I GOT A SISTER IN THE MISSION

12/6/2017

Well this was an interesting week, probably only because the new Sorelle that came in are whitewashing into Alessandria but also because I knew the new Sorella who came into Alessandria. So the Trainer for them is Sorella Kopischke, she is from Germany (I didn't know her) but she's super cool! gotta love those Germans am I right lol haha so out of the last group of new coming missionaries their were 12 new Sorelle coming in I knew one of them but the odds of her coming here were 1 out of 12 so I wasn't counting on it. We had to go to the train station to pick them up and take them to their apartment. So we call the Office Anziani that morning asking when they are supposed to be leaving Milano they said around 2:30ish. We called them again around 4ish (when the train was supposed to come in) they said they hadn't even left Milano yet!!! So I said to Anziano Younce let's just go and see if they are on the platform maybe they are here. We get out there and we don't see them we start walking back inside when we turn around we see 2 girls carrying 2 bags each on the complete other end of the platform. Turns out it was them!! (Which was nice cause we didn't want to have to wait an hour and a half more in the station) They start getting closer and I realize it is the Sorella I knew!!! (Before all this happened I told Anziano Younce "it's going to be the Sorella that I know") Its Sorella Walker from my old ward when I lived in Pleasant Grove, Utah! Super weird right?!? So now in missionary terms she's my sister in the mission kinda weird but cool, we'd never really talked to each other before the mission. 

Before all this happened though we had to send off the old Sorelle (my mission moms) We helped them get there bags to the station and sent them on there way to Milano and I've seen on Facebook both of them got home safely which is super good!! I know they will both do great back in the world of America lol

Other than that the week was pretty normal we met with Renzo and his wife on Friday night and had Polenta which was super good its a Piemonte dish (the region of Italy we are in) turns out they had invited almost their whole family over for dinner lol

Saturday we went up to visit Vincent in Valenza taught about Faith was a good lesson he understood it i think! got bidonied and then went to dinner at one of the 10 Gabrillo's houses (a phillipini family) the first half hour the mom was speaking Tagalic and the kids were responding in Italian it was quite interesting lol Vescovo (bishop) come over with his kids as well his kids are the craziest kids in the ward lol

Sunday was Fast Sunday both the Sorelle got up first and bore their testimonies, Sorella Walkers was longer than mine when I got up their my first week lol Sorella Kopischke's was twice as long as both of ours combined lol then testimony meeting started it was super good, we had Gospel Principles on the Priesthood we had 2 Italians in the class a Phillipino and 8 Africans 5 of which are our investigators! If you could sit in one of these classes you would probably laugh they are so great!! That evening we had the G. A. N. S. FHE and we watched the Face to Face from a few weeks ago with Elder Oaks and Ballard we had to wait for them to translate it into Italian to watch it with the GANS. Monday we got Bidonied by Cletus who has only done that to us one other time, but we're meeting with him today so we will see what's happening there, we also had an appointment with Oscar who is a really shy African come to find out he doesn't understand English very well XD his native tongue is Twi so we have to figure out how we are going to teach him... 

Yesterday was another interesting day, cause we had to go to Genova for a Special District Meeting with the district from Genova and the Capi (zone leaders) President Allen wants us to focus a lot more on speaking Italian sooooo we did the whole meeting in Italian XD i understood everything, but I didn't end up saying anything cause I didn't know how to.... They are also really pushing us on our new goal for this upcoming year which is 3, 2, 1. Which means 300 baptisms,  2 new wards, and 1 temple (sadly not in Northern Italy just the Rome one lol) but they want us to do everything possible to do this. They have really asked us to try and talk to 10 new people every day and we haven't reached that goal yet but we are working on it. President Allen is doing some really good stuff here in the mission and I'm really looking forward to working with him and the other missionaries to accomplish our goals as a mission. 

To close this email today I just want to express to everyone how much I love you and care about you!! But I would also like to point all of our thoughts (for all those who have actually read to this point lol) to the true meaning of Christmas, what do you think Christmas? I won't judge for most of my life I thought it was all about the presents. Something my family has always done is something called the greatest gift of all I will explain more in my email before Christmas but through doing that every single year my thoughts of Christmas have changed so much its not about the presents, it's about the Savior and what he did for us by doing what His Father asked him to, during this Christmas season I would ask that you all really think about why Christmas is so important to you and when you find out why go ahead and send me an email or message on Facebook and tell me what it is if you dont mind sharing! (if you send me one of Facebook I will probably respond with an email to you just so you know) but I would love hearing from each of you what it is. Spend time with your family show them that you truly love them!! I love you all and can't wait to hear from you!! 

