what?!?! i haven't written since italy?? oh my lanta.. well it is going to be impossible to catch you up but i will do my best. haha A LOT can happen in 5 days. where to begin...
florence. is. beautiful. haha just thinking back to it makes me smile so big. it feels like that was forever ago. we did a lot of cool things in florence but i think instead of telling you everything i have done i will tell you what i have learned. but let me tell you about rome really quick. rome wouldn't have been half as amazing if i didn't have jord here with me but because of him rome has made my whole trip. the people i have met are incredible. i will talk about them in a minute. alright so here is a list of things we have done in rome. i know i will probably spell some of them wrong sorry. we visited the pantheