since I opened it. Before I opened it I remember a very important person saying to me that no matter what that piece of paper says this is the best mission for me, this is where I need to go and I will become entangled with a whole new group of people and I will love them and my life will become about them. I rewatched my mission call video so I could hear those words again and I can for sure say that it is absolutely true. The Italians drive me nuts, they stress me out and I love them so much! My life has become about them and I am so grateful for that! The Rome Italy mission is the perfect mission for me. So there's my little side note about that!

We took the bus back to Crotone and got back in time for some finding, some language study and then English Course. Afterwards we practiced singing "I Stand all Amazed" for the baptism!

Wednesday the Zone Leaders from Taranto came to do an exchange with us for the afternoon, we made chicken curry for lunch with them and then I got to work with Anziano Zito for the afternoon. Anziano Zito is 3 transfers ahead of me so he is about 13 months out and he's from Brigham City UT! We found out that we bought almost all our mission clothes at the same store in Logan... small world! We visited some less actives that live a little further out of Crotone because we had the car and then we went to the Church for a Branch Activity. The Branch President said on Sunday "Lets eat spaghetti on Wednesday" so we planned it out and there's actually a word for this in Italian they say "spaghettata" so spaghetti dinner turned into a full dinner complete with three courses and dessert... my kind of party! It went really well and we had a good turn out! We had 6 missionaries and about 8 members and 2 of our investigators came! They actually sat right next to our Branch President and by the end you would have thought they were best friends! That's the testimony of the importance of using members in your missionary work! 

Thursday is the broken window... so Italy is windy... so I like to open the windows in our house just to air it out so I had the bathroom window open and I closed the hallway door because we were making chicken wings for lunch and I hate the smell when it's all through out the house. Anyway, the balcony doors were open and I opened the hallway door, I felt the wind blow through and as I turned the corner I watched the bathroom window swing shut and completely blow out... completely shattered in a million pieces. Some phone calls in the mission are hard to make... but it's fixed now and it's all good! Apparently this isn't the first time even this year that that exact window has been replaced because of the wind. 

Friday we wanted to have lunch together with the Sister missionaries so we did weekly planning at the Church and I made a big old lunch with two whole chickens, mashed potatoes and my Mom's candies carrots, it was a really homey meal, and we were super full afterwards! But no rest for the weary, right afterwards we had to  lean up and get ready for Precious' Baptism! The Baptism was supposed to start at 4:30 and it was going to start in Church and then we were going to go to a member's bungalow on the beach for the Baptism. I called the member and she had forgotten about the Baptism and was working so we didn't have the keys to the bungalow! I'm glad we called to confirm... we walked across town to get the keys and then got dressed in our white clothes for the Baptism! Four o'clock came and no one was there,4:10, still no one, 4:15, not another soul, 4:30... you guessed it! No one. We were a little worried! A few minutes later Precious walked in and then one by one a few others! We ended up starting 45 minutes late and it was a race against the sun! We started in the Church and we did the whole thing in English so that she didn't have to listen to her own Baptism translated. So I translated from English into Italian for the Italians. It was kind of cool! It's actually easier to translate into Italian I think... it's probably just because I don't recognize my own mistakes in Italian. Anyway it was cool and we had two investigators come and two English Course Students that are non members! We drove to the beach to do the Baptism and like I said it was a race against the sun, though the water was cold and the sun was going down the spirit was warm and it was a great experience! I am so glad I got to baptize Precious as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After we got changed we sang "I stand all Amazed" and then came back to the church to eat. It was a beautiful day! 

Saturday we had to wait for the Landlord to come and fix our window so we did things at home as long as we could... he never ended up coming... We made lunch and then headed to the Church for the Saturday sessions of Stake Conference. The Temple President from Switzerland came down to Bari and we watched the Web broadcast from there. We watched the Leadership session and it was actually really funny because the Temple President obviously isn't Italian but he was trying so hard! He did a great job and at the end he said somewhat joking "I've spoken way too much Italian today..." and I can definitely relate to that sometimes! We ran and got a pastry with the Sisters real quick before the General session started! When we came back they started the session but our investigator came so we left to go and have a lesson with him. This was our first actual lesson with him and we were super excited! We know he's super faithful and he prays all the time, he's Catholic but not practicing but he's a super nice guy! Anyway we taught him the message of the Restoration and we gave him a Book of Mormon with our testimonies written in it. As I told him we wanted to give it to him he almost cried, you could see the tears in his eyes.

He told us that he's always been super faithful but that we've helped him to realize that  there was something missing. He said even though he's super faithful he's never read the Bible, he's just learned the stories but he said he really wants to read the Book of Mormon! We're super excited for him! 

Yesterday was Stake Conference and it went pretty well, Anziano Allen tried translating for the first time and this guy that you could tell spoke mostly dialect and had a weird accent got up there and his Italian was impossible for me to understand. He said "Good morning everyone" and then handed the translator back to me... poor kid, he tried again with someone that actually spoke Italian and it went much better! Trial by fire is the best way to learn! 

We went to the D'Oppido's house for lunch after church and it was good! She made cannelloni which to me seem like manicotti noodles that are filled with meat and cheese, they're pretty good! We had a good lunch and they bought these pretty fancy dessert pastry things because today is Father's Day in Italy. They base it off of some Saint... I'm not sure which one. Anyway I had a little mini heart attack when someone told me it was Father's Day this morning and then I realized that's not until June! Today was in the 70's and everyone was outside out on the beach. They still have big jackets on and stuff but they're outside! Anziano Allen and I figured out why they don't get hot like we do while they're walking and it's because we walk so fast and they walk so slow... I've actually had a few people tell me that we are walking too fast and should slow down and enjoy it haha I don't think they understand what we do! We got places to be! 

I don't know if I've mentioned anything about soccer in Crotone but they're not half bad apparently. This last year they moved into the A series so they're playing against all the big cities i.e. Rome, Napoli, Palermo, Cagliari... while it turns out they're really good for the B series but they don't have what it takes for the A Series... they are second to last and will be booted back to the B Series next year. Anyway there was a game on Sunday against Fiorenze (Florence) and we lost... but they block off the whole road that the stadium is on so that people can't walk or drive down it. So there's no one on the road except the security guards but they won't let us walk down the street... we had to walk to the complete other side of the town to get around to the church after our lunch appointment... sometimes we just shake our heads at the Italian logic. 

We planned the Branch activity with the Sorelle, we are going to do one like we did in Cagliari where we set up the church like an airplane and show segments from Meet the  Mormons and do activities. It should be a lot of fun, we'll see if I'm still here to see it pan out! 

Today we spent the morning doing some stuff in town, organizing the house and getting ready for transfers. It's been a good day and I'm excited and nervous to see what happens tonight with Transfer calls! Vediamo un po'! 

Love y'all! 

Anziano Jacob Bellucci