One Final Goodbye

Well the time has come, as most if not all of you know my time in Italy has come to an end and I am back home in New York. I will forever be grateful for the time I have been able to spend in Italy, the people I have met, the culture I have experienced and most of all the testimony of Jesus Christ that has been embedded in my heart and soul.

I just wanted to send one last group email to thank all of you for the support I have felt in the last two years. I have felt your prayers, I've felt your support and I've felt your testimonies. There is a myriad of different people in my email list from friends from NY, friends from UT, members of the church and non-members, family, friends and everything in between but the general last message that I would like to share with you all is my testimony. 

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, I know that he loves us and that he knows us. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith by Christ himself and that we can all gain a testimony through the Book of Mormon. Believe in Christ, believe in all that he has done, all that he currently does and all that he will continue to do. I exhort you all to share the Gospel, be an example and serve and love one another. 

I love you all and I hope to continue to hear from you!

Vi voglio un mondo di bene,

Anziano Jake Bellucci

P.S. I would love to hear from you through an email or a text message/phone call! My email is belljake17@gmail.com and my phone number +1-(315)-244-5323

Ladispoli Transfer 16 Week 5!

This is it! Just one week from today I’ll be headed to the mission home! I’m so excited to take on this last week and really make the most of it! Today we’re headed to the soccer fields right next to the temple to play some soccer with the rest of the Zone! It should be a lot of fun! 

This week was kind of interesting, unfortunately we didn’t get to see a lot of our Investigators but it was a good week anyway! We started Monday getting picked up by Brother Giorgiani, he’s in the Bishopric but lives out in the middle of no where! He picked us up and we went out to their house for Family Home Evening and dinner! Classic spaghetti and meatballs which, fun fact, is am American thing! They usually don’t mix the meatballs in. Normally they eat spaghetti with a red sauce and then switch plates and eat meat balls but almost never together until we Americans realized that nobody wants to wash that many dishes! We had a great time playing with their two kids and a great spiritual thought! 

Tuesday morning Anziano Huntsman was pretty sick, he’s doing a lot better now but he was feeling pretty rough so we had a pretty chill morning. We made snickerdoodle cookies to bring the Alicino’s for lunch, then we went there and had lunch, it was pretty good! They are a great family. Then we went home and got changed to go help some of the YSA members move into their new house. We’ve coined the term “bro house” because 4 of the guys in the ward are all moving in together, it was really nice and we got to do some service as well as hang out with them and have some fun! Followed by English Course of course! 

Wednesday was District Meeting in Ostia, we did a ton of role-plays and learned a lot from each other. Followed by kebab and then the trip back. Anziano Huntsman still wasn’t feeling very good so we took it easy and I wasn’t feeling the hottest either but we knew we needed to get out there and work! So we did and Heavenly Father blessed us! This guy came up to us and said “You guys are the Mormons right?!” And he told us that he used to come to Church and was going to get baptized but then something happened and he stopped coming but he said he was ready and wanted to come back which was really cool! 

Thursday we did Weekly planning and then made the best fried chicken ever! There is a Senior couple from Texas that works in the office and they gave us the recipe... Anziano Huntsman and I had a good time playing chef and it turned out really good! We made almost a kilo of chicken with mashed potatoes and a liter and a half of Guaranà which is a Brazilian soda that is amazing. We weren’t feeling the hottest after but it was worth it! We taught Gabriele The Gospel of Jesus Christ while still smelling like fried chicken and then we got a call on the phone at the Church which never rings... it was an American member who is working in Civitavecchia which is where all the cruise ships come into Rome. It’s about 30 minutes on a train North of Ladispoli. She was really struggling with work and she said she needed someone to talk to and she would like a blessing. She came down to the Church and we were able to have a nice chat and I think she was really just missing home and needed a taste of America. We were able to give her a blessing and decided we would bring her the Sacrament on Sunday because she has to work Sunday morning. 

Friday I had to spend some of the time getting all my stuff off of my iPad so I can turn it in next week :( so we killed two birds with one stone, while I used the computer to get my stuff done we threw some banana bread in the oven. Not to give to anyone Anziano Huntsman just really likes my banana bread recipe! Haha Then we started our exchange with the Zone Leaders! This was my last exchange! I got to go with Anziano Melling and we had so much fun! Anziano Melling and I get along really well... we have a very similar style in the way we like to do missionary work so it was a lot of fun. We had an appointment to meet with a less-active Young single adult that served a mission and everything. We went and got a crepe with him and talked about his mission and stuff just trying to become friends with him. I really enjoyed it and Anziano Melling is really good at just chatting it up! Some of the other YSA members met up with us and it was pretty successful. We finished off the night with some Napoletana pizza! So good... 

Saturday we tried to take a bus to Cerveteri and they stopped us and told us that our passes don’t work for the bus system in Ladispoli... I’ve ridden a lot of those buses thinking it worked but now we know it doesn’t! We didn’t have cash to buy tickets so our plans changed and we stayed in Ladispoli to do some finding! Anziano Melling wanted Chinese food so we went to this sushi place that’s pretty good! We missed our train back to Rome :( so we spent more time in Ladispoli which left the other Anziani having to go to an appointment and one thing after another we ended up switching back at 8:30 instead of 3. It was a fun day though! 

Yesterday we had Church! It was a great fasting testimony meeting, I took the opportunity to bear my testimony and it was really great to hear all the Saints bear theirs. I never get tired of hearing the testimonies of the members here. After Church and lunch we headed to Civitavecchia to visit Sister Mason and bring her the sacrament! We had a great experience and a wonderful afternoon!

Today was awesome! We played soccer as a zone with the other zone here in Rome! We had a lot of fun and we all went and got some pizzas after! 

I hope you all had a great week! I will probably send a weekly next week but we’ll see! Have a great week and find some way to share the Gospel!

Love,

Anziano Bellucci 

Ladispoli Transfer 16 Week 4

This Transfer has brought some of the weirdest emotions, so much excitement but an equal amount of sadness, some fear of the future as well as a eagerness to see what will happen next! Today marks two weeks left so there is still a lot of work to do here in Ladispoli and we had a great week this week!

This week we met with a ton of members! It started on Monday night... we went to the Gambi family’s house for a Family Home Evening, we used this cool cup and knife display to explain the importance of sustaining one another in our families. We share our testimonies, we share our experiences and we seek to build each other up. It was a good thought! We were in a trio for this which was pretty fun! Anziano Delgrosso has been here for about 3 weeks but I’ll tell you a little bit more about him later because we did an exchange this week. 

Tuesday was kind of a waste of a day but we tried to serve and that was the important part! We went to Rome to help a Nigerian Refugee member at the immigration offices. He ended up not having an appointment and some other drama so it was kind of a rough morning and then we had to go to the institute building to print him off a bus ticket back to Como. Turns out it was taco Tuesday at the institute and they asked us if we wanted to stay so we lucked out on lunch! We had actual Cheddar Cheese! Haha it’s the little things you miss ;) 

That night we had another FHE with the Meade family, the Dad is American and the Mom is Italian so they speak English at home. The Dad has all of these Book of Mormon historical theories that he explained to us, they were pretty interesting and then we had some brownies and a spiritual thought to finish it off! 

