Ostia Transfer 14 Week 3

Ecuadorian Food, toe surgery number 5 and peanut butter pasta!

What a week, this one will actually be short because we had to stay home so stinking much! 

Monday was really good though, we had a good Monday night, we went and visited a family here in Ostia. They have a special needs son and they can’t come to Church because he has to be watched 24/7 , they are amazing people. A lot of people would find it easy to complain or to feel like God is unfair but instead they understand that they have been entrusted with a special son of God and they put their all into loving and taking care of him. 

Tuesday we had District Meeting here in Ostia and we set some goals for February and talked about the importance of us being truly converted to the Gospel as we share it. Whether or not we feel to sing the song of redeeming love everyday as we share the Gospel like it says in Alma 5:26. After DDM we came home, grabbed so,e lunch and headed to Rome for a Dr. Appointment... :( Everything went okay but they told me I had to have another surgery on Thursday for these dang toes! 

Wednesday we had my last day of freedom, Anziano Empey wanted to try out some finding on this train stop near the pier so we tried it out. Well... there wasn’t an person. We were bummed but we know now that it’s not worth it! Haha we had a good morning anyway! In the evening we got to visit the Cevallas Family who are from Ecuador. They’re awesome! I don’t speak Spanish to save my life anymore so I’m glad they speak Italian! Classic but so good rice and meat, buono!

Thursday unfortunately we had to leave a little early and get to the hospital in Rome around lunch time. Then we waited and waited and waited. The surgery went well, they couldn’t get my toe numb so they said “Sign here, we’re gonna knock you out” and that was the last thing I remember... 

Unfortunately Friday and Saturday were at home... I read a lot of scriptures, got laundry done, did some cooking, cleaning and drove myself crazy with my foot in the air! 

Sunday was finally time to escape! We got a ride to Church and the Sunday meetings were great as always! The Merx Family is American, the only ones in the ward and they have lived here for a few years. Brother Merx works for Ford as like an accountant or something with numbers... they invited us over for lunch after church. They’re probably the cutest little family and we had a great time together! Ecco the peanut butter pasta... it had chicken, bell peppers, peanuts and peanut butter! She sent me the recipe so one day when I’m in America and peanut butter doesn’t cost 5 bucks an ounce I might try it! 

Today was so good, we went to Rome and the Whitings, a Senior Couple that works in the YSA Institute, helped me with more family history! It was a lot of fun! It’s really cool to look at documents and stuff from your ancestors and it got me really excited to do their temple work! 

A spiritual thought that we shared a few times this week that I really like comes from Ether and the story of the Brother of Jared. They had made what they called barges to cross the sea and they were closed. The Brother of Jared asks three questions and Heavenly Father gives him three different answers. He asks how will they breathe? How will they steer? And how will they see? To respond to the first question God says to drill wholes in the boat and open them when they need air and close them during storms. He tells him what to do and he does it and it works. Then he says “don’t worry, I’ll steer you to the promised land with the wind” so he takes care of everything. The third question however he gives a little different response. He asks the Brother of Jared to come up with a solution on his own and try it. He trusts him and the Brother of Jared has so much faith that he carves out 16 stones and says that if God touches them they will be lit and light the boats. Elder Richard G Scott says this: 

“It is vitally important to recognize that the Lord also responds a third way to prayer by withholding an answer when the prayer is offered. Why would He do that?

He is our perfect Father. He loves us beyond our capacity to understand. He knows what is best for us. He sees the end from the beginning. He wants us to act to gain needed experience:

When He answers yes, it is to give us confidence.

When He answers no, it is to prevent error.

When He withholds an answer, it is to have us grow through faith in Him, obedience to His commandments, and a willingness to act on truth. We are expected to assume accountability by acting on a decision that is consistent with His teachings without prior confirmation. We are not to sit passively waiting or to murmur because the Lord has not spoken. We are to act.”

