Ostia Transfer 15 Week 2

Rain rain go away... Stake Conference, and no hot water :( 

What a week! It was so cold at the beginning on the week for Italy, down in the 20’s and windy and Rome is so not used to that! We woke up Tuesday morning and I went to the bathroom and went to wash my hands and nothing came out of the faucet on the hot side... it was then and there that I realized this would be a long week. Our hot water heater is an on-demand tankless one and its on our balcony (Because it never gets this cold here). So I went and looked at it and saw the frozen puddle of water underneath it and the glass filter underneath it that had burst :( Cold shower it is... I used the hair dryer to thaw out the pipe so I could turn the water off so when it thawed out water wouldn’t go everywhere. Ice cold shower!  The rest of Tuesday we went less active hunting! Our ward list is huge but there are a ton of people that haven’t come for 10 years and don’t live here anymore! We found one person all day that still lives there and she told us to go away so it was kind of a bust but we made a ward list with a bunch of notes so I guess people in the future won’t waste time with it! We had English Course and it went pretty well, there were even some new people! There is this pizzeria called Romolo and it’s the best pizza we’ve had here in Ostia but it’s also really expensive! However... Tuesday evening any pizza you want is just 5 bucks! So we went and grabbed pizza!

Wednesday we had District Meeting and we talked about Missionaries in the Book of Mormon and who was our favorite and why. It was good, I chose Ammon because he really loved the Lamanites, he was down to go be a servant for the King and then he won the trust of the people so they would believe his words. It was a sweet DDM! We went and did some more service as a District in the park by our house, there was already so much trash! We got rakes this time though and we got about half of the park done really nice! (Side note, last night when we walked through we saw it full of broken glass bottles and cigarette boxes again so that was sad but it looked really good on Wednesday!) We also got Kebab together too which was really good! I forgot to get a District Picture! We went to the Cevallos’ for dinner and we talked about preparation. How we prepare ourselves to receive revelation whether it be during General Conference, Sacrament Meeting, or when the missionaries come over to share a spiritual thought. It was cool!

Thursday Morning we decided to do our weekly Planning then instead of Friday because the hot water guy was supposed to come between 10 and 12 but it’s kind of like the cable guy in America, you never know when? He came at like 10:30 though so it was good! He turned the water on to the hot water heater and it looked like a piece of Swiss cheese. Almost every pipe in the hot water heater has a crack in it. He also said that 60 percent of the hot water heaters in Rome are like this so they’re waiting for parts that should be in Monday (today) and then they can come and fix it. Then for the evening we did finding and English Course! More new people came too!

Friday we left early and went to Laurentina (last stop on the metro) to do some service for a member’s brother. They are moving into a new home and they needed help moving! For a tiny apartment they sure had a lot of stuff! We had a good time though and they said when they were all settled in they would have us over to share a message with them! Then we got changed real fast and went to a lunch appointment with the Battistini family. They’re way nice, they’re an older couple whose kids are grown and moved to Utah. We had a great time at lunch and we talked about the Europe Area Plan with them. We then got cancelled on by a member for our evening appointment because their son had worms in his stomach? Sounds gross, I didn’t ask questions. Apparently he’s all better now! Which means we got to do some finding! But first we went and taught Simone! He is a referral, honestly not super interested but we might have sparked something so we’ll see! 

Saturday it was pouring... (just like every other day this week) except like really dumping. So we went and printed some pictures of the new First Presidency to give to some Elderly Members and then we planned a little for the Activity. We were supposed to have an appointment with a new investigator and meet his family but his family ended up being out of town! Sad... in the evening we went with one of our investigators to the Saturday session of Stake Conference which was awesome! There was an area 70 there and he was a little crazy but he shared a really good message. 

Sunday we took a bus to the Bishop’s house to get a ride with him and his wife to Stake Conference. I got to see all of the members from Napoli! It was sweet, they’re all so awesome! I told them I would be in Church in Napoli in May! The Conference was really good, they talked about being the best Christians we can be and the Characteristics of Christ that will help us do that. Then in the evening we had correlation meeting with Riccardo and we planned an activity for the ward. Our Ward has a lot of diversity, there are Italians from all over the place, South Americans, Americans, people from other places in Europe, and so we’re going to do a culture night where everyone represents their homeland and brings food! It should be really fun! 

Today is another cold shower! But not just like the water isn’t warm, it’s like it’s been iced down. It’s wonderful... kind of makes your heart want to stop, kind of wakes you up. Sort of a gray area. 

