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

 

 

Well Well Well We meet again my favorite day of the week. EMAIL DAY WHOOP WHOOP!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Uhhhh that sounds like a hecka cool conference that no we did not get to see. Hahaha that was at like midnight our time nor did anyone hear about this. So GOOD TO KNOW!!!!! Man that will be super cool! Our Mission President just came in this week and I meet him sometime within the next 2 weeks and we will see what changes are being made. I doubt Italy is high up on that list to get all that technology stuff... just cause it takes us like a month to even get More Books of mormon...... Sooooo..... Mayeb NEXT transfer I will see some effects of that. But Yeah WAYYY COOOLL. We probably won’t be staying at the church to do tours here because our church is in a pretty sketchy area. Lol For example- next door there is a like garden type thing that this man owns and he frequently like to Tan with his friends there. In Speedos. Awesome. Not exactly a spirit-Inviting environment or somewhere they will have Sorelle Missionaries just chill waiting to give tours. BUT WHO KNOWS. I bet the Anzioni could do it! Hahaha we have given a few tours to investigators here and every Thursday we teach Italian and English (Ironic I will be teaching Italian? yes.) so we give mini tours then as well. 

 

So cool that Tim is at Sonic HOLLA!!! Yeah I know how he feels. But Yeah Good luck on the placement test! That sounds kinda crazy hard... maybe the idea of taking a test seems kinda scary to me since I feel like the stupidest person in the world hahahaha learning a language is HECKA hard- If someone asked me to take a test right now I would throw a tomato at them. Grrrrr. GOOD LUCK TIM. ROCK IT. 

 

Ok can we just take a moment and freak out that Kendra is having A BABY BOY????????????!!!!!! It was the first email that opened and all I saw was this little hand and all four of the sorelle missionaries here just started bawling hahaha we were all like EEEEEEPPP ITS A BOY!!!!!!! I just couldn’t be more excited to come home!!!!!!!!!! I come home to a nephew AND a niece it’s just....... CRAZY. I am just too happy- I can’t handle it. Any names sticking out. I vote Mario or Luigi or Alessandro..... Lol jk. Please don’t. 

 

Ok so this week has been fabulous yay!  We had a baptism last Friday and she has a son who is baptized already and it was probably the sweetest thing I have ever seen. Just a little background, she is an ex- communicated member and has been meeting with missionaries for two-ish years and like 2 weeks ago she told us she wanted to be baptized again. So of course we freaked out- we are so happy for her!!! So we got everything set up and the day of the baptism comes and she rushes into the church all excited and she just can’t help smiling and shaking everyone’s hand and calling everyone and the time comes :) and she gets in the font- while her son who is about 10 sits right up front on the floor ready to watch his mom get baptized-, and she gets baptized :) right after she came up she just looked at him and like all time FROZE. They just stared at each other and it was the most powerful thing I have ever seen- Can you imagine being a 10 year old and watching your mom finally get baptized after years of working with the missionaries? Incredible that she could do that for HER and her son. I run back to help her with a towel and everything. And she walks up the steps into the dressing room just soaking wet and just stops and starts bawling. She was just saying "Sono felice mottto motto felice" Just over and over just weeping. She couldn’t comprehend how all the guilt and everything was just gone. So beautiful. 

Hop on over to Sunday at church- Now think how This women feels, her and her son sit by themselves every week cause she is embarrassed she can’t take the sacrament- but THIS Sunday  for the first time in years she gets to take the sacrament. So we come in and she is sitting with her friend’s just smiling and of course I was shocked! Hahaha It was so different. So then the sacrament comes around, and I can’t take my eyes off her cause I know how monumental this is for her- and she looks at the bread and she reaches up to take it and her arm is just shaking- and she takes it :D then AGAIN she looks at her son who also takes it and they just have another moment where time Freezes. Just mother and Son smiling at each other. I wish I had a picture of those moments to show you guys because I can’t explain it well enough. GA. Monumental. I felt like I was the one who got baptized or something hahahaha 

