L"Aquila Christmas 2013

Jesse visited with us yesterday.   He is very a  happy  Missionary and enjoys working in L'Aquila, and loves the people in the ward.
He asked us for updates on his friends, and inquired about many of the members of our ward and remembers you fondly.
He sends you all his best. He  is especially excited for and wants to know about his good friend Chads mission call when it arrives.
Jesse expects that he will serve in this area another 2 transfers, and maybe by Mother's Day he will be in his last or 2nd to last area.
It was Great, he is Great, all is Well!
Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!
P.S. As a family we are grateful to the church for allowing us to have this very special time with our missionary, and we're thankful for his Mission President and his wonderful wife who watch over the welfare of our son while he is serving the people of Italy. Merry Christmas Pres. and Sis. Waddoups!

A'Aquila 12-2-13

I had a white Thanksgiving this year. There was about a foot of snow outside a couple days before transfers. It snowed us into L'Aquila and we couldn't leave for district meeting. I was so excited that I forgot how cold it was and I didn't go out very prepared and my hands froze. I keep a pair of gloves in my bag at all times now. 

We were able to make it out of L'Aquila on time for transfers. I stayed in Roma one night waiting for Anziano Padilla to come in. In the morning we went to Terni then to L'Aquila. It took us forever to get back. I have a feeling that me and Anziano Padilla are going to get along great this transfer. He is from Colorado and a Convert to the church. He was baptised 2 years ago. So far it's been really fun working with him. 

The work was really slow this week. We didn't meet with any of our investigators because we were out of town . On the bright side however our 12 year old member missionary told us that she has another friend that she wants to bring to church now. That would make about 3 of them now. One of them stood up and bore her testimony about how she knows the chruch is true. She has been coming for about a year now and really wants to be baptised. We only need her mothers permission. Unfortunatly it is really hard to meet with her family right now. 

I set up the christmas tree while Anziano Padilla was un packing. We have a hughe tree here in L'Aquila. Most of the trees in the mission (except for the mission home of course) are really small. It'll be as close as I can get to a christmas at home this year. The snow , the mountains, Fagioli family nearby. If you count something like 2 hours away as near by. 

Meeting the familia 11-25-13

(Note from mother:  Jesse has had the opportunity to visit his father's only known living relative in Italy. As his family knows this is not a coincidence, more of a blessing as a result of his service, and there has been much praying about this encounter. He did not give many details but we are thrilled he had the chance to visit. We hope he left a good impression and that the spirit was with them while they were visiting, We hope to get more details from him in the future.)

The scambio in Ascoli went really well. I met Vanda and Nino. They almost didn't let us in, but the fish vendor drove by and they came out. Vanda was really excited to meet me. She thought I was Sean. She said "you're the one that got married to the Italian girl right" We sat down for a little bit and chatted. Nino was really funny. He was your tipical old italian man. I didn't get to meet with the priest, but I did find another number to get a hould of him on and actually got to talk to him. We set up for next month. He just wasn't in Civitella that day. He only comes to give sermons, but he said if I give him 1 days notice he can come in and help me look at the records. No names this time, but I have high hopes for the next time. We walked right past Hotel Zunica. Brought back a lot of really bad memories from 8 years ago. Like that really crapy cover band that played outside our window until 3 A.M.........

So on the train someone took a picture of me. I was looking out the window and I saw a flash go off. I turned around and this girl had her phone out pointed right at me. I guess she got a kick out the the tag on my chest that says "Elder bean".  

We did another scambio with Pescara except we did it in L'Aquila. I have been trying to meet with a quy in charge of all the publicity in L'Aquila for about a month now. We finially met him during this scambio. When we got there he looked at Anziano Lewis (Anziano from Pescara) and said "you stopped me on the street last week." Small world. 

Transfer calls are in. Anziano Carr is going to Mistretta in Sicilia. It is said that it is over 4000 years old. The sicilians say that it exsisted when Abraham was still alive. He is really excited. My new comp is going to be Anziano Padilla. He is coming up from Lecce. I'm excited to hear all about how Brindisi and Lecce are doing. It's been a year now since I started in Brindisi. I wonder if there has been any more sucess there. 

Our best member missionary brought another friend to church. The work is going good. We didn't teach many lessons this week because we were out of town for a few days. We do have a new investigator reading the Book of Mormon._______ is in Teramo for a couple weeks, but is still reading and praying. 

