LAST ONE!!! 08/13/14

Alright. Here it is. The last email of Sorella Holloways mission.

Hahaha Yaaaaaaaaaaaa guys I am freaking out. 

Ok well- aside from the fact I am freaking out- GENOVA IS SOOOOO WONDERFUL. By far the prettiest city I have seen... maybe second best. Hahaha My Companion is officially my Best friend. I am with Sorella Astel, and we came into the MTC together so we are in the SAME GROUP anddddd we both go home the same day. Yeah thats real. Haha

Not to mention, we are opening Genova 1... Yeah That was a surprise hahaha I was like.. OH... Soooooo we have nothing... cool... we are starting from Zero and then leaving.... cool. Hahaha

But guys We are working so hard and are just going crazyyyyy!!!!!!! Ok a Normal week for missionaries here is like... 15 lessons and you are doing good, and 2 or 3 investigators a week is super solid, well my firends, Sorella Astel and I decided that for our last week in the mission we would break all of our goals, so just from Monday and Tuesday we have gotten 5 new investigators and 17 lessons, we have two people with a baptisimal date, and guys- we are soooo happy. I have never worked so hard hahaha

Last night was the biggest miracle- we were home at like 8:35ish so I said- ok lets get like one more lesson and then we can go home (We have to be home at 9) and we walked past this group of 4 people, they were yelling at each other, and were drunk sooooo we kept walking. We walked around till like 8:59 and were almost to the apartment and I was just like- Lets justtttt go talk to them Hahaha So Who knows what came over me but I walked up to them and asked "Cosa si Rende Felice??" Bahaha Aka What makes you happy- Not a super great question, in fact quite pathetic. But one women looks at us and asks us if we are missionaries, she said- "Where do we go after this life? My brother was murdered last week and I neeeed to know" 

Family- The Lord works in Mysterious ways- but I have no doubt that she was there and we were there at the perfect time. We prayed with them all, but man was my testimony strengthened. You would think I would be numb to that at this point- but nope- its still amazing. Every day. 

I also gave my last and dying testimony at Zone Training on Monday- That was wierd. I said Love God, Love yourself, and Love life bahahaha At the time it seemed like really great and now I am just like... maybe I should have thought that through a little more. Hahaha

Being that this is my last email (you might get like a one-liner next week) I just want to say I love you all, and I know the church is true. I am converted and if I could say or list all the things I learned in the past 18 months I would, but I cant. I am so thankful for every hard day and that I have changed. I am so proud of myself and so thankful Heavenly Father loves me enough to put me through heck and make me climb mouintains, because now I can do it with a smile on my face because he taught me what is on the other side. How great is our Lord and how important to make him known. I know our Heavenly Father and I know our Brother Jesus Christ and I have a relationship with them. I am so thankful I know. 

I will see you all next week- I CANT WAIT!!!!! I will try to call you at the airport... I think I know our phone number but if thats not it,,,, thennnnnnn you wont get a call from me hahaha 

Love you!!!!

Modena pitures

08/06/14 - 2 more weeks!!!! AND a transfer to Genova!!!

I HAVE LIKE 2 WEEKS LEFT AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It gets more real everyday!!! I had to pack everything this morning, why you ask? Because I just got transferred -___- hahahaha

That’s right folks I am Leaving Modena and going to Genova. It’s a part I have never been to so I am excited. I wish I had more than 10 days there but I will get over it. Hahaha It came as a shock to me and my companion, it was like two weeks shorter but not much I can do about it. I have taken over 100 pictures in the past 3 days JUST with investigators and members and I would say half of my suitcase is filled JUST with things from my family here hahaha They are so wonderful- I will miss this place so so so much. GA. 

So yes I am all packed, and I sent home a package today that was freaking almost 20 pounds.... so do the math there hahaha I send home a lot of books and a journal so I am literally going to fast to make sure it gets there cause I would DIE if it got lost. Join me in this fast everyone. No more eating. Not till it gets there. It’s in a really cute box though which they made me buy and switch all my crap to when I was there at the post office because they are just ridiculous.... it was like a 45 minute process. Ridiculous. But yeah- you don’t need to open it cause it’s just my English scriptures which I never use and my personal progress book and BOM that I did in Italian cause I felt like it hahaha anddddddd other Italian learning books and a journal - so it’s all pre-packed for school. Yay!!!

Awww I  just heard the bells of Duomo outside. Man will I miss that sound. 

Our new convert ended up not doing the surgery for a lot of reasons, but she is going to wait a little while. Everyone is doing great here and my favorite family that we teach here we said goodbye to last night- andddddddd I wept. 6 Months with them and then leaving is just like- a joke. Luckily they have skype and facebook and snap-chat so really I have nothing to be sad about. Thank goodness for technology. 