 

Ok second story: We have a ward list that we are going through and we decided to go try and find this lady Juliet who is on our ward list but hasn’t been to church in years.  So we have a few lessons this day and it’s time to go find her. YAY! So we ring the bell and she says "Chi'è?" and we tell her that we are the missionaries from the church... which she is a member of!! Hahaha And she mumbles a little and then buzzes us in hahaha soooo we head up a little worried of how this is going to turn out cause we get yelled at and stuff so we knock on the door and she cracks it open and we just pretend like we are her BEST FRIENDS cause we do NOT want her to yell or get mad or hate us or anything haha so we are just like "HI!!!!!! How are you??????? Can we just sing a song real quick and we will leave you alone?!" Hahaha we had decided to sing a hymn to Juliet cause "Dove trovar Potro Pace e Conforto" had been stuck in our head ALL DAY. aka Where can I turn for Peace....... So she HESITANTLY lets us in and we do like everything in our power to get her talking- and she finally just starts talking a little ... so we are like ok cool lets sing. So we are singing this song- and she starts crying. In our heads we are thinking YAY SHE FEELS THE SPIRIT!!!!! And so we finish the song and we look at her and we are ask "What are you feeling?" .. and she goes on to tell us that 4 Months ago, her daughter, who has children of her own- had committed suicide. My companion and I just look at each other like WHATTTTT we had NO IDEA , we didn’t even know who this women was- she showed us the rest of the apartment where her daughter had been living and the room was left untouched- then she takes us to the balcony (she is on the 4th floor of an apartment) and we look down at the round where she had planted a heart in flowers so she could always remember her daughter. SHEESH this poor women needed help bad, she was SOOOOOooo sad and so now we are meeting with her two more times this week- It moments like that when I am SO grateful to be a missionary. If we didn’t come, who would have been there for her? Now when we meet with her she is all kisses and hugs and smiley- so I am just SO grateful to be here :)

 

Funny Story of the Week: Ok soooo just like in America- People order Pizza here hahaha So Sorella Durfee and I had this GRAND idea of ordering ourselves a $5 pizza COOL. So we get out the phone not thinking much of it and we grab one of the little pamphlets with pizza on it so we could order. So we call the number and asked of the delivered- nope. So we call like 4 more numbers and they finally say YES!!!! So we go YAY! haha and then they ask "What do you want?" Wellllllll crap I didn’t think that far so in Italian we try attempting to explain what we want on our pizza... HORRIBLE so we suffer through that hahaha and like 10 minutes later when we think we have made our point.... they ask us "Where do you live" WELL CRAP! Hahaha I don’t know!!!!! So we start scrambling to find a pass along card right? Cause we have a million and a half of those. Well NEWSFLASH that’s not the right address either. It’s a pass-along card. With the CHURCHS address NOT our apartment address durdurdur so we kinda just make up an address of what we knew and LUCKILY they knew where we were talking about. Yay. 

So we think it’s over right? NOPE. We still have to pay hahahaha so he finally comes and asks us to buzz him in- well shoot, I don’t know how! So we just push all the buttons- opening the gate for the cars AND for people walking AND for the scala...... awkward. He gets in and calls AGAIN and at this point we are like I don’t even want the pizza anymore this is just too much effort hahaha and we just give up and meet him outside and pay and leave a tip which apparently is NOT A THING here in Italia. -____- So we go upstairs. Pizza. Finally. Hahahaha I open my box ........ AND THERE ARE FRENCH FRIES ON MY PIZZA. LIKE A BUTT LOAD. hahahaha They gave my Americani Pizza......... Jerks. making fun of me hahahahahahahahaha let’s be honest I deserved it. hahahahaha 

For Future Reference: When Ordering Pizza... you need 1) The Phone Number of a place that Delivers 2) Know what you want 3) Know  your address 4)  Know how to open the door

Just so ya know. There are my words of advice for this week. Lol

 

I love yall. 

