07/23/12 - 4 more weeks!!!!!!!!!!

FAMILY!!!!! No big deal but this you all will only get 3 more emails from me AHhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

AMERICA HERE I COME!!!!!

Mom as for a Missionary moments:

Right Now i am in Modena, Italy which is just outside of the Tuscany Providence by Bologna (Bah- lone-ya). Modena is the home of Ferrari and was where they were invented so I see no less than 10 Ferraris a day. 

My Favorite thing about Italy is that it’s a modern world stuck in an ancient city. I mean sometimes I feel like I am thrown back into the 1700s and then I walk into rich rich Ferrari parking lot with business-men and women and it’s like getting whiplash ahhaha I like it! My favorite thing about Italian people is that they are honest. They say how they feel or if they don’t say it you can instantly tell by their facial expression and hand motions so I love that. Hahaha Full of honesty! 

When I get discouraged I just remember to "Zoom Out" as I call it. I usually sing "How great thou art" and remember gratitude for them million things I do have even if I am rejected and lonely for 100 months straight because bottom line, life can never get bad enough that there are no good things to notice. So the only thing you need is the energy to think of all the good things you got, and if nothing else, we have the knowledge of the gospel. That is sufficient for anyone. 

Of course after that- I just think of all of the funny moments saved up in my brain so I can just laugh. Hahaha Laughing truly is the best medicine, and the best therapy.

My favorite scripture this week/ transfer is "Perche Avete Paura- o Voi di Poca Fede?"- Why do you have fear, oh ye of little faith? orrrrr why do you fear, oh ye of little faith?  My translation isn’t good. But I love this one because we shouldn’t fear anything or we are telling ourselves it’s in our hands, and that’s not true. It’s all in God’s Hands, so if you truly trust him and listen to him- Tutto va bene. Everything will be ok. :) 

Right now Ecclesiastics 3 is super good too- There is a time for EVERYTHING. And my favorite part is when it says something about being happy with his portion. Nad I really am grateful for my portion and the work that Heavenly father has given me- It’s been a lot and very heavy and I am thankful for EVERY piece of it. Then of course the rest of the chapter completely explains how I feel. There is a time to be born, and a time to die (aka go home),  a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.... Hahhaha It’s pretty good :)

Hopefully that helps you out!!!

This week has been full of ups and downs and craziness and basically everyone knows I am going home soon so I have been taking a lot of pictures and everyone gives us food (Super great) and ya!!!! We work all day every day and we got another baptismal date with another African and it was the first date I set where I know I won’t be here... Lol SO THAT SUCKED hahaha .Whoever comes to take my spot here is SOOOOOOOO blessed. The people here are soooo awesome. I love them. sososososososososososossoso Much. :)

Anyway I am hoping there is money on my card cause I gotta send a box home... I am partially packed with all that stuff I won’t be using and yikes...... I had more than I thought... Lol I love you guys so much!!!

I WILL SEE YOU IN LESS THEN A MONTH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

 

 

07/16/04

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ITS SOOO SOON!!!! I CANT EVEN BELIEVE IT!!!!! But yeah I am so excited. I am ALSO thrilled I don’t have to wait till September to give my homecoming talk hahaha BLESSING. 

This morning I went through a suitcase and got out all that stuff that I was saving for "Later" Like my precious Crystal light and like Extra 7 glue sticks and markers and colored pencils and notebooks and sticky notes that I save till I run out well... THAT can’t happen anymore and there is no way I am taking that back to America. Hahaha I seriously doubt I will be overweight with my bags.... But I don’t know! I probably should send something home but I am afraid it will get lost and there is nothing worse than that. But the other two I sent got to you guys so that’s good. I will look and see what I can do. 

Speaking of Baptism- we had an incredible lesson yesterday with my favorite investigators EVERRRRRRR yesterday and they are all Atheists but the mom changed her mind a little bit, and wants to get baptized EEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP I love her so much and I am so excited for her. We had her read "Lord, I Believe" That talk Holland gave and BOOM. It was perfect. If you don’t remember which talk that is- you should totally read it again. I cry every time. Right now I am drawing her this tree (It sounds dumb but I swear it looks good so far) And I am putting a quote from that talk in in that says something like... "If your faith is challenged at this time or any other time, I invite you to lean on mine- for what once was a tiny seed of faith for me has turned into a tree of life" Anddddddddd thats Italain into English but its more or less that. IT’S SO GOOD!

