Week 27 Letter from Sorella Hills

Hey! A letter from my father! I was starting to think that you didn't exist anymore! Lol, it was good to hear from you.  Sounds like things are going really well out there.  When is trek? I assume the water tank is for trek... Did you stay for the whole graduation and the dance?! Randolph and Colebrook in the same day? They aren't in the same meetinghouse right? I don't remember...

Jack! Dude, you can't be blowing $200 in one day... Ah well, sounds like a lot of fun though, jealous! Dude!!! There I was. On this back road that was more potholes then road.  Yeah, you've seen the picture of the road, it was crazy! 

Issy! Oh my gosh, Sorella Julia! So, the sisters in the past picked it up off the street because the promotion of whatever was over. On the back, they made a fireplace for Christmas. But... It's not Christmas... Enter Sorella Julia! ACE stands for vitamin a, c, and e.  It is carrot, orange and lemon juice.  Sounds strange, but sooooo goooood! And girl, I couldn't even remember Shia Labouf... I don't got nothing but the Book of Mormon! 

Ellie! Ok, this is important. Who started the tunnel... 

This week was hot.  It is up in the 90's, high 80's, and it is just going to keep climbing.  It is so hot at night... It doesn't cool down very much. I sweat like a man! It is so bad!!! I'm going to get some shirts that you can't see the sweat as much... It's gross! 

This week was rather dull.  We did not end up dropping our teenage investigator! Well, we tried.  She came clean on everything, and it wasn't as bad as we thought.  But we asked to meet her mom, just for safety on our part, and to confirm that her mom knows that she is meeting with us. She hasn't called us since... So... We are calling it good on that one until she calls...

There was an emergency transfer, and guess who is up in Rome now!?! Sorella Rackham! We saw her today at the Waddoups goodbye, which I'll get to later.  It was so nice to see her again though.  She is still wicked funny, love that girl! 

So, the Waddoups leave tomorrow morning, so all Rome West, and most of Rome East zones showed up at the Villa (mission home?) to surprise them.  We watched this thank you video from all the missionaries, ate some food, and said goodbye! So sad, but I'm happy that they get to go home and continue on with life! They have grandkids to see! 

We are doing a lot of finding, and a lot of looking for new people to teach, which sort of sucks, but you gotta do something! So... Yeah, that's my life.  

Love you all, EMAIL ME ASAP WITH A VIDEO OF JACK OPENING HIS CALL!!!

Sorella Hills

Week 26 Letter from Sorella Hills

Ciao famiglia 

I missed the party apparently! All those people! Sounds like a blast. Thank you Ellie for the letter with all the little messages, it was a crack up! But the google translate... Voi means you all.  So... You said, "we love you Jessie we pray for y'all! Lol, but thank you :) 

Dang it Jack! You need to apply to Marshalls! You should have already done it, because the summer flow of high school students has started, and they won't be hiring soon! You would have totally gotten a job bro! Also... Could you try and send me a video of the "just do it" video... Also, who does that video?!? I totally spaced on his name.  I saw a corvette yesterday... In Italy! I can't imagine a lot made it out this way, but you tell me! 

I'm glad you all had so much fun camping and such! Those kids are just toofunny! 

Ok. To the week! 

This week was just funny! We had a lot of fun with English course.  So, I'm not sure if I told you, but we teach English as a service to the community. So, every Tuesday and Thursday night, we do an hour class, and everyone is invited.  My companion and I teach the more advanced group, which it fine by us! Way more fun.  This week, he topic was about "How to open a checking account".  The people are much more advanced that that... So we started doing topic based activities. This week, we did a skit of some sort... About how to rob a bank! It was so funny! We had bananas in our bags from a member we had just visited, and off they went! So much fun! 

Because it was our 6th month mark, we bought ourselves a lot of good food.  Like our favorite cookies, and gelato, and popcorn, and ACE.  We then put our beds on the floor, put on our pjs, and watched "The Testaments", with such quotable moments as "It pleases me", "it is the jaguar" and "it is beautiful, it it you". Too good! 

Friday was specialized training... It's the last one for the Waddoups! It was kind of sad.  I sang with one of the Elders "God be with you till we meet again", and everyone joined in on the last verse.  Both of the Waddoups where bawling, it was so sad, but so good.  

We learned more about our teen investigator this week! One, she is homeless. Two, her mom might be a prostitute. Three, she might be involved in that work too. She has never been straight with us about her home life.  Finding out that she has flat out lied about it was sort of the last straw. We are going to drop her this week.  It is not safe for us, because we do not know the mom, and she might not know we are talking to her daughter and that's not ok.  There are men who sit in a car outside the trailer where she is living  and overall, the situation is not conducive to the commitments we are asking her to keep.  We would be setting her up to fail.  She would do any thing to make us keep visiting her.  Which is why she has been taught this long, because she looks like she is progressing.  She lies, and is manipulative.  No good.  So... She doesn't know that we know where she lives yet... We are going to confront her, and make her see that this lie and the fact that we can not see her any more is in fact her fault. Hopefully she will not be mad at us, because it is her fault... We'll see.  It is important that the missionaries in the future can teacher her again when she is more ready, so we can't make her hate us... So fun! 

Today is my six months to six months to sexy! Yay!!! One year left! We are playing zone volleyball today, so it should be with a good amount of the entire zone! Should be a lot of fun.  

Vi voglio bene! 

Sorella Hills

Week 25 Letter from Sorella Hills

Ciao tutti! Come state voi!??

So Issy and Jack are done with school. I'm so jealous! Sometimes I wish there was a summer break to look forward to... Non c'e.  Mannaggia! But I have other landmarks to look forward to. Like.... My 6 month on a mission mark!!! Or my one year left mark!!! The 6 month happens on the 16th, and the one year left mark on the 20th Sooo, one year from Monday, and I'll be home! Crazy right?!? 