The church is true. Obviously.

Sorella Holloway.

 

 

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

EEEEEEP I LOVE WENDSDAYS!!!!!!! I think I say that every week but it is so true.  I like sit at the computer and read up and then bawl my eyes out at the pictures from everybody and then I wallow in self-pity that I am so far away.... and then I get over it and write back :) hahaha This week has been so hard!!! I know Father’s day is coming up this Sunday and I just stinking miss you guys!!!!! The Homesick monster got me this week wahhhhhhhhhh But DAD HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!!! Hope its bomb-diggity even though you won’t be with mama. Make sure Jay and Ben celebrate too since they are new Daddies too: D EEEPPP!!!!

Also its stinking annoying that no one has gotten my letters. -____- I have to pay 2 STINKING DOLLARS for every stamp and so THEY BETTER GET THERE. Seriously.... 2 dollars for a stamp.... How is that a thing? Is it really putting them out of their way to carry my piece of paper over the water? Really? REALLY?!

Anyway. Olivia Huskey is leaving on her mission in 22 days so if that’s not a big deal I don’t know what is.

Also Does Kendra know if she is having a boy or girl yet? Cause I defiantly sent her a card as if she was having a girl cause by the time she gets this card her baby will probably already by 3 months old.. so I just took a guess and went with it.

ALRIGHTYYYYYY So this week was by far the coolest week I have had here in Italy YAYYYY So many miracles this week.

FIRST STORY: Last P-Day we had a goal of getting 4 new phone numbers aka 4 new Potential investigators. So we had gotten 3 throughout the day and we were like 40 feet from the apartment and we saw a man walking our way and I look at Durfee and I say ,"There he is. that’s number four. " So we walk up to him and strike up a not so casual conversation about God hahaha So of course it starts to sprinkle and I KNOW he is going to use this as an excuse to walk away so I straight up start threatening the sky in my mind just thinking "Ya know what?? YOU can wait. We are getting this guys number and as SOON as he starts giving us him number THEN you can rain. and pour. bring out the thunder and lightning I don’t care but YOU CAN WAIT a freaking five minutes" So then it stops sprinkling and I was like oh good we got lucky haha so we keep talking to this guy And we ask him if it would be possible to meet another time to talk about the Book of Mormon. He is wishy washy and then like shrugs and say "Perche non??" Haha So we pull out our planners and ask for his number and AS SOON as he says the very first number it starts to rain... and by the time he finishes his number ITS POURING so we all run away and we get 40 feet to our apartment and we hear thunder Hahahaha COOLEST THING EVER. You guys- As missionaries, you have authority to stop and control the rain. SAHHHHHWWWEEEETTTTT!!!! Hahaha So cool. haha But yeah we were soaked. Not the first time this has happened to us either.... It randomly pours here all the time. Annoying.

SECOND STORY: We met this lady on the street the other day and she wanted a Book of Mormon... Uhhh... Yeah we can do that, so she comes to the lesson and she brings her daughter too.. OH HECK YES. Those are always the BEST People when they bring other people they want to learn with. Then we finish that lesson and head to our next lesson with a new convert from the Philippines and she is on the phone and she says to us "I have two friends coming- I want you to teach them" Haha YAY! So she tricked her friends into coming and both were somewhat open with us but I started talking about McDonalds and the really closed one TOTALLY opened up... McDonalds here myyyy worddddd...... SO ridiculous.... have I told the story of McDonalds? Probably not... Basically we asked this lady on the street where the best place to eat was (I mean we are in Italy... everything is good we have high expectations) and she Says McDonalds.... OH HECK NO. We try to explain that we aren’t really fans and she then tries to convince us for the next HALF HOUR why we need to start eating there.... we finally run away and we ask TWO MORE PEOPLE and they both say McDonalds. WHAT IS THIS. Anyway..... dumb. Kebap is the only way to go. Droooolll.

