Napoli! Transfer 10 Week 3!

Everyone is on vacation but we're still busy!

This week has been great as usual! Literally everyone is on vacation so it's been hard to try and see people but it's given us more time to meet with our African Investigators which has been really good. The month of August is a holiday... pretty much the whole thing. Everyone that we talk to still says "Yeah in September you guys will still be here?" Which is kind of frustrating but I'm hoping that means we'll be super busy come September! 

Monday night we had a great Family Home Evening with the Granata family, we invited them to read "The Family: A proclamation to the World" and we are going to talk about it with them tonight! The proclamation is really cool, it basically explains our beliefs about the family and how it is ordained of God. It talks about our responsibilities as husbands, wives, parents, and children. If I can get a link to it I'll add it in here ;)

Here it is! https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng&old=true 

Tuesday was interesting, we were getting ready to plan for the day and I got a feeling that we needed to attend the Caserta/Pozzuoli District Meeting. I kind of ignored it because I knew it would take our whole morning and we wouldn't be able to get out and do much finding or talking to people on the streets, however Heavenly Father knows I'm thick some times so I had the same feeling again. I told my companion and I called the District Leader to let him know we would be coming. It was a great District Meeting for two reasons. It was really spiritual, the spirit was so strong and it was great to see everyone in the District become united as they felt it. The second was that we were able to share some great experiences from last August and help their District be excited for the work even though it seems difficult in August. Listen to promptings! You don't always get them twice ;) we ate pizza with them and then in the afternoon we met with Trust! He is such a stud, we taught him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. Our whole District is out of English BOM so we found this pocket sized one to give to him but he loved it and he's been reading it all week! At the end he said the most sincere prayer to know if the Book of Mormon is true that I've ever heard. It was really great. 

That night one of our contacts came to English Course. He and his wife just adopted two kids from Russia, one is 10 and the other 14 and they don't speak Italian or English so their world is kind of turned upside down. He brought them with him to English Course and the younger kid wouldn't even look at us or anyone else. He sat in the hallway and about halfway through the lesson I went and sat next to him on the floor and got out Google Translate on my iPad and started asking him questions. I tried to pronounce the Russian but that was useless... I found out how old he is, his name and that he thinks pizza is gross... he's a cool kid! 

Wednesday we had correlation and I made Tiramisu to bring with Sam. All went well and we ended up getting pizza... again. 

Wednesday night was a good night of finding, we talked to a lot of people and this guy came up to us and he knew the Elders in the past and so we sat down on a bench and tried to teach him. He then asked us to tell our parents that we invited him to come and live with him and that he would join the Church in America and become a part of our "Community." He was crazy. We left. 

Thursday was our own District Meeting! Anziano Ruiz did a great job, we actually had a presentation from the Senior Couple about how to utilize them in our work and keep them busy. It was really helpful and I learned a lot. Afterwards we decided to go to the world famous pizzeria "Pizzeria da Michele" and for a Thursday at lunch time there was a LOT of people out there, just a swarm. Anziano Jensen took a number and we waited and we waited and we waited the whole time talking to people and then this group of Mormon tourists came up and talked to us and they offered to buy our pizza! They were super nice, eventually I went in and asked and found out he had taken the wrong ticket so we were waiting for a table when we really just wanted to take out pizzas... went to the front of the line and had pizzas pretty quick! They were SO GOOD! I thought Pellone was good but this was Heavenly... and it was free... 

Friday morning we Skyped into Rome for Mission Leadership Conference which was great, it was good to have President Pickerd back! We got an update on Sorella Pickerd as well, she had her surgery and has started chemo therapy. We hope to have her back with us in September if all goes well. 

After that we started our exchange with he Caserta Anziani and I got to head to Caserta and work with Anziano Sacco for the day. He's from Toole county in Utah and he's finishing up being trained by Anziano Daniels who is in Anziano Allen's group. We had a good afternoon, we had to open the Church for a family to come and clean and then they took us to grab a sandwich and gave us a bunch of American food which is always a plus, you can never get enough peanut butter and Doritos and Dr. Pepper!

We did some finding in the morning and then came back to Napoli to meet up with everyone and grab another pizza from da Michele and then planned Zone Conference with the Sister Training Leader Sister Crandell and then we met with our new Investigator Newman. He is super cool and we're hoping to set him with a baptismal date this next week! 

Sunday is always good! There weren't a lot of people that came to Church because everyone is on vacation but by the end of the meeting we were up in the 40's... Ecomano came to Church! I'm not sure if that's his first name or last name but he's from the Ivory Coast so he speaks French and Italian. We obviously teach him in Italian because French might as well be Chinese for me... (It's actually interesting I can understand so much French after learning Italian) but we had Joele come with us and she read the first vision to him in French which will be her mission language in just a few weeks! It was great and we were able to give him a baptismal date for the 9th of September. 

We met at the Church to see the tour bus that was taking all the youth to Switzerland to go to the temple! I love seeing all the youth in the Church. They are the future leaders and missionaries here in Italy and it makes me happy to see them going to the temple. 

We went white Boarding with the Anziani and called it a night! 

