Alright- Buckle up cause here is that email that is just explodinnggggg with too much information. Hahaha And also I realize my spelling is horrible but keyboards here are different so just suck it up. I wasn't good at spelling to begin with!

 

Ok so I am in Italy.. Kinda a big deal. I have a killer apartment that looks like it was cut out of a iKea magazine including ever single appliance. I live there with 3 other Sorelle including my companion and two sister training leaders. CRAYCRAY. It's awesome. My companion is sent from heaven. Her name is Sorella Durfee and she is the most genuine, kind, patient person I have ever met haha I LOVE HER and we have a lot of fun attempting to understand Italian.. Luckily she is good at it!

Ok So the first day I got here... welll I guess first off, the flight was ridiculous. I mean I was awake for a solid 48 hours- and I know you are thinking I should have slept on the plane but ECCO I sat next to people who were not LDS and they asked about my tag and lo and behold I  talked about religion for  the next 8 hours.... and the next 2 flights as well. Out of the 24 missionaries going to Milan, Itlay- I was the one of the like... 4 missionaries that was sitting by non-missionaries haha

the first flight was cool, I sat next to this super nice lady who grew up in Utah and she was SUPER anti-lds. So a little awkward that she was sitting next to a representative of the church? Yes. But she started talking about why and I just apologized on behalf of the church and said the people are not the church and that it was the people that caused her frustration not the church. Then all of a sudden she did a total 180 degree turn and was like oh yeah its a great church, sure there are a ton of great things about it!!! -___- ok what? Haha So then I told her she should go to church sometime and gave her a pass along card and she was all sad cause she thought she could'nt go to church with tattoos and I said she could- man you should have seen her face hahah She was like I CAN???? Hahaha Sooooooooo which ever missionaries snatch her up will have fun explaining THAT one. Although I must say the full size tattoo of her children on her back was quite the sight, I just might have to do that for my future babies.... -___-

Then on the next flight I sat next to this German Man who wanted to talk literally for 8 hours about beliefs which was very cool. Much less success with him but he did agree with almost everything we believed in. He was way nice and said he was thankful for the "enlightenment"... yikes. If he was enlighttend by a 19 year old girl- shoot. somebudy gotta get dat man a Book er Mormon.

 

OK so when I finally got off the plane 100 year later we grabbed all of our stuff looking like idiots 1) we all look dead 2) we keep getting distracted by all the italian writing 3) we have three bags of luggage EACH- it was just s disaster in general. Hahaha But We walked out the glass doors and met our mission president and his wife and they are both SO AWESOME. Sorella Wolfgramm is A TON like Mom so I felt right at home, unfortuantly her hugs are no comparison, nor her laugh... and she doesnt make popcorn.... :) man I miss popcorn. ANYWAY then they took us to the mission home and we basically had class for a while and learned some rules that changed and suddenly we were on a bus again. Haha We got onto the... subway? idk whatever that is in english I am gunna call it a Subway and as soon as we got off we walked up the stairs and there was the DUOMO. HOLY COW ITS AMAZING. I had seen pictures but pictures don't even touch the size of that thing. INCREDIBLE. You would think we would go inside right? I mean we just flew for howevr long and had been up since 2am on tuesday and its wednesday now and still no sleep BUT NO!! They hand us a Book of Mormon and tell us to go talk to someone about  the church THAT'S FUNNY cause I DONT SPEAK ITALIAN. GA. Whatever- me and my collega did it and then we got to go to the Duomo. We literally just stopped someone and talked to them. I have the weirdest job in the world.

