Italy

Italy

Hailey

Hailey

Contacting Hailey

Email: You can email me ANYTIME at:
hailey.kennedy@myldsmail.net
I can only respond once a week on our day off....so if I don't respond quickly that is why. Thanks:)
Any cards, packages or letters can be sent to:
Sorella Hailey Kennedy
Italy Rome Mission
Piazza Carnaro, 20
00141 Rome, Italy




Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Week 1 Missionary Training Center, Provo

And so it begins!!



Hermana Huiskin from back home

Elder Calhoun (the tall one) an friend who used to live in irvine



My first companion Sorella Reber!!


Ciao!!!
So The MTC is CRAZY town. I pretty much feel overwhelmed (soprafrato) all the time. But let me give you the run down of the week.
In general:
My companions name is Sorella Reber!! This is the girl i met at the airport! what are the odds. She is super funny. She got there the first day and was all "Ive been waiting months for this moment and this is the best place in the world and everything" and i'm all "uh... i hope i can finish the day... haha" But shes good. It's also hard because she came in having taken 2 years of italian at BYU! ahhhh. so i'm soooooo behind her and she came in the first day speaking full sentences and everything. So i pretty much constantly feel behind and inadequate compared to her because she is always speaking in italian and i can barely say a full sentence. In our district there are 4 companionships. 2 sets of girls and 2 sets of boy. The boys are all babies... haha fresh out of high school. but they are very sweet and have such good hearts. the other girls are AWESOME. it is interesting to see how we all work together at the district. ONe of the other girls is from Mexico! she is so awesome and sweet. I love her. she hugs me everyday which is nice because sometimes i just need that. The other girl is from utah and is so sweet and bright and is like sunshine. Its already freezing here... welcome to Utah. lol. and then the food has been okay so far - we get to go to the gym twice a day! so thats been great.

Day 1
me and sister reber got lost. which was pretty hilarious... we were like wandering around hopelesss. I realized there is no hope for me without the Lord. Seriously.... i was so scared and felt so lost. Our teacher ONLY speaks in italian. like it took me 3 days to even kind of understand what he was saying.

Day 2 First full day
we have 3 3 hour blocks of study time. Normally the first one is with our teacher Fratello Knutson, then we have 1 where we study and teach our investigator, then another one of just study. ill tell more about our investigator later. Literally the teaching style here is like let me throw you into this and hope you catch 3% of what im teaching. My companion got made a sister training leader. classic. I knew she would.
There is so much new information i literally just sit and am pretty quiet because my brain is just on hyperoverload. seriously. like theres so much gospel information and then youre learning an entire new language and your jsut like this is BONKERS.

Day 3
highlight is we taught our first investigator today.
that was sooooo scary. luckily sorella reber speaks full sentences but we went in with no notes, and so i just bore a very simple testimony, consisting of about 3 sentences that had almost all the same words in them. However the spirit really is the teacher!! the spirit was so strong in the room and the investigators like whole countence changed while i was speaking. also she kept saying this word dolor over and over and i knew it because of LATIN. and sorella reber had no idea what it meant so that was pretty awesome.

Okay i'm just going to go through highlights now because i want to talk to you guys.
we taught for an hour the next time we taught our investigator that was crazy!!!
The letters that you wrote me and stuck in my suitcase, i open one every mnight and they have been seriously inspired. every doubt i had was answered in those letters. they're like treasure.
I'm very serious about studying because theres so much to learn and my district is always laughing. it drives me crazy.... but i just chuckle and keep studying
Sunday we had testimony meeting and it was AWESOME. i bore my testimony on this analogy i thought of about why heavenly father loves his missionaries. I'll send it in a sec.

I get so frustrated all the time because when we're speaking to the investigators i have all of these thoughts and feelings that I want to say but i literally can't say them. its the most infuriating thing. I feel so small and inadequate all the time. but i can also feel the lord helping me and guiding me. there were many times where i thought... if days are this long and hard.. the mission is never going to end, i don't know how to do this. but when i picture being anywhere else but here i know that is not the right answer. I love this gospel and i love the lord.

I love your dear elders. please keep sending them to me. every day they make me so happy.
anyways. i miss you guys all the time everyday. i have a constant stream of things i'm telling you going in my head.


also you can't listen to music in the MTC and that is pretty much the worst thing ever ever ever ever. like my heart aches to listen to music all the time. 
my companion is so funny. she told me today her life dream is to live on a farm in the middle of nowhere. i was like oh boy.. 
shes good for me though because i often sit in like this place of quiet anxiety and im not the bubbly bouncing off the walls missionary like she is so we balance each other out. but we both have good things to say and she appreciates me so we support each other. 
i miss you guys so much. seriously. like on a spirit to spirit level. my spirit aches to feel your spirit. i love you guys so much. 
the cool part about this place, although it is bone crazy and there is so much that is scary, the spirit is strong. I've learned to get answers in the scriptures and i can already pray and say a little of my testimony in Italian. i read the scriptures every mornign and i pray probably 1000 times a day. but its good because i need the strength and the lord is here for me. 

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