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