Week 51 Letter from Sorella Hills

Yoyoyo! 

My year mark is on the 16th, so I'm celebrating it with zone conference. 

Questions of the week:

1. What are you doing on Christmas?
We are doing stuff as a zone Christmas Eve, and then we have a pranzo appointment Christmas Day.

2. Do you know what time you get to call home?

I can call home whenever you want, so if you have a time/day that's better, let me know so I can claim my time before other people do. 

3. Should we try to coordinate so we can loop Jack in for at least part of your call? 
That would be cool!  You can totally try!

5. How have your Light the World efforts been going?  We've done some random acts of kindness and it feels good!

It's going fine.  We are trying to share it with members.

Love you all,

Sorella Hills

Week 50 Letter from Sorella Hills

Hi, all-

Here are the answers to your questions.

1. What are you guys doing for the Lighting up the world? 

- We are showing it to all our members, and trying to show it to people on the street.  So far, only the members watch it.  But, we are trying to do the days everyday as close as we can :) 

2. What is the most spiritual experience you have had on your mission?

- most spiritual experience... bo (Italian for too perplexing/hard to answer)

3. Do you have a Christmas tree?

Yes, I'll send a picture!

4. Did you get  the packages?  Don't open the one with Christmas tape till Christmas. Do you like the music? 

I haven't gone to the office yet... probably next week I'll go check.

5. How is the new companion?

My comp is awesome! 

6. What are you doing for Christmas?  

We don't have plans yet!

7. Are you tired of the daily emails yet?  Mom said she can stop if it's too much.

No, I like them :) 

Congrats Issy! BYUI is the best! Well be basically freshmen together :)

Ok.  This week was long! I was sick, my comp was sick/has migraines.   We got our Christmas tree though! Also, no time this week, but I love you all! 

Sorella Hills

Week 49 Letter from Sorella Hills

Oh my gosh! I read the fist sentence, and I was like 😐😳😱😰😭, thinking SOMEONE DIED!!! Then, I read the second sentence, and I was like 😳🙄😢. Like, sad! But you had me so worried, that I thought the CC stood for someones name, and I was so confused! That stinks though, even though it's just a car, I liked the CC! What are you going to do then, do you still have the big white bus? 

Your Thanksgiving sounds so fun! The food prep is a real thing! We learned how to make gravy and mashed potatoes this week, and we have become pretty proficient at them both  😄 #AmericanProbs.  It's so funny though, because my companion is from Costa Rica, but no one seems to understand that, they just assume she's American.  We also have an Anziano from the Philippines, and it's the same problem.  Also, in our city, there are no missionaries from Utah or Idaho! And only 2 Americans! It's quite rare and should be celebrated! 

Poor mom! That cream sounds awful.  It's the one that gets rid in the cancer right? How often does she have to do it, like it seems like she does it a lot... is it getting a lot of spots? That scares me, MOM, STOP SUN BATHING! 

I'm glad all is going diciamo well! I love hearing the silly daily stories you guys send, it's just great! 

As for me, this week was really, bla.  My poor companion was sick. But, I taught her how to use the Rubix cube! She's pretty good now, so we brought it on the metro hoping to get people to talk to us, and the Anziani were like, there's no way you can solve that thing, and I was like, yes we totally can! I said I can do it in under 2 minutes, so they timed me.  1 min 20 sec.  The whole metro was looking at us! It was pretty great 😄.  

We had a Thanksgiving dinner with the Anziani's investigators, and it was so fun.  The food... it was like America! The lady slaved for days to make the food! And we got there, and she was like HELP, I CAN'T MAKE GRAVY! So we learned how to make gravy! 

We have an investigator named from South America.  She's so cute! She's in a wheel chair right now, because of problems with her leg, and an operation she just had.  But if it wasn't for that, she could totally be baptized like tomorrow. She bore her testimony in the 3rd hour combined meeting, and said she knew the church was true, and that she could feel the spirit really strong.  We are working on the Word of Wisdom, and we asked her to stop drinking tea and coffee. She at first was like, NO, I can't! But then, she said, ok, I'll try it for a week.  It's been two, and she has only drunk one cup, and it was because her daughter made her breakfast, and she didn't want to hurt her feelings.  She was like, from now on, I'm making my own breakfast! She watches conference every day, and loves reading the Book of Mormon.  She's so prepared, I'm so excited for her! 

We have some other investigators, but my companion's been sick, so we haven't seen them in a while, but Ostia is doing great, I love it here! Have you seen the new Christmas initiative the church put out, light the world? It's SO good- we are working on showing it to everyone! This Christmas is going to be weird, but awesome! We are going Christmas tree hunting today... we'll see how that goes! 

Love you all, everything is going well.  I haven't gotten the package yet, because I haven't gone the the office/ zone conference is not till the 15th.  But, I'll get out there soon, and I'll check :) Keep writing, I love hearing from you all! 

