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