06-19-13

FAMILYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY AND FRIENDS WHO READ THE BLOG BUT PROBABLY NOBODY YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suuuuuuuuuu I finally got to email today because yesterday we didn’t have time. Because we are missionaries. And we had lessons. And we can’t shut up. It’s really a problem.

So Yes I am healthy.... "Healthy" again. I mean I live in Italy- their definition of "Healthy" is a little different but generally speaking Yes. I am Healthy. Hahaha well i had the nurse person read through the test results again and really all it says is that I don’t have Celiac- so I just went as gluten free as I could but I don’t WANT to be completely gluten-intolerant so like once a day I will have a piece a bread or something with gluten in it. Everything else is gluten free and I can totally tell the difference- I don’t ache so much I have more energy so it’s really great. Not super hard to find gluten free stuff here either surprisingly!

I totally understand that whole dying in heat thing. Its hecka hot here. Like I sleep with two fans on me and I still sweat the entire night, so you can imagine what’s it’s like running from lesson to lesson. :) Super cute. Nothing like convincing someone the Plan of Happiness is true when we are two American girls with bad accents, sweating to death telling them how happy we are....... super convincing. Lol  ya hopefully I get used to this BUT you will pleased to know i have OFFICIALLY tanned an entire shade darker. No- I still cannot find makeup to match my skin here yet BUT this morning in the shower I noticed my arm was slightly darker then my stomach. EEPPPP YAY ME!

Yeah we don’t hear about anything here. This is partially because when people tell me things i don’t actually understand. So I very well might have been told this buttttttttt I don’t know. This Thursday was our Zone Conference and we said bye to our Mission President and his wife. It was wayyyyyyyy sad. But the new president is President Dibb and Sorella Dibb and I have interviews with them innnnnnn 2 weeks I believe so we will see how they shuffle us around. It’s exciting :)

I KNOW I AM SO EXCITED FOR HER (Katelyn!)- there could not be a more perfect mission for her. Not possible. I should have called that in the first place! I was thinking Vegas- but yeah Detroit I see now hahaha She'll fit right in..... wait...... lol

OK so this week has been amazing as usual uhhh just a super cool thing that happened was we were tracting at a park with all us missionaries and my companion was holding Il Libro di Mormon and we were just kinda going around talking, not much interest in people cause it was father’s day BYTHEWAY father’s day is on a different day here..... whaaaaa how weird. We went to the store to pic out a card and we were asking the where they sold Father’s day cards- and them thinking we are idiot thought we were trying to buy fourth of July cards.... ok FIRST of all who gives cards for 4th of July? SECOND heck to the no will I pay 6 dollars for a card and then $2 for a stamp to send someone a card saying who knows what which brings me to my last concern THIRD to the person who DOES give out cards for the fourth of July.... what are saying? "Hey happy 4th! America is free! Good work".... I guess I am just confused at the whole situation.

Back to the story. So in the Philippines they DO celebrate father’s day on the same day as America so yay- we went and started talking to the big mobs of them and this man walks up to us and says "Hey are you the Mormons?" So our heads like snap around like whaaaaa English and Whaaaaa someone WANTS to talk to us?? Haha So we said "yeah we are!!" and He went on to tell us that seven years ago he had taken lessons from the missionaries and he wanted to get baptized but his job is international and he got transferred suddenly and hadn’t found missionaries since. He said he hadn’t stopped thinking about baptism since then- then he just threw in Can I Give You My Phone Number? OK HECK YES YOU CAN AND HECK YES YOU CAN GET BABTISED AND HECK YES WE CAN MEET WITH YOU AGAIN.
 Best thing ever- totally random and it was JUST because he saw the Book of Mormon. How crazy is that? We are so happy for him :)))) Right now we have baptism dates set for every week in July and unfortunately we have to drop one because he is in danger if he joins the church because he is Muslim. That is actually a pretty common problem for us. They are always willing but we can’t put them in danger of being killed... ya know???

