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