Sinceramente, 

Anziano Harrison 

Don't run faster than your guardian angels can fly!

Zone P-Day in Genova

This last week has been really fast and has had ups and downs haha

So last week Thursday we had our normal Thursday night with Italian class English class then we didn't have Institute because all of the GANS were all driving to the Switzerland temple (I wanted to ask President if we could go but Anz Younce said no) haha Friday was a day of Bidoni lol no fun, Saturday was we went and saw Nonna who is the woman I talked about in my Facebook post if you saw it! Gave her a blessing cause she hasnt been feeling well. Sunday was legendary in Gospel Principles the teacher didn't show up so Anz Younce taught the whole lesson but in English cause the class had 8 English speakers and 1 Italian speaker lol so Sorella Kopischke translated for the Italian the whole time but the lesson was on Priesthood Organization and the Africans were sooooo confused but also not at the same time it was weird duuuudes. We had a lesson with Cletus on Monday went well it was about the Word of Wisdom and he already doesn't drink or smoke he just drinks tea and coffee but he said he would stop so that was awesome! Tuesday we had district meeting in complete Italian and I was dying cause I understood 50% or less lol but it was good we then went and got gelato as a district at La Romana its the only gelato place I've been here but it's baller! We then passed out English class fliers then had English class at 8 it was so good we only had advanced students so we just talked about Christmas! Today was Zone P-Day hence the title we got on a train this morning at 9:30 to get to Genova at 10:30 to play calcio (soccer) it was super fun, one of our Zone Leaders messed up his knee though (Anz Wilson) because Anz Jackson tripped while running for the ball or something and like flew into Anz Wilson, besides that calcio was fun! We then went and had Peruvian food at this cool restaurant in Genova. Now we're on the train back to Alessandria I'll add the two pictures I took from this week to the email just of Gelato and Zone P-Day picture so yeah lol besides that our week was pretty good besides 2 of our Italian investigators decided they didn't want to take the lessons anymore so yeah that happened yesterday within hours of each other... To finish off the email I'm just going to say that Italy is great I'm loving life as a missionary and am looking forward to the time I spend here. I love you all and wish you all the best in the next week! If you've read them far send me a little email not long just something about what's going on in your life! Oh yeah it's my birthday Saturday! 20th birthday in Italy! It's also the day of the ward Christmas party so that's cool! Ciao ciao tutti!

Sinceramente, 

Anziano Harrison 

Don't run faster than your guardian angels can fly!

1 transfer down 15 to go

11/29/2017

It's weird to think I've been in the mission already 6 weeks and that new missionaries are flying into Italy today. That's how it all works though, time always moves forward for some faster than others. I think it has been moving pretty fast for me personally. People here in the mission have been asking me "what's the one thing that you didn't really expect to happen once you got out on your mission?" I honestly didn't know at first. Then I thought about it and realized up to this point I already knew what I was getting myself into with coming on a mission. I knew the mission was going to be hard, that the language was going to be harder and so I kind of just said whatever happens its going to happen. I honestly didn't like that this is how I felt about being out here, I want this to be the hardest two years of my life, I need to be more willing to practice the language and to make a better effort to learn why I am where I am in the mission. Well know that I've talked about that lol let's see how my week went... I had a pretty decent week my trainer just got sicker and sicker while I got better and better which was weird but I dunno how the body works so haha he's getting better ish now... I think. Friday last week was P-Day so it's really only been a few days since I last emailed... Saturday we had an amazing appointment with the Poncino family (Renzo our eternal investigator) we went in thinking he'd been taught everything about the gospel so we prepared a lesson on the Priesthood and how it blesses the lives of the family. Come to find out, in 40 years of all the lessons from all  the missionaries not one lesson ever did the other missionaries talk about the Priesthood. Not once. He doesn't want to baptized cause of one thing, tithing. We didn't try to talk about that at all. But the discussion headed in that direction. He told us at one point "All the missionaries ever did when they would come and teach me was tithing. Tithing this tithing that." he said "I love the missionaries, I'll invite them over for a lesson, I'll make them lunch or dinner, just don't teach me about tithing, that's all I ask of you." We were dumbfounded how could this guy literally after 40 years not know what the Priesthood was and how it works and all of that. His wife has been a member for just about 39 years. That's crazy to me, but don't worry we will get him sooner or later. Sunday we had Benjamin, and Cletus (pronounced Claytus) come to church they both had to leave after 2nd hour though. We then had the monthly ward lunch they do which is right after 3rd hour and we ate a ton of Phillipino food lol the ward is more than half non-italian mostly Phillipino and Argentine or Peruvian lol but they all speak Italian lol