It is raining really hard right now. Things are really cooling down. Actually it just barely started snowing. I've got all the snow gear I need...... hopefully. It is quite a bit colder than Utah from what I remember. 

We won't be having thanksgiving with anyone, but we are already invited over for Christmas. I'm really excited for the Skype calls.

Love, 

Jesse

L'Aquila 11-11-13

We found the coolest new investigators this week. His name is ------- He is from ---------------. I'm not sure if I spelled that right or not. He actually stopped Anziano Carr and another elder a few months back. He really wanted a Book of Mormon in --------------. He was really excited when we called him and told him we could bring him one. We  had to take a bus out to ----------------where he lives to see him. We read the introduction with him in a mix of Italian and ----------------. It's crazy to see this weird language and hear him read "Joseph Smith" from the text. Anyways he is really serious about learning about our church and wants to be baptised. He told us he would read the whole book in less than a week. When we fisished our lesson we needed to check bus times. We did that and came back and he was talking to people about the B.o.M teaching them what we taught him. We were only gone for about 2-3 mins. He was a boxer when he was younger and he really liked it when I called him Mahaumed Ali. 

We lost contact with one of our investigators after she went on vacation with her family. She just doesn't answer her phone any more. We are pretty sure her parents or someone was really agaist her talking to us because she had some really strong spiritual experiances in church. I wish she would just tell us what happened. 

One of the pictures I included here is of me and Carr in one of our English course students cars. 

President set some new mission wide goals for baptisms. He wants us to get 40 in one month. We are doing our best here in L'Aquila to be a part of that. Hopefully Ferid will be part of that.

So I was reading in the D&C and discovered that God speaks a little italian. In 128 near the end there are some straight up italian words in my English scriptures. 

It finally snowed in the mountains this morning. I was really excited to see that. I took a couple pictures to show you. I realize it's not that cool for you back in Utah where it's already probably snowed a bunch. 

I got the Halloween card. I still need to take a picture with it to send you. 

Anziano Faggioli

10-28-13

So I finally met all the investigators this week. There are some really golden people in the teaching pool. A---------.  that I told you about last week is asking us for Libri di Mormon to hand out to her friends. She told us next week we should have a new person to teach in church. We invited the two girls that stopped us on the road to church this week. One of them actually came and loved it. She stayed for all three hours and made friends with all the members of the branch. I was so pround of our branch. The accepted her right away and bore so many testimonies of the Book of mormon. In between meetings she kept trying to crack it  open and read it, but people just kept coming up and talking to her. It was great. I have a feeling this branch is going to be growing over the next few years and decades to come. I gave a talk on the first article of faith. The members are happy to have a piano player. The first counciler said over the pulpit "every now and then a miricle happens and one of the elders plays piano" They also really like the fact that I have ancestors from Abruzzo. They all know where Ccivitella del Tronto is and keep telling me to go there. They say the priest there is a really good guy and will help me find some names if I go to the church. We will see if we can arrange a p-day with Ascoli and get up there. 

Last week after P-day we had family home evening with a family Melone. They area a half brazillian half Italian family. They are probably the coolest people I've ever met. Their daughter is waiting on a visa to go on a mission. She is called to the Temple Square Mission. She is trying to learn English right now so the entire family is learning and trying to do family home evening in English. They like having us over so we can correct their English. Then after the lesson we have dinner and I can practice my Italian. 

There is a missionary out in Ogden right now. I can't remember his name right now. It's kind of weird that I'm serving in a branch that has a missionary out in Utah. Every one here says he has gained a ton of weight out there. Probabaly because he has so many members to eat with everyday haha. 

The bean jokes haven't stopped yet. I do my best to change the subject as fast as I can when that stuff gets brought up. These people are lucky they are so cool. If they weren't I wouldn't let the bean jokes slide so easy. 

Anziano Carr knows how to cook really well and learned some really good recipes from his trainer. Everyonce in a while I'll cook, but he loves doing it so I'll try to learn some of the stuff he makes. 

One of the Elders that was in Napoli while I was there is in Ascoli right now. I got to see him at our district meeting on Tuesday. I really like this district.. It is made up of 4 Sisters and 6 Anziani. It turns out I'm the oldest missionario in the district. They have all only been out less than a year and they are already speaking Italian really well. 

Weather is starting to get a little bit cooler. It's not quite Utah cold though. I have plenty of jackets and sweaters to keep me warm even if it snows latter on. I hope I get to see snow on the mountains while I'm here. 