We’re going to play Zone Soccer in the rain today! It should be fun! Then we’re going to check out this Mall and that should be pretty much it! 

I hope you all have a great week! Keep on keeping on! 

Love,

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

Ostia Transfer 14 Week 5

Service, Apple cake, and more service!

I can’t believe transfer calls are in just one short week! It’s crazy! After this call, I only have one more call left! I can’t believe how fast it’s going... but I still have plenty of time and this week was a good one! 

On Monday night we went to the Cevallos family, they’re my favorites! We have dinner with them almost every Monday night, Sister Cevallos is a great member and they have three boys 16, 12, and 3 years old and they’re so much fun! They all give us big hugs and we do a little family night usually starting with their English Homework and then a game, dinner, and a spiritual thought! We’re going tonight and I’m goin to try to remember to take a picture! 

Tuesday we had District Meeting in the morning and I had Sister Wyatt give the training. She did a great job and we talked about aligning our will with God’s will and working hard, as well as working through trials and being open to learning from them. We also got haircuts before! Mine is a little crazy but I like it, it’s still pretty long on top but not on the sides at all! Anyway, Then we all got kebab together and Anziano Empey and I had to go to the Doctors again! So we did a little finding and went to Rome, got picked up by Elder Knies one of the Senior couples who is so fun! He’s from Texas and doesn’t speak a lick of Italian but he’s a Texan through and through! Everything went well at the appointment and it turns out the stitches are dissolvable and now they’re all gone. Today was the day I made the apple cake during lunch! Something is wrong with our oven so it gets way too hot... so my cake was getting crispy on the outside and it was raw on the inside so I had to bake it with the oven door open and then I turned the oven off and just left the door closed. Anyway we made it through! It actually turned out pretty well! 

Wednesday was kind of rough... we decided to do weekly Planning because for one reason or another it hasn’t been happening on Friday! So we got that done in the morning, had lunch, did language study and comp study and then did some finding! We went to the other Cevallos family which is the Mom of the other Sister Cevallos for dinner. So her husband is Italian and he has been investigating the Church for 7 years... he comes to Church every week, has us over almost every week but he’s not ready to be baptized yet. Also he’s 82. So we used a piece of paper to map out what was happening in the Bible in conjunction with the Book of Mormon. It was really good to help him understand how they coincide. Then Mamma Cevallos made us wonderful Ecuadorian food as always. Who knew there were so many different ways to make rice??? Have you ever had a fried banana? They’re pretty good! 

Thursday. Thursday we went to Caritas (Carità means charity in Italian) to work in the soup kitchen (Except we’re in Italy so it’s a pasta kitchen but it’s the same idea!) We had a good time, we just help prepare food for the homeless and take their trays and clean them and that’s pretty much it! It is really nice to serve them though. They’re not all necessarily homeless but they are very poor and so it’s a great opportunity to serve as well as get to know some of the great people that serve there as volunteers. They make us eat too, the food isn’t bad! There was pasta with sauce and a big mozzarella ball and some pretty good bread and baked fennel. (They eat a lot of fennel in Italy) We took some pictures on the pier in the rain and then went home for studies. Then in the evening we talked to some way cool people before English Course. 

Friday I’m not really sure what happened but we did something in the morning. I didn’t write it down. I think we just went finding? Then home for lunch and studies and then in the afternoon we went to help the Durango family clean the Church. We had a dinner appointment with them so they took us to their house and we had a great time with them. They are from Colombia (I promise there are Italian members here!) but they lived in Canada for a long time and so the language they speak at home is either Spanish or English. Their English is perfect and the kids go to an English school here in Rome. He works for the United Nations as an auditor and he travels all over the Middle East to do it. They’re a great family! We wanted to help them do some family history but the website was down so our spiritual thought was a bust for that! We’ll try again next time! 

Saturday was an awesome service project! So we found this group on Facebook called “Retake Roma” and they just get together and do different service projects. We got 3 youth and YSA members to come with us and the Sisters and we doubled their group! We went to this park and filled trash bags with so much garbage and empty beer bottles. We planted some plants as well as painted some benches! It was a lot of fun and we got to talk to so many people! I took some pictures but I’m not in many of them because I was taking them! 