The sorelle taught the GANS FHE lesson that night was really good about Christ-like Attributes. Monday we got up did studies and then went over to the Mecca's house across town. They are an Argentine family that moved here 15 years ago they have all girls one is preparing to go on a mission (she's 26) that's the age most Italians go on missions here is what I've heard from most people. They are honestly one of the coolest families ever though really nice and sweet especially when it came to me speaking in Italian lol that night we went out with a bunch of our students from English class to get pizza as a farewell party for the Sorelle. Anziano Younce taught basically two lessons in about half an hour to this one guy Georgeo who isn't really interested in the gospel but might be after what Anziano Younce shared with him!! Then yesterday we had a lesson with Cletus and we did a half soft half full baptismal date invite!! for either the last two Saturdays in December or the First Saturday of January!!!! We told him it all depends on how often he meets with us and if he keeps his commitments that we give him which he has been so far!! Then we had English class the Sorelle taught cause it was their last one before then leave tomorrow. Which is sad cause I'm causing my first deaths in the mission (sending missionaries home) Today for P-Day we've been at the apartment just writing emails aren't really doing anything cause we aren't suppose to travel on the P-Day before transfers (aka tomorrow is transfers) so not much else to report to everyone. Hope everyone is getting ready for Christmas! I invite all of you to do the 25 ways in 25 days of service you can go to Mormon.org to learn more about it and I'll be posting on Facebook about it as well so look for it!! Love you all! 

Sinceramente, 

Anziano Harrison 

Don't run faster than your guardian angels can fly! 

We took dying pictures as a distinct lol I think it's super funny lol

Our dying pictures, I'm a murderer lol

 Here's a quote I liked from Facebook

I got peanut butter and celery

Malato

11/24/2017

Hello peoples!

Malato in Italian means sick, my trainer and I are both getting sore throats and we're not going to make it we've decided. Quindi questo è mio ultimo messaggio per tutti. lol jk we will probably be alright in a day or two. Today for P-Day we are just staying in Alessandria because we both aren't feeling too good. 

This week has been crazy fast though we started the week off last Friday with a few appointments one of which was with Carmelo which was super good cause we were about to have Pietro come with us and it was a really good lesson, but then after we were driving back and there was a car accident on the highway so we sat in the car for almost 2 hours. Pietro showed us what type of music he listens too lol he's so funny! Saturday we got had lunch with Nonna, she made her famous purple chicken which literally looks purple but I didn't get a picture of it sadly... We got bidonied that night by one of our Africans. Sunday we had Conferenza di Palo (stake conference) got to see a few missionaries from my first MTC group which was cool! We then had scombi (exchanges) with the Capi (zone leaders) Sunday night into Monday morning nothing really crazy happened cause we got bidonied with the 3 lessons we had planned for when we were suppose to be on scombi Monday night we got to see Claytus and really made some progress we taught repentance and he really seemed to understand how it all works! Tuesday we had district meeting, and went to Andrea's pizzeria (the member we know) it was good got some nice pizza again! Wednesday we took the train to Milano for Elder Sabin's mission tour with us! It was super good mostly about keep habits after the mission but still super good and I got to see some more people from my first MTC group! I'll throw that picture in at the bottom. Yesterday we had some appointments so we moved P-Day to today so we wouldn't have to cancel any of them and they all turned out to be bidoni so great right? That's about it for the week though! Oh yeah there's a holiday that some people have been talking about... Hmm which one was it again.... Hm Christmas no wait its not December yet.. Oh yeah that one everyone forgets about THANKSGIVING! We didn't do much for Thanksgiving but I hope you all had a wonderful day of giving thanks! I'm so very grateful for my Savior who lived died and has risen again for us all, He took all of our sins so that we can return to live with Him and our Father in Heaven! I am also thankful for my family and friends who have supported me through all of my trials that I've gone through! I love you all send me a list of what your thankful for! I want to know! 

Love, 

Anziano Harrison 

Don't run faster than your guardian angels can fly!

 

 

 Missionaries from my first MTC group!

 Getting ready to take a group picture with Elder and sister Sabin

 This place sells BIG burgers 25 kilograms is about 55 pounds of meat.

