Buon capo d'ano. 

 A lot of people here have joked about the Mayan calendar here. Some
one even paid for advertisements that said something like "screw the
Mayans" and stuff like that. The world hasn't ended yet. New years was
crazy here. One thing I learned yesterday is that the U.S knows
absolutely nothing about how to put on firework shows. We went to bed
at the regular hours, but at midnight all heck broke loose. People
made the biggest bombs. Car alarms were going off from the explosions
and fireworks were being shot into the sky all around the city. There
were people shooting off fireworks on our street and they were going
off right about level with our balcony. It was the most amazing
firework show I have ever seen. It sounded like there was a war going
on in the city.

The baptism was pretty good. Other than the part where he didn't
want to go in the freezing water (who can blame him). We didn't take
pictures of the actual baptism we were just posing before we actually
performed the ordinance. Speaking of pictures you need to put the
pictures I send home on the blog with the emails! Anyways he is doing
good. He brings a bunch of friends to church every week so we will
probably get a few more baptisms this transfer. He is really happy he
joined the church. He tells us that he could very distinctly feel a
difference in his life after he was baptised. I think the feeling of
baptising someone for the first time was not what I expected. I am
sure it would have been alot different if his reaction the the water
wasn't as funny as it was. That picture of his face is the only thing
that can describe what I am trying to say here. The baptism wasn't
what I expected, but his conversion on the other hand was an amazing
thing to watch. The gospel blesses lives and helps people to change
for the better.

Christmas in Italy is hard for missionaries. We couldn't do anything
that day. We went out on the streets and saw 1 person walking around.
Everything was closed. It felt really creepy. It was like all those
zombie movies were the streets are completely empty and nothing is
running. No lights, the fountains were off, and there were no cars
going anywhere. New years was alot better than Christmas.

Something weird that happened last week that I forgot to tell you on
the 26th is another crazy person story. There is no way I could tell
you all these stories about crazy people here in Italy over email, but
this one needs to be told. There is a guy here that just speaks
nonsense all the time so most of the time we just try to avoid him.
One day we went into the church and there was a letter tapped to the
door from this guy, written in formal legal format. In the letter he
requested that the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints make
him a U.S citizen and find him a woman of U.S citizenship to marry. I
still have the letter and will probably keep it.

That was the summary of my last 2 weeks here in Brindisi. Just a
mixture of crazy people, empty streets, and funny baptisms. I am doing
my best out here to lose my self in the work of bringing souls to
Christ.                                                               Miss you and love you
Anziano Faggioli