Napoli! Transfer 10 Week 1!

I'm staying in Napoli for at least six more weeks! Im super excited to be staying, and my new companion is Anziano Jensen! 

So on Monday we did Zone Soccer and then emailed and everything, before P-Day ended we came home and showered and went back to the Church for Home Evening with our African friends. We didn't do a very good job of announcing it because just Richard came but it was so fun! We played Minute to win it games and it was a blast. We ate ice cream and then called it a night! 

We got our Transfer calls a little bit after we got home and we found out that Anziano Perfili was transferred to Catania! So he's headed back down to Sicily! So I am staying here in Napoli for at least another six weeks! My new companion is Anziano Jensen! I don't know if you remember him but I was his Zone Leader back in Bari and he was in Lecce. I got to do an exchange with him my firstTransfer there and he's a super hard worker so I'm excited for this Transfer! 

Tuesday morning was mostly packing and laundry for Anziano Perfili while I cleaned the house. We went and visited some people so he could say goodbye and then we met the other missionaries at the Church to say goodbye to some of them and then we were invited to lunch by an English Course Student named Mario! He invited us and the Napoli C Elders, we went over to his house and he hooked us up so well! We ate so much food! He started with classes mozzarella di bufala which is mazzarella made with buffalo milk... so good. And then baked gnocchi in a red sauce... gnocchi are potato pasta and they are so filling and heavy, he bought two and a half kilos and we were all so full! Sausage and roasted veggies for round three, followed by watermelon and then of course gelato. I wanted to die afterwards. Mario is the best, he has known missionaries for the better part of 20 years, the Church used to be underneath his apartment. He knows all of the doctrine, comes to Church almost every week and all the members know him. He explains our doctrine to English Course Students and even in Sunday School he participates and contributes... he's just not willing to be baptized yet... in his own time! Anyway it was a great lunch with him and then we came back, did language study and did some finding before English Course. We had quite a few people come to English Course, being the summer there really aren't a lot of people around so I was happy with the amount that came. Fabiola came too so it was good to see her! 

So Anziano Pesci got transferred to the promised land of Cagliari... so lucky! So he as well as two other Elders were flying to Sardegna from Rome so they left Wednesday to head up to Rome so they could make their flight on Thursday. Anziano Fryer and I made Tiramisu for District Meeting on Wednesday morning and we also made spring rolls which are hecka good! We had a little mini DM and then put them on their train! Wednesday night we set up pizza night with all our of the youth and the young adults, we ended up being just a few of us but it was fun anyway! I got half of a Nutella pizza... they're so good! But they hurt my teeth they're so sugary! It was a good night for sure! 

Thursday Transfer day! We had a morning in the train station, I was there from 8:30-12:30... Anziano Perfili left somewhere in that block, along with Anziano Fryer and a bunch of others coming and going! My companion got in at a few minutes after 12 and we came home helped him get a few things unpacked and grab some lunch and went back to pick up two other missionaries at the train station. So we as Zone Leaders get a travel matrix that shows the arrival and departures for all the trains  and travel plans for the mission. I saw a train with two of our missionaries coming in at 15:25 and I looked at the arrival board and it wasn't there... I looked back at the matrix and saw that it was a flight coming in from Cagliari and we were at the train station and not the airport and we travel without phones... their flight landed in two minutes! Oops! So I grabbed Anziano Jensen and we busted to find the bus to the airport and made it there to see two Anziani sitting on the curb waiting for us! Haha but the point is they made it right!?!? My bad...

We showed all the new missionaries what a real Napoli pizza is like and then did a little street finding until English Course! Had a great time with some great people! I got to teach Advanced Course which was great, we talked about going to the beach seeing as that's where everyone is these days! It's funny the verb for "To make out" in Italian is "Limonare" and the word for lemon is limone and I said I love to bring lemonade to the beach and they all started making fun of me haha it was funny! 

Friday was weekly planning and a little mini grocery shopping trip, we made some great plans for the next week. I really hope we have a great week here! Anziano Jensen likes to cook and he has the metabolism of I don't even know what but he's pretty skinny and he pretty much eats whatever he wants! He offered to make me lunch and he made a homemade besciamella with mozzarella cheese in it and that pasta was so good I could feel myself gaining weight! At least it was good though, right?!?! After lunch we went to visit Ermando the guy we met last week and then over toVincenzo's to visit with him. Vincenzo is so great, he has a testimony of Jesus Christ as big as the day is long and he loves the scriptures and he loves to talk to us. We can go over there and he will just go off about how people don't follow the scriptures, they don't understand the doctrine that Christ gave and he's gained a real respect for us because we share so much in common with him. We have to get him to understand the authority principle but he's such a great guy! And he loves his family so much, we walked in to his shop and he said "Anziano Bellucci, I have to show you, I took more pictures of my kids!" he's a proud Dad of a two year old girl and a two month old baby boy that he loves to show off.

After visiting Vincenzo we went white Boarding with the other two companionships and showed them what Napoli magic is like! How nice the people are here and it went really well. We had to switch where we were going because they shut down one of the Metro stops because they found a backpack and they suspected a bomb so we ran into a little problem there but the night turned out really well. We had some awesome conversations and got a few people's numbers. 

Saturday we had a great day, we went and did a good amount of finding in the morning, we tried to swing by some less actives while we went from place to place and then when we got home we were making lunch and a guy that we called last week called us back and said "How did you get my number? Let's meet up, I want to know who you are!" So we met up with him and it was a little sketchy at first but we met him in the Church and he was really able to feel the spirit and it was a great lesson. We're hoping to see him this next week. So there is this family in the Branch the Borelli family and Sister Betty the Mom is the Gospel Principles teacher. She has a son serving a mission in London, a daughter that left like two months ago to serve in Brazil and they invited us over to watch her youngest daughter Joele open her mission call! It was great and she invited a group of non-member friends to come and watch and so it was an awesome missionary opportunity for us. She opened her call to the Leon France mission and she will be working in Switzerland as well! We're really excited for her! She leaves in September so they will have all three of their kids on missions at the same time! Crazy! Watching her open her call brought me back so many memories! 

Sunday was interesting... I was exhausted by the time we got home. I began translating Sacrament Meeting into English and then Sam our Ward mission leader was assigned to give a talk but he only speaks Italian so I had to switch my brain and go stand at the pulpit to live translate his talk into Italian and then switch back to translating into English. I'm sure there was smoke coming out of my ears! Everything else went really well in Church, none of our investigators came but there's still hope for next week! 

We went and saw Noemi our Recent Convert in the evening. We usually meet her with another Philippino Sister and she's always been opposed to us come over to her house. But we convinced her! She has a very humble home, it's just one room and a bathroom but we were really happy we got to be there and bring the spirit to her home. It was a great lesson and Anziano Jensen knows like two phrases in Tagalog and so they fell in love with him right away! We made a lunch appointment to eat some food from the Philippines! 

We finished the night off with some white Boarding in Centro and talked to so many good people! Unfortunately as August approaches we hear a lot of "We'll come in September" all of Italy goes on Vacation in August, literally everything shuts down so it could be a rough month but we're still going to work hard! 

Little overview of my companion! He's from Pleasant Grove Utah, he likes Shakespeare and Johnny Cash... he is a theater and debate geek and rocks it. Haha He smiles all the time and he's always super happy! He's a few transfers younger than me so that makes me the oldest in the District... I don't know how that happened, I just got to Italy like last week! 

I love you all, I hope you have a great week! 

Elder Jacob Bellucci