Till next time,

Anziano Faggioli

L'Aquila 10-20-13

I love L'aquila!! This place looks so much like Park City. I can't tell you how much I feel right at home here. The mountains are in every direction. I thought I saw Mt Timpanogos outside the window my first morning. I love this place. I've been in the pretty big cities up until now without much nature, but here is just like living in the Provo canyon with a few cool castles and churches. L'Aquila was destroyed by an earthquake about 10 years ago, but now most of the houses have been rebuilt. The only place they haven't made any progress on is the center of town. People are really upset about it, but they have their lives still. They are still working on fixing it up and there is a lot to do.

I haven't met many of the investigators yet. There is one __year old ____getting ready to be baptised. ____ is really good friends with a family here in the branch. ______knows everything already and wants to be baptised, we just need to set a date with ____.  All the members are really cool. They all know where Civitella is and are excited to have an Abruzzese missionary.

So maybe for some p-day I'll go out and find some family names in the state archive. 

We do some service in a ---------------soup kitchen. We meet a lot of really charitable people doing this. People that volunteer there are all smiles. Eventually we will teach some of them. Little by little the show more interest in the church. 

There is a big university here in L'Aquila so there are a lot of 20-26 year olds running around. My first day here we get off the bus and these two girls come running up to us and say, "are you guys Italian" we talked to them for a bit, but evetually we had to explain that we are missionaries and we aren't here to date. 

I'm not sure what p-days are going to be like here. Most likely a lot of hiking, which I am more than okay with. I've seen enough castles and churches I would like to do some outdoorsy stuff. 

Anziano Faggioli

Transfer Oct. 14, 2013

Anziano Faggioli has been transferred to L'Aquila. It is more central Italy but further north than
Caserta, and Brindisi where he began a year ago. He might even get to wear his coat this winter. He was going to Rome on Wednesday and on to L'Aquila. We are anxiously waiting for Monday when we will hear more about the new city.   Will post more as we hear more.

Elder Ballard Comes to Italy

This was a really big week for the church in Italy. Elder Ballard came to split the stake boundaries of Rome to include the districts of Napoli and Sardegna. The conference was amazing. Caserta became a Ward along with a branch in Sardegna. Elder Ballard talked to the members about their responsibility to make sure that we get worked hard enough. He called all us missionaries up to the front during the meeting and told the members "These missionaries represent 40% of the missionaries in this mission. They are willing to work are you going to make sure they are busy?". He also talked about how the Lord now trusts Italy to have a temple of it's own which means he has raised the standard for the members. It was amazing to be in the presence of an apostle of the Lord. Some members in our ward have already began helping us more. They took us to see a disabled member that no one has visited for years and give her the sacrament. I hope more of the members raise their expectations and work together to move the work forward. It was really a special experience. Elder Ballard trained us missionaries for an hour before the conference started. He gave us advice and we all had the chance to shake his hand. 

Work is slow this week. We had and investigator come to the conference in Rome. He is practically a member. He asked us when he could start saying he is a Mormon. haha. He is dropping smoking cold turkey this week and hoping to set a baptismal goal. We now have a new less active lady to visit. She is in and out of the hospital right now and because of health issues she cannot come to church. We plan on taking the sacrament to her every week. 

I got to see Anziano Burton again at the Conference. He is doing good and loving sardegna. 

8-28-13

Ok big news here. Napoli has been a district for a very long time now. Just last sunday the district president announced that it will become a part of a stake with Rome and Sardegna. All the members are really excited. He didn't announce any details about what brances will become ward or how exactly the split is going to work, but he did say that he thinks Caserta will become a ward because it is big enough. It was the perfect time for the announcement. All the members were freshly returned from the temple and all the members that went on vacation during august are back also. We don't know what this means for missionary work right now. It might mean that new cities will be opened up here or even we become a part of the Rome zone. All this is speculation. The Lords kingdom is growing. This new stake will bring many blessings to the Napoletani that a district just couldn't bring them. 

The work is still moving pretty slowly. We have a new focus on getting the members involved in contacting the less actives in the branch. We have been teaching people in members houses and sometimes in the church. Hopefully with September it will all pick up again. Until then we just have to do our best.

