July 19, 2020 pt. 2

I'm being transferred to Reggio Calabria!! Everyone in my house got transferred to different areas which is insanity. 

July 19, 2020

It's crazy to think that I'm half way done with my mission. Now it's a chase to hold onto time before it all slips away. I'm already thinking about how much I'm going to miss Italy.

I've recently gotten more adventurous with my cooking. I make a homemade Mac and cheese which is harder here because you're forced to use real cheese and melt it and turn that into a sauce. It was pretty dang good, the cheese isn't exactly cheep though haha. 

I'm writing this before I get my transfer call so I'm not sure if I'm leaving this week or staying for at least another 6 weeks. Both options are a bitter sweet. I've really gotten used to this area and have a vision for it's future. I just hope when I leave that the next missionaries here will see it like I do now.

I'm now writing my own songs on guitar because I'm getting bored of the other stuff and it's not easy to find new songs I want to learn. And no I don't write lyrics it's just the music ahah. Things are still kind of slow here so we have to find productive things to do with our boredom. We're almost out of this mess over here . The more I look at the bigger picture of certain events and changes happening at specific times, God has everything worked out. Necessary steps are obviously made before you could've imagined having to make that step. I'll leave it to you guys to look at everything yourselves and make your own realizations specifically pertaining to your own lives. It's a really cool experience.

My main focus in my personal studies and self development has been to be able to receive personal revelation. It's a skill you cannot be taught and one that requires a lot of work and humility. It's such a rewarding experience because every time you take a step further you feel so good and you feel like you have such a greater understanding of life and everything that has to do with it than ever before. And then you realize that you can learn more because you just did. God really does reward you every step of the way in order to tell us that it's right and to encourage us to keep going.

  

   I think I've heard before to not pray for humility if you don't want a humbling experience. This is kind of funny because you're just asking for a crappy day or two  but call me crazy, but I want to ask God for that crappy day. A thing that I've learned most recently or at least something I finally understand better is that we are in this life to learn in the most effective way possible. A way that Adam and eve had to fall from the presence of God in order to participate in. We were all learning in heaven as spirit children, as were Adam and eve learning in the garden, but we knew and God still knows that that is not how we were going to grow to become like how father in heaven. Books never trump experience. Even if the book is read to us by someone with a lot of it.

This email got pretty long but it could have and would have gone a lot longer if I didn't catch myself there ahah. If you want to have a nice conversation about anything I just said I would love to discuss it with you.

I love you all and have a great week! 

-Anziano Harvey 

June 28, 2020

Hey everyone! Things are starting to pick up here in Italy. We can do activities and even teach people in person! There's still a lot do restrictions tho.

   We just had a ysa activity which was super fun, and in a week we will have another one! It's nice not being in a super strict quarantine anymore.

I don't gave too much to say other than the fact that I feel way more comfortable in the language now and I can actually give input on conversations with bigger groups of people. It's normally hard because you need to know how to say it in the moment you think it, and you can't stumble through what you want to say or someone will finish your sentence and move on .

Things are going to pick up a lot pretty soon so I'm excited for that. Apparently we probably won't get new missionaries until September.... We do not have enough missionaries for this mission. We're looking forward to them getting to come tho!!

Vi voglio bene!!

May 4, 2020

Alright. Our devotional last night was given by Bishop Caussé, the presiding bishop of the church. It was super cool. He's French yet speaks very good English.

This morning the restrictions let off a little so we can be out on the street. For us missionaries that's exclusively for exercise in the morning. So today I ran to the Colosseum!! It was so nice. I almost forgot I was in Italy. We ran through parks and neighborhoods on the way, and we're planning to do other nice touristy runs.

I now play the guitar and am not afraid to say it haha. Meaning I wouldn't be afraid to play if a guitar was presented to me as if to call my bluff lol. Today is such a good day having actually left my street.

I've learned so much so far on my mission. So much so that I feel like I'm a totally different person. It's kind of scary but God has been directing me to scriptures about not fearing what people think or say. I'm ready to start my new life when I'm home! That of course will be a little over a year from now haha and by then I'll have changed twice as much! Haha I'm very excited for what I'm able to become. God truly sees us for our potential and if we just let him take the lead in our lives we will become more than we could have possibly imagined. 

Vi voglio bene! Sorry that I don't write much. It's been hard with quarantine and such. I stayed sane through it all by the grace of God.

Ciao tutti! Arrivederci!!