Anyway then in the afternoon we had a bomb appointment with this guy named Ibrahim. He’s from Morocco but he’s been here in Italy so long that he doesn’t really speak French anymore, he is pretty assimilated into Italy. We taught him outside a cafe and it went really well. We’re excited to keep teaching him! 

Sunday is always good... I got to give a talk in Sacrament meeting and I talked about the Book of Mormon. I brought my Italian Book of Mormon which you can’t even read the cover it’s so worn out and my Book of Mormon from my Mom from when I was baptized and I talked about how a Book of Mormon goes from being a BOM to my BOM and it has to do with the time we put in to it and how we personalize it by marking the spiritual promptings we receive and really making it out own. I also talked about how there is power in just one verse and I shared a few of my favorites. 

After Church we came and made lunch and then we went to this place called Acilia to go and find some Potentials. It was a bust for one of them and the other the bus doesn’t run on Sunday to get there so we did some finding, ran into one of our investigators and talked to some really cool Romanian people. I think it’s going to be so weird to come back to Potsdam and Logan and not have so much diversity... especially here in Rome it seems like there are more not Italian people than there are Italian. It’s a melting pot for sure! 

I hope you all had a great week! Here is a saying in Italian “Break boxes” it means to like reprimand or reprove someone in Italian you say that you are breaking their boxes. Well Mom broke my boxes about not taking enough pictures so I’m trying to do better! Here we go! 

Love,

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

Missione Italiana di Roma 

Ostia Transfer 14 Week 5

Service, Apple cake, and more service!

I can’t believe transfer calls are in just one short week! It’s crazy! After this call, I only have one more call left! I can’t believe how fast it’s going... but I still have plenty of time and this week was a good one! 

On Monday night we went to the Cevallos family, they’re my favorites! We have dinner with them almost every Monday night, Sister Cevallos is a great member and they have three boys 16, 12, and 3 years old and they’re so much fun! They all give us big hugs and we do a little family night usually starting with their English Homework and then a game, dinner, and a spiritual thought! We’re going tonight and I’m goin to try to remember to take a picture! 

Tuesday we had District Meeting in the morning and I had Sister Wyatt give the training. She did a great job and we talked about aligning our will with God’s will and working hard, as well as working through trials and being open to learning from them. We also got haircuts before! Mine is a little crazy but I like it, it’s still pretty long on top but not on the sides at all! Anyway, Then we all got kebab together and Anziano Empey and I had to go to the Doctors again! So we did a little finding and went to Rome, got picked up by Elder Knies one of the Senior couples who is so fun! He’s from Texas and doesn’t speak a lick of Italian but he’s a Texan through and through! Everything went well at the appointment and it turns out the stitches are dissolvable and now they’re all gone. Today was the day I made the apple cake during lunch! Something is wrong with our oven so it gets way too hot... so my cake was getting crispy on the outside and it was raw on the inside so I had to bake it with the oven door open and then I turned the oven off and just left the door closed. Anyway we made it through! It actually turned out pretty well! 

Wednesday was kind of rough... we decided to do weekly Planning because for one reason or another it hasn’t been happening on Friday! So we got that done in the morning, had lunch, did language study and comp study and then did some finding! We went to the other Cevallos family which is the Mom of the other Sister Cevallos for dinner. So her husband is Italian and he has been investigating the Church for 7 years... he comes to Church every week, has us over almost every week but he’s not ready to be baptized yet. Also he’s 82. So we used a piece of paper to map out what was happening in the Bible in conjunction with the Book of Mormon. It was really good to help him understand how they coincide. Then Mamma Cevallos made us wonderful Ecuadorian food as always. Who knew there were so many different ways to make rice??? Have you ever had a fried banana? They’re pretty good! 

Thursday. Thursday we went to Caritas (Carità means charity in Italian) to work in the soup kitchen (Except we’re in Italy so it’s a pasta kitchen but it’s the same idea!) We had a good time, we just help prepare food for the homeless and take their trays and clean them and that’s pretty much it! It is really nice to serve them though. They’re not all necessarily homeless but they are very poor and so it’s a great opportunity to serve as well as get to know some of the great people that serve there as volunteers. They make us eat too, the food isn’t bad! There was pasta with sauce and a big mozzarella ball and some pretty good bread and baked fennel. (They eat a lot of fennel in Italy) We took some pictures on the pier in the rain and then went home for studies. Then in the evening we talked to some way cool people before English Course. 