Our weekly meeting with the district has turned into a huge zone conference. There are three districts in our zone and two of them meet in the same building, so we all go out and get pizza after with about 16 missionaries. It's good being able to meet all the missionaries in the zone and become friends with everyone. There are some really great missionaries in our zone. I can't think of any that I wouldn't want to be companions with. It's been a really big blessing having a big district with a zone leader in it. He has been able to teach us a lot 

I've started studying the scriptures in english instead of Italian. I've gotten so much more out of them this way. I understood things in Italian, but not with the same power. The things the B.o.M teach are so much clearer now. The stories, the warning, the blessing and the comfort actually touch the heart. The spirit is with me more. I still read in Italian for my language study everyday so I will still keep improving in language skills. 

Transfer calls are coming in on Saturday. We are all really looking forward to these.There are going to be changes this transfer. I wouldn't send a package quite yet. I may be going or staying. Nothing is set in stone right now. Hopefully I stay. I like Caserta a lot.

That's all for this week. I wish there was more to tell, but hey I actually sent pictures this week so hopefully that will make up for not writing so much this week. 

Love, Anziano Faggioli

Plugged In 8-7-13

(The next paragraph won't mean much with out hearing what transpired in the previous letter.  
The fans are plugged in to a socket that is on the wall behind Jesse's bed and he manages to kick them out of the socket in his sleep.  He was startled awake one night to the new guy in the apt. who had climbed under his bed and run his hand up behind his mattress to find  the socket to replug his fan. As you can imagine it pretty much gave Jesse's heart a jump start.  Thus the response.)


Yeah, I went all week without unplugging the fan. Only because he taped it down. Yes I have a fan also. Other wise it would be way to hot to manage. Just yesterday in fact it was 90 or so degrees with 80 percent humidity. I can't wait until this is over and it starts cooling down. It's funny our neighbors always yell at us when we leave the house "Go back inside!" or "Why don't you go to the beach?" Finding is pretty much a no go right now. The streets are empty until about 8 pm. We have been filling our time visiting less actives outside of Caserta and working with the investigators we have now. The work is actually really solid right now. We have two investigators newly progressing towards baptism and a bunch of less actives coming back to church. 

So the guy going to England changed his mind and just went to Abruzzo. We haven't seen him for almost 2 weeks now. Hopefully he will come back ready to just drop smoking cold turkey. Another investigator was going to move to 

Sardegna but found work and stayed in Caserta. She comes to church every week and has made really good friends in the branch already. She was really interesting. She was praying to find a church one Sunday. And right when she got done praying she asked someone where there was a church and got pointed to our building. She already knows she received an answer to her prayer and wants to be baptised as soon as she quits smoking.  I just can't relate to quiting smoking. It would be awesome if we could get some members in lessons that could say "I quit for this, so you can too" but everyone is busy during the summer.  We got a text message last week from a less active member requesting a blessing. We weren't able to go out and visit her until last Saturday. She lives really far away and the trains don't run on Sunday so she can't come to church right now. We are trying to figure out a way to get her to church. She has a strong testimony and she wants he kids to be baptised. Most of our work is outside of Caserta right now. I'm becoming really well traveled. 

Fast Sunday this week was really special. All the Italian members got up to bear their testimonies. The spirit was so powerful at that meeting. The Italian members here are so strong. We need to help them bring more people into the church. I know if we can just get people to meetings like that they will feel the spirit and know it is true. Of all the good talks I've heard in church I have never felt the spirit more strongly than when I sat and listened to our members get up one by one and bear the same testimony, "I know my savior lives and I know he loves me." 

We have an American branch president, so we need to use our Italian skills to run errands for him every once in a while. One of these is finding a new house for one of our members. This member lives in a refugee camp and keeps getting beat up. This week after looking for about a transfer we found a place where he will be safe. It's a really nice place surrounded by a bunch of old people. He would have to really be looking it to get beat up there. 

So a really eventful week. I hope it makes up for past slow weeks. 

Vi voglio bene. 

Anziano Faggioli 

Our investigator getting ready for baptism is taking off to England in August. He told us he has been looking up churches where he is going so he is going to go to sacrament meeting while he is gone. He has been struggling to quit smoking lately. He just wants to get an answer before he quits smoking. We talked about how quitting will help him receive an answer. We will see how it goes with him. Either he needs to quit smoking soon or he won't be ready for his baptism. We'll see how it all goes next transfer. 

We went to a carnevale in one of the little cities with a couple of our investigators. That was to coolest thing I have ever seen. There were all the cool Venetian masks and huge costumes in a huge parade. I really wished I had my camera there. I couldn't get any really clear pictures with the one here, but I made due. I never thought that I would be able to see something like that in Italy. I always thought that it was a south american thing. 