So, you aren't going to the reunion? 

You NEED to let me know IMMEDIATELY when Jack gets his call! I'm freaking out!! 

This was pretty cool.  We have been struggling really hard with our teen investigator.  She really wants to be a 'supernova'. She wants to be Ariana Grande. We finally made a bit of a breakthrough when she expressed concerns about her dreams and how they contrast with the gospel.  She has wanted to be a singer forever.  And now that she is learning about the gospel, and accepting that it is true, she worries that her dreams might become out of reach.  This came after a lesson where we decided to write out our life goals, and share them.  So, she left with some pretty superficial goals, like become a singer, or a dancer.  Then, she called us, and said that she wanted to meet. She showed us her goals, and they had changed dramatically. They still had become a singer/dancer, but she had added some like 'marry a guy that loves me forever', and  'have a good family'.  It was so cool.  Then, the whole time, she asked us questions about behavior and standards, as in how we would act in a certain situation.  She really wants to have what we have, and I think the connection to the gospel is not to far away. We are going to hammer it home next visit. 

This week, we had a lot of down time, because appointments kept falling through. There is never down time, so we ended up doing in active finding, and past investigator finding.  We went through our entire area book, which has all the schede (don't have an English word for them... But they are information about people who took the lessons in the past...), and organized them by year, who to call, who to let cool off, who to give to the Anziani because they are old and single men, and who to throw away because there is no phone number, last name, address, and no friends/people they met at church we could contact.  It looks so good now! So we started calling people, and we have a couple of appointments, so fingers crossed! As for in active finding, we didn't find anyone who lived at their listed address until last night.  He might be crazy, but his mom is really sick, and he is going through a rough time, so we'll send the Anziani over.  It was so cool, we said a prayer with him right on the street! 

So, that's what's been happening.  Keep me posted!

Vi voglio bene! 

Sorella Hills

Week 24 Letter from Sorella Hills

Cara famiglia,

I am in Ostia! I have been here since Thursday actually.  I love companion!  She is the best. The Anziani here have just been blown in, so she is showing me around AND them. It's been a lot of fun seeing how different cities work, and adding new and better ways to do things to your life.  

It's crazy being in the same transfer as my companion. But, then I think about the group that where just trainers. They where in their 5 transfer... So. I could totally train next transfer! I hope not, but this is a real possibility! We'll see :) 

We have an investigator!  She is... Interesting. She is 17, and definitely 17.  We are working hard with her! 

Other than her, we don't have really any investigators at the moment.  But, we are working hard to find more people.  

Because Ostia is close to Rome, we can got there on Pday!!! So, we totally did.  I got some pictures.  It was all so cool.  We saw la bocca della verità, circo massimo, and lots of other cool places.  Like McDonalds! It was crazy cool! McDonalds was like a 5 star restaurant! It was beautiful and the food was even better than in America, I'm sure of it! 

You all have to tell me right away when Jack gets his call!!! Like, immediately! I'm dying! 

Love you all! 

Sorella Hills

Week 23 Letter from Sorella Hills

Great news everyone!!! I am going to Ostia! It is part of Rome, so I'm about to have a lot of awesome P.days and hear all the juicy gossip. But, here is the crazy bit.  My companion in the same age as me in the mission, we are both 4th transfer.  So...better brush up on my Italian! My new companion was in the MTC with me, obvi, but it's just crazy to me.  

I can not believe that Alli is engaged!!! Send me some engagement pictures! I just got ones of the yard, which I love, and of Jack's beautiful face :) 

So... Jack. Dude, you are totally coming to the Milan mission! Start learning Italian! I have never heard of Josh's toys and games, how did you hear about it? What is the pay like? 

Dad, I'm sorry you had to ride your bike in such gross weather! It was 35 C on Saturday, and we spent most of it outside in Comiso. It was so hot, just sitting, I can't imagine riding a bike!!! Is the route all mapped out then? 

Ellie! I am so glad Ashley came to church! Did you invite her, or did she come without being invited? Either way Ellie, I'm glad you are being such a good friend to her.  She needs it. 

Issy, I haven't gotten any sunburns yet. But, I do have some wicked good tan lines! See my gross leg picture for more information. And sorry about SVE. Is BYU still not on your list?

This week. We spent over 16 hours on a bus! From Catania and back for Zone Conference. It was a fun conference, minus the leg incident. It was bad.  I fought a folding bed and lost.  And then I sang with Anziano Bates (he is the Anziano furthest to the left in the Siracusa picture), while Anziano Perfilli played the ukulele and Sorella Harmen (furthest to the left in the Siracusa picture) played the piano.  It was a tribute to Sicilia. We sang If I Could Hie to Kolob, because for some reason, the people are like obsessed with that song. Like crying.  And we thought the ukulele would add just that hint of this is ridiculous. It sounded really good, and those who served in Sicilia for a while got the joke, but to the rest, it was just a nice musical number for zone conference.  It was perfect! 

Then, Comiso. That same day, to Catania again because of Stake conference. The Ragusa ward rented a bus, but they didn't have enough room for us, so we had to go to Catania and ride with the Catania ward.  But the Catania sisters were in Siracusa, so we stayed in their house alone.  Then, Palermo. Back to Catania. Back to Ragusa. It was SO much. What a week!

Our investigators are really progressing.  I'm sad I'm not going to be here to see how it all turns out, but I know that the Lord will make the things happen that need to happen.  I know that this it he was he wants it to be, so I'm excited for this next adventure. My Roman holiday! Here I come! 

Vi voglio un sacco di bene! 

Sorella Hills