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!