Wednesday was our District Meeting, one of the Sisters did the training and she did a great job! We talked about finding joy in the work and it was really good. Then we made peanut butter pasta which was so heavy but really good and then Anziano Delgrosso and I went back to work in Ostia! We got to go to dinner with the Cevallos family which was awesome, I love them! I told her I was coming the other day and so she made us a special dessert and this giant dinner! We are going to try to meet up while my family is in Rome! In our spiritual thought I got to be pretty bold with her husband and tell him I love him and promise the blessings of baptism. He’s not ready yet but one day he will be. 

Thursday we continued the exchange and did some great finding, we talked to so many people and had so many good conversations. Anziano Delgrosso is a stud! 

Friday was up and out to Manziana again to go visit Max! We brought the Bishop with us and had a great lesson! He’s progressing towards his baptismal Date of June 2nd! Then in the evening we went to the DiniCiaci’s house, they’re amazing. The Dad is actually Elder DiniCiaci, he’s an area seventy. They have four kids and Elder DiniCiaci has never spoken to them in Italian, he only speaks to them in English so they’re growing up bilingual which is really cool. They speak to their Mom in Italian and their Dad in English. Dinner conversation is a little bit of a headache but it’s cool! We had a great dinner with them and talked about having love at home and charity towards each other... 4 young kids at home ;) 

Saturday! The Gambi family has a terrace on top of their building and they told us we could come and do our personal city up there some time so we took advantage of it! Brother Gambi brought us out some juice and Nutella and bread and it was really nice! We then did weekly Planning ;( Not my favorite but a necessary evil! We spent the whole evening doing finding! It was a really good day!

Sunday was super busy... we had Church of course and I gave a talk! I talked about true conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our investigator Mimmo came to Church too! I translated for some American guy for the second and third hours. We got invited to lunch by this family that comes to our English Course. They’re so cool! We had a great time with them, unfortunately they’re not super interested in the Gospel but we were able to talk about the family and the importance of it! And we ate a ton of food! They brought us home just in time to study and head to the Poli’s house! We had a great lesson with Valerio and Anita, we taught the Plan of Salvation and we got to answer a lot of their questions! Valerio kept asking questions about baptism and explaining to his wife that it is a necessary step! We stayed around and chatted with the Poli family, they asked us to stay for dinner and so we did! They’re one of my favorite families here :) 

This was such a great week, Anziano Huntsman and I have gotten to know a lot of members and have had some really great lessons! “No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing!” 

I hope you have a great week! 

Love,

Anziano Bellucci 

Ladispoli Transfer 16 Week 3

A trip back to Ostia, working with Anziano Youngblood, tourism season in full swing, hot weather and another amazing week! 

So first I have to tell you all about our tourism experiences today... as we were walking around Rome today we got stopped by 6 different groups of Mormon tourists screaming “We found the Elders!” I seriously felt like Where’s Waldo. There was this one group that was on a guided tour and apparently we stick out like sore thumbs so as we got close to them we realized that there was a group of about 10 people singing “Called to serve Him, Heavenly King of Glory” Which was pretty cool! We met another family outside of the Capital building that texted pictures to our Moms. If the line at the Vatican is any indicator of the amount of tourists there will be in a few weeks we might want to get some passes to skip the line! 

On to the week, it was good, it was exhausting and we loved it! Monday night we got cancelled on by our appointment so we went out finding! It was a beautiful sunny day and we had some good conversations.

Tuesday we headed to District Meeting in Ostia, it was a great meeting and we started our exchange right after that. I got to go back to Ostia and work with Anziano Youngblood again! It was just like old times and we had a super successful exchange, we got three people’s phone numbers and we got to see some less active members that I worked with and even though I saw them like 2 weeks ago they were still super excited to see me which was really nice! Finished off the night with the famous 5€ pizza from Romolo’s on Tuesday night! 

Wednesday we kept going with our scambio (exchange) and we went to a place called Basilica San Paolo to do some finding, it was another beautiful sunny day and we were able to get some good conversations and a number before grabbing some gelato... I’m really gonna miss this place! We had lunch and then switched back and Anziano Huntsman and I finished off the day with some finding! We had planned to meet the Young Adult members to grab another gelato and meet some of their friends but they ditched us so we spent another night chattin’ it up on the streets!

Thursday we had a great lesson with our investigator named Max! It was really cool, he lives out in a city called Manziana, it took us forever to get there but it was beautiful. It overlooks Bracciano Lake which is where we went to that castle a couple weeks ago. Max is short for Massimo, he works for a company that does birthday parties for kids, in fact he came in contact with the Church through doing a Birthday party for one of the members. He has been busy and hasn’t met with the missionaries for a while but he’s been reading the Book of Mormon! He’s read almost all of it and had so many good questions! We invited him to be baptized and he said yes! Wahoo! So he is preparing to be baptized on June 2nd! We went to dinner at Valerio and Anita’s with the Poli family again. It was a little strange because they had some other people over and they made SO MUCH FOOD! This time it was Peruviano though... We went to the Poli’s house and Valerio’s daughter came up (they live in the same building) and said “Are you guys almost ready?” And they exchanged an awkward glance realizing that they had both prepared the table and were expecting the family to come to each other’s houses. They also both made dinner so we put them together and ate it all! We ended up just sharing a spiritual thought that went really well! 

Friday weekly Planning... it was rough because it was so nice outside but we had a lot to plan and it took us all morning :( Then in the afternoon we got to see Mimmo... he’s got a lot going on right now and he doesn’t have a super solid foundation in Christ so we watched some Bible videos and talked about his characteristics and how we can become like Him as well as why we want to become like Him. Then we did a little street mostra where we brought copies of the Book of Mormon in every language and asked people if they had ever heard of Il Libro di Mormon... well it failed terribly but we had a good time anyway! Followed by Gelato... is anyone sensing a theme this week?

Saturday, in the morning we met with the Aiello family, their son turns 8 soon and so we are teaching him the lessons before his baptism. We taught the Plan of Salvation and had him draw it as we went. It went super well and we did some finding. We tried to go to Cerveteri but we waited for the bus for 20 minutes and it never came so we stayed in Ladispoli and did some street contacting. Then in the afternoon we actually got to meet with Valerio and Anita again and had a great lesson with them. We read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon and the spirit was super strong. 

Sunday was great as always, there were some great talks and the Gospel Principles lesson was really good. We had a mini correlation meeting and talked to a lot of members after Church. Anziano Huntsman and I went to the next city up the line on the train and did some house to house, we didn’t get let in but we had a good time! 