Sorella Hills

Week 48 Letter from Sorella Hills

Hey yall! 

So, last week was so... pazza :) That's why the letter was so short! We ran around, doing shopping, saying goodbye to departing missionaries, catching trains and busses, and we didn't have WiFi for more than 20 mins... so the letter was so short... sorry :) 

1. I've been feeling great! I am back in Ostia, and I love it :) 

2. OSTIA is great, hasn't changed too much since I was here last.

3. My new companion is awesome! She is very chill and is so understanding! I love her! 

4. My biggest surprise of the mission so far has been how different it is from my expectations.  I never expected Italy to be the way it is, or the people to be the way they are.  I never expected my companions, the things I would learn about myself, and the things I would be doing.  The biggest surprise is that the mission is not what you think AT ALL.  Sometimes, it's better, sometimes it's worse, but it's always a surprise :) I do love it, even when at sometimes it's worse then I ever imagined. 

I running out of time again... I have a lot of emails to write to my fans :) But I want you to know that I love the daily emails, they are so cute.  I just want to know about your daily lives! I'm excited for the music, what music did you send again? Also, you realize that I'll have to pay customs... and that it might be a lot... 

Love y'all! 

Sorella Hills

Week 47 Letter from Sorella Hills

Hello folks! 

So, yes, these past couple of weeks have been pretty... long.  This week was quite strange in fact! It started out on Monday, when I got a call from president that said "Hey! You;re coming to Rome tomorrow at 4:00pm! Pack you're bags!" So... I did :) It was so... crazy! I wasn't able to say goodbye to anyone, which was SO sad, I love the people of Crotone! And it was so stressful trying to catch the train, fallowed by an incredibly long train ride that was dark after the first hour or so, so I couldn't even look out the window.  Ehh, che devo fare? 

Then I spent some time in the mission home before they could figure out what to do with me... and I got to work in the office, which means I am SO informed about ALL the gossip in the mission (good and bad).  Then, off to............. OOOOSSSTTTIIIAAA!!!!!! 

It's going to be a great transfer! 

Sorella Hills

Week 46 Letter from Sorella Hills

Ciao famiglia :) 

I haven't been transferred yet, but the calls come next Monday night! So... we'll see what happens! 

Daylight savings is a thing here, but it happened a week ago :) 

I really don't know what to write you about this week... I'm sort of sick.  But, I promise I'll write next week! Love you all! 

Sorella Hills

Week 45 Letter from Sorella Hills

Hey all! 

Ah! I loved the Snape trivia :) Some people think WAY too much about trivial things, but it makes good fun for the rest of us, right? Haha, I love how people's hard work becomes our enjoyment for a second or two... and that's all :) 

BY THE WAY, WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME ANYTHING?!? LIKE, KATIE SPENCER GOES ON A MISSION TO UTAH, AND IAN WEECH?!? AND THE SPENCERS MOVE TO MANCHESTER?! Well, I know I'm not important... that's fine :p And what's this about AFV with a cartoon? Have they gone mad? Also, anything on the presidential race/ do I even want to know who you voted for?! 

As for Halloween, we've celebrated it like 3 times already! People here are weird about it, especially since the Pope just came out with a statement that halloween is of the devil! So... people are weird about it. They are either creepy about it, rebelling, or super against it! It's real weird... so we'll see how tonight looks.

So, the week was sort of crazy! We had zone conference on Wednesday and Thursday, so we had to leave at 5:30 am to get to Taranto for 10:30ish.  It was a lot.  But, it was fun hanging out with the district! A total of 10 hours on the bus, all of zone conference, and pretty much all of the rest of the days, and today together.  It's been so fun, I'm pretty sure they'll blow us all out next transfer, we are all too good of friends :) 

We had a party on Friday, which was SO fun... and stressful :) But mostly fun :) No one came except like 2 members and English course people, and we invited EVERYONE! Ah well, che devo fare? 

Then, we thought we were going to Bari on Saturday and Sunday for stake conference, but we were told, Saturday morning might I add, that we were not allowed to go... so... we had to make up some stuff to do, and it was like, ah! I just want to do the plan! Ah well, che devo fare? So we watched it at the church instead... which was a crapy transmission that kept not working... and we couldn't understand a word. For 2 hours.  

But, our investigators are making progress.  We got to see them again this week, and they had read the Book of Mormon.  One though stopped, because she couldn't get over the Nephi killed Laban thing... but we (the other investigator, her husband and us) explained that it all comes down to context, and she seemed content, and promised to read and pray not only by herself, but with her kids! So awesome! Love those ladies :) 

You are awesome! Thank you for the silly stuff you send me during the week, it really brightens the day, love you all! 

Sorella Hills