Yeah that purple African dress FOR SURE is being worn to the wedding. NO BIG DEAL. Its sparkly and everything hahaha

Sooooo yeah my future apartment flooded???? That’s comforting...... -____- Hahahaha Freak now what?? Hopefully they fix that... in the month they have left hahahaha

Anyway other than that everything is going super good!!!! We teach a lot, I got to sing at another Baptism last Saturday for a lady from Poland- SUPER cool and it’s all great! I love Italy; it will be cool to come back as not a missionary... weird. Hahaha This Monday we went to visit this 92 year old lady in a Casa di Anziani and she was so sweet and gave us some really good life advice Haha And this Sunday she is going to re-teach us how to knit and we are crafting together haha YAY!!! It will be the highlight of my week. It’s kinda hard to understand the old folks in this place because none have them have teeth anymore, or if they do it’s just one or two, and they don’t really speak Itlaina- they speak the dialect Modenese .. so some things I will never understand but... I try. Hahaha My poor trainee has to try and learn normal Italian and then has to be talked to in Dialect hahahahaha Poor thing. She will live. 

Anyway I love you guys so much!!!! I will see you soon- BUT FOR REALS!!!!!

 

07/09/14 - 6 weeks left!!!

Hey Family!!! 

Yeah- Next month I am coming home! At this point I don’t really feel like it’s real. I feel like for sure I will be released but the whole going back to America thing hasn’t really occurred to me yet. Hahaha I just feel like I am about to get kicked out of the club. :( But other than that I feel all good about life. I don’t have any regrets ... yet? Hahahaha 

Uhhh so yeah it’s freaking hot and I am going to die. I wake up pretty much on the dot every morning at like 2:36 just sweating and I have to go shower -___-  I think we are at a rate of 3 showers a day? Yeah. Hahahaha Then yesterday it POURED rain. POUURRED And we had an appointment that is about a 35 minute bike right so we were sooo muddy and socked when we got there- as soon as we started the lesson- rain stopped- the SECOND we started to leave- it poured. -___-  Grrrr. But whatever. It’s either mud or sweat so gross either way. 

WE HAD A BAPTISM and it went sooo good! I think the best part is we kinda just thought there would only be like 6 people there but actually a tonnnnn of people came and we were sooo happy that our members came to support us! Now when I say a ton I mean like... 25 which is FREAKING GREAT for us. YES we did wear our African Dresses but we didn’t wear the headpieces in the chapel cause we figured it was a little irreverent hahaha But it was awesome- I will send pictures!!!

I got to sing at the baptism How Great Thou Art- a little in English and a little in Italian and it was sooo fun. I freaking loved it. I miss singing so much! FUN FACT I have become totally obsessed with song writing and Drawing on my mission. Weird right?? I like draw stuff and then frame it.. and then like... give it to people... So that’s a new random thing I do... Hahaha And the whole song writing thing- I have like an albums worth of stuff I need to get recorded when I get home. YAY! It’s really fun. Who would have thought?

I am glad everyone has fully dived into summer!! On the fourth of July I made my Poor German Companion suffer though me sing every American song I could think of from all 4 verses of the anthem- to "Proud to be an American" - to Surfing USA Hahaha It was really fun- Then that day we went to this place called "Porta Aperta" and we gave food to everybody who didn’t have money to buy it and it was soooooo fun! Although I will say I found some very appalling things as well. There was a huge bin of baby food and I found canned "Cavallo e Coniglio" Which means Horse and Rabbit..... Don’t you worry. I took a picture. Kendra and Jenna- please don’t ever ever ever feed your babies these things. It’s wrong. 

This week has also been a week of FABULOUS food. I ate Papawankaina Which is Peruvian food= FREAKING BOMB. It’s just a yellow sauce you put over potatoes and its spicy and creamy it’s to die for- and then we tried this Italian trend to Wrap Cantaloupe in Raw ham- Yeah. SUPER YUMMY. Hahahaha The texture is weird at first but the after taste is seriously sooo good. I could eat it all day. Not to mention my popcorn addiction is back in full force. Like errrrydayyyyy Hahaha 

One of the Anziani here put on my flash drive the "Living Scriptures" And My companion and I are OBSESSED hahaha We watch one a day at least right before bed- its our new favorite series.... aka We have a problem hahaha We are both Reading the Book of Mormon and the New Testament (I am reading in Italian) so we watch the matching films. IT’S GREAT. Hahaha 

Ok also- Sacrament meet aka Fast and Testimony meeting was freaking HILARIOUS this week. We have this lady who gets up about 15 minutes from the end of every sacrament meeting and stands under the pulpit and waves goodbye to everyone, and that’s usually pretty great anyway but this week we also had just hilarious stories told over the pulpit- it was probably the most awkward meeting ever. Confessions GALOR! hahaha Gotta love it. 

Anyway I love you guys so much and I am so excited to see yall SO SOON!!!!! Not that I am counting down- But I totally am :) LOVE YOU!!!

-Sorella Holloway

 

 

 

 

 

07/02/14

HI FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!

NEWS FLASH!!!! I come home next month!!! SAY WHAAA?????????????????????

Hahah That picture of you and Jason makes him look SUPER tall and you super short! hahahaha He looks so happy!!!!! Man I wish I was there with you guys!!!!! SO FUN!