My trainer took the back seat

Italian cheesecake

Portofino

11/16/2017

This week has been pretty good all things considered lol, we had a lot of bidoni again this week... We are working on that with our Africans. Mostly Nelly and Wilson so we will see how that goes. P-day last week was good! Really enjoyed it, church on Sunday was a little disappointing cause sacrament meeting started and we had 0 investigators there, then all of a sudden every single one of our Africans minus one so we had 5 show up and another one who we haven't taught a lesson to in a while! That was so good so in totally we had 6 there, but they all left after 2nd hour except Claytus he stayed!! He's been the one that has been really doing everything we have been asking him and is progressing really well! Oh I forgot on Saturday we met with Vincent who lives in a city north of Alessandria called Valenza we teach him normally in the train station and he has been doing really well too though! We didn't get to see Carmelo this week sadly but that's okay we will see him next week and on Sunday at church! Monday nothing crazy happened except for we played ping pong with a Romanian who was really good he isn't a member but his friend is one of the Phillipini in the ward so that was cool! Tuesday we had district meeting and that was good most of the stuff has been about the 3 missionaries that are going home before the new year, but I still enjoy it! We had English class at 8 and then went home. Wednesday we got up early and went to Milano for a new missionary training which was pretty fun! I got to see my MTC group and Anziano Rußbült everyone seems to be doing great! The work is going good! That's why today being Thursday you are all getting my email instead of Wednesday, next week will be the same way as well on of the quorum of the 70 is coming on Wednesday to speak to us so P-day will be Thursday again. Today we are going to this place called Portofino it is suppose to be beautiful on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea I will for sure send pictures from the hike and stuff besides that we aren't doing much today cause the train ride is pretty long to get there 2 ish hours so we will get there are 10 am but we have to be back in Alessandria at 6 for Italian class so we will see how that goes! 

For the Spiritual side of my email this week I want to talk about Faith. It is something we have been working with our Africans a lot because the way they are when we ask them if they will come to something or doing something they will day "by the grace of God I will be there" or "do what you have asked" and then they never do it cause they believe faith is something you just need to believe in. I want everyone who is reading this email to know believing isn't the only thing you have to do in order to have faith, yes its a major part of it and you should still have it but it is a principle of action. In order for you to actually get anything out of your faith you must also act upon the things which people are asking you to do or that you want to find out you must search with faith that if you find the answer or whatever it may be that you will act on what you receive otherwise there is no point to your belief. I'm not trying to shake anyone's world up by bringing this up I just want everyone to understand how important faith really is and how you yourself can have greater faith in whatever you want! I just went on a rant I am sorry for those of you who found that boring I hope you didn't though! I love you all and hope all is well wherever you all may be! 

Love, 

Anziano Harrison 

Don't run faster than your guardian angels can fly!

 The sun was shining in the worst spot so we both look very bad in this picture lol

 This describes my trainer

  Portofino

 We hiked out to this lighthouse and you could look all the way down the coast which was cool!

 The point of Portofino you could see the Alps from there with the snow on them!! Crazy!

 The harbor of Portofino

 The walk from Santa Margherita to Portofino took about one an a half hours

This is how clean the water is here in the Mediterranean which is dope! 

Bidoni

11/8/2017

This week has been really fast! Not necessarily a good thing because we've had a lot of bidoni (which means no shows for appointments) we had scheduled a total of I think 8 appointments this last week, and only only 2 went through but it's okay cause we are trying harder and praying harder fast Sunday was well worth it! Because Carmelo our Italian investigator had a lesson with him for yesterday, we got to talk to him about baptism and he really does want to get baptized but he's got a lot of things holding him back he recognizes everything he needs to change, but we are working with him! Carmelo works at a members pizzeria so we always try to do our appointments there so we can have a member present the cool thing is they always make us pizza and give us dessert as well! I will send pictures of both in the bottom the pizza was called Filippa which has buffalo cheese and speck on it (speck is basically bacon) but it was sooooo good! And it was also free :) Claytus one of our African investigators is the other one we got to meet with and he's absorbing the gospel really well understands just about everything we tell him but we are going slow with him cause we need him to understand everything! He's super cool! We went to this outlet center that was in our area and it literally has all the expensive stores you could think of Gucci, Calvin Klein, Prada, Versace, and Hugo Boss just to name a few it was cool didn't get anything really cause it was super expensive but it was worth the adventure! I'm going to include a picture of my district and Pietro (English his name is Peter) he's a member who is leaving on his mission in December to London England which is so cool he comes to all our English classes so he can get a head start on the language. Hmm I don't know what else we're having a blast here that's for sure I love the ward and I think they at least like me XD Love you all and would love to hear from you!

Love, 

Anziano Harrison

Don't run faster than your guardian angels can fly!

 pizza from the pizzeria

 chocolate cake was sooooo good

Street in a town called Acqui Terme 

 focaccia dolce (sweet bread)

 district with Pietro (I seriously cannot get enough of that smile :)

 More pictures of Acqui Terme, and what I had for lunch on Sunday! Milka bars are heavenly.