Today we went to Mt. Vesuvius! It was so cool! These last few days have been super nice as far as weather, it's been mid to high 80's instead of high 90's to 100's and so the hike was beautiful. I took quite a few pictures and we had a great time! It's good to play tourist every once in a while. I bought some souvenirs as well I think for the first time in my mission. Anyway we had a great time! Hope y'all have a great week!! 

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

Napoli! Transfer 10 Week 2

Mormons! Like the Book of! 

Last Monday when we were on the American base we were getting ready to leave and someone asked "Who are you?" Anziano Lamoureux said "We're American" they looked at him kind of funny and said "We're all American, you're on an American Military base! It was kind of funny... then we told them who we are and his response was "Mormons! Like the Book of!" Yeah, like the Book of! Haha anyway...

This week was really good! We had a lot of success, it's been kind of a dry spell for our work here but this week was full of miracles, all in all we ended up setting a baptismal date with one of our investigators, having two of them in Church and 5 new investigators! It was a great week! 

On Monday night someone decided it would be a good idea to walk down the Metro tracks and so they shut down the Metro and we weren't able to make it to our Home Evening with a less-active family so that was a bummer but we still got to do some quality finding and help a New Convert make an LDS account.  

Tuesday we had correlation and I got a quick haircut before we headed to Sam's house. He has a lady that comes like once a week to clean and stuff and she is from the Dominican Republic 🇩🇴 and she is a cook let me tell ya. She made this beans and rice dish that was so good! If you know me you know I hate beans but these were so good! We had a great correlation and then took some pictures outside because it's so beautiful out there. 

Wednesday morning we did some finding and talked to this guy named Genni and invited him to Church. He said "If I'm among the living I'll be there" he didn't come though so im slightly worried... haha 

In the afternoon we helped Sam do his Home Teaching, he's assigned to this Italian couple so we have to translate his lesson. It went well, they're less active and said they would come on Sunday but apparently they weren't able to make it yesterday. 

Then after that we had a lesson with Mario, Nicoletta, and Fabiola... we all got pizza together and then we decided to sit down and have a group lesson. They're all kind of in different spots but they all kind of needed the same thing. Well it turned out not as well as we had hoped but we gave them all a challenge with a promise. We gave them 4 specific chapters to read over the next four days, an invite to pray Morning snd night each day and to fast with us on Saturday-Sunday and come to Church. They all accepted! We promised them that they would receive an answer as to whether or not the Book of Mormon is true. 

Thursday we had District Meeting in the morning and it went really well. Anziano Ruiz is our District Leader now and he's doing a great job, this is his first Transfer as a DL. We got some pizza after and then in the afternoon we saw Mario again. We invited Nicoletta to come to the lesson as well. So the lesson with Mario went well, we talked about the apostasy and explained the break in Authority from Peter onward and he didn't quite understand it but Nicoletta came as well. She sat on the other side of the room and just listened as we testified of the things we know are true. We had English Course afterwards and then after that she came up to me and started speaking in Italian which she never does. She said that she really enjoyed seeing us teach Mario, she said it was really cool to see us teach someone else. Her words "You both have a spiritual power, a certainty and I want to feel that too." She's ready to be taught! She has been taught in the past but always said "I just want to learn for cultural reasons" after this she started asking all sorts of questions and explaining the confusion in her mind and Anziano Jensen and I were stoked! 

Friday was Anziano Lamoureux's birthday, little guy turned 19! So Anziano Andersen took him running and we surprised him with pancakes hot and ready when they got back. After we weekly planned and then for lunch we headed to this Chinese Buffet which was soooo good for lunch. We then started an exchange with the Castellammare Elders and I got to head to heir city with Anziano Drenk! Anziano Drenk is a stud, he is from Upland California and has been in the mission about 9 months I think... we had a lot of fun! We went and played soccer with this kid and taught him some English. He's a cool kid, he asked me if I would be there next time but I had to tell him no :( 

We spent the whole morning in Castellammare doing finding, it was about 100 degrees with literally no exaggeration almost 70% humidity. It was so much fun. Haha we really did have some good conversations and we took a minute to get a gelato and cool off. While I was gone Anziano Jensen who was working with Anziano Haws met with our Investigator Kelly and set him with a baptismal date! He is on track for September 2nd! They also went and met with a guy that called and asked us to come over. He neglected to tell them until they got there that he is under house arrest and can't accept visitors or make/receive phone calls. We won't be going back again... 

Saturday night we had 8 people that told us they were coming to Church and Sunday morning we ended up with two so it's not too bad! Haha We actually had an incredible fasting testimony Meeting. We had two African members bare incredible testimony and I had the opportunity to translate for them but the spirit was so strong. Then we have a member here from Albania and another one who is from Albania and served a mission in London and she speaks Italian so she translated his testimony into Italian. It was a worldwide fasting testimony meeting not to mention the American Missionaries and the three soon to be missionaries that bore their testimonies. The spirit was great and I think our investigators really felt the spirit. 

Afterwards we taught a lesson to the Albanian guy using the returned missionary as a translator. It was interesting, he's just here for work and will be going back but he misses the missionaries and asked if we could meet with him. 

Miracles happened last night, we taught the Restoration twice and ended up with two new investigators! Napoli is exploding and our Zone is taking off, we had 17 new investigators in just our District this week which is really impressive with literally everyone in vacation for the month of August! It's going to be a good week! We're at the big American base today bowling with some of the Americans that go to the Caserta Ward. Hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Anziani Jacob Bellucci

Napoli! Transfer 10 Week 1!