Yeah I plan on playing Grandma Bingo in august so yall better plan for it. I had 2 summers in Italy so I need to see the Beach asap when I get home. That and the temple. HOLY COW I GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE NEXT MONTH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

This week we taught a bunch YAYYYY And this Saturday is the Baptism of out Nigerian Investigator!!!! our African Dresses are going to be HOLY CRAZY GREAT Hahaha This Friday she teaches us how to tie them, and how to do the hair piece hahahaha Ya know when I read my call to Italy, I did NOT see this in my future- but here I am. I am also learning Benin so it’s pretty exciting. Hahaha

We teach a lot of people who aren’t really progressing unfortunately, but we still do enough finding work that new people are always coming in :)

This Sunday President came to Interview our Investigator for Baptism so he also gave us all interviews Hahaha My interview consisted of this line "You in your vintage age in the mission, are now a complete missionary...." Bahahaha I couldn’t tell if it was a compliment or not. The word Vintage was an interesting word choice... Hhahaha It was pretty funny

During this last transfer I have been trying to get in shape- for many reasons- and I now get up at 6 so I have an hour to work out, so I really do feel old alllll the time. Hahaha Just everything hurts. Hahah I figure it’s better for me to do it now then start my dance classes and pass out after the first hour. Hahaha SOOOo We will see how that goes. My companion does NOT like it hahah But she is very supportive! 

The summer has super kicked in here and so our apartment is just blazing hot and biking everywhere is murderous hahaha we sweat soo bad and then it’s so humid it just all sticks to us, so even when we are on bikes, we still sweat- its glorious hahaha I definitely haven’t gotten tanned- but no one can even tell cause I am just that white -___- so that coooollllllll 

One of our investigators from Ghana came back this week so we went to go see her and SHE IS SO RAD! We taught her the plan of salvation and as soon as we started talking about the plan on salvation she gets out this paper and starts taking notes Haha she said "The spirit is talking to me. I must write so I can write a song about this and let my brother and sisters know." Soooo basically I love her and I will be getting her CD of Incredible African Gospel music. FABULOUS!!!!

I love you all so much and I can’t wait to see you so soon!!! LITERALLY NEXT MONTH!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH

 

06/26/14 - 8 weeks left!

Hey Family!!!! Hahaha

Yes I am alive- clearly my getting hit by a car story was well enough explained hahaha Don’t worry! I am good!

I cannot wait to meet Amanda. I feel like I know her cause I have like.... made her up in my mind just from the little pieces I hear and the kind of person I see Stephen with.. SO I figure I am like... in the general area of what she is like Hahahaha

What day is the wedding? What are the colors of the wedding- Maybe a picture would be good of what type of color? I am so excited!

This week was great as usual and I didn’t get hit by a car, so that’s a huge plus. This week was transfers and my entire District is staying the same which I am pretty sure has never happened to me hahaha We are really excited!

This week we had 5 Investigators come to church and it was sooo rad!!!!! Our usual is 1 so we were like HOLY COW SO MANY PEOPLE!!! Hahahaha It was incredible. One is getting baptized next week on the 5th and we are SOOOOO excited. It’s the first baptism I have seen since .... November. Hahaha She is Nigerian and so we are getting African dresses to match her at her baptism hahaha

Not only that but we got two new Nigerian investigators this week. I don’t know what’s happening but if there is a Nigerian- We find them!!!!! haha They are so enthusiastic about Christ so the always want to come to church and to read with us and learn more- it’s really fun Hahaha

We have been teaching SO MUCH. Our bodies literally ache because we have to ride so fast from appointment to appointment or... when we don’t have an appointment we do "Parko" and we teach people on the street. I think it is because sub-consciously I am freaking out about being in my last transfer so I like runnnn person to person hahahaha Its fun though. I hope I don’t kill my companion Hahaha We sang "God be with you till we meet again" in Italian one Sunday and I was like.... weeping. haha So I am getting pretty Weepy about coming home, not cause I love Italy more than America- but because I can’t NOT cry when I think that I am not coming back to Italy. People ask me all the time "When are you coming back?" Hahaha And then I just start crying and I am like I DONT KNOWWWW Hahaha So I have to make a mental goal of when I am going to come back or I don’t know if I am going to be able to step on that plane. Ideally I would come back and do an internship here for Dance- there is a great university in Florence or there is the Rome temple opening BUTTTT If I get married before any of that happens well freak he is gunna have to take me here instead of a fancy honeymoon.

BOTTOM LINE is that I need to come back to Italy so it doesn’t suck leaving. :) That’s the point I was trying to get at hahahhaha  But don’t worry I am super excited to come home! I got my classes all set up and I am ready to hit the ground running :)

I love you all so much and I can’t wait to see you soon!!!!!

-Sorella Holloway