07-17-13

Woah... Are you for real?? I’ve been out 4 months?  That’s a pretty long time SHEESH. But I guess I feel like I have been here that long so not that strange. Hahaha, Awwwww THATS SO WEIRD. I remember sitting in sacrament meeting and listening to stories about other missionaries, and Jay and Jenna and Stephen so that makes me feel weird that that’s me now... When did I get old?! I guess I should also apologize for not making me email easier to read hahaha You probably had to translate it into a full sentence.... whoops.

 

I would say I feel bad that you are having Kate withdrawals and then I think.... Nope. No I don’t feel that bad for you. Hahaha Just kidding mom, I can IMAGINE how hard that must be. hahaha Life is Brutal. I am surprised you have made it this long in Oregon as it is, so yeah I could see you guys moving up there in the next few years haha what am I saying- Make Jenna and Ben move to Oregon!!!! SHEESH. and Kate... She needs to come too. :) I mean I guess.

 

I am working on the whole camera thing. The only thing is that I can’t get online, nor is there such thing as a Radio Shack, nor Target, nor anything like that. I have seen a camera shop, but didn’t have anything to help my situation and I am pretty sure that’s as good as its gunna get. Wah. That is super fun that you get to see pictures from Sorella Ervin!!! EEEPPPP No we don’t live together- MAGARI but she is in Milano 2 and I am in Milano 1 so we see each other every 3 weeks because we are in the same zone with the missionaries in Venice. So we always get a quick picture together. She is so great. Don’t be surprised if by the end of my mission we already have housing set up together so we can keep up our Italian. (She goes to BYU I as well) I should probably try to figure out when I come back to figure that out....... yikes.

 

BAHAHAHA Tim. Captain America, YUP. Sounds about right. Hahaha That made me laugh pretty hard, poor Tim. Nobody pays attention to him. :( hahaha

 

Ok I am just gunna start listing off my funny experiences this week cause there were a TON.

FIRST:  I went to visit a new convert this week in the hospital and guess what I saw?... A doctor riding a bike around... Probably on the way to surgery... Apparently that’s ok here?? The hospitals are NOT like in America. we just walked right in and started wandering around this place since it’s as big as BYU campus and we walked right into the building like nobody’s business (Keep in mind this whole time I am staring at the ground praying I don’t see a needle or blood... I did... I survived.) And found our person. Is this weird or is it just me?

 

SECOND: Our apartment is at the metro stop "Uruguay".. like where Stephen served his mission... Hahaha Ok so we were on the Metro and this group of guys asked us were we were from and my Comp says "we are going to Uruguay" cause we don’t like to highlight the fact we are Americans and then they said "Oh wow you are from Uruguay Ok cool!" - now I find this hilarious cause who in the right mind would ever mistake me for being from Uruguay... I mean I am getting a little color but come on. I am still the whitest girl in town. Yikes. People mistake me all the time as French and German here but Uruguayan? That’s a new for me. Lol

 

THIRD: I was trying to invite someone to FHE at the church and was trying to tell them how great it was and you learn a lot!!! right? Ya welllllllll I had told them this was called "QUIT THE FAMILY" -____- So I butchered that one. Needless to say they said the loved their family.... so I told them to bring their family.. and they were really confused. Good times, Good times.

 

FORTH: Similar to the third- I get very confused with the words "Salve" (Hello-Formal) and "Salute" (Bless You)......  You can imagine my problem. We were on the bus and someone sneezed, I said "Salute!!!" aaaaaaaaaaaand then they said "You must be American."

I am Sorry America for representing you poorly.

 

FIFTH!: Ok the other night we had like a 5 hour long lightning storm I could have sworn it was the second coming. SO all four in my apartment went to bed- and me being the 3 year old I am was lying in bed and my bed is right under the window, and so after about 30 minutes of my just watching all this lightning I wake everyone up and have them come watch it with me on my bed cause it was SO COOL. So all my roommates hate me now. BUT we did get some pretty fantastic videos of it. The thunder got SO LOUD and sometimes our ENTIRE room was lit up because of the lightning I am not even kidding it was the coolest thing ever!!!