I'm staying in Napoli for at least six more weeks! Im super excited to be staying, and my new companion is Anziano Jensen! 

So on Monday we did Zone Soccer and then emailed and everything, before P-Day ended we came home and showered and went back to the Church for Home Evening with our African friends. We didn't do a very good job of announcing it because just Richard came but it was so fun! We played Minute to win it games and it was a blast. We ate ice cream and then called it a night! 

We got our Transfer calls a little bit after we got home and we found out that Anziano Perfili was transferred to Catania! So he's headed back down to Sicily! So I am staying here in Napoli for at least another six weeks! My new companion is Anziano Jensen! I don't know if you remember him but I was his Zone Leader back in Bari and he was in Lecce. I got to do an exchange with him my firstTransfer there and he's a super hard worker so I'm excited for this Transfer! 

Tuesday morning was mostly packing and laundry for Anziano Perfili while I cleaned the house. We went and visited some people so he could say goodbye and then we met the other missionaries at the Church to say goodbye to some of them and then we were invited to lunch by an English Course Student named Mario! He invited us and the Napoli C Elders, we went over to his house and he hooked us up so well! We ate so much food! He started with classes mozzarella di bufala which is mazzarella made with buffalo milk... so good. And then baked gnocchi in a red sauce... gnocchi are potato pasta and they are so filling and heavy, he bought two and a half kilos and we were all so full! Sausage and roasted veggies for round three, followed by watermelon and then of course gelato. I wanted to die afterwards. Mario is the best, he has known missionaries for the better part of 20 years, the Church used to be underneath his apartment. He knows all of the doctrine, comes to Church almost every week and all the members know him. He explains our doctrine to English Course Students and even in Sunday School he participates and contributes... he's just not willing to be baptized yet... in his own time! Anyway it was a great lunch with him and then we came back, did language study and did some finding before English Course. We had quite a few people come to English Course, being the summer there really aren't a lot of people around so I was happy with the amount that came. Fabiola came too so it was good to see her! 

So Anziano Pesci got transferred to the promised land of Cagliari... so lucky! So he as well as two other Elders were flying to Sardegna from Rome so they left Wednesday to head up to Rome so they could make their flight on Thursday. Anziano Fryer and I made Tiramisu for District Meeting on Wednesday morning and we also made spring rolls which are hecka good! We had a little mini DM and then put them on their train! Wednesday night we set up pizza night with all our of the youth and the young adults, we ended up being just a few of us but it was fun anyway! I got half of a Nutella pizza... they're so good! But they hurt my teeth they're so sugary! It was a good night for sure! 

Thursday Transfer day! We had a morning in the train station, I was there from 8:30-12:30... Anziano Perfili left somewhere in that block, along with Anziano Fryer and a bunch of others coming and going! My companion got in at a few minutes after 12 and we came home helped him get a few things unpacked and grab some lunch and went back to pick up two other missionaries at the train station. So we as Zone Leaders get a travel matrix that shows the arrival and departures for all the trains  and travel plans for the mission. I saw a train with two of our missionaries coming in at 15:25 and I looked at the arrival board and it wasn't there... I looked back at the matrix and saw that it was a flight coming in from Cagliari and we were at the train station and not the airport and we travel without phones... their flight landed in two minutes! Oops! So I grabbed Anziano Jensen and we busted to find the bus to the airport and made it there to see two Anziani sitting on the curb waiting for us! Haha but the point is they made it right!?!? My bad...

We showed all the new missionaries what a real Napoli pizza is like and then did a little street finding until English Course! Had a great time with some great people! I got to teach Advanced Course which was great, we talked about going to the beach seeing as that's where everyone is these days! It's funny the verb for "To make out" in Italian is "Limonare" and the word for lemon is limone and I said I love to bring lemonade to the beach and they all started making fun of me haha it was funny! 

Friday was weekly planning and a little mini grocery shopping trip, we made some great plans for the next week. I really hope we have a great week here! Anziano Jensen likes to cook and he has the metabolism of I don't even know what but he's pretty skinny and he pretty much eats whatever he wants! He offered to make me lunch and he made a homemade besciamella with mozzarella cheese in it and that pasta was so good I could feel myself gaining weight! At least it was good though, right?!?! After lunch we went to visit Ermando the guy we met last week and then over toVincenzo's to visit with him. Vincenzo is so great, he has a testimony of Jesus Christ as big as the day is long and he loves the scriptures and he loves to talk to us. We can go over there and he will just go off about how people don't follow the scriptures, they don't understand the doctrine that Christ gave and he's gained a real respect for us because we share so much in common with him. We have to get him to understand the authority principle but he's such a great guy! And he loves his family so much, we walked in to his shop and he said "Anziano Bellucci, I have to show you, I took more pictures of my kids!" he's a proud Dad of a two year old girl and a two month old baby boy that he loves to show off.

After visiting Vincenzo we went white Boarding with the other two companionships and showed them what Napoli magic is like! How nice the people are here and it went really well. We had to switch where we were going because they shut down one of the Metro stops because they found a backpack and they suspected a bomb so we ran into a little problem there but the night turned out really well. We had some awesome conversations and got a few people's numbers. 