 

The rest of the week is pretty steriotypical missionary work except 100 times cooler cause I am in Italy... suuuuuuuuuuu no big deal. We wake up in the mornings and go running in Italy cause I live in Itlay and then we go talk to some Italians and eat Italian food and then come home to our Italian apartment acting all Italian--ish and eating a jar of nutella like nobodies business. Haha

 

Ya know what else is great? The ward. Its awesome. Ya know that sound the TV makes when you fast forward something?.... ya. Just imagine 3 hours of that... Haha  Kidding I actually understand way more then I thought I would. The members just LOVE talking to me so I can respond in my horribly broken Italian hahaha and then during sacrament meeting which is the last hour, the bishop was suddenly saying my name.... uh panic- its hard to recognize my name here cause the letter h doesn't have a sound and the w sounds like a v- so he calls for Sorella Ollovay and I look right at him and want to DIE hahaha so the two training sisters who are BOTH in their LAST transfer aka are bomb-diggity at Italian go up and give this beautifully elequent testimony and then I go up.... awkward. I basically said "I Sorella Ollovay. This day 4 day me in Italia and talk in Italian. Me love Italia. Me love being here. Me love this ward. I know God has a plan for us. I know Jesus Christ Lives. I am thankful to a missionary for him. in the name of Jesus Christ Amen". Hahaha AWESOME first impression....  But then after everyone was like- wow that was great and pretended like I was just so great and had been speaking for years so at least they were nice about it haha Then after church this family that owns a bakery gave us this HUGE bag of bread just cause. Ummmm HEACK YEAH I'll eat that!!! then they did it again Tuesday night!! WHAT IS THIS??? Its incredible.

We teach about 3 lessons a day but not really to investigators, a lot of our time is to inactives there are a ton here and a lot of problems with smoking and such. We plan on getting that number up as soon as possible haha we are trying to get 6 lessons a day and still have time for tracking and stuff. The hard part is that my first area is in Milano... I dont know if I mentioned that... I AM IN MILANO AND ITS INCREDIBLE. I am in the New York of Italy hahaha AWESOME.  But because we are in the city there is a lot of travel time. I ride the Bus and the Subway at least 4 times a day. And you know how much I looovvvveeee public transportation... joy. Totally worth it. 100 percent.

I actually haven't been able to talk to many true Italians here. The Italians we do talk to usually talk to us about politics especially those over the age of 50.. but we talk a lot with peolpe from the Phillipins, Egypt, and a lot of Nigirians. uhhh Yeah. oh and a lot from Brazil. In fact we have a Brazialian investigator from Brazil who is getting babtised in 3 weeks HOLLA! She is 17 and is awesome through and through!

Hey remember that one time I sent a million things home and then forgot to send my straightener...and how my adaptors dont work.... and then I now have to throw my straightener and my adaptors away -____- COOL.

Overall I love life and I love being a misionary. In fact today is Day 50! YAY!!! Happy 50 day aniversary to me. I have nothing to complain about cause all is well!!!! Hope everyone is doing good over there in the good ol USA- I miss errrybody! I also miss walking out in Public and people not running away... haha I swear when people see the tag- they want to die, it has some kind of replelling force. we have to like find ways to hide it and then slyly uncover it mid conversation so we are already talking and they realize we aren't bible-bashers like all of the Jahovah Witnesses here -___- OR we catch people staring at the tag and we awkwardly catch them and be like Oh! Have you seen this before??? Lets Talk. hahaha Also I can't write anymore so its back to email for everybody- sorry for all the whiplash.

LOELOVELOVELOVELOVE ALL YALL

 

Sorella Holloway

 

Mom: HEYOOO!!!!!!!  Haha- no packages :( they gave us a good lecture about how Amazon.com/uk is the only way to actually get something or money on a card so it is now OFFICIALLY impossible to send/ recieve stuff

Tim: I am so sorry for your mouth- I had to have the Darth Vader rubber bands too they are beyond stupid. ALMOST DONE!!!! Cant wait to see pictures!!!! Yo Tim go hunt Katelyn down and give her a hug for me. It was her birthday and I couldn't email her suuuu lykeeeee do that. Or facebook her for me. ok? Ok great. ALSO Michelle. Her birthday is the 21st, go say hapy birthday to her for me  :( Per Favore!!!! GRAZIE! How is IB treating you? 1 more month and then FREEEDOOMMMMM summer time HOLLAA