Friday I’m not really sure what happened but we did something in the morning. I didn’t write it down. I think we just went finding? Then home for lunch and studies and then in the afternoon we went to help the Durango family clean the Church. We had a dinner appointment with them so they took us to their house and we had a great time with them. They are from Colombia (I promise there are Italian members here!) but they lived in Canada for a long time and so the language they speak at home is either Spanish or English. Their English is perfect and the kids go to an English school here in Rome. He works for the United Nations as an auditor and he travels all over the Middle East to do it. They’re a great family! We wanted to help them do some family history but the website was down so our spiritual thought was a bust for that! We’ll try again next time! 

Saturday was an awesome service project! So we found this group on Facebook called “Retake Roma” and they just get together and do different service projects. We got 3 youth and YSA members to come with us and the Sisters and we doubled their group! We went to this park and filled trash bags with so much garbage and empty beer bottles. We planted some plants as well as painted some benches! It was a lot of fun and we got to talk to so many people! I took some pictures but I’m not in many of them because I was taking them! 

Anyway then in the afternoon we had a bomb appointment with this guy named Ibrahim. He’s from Morocco but he’s been here in Italy so long that he doesn’t really speak French anymore, he is pretty assimilated into Italy. We taught him outside a cafe and it went really well. We’re excited to keep teaching him! 

Sunday is always good... I got to give a talk in Sacrament meeting and I talked about the Book of Mormon. I brought my Italian Book of Mormon which you can’t even read the cover it’s so worn out and my Book of Mormon from my Mom from when I was baptized and I talked about how a Book of Mormon goes from being a BOM to my BOM and it has to do with the time we put in to it and how we personalize it by marking the spiritual promptings we receive and really making it out own. I also talked about how there is power in just one verse and I shared a few of my favorites. 

After Church we came and made lunch and then we went to this place called Acilia to go and find some Potentials. It was a bust for one of them and the other the bus doesn’t run on Sunday to get there so we did some finding, ran into one of our investigators and talked to some really cool Romanian people. I think it’s going to be so weird to come back to Potsdam and Logan and not have so much diversity... especially here in Rome it seems like there are more not Italian people than there are Italian. It’s a melting pot for sure! 

I hope you all had a great week! Here is a saying in Italian “Break boxes” it means to like reprimand or reprove someone in Italian you say that you are breaking their boxes. Well Mom broke my boxes about not taking enough pictures so I’m trying to do better! Here we go! 

Love,

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

Missione Italiana di Roma 

Ostia Transfer 14 Week 4

Colosseum for P-Day? Why not???

Hey everyone, I hope you had a great week! My week was pretty good! My weekly email is going to be a little different than usual. Or at least I’ll try! I know it will be short!

We changed our District Meeting around to Wednesday this week so Tuesday was spent out finding and we had some good success and then we had to come to Rome again for a Follow-up appointment... they really didn’t do anything but I go back again to get stitches out tomorrow! 

Wednesday was District Meeting and we talked about consecration. What can you not only give up or sacrifice but consacrate to the Lord? How can you change your will to be that of our Heavenly Father’s. Then we went to this Toasteria... it’s basically a panini shop but it’s just made on toast. Then dinner with the Cevallos family! They’re great! 

Thursday we got ditched for all of our appointments except one and we got to meet with him. He is a less active member that stopped doing the simple things... it was a testimony to me that if you stop reading the Book of Mormon and praying then the testimony is the next thing to go! So keep doing the basics and you’ll be blessed! 

Friday I got to do an exchange with Anziano Dunn who is a stud! We had so much fun together and we were able to teach an investigator as well as do some awesome finding! 

I got my companion back and we had a bomb lesson on Saturday night he wasn’t feeling well though so we took it slow... Sunday was super good. The Church meetings were awesome and we learned a little bit about indexing. Fasting testimony meeting was good, there was a daughter of a member who came and she said “I don’t have a testimony but I can tell that you are all amazing people because of the changes I’ve seen in my Mom” the Gospel is true and it changes people!

Today was sooo good! We went to the colosseum and the Roman Forum and it was so good! I’ll send pictures! I love you all and I hope you have a great week! 

Ostia Transfer 14 Week 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When He answers no, it is to prevent error.

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

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

Have a great week!

Love,

Anziano Jacob Bellucci

Missione Italiana di Roma

Ostia Transfer 14 Week 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I love you all!

Anziano Bellucci

Missione Italiana di Roma 

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

Cosenza Transfer 13 Week 6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anziano Jacob Bellucci