Saturday we had a great day, we went and did a good amount of finding in the morning, we tried to swing by some less actives while we went from place to place and then when we got home we were making lunch and a guy that we called last week called us back and said "How did you get my number? Let's meet up, I want to know who you are!" So we met up with him and it was a little sketchy at first but we met him in the Church and he was really able to feel the spirit and it was a great lesson. We're hoping to see him this next week. So there is this family in the Branch the Borelli family and Sister Betty the Mom is the Gospel Principles teacher. She has a son serving a mission in London, a daughter that left like two months ago to serve in Brazil and they invited us over to watch her youngest daughter Joele open her mission call! It was great and she invited a group of non-member friends to come and watch and so it was an awesome missionary opportunity for us. She opened her call to the Leon France mission and she will be working in Switzerland as well! We're really excited for her! She leaves in September so they will have all three of their kids on missions at the same time! Crazy! Watching her open her call brought me back so many memories! 

Sunday was interesting... I was exhausted by the time we got home. I began translating Sacrament Meeting into English and then Sam our Ward mission leader was assigned to give a talk but he only speaks Italian so I had to switch my brain and go stand at the pulpit to live translate his talk into Italian and then switch back to translating into English. I'm sure there was smoke coming out of my ears! Everything else went really well in Church, none of our investigators came but there's still hope for next week! 

We went and saw Noemi our Recent Convert in the evening. We usually meet her with another Philippino Sister and she's always been opposed to us come over to her house. But we convinced her! She has a very humble home, it's just one room and a bathroom but we were really happy we got to be there and bring the spirit to her home. It was a great lesson and Anziano Jensen knows like two phrases in Tagalog and so they fell in love with him right away! We made a lunch appointment to eat some food from the Philippines! 

We finished the night off with some white Boarding in Centro and talked to so many good people! Unfortunately as August approaches we hear a lot of "We'll come in September" all of Italy goes on Vacation in August, literally everything shuts down so it could be a rough month but we're still going to work hard! 

Little overview of my companion! He's from Pleasant Grove Utah, he likes Shakespeare and Johnny Cash... he is a theater and debate geek and rocks it. Haha He smiles all the time and he's always super happy! He's a few transfers younger than me so that makes me the oldest in the District... I don't know how that happened, I just got to Italy like last week! 

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

Elder Jacob Bellucci 

Napoli! Transfer 9 Week 6!

Walking, meetings, walking, and the Mafia...

Transfer Calls are tonight! I can't believe this Transfer is coming to an end so soon! It's crazy how fast it's gone but I'm excited to see what happens! 

The week went by super fast with like I said above a lot of walking and meetings! On Monday night we decided to do a Family Home Evening for all of the African Members and contacts and their friends. It was an absolute blast, we had a spiritual thought on the Book of Mormon and then we played games with them. Most of them have such a rough story that it's just nice for them to take a few minutes and have fun. Not think about their problems just live in the moment. I made banana bread and bought some watermelon and they were all super grateful. I think we're going to do the same thing tonight with some different games! 

Tuesday we had a good morning, we did a good finding loop and talked to a bunch of cafes about putting up little English Course posters and we talked to a lot of people. People here are so nice and they talk to us but unfortunately they don't end up coming to our English Course. We've probably given out more than 400 pass along cards this Transfer and we've had like three new people come... we need to find a way to get people interested! I think a lot of it has to do with the time of year, it's so hot and literally everyone goes to the beach when it's this hot... I can't fault them for that! 

We started teaching Italian this week to African Refugees... its actually pretty fun! They expressed to us that they hate their Italian classes in the camps they're in because the teachers are Italians that don't speak English so they can't explain anything to them so because we have so many missionaries here we decided we would try it out! First night and we had about 15 people! More than our English Course has been lately! Anziano Perfili and I taught Italian and like I said it was fun! It's also cool to look back and see where I started and how far I've come in the language. There's always room for improvement but I've learned so much! 

Wednesday we had correlation at Sam's house. I love when we get to go to his house for correlation. Talking about our investigators and members as we look over the Mediterranean never gets old! And to follow it up we get American food for lunch! We just do sandwiches but it's so good! He really only shops at the American base so everything he has is American. AND he had Dr. Pepper so I was real happy! 

In the Afternoon we tried to go and read the Book of Mormon with John but he wasn't home and then after that we had a meeting. President Euvrard and the Assistants came down to visit with us. They want to get to know the missionaries while they are here even if it is just a few weeks and they took the opportunity to meet with us because we're the closest Zone to Rome. Sister Euvrard shared a really cool thought on the talk called "What manner of man ought ye to be?" And she gave us an invite to in the morning instead of making a "To-Do list" to make a "To-Be list" which is kind of interesting, we want to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ and we do that by following his example and really becoming true disciples. Afterwards President Euvrard led a discussion on refugees. We talked about how in the past the principle was that Zion was American, then in specifically Utah, as time progressed the principle changed to build the kingdom around the world and people said "Zion for the Italian people is in Italy, Zion for the French is in France" etc... but now we know that Zion is where God's children are which is everywhere. Wherever people are we can teach them and baptize them. Meaning that it's ok to actively find and teach refugees. We obviously want to build the Italian kingdom but we are all children of God and that's the important thing. It was great to be with them and I learned a lot from the training! We also got to see Anziano Friedman and Anziano Draghi which was cool! 

