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!