Caldo Cioccolato

11/1/2017

Wednesday last week we started a scripture study class for our English speaking investigators, we only had one come to that and he technically isn't even an investigator yet lol

Thursday we had an appointment with Carmelo but he cancelled, his friend Gero who is a member said he cancelled cause he felt ashamed because he didn't follow through with the commitment that we had left him with which is good i guess but we need to start meeting with him more. Not much else happened on Thursday except we had Italian class where we taught our Africans Italian, and then English class where we taught Italians English lol weird right??

Friday we went out to Valenza which is a town north of Alessandria where one of our Africans Vincent lives. We had a member drive us Petro (who actually has his mission call right now he will serve in the London mission idk which one though), we get to the train station where Vincent told us to meet him. We pick him up and he starts to give us directions to where we thought was a park, but it turns out he wanted to have us come into his camp (refugee camp for the refugees) and normally we aren't allowed to go in them, but he insisted so we did we got to meet two of his friends Paul and Sameul who are both interested in our message! We didn't bring any extra English book of Mormons so we said we'd bring some next time we come to see Vincent (which should be sometime this week). We taught the first half of the plan of Salvation went really well kind of weird teaching in English after studying 6 weeks to teach this all in Italian lol! We then leave Valenza to go to one of our member appointments, this woman insists on all missionaries calling here Nonna (Italian for Grandma) she is the sweetest lady and makes really good food! She cooks with a lot of wine... It tastes good :D but I don't know how much of the alcohol actual cooks out so we don't really ask questions about what she cooks with lol, we left her house to go and wait at the church for an appointment that ended up falling through, then we went to the Moralis home for some dinner! This cute couple is a Philippinen couple and they are just awesome the wife speaks really good English but I was trying to speak Italian as much as possible! The only problem is since we had lunch at Nonna's we were still stuffed and so we didn't eat a lot and we felt bad... They cooked really good food it tasted amazing! Just couldn't eat a lot... 

Saturday, we went out to Asti which is one of the 3 città (cities) we can proslyte in. We went and visited a less active who really isn't less active just can't get to church cause of soldi (money). He is super cool kind of strange has a conspiracy theory about the Masons (the founding fathers in america) and the JWs (Jehovas Witness) but that's for a different time lol, We had a good lesson on Ammon from the Book of Mormon! After that we walked around Asti for a little cause our next appointment wasn't for 30mins nothing interesting happened in that time. We then went to visit with Renzo and his wife Gabrielle who is a member. Renzo is what they call an eternal investigator, meaning he always meets with the missionaries but won't get baptized. He knows the church is true but won't give up smoking and coffee. He's been "investigating" the church for 39 years now. We're hoping we can try and get him before the 40 mark but in the end it's up to him. He really loves his family so that's what we focused on in our lesson today families and temple marriage it went really well! He's also been have a lot of knee pains so a few weeks ago Anziano Younce offered to give a priesthood blessing to Gabrielle over the phone and today he said that we could give him one! We made sure to tell him after that the blessing will come to pass through his faithfulness so that he can see the power of the priesthood! First blessing in Italian!! Now the title of the email is there for a reason Gabrielle made us hot chocolate (hence caldo cioccolato) it was literally like melted dark chocolate super thick, tasted like heaven but it was soooooo strong but super good! They literally put the cocco mix in and then the smallest amount of milk so it gets super rich and thick! 

Sunday we had a good turnout for church again with 5 of our Africans and Carmelo our Italian! So 6 total, we have to translate the gospel principles class for our Africans and sometimes it turns out to be quite crazy they ask really strange but good questions! We then had a GANS activity which is basically YSA over here. Got some good pasta!

Monday we had 2 lessons planned one with one of our newer investigators but he hasn't shown up to our appointments yet so we can't consider him one yet XD We scheduled for 4 we called him around 4:15 and he said he could around 7 so we prepared for our next lesson which was at 5:30, this one was with Nelly and Wilson. These two are like glue I have never seen them apart from each other. We taught the second half of the restoration of the Church and watch the Restoration video with them, sadly Nelly got up during the video to use the bathroom and then they both got phone calls during it as well at some point but I think it was still really good for both of them! We then taught them how to pray, starting with "Dear Heavenly Father" then saying things we are grateful for and asking for His help and answers to questions we have, and then closing "in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Wilson repeated this to use and then offered the prayer, in the exact same way that he has always done before I got so frustrated. We thanked him for his prayer and then I continued to make a promise with them, that if they read the scriptures and prayed in the way that we had just showed them that Heavenly Father will bless them with the compacity to learn the Italian language quickly. I didn't even know what I was saying until I said it though.... We then shook hands and they were on their way! That night we made brownies for the Halloween English class we had on Tuesday.