Thursday morning we had District Meeting (Hence the title meetings, meetings, meetings...) it was good we talked about companionship and District Unity and the importance of working as a team. It was really good! Finished it off with pizza from Pellone! Turned out to be a Zone pizza party because President Euvrard had come to the District Meeting of the other two districts and they did it in the Napoli Chapel so we were all there! There are two Sisters in our Zone that finish their missions this week so it was good to see them one last time! 

Thursday afternoon we went to pass by a café that we had left an English Course poster at and talked to the girl that worked there. She was delivering coffee up the street so we waited and started to talk to the man working there. Anziano Perfili asked him if he was the owner and without looking up from his phone he says "Si." And then I asked him how long he has had the cafe and he didn't respond for a second and then said "What does it matter if I've had it for 10 years or ten minutes, you have no point to your questions you just want to talk and I'm not interested" We left about an hour later after having explained the Restoration and set up a return appointment. The spirit is so cool how it works to soften the hearts of people as we try to teach them about the Restored Gospel!  

Friday as usual we weekly planned and we have a good plan for this week! We should be busy which is always a good thing! We had a Family Home Evening planned with this Less-Active family and it takes about an hour to get there so we had left the afternoon pretty empty from 4 PM on and they called us and cancelled and so we decided to walk all of Napoli with the Napoli C Anziani doing White boarding for English Course. My feet were wrecked by the end of it but we talked to so many people. I really hope that some new people come this next week! As we were walking back home after 4 hours of just straight walking we had about 30 minutes left and we decided to walk down the sketchy but still Main Street by the station. We were joking about "Mickey Mouse" which is what we say instead of Mafia because it can be kind of sketch to say that on the street... just talking about how that street seemed pretty mafiosa and then as we turned back for the house this man stopped us. He started asking us all these questions about our English Course, that he has some guys that could use to learn English but they would need to be taught privately and then he starts explaining his business. How he has clients all over the world including Century 21 in America. He then proceeds to explain how he has a warehouse in Napoli with brands from Gucci to Armani, Prada to Loui Vuitton and he says "Let me give you my card, you call me, I'll come pick you up sometime and I'll take you to see everything." He continued on about how if anybody gives us problems here in Napoli we have his number, he'll make the problem "disappear." He then offered us jobs "Bilingual people are really valuable in my line of business" Haha he was pretty Mickey Mouse... we got his card though! He got in his blacked out Mercedes to get it for us too! We're all pretty convinced that we have the coolest mission...

Anyway back to the missionary work! We are teaching a family here in Napoli and the Father was working on the Temple in Rome. Early this year while he was working he had a heart attack and died in the Temple site. The Church reached out to the family and gave us their information. It turns out that Giorgio, the father, was learning quite a bit about the Church and was really interested. They do devotionals for the men that work on the temple every few weeks for any worker that would like to participate and he didn't miss one. He was very curious and learning a lot. Obviously his wife and three children are still grieving the loss of their husband and Dad and it's a really hard time in their life. We had finally gotten in contact with them for the first time since I've been here and we had an appointment on Saturday to see them and we waited for the bus to take us there for more than an hour and it never came we ended up having to move the appointment to another time. I was super bummed! We spent the rest of the morning talking to some really cool people in the outdoor market under our house. 

Anziani Haws and Anziano Hansen met us here in Napoli, we ate lunch and then took a train to Salerno to help the Battipaglia Anziani get excited about their work, we decided to blitz their area for the afternoon and see what we could do to help them! We had a really good time! I got to work with Anziano Rogler who is from Endicott New York! Apparently he goes to the ward in Owego but he's in the same mission as we are back home! It was cool to talk about the real Upstate New York with someone that kind of explains where it is! Haha  We had a good afternoon and found his Golden Contact! His name is Gerardo and he's 21 and as we were talking to him he said "So do you guys like teach people that want to know more about this stuff?" And then asked if he could come to Church in Sunday! We finished the Gesso with 6 Anziani and 2 Sisters for a Gesso on genealogy... wasn't super successful but it was fun! 

Sunday was a little particular... It started out like normal, we had a great Sacrament meeting with lots of American visitors including Anziano Spencer and his family, he finished his mission about 2 months ago. Afterwards we went to Sunday school and there was this African woman visiting from London, she was born and raised there but had come to Italy for vacation with her two young kids. She asked me afterwards for the Relief Society President and she explained to us that she had been robbed the night before of all of her debit and credit cards and was in a pretty tough place with two kids. It was a little sketchy but we talked to the Branch Presidency and tried to help her. We ended up calling her Bishop in England to confirm that she is a member and we were able to find her a hotel for the night and help her out. She finally told us what had happened and it turns out she just lost her son, was going through a rough divorce and decided to get on a plane with her two kids and try to start a new life in Italy. After being robbed and realizing it was going to be a lot harder than she thought, she needed help. It took a lot of translating and work though! We were glad to be able to help her out though! She is going to be going back to London to get her life figured out, I wish her all the best! (P.S. London accents are probably the coolest things ever, I got to talk to her a ton as well as her Bishop in London)

We spent the afternoon finding, talking to people all night long and then going to meet John to read the Book of Mormon together and he runs a Barber shop out of his house and so at the moment he was busy and asked us if we would wait for a minute and so we did. He was done an hour later and it was 9 PM so we didn't have much time to read with him because we had to get home but at least we had a minute! 