 

Ok couple more stories that I love about this week, we were going through our "Area Book" which is basically a place where you put all the names and information of everyone you have ever talked to and we found this ex-investigator named (can’t actually use real name) but a name like Moroni. so CLEARLY we have to try and contact this person right? So we call this person up- find out it’s a women, (AWESOME ) ,and ask if we can meet with her. So we meet up and she buys us this AMAZING Gelato- what a doll- and then we go sit on this bench and she starts telling us a little more about her and what do you know but we are sitting outside "La Scala!" Hahaha So I am sitting here in Italy, eating Gelato, outside La Scala and Duomo, teaching "Moroni" marveling in how crazy cool my life is and for some reason I am prompted to invite her to be baptized. SO I am thinking "Well shoot dang here it comes" So I just straight out invite her to be baptized and the next thing you know- We are baptizing Moroni August 31. Hahahahaha True Story. I couldn’t be more excited.

 AND she could not be more ready to be baptized. She has had all the lessons already but wasn’t ready for the Baptismal commitment from the other missionaries- now she is!!! Haha When I asked her to be baptized I said , "Moroni, I know you stopped meeting with the missionaries because you weren’t ready to be baptized, but we would like to invite you again to be baptized  on August 31 and I know that if you keep meeting with us, you will be ready by then." Then she just sighed and hung her head and said, "But I am not perfect yet! UG ok yes. Is that a Saturday?" Hahahaha WELL THAT WAS EASY! Hahaha

 

One thing I have noticed as a missionary is that I don’t feel like I am doing anything. Obviously I plan, I go find people, but during lessons I just talk and then I witness all these amazing things happen and I just can hardly process how much I am blessed. I don’t feel like I deserve any of it yet Miracles keep happening and I could write a book on just what I witness and the changes I see in people’s lives. 

 

We were going through the ward list and we found about 100 names we didn’t recognize and since we have been having a lot of success with these pass byes we went and found another person to try and see. We knocked on this door and she was SUPER nice and wanted to be visited wanted to hear our message and so we visited her about two times and we kinda felt something was off. There had to be something that was wrong or she would be coming to church. Right? So we had our third visit with her this week and at the end we asked her if there was anything that she needed help with and she said no no no I am good, but maybe could you ask the elders to bless my house? Which of course we can. But there wasn’t anything else she needed- so we said ok is there anything we can pray for that you need? And she said- "nah I am good. Maybe energy for work and good health." So I am like fishing for anything so I was asked "Have you been feeling sick?" She said, "No! I just... well.." She goes on to explain that a month ago the doctors found a tumor and she finds out in the beginning of august if she needs to start Chemo.

Not even a week after the doctors found this tumor did Sorella Durfee and I start visiting her. I am SO THANKFUL to be here with her because she lives alone here in Italy cause her family is gone and I just don’t know what I would do in her situation. Incredible. Last night during concilio I was able to get her visiting teachers and home teachers because for some reason she had been forgotten on BOTH of those lists. (She can’t come Sunday mornings because she is a nurse, but she served a mission in Rome and she is just incredible)

So thankful to be here.

 

If this church wasn’t the truth then I wouldn’t be seeing all these miracles. But I promise this church is the truth because I see what it does every day all day long. There is no greater calling then to help people better their lives, and watch people begin to be happier- there just isn’t!

I love my life.

I love my Family.

I love my Friends. 

Tanti Alguri a Me per quatro mezzi qui in Italia! (Congrads to me for 4 months in Italy!)

See yall soon!!!

Sorella Holloway

 

07-10-13

FAMILYYYYYYYY YAYYYYYYYY

 

Thank you so much for putting money on my card!!!

 

Hahaha I am glad you get to see Ben Jenna and Kate next month too- just remember how often you see them cause when I get off that plane Kate probably won’t ever leave my sight. I already know this will be a problem for me. Lol EEEPPPPPP But hey by then I will have a nephew too so I split my smothering into 2. How fortunate for them hahaha. I love that Kate loves to shop!!!! She was given the right family CLEARLY. 