 

NO BIG DEAL but guess what I did yesterday :) I went and saw "The Last Supper". Yup. That the actual real thing. By the one and only Leonardo DiVinci. it was incredible and yes I did cry a little bit. First of all- WAY huge, like wayyyy bigger than I thought it was and it has wayyyyy more history then I thought it did. I don’t even KNOW how we got tickets to go see it- we just went with 6 other sisters- so much fun. But Milano got bombed during World War 2 and the church that the Duke had built for himself collapsed and the one wall with this painting on it was left standing. So they have this picture of this the wall being held up by boards trying to protect the painting- it’s just awesome. So much History it’s just CRAZY. Walking where DiVinci walked I just can’t get over it. So grateful to be here and I intend on living it up as much as I possibly can since this is such an amazing opportunity.

Also- We just sent our Beloved Sorella home last week that has been living with us:( and it actually sucked wayyyyyy too much. I am pretty sure this is like a common thing in the mission but when they send someone home at the end of their mission they are "dead"..... Anyway we had someone Die last week and it just sucked all the way around. I mean it was my first transfer- and her last so I mean it was so great to see the other end, and to see how amazing she is and know that that’s what a mission does to a person. I hope I can become half the missionary she was cause really- she was amazing. Also the same thing is happening THIS transfer and I have to see ANOTHER missionary die. -___- I don’t understand. That’s not normal. BUTTTTT I get to live in Milan so I shouldn’t complain too much. so we have a new Sorella living with us and She is Italian and so she is going to teach us all of her cooking secrets. Muahahaha. Also she is helping me not suck at Italian. YAY HER.

Funny Story: On Sunday I had about 50 heart attacks. FIRST during Sunday school I was talking to an investigator and I said I was tired- and she said "ohhhh well that’s because you snuck out last night to go dancing" ok well I didn’t quite understand that..... soooooooo I thought she said something before... dancing.... and that’s all I caught. So I was like "Oh yeah! I love dancing!! Do it all the time!" Uhhhhhhh She starts laughing and the member next to her starts laughing- just busting up with laughter and i am sitting there like "no really- I love dancing... That’s what I study in the States" Which only makes them laugh harder Haha soooooooooo they finally explained it to me.. AWK.... SECOND we go to sacrament meeting and the bishop runs down from the stand and asks me where the new sorella is.. uhhhhh I don’t know!!!! But I do know her name is Sorella Sontora.... yeah.... That’s not her name. -___- So the bishop runs back up before I could correct myself and says can we have Sorella Sontora come bear a testimony GREAT so Obviously she thinks I don’t know her name and then she has to come up... correct him... then he looks at me and I have to mouth "I’m so sorry!" all the way from the back HOLY and then the new Anziani goes to bear his testimony and he translates for the English speakers in the ward... so guess who he hands the headset to? Me. yeah oh HECK NO. So i shove it in the other anzionis hands who has one more transfer then i do hahahahaha It was just a terrifying day. But really this is pretty much how every Sunday is. hahaha Its so fun.

This week we also got the Liahonas and they are so kind and gave me one in English :) and I guess I would just Echo what Holland says. My faith used to be a tiny seed but it has grown into a tree- and if you find your faith is insufficient, I invite you to lean on mine. I do know this church is true and I guess I didn’t realize what a blessing that is to know. There isn’t a doubt in my mind. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and if it is true, then I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet or he couldn’t have found nor translated the book of Mormon, and if he is a prophet then the Church of Jesus Christ in its fullness is on the earth today, and if the fullness of truth IS on the earth today, how important is it to make those things known! It’s really as simple as that. I know the Book of Mormon is true and if anyone were to take 30 minutes and actually WANTED to know if the book was true all you have to do is read it. Once you know it’s true- don’t forget you know it’s true. Someone said to me yesterday that if you want to find a reason to leave the church- you can ALWAYS find a reason to leave and to justify it. But you can ALWAYS find more reasons to stay in the church. Cause really we aren’t a religion, or a belief we really are a group of people living what is true. We live by truth. That’s it. Another thing that Holland said in his talk that I love is that we are not asked to lean on faith we DONT have, but show integrity to the things you DO know. In Alma 7:12 is says Christ suffered for our infirmities which literally means anything that is not firm. That is why we don’t see Christ face to face, it’s because we are asked to live by faith and for those things we don’t know- Christ makes up the difference for, so all we have to do is stick to the things we do know.

I am so grateful to know what I do and to be able to share it. Whoop Whoop!!!

Love you guys!!

Can’t wait to hear from you next week!!!

Sorella Holloway