Tuesday we had district meeting at 10:30 in the morning we finished around 1ish cause we had a lot to discuss, then came home for lunch did some 12 weeks training and by the time that was over it was time to go to the church for the service project thingy, this Saturday there is an event that the church is donating 2000 hygiene kits to 5 different organizations and so basically we were organizing the stuff to be put into those kits. By the time we finished that it was time for English class we had all of 3 people show up XD but we did some scary mad libs things they were cool then we ate brownies and this other dessert that was pretty good that the Sorelle made! 

Today, we haven't really done anything today yet we're going to see this thing called "Cittadella di Alessandria" basically it's a fort of some sort I don't really know lol, I'm going to take pictures and add them to this email should be cool! Later today we have our scripture study class with our Africans and then I don't know what else we have planned so we will see how this goes!

I love you all and hope the world is treating you great! If you have any questions about anything shoot me a email, or send me a Facebook message and I can answer it most likely if it's church related! 

This week for the spiritual thought I want to just express that I know Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of us! He is the Father of our spirits and wants to hear from each and everyone of you! I promise that if you make the effort to communicate to Him he will respond to you! If you have any questions on how to do this please email or message me on Facebook I'd love to help you out!! Once again I love you all!! 

Love, 

Anziano Harrison

Don't run faster than your guardian angels can fly!

 

Cioccolata Calda (Hot Chocolate Italian-Style)

 

"Hot chocolate Italian-style is one of the most amazing treats in the world! You have to try this pudding-like chocolate decadence! Add some cinnamon, and whipped cream for a fun variation, or create your own!"

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions

1. Mix the cocoa powder and sugar together in a small saucepan. Stir the 1 1/2 cups milk into the saucepan until the sugar has dissolved. Place over low heat; slowly bring the mixture to a low simmer.
2. Whisk 2 tablespoons of milk together with the cornstarch in a small cup; slowly whisk the cornstarch slurry into the cocoa mixture. Continue cooking, whisking continually, until the hot chocolate reaches a pudding-like thickness, 2 to 3 minutes.

Ciao Tutti da Alessandria, Italia!!

10/25/17

My last week has been pretty crazy, well I haven't emailed in about 10-11 days because I'm now in Italy!! Everything over here is great I'm in a little town called Alessandria, and when I say little it's only little cause all the other cities around in Italy are huge. My trainers name is Anziano Younce he's really cool, He is from Raleigh, North Carolina has been on his mission for 22ish months so he is dying (a missionary term used when someone is finishing their mission) with me. In my district there are only 4 missionaries, my comp and I and a set of sisters who are dying (referring to them going home) this transfer. The work here in Alessandria is coming along great! We had 7 of our investigators come to church on Sunday, granted most of our work here is African refugees we did have one of our three Italian investigators come to church though!! He's awesome, his name is Carmello we have another lesson with him on Thursday, so tomorrow lol. Emmanuel one of our Africans has a baptismal date but we have to drop it cause he's only come to the 1 of the last 5 Sundays.... We are starting to do a Book of Mormon reading class Wednesday nights to help some of our Africans out cause only really 2 of them know how to read so we're doing it so we can teach them and get some gospel topics in there while reading! We have English class every Tuesday and Thursday, Tuesdays the Anziani teach (that's us lol) and Thursdays the Sorelle teach. It's super fun cause it's actually something I can help with! XD We also have this Italian class on Thursdays before English class which is for mostly our Africans so they can learn Italian and get better about communicating with the Italians, super cool! For me the language is coming slowly but surely, I got up in sacrament meeting on Sunday and bore my testimony in Italian and I think it went pretty well, no one has thrown me out of there ward yet lol so that's good! Besides all that I've already had fresh bread, real chocolate and I'm getting real pizza and gelato this week at some point my trainer said lol. I haven't gotten to see much of Italy yet but from what I've seen this place is gorgeous! We went to Genova for a special district meeting which combined 2 districts so that the zone leaders and sister train leaders didn't have to travel all over the place. They talked about our mission goal it's 3, 2, 1, (insert word here) they are still working on it but I'm hoping that we can all come up with ideas for the insert word but 3 represents 300 baptisms we want to have as a mission and 2 is making 2 new wards (which about 150 members make up a ward) and then 1 temple (obviously not one in Milan right now) the Rome temple. So our focus is going to be on trying to get these 300 new converts ready to enter the temple when it is finally open!! Some of you have probably already noticed but I am allowed to use Facebook on my mission and I had to create a new one, so if you could go and add me that would be great! Full name is: Dallin David Harrison. For those of you in the US time zones, if you are sending me personal emails I would suggest sending them to me Monday nights your time cause by that time it's basically Tuesday morning here and it just makes it easier for me to respond if I know what I'm responding to one day in advance! Thanks! I'm going to try an include a bunch of pictures cause alot of stuff has happened in the last week and a half. I don't think there is much else to talk about. I just want to let everyone know that I know that my Redeemer lives and that He loves each and everyone of us, Heavenly Father wants to help us and hear from us but he won't do it without first us asking. I challenge each and everyone of you to atleast try to communicate with Heavenly Father, I promise that if you will do this He will hear you and help you. I love you all can't wait to hear from you!! 