 

Tell Grandma I am praying for her!! That sounds awful- seriously how do they miss stuff like that? Pretty sure they go to school for 100 years FOR A REASON.... Grrrr that’s even annoying to me. 

 

The new President and his wife ARE AWESOME super fun and super happy. You will be happy to know that the first thing Sorella Dibb (president’s wife) did when she saw me and said- "Alright, I need to give you a hug for your mom.... and then again for me" Hahaha It was cute. ALSO they brought us peanut butter so that whole day was just FABULOUS. I had no idea how good peanut butter was and I was drooling over peanut butter and bread. Rice bread BTW is quite fabulous. Tastes basically like white bread but without the gluten and with even less nutritional value. ITS GREAT!!!!

But yeah we had individual interviews with them and ya. A little scary. I finish being trained in 2 weeks (transfers) and he says next wave of girls I need to train so buckle up. I pity the girl I have to train. PRAYYYYY the next wave is like 6 months out hahaha This mission is super spiking and every 6 weeks we get 50 more missionaries and almost half of those sisters. MADNESS.

 

Thank you for emailing OLIVIA!!!!!!!!! I miss her and I am glad her and her sister are out and having fun. It’s actually Cody's Birthday on the 14th and he is turning 21. OLD MAN. SO MANY BIRTHDAYS. Yeah I am dying to hear where Michelle is going!!! Why is it taking so long??? I am going to be coming back by the time she gets gone!! SHEESH. Poor girl- She is probably mad it’s taking forever hahaha AHHHHHH LEX IS HEADING OUT!!!! I love all the missionaries WHOOP WHOOP

 

Hey here’s a fun fact that hopefully you find amusing- I looked down at my ankle the other day and I had this huge bump.. well that not normal. So i wait a couple days and it turns purple. But I can’t quite figure out how its familiar but it feels like a ball under my skin. So then two days after that IT KILLS like it is throbbing- what the freak is wrong with my ankle AND THEN IT HITS ME I had this on my neck not too long ago. This is a freaking tumor on my ankle. So I just bust up laughing- there is NO WAY that I get ulcers, go gluten free and get a tumor all within the first 4 months of my mission right? STUPID. So I ask my companion and roommates what I should do- I can’t think of anything other than to wait it off.... bahaha So We are in a lesson and I think - hey I should ask this Italian person what to do about this! And she goes and gets a bottle of BLEACH hahaha And drenches my ankle in bleach.............. Lol -  Weirdest thing ever. BUTTTTT IT WENT AWAY. I have a testimony of bleach and I believe it is the cure to everything as of now. Obviously it must have just been a freaking huge lizard bite on my ankle- and yea- that’s a thing.... lizards... everywhere...

Also just to throw some more at ya- My bald spots are back -___- Aka can you google for me how to stop Alopecia? That would be great. :)

 

JUST FOR THE RECORD I am healthy- I am doing fine!!! But I can’t help but laugh at the fact my body attacks itself in the world’s most STUPID ways!!! That is all. 

 

So cool fact about my companion and I is that we have been given a gift to be able to recognize the people we talk with on the Bus and Metro- so FIVE TIMES this week we have "run into someone again" and this time they gave us their number. It is just a total blessing that we recognize them because we talk to more than 100 people a day ya know? But for some reason we just recognize everyone which is SO helpful. Hopefully we have a lot of new simpantizzanti coming in. WHOOP WHOOP! 

We have also been trying to go through the ward list looking for all meno-ativas and we met with two of them on Sunday and one of them and this one sweet lady in her 60s hasn’t been to church in 40 years and also hasn’t been contacted. How crazy is that? She very hesitantly let us into her apartment and her apartment was.... Destroyed. Everything needed repair and she doesn’t have the ability anymore to do it, so we will be getting to do some service for her which I am super excited for, YAY! On domenica we also met this meno- ativa family which for who knows why hadn’t been contacted for like 3 years and they let us in and they both have SERIOUS health problems and now we are having someone bring the sacrament to them as well. It’s crazy how so many people are right there on the ward list and still haven’t been contacted. Crazy. 