The branch celebrated Pioneer day at the American base. It was alot of fun. We just ate a bunch of American food and talked to all the families. There wasn't time to tell the Mortensen  story during the activity. 

Transfers are tomorrow and Anziano Burton is going to train. We are all really excited to be done with the triple companionship. There will be 4 people in the house again.

We walked through the Reggia again today. This time we did it with bikes. While we were renting the bikes we ran into a couple from salt lake city. They were really excited to see us. We talked for a little bit, but we need to get going so we could see everything and have enough time for email today.

Mom

Jesse 7-3-13

So I just barely got off of some sketchy street in Napoli surrounded by fake Ray Bans and Gucci belts after eating a nice Napoli pizza. You asked the question if I am still in love with Napoli. The answer with out second thoughts is yes. I hope I never leave this zone. It's really hot, but not unbearable. I have it really good compared to Taylor, Peter and Conner.  Jay is probably really comfy right now in Sweden. 

This week we set a couple of baptismal dates. The work is moving along really fast. We have enough work for two companionships, but I like being really busy here so I hope they keep it down to just one. One of our new converts has been inviting his friends to church and we got a new guy looking into joining the church from that. This week has been so busy. Three new investigators. We are planing two baptisms on the 20 of July. 

New mission Pres is in. Still haven't met him. He will be down to Napoli on the 12th to give everyone interviews. 

Anz. Morgan is doing good. He is really good at Italian. He understands what people are saying better than I do, but I've got more Italian vocab floating around in my head. I remember not knowing anything in my first transfer, but he was lucky and already knew Italian coming in and is just going straight to work in his first city. 

Anz. Burton and I are getting along really well. We are probably going to be lost trying to find our way around the city when he is gone. They haven't sent a new comp for him yet and they wont until the end of the transfer if he stays in Caserta. 

Just a chill p-day today chilling in Napoli. We are going to go play soccer later with an investigator. 

I'm doing well and really happy. 

Anziano Faggioli

(P.S.  Jesse told us that the Rome temple completion has been pushed out to 2015.)   And to say he loves Italy is an understatement...he told us he has been there so long he has forgotten what is here, and when he dreams of home, he dreams of Italy.       

This week was pretty good. I have some pics to send, but I'm in an Internet cafè this week so..

Anyways I got my greenie this week and he is really cool. His mom is from Milan and he already speaks a ton of Italian. We have been out teaching and talking to people a ton. It's alot of fun having 4 elders in the apartment. 

Not much really to talk about this week.  We had to split up the work a bit with the 2 groups of elders. We have to do some more finding, but we are having success. We got 2 phone numbers this week of people we could possible teach. 

I ended up playing the piano for church last week because the family that normally plays is out of town for the summer. I get to practice again!   Again I'm super busy during church because I do all the translating and now I am the pianist again. Hopefully pres. doesn't want me to give another talk for a while. 

The summer is way to hot here. It's about 85 degrees with 80% humidity. I sweat all day and I don't even care anymore. Everyone sweats like this so I'm not out of the norm. Just don't expecty me to bring any of my white shirts home. I need to remember not to complain about the heat. Pete, Taylor and Conner have it way worse than I do. And I could be in Malta just getting burnt to a crisp. 

Pres and Sis Kelly came to Caserta for church last week to do some temple recommend interviews. Sis Kelly told me she had talked to you about their homecoming. That will be cool that you guys get to meet (maybe) them. They are really awesome and we are all really sad they are leaving this transfer. 

Anziano Faggioli

9 months today

June 12, 2013

You are absolutely going to love this letter mom! I got called into the primary this week to translate for the Italian little kids. Their teacher didn't show up to teach them so they threw a lesson on me last minute. I feel like I can relate to you so much more after teaching one primary class. They were so hard to control. I'm sure I would have been alot better off in English. They were all pretty good until one of them got out of control then they all basically followed her. They entire time I couldn't stop thinking "oh man my mom is going to love reading about this!" 

We got transfer calls last Saturday and I will be getting a greenie on Thursday. I still don't know who it is. I'll know tomorrow and you will all hear about it next week. Anziano Burton is staying in the house to and will get a comp that is a little bit younger than him. It's going to be way fun having 4 missionaries in a house together. 

I'm getting ready to send 2 packages home. I'll send you a little inventory list before I send them out so you know what to do with them. It will probably be next month when I send them. With the Ipod music just try to find as much classical piano music as you can (debussy, copin, ect), i don't know if its avalible for purchase but the come thou fount cover by mumford and sons, and hymn arrangements for the piano. 