This week was good, a lot happened! It went really fast, I had a lot of fun  and I'm excited to see what happens with transfer Calls tonight! It's always a mystery! I hope I get to stay here in Napoli, I definitely feel at home here so I hope to stay! 

I hope you all have a great week! I was reading a cool talk this week from October 2012 from Jeffrey R. Holland and I just loved it. It's called "The First and Great Commandment" if you have a minute give it a look! I love you all!

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

Napoli! Transfer 9 Week 5!

Apartment moves, bowling with Italians, and African Soccer!

"And with all the getting, get understanding"

Another solid week on the books! As usually it went by super fast but it was another good one! On Monday night we started our exchange with the Napoli B Elders! I got to work with Anziano Pesci who is in my group, if you remember back to more than a year ago we were in the same MTC group! We had a good time working together, it was cool to see how far we've both come in the last year and the progress that each of us has made. He's an awesome missionary! Our appointment didn't show up but we had to go help the Senior Couple. They had bought a new washing machine for the new apartment and it needed to be carried from the car to the fifth floor apartment... heck yeah we were stoked! The worst part was the humidity was making us sweat so much and it was wrapped in plastic so we were slipping the whole time! But we did it! 

We spent the morning a few stops away on the metro doing some English Course publicity and finding. We had some really good potentials and it was a fun morning. I had some really good experiences this week that made me reflect and remember the love that I have for missionary work. Sometimes we get caught up easily in the planning and the meetings and the exchanges but getting out there and hitting the streets is honestly the best part, you just gotta get out there and do it! 

I had to stop in at the bank and get some money and the ATM was broken outside so we went inside and everything was fine. I put in my pin and everything and then it counted the money and it spit out my card and was about to give me my money and the power went out in the whole building... After a few minutes it came back on but obviously the machine wasn't going to spit out 80€ after turning on and so it took forever to figure everything out. Eventually it all worked out but banks are a pain in the butt. I even tried the "I'm an American in Italy with no money" card and they still would t give it to me! Haha it was a worth a try right?!?!

We grabbed a pizza from Pellone and headed to the spchurch to find almost the whole Zone there! One district was having their District Meeting, another was doing exchanges and had decided to grab a pizza in Napoli while they traded companions so it was a Zone pizza party!

We went to pass by John, a less-active that we haven't been able to see since I've been here because he's been out of town. Well he's finally back! He is African and has been here in Italy for a good amount of time I think something like 8 years. He runs a barber shop I. His house and he does pretty well for himself. We read a chapter out of the Book of Mormon with him and we were reading the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi. It's been really cool to study with him because when I read it I don't always get that much out of it because it's so confusing but when he asks us what it's talking about the spirit totally guides us to find out what it's telling us. It makes so much more sense! We had a great English Course that night, and that was it! 

Wednesday we had correlation with Sam, this time in Church. It was a good meeting and we made some good plans! 

In the afternoon we had to take all the rest of the stuff out of the other Anziani's apartment and bring it to the new one. There was a lot of random stuff so it took a good minute! Anziano Fryer and I decided we wanted to make something for DDM on Thursday so we decided to try our hand at Tiramisu! Which in case you were wondering literally means "Pick me up" o a little slice of Tiramisu is a little pick me up! Well let me tell you was it dang good! We used Orzo instead of coffee and it was so good! I took pictures, we ate almost the whole pan of it just the six of us!  But before that we spent the morning at the other Elders old apartment getting it all cleaned so it can be sold. We had to turn the keys in and everything so it had to be spotless so we didn't get charged! 

Thursday night we had an appointment with the Ariente family. They are the best! They have two sons, one that I think is 16 and the other is 18 and getting ready to go on a mission. They're both studs and love the missionaries so we had a good time! We shared the Europe Area plan which focuses on Bringing a friend to Church, becoming self-sufficient, and doing genealogy work. It went super well and Giuseppe the oldest son took a Book of Mormon and pamphlets to give to his friend. He's already a missionary! 

Friday was weekly planning as usual. Then after lunch I had found a lady in the Area Book and we went to go visit her. She turned out to be crazy. She has rooms in her house barricaded off because there's "bad things" in there... I was freaked out. We left. Haha then on Friday night we set up bowling with some of our investigators and the youth in the Church! It was so fun and everyone had a good time! Italians are not very good at bowling... unfortunately :/ But like I said, it was fun! 

Saturday we met with John again and it was super good! Then in the afternoon we got to meet with Fabiola and we got a member to come which was super good! She expressed some worries that she had, she has been told some false doctrine about the Church and our Member was able to explain things, I think pretty well! It was an interesting lesson and we didn't teach our planned lesson but it needed to happen! Then we met up with all the Africans and played some soccer but I had to sit out with my stupid toe... it was still fun though! 

Sunday was good, I got to give a talk in Sacrament meeting! It was on Knowledge based on D&C 130:18-19. I think it went super well and I learned a lot from preparing it! 