Today we walked around the Jewish Ghetto, ate a Jewish pizza (don’t ask me what that is, it’s too hard to explain) saw the Capital Building, Colosseum, Castles, got gelato, ate McDonalds and hung out with Anziano Jensen and Anziano Empey!

This week was sooo good! We worked really hard and I’m really glad for that, we’re loving everyday and enjoying it to the max! Jesus Christ Lives, this is His work and He loves you all!

Have a great week!

Love,

Anziano Bellucci

Ladispoli Transfer 16 Week 2

Finding in Disneyland, fried artichokes, member present dinner, smartphones, my last zone conference and a little bit of persecution! 

What a week! We had so much success this week, so many big changes, the work is progressing and I’m just soaking it all in! We really did see some big miracles this week! 

Monday for P-Day we went to this beautiful castle in Bracciano, it was so cool! It’s from medieval times, if was built in the 1200’s and is still completely in tact. It was raining but we had a lot of fun and took some cool pictures too! 

On Tuesday we had a really great District Meeting! We went to Ostia and we talked about applying ministering to missionary work and it was a really good conversation and I’m excited to put into practice. We grabbed some Kebab for lunch and headed back! At English Course one of the students got a notification that the International Space Station would be flying over in 10 minutes so we did our spiritual thought and ran outside to watch it fly over. It was pretty cool! 

Wednesday morning we went to Santa Marinella which is a coastal city a little bit North of Ladispoli, about 20 minutes on the train. We got there and tried to go find one of the members and it took a while to get there, turns out he had a real bad fever so we went finding, we found this little spot where we could get down to the ocean and we took some really cool photos. In the afternoon we whipped up some chocolate chip banana bread to bring to Sister Squercia who teaches us Italian once a week. I grilled her with difficult grammar questions for like 30 minutes and then we ate some dessert. Then the coolest thing happened! We got to go meet one of our Potentials to give him a Book of Mormon in Romanian, he’s lived in Italy for 12 years but still reads better in Romanian. So we had a sweet lesson with him and set up a follow-up appointment for tonight! 

Thursday was up early to head to Rome for interviews with President and Sister Pickerd. This was my last normal interview and we scheduled my last one which will be about an hour long. It was really nice though and I enjoyed it. We grabbed some lunch and headed back to Ladispoli. We made another batch of the chocolate chip banana bread and took it to dinner with the Poli family. They invited our investigator Valerio and his wife and daughter. It was an incredible lesson and we were able to turn his wife into a new investigator and they both came to Church yesterday! Lessons with members are the best! Their testimonies were so powerful and at the end she said “So can we meet with you next Thursday?” We were over the moon! It showed us that success is definitely given not earned... two new Investigators in two days! 

Friday was my last zone Conference... definitely a bitter sweet experience. The trainings were great and I learned a lot! We talked about faith and how we can grow our own faith. We also got some technology upgrades! We got smart phones, with data the whole 9 yards! We feel very advanced! Especially because no one in this country uses text messaging, everyone uses WhatsApp which is like a 3rd party messaging app and it’s so nice that we have it now! We’ve already seem miracles! I also had the opportunity to give my departing testimony. I blubbered through the whole thing like a cry baby 😭 but I talked about the importance of bearing your testimony and just taking every moment you have to testify of Jesus Christ. I made a lot of people cry including Sister Pickerd so it was good 😉 then in the evening we had pizza and a lesson with Antonio the new Convert here!

So Ladispoli is known for its artichokes and this weekend was the festival for all Things artichoke and the people swarmed the city! It was a crazy amount of people, ergo the title “finding in Disneyland” there were so many people you couldn’t walk downtown and there were just so many street vendors! They’ve also had “Cotton-eyed Joe” on repeat for the last three days... I’m so glad it’s over! We tried to go finding on Saturday night but we decided to cut our losses and try to get a good fried artichoke... they were actually really good! Anziano Huntsman is obsessed with Cannoli from Sicily so he found one of those too as well as some peperoncino olive oil. Then we whipped up two more batches of that chocolate chip banana bread to bring to the ward lunch on Sunday. We also got persecuted by a man with a mega-phone asking us when our flight back to Utah was... all in a days work :) 

Church was great as always, as I said Valerio and Anita came to Church which was great! Afterwards we had ward lunch and our banana bread went so fast! They ate it all! We had a really great Sunday evening to finish off our week! 

This week was so good, I’ve really felt like a successful missionary and I’m so glad that I still have this time to serve my Savior Jesus Christ.

I love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Anziano Jacob Bellucci 

Ladispoli Transfer 16 Week 1

I got death transferred! I can’t believe this is the first week of my last Transfer! I’m kind of freaking out a little bit but we’re doing well! I really like Ladispoli and my companion is an absolute stud! 

Monday was a great day, we went and did that service all day and it was the first nice day of the year, the sun was out, a lot of people including myself got sun burnt. We picked up a ton of trash in the beach and we had a lot of fun! I saw all of the youth from Cagliari and Napoli which was sweet! It’s been so long since I’ve seen the youth in Cagliari so it was so nice to talk to them. One of them was like “Anziano Bellucci, you actually speak Italian now!” Which was pretty funny. Afterwards we got changed and then went to the Cevallos’ for dinner. It was pretty fun until we got the call. We found out that both Anziano Empey and I were leaving Ostia. I wasn’t super excited, it’s kind of a bummer to finish my last 6 weeks in a different city and ward where I don’t know anyone but I really like the ward and I think Anziano Huntsman and I are going to have a great time! Pictures, tears and I spiritual thought and then we left!

Tuesday was half a P-Day so we wrote some emails and then started packing... it was a process because the apartment is pretty small and we both had to pack! So we spent the afternoon packing before we went to dinner with the Bartolucci family. She made the best cheesy white lasagna I’ve ever had... anyway we had a great time with them and that was the day!

Wednesday we had our last District Meeting all together, it was a lot of fun and we talked a lot about the things that we learned from each other and throughout the Transfer. Followed by kebab and then finishing a little packing before going and visiting the other Cavallos family for a final salute. She made a pie and we had homemade Ecuadorian hot chocolate (really good). More tears, more pictures and plans to meet after the mission. Then we got to go to the Stake President’s house for dinner. They are such a wonderful family, President was working but we had dinner with his wife and four kids which was great. It was their daughter’s second birthday. I am really going to miss their family. They have a son named Ilario who is a few years younger than me but he’s a stud, we got along really well. 

Thursday was Transfer day! We had to have our apartment all clean and ready! Anziano Youngblood is training in Ostia so we wanted them to come into a nice and clean house! Finished cleaning, grabbed all of our suitcases and headed for Rome! We met all the other missionaries, handed off the keys and phone to Anziano Youngblood and I headed to Ladispoli with Anziano Huntsman! I think it was the fastest transfer I’ve ever had! 

So Anziano Huntsman mini biography... he’s 19, comes from “The Woodlands” Which is North of Houston Texas! He’s no cowboy 🤠 but we get along super well! He’s in the same group as Elder Empey, he speaks the language really well and he loves to ask me language questions. He is one of Elder Ballard’s grandsons. 