Thanks mom for cleaning my clothes!!!!!!!!!! I did not even think about those being gross but I suppose I have been gone for 100 years..... Hahaha I don’t know how I will feel about my clothes from the pre-mission life. But hey maybe I will really miss them! Chances are no- but we will see. I think I am most worried about the shoes... Hahaha I have no shoes. I have two weeks left and I refuse to buy new ones! It doesn’t make sense to.... soooooo did you see any flats in that box by chance???? I mean heals are great.. like.... once a week... for an hour... Lol! Yikes. 

I love you all so much and I can’t wait to see you all so soon! I have been writing a poem thingy through my mission that I add to every 3 or 4 months and I actually really like it so I think I am just going to share that for my homecoming talk. cause then I don’t even have to write anything. Muahahaha. It’s fun to read and you will like it :) I think. Hahaha

I love you so much!! I will see you soon!!!!!

 

07/30/14 - 3 MORE WEEKS!!!!!!!!!

FAMILY!!!! Alright so I basically started weeping at Stephen and Amanda's wedding invite- HOLY FREAKING CUTENESS!!!!!!!! I am sooooo in love with it!!!!! I am printing as we speak. 

Hahaha That’s so funny that people keep saying "That went by so fast" HA!!!! False. Days are long, weeks are short but man 18 months is a long time! Hahah Don’t get me wrong I love every second of it but it sure as HECK has not been fast. Lol

hahah I super hope Kate learns to not poke the babies eyes out... hahaha Also dragging a baby by the feet- nottttt super Ideal. But didn’t Jenna drag Stephen around? I feel like this might just be Carma. Hahaha KIDDING!

This week it has been raining so bad- so officially all the shoes I own are ruined hahah So I am hoping to buy a pair today to last me the next month. I am really hoping I have shoes at home. Which brings me to another point- are my boxes in the attic? cause I will probably need those. I plan on bringing very little clothing-wise home. Especially shoes. HA! None of those are gunna make it hahaha I have 4 pair and they ALLL have holes on the bottom. I really thought that was a mission joke- it’s definitely  not hahaha

Yesterday we had the coolest miracle EVERRRR And we met these two people who’s number was given to us as a referral, and we go over there and they are these two Nigerian women (seems to be a trend these days) and we teach the whole restauration and I asked them to be baptized on August 30 and they were both like "YES!" Hahaha So funny. They speak Benin which means in English they speak to us in pigeon but man it was sooo cool. They were telling us that they had both been baptized but they said "The man who baptize me. He know Nothin. He no Know me. He no know my sin- because he sinnah!! He no have Authority. That baptism was Rubish. Rubish!!" And this my dear family is why my English is fading. If I speak English I either speak British English or African Pigeon- take your pick.  

So that was a huge highlight- and also I learned how to cook Empanadas Yesterday which are freaking great so basically whoever I marry is one lucky guy cause I cook like a champ. Collecting recipes was the best advice evaaaaaaa

Side note: The other day I ate Ferrari pizza..... That means there was normal cheese with raw ham on it and then balsamic vinegar poured over the top... Wasn’t that bad- but extremely strange. Our ward mission leader bought it for me- What a Gem. 

This Sunday was really sad because the members are all leaving for vacations so they have all starting leaving and they are being soooo sweet and giving me little notes and gifts and then I just cry cause I love them so much EEEP!! But I am too the point that i am like- ready to stop saying goodbye hahah I have been saying it for wayyy too long so it will be nice to come home to be on the happy side of things. :) 

So about our New-Convert- she is doing great :) We ate with her last week- she is a very good cook- African Style :) She says she has to make us fufu soon and then I was like NONONONONONO That’s ok!!!!! hahah So I am going to teach how to make Pizza and Lasagna instead. Much safer :) We also taught her how to make cake and she was THRILLED! Hahaha I had never seen someone so happy!!! Hahaha This last Monday we went with her to the hospital (To translate for her)  because right after her baptism she was told she might have a brain tumor, But we went and it is actually just defect in one of her arteries that causes aneurisms and hemorrhages so next week she is getting surgery :( SO as long as that doesn’t get rescheduled, that’s where we will be aLOT next week. She has a three year old and a 6 year old so just pray for her. We are asking help from our members but a week is a long time for a mom with 5 kids all living at home. 

Other than that we have INCREDABLE investigators (yes, plural) and we love them! We have like, 4 people making progress maybe 5 and are working towards baptism. One problem we have here is that a couple of our investigators are Prostitutes because there is no work here, and it gets to the point where they have to stop and lose their house to be baptized-- and they are super nervous about it because they don’t know what to do- I mean all we can do is teach them and they kinda have to fix the other things but MAN I wish I could just help them more. If that isn’t hell, I don’t know what is especially when they have kids- Pray for them!!

I love you all so much and I can’t wait to see you!!!!! ITS SOO SOON!!!!! EEEEPP!!!!!