So last week we came to Church and found Peter, a refugee that came from Nigeria. He is a member and a returned missionary! He served in Nigeria and so he's been endowed in the temple and everything! Unfortunately they have to come through Libya to get to Italy and when he went through Libya they took all of his garments, his temple recommend and every religious thing he had. We sat down with him afterwards and he was just so humble and all he wants is to be able to keep his Covenants. We asked him why he came to Italy and he said to start his life. I don't think people in Africa understand how hard their life will be when they get to Italy, they just see an open boarder and go for it. Then they get here and they often regret the decision. We're super excited to help him, he's an awesome guy but I feel bad for him. It's a really humbling thing to be able to help them. 

That's pretty much the week! It's been a good one, a tiring one, and I'm ready for another! I hope y'all have a great week! 

Love,

Anziano Jacob Bellucci 

Napoli! Transfer 9 Week 4!

A trip to Rome, Birthday fun, a baptism and apartment moving!

So many unexpected things have happened this week but the Lord is most definitely in the details and watches over us!

On Monday we were told that Sister Pickerd has been diagnosed with early stage Breast Cancer and on Tuesday President and a Sister Pickerd flew to Utah for surgery at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. It was caught early and they are very hopeful! Please keep them in your prayers. President Pickerd will return shortly after the surgery and Sister Pickerd will return as soon as she is permitted by the doctors. In the mean time we have been assigned an interim President, President Euvart who presided over the Milan mission back in the 1980's. He and his wife are from France and are wonderful people!

We had a Family Home Evening planned on Monday night with a less active couple which didn't go as planned... Her whole extended family are members and so it turned into half the neighborhood at the house and we didn't get to really do much of a Family Home Evening but we got to eat, we shared a message and had to catch the Subway home!

We also found out on Monday that we would be traveling to Rome on Tuesday... Anziano Perfili had an appointment months ago to get his fingerprints done for his Permesso but skipped it to go to Zone Conference. They have since learned that's not a good idea... Anyway they never answer the phone so the Office told us to come to Rome and go in person and try to get it done. So we took a train  early in the morning to Rome and went to Ostia. We waited there for like half an hour and then Anziano Perfili tried to talk to them and they gave him an appointment for the end of the month. So we have to go back again. So I spent all of my birthday on trains and waiting in immigration offices and walking all over Rome! Italy is becoming so touristy... on the way to Rome we sat across from a couple from Western Australia 🇦🇺 , we helped some lost Americans while in Rome, came back and our train was full of people visiting from Asia. When we got back it was just in time for English Course! They all sang Happy Birthday to me which was really nice and then it being the Fourth of July we went to Burgerking so we could have burgers  haha  

Wednesday we started an exchange with the Elders from Castellammare. Remember Anziano Haws from when I was in Crotone? He was my district leader there and now he's here in the Napoli zone! We went to their District Meeting in the morning and then all went to McDonalds... another Independence Day celebration... After that we started our exchange. I worked with Anziano Hansen who is from Idaho/Utah. He's a great kid, we had a lot of fun! We did a lot of finding and then went white Boarding with the other Anziani. Anziano Pesci called us at like 10 and said that our District Meeting was cancelled and that we had to come and help them move into their new apartment last minute. So when you move out in Italy you take literally everything. Including the kitchen sink. Light fixtures, kitchen cabinets, literally everything. The other Anziani we're moving in to a new apartment and the office decided last minute that the Assistants would be driving the mission van down with a whole kitchen in it so it could be installed. So we got everything moved in and then they said "While they're here with the van we might as well take your fridge and beds from the old apartment" well the Anziani had nothing packed because they weren't expecting to move. So this week has been kind of crazy. Our apartment has turned into a 6 man house... 

That was the end of our exchange more or less, we went and picked up Anziano Perfili from Castellammare and were able to participate in a Priesthood Blessing and then turned around and got home just in time. 

Friday we weekly planned and I made Roasted chickens and mashed potatoes for lunch for everyone, it was so good! Then we had three appointments set up for the afternoon. One by one we went to the Church and they didn't show up... it was kind of disappointing but we got to do some great finding. We went to this little kind of ghetto park and taught the Restoration a few times to a couple groups of college aged kids. Both groups were currently smoking pot but were actually super interested and listened. We got some phone numbers and it went pretty well! 

Saturday one of our English Course Students had her final High School exam. In Italy you choose which High School you want to go to based on what you want to study like in High School. Nicoletta goes to a Linguistics school and so her final oral exam includes all of her teachers sitting in a panel and she goes from one to another and has an oral exam. There's also a spectator spot and she invited us to come because part of the test would be about English. It was super interesting and she did really well! We had given her a "For the Strength of Youth" wallet fold thing and it was in her textbook. One of her teachers took it out and started reading it and then soon half the panel was reading about the Church's standards for youth! It was so funny! Then at the end the teacher stuck it under her phone and didn't put it back! She kept it! Our English Course Students are doing missionary work! 

We had a short DDM afterwards and got pizza  AGAIN! 