I got unpacked and Anziano Huntsman made lunch, we got all set up and went finding before English Course. Ladispoli is pretty small but it’s nice. It’s a wealthier part of Rome and the beaches are beautiful. The sand is “black” or so they say, I wouldn’t say it’s black but it’s pretty dark and it’s also magnetic. One of the sisters dropped their name tag in the sand and they’re still trying to get grains of sand out off the magnet. 

Friday was a lot of planning and studying, we did weekly planning in the morning trying to get me up to speed on all the Investigators in the area and planning out the Transfer. Then in the afternoon we taught a man named Mimo, he’s a great guy with a lot of faith. We watched the Bible video of Christ healing the woman of faith and how all she had to do was reach out and touch his robes and she was healed. We talked about how we can compare her faith to ours and what we can do to reach out to the Savior. It was a really good lesson... unfortunately he didn’t come to Church but we’re hoping for next week!

Saturday we went to visit some less-active members and we had the weirdest experience. I’m not even going to explain it. It was weird. But then we went to this new convert’s house Antonio. He’s a stud, he invited us in and we watch a video with him and he was really glad we stopped by. He also gave us some lemons off the tree in his yard. Then in the afternoon we did a gesso (The chalk thing) which I haven’t done since I was in Bari which was almost a year ago! We had some good success and got a few people’s numbers. 

Sunday was great, Ladispoli is like a Utah Family ward there are so many kids! It’s probably the loudest Sacrament Meeting I’ve been in for a while! The translation center for the Church is here so there are a lot of families that work there. Several of them one parent speaks English to the kids and the other speaks Italian which I think is so cool! They’re growing up bilingual! I really loved the ward and the members are really nice. 

We went and visited one of them last night, the Alicino Family. The Dad is the son of Sister Alicino in Ostia! They’re a great family and we shared a message with them that I think they really needed. We really felt like we had been able to minister to them. The spirit was definitely there when we left. 

This week was incredible, I finally got to see almost all of General Conference, the excitement for the temple is growing and I am loving every day. I hope you guys are loving everyday as well! Involve Jesus Christ in your life and I promise you will feel a difference. 

I also wanted to make a plug for General Conference! I loved all the talks, but there are always a few that really hit you! I loved President Nelson’s talk about Personal Revelation... I think it’s so clear how important it is to receive personal revelation and not just try to get through this on our own. I also really enjoyed Elder Bednar’s talk about meekness and what meekness really means. Study General Conference! We are so blessed to have inspired leaders!

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Anziano Bellucci 

Ostia Transfer 15 Week 6

This last P-Day was so fun! We went to Villa Borghese Which is a pretty famous park in Rome, it’s about half the size of Central Park and we played frisbee with pretty much the whole zone! It was a blast and this kid that is studying abroad came up and heard us speaking in American English and he joined us. Then we came back to Ostia to email before heading to dinner with the Cavallos’. We had some time before dinner was ready and so we played with these block things and Abraham who is 4 years old had so much fun destroying everything I made!

Tuesday was District Meeting! Sister Adams finishes her mission today so she gave the training to share her wisdom with us. She did a great job! We talked about being successful missionaries and feeling the spirit as we work. I think she really helped our district to feel successful. Then we took some funeral pictures (When missionaries finish their mission we say they “die”) We did the stacked chairs but I couldn’t sit on mine because the chairs would fall when I sat in them because it was too high! We photo shopped it though so it’s fine. I made some real good chocolate chip banana bread... the first batch I cooked in our apartment, our oven is broken though so you can’t adjust the temperature it’s just like 450 or nothing so it burnt but was raw in the middle. So I made another batch and we baked it in the Church during District Meeting. It was to die for... (Pun intended... get it because Sister Adams is dying!) Then we grabbed some kebab before we started our exchange with the Ladispoli Anziani! This time I went to Ladispoli with Anziano Dunn. We had a good time! We ate some kumquats off a tree, went and played catch with a football downtown and we got some people playing with us. We actually got some of their numbers so that was cool! Had English Course and got pizza after!

Wednesday we went finding and there was not a soul on the streets. It was pretty rough but we made the best of it! Came home had lunch and got on the train back to Ostia! Anziano Empey and I did some studies and hit the streets again before heading to dinner with the other Cevallos family! Sister Cevallos is back from Ecuador and she brought so much food back! So much candy and goodies, she stuffed us! They were pretty good for the most part... some of them weren’t my favorite but they weren’t too bad! We did the pictures with the white board with them too which was really good. 

Thursday we had a lot to prep for the activity! We went and got the Church set up in the morning, got decorations and stuff hung up/made. We them did some finding before lunch. We are real quick and then did our language and companionship study before heading back to the Church. I made strawberry shortcake for the Activity and we finished getting everything ready. This was a culture night so the members are from all over the world, we have a lot of South Americans and different places in Europe and then us in America. It went off so well, we had so much fun and there were a lot of people. The American family from Idaho came and made “Funeral Potatoes” and they were sooooo good! They’re just like a cheesy potato casserole but they’re really good. Unfortunately none of our investigators came :( 

Friday we headed to Campo Di Carne to visit Sister Gallé and do some yard work! It was fun, her driveway is like a criss-cross pattern with just dirt in between so there are these little squares with giant weeds. I would probably hit the whole thing with some round-up and call it a day but we dug out each hole individually pulling out the weeds for about two hours. I actually enjoyed it but by the end my knees were done! Then we had lunch, she made ravioli that were sooo good! Headed back to Ostia and had a pretty normal evening... almost. It was raining... again. We went to visit a member and her son. We were setting up her phone so she could watch General Conference. Her husband is totally against the Church and he came in and started screaming at us and kicked us out! It was really intense! 

Saturday was kind of a weird day because today we don’t really get a preparation day because of the service activity. So we had to go grocery shopping and I had to take my pants to the seamstress to get the giant hole sewed from when I jumped the fence a couple weeks ago :/ We did do some finding along the way though. Searched for some white eggs so we could dye them for Easter. All eggs are brown in Italy. There’s this place under our house that sells white eggs so fortunately we didn’t have to search too hard! Saturday afternoon we got to watch conference! We met before and made homemade pizza with the Sisters. It was actually really good! We have to work on our dough stretching technique though... Conference was great! We were so excited for the solemn assembly and the calling of two new apostles.i know that President Nelson is a prophet of God, and I know that Elder Gong and Elder Suares are called of God to be Apostles. 

So much food was eaten on Sunday. So. Much. Food. We started off going t9 the Church to watch the Saturday afternoon and priesthood sessions. They were so good as well! I think the change in Priesthood quorums will be really beneficial in Italy to unite the different age groups. Then we got picked up by Davide a member and we went to the Modugno’s house! We played archery with little rubber arrows while they continued to cook. She made the best homemade lasagna, homemade including the noodles... best lasagna I’ve ever had in my life. It actually wasn’t the biggest lunch ever but the desserts were plentiful! So much chocolate I thought I was going to die. Then they brought us to the train station so we could head to the Cevallos’ again. We watched the Sunday morning session with them and then ate a huge Ecuadorian dinner! I couldn’t even tell you what it was, other than that is was like a chowder with everything Ecuadorian you could possibly imagine! 