THIRD STORY: So our mission president asked us all to start teaching more meno-ativas so we asked Vescivo for some names and he gave us a list and we chose to go see this lady named Angel. So we go find this lady and what do you know, she had moved and her phone number had expired. Fabulous. So we wanted to reach our goal of 6 lesson in one day so I look at my companion and I say " ya wanna get another lesson?" and she says "Heck yeah" So I start doing some Casa (uhh tracking I think? like for apartments so you have to push the buttons to get buzzed in?) and my companion buzzes like the eighth one and the buzzer goes "chi é?" And she starts the whole "Ciao! Siamo Missionari per la Chiesa di Gesu Cristo dei Santi degli Ultimi Giorni!" Now usually this is where people cut ya off and say " NON INTRESANTE!!!" But this lady goes "SI SI SI SI!!!!" She buzzes us in hahaha So we are like ok well this is the first time this has every happened in the history of mankind hahaha So we get up like the million stairs and she is standing there with the door opened inviting us in. COOL. She was smoking and had about 8 cats and 4 dog. MMMmm. Just my type uh' Lady. So using our super good judgment we walk right in like nobody’s business and she goes on to tell us that She had been baptized 4 years ago, but stopped going cause she felt unworthy cause she got addicted to smoking again and the missionaries that taught her had gone home. Guess what her name was? ANGEL. now NOTTT the Angel we had come to see, but a different meno-ativa angel. Coolest thing ever. We are now seeing her once a week and helping her quit. Yeahhhhh we called the mission president for that one cause it was so cool cause we had been praying ALL day to be able to find this Meno-ativa named Angel and we did!!! But he was just sneaky about it. Moral of the story: Use first AND last names when praying.....

FOURTH STORY: Best one yet. We set three baptismal dates in one day. WHOOP WHOOP!!!!!! That’s not normal by ANY means for Milano. Like ever. So NOW we have six people getting ready for baptism and we started with none :) So 1 is from Canada (Female, 22), 1 is from Egypt (Male, 45ish), 1 is from the Philippines(Male, 35ish), 1 is from Peru (Female, 45ish) and 2 are from West Africa (in their 20s) :) So it looks like we will have a baptism here every week in July, so PRAY THEY ALL PULL THROUGH!!!!!!!!! Also we have a baptism this Saturday for an ex-communicated member that we have been working with so we are SUPER happy for her for getting ready and making the huge jump back to the church.

On a less awesome note- I got sick this week so I have been apartment bound for three days BUT today I walked all the way to the church to do email (Aint Nothin stoppin me from email) and we did grocery shopping. YAY ME! But for the past two days I have not been able to put my face on and put clothes on so I am working my way back to health again. Uhhhhh I should also mention I am Gluten free again.... I tried just taking in easy on the pasta and stuff but yeahhhhhhhh that’s not working out too well for me. So I give up. Gluten Free it is. BUTTTTTTT I got some test results back from the MTC and they say I DO NOT have celiac disease! hahaha Not super surprising but the doctor  there was convinced I did. Boom I don’t. So I am meeting with the nurse sometime this week and getting the rest of the results and they have a Doctor in Germany that will explain the rest to me. YAY!!! But yeah.... no more Gluten. It’s killing me. -___-

Also transfers are today and I am staying in MILANO!!!!!! Holy Joy to the World. I have no idea what that conference thing is that you are talking about..... but if there really isn’t church that day Italy missed the memo. ORRRRR My companion and I just missed the memo. I don’t know if you remember this part but we don’t actually speak Italian all that great.... we just smile and nod during announcements....... But PLEASE do inform me when you do find out. That kind of sounds like a big deal.

Yeah mom I was thinking for Father’s day you should give every Father a life size statue of themselves, really make em feel all special, but OF COURSE still have homemade cinnamon rolls.... -____- Sees candy Chocolate bar. BASTA.