In the afternoon we had Israel's baptism! He is Anziano Pesci's and Anziano Smith's investigator and President and Sister Euvard as well as the Assistants came down from Rome to see it. It was really great! Israel chose the Branch President to baptize him which was a really big step in bridging he gap between the Italians and the refugees. President got real emotional and the spirit was super strong. We don't have a baptismal font here so we go to the ocean but it's July so you can't find a single piece of beach without people... so we had a very public baptism with so many people in speedos and bikinis watching Israel get baptized! Kinda awkward but everyone came up and talked to us afterwards which was really cool! 

Sunday was great! Anziano and Sorella Hyde are the Senior Couple here and hey both served here in Napoli 45 years ago! Anziano Hyde was able to get into contact with someone he baptized way back then as a young missionary and he came to Church today! He was super cool and he said it felt like he had never left! It was great to have him back and a super great experience for the Hydes! 

That was the week! We're headed to Positano today for P-Day! It's supposed to be super beautiful! I'm excited! I hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Jacob Bellucci

Napoli Transfer 9 Week 3

Zone Conference, Exchanges, and subway fires! 

What a week! I'm pretty sure P-Day was like two days ago but somehow it is Monday again!

Last Monday we met with some less-active members that called us and said "Hey Elders, can we meet with you tonight?" Of course! We had a great lesson, my companion and I turned to the scriptures and one right after another we were able to share verses that were absolutely applicable to them from the Book of Mormon! It was really cool! They came to Church on Sunday as well! 

Tuesday I had to start my permesso paper work so I can be legal seeing as mine expires on the 11th! Crazy that I've been in Italy for almost a year! Anyway Anziano Fryer had to get some paperwork for his as well so we did an Exchange and I went with him. He's a great missionary, he's in his 4th Transfer and still in his first city. He's from Spring City Utah and a total stud. We continued our exchange and did some finding for the rest of the morning. 

I got to teach the Basic English Course with Anziano Fryer... it was a lot of fun. I haven't taught basic in months so it was really cool. I had a lot of fun but you definitely speak way more Italian than English. 

Wednesday we got prepped for Zone Conference and then had our interviews with President and an exchange with the Assistants. It was a lot of fun! I got to work with Anziano Draghi who is an Italian missionary from Rimini up North. He speaks English super well and we had a way good time. In Church last week one of the Sisters came up to us and said "My husband has started to pray with me every day, I think he might be ready to take the lessons." So we went and shared a little message, he's not quite ready yet but we're going to try to get to know him better and gain his trust. 

It was way cool to see Anziano Friedman, he's now Anziano Draghi's companion as the assistant. It was good to catch up with him and it's so crazy that he's going home next Transfer. That's the worst part about missions, you make friendships and then you have to say goodbye for a while! 

Thursday was Zone Conference! It was probably one of the best ones I've had! President and Sister Pickerd have really helped to change our mission, its become more obedient, more successful and we've come a long way! President based the conference on a phrase from Spencer W. Kimball in a talk he gave in 1979 General Conference called "Let us Move Forward and Upward." The phrase was " We have paused on some plateaus long enough." It was a really inspiring conference to help us move onward and keep moving up! I would for sure invite you to check out that talk! It's way good and way applicable to all of us! 

Afterwards we did an exchange with the Elders from Caserta, I got to work with Anziano Daniels! He is in Anziano Allen's group, he is training right now and doing a great job! He is a new District Leader and he's super "in gamba" as we say in Italian which just means he is a stud and a hard worker. He's from Elko Nevada... We got to go visit this awesome family from the Branch. We had a cool spiritual thought on fortifying our families like Moroni fortifies his fortresses in Alma 50. It was really cool and then they fed us dinner and we showed pictures of our families and stuff. It was really fun and I felt really at home! They were super nice. 

Friday was the end of our scambio and it was Anziano Sacco and Anziano Smith's birthdays so I made a Devil's food cake and we went out for pizza at Sorbillo's which some people say is better than Pelone's. I think it's way more famous, I'm pretty sure there were more American's there than Italians. It was a good night and we got to talk to some cool people doing finding as well! 

Saturday we had to weekly plan and then we had a way good lesson with our Investigator Fabiola, she asks a ton of questions and so our lesson lasted a super long time but it was good. We taught her the first half of the Plan of Salvation and you could see the spirit testifying to her of the things we were teaching, helping her to understand that they are true. We're hoping to invite her to baptism this next week! 

Sunday was really good! There were four groups of American Tourists in Church and the Branch President wasn't there and the translating headsets were locked in his office so four of us had to translate by sitting behind a row of Americans. It was fun to play tour guide for a minute but the Fasting Testimony meeting was really good! I almost forgot... Evans is one of our African members and he has his life figured out. He is married and has an 11 year old son and they just had another baby boy and they blessed their baby in Sacrament Meeting, Evans asked me to be a part of it which was a really special honor. That baby was stinking cute and the blessing was beautiful. 

We got invited to the Esposito family's house for lunch, they are super upbeat and fun, they have three kids that live up North and so having the Anziani over is like having their kids back home! They fed us way too much and it was way good! 

We finished the day off with some English Course White Boarding downtown. We talked to so many people and this one family said that the missionaries would come to their house like 12 years ago and she would love to have us back. Who knows, maybe they're ready now! 

It was a good week! My testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ grows every day! I know that he lives and that he loves us! Have a great week!

Anziano Jacob Bellucci