That was the week! I hope you all enjoyed Easter and were able to watch General Conference! It’s so amazing! If you haven’t seen it or you want to listen to a prophet speak go to LDS.org and you can rewatch the sessions under the tab “General Conference.”

Have a great week!

Love,

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

P.S. Today we are doing a huge service project so I will be emailing tomorrow morning probably not tonight!

Ostia Transfer 15 Week 5

Busy as usual, but oh so good!

Temple, Zone Conference, exchanges, sunny beaches and #CiSaràSempre

This week has gone by so fast, you would think at some point they couldn’t go by any faster but they do! We’ll start with Monday as usual though!

We had a very casual P-Day last week, it was nice and relaxing. Then in the evening we went and did so much finding... we talked to people all night long and then came home to call members for the activity this week. 

Then on Tuesday the coolest thing happened! So we went to the mission home for interviews with President and those went well and then they took us to the temple to go and see the “Information Center” Which is one of the construction trailers that they kept and turned it in to a really nice little mini visitors center. It’s going to be open to the public next week but you can go in and they have samples of the different stone and wood that they used inside the temple and a model of the whole project. The project manager came in and talked to us afterwards and it was so cool, he explained all about the temple and the grounds and it was just incredible. I can’t wait for the temple to open! 

We came back to Ostia and visited Sister Alicino, someone gave her a Samsung Smartphone but she’s 80 years old and has no idea how to use it. I showed her how to open a Gospel Library and find the scriptures and that was fun. She doesn’t remember how but I did show her... ;) We stayed in Rome so we could be early for the conference so I could finish planning our training with the other District Leaders, so we got to stay with Anziano Melling and Anziano Youngblood.

Wednesday was Zone Conference! Anziano Youngblood asked me to translate the conference for one of the sisters that doesn’t speak English so I got to translate for almost 6 hours straight. It was fun but I was exhausted after! I loved Zone Conference though. It’s always the best! I started an exchange with Anziano Youngblood afterwards so I stayed in Rome again! We had an awesome night. It was like we were back in Cosenza again! We went to dinner with a Less-active member. He is a street artist and the city pays him to draw in downtown Rome. His artwork is beautiful and when he does it on canvas it’s worth thousands of dollars but instead he does it on the sidewalk. It’s really cool. We told him about the Temple and talked to him about preparation for the temple. He also had a giant white dog that reminded me of Ty and Abby, if you stopped petting he would stick his nose under your arm and lift up your hand until you pet him again. 

Thursday was just as good! There was a transportation strike though and they live pretty far from the city, you take a bus for probably 20 minutes. So we planned on walking and just bringing all my stuff and leaving it in the Church. Well about halfway there we saw a bus and I was really confused but it turns out the strike was only for the metro! Anyway so we hopped the bus and went to this big huge park. It was beautiful! We talked to some really cool people, got a few phone numbers and were able to teach the Restoration. Anziano Youngblood still doesn’t cook so I made lunch ;) Then we switched back to our companions! 

Friday... weekly Planning ;( Never my favorite thing to do but we did it and then we made some lunch, did some comp study and studied Italian before we hit the streets! The new video came out on Friday! I think in English it’s called #AlwaysThere but in Italian it’s called #CiSaràSempre either way the video is sweet! We tried to share the video with a lot of people! We also went to the Stake President’s house and shared it with them. We’ve been carrying a white board around and having people write when they’ve felt like Christ was there, it’s been so good! 

Saturday... we did finding all day long! We only got one person to watch the video but it was this father and son who was teaching his son to ride his bike and they really enjoyed it. 

Sunday! The Heaters in the Church didn’t work so everyone was freezing and a little cranky because it was only like 60 degrees in the Church. So we had the first two hours and then they sent everyone home. But first! I asked the Bishop if we could show the video to everyone and then as they left we took pictures with everyone and the white board. It was great to get everyone involved. (We also got an invite for Easter Lunch next week with the Sicilian family! Wahoo!) Then we went to visit Sister Bartolucci who is a member but she’s had some back problems and hasn’t been able to come to Church. We showed her the video too, she cried ;) Then we started talking about the temple and I showed her the most recent aerial picture of the temple and she cried even more. The Italians are so ready for this temple! Once it’s here it’s going to be so sweet! I can’t wait! 

We spent the rest of the evening in a park with this little lake where people were playing water polo but in kayaks, it was the most interesting thing! I thought someone was going to drown. But there were so many people! We talked to a lot of them!

While we were walking around sharing this video this week we got s lot of negative responses and many people just said “Where is Christ?” Or “I’ve never felt him” or “He doesn’t exist” and it made me think a lot about how blessed we are with the testimonies we have. We know He lives. We know he’s always there and I think that’s so amazing. It’s up to us to show people that he really is there. So I want to invite you to share this video with someone in specific. It’s a great thing to post on Facebook but I think it’s even better to share it individually. I know that it will open doors to share the Gospel, maybe even take your own picture! 

Here is the link to the video, I hope you can all watch it! I think it’s a European thing so you get the One for England!

Lds.org.uk

Also if you want to watch it in Italian the link is:

Chiesadigesucristo.it 

Have a great week!

Anziano Bellucci

Ostia Transfer 15 Week 4

Busy busy busy week! But so good... AND HOT WATER! 

Monday seems like so long ago, we’ve done so much this week it’s crazy! We went to the Cevallos’ on Monday night and shared a pretty sweet message about asking questions in Faith. 

Tuesday was an early morning! Up at 4:30 to get to Rome to take a train to Napoli for my Permesso! We got there and they told us to come back in the afternoon, that you could only pick up a Permesso after 2:30... it was 8:30. So we had a day in Napoli! All of the missionaries in Napoli were at Zone Conference so we couldn’t get any pass-a-long cards from them so we went on a little Napoli tour! It’s just as beautiful as I remembered! We got a pizza of course, Anziano Empey loved it! It was his first time in Napoli! We saw some old churches, talked to some way cool people about the Gospel and walked through the outdoor markets! Then it was back to the immigration office. They kind of herd you like cattle there and then everyone pushes and shoves as soon as they open up the doors. I finally made it in and I got my Permesso without any problems. We went to the Church in Napoli to download our train tickets home and headed back! Because it was Napoli Zone Conference I got to see Anziano Allen! It was sweet, and I realized that if he doesn’t get transferred to Rome this next Transfer I probably won’t see him until we see each other in America! Crazy... we talked to this really nice couple on the train back to Rome. She was trying to convince me that our Church was restored in England not in NY... it was funny. We missed our English Course but grabbed some pizza on the way home! (Yes two pizzas in one day, no judgements.) Also this is the day we got hot water!

