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