 

That mouse story is straight up NASTY. I can’t believe he just caught one with his bare hand. Sciffo. bleck. That’s not sanitary EWWWWWWWWWW

but very kind of him I suppose....

Thanks for keeping me updated with everyone- Love you guys tons! Especially while I am sick I just kinda look at pictures of yall and wallow in self-pity... :( WAH ohhhhh cute story: My companion is the best and bought me popcorn and I like ate all three bags in 2 second flat. :( Wahhh.

ok I almost forgot my funny story for this week hahahaha Ok I KNOWWWW I said I would stop telling you my kissing stories but this one was just too awkward. Hahaha Ok So one of our baptismal dates came to meet with us and he comes in to give me a handshake and I KNOW this is where I am supposed to give him the stiff arm.... so I brace myself and go to shake his hand and he start pulling me in so I straighten my arm to avoid the cheek kiss thing and so I straighten my arm THUS straight out punch him in the side AND WE STILL BACI. I am the world’s most awkward person. -___- So I Baci-ed a West African and then to just top it off he goes to my companion who has MASTERED the stiff arm and tells him we don’t baci. cool..... -___- Worlds most awkward award goes to me. Pray for me. Lol

Love yall.

Peace and Blessings.

yayyyyyyyyyyy

Sorella Holloway :)

 

 

I LOVE MY FAMILY.

You guys are the best. :)

Ok so first thing is first- Jenna-called you.... because there is no such thing as face-calling someone... so for future reference Hahaha

Second- I am worried for the reputation I am getting back home THUS no more kissing stories haha Basically everyday someone goes in to kiss my face and then you do the awkward  I DON’T KNOW WHICH WAY TO GO FIRST SO WE FOR REALS ALMOST JUST KISSED panic moment but I am learning the technique and am learning how to "stiff-arm" people. Cause you shake people hands and then they pull ya in for the face-shot BUT if you make your arm straight and stiff they can’t reach your face! It’s amazing!!! I get to practice a lot so I will learn. Haha Yeah tell Paul I can’t get used to kissing girls all the time, and I don’t think I had that big of a bubble to start with sooooo I don’t know how other missionaries do it.

I can’t wait to come home and see Kate and Mini Jaydra babies. I know babies look like their parents but to have babies look like my siblings is straight up CRAYCRAY. So excited. Hahaha But from what i can tell Kate is looking a TON like Ben!!!! Hahaha

Uhhh Shopping here is impossible for me. I either find things, like shoes, for $99 a pair or $10 a pair.... soooo I went with the cheap ones and just got three pairs and just rotate every day. They will hold up for like... 3 more transfers. But I still think its worth it. More shoes. Dur. Clothes are decent priced but I haven’t needed anything yet. It’s getting HECKA HOTTT which is just lovely because within 18 months, I might actually turn a shade of white to MAYBE a cream normal human being color... but that’s just a hope. Pray for me. I mean with all the cigarette smoke I breath a day, it probably amounts to AT LEAST 2 cigs a day- so if I am gunna get lung cancer, Why not throw skin cancer in there to? Meh. DON’T EVEN CUR.

OK This week was the usual AWESOME.

During Parko (aka tracking.. at a park... thus the PARKo...) we contacted 2 prostitutes... that was fun. They weren’t interested. Can’t  imagine why. OHOHOHOH Last week we got 3 new Simpatizzanti EEP! We haven’t gotten a single new person the whole time I have been here so it’s a huge deal. Tomorrow we have four lessons planned ALL with new potentials so tomorrow we are hoping for FOUR new simpatizzanti!!! SO COOL!!! I don’t know what happened butttttttt this is super crazy. Pray they all follow through!!! We also had a Zone ... something. Io non so MA I got to see President e Sorella Wolfgramm which is always SUPER awesome. I GOT TO SEE WINKY AND ERVIN. Aka my ladies in my MTC district- so that was fantastico. We had a Scambia and a Blitz... and I don’t know what either of those are in English so just pretend like ya know and smile and nod hahaha basically we switched comps for a day. VERY full week.