Wednesday we had District Meeting here in Ostia. Anziano Huntsman gave us the Addestramento and he taught us about agency and our right and ability to choose for ourselves what we will do with our time as missionaries. It was really good! It was two of the sisters halfway marks and they wanted to go get pizza... of twist my arm I’ll get another one! They chose s fancy restaurant though. We had fun together and then we started our exchange with the Ladispoli Anziani. I got to work with Anziano Huntsman! He’s a stud, he’s in Anziano Empey’s Group so he’s been out about 8 months. He’s from Texas and is just a super nice guy. We had some really good finding experiences in Vitinia, we talked to some way cool people. Then we went to dinner at the Cevallos’. Luis posted a video on Facebook of Abraham knocking over our Jenga tower! With them we talked about the priesthood and the opportunity that Luis and Michele have to serve the ward in performing their priesthood duties. It was solid!

Thursday was a great day too, Anziano Empey doesn’t like to exercise so I never get to go running but Anziano Huntsman did track so I told him to bring his shoes! We got up and ran along the beach. It was a blast and my calves are still killing me. Hit the streets for some finding before picking up Anziano Baker who flew in from Palermo to get his Permesso. He’s a great finder so we went finding together. I always learn from Anziano Baker. Then we came home, made lunch, and headed to the Immigration office. Of course there was something wrong, he hadn’t paid enough. But you can’t pay at the Immigration office, you have to go to the post office and pay and then come back to the Immigration office. All good! Finding... English Course was huge! More people than I’ve seen at English Course in Ostia. It was sweet. We got two new Investigators! They were asking questions during the course and I asked if we could meet them afterwards and they said “sure!” So we taught them a mini restoration lesson and they said we could meet before English Course on Thursday! 

Friday was up early again, this time 5 AM... we had to take Anziano Baker to the airport. So we took the bus for what we thought was the airport but turns out it was the wrong one! It takes you almost there but not quite! So we had to started walking from the closest stop to the airport and I realized he was never going to make his flight. So I called a member that works at the airport and he happened to be on his way to work! But he only had one spot in his car. So he took Anziano Baker and Anziano Empey and I walked down the highway. He made it in time and we made it too. So we were supposed to go to Campo di Carne to do service again so instead of going to Ostia we went to Rome. Got some breakfast at McDonalds and then headed to Campo di Carne! It was only like 10 AM and I was ready for bed! We had a good time doing service, I pulled my weight in weeds and we mowed the lawn and she fed us lunch. Three more trains back home... changed clothes and went to the Church. We were able to have a Skype lesson with Anziano Empey’s Grandma! It was sooo cool! We were able to teach her the Restoration and get her to meet with the missionaries in Las Vegas! It was really cool. We took some time to get some studies done, made a poster for the Activity and then finished off the night with some finding! I slept so well that night... 

Saturday I got my hair cut (all the hair cutting places are closed on Monday!) then we did some weekly Planning and some finding. We had correlation in the afternoon and because it was the anniversary of the Relief Society they were having a party in the Church  and they shared their dessert with us. The RS President is American so she made Apple Crisp which was amazing! American Desserts are sooo buttery!

Sunday was a great day as always. The Chapel was full again! It’s been so nice the last few weeks to see so many members come! Sister Alicino got a used smart phone from one of the members but she doesn’t know how to use it. (She is 80 years old) and so she had me put Gospel Library and the hymns on her phone. She’s so funny... in the afternoon we just had some really good finding. We put some miles on our shoes and talked to a lot of people. The sunset was beautiful of the ocean.  It was another beautiful week...

I hope you all had a beautiful week! I want to invite you all to study something about agency. Our agency is a beautiful gift, if we use it well we can be instruments in the Lord’ hands. 

Love,

Anziano Bellucci

Pictures:

1 & 2 sunset Pictures from last night

3. Anziano Baker brought us Cannoli from Sicily! Mamma Mia they’re good!

4. Anziano Huntsman and I at the Cevallos’ with Luis!

Ostia Transfer 15 Week 3

The sun is shining! It only rained like three times this week! It’s been such a beautiful week here! We had an awesome week! Even though there’s still no hot water...

We finished off P-Day at the mall after Zone Soccer, we really just used their WiFi and ate some lunch! Then we grabbed the bus... I messed up the bus stop and we watched two buses pass on the other side before I realized it was the wrong directi9n and the next one didn’t come for another 40 minutes so we were really late to the Cevallos’. Grandma Cevallos is still in Ecuador so her husband made us dinner... it was pretty good and I tried something new... Pears with cheese and honey on top, I Know it sounds weird but it was really good! So Alberto isn’t a member but he’s been an investigator for 7 years. We asked him some questions to see what it is that’s holding him back because he comes to church every week and is basically a member but something hasn’t clicked yet! We didn’t really get far, I think he’s just stubborn! Haha 😂 But we were able to share a good message with him and the spirit was for sure there!

Tuesday we had District Meeting and we did it in Ladispoli this time, we were supposed to take a train at 10:23 but the metro to the train station was late so we didn’t get there until 10:25 so we looked for the next one, bought tickets and went to the platform. We were talking on the platform and we heard Ladispoli over the loud speaker and we looked at the train next to us and saw the doors closing only to find out that it was the 10:23 train it was just late! Ugh... so we missed it but we were standing outside of it for like 3 minutes. We had a really good DDM on improving our teaching skills, we did a ton of role plays and everyone seemed to get something out of it so I was pretty stoked. Then we went and got pizza and sat on a stone wall on the beach and ate it. It was really good! We caught the train back to Ostia and did our companionship study and language before a little finding and English Course! 

Wednesday was a cool day, we went exploring in Ostia doing some finding and it was fun. We found some new parks and talked to some really cool people. We also tried to teach Simone again... I don’t think he’s really that interested anymore :( Maybe he’s just busy but he hasn’t read anything or kept a commitment so it might be time to let him chill for a little bit. Wednesday afternoon we did some finding and then went to the other Cevallos’ for dinner! I learned to make the rice like an Ecuadorian! Oh my gosh it’s so stinking good! We also were able to share a pretty good spiritual thought with them. We talked about how we sustain each other as a family and how we need to share our testimonies with one another so that we can lift each other up and protect our families. We read Moroni 50: 1-6 and talked about fortifying our “fortresses” against the world. It was good! Luis, their oldest boy is a stud. He’s 16 and he’s going to be an awesome missionary one day! 

Thursday... it was International Women’s Day! So the Sisters wanted us to go finding with them and ask people about influential women in the Bible. We thought it was a little awkward for Elders so we let them do the women’s Day finding and we just talked to people and it was a really good morning! We talked to this family and they were really nice. We were about to get their phone number and then they saw that our number was on the pamphlet and they said they would call us... :( So we’re still praying that they’ll call us! We did a lightning round of weekly Planning before lunch because we were supposed to do an Exchange with Rome 1 on Friday. Then because the weather was soooo nice we went to the Pier to do finding. We talked to everyone on the pier and we talked to this really nice lady from the Philippines that has lived here for like 30 years and she gave us her number so we hope to make her and her husband new Investigators soon! English Course... 1 person showed up so that was rough but we still had fun. Went and got some French fries afterwards with the Sisters to celebrate Women’s Day! 