Investigators keep suprising me here. One day they say they will never quit smoking and the next day they have cut in half their normal amount. One day they just start reading the Book of Mormon after years of talking with the missionaries. It's crazy how good the work is here in Caserta. We are going to keep it going good. 

We are getting on the wall at the local pizzaria. They started taking pictures with us and want us to develop them and bring them back. Next time the guy that works behind the counter making the pizza is going to let me actually make the pizza! I'll get pictures of that to send home to you. 

There is a new American family in the ward that has family from abbruzzo. They have been doing alot of family history work since they got here. They are having quite a bit of success. 

Thats all for this week. 

Love anziano Faggioli

May 30-2013

Reggia

Jesse in Reggia

Reggia 

Ok I'm going to start out by talking about the work in Caserta this week.We have been working with this one woman that has known the Anziani from  English course for about 1 year or so. They taught her when they met her and dropped her when she stopped making progress. We decided a few weeks ago to just take it slow with her and read the Book of Mormon together. This has made all the difference. She is now reading all on her own and we are just beginning to help her realize what the holy ghost feels like. She reads everyday and tells us how wonderful of a book it is!

Then there is another couple from English course that we teach. They are progressing really really fast here. We still haven't gotten them to come to church, but we talked about the spirit for the first time with them. They said they feel a really calming feeling when they are with the missionaries. I explained to them that it's not just these young men that bring this feeling instead it is the holy spirit and that they can feel it more as the read and come to church. They are committed to come to church this week. 

We had a baptismal date set for another investigator this saturday, but it feel through because she wasn't ready. We will keep working with her and helping her get ready we just don't know when she will be able to be baptized.

It was a really full week of lessons. 

For p-day we went to the Reggia again with the elders from Bari, They needed to come to Caserta to do some Permesso stuff and got to pass the p-day with us. It was so huge. This is the palace where star wars 1 was filmed. This place honestly put the Vatican to shame. 

I'm just loving caserta. I'm so lucky to be here in the Napoli zone. As long as vesuvio doesn't blow it's top while I'm here. 

Vi voglio bene

cia guiaèu (Napoli dialect)

5-22-2013

Hey sorry it's late today, but better late than never. so this week was really good. Tons of teaching and tons of people on the street. I can't even tell you how many times we've been in the right place at the right time to meet and talk to someone about the church. We even got a guys phone number to come to his house and talk about the church. Things are really looking good here in Caserta for the church. We have strong new converts and some really bright potential members here. 

So the time has finally come. My comp doesn't want to run in the mornings. I have gained 2 pounds here in Caserta so far. I blame it on all the pizza that I eat. I still try to work out in the mornings, but it's not the same as running every other day. 

So the Kellys are going home next month. They gave their last zone conference last thursday. I'm really sad that they are leaving so soon in my mission. They really have been amazing leaders. I would be nice to have them here for a few more transfers, but they have a family to go back to and the new president and his wife I'm sure will be just as wonderful as they are. 

Dad will be jealous of my P-day today. I hiked Mt. Vesuvius and looked out over pompeii and Napoli. It was one of the coolest feelings ever. I was standing on top of a 20 years due volcano that already destroyed and entire city as a missionary. How cool is that? It was a very short hike because you drive most the way. I think it's something you will want to go see when you all come out. 

Thats all for this week.

Anziano Faggioli  

Mothers's Day SKYPE 5-19-2013

Jesse is looking great, feeling great, loving the mission.

We got to talk for a really short hour.

His Italian is coming along really well. 

This is a Happy Missionary!

Caio Anziaano Faggioli.

5-8-13

                                           

Can I just start off by saying that that progress board of my mission
really really scared me.... I can't believe I've already done 1/3 of
my mission. Try not to send me another at least until the one year
mark.

Caserta is awesome. Right outside the station is the royal palace
where the royalty of Napoli all lived and it is huge. So to help you
guys immagine better what it is star wars 1 was filmed there. In the
scene where they are at the palace in naboo that is in Caserta.

The work here is really good. We have tons of investigators. There are
a few that don't make any progress, but we are going to keep visiting
them every once in a while just to sort of keep the door open just in
case they change their minds. 

It was really weird to go to church this
Sunday. Its a branch, but everyone does their job and everyone is very
involved in missionary work. My only resposibility on sunday now is to
translate because it's a half and half branch. In Brindisi I was
always really busy during the meetings either teaching, giving a talk,
piano. Here I can relax a little and focus on investigators. 

So far
all of the members thought I was Italian even after I had talked to
them for a while. I think I have made tons of progress with my
language. 

Anziano Burton is pretty cool. He is already learning Italian pretty
well. 

Our ward mission leader is really cool too. His name is Fratello Ward and
he served in Finland. He learned Italian and helps us a ton with
the work. He always is at lessons and bringing people to church. 

Today is my first P-day in Napoli. I'm really excited to finally get
to see it. Napoli is a lot bigger than I expected it to be. Mom is
probably going to die when she reads this but to cross the street here
you don't look at the cars or they wont stop. You just start walking
and they either stop or go around you. It's such a crazy city.

Sorry it's short this week, but we will talk on Sunday. 

Anziano Faggioli

May 1-2013 Transferred

Well I'm am really pleased with the outcome of the transfer calls on Saturday. As a little hint to where I'm going Sean and Emilia are going to think I will die there. Last week I wrote you guys and said "I would really, really like to go to Napoli" well it didn't quite happen, but really close. A city called Caserta very close to Napoli is my destination tomorrow. I'm so excited!! There is going to be the best pizza in the world, an American base that sells rootbeer, Napoletani, and I am basically training! My comp has been there for only one transfer (a month and a half). Anziano Liccioli will be traning here in Brindisi. There are tons of missionaries coming in. There is a missionary here that has been in Italy for 1 transfer and he is already training because he is just a bomb. 

I taught my last english course on tuesday. The students were all sad that I was going. Pietro, one of them, was destroyed when he heard that I am going to Caserta. He is already trying to orginize a trip out to Caserta to come see me. They kept telling me that we need to come through Brindisi when we do our little tour of Italy. Anziano Liccioli keeps telling me how much he will miss me. He said anytime I find myself in Venice I am more than welcome to come and stay with his family. Surely we will see eachother again during the mission. 

 

The work is picked up a little bit. I did my best to make sure I wouldn't leave the other Anziani without anything to do. We found a new investiagator through referals, there is a woman waiting to be married so she can join the church that comes every week to all three hours and a less active member has come to church 3 weeks in a row now. I really hope Anziano Liccioli and the new guy find some real success here in Brindisi. 

Anyways have a good week.

Ti voglio bene

April 24, 2013

Soooo this email thing isn't new for me at all. We received the notice in the mission feild about two months ago. Which means you don't need to worry about the emails getting any shorter. I've already been emailing everyone.

 Alright on to the real business. Last week was zonce conference and I felt really weird because I am no longer the youngest person in the zone. There are like 6 greenies in the zone now. I also saw Anzinano Bennett and one of the first things he said was "can you beleive it's almost been six months since the MTC." That sort of blew me away. Where did all that time go? The interview with president went really well. He told me he was happy with the work that Anziano Liccioli and I have done in Bridisi. He said we have done really well for being two really young missionaries together so early.
 I'll be happy wherever pres decides to send me, but I really, really want to go to Napoli. I've learned here that I am a  southerner and want to stay south of Rome. Anyways I will know come Saturday where the destination is. One of the members told me last week after I got done playing the hymns for sacrament "I hope you never leave you've really blessed this branch." Even one of the english course students asked me for presidents number so he could call him and tell him I need to stay in Bridisi for the full 2 years. 

The woman we have been teaching is still preparing for baptism. She is even talking about sending her kids on missions when they grow up. That was the highlight of my week. I would have never thought that there could possibly be some missionaries out of Brindisi when I first got here. There is a less active family that we are still visiting. The father is Napoletano and loves to talk. We spent two hours at his house trying to share a spiritual thought. He is one of the coolest people I have ever met. He sort of acts like Dad a little bit. The reason why I say that is because he just barely had a surgery of some sort and him and his wife were arguing about him working out. She kept telling him the doctor said now and he kept saying "well I'm not doing too much"......sound familiar? 

There isn't much else to say. I'm just eating tons of pasta, pizza, gelato and all the other good stuff. It's amazing how I see even more every day just how perfect my mission is for me. 

I'm happy to hear about the Farewells. 

Work here is good. don't worry at all about it being hard. President Kelly at Zone coference told us about a meeting he had with president Eyring. President Eyring told him that he would be tempted to feel bad for his missionaries because Rome is one of the hardest missions in the world, but not to feel bad because the missionaries that go to Rome are the luckiest in the world. They have the opportunity to really grow and learn and come back strong men. So far this is true. I've learned so much and grown so much. I would not trade this mission for 1000 baptisms. I would not trade my mission for anything. It is worth way to much. I love my mission and I love Italy (southern Italy to be specific) . It's true I am the luckiest young man in the world because I am serving a hard mission. The lessons I learn, habbits I gain, and testimony I build will never be taken away from me. I wish I could describe better how I feel about being here. When you think about it being hard just remember how happy I am even if it is hard on me. 

Love Anziano Faggioli

Anziano Faggioli and Anziano Di Caro

       Anziano Faggioli and Anziano Bennett  (Former Companions at the MTC in Provo)

Re: Back to winter BRRRR 4-17-13

I'm so freaking jealous of all the snow in Utah. In fact I really really missed the mountains and the snow when I saw the back of Heathers wedding invitation. The chances of seeing snow here are practically zero percent. I heard about the Boston marathon from one of the english course students yesterday morning. Maybe dad should think about taking a few years off from the marathons if people are starting to target them.

Ok on with the week. The work picked up alot this week. At the start of the week a member invited us to come with him to go visit a less active family that is now accepting visits from the missionaries again. We went and took a small spiritual thought just to see where they were and how they felt about the church after being away for so long. They were really nice and really open about everything. At the end we asked them to come back to church this sunday. Sure enough sunday they were there for sacrament meeting and they seemed to really enjoy it. Hopefully they will come back for good and become strong members again. 

One of the investigators we have been working with for a while to agree to baptism now has a baptismal date for the end of the month or the first week of may. We started teaching her a lesson in church and she stopped us and said "I want to tell you about my dream" she had a dream about baptism and confirmation and now feels it is time to be baptised. The lord works in mysterious ways. We are really excited for her. She just needs to get married to her husband and she is clear for the baptism. We aren't sure about the date because of this, but they are working to get the wedding organized now. 

P-day today was really fun. We went to Bari to play some soccer. We got together with all the elders in Bari and played for a few hours. The soccer Field was the coolest. It was about 30 meters away from the sea. The beaches here are so beautiful. 

I'm still in Bari because there is zone conference tomorrow and I'm sitting in an Internet point so sorry if the email this week is really short. There were really more things I wanted to say, but they are all in the journal so maybe next week.

Brindisi Italy 4-10-13

Conference was the best. We went to Lecce to watch it and they had an english broadcast for the Greenie down there. I decided that it was probably better to understand everything instead of practice my Italian. I can't even describe how powerful General C

onference is in the mission. Everything takes on a whole new meaning when you are listing for not only yourself, but to learn how to further the lords work. It's just amazing. There is no denying that these are men called of God. I didn't hear the sunday afternoon session becuase it was at 2 in the morning here, but I will get to read it in the Liahona when it comes. 

Other good news for missionaries in Rome that comes with General Conference is that we can now take off the suit jacket!! It just got 100x cooler. 

That car that I saw last week was nothing. When I saw that car I told Anz Liccioli "you would never see that in Brindisi. It's to tranquil down there." and sure enough, just because I said that, just yesterday I saw two cars that had been lit on fire the night before. Ironic isn't it? 

We are starting to pick up the work again. It just kind of swings up and down with the seasons. I'm not trying to complain when it's slow. It's just you ask me how it's going I answer. Around easter and christimas and parts of the summer the work slows down around the entire mission. Everyone becomes super active in the Catholic church during these holidays. Now we found a new less active family that is willing to meet with us. We still have a couple investigators and people are stopping to talk to us on the street. I'm  really starting to like talking to people on the street surprisingly. Even some of the rejections are really funny to me. We had this one guy stop and talk to us for a while eventually he was like "yeah I kinda do my own thing with religion , but lets go get a coffee." We politely refused and went our way to continue looking for people to teach.

I always think I'm ready to get transferred, but then I think about all the friends I've made between the members, english course students, and random people on the street that always stop to talk to us and I 'm not so sure about the transfer here. I really like brindisi and it's going to be one of the stops when you guys come to tour. Anyways thats still 3 weeks in the future. I think there will be a spot open in Abruzzo ;)

Mothers day is coming up next month. I'm excited to see you guys on skype again. I'm sure we will have plenty to talk about. I'm going to come back way better at piano that I was. I have been forced to learn how to sight read a bit by the members haha. I'm really happy to have the music. One of the members is a classical music fanatic and he goes nuts everytime I play a little chopin. 

Tante belle cose. 

Anziano Faggiol