Ti voglio bene e anche ti amo 

Arrivederci!

Remember who you are and what God wants you to become!

Become as He is! 

Love, Anziano Harrison

 

Where is Alessandria? I was wondering the same thing!

 

It's about an hour and a half train ride south west of Milano!

(Spiritual) Prison Break (Out of the MTC)

10/13/2017

This week has flown by so fast its not even funny, I leave Tuesday morning at 3:40 from the MTC and then the long flights begin, First we go from SLC to Dallas, then Dallas to London, London to Milan. Longest one will be the one from Dallas to London we jump through a lot of time zones so I'm planning on sleeping on that flight! This week was pretty mild though lots of teaching "invesigators" had a TRC with some native speakers which is just a Skype call to them from the MTC then we teach them. Sunday night though we had a devotional from the MTC President Martino who served his mission in Milan!!! which was cool oh ya he also came to all of our Sunday meetings so sacrament and priesthood and district meeting. It was cool to talk to him and have his insights on everything! Tuesday we had D. Todd Christofferson come and he talked about the Book of Mormon, all about the publication and why it's so important that we teach from it. Wednesday nothing crazy happened same with yesterday. BBUUUT today they dedicated the new buildings President Eyring dedicated it and Elder Oaks came to conduct. Sister Oscarson came as well and they all talked about the Light that the missionaries are when they come out and serve the Lord for 18-24 months of our lives! This week we've been also learning a lot about the importance of member missionaries! Members your still considered missionaries if you know the missionaries I would suggest helping them out the members are the #1 way to baptize! If you don't know the missionaries get to know them!! I don't really know what else happened this week... Let me know what's going on in you life! Love you all! 

Remember who you are and what He wants you to become!

Become as He is!

Love, Anziano Harrison

 

We didn't get any pictures this week - except Peyton got a random snap from a friend who works at the MTC, we were crying with happiness when we got it!

 He is SO READY to leave for MILAN tomorrow! I get to talk to him in the morning :) Happy mamma!

With Great Power comes Great Responsibility

9/22/2017

This week has been kind of a crazy week, not in the sense that there has been a lot of stuff going on just that the spirit has been so much more present. Actually I have been recognizing it more its always been there. 

Sunday my companion spoke in sacrament meeting about repentance, then the devotional that night was by the Provo Temple President and his wife, and they talked a lot about being a converted missionary and I know that the only way you can convert others is to you yourself be converted to what you are teaching. A testimony of the gospel is strong, but now testimony alone isn't strong enough to protect us from the darkness in today's world. We need to be converted. After the devotional we went and watched a "moive" it wasn't really a movie it was just a previous MTC devotional given by Tad R. Callister and it was titled "A Consecrated Missionary" by far one of the very best devotionals I have ever heard. He asked a question in that devotional "What are you willing to put on the alter of sacrifice?" and I ask all of you to ask yourselves that, what are you willing to sacrifice for the Lord.

Monday: nothing really interesting happens on Mondays lol we did try to have exercise time as a Zone everyone came out to play but 4 of the sisters decided to just sit in the grass while we played volleyball. We're going to try it again this next Monday but with Kick Ball. we also spoke only in Italian for pranzo (lunch) that  day it was the first one so it was intersting but fun at the same time! 

Tuesday: nothing too exciting happened except for our devotional!!! We had one of the 12 come!!! can you guess who?!?!?! .............................. Elder Quinton L. Cook, His talk was really focused on the Restoration and Love. He had the choir sing (I'm in the MTC choir if you didn't know) The Morning Breaks and it was soooooo good! I couldn't believe how good it was we sung all 5 verses and he talked about how we are bringing to pass prophecy and how we are the ones bringing the world the restoration of the gospel super cool! The other thing he talked about was Love, there are 4 types of love missionaries should develop and they are as follows

1. love for your companions: Respect them, learn from them

2. love the people: the more you love them the success you will have when you teach them

3. love your Mission President: as you love your mission president you will want to go to him for guidance even after you mission

4. love the Savior: This one is the most important one. As you love the Savior your desire to serve and love the people increase.

well that was Tuesday!!!!

Wednesday: Not much happened here the day flew by and I can't remember anything.