Friday our exchange got cancelled because Anziano Youngblood went to Cosenza to pick up his Permesso and they didn’t give it to him so he had to stay over night and didn’t come back until Friday afternoon! So we had already done our lightning round of weekly Planning so we decided to go to this park in EUR Fermi which is closer to the Rome side of our area. There’s a beautiful pond type thing there and there were a lot of families too. It was about 12:15 and we were going to head back because it’s about 30 minutes on a train and we were walking along the top side of the park and there was a tree with these beautiful little pink flowers and I wanted to take a picture of my name tag in the tree. One problem. There was a fence about waist high between me and this tree. So... I looked around and decided the fence is just to keep people out of the water and I wasn’t going to go in the water so I decided it would be fine to jump the fence! So I was just going to step over it and just use my hands to push me over while I brought my other leg over. Then my companion said “Just do it in one swift move!” So I did... and that was the end of the inseam of my pants... it went right through from front to back! Good thing my jacket is pretty long! It was a breezy trip home! The lighting wasn’t too good for the picture either so it was all for nothing! They were my favorite pants too!

Saturday was a really fun day! We did about an hour of finding before catching a bus towards the airport. We got off on Isola Sacra and walked to Brother LaFerla’s house for lunch. The LaFarla’s are Sicilian and so they know how to cook... of my gosh I should have taken a picture! Dang... well they made us Arancini which are probably one of the best heart attack foods you could think of. It’s like a rice ball with a meaty Ragù in the middle and some cheese, then they’re breaded and deep fried. And they’re made in the shape of cones. That’s literally all we are for lunch was those. I ate four of them and I was so full! I felt like I needed to eat some carrot sticks too! They shared a bunch of recipes with us for other things too, I’m pretty just we just talked about food the whole time! Except for the spiritual thought of course!

Then after that he dropped us off at home and Marco picked us up 5 minutes later! Marco is a less-scrive member who has been coming back to Church! He’s a single Dad with a little boy named Simone. We were able to share a thought with him and he really enjoyed it I think! They also came to Church yesterday! 

Speaking of yesterday, a lot of people came to Church! The Chapel was almost full which was awesome, Fasting Testimony Meeting went really well and the spirit was great! 

Anziano Empey and I made “Thanksgiving dinner” yesterday, we had a member give us a huge turkey leg and so we cooked it, shredded it and made turkey sandwiches with mashed potatoes and carrots and broccoli. We enjoyed it! Then we worked on the activity, it actually rained all afternoon :( But earlier in the week it was really nice so I can’t complain too much! 

One of my favorite spiritual thoughts that we shared this week was when we talked about repentance being positive. This last General Conference there was a talk this exact principle, in fact it’s called “Repentance is always Positive.” We shared the story about the Lamanites in the Book of Mormon who Covenanted with God to lay down their weapons of war and never go to battle again. I really like this verse it says:

For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more, neither against any of their brethren.

What does it mean to fight against God? Well for me I think it’s when we don’t align our will with His. Our will is the only thing that we can really give to Heavenly Father and when we align it with his we stop fighting against him and we work with him. It’s our sins that combat against Heavenly Father but usually they’re just little things that we can improve on. So with this General Conference coming up I want to invite you all to go prepared to learn from the Spirit what it is that you can change to “lay down your weapons of rebellion” and “not fight against God any more.” I know that if you go prepared and willing to change that the spirit will give you something to work on and as you work on it you will come closer and closer to Heavenly Father!

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

Anziano Bellucci

Ostia Transfer 15 Week 2

Rain rain go away... Stake Conference, and no hot water :( 

What a week! It was so cold at the beginning on the week for Italy, down in the 20’s and windy and Rome is so not used to that! We woke up Tuesday morning and I went to the bathroom and went to wash my hands and nothing came out of the faucet on the hot side... it was then and there that I realized this would be a long week. Our hot water heater is an on-demand tankless one and its on our balcony (Because it never gets this cold here). So I went and looked at it and saw the frozen puddle of water underneath it and the glass filter underneath it that had burst :( Cold shower it is... I used the hair dryer to thaw out the pipe so I could turn the water off so when it thawed out water wouldn’t go everywhere. Ice cold shower!  The rest of Tuesday we went less active hunting! Our ward list is huge but there are a ton of people that haven’t come for 10 years and don’t live here anymore! We found one person all day that still lives there and she told us to go away so it was kind of a bust but we made a ward list with a bunch of notes so I guess people in the future won’t waste time with it! We had English Course and it went pretty well, there were even some new people! There is this pizzeria called Romolo and it’s the best pizza we’ve had here in Ostia but it’s also really expensive! However... Tuesday evening any pizza you want is just 5 bucks! So we went and grabbed pizza!

Wednesday we had District Meeting and we talked about Missionaries in the Book of Mormon and who was our favorite and why. It was good, I chose Ammon because he really loved the Lamanites, he was down to go be a servant for the King and then he won the trust of the people so they would believe his words. It was a sweet DDM! We went and did some more service as a District in the park by our house, there was already so much trash! We got rakes this time though and we got about half of the park done really nice! (Side note, last night when we walked through we saw it full of broken glass bottles and cigarette boxes again so that was sad but it looked really good on Wednesday!) We also got Kebab together too which was really good! I forgot to get a District Picture! We went to the Cevallos’ for dinner and we talked about preparation. How we prepare ourselves to receive revelation whether it be during General Conference, Sacrament Meeting, or when the missionaries come over to share a spiritual thought. It was cool!

Thursday Morning we decided to do our weekly Planning then instead of Friday because the hot water guy was supposed to come between 10 and 12 but it’s kind of like the cable guy in America, you never know when? He came at like 10:30 though so it was good! He turned the water on to the hot water heater and it looked like a piece of Swiss cheese. Almost every pipe in the hot water heater has a crack in it. He also said that 60 percent of the hot water heaters in Rome are like this so they’re waiting for parts that should be in Monday (today) and then they can come and fix it. Then for the evening we did finding and English Course! More new people came too!

Friday we left early and went to Laurentina (last stop on the metro) to do some service for a member’s brother. They are moving into a new home and they needed help moving! For a tiny apartment they sure had a lot of stuff! We had a good time though and they said when they were all settled in they would have us over to share a message with them! Then we got changed real fast and went to a lunch appointment with the Battistini family. They’re way nice, they’re an older couple whose kids are grown and moved to Utah. We had a great time at lunch and we talked about the Europe Area Plan with them. We then got cancelled on by a member for our evening appointment because their son had worms in his stomach? Sounds gross, I didn’t ask questions. Apparently he’s all better now! Which means we got to do some finding! But first we went and taught Simone! He is a referral, honestly not super interested but we might have sparked something so we’ll see! 