Ok so this morning we went to a TAI CHI class because on our scabia last week we contacted this man who said he taught class so he handed us a flyer... and then I gave him a pass-along card hahah so we did an awkward switch but we knew we had to go find him so all four of us went to this class and we got 2 numbers from there so that’s great! Haha So our whole day is basically Chinese themed- got some Tai Chi lessons then went and got some Chinese town food and shopping done... btw..... at this place they had duck tongue, pig tongue, pig ear, jelly fish, octopus, ... uh... yeah all nastiness. I stuck with classy chicken- ok that’s a lie I tried some unidentifiable meat that we guessed was duck... that’s normal right? all we know is it wasn’t chicken, cow, or pork... yikes now that I am writing about it I am slowing realizing that’s pretty sketchy..

FUNNY STORY OF THE WEEK: uhhhh Ok so on our Blitz I was with another Sorella and we are going along this street just talking to whomever and this lady in a blue sweater in her 50s grabs my arm and asks "Do you take donations?" (Obviously in Italian. She thought we were nuns asking for donations for God) so I said "Non non non! Siamo missionare per La Chiesa di Gesu Cristo dei Santi Degli Ultimi Giorni! Conosce Mormoni?..." She cuts me off and start walking away after putting her hand in my face and says " Nonononononon intresata Jahova witnesses" so my companion just yells after her and says "We are JWS! We are the Mormons!!!!" So she looks back at us, thinking maybe we WERE catholic, and then sees the tag again and just walks away. So we just go along our merry way and she is 7 or 8 feet in front of us (Remember we were the ones walking- she stopped ME) and she starts talking to us over her shoulder.. well neither of us can understand cause she is too far ahead so we try to catch up and she just starts YELLING like "these people are following me!! They won’t leave me alone!!!" Then as if that wasn’t awkward enough she starts stopping GROUPS of people in front of us and telling them we are crazy and are basically verbally abusing her! So then we have the joy to walk past these people all checking us out up and down judging us - it was great. So obviously we just stop in our tracts and wait for her to walk further away... the thing is she keeps stopping people and telling them we are following her soooooo yeah. We got SUPER shunned hahaha we took a different route and we get some gelato cause we feel sorry for ourselves and let’s be honest, Gelato fixes everything, and we continue on our merry way. Guess what Happens next. SHE POPS OUT FROM NOWHERE RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! So we basically run away so maybe SOMEONE will listen to us today and we ended up taking AT LEAST a 10 mile hike home cause the street we ran down ended up bringing us to Wonderland. Basically GLORIOUS. Ahhhhh I will remember that lady in the blue sweater. I don’t think I have ever been so afraid of a woman in her late 50s..... Strange

Anyway that’s my life! Always busy, always fun, always random things happening hahaha Thank you everybody for keeping me updated- I LOVE email time :))))) Letters always good too:) Lots of love from Italy!!!!

Also I have been reading in 3 Nephi... Dudes... Have you read that lately? Probably not cause its after Alma and nobody knows what after Alma. Yall should read in 3 Nephi. Incredible. It says in the intro to the BOM its the crowning event in Libro di Mormon but we all know the story of Nephi way better..... PERCHE???

LOVE YOU GUYS!

Ps. I am sending Stephen a Wife from Italy. Because she is Awesome. I must email him immediately. 

Sorella Holloway

 

One more thing- I think dad will appreciate this... Gas here is 1.60 EURO for 1 liter.... yikes..... That’s supa bad. Thus the mini cars. That rumor about Italy is 100% accurate bytheway. I would feel confident in saying if I got hit by a car here it would probably do more damage to the car then me...