Thursday: Yesterday was bomb, my lesson with my investigator wasn't that great but then in our evening lesson with Sorella Griffin we talked about "The Power of Our Call" and I'm going to be honest with you I thought I knew what that power of my call as a missionary was before we started talking about this, as we kept talking I realized that I really didn't know all that much about the power of my call. It's from Preach my Gospel on Page 4 (any missionary that is getting this and has had the time read most of my email and is reading this now pay attention) it talks a lot about what we are called to do but more importantly what power we have with this calling, as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we have the power to help people understand that there is more to this life and that the Savior has paid the ultimate price for us to live once again and the only way we can help them is to teach by the power of the Spirit.

Today: one of the Romanian elders is having muscle spasms in his right shoulder so I stayed with him in the residence while everyone else went to the temple and I've just been studying since then and writing this email.

Let me know how you are all doing! Love to hear from you all!

Love you all! Ciao ciao

-Anziano Harrison

Become as He is

 

Theses are the Italians in the Zone

 

Laundry time but my companion says first let me take a selfie

 

Furbo Hedgehog (I have no idea, but I asked)

 September 15, 2017

Ciao Tutti!!

This week at the MTC we had a lot of fun granted it moved a lot faster than the 3 days we had last week lol. 

So last Saturday we had a lesson with our investigator her name is Poline, we planned the lesson on the Apostasy but for some reason I started talking about Joseph Smith my company got a little mad at me for that lol

Sunday we had sacrament it was good my companion sung with one of the Sorelle (sisters) Come unto Christ it was very good! For the talks during sacrament meeting they are called up at random so everyone prepares a talk just in case, the topic was Faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement. I don't like giving talks but I honestly wish that I would've gotten called on cause I love talking about the Atonement!!! Our whole Zone is singing in the choir we practiced singing "Nearer my God to Thee" which we then sung on Tuesday night at the other devotional. Chad Lewis came and talked to us, for those of you who don't know Chad Lewis lived in my ward in Utah but recently moved to Orem so that was cool! I got to take a picture with him after it was great! We then watched the Character of Christ by Elder David A. Bedarf if you haven't heard it you should go find it on lds.org, it applies mostly you missionaries but it is sooooo good! that's basically all that happened Sunday

Not much happened Monday just lingua studiare and our lesson with Poline.

Tuesday was great!! We had a devotional by Patrick Kearon of the Presidency of the seventy he talked about missionary work and how our service isnt taken for granted. While he was talking I had the impression to write something down that my Dad's side of the family always says "We can do hard things" missionaries thrive on opposition, even member of the church do but this is what makes us stronger. God will not tempt us with more than we can bare. He asked a really good question. Do you know the song "I Lived in Heaven"? We all begin to sing the song then asked the really good question, Do you believe in the words of this song, enough to teach it with confidence? I just sat there and was like "I think I am" and I decided right then and there "no I know that I can" this is the grand purpose of coming to this earth. I know it, I love it, and I'm teaching it for the rest of my life.

Wednesday I don't really remember what happened cause we were so busy doing stuff.

Yesterday we had our service in the morning and it was in our building so we went there and the boss man cleaner guy said "You have a good day to have service cause the group of missionaries before you finished everything I had planned already" I was a little bummed but I got over it so we literally talked to him and kind of had a therapy session about him lol it was fun then we changed one paper towel roller thingy and fixed a different one and then service was over lol. We play a lot of indoor volleyball and it's the best thing ever Anziano Snyder who is my district leader is so good at it so we always try to be on the same team. We had our last lesson with Poline last night and she said she'd get baptized in a month after she's studied the gospel a little more!!!!!

Today is so far great went to the temple this morning and now am just writing this hope all is well in the real world!!!

Love you all! Hope to hear from all of you!

Arrivederci, Anziano Harrison

Become as He is! 

Pictures

all of the Anziani in our district (were working on getting a zone picture hopefully today)

I'm standing next to my companion

 

MTC 2.0

September 8, 2017

Hello everyone!! For those of you who don't know why you stopped receiving my emails last year, I went home to work on somethings. Now I'm back and better than ever!! I'm back at the MTC for 6 weeks again, my new companion (collega) is Anziano Russbuelt. He is a native German and flew from Germany to Utah to the MTC and is learning Italian with us here. My companion and I were called as Zone Leaders last night, it's been good so far but it also hasn't been too long with the leadership position. Italian is coming a lot easier this time around but I also have almost a year of off and on study of Italian. Not much is different except for the new buildings which are amazing!! I don't know what else to talk about really... Went to the temple this morning with the district. It was very good!
Until next time!
Love, Anziano Harrison
Remember who you are and what God wants you to become.


Chad Lewis came and spoke at the MTC on Sunday, look at that smile!!