Saturday it was pouring... (just like every other day this week) except like really dumping. So we went and printed some pictures of the new First Presidency to give to some Elderly Members and then we planned a little for the Activity. We were supposed to have an appointment with a new investigator and meet his family but his family ended up being out of town! Sad... in the evening we went with one of our investigators to the Saturday session of Stake Conference which was awesome! There was an area 70 there and he was a little crazy but he shared a really good message. 

Sunday we took a bus to the Bishop’s house to get a ride with him and his wife to Stake Conference. I got to see all of the members from Napoli! It was sweet, they’re all so awesome! I told them I would be in Church in Napoli in May! The Conference was really good, they talked about being the best Christians we can be and the Characteristics of Christ that will help us do that. Then in the evening we had correlation meeting with Riccardo and we planned an activity for the ward. Our Ward has a lot of diversity, there are Italians from all over the place, South Americans, Americans, people from other places in Europe, and so we’re going to do a culture night where everyone represents their homeland and brings food! It should be really fun! 

Today is another cold shower! But not just like the water isn’t warm, it’s like it’s been iced down. It’s wonderful... kind of makes your heart want to stop, kind of wakes you up. Sort of a gray area. 

We’re going to play Zone Soccer in the rain today! It should be fun! Then we’re going to check out this Mall and that should be pretty much it! 

I hope you all have a great week! Keep on keeping on! 

Love,

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

Ostia Transfer 14 Week 5

Service, Apple cake, and more service!

I can’t believe transfer calls are in just one short week! It’s crazy! After this call, I only have one more call left! I can’t believe how fast it’s going... but I still have plenty of time and this week was a good one! 

On Monday night we went to the Cevallos family, they’re my favorites! We have dinner with them almost every Monday night, Sister Cevallos is a great member and they have three boys 16, 12, and 3 years old and they’re so much fun! They all give us big hugs and we do a little family night usually starting with their English Homework and then a game, dinner, and a spiritual thought! We’re going tonight and I’m goin to try to remember to take a picture! 

Tuesday we had District Meeting in the morning and I had Sister Wyatt give the training. She did a great job and we talked about aligning our will with God’s will and working hard, as well as working through trials and being open to learning from them. We also got haircuts before! Mine is a little crazy but I like it, it’s still pretty long on top but not on the sides at all! Anyway, Then we all got kebab together and Anziano Empey and I had to go to the Doctors again! So we did a little finding and went to Rome, got picked up by Elder Knies one of the Senior couples who is so fun! He’s from Texas and doesn’t speak a lick of Italian but he’s a Texan through and through! Everything went well at the appointment and it turns out the stitches are dissolvable and now they’re all gone. Today was the day I made the apple cake during lunch! Something is wrong with our oven so it gets way too hot... so my cake was getting crispy on the outside and it was raw on the inside so I had to bake it with the oven door open and then I turned the oven off and just left the door closed. Anyway we made it through! It actually turned out pretty well! 

Wednesday was kind of rough... we decided to do weekly Planning because for one reason or another it hasn’t been happening on Friday! So we got that done in the morning, had lunch, did language study and comp study and then did some finding! We went to the other Cevallos family which is the Mom of the other Sister Cevallos for dinner. So her husband is Italian and he has been investigating the Church for 7 years... he comes to Church every week, has us over almost every week but he’s not ready to be baptized yet. Also he’s 82. So we used a piece of paper to map out what was happening in the Bible in conjunction with the Book of Mormon. It was really good to help him understand how they coincide. Then Mamma Cevallos made us wonderful Ecuadorian food as always. Who knew there were so many different ways to make rice??? Have you ever had a fried banana? They’re pretty good! 

Thursday. Thursday we went to Caritas (Carità means charity in Italian) to work in the soup kitchen (Except we’re in Italy so it’s a pasta kitchen but it’s the same idea!) We had a good time, we just help prepare food for the homeless and take their trays and clean them and that’s pretty much it! It is really nice to serve them though. They’re not all necessarily homeless but they are very poor and so it’s a great opportunity to serve as well as get to know some of the great people that serve there as volunteers. They make us eat too, the food isn’t bad! There was pasta with sauce and a big mozzarella ball and some pretty good bread and baked fennel. (They eat a lot of fennel in Italy) We took some pictures on the pier in the rain and then went home for studies. Then in the evening we talked to some way cool people before English Course. 

Friday I’m not really sure what happened but we did something in the morning. I didn’t write it down. I think we just went finding? Then home for lunch and studies and then in the afternoon we went to help the Durango family clean the Church. We had a dinner appointment with them so they took us to their house and we had a great time with them. They are from Colombia (I promise there are Italian members here!) but they lived in Canada for a long time and so the language they speak at home is either Spanish or English. Their English is perfect and the kids go to an English school here in Rome. He works for the United Nations as an auditor and he travels all over the Middle East to do it. They’re a great family! We wanted to help them do some family history but the website was down so our spiritual thought was a bust for that! We’ll try again next time! 

Saturday was an awesome service project! So we found this group on Facebook called “Retake Roma” and they just get together and do different service projects. We got 3 youth and YSA members to come with us and the Sisters and we doubled their group! We went to this park and filled trash bags with so much garbage and empty beer bottles. We planted some plants as well as painted some benches! It was a lot of fun and we got to talk to so many people! I took some pictures but I’m not in many of them because I was taking them! 

Anyway then in the afternoon we had a bomb appointment with this guy named Ibrahim. He’s from Morocco but he’s been here in Italy so long that he doesn’t really speak French anymore, he is pretty assimilated into Italy. We taught him outside a cafe and it went really well. We’re excited to keep teaching him! 

Sunday is always good... I got to give a talk in Sacrament meeting and I talked about the Book of Mormon. I brought my Italian Book of Mormon which you can’t even read the cover it’s so worn out and my Book of Mormon from my Mom from when I was baptized and I talked about how a Book of Mormon goes from being a BOM to my BOM and it has to do with the time we put in to it and how we personalize it by marking the spiritual promptings we receive and really making it out own. I also talked about how there is power in just one verse and I shared a few of my favorites. 

After Church we came and made lunch and then we went to this place called Acilia to go and find some Potentials. It was a bust for one of them and the other the bus doesn’t run on Sunday to get there so we did some finding, ran into one of our investigators and talked to some really cool Romanian people. I think it’s going to be so weird to come back to Potsdam and Logan and not have so much diversity... especially here in Rome it seems like there are more not Italian people than there are Italian. It’s a melting pot for sure! 

I hope you all had a great week! Here is a saying in Italian “Break boxes” it means to like reprimand or reprove someone in Italian you say that you are breaking their boxes. Well Mom broke my boxes about not taking enough pictures so I’m trying to do better! Here we go! 

Love,

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

Missione Italiana di Roma