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

4-3-13

I was in a bigger city today and saw a car that someone had stolen the tires off of. Just like that story we heard about napoli.

I'm glad that I was able to write you guys this week. I wasn't sure we were going to have time. All the trains were stopped for 3 hours because someone got run over on the tracks. 

Anyways the week. This week we have continued to teach the wife of a member here. She has heard all the lessons and wants to be baptised, but she still wants to wait until some other things are in order. The best we can to is just to wait until she wants to. As missionaries we are here to invite people and to help people get ready. We can't make the decision for her. We are now just waiting to see how things pan out this transfer. She comes to church almost every week. It's nice to see a full family in the ward every week. All of the members here have part member families so it's really refreshing to see a husband, wife and kids together in sacrament meeting. The daughter is really funny. She is really shy the entire lesson, but when I pick up my scripture case and start getting ready to leave she throws a fit and makes it hard to leave. 

Easter was really wonderful. the day after the entire city disappeared to the beaches and country side to have some time with the family. We were invited to lunch for both these days. It's rough on me. I'm going to have nightmares of plate after plate after plate full of food. Everyone eats lamb on easter sunday. It was so freaking good. Only Sean and Emilia understand how good I am eating here. 

I finished the B.o.M for the first time in Italian this week. Now I just need to finish the New testament. I'm really proud of this. I read a 630 page book in a foreign language. Not to bad. I'm not going to bother with D&C or the old testament while I'm here. The most important books for missionary work are the Book of Mormon and the New testament. Maybe after I come home I can read them to help keep up the Italian. 

Thats all for now. Love you

Anziano Faggioli