 

Funny story of the week: Last P- day we decided we just wanted to go explore. Cause we are in Italy and that’s just what we do. Lol So we are near Duomo with some other sisters and they wanna go see what known as "creepy bone church" and obviously that just sounds like a blast to us hahaha so we walk inside and WHAT DO YOU KNOW. It is a CREEPY CHURCH filled with CHILDRENS BONES. That’s all it is. You walk it and then there are walls of skulls IN A DESIGN with bones from legs and arms to finish the decoration. ....... So Then we look up and there are MORE skulls WITH TEETH and some teeth ARE MISSING what the freak is that? How did they even get those bones and why are so many bones in one church as art?! What are they even doing with those teeth that fall of cause they are so old??? ewewewewewewewe So gross. But I can now say I have toughed a human skull with my own hand.... I couldn’t help myself... I hope you are proud. Lol, Not only that but they had the actual heart of them on the wall.... just way gross and not uplifting gone ounce.

 

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!  Love hearing from you all and I am glad I have your support :) I think about you all the time!!!!

Sorella Holloway

 

07/02/13

YAYYYYYYY EMMA JOY!!!!!!!! That is so fantastic!!!!!!! CONGRADS TO THEM BOTH!!!!

Also before I forget- Can someone send me Beccas email? I would like to be invited to this wedding. :D

Also- Can someone send me Stephens email? I have much to tell him. Hehehe.

ALSO- Mitchel Perkins. I need his address PRONTO. Cueeee TIM. Thank you!

ALSO- I have letters in the mail for grandma, Tim and Dad and Kendra so please let me know if those ever make it there... like in a month...


Next,  Italy has this thing called "soldi" now I don’t speak super great but from what I understand everything everywhere goes on sale. Boom. Yup- my companion has confirmed this. Next question- Do I have money? Is that something I have cause I would love to buy some goodies here. Cause I am in Italy. And that is awesome.

MOM GUESS WHAT "letters to Juliet"??? Ya know that wall with all the... letters? to Juliet???? ITS A REAL THING- we are figuring out how long it takes to get there but just know at some point on my mission- I AM GOING THERE and I am freaking excited.

I don’t have much time to email... as usual... but STORY

This week we did a little Scambia and we switched companions so I was the senior companion of another girl who has been out for two weeks- SUPER awesome. LOVE her. So In this 24 hours- We had to start an English class, and teach 7 lessons..... in Italian... and I am here thinking ok sooooo..... WHAT??????? I have been speaking Italian aka "Speaking Italian" for 2 months and her for 2 weeks so this is gunna suck and we are going to lose all of our investigators hahahaha BUT WE SURVIVED!!!! and in fact we got TWO NEW INVESTIGATORS yup. It was awesome. Terrified for when I actually am the senior companion but ....... it was awesome for a day hahaha

We are teaching this man for west Africa right now and he is just the most humble willing guy in the world- he is so ready to try anything and he is who is getting baptized in the next couple of weeks and we couldn’t be happier. I would send you pics... BUT I DONT HAVE A CAMERA RIGHT NOW. Grrrrrrr. Seriously what do I do. Do I get new camera? ga.

I have my interview with the new mission president next Monday so THAT will be super fun!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYY

FUNNY STORY OF THE WEEK! Ok not as great as last weeks... or any of the weeks.... but I found out my name is said "es, ah, aireh, ah, acca" Hahaha Ok so if you have Seen Pitch Perfect you will probably understand why I died at this... because There is nothing I love to quote more than "Acca-Awkward" from that movie, and what do you know... it’s in my name. SWEEEETTT. lol Also My first impression in front of the president was super lame. hahaha I used the wrong form of you and said "te" which is inappropriate as missionaries... Awesome... Lol And then when he walked in- I didn’t recognize so I had the awkward moment shaking his hand saying "Hi, I’m Sorella Holloway   OH MY GOODNESS YOU ARE PRESIDENTE!!!" just mid-sentence  switch hahaha Man. Lol Who ever gave me the awkward gene owes me cause it screwing up my first impressions!!!!! Lol

Love you guys! Love hearing stories and looking at pictures :( Hopefully my letters get there soon :) Love from Italy!!!!

-Sorella Holloway