I know that God answers prayers, I know he’ll answer yours. Don’t be afraid if he withholds an answer for a time, he trusts you! 

Have a great week!

Love,

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

Missione Italiana di Roma

Ostia Transfer 14 Week 2

The Vatican, Cold Showers, Zone Conference, and Egyptian Food!

Hey guys! This one is going to be shortish because I’m tired of writing emails! Haha but it was a good week! As I mentioned last week we went to the Vatican on P-Day! It was super cool and there are so many beautiful things! We had a good evening afterwards with some finding!

Tuesday we had District Meeting, our first together! I think it went pretty well, I like having an opportunity to give a Training every week, it’s a lot of fun and you get to help other missionaries! We talked about what a successful missionary is and then about the importance of setting goals and making plans. That afternoon we got the invites for Zone Conference and it was exactly that so I was pretty stoked to have my District Prepared. Anziano Balzotti came and did a bunch of Mr. Fix-it stuff in our apartment. And we had a good evening with English Course. It’s pretty small here but I think we’re going to try and grow it a little bit! We also got to see the broadcast about President Nelson! I’m so excited about the new first Presidency and I know it’s inspired of God! I think President Oaks has a lot to offer and I’m excited to see how it goes! Also our Hot water heater went out Tuesday so we have had cold showers for a week! Which isn’t bad in July but it’s kind of chilly in January! 

Wednesday was kind of a bust, we had planned to go do service for a member who lives forever away and she cancelled on us last minute so we were scrambling to find some stuff to do! We tried to go volunteer at the soup kitchen because they always need help but they had a bus full of High School students so they turned us down so we did some finding and a little weekly Planning and then in the evening some more finding with a lot of no shows for our appointments! 

Thursday we headed into Rome bright and early for our interviews with President and Sister Pickerd, I love seeing them! We turned right around and came back to Ostia, we didn’t really have much planned but we were able to make the best of it! They had train problems so we ended up going back to Rome so we could be at an early leadership meeting! So we got to stay with the missionaries in Rome, Anziano Youngblood and his companion Anziano Young! They’re awesome and we had a lot of fun! 

Friday was Zone Conference! It was a really good conference and we focused so much on the Restoration and how special and important it is. The spirit was so strong and I really got a lot out of it. When we came back we had an appointment with Daniele, we taught him the Restoration and it went so well! Then we went with him to meet our Egyptian friend and they fed us Egyptian food for dinner! It was way good! Most of it at least... there was this knee of some animal that was just straight fat and it was gross but the rice and the meat and everything was so good! 

Saturday was interesting and full of no one showing up to meet us! Kind of a let down but we made it through! We were able to meet this one guy named Massimo. We were going to his address and it was a really nice kind of rich neighborhood and I was really impressed and then we rang his door bell and he came out of this shack with like a garage door and he was in his underwear... that was an interesting lesson! He put pants of Thank God! 

Sunday was hard... apparently half of the ward got sick this week so there were only like 25 people in Church and no one from the bishopric so it was a little bit of a struggle but the spirit was still there and that’s the important thing! We went to this place called Acilia but it got super dark so we came back to the city and did some finding to finish off the night! This member made us some giant meatballs and they were really good! 

Today I was supposed to go to Rome and do Family History but they’re working on the website so we’ve just been chilling here! The people came to look at our hot water heater, they came an hour late and then found that there are some wires burnt but they didn’t bring anything to fix it with so we have to make another appointment! I love showering in a pot... haha but life is good! 

I hope you all have a great week and remember to look for the hand of God in your everyday life, I know it’s there! 

I love you all!

Anziano Bellucci

Missione Italiana di Roma 

PS sorry the email isn’t actually short! Haha Tricked ya!

Cosenza Transfer 13 Week 6

An interesting week for sure, a little bitter sweet, so,e good memories and as always some good food to be eaten! 

Monday night we finished our deep cleaning for the most part and we went to go play Tennis with Francesco! It was so fun! He gave me a little tennis lesson and I was starting to get it towards the end! Haha Not my best but it was fun! Then we went to his house and watched the Movie 17 Miracles which is a story about the Mormon Pioneers crossing in a hand cart company. It was pretty good, we were trying to help him understand the importance of the Restoration and what it means for us. It was a good night! 

Tuesday District Meeting in Catanzaro, Anziano Velardi really helped us to make some progress and grow our District point of view. He’s a good District Leader, we’re lucky to have him! Then we got some burgers and fries and headed back to Cosenza! Little bit of finding and then some English Course and no awkwardness so that was good!

Wednesday morning was a little rough. Obviously we learned of the passing of President Thomas S. Monson. I knew right away that what I needed to do was pray for comfort for his family. President Monson has been an incredible tool in the Lord’s hands and I am so happy that he is reunited with his wife again. About an hour later we received a text message from the Branch President that Sister Anna Filippelli, the Sister that has been in the hospital passed away that morning. The same prompting came to mind and as my companion and I prayed for the comfort of both President Monson’s Family and Anna’s I felt so comforted myself knowing that God has a plan for us and that they are both in a better place, doing missionary work and not suffering at all. That evening we went and set up chairs and got the Chapel ready for the funeral that was held the next day. Funerals in Italy happen right away, the next day. There’s no funeral homes there’s just a hallway in the hospital for a viewing the same day they pass away. 

We had already planned an exchange with the Statte Anziani so they were here, we sent them to do some finding while we went to the funeral at the Church. I was really honored to be asked by her daughter to speak for a few minutes. There were a lot of non members there so I was a little nervous but I spoke about how death makes us think a lot about life and how we see people after they die. I talked about how we see success in others when we look at their posterity. Her two daughters and three grandsons. The daughters spoke after me and they said some beautiful words about eternal families and bore their testimonies. It was a beautiful and simple ceremony, just like she would have wanted. 

Then we got our exchange on, I got to work with Anziano Sacco which was good! We had a lot of fun and we taught a sweet lesson to one of our Investigators Claudia. We said the prayer and then she just started asking questions about what we had taught her last time... it was awesome. You could tell that she had been thinking about it! We had Lina (Returned missionary) there and she helped a lot! More finding, found this place that looked like Chic-fil-a and was pretty good! 

Friday we weekly planned and then went up to Sister Spizzirri’s house, she’s the German lady! She made us some Pasta Fagioli... Fagioli is beans so it was pasta with chick peas, really good with a frittata of sausage and some cheese! We planned a Branch activity together and had a good time! We spent the evening finding and it was really cold!

Saturday we went to teach English to a member’s niece, we went over and we helped her with it and then she taught us some Cosentino Dialect. We then got to teach her and her neighbor the restoration and give them Book of Mormons, we’re going back next week! Then we went to Francesco’s to make some American food! We made pancakes and had peanut butter. Unfortunately his Gospel interest isn’t super strong, he’s more interested in being friends. He does want to come to Utah and visit Ruiz and I later this year when he is going to be in the United States! I hope it works out! 

Sunday was an awesome meeting block, fasting and testimony meeting was great, almost everyone bore their testimony. The rest of Church was great! After Church we went to Sister Minieri’s with her son and Sister Spadafora and Sister Spizzirri to make homemade Gnocchi! It’s the pasta that’s made out of potatoes, it was pretty good! It was just more fun to make than anything! We took lots of photos and videos! 

We got to share a cool spiritual Thought about how when we look in the mirror we should see our potential as we are made in his image. A lot of times however we don’t see that potential and it’s because we aren’t there yet, there’s work to be done. Like the pasta dough it has to be worked and molded to become perfect like God. So when you look in the mirror what do you see? Do you see God’s potential for you? What work needs to be done to reach that potential? 

I love you all and I hope you are having an amazing 2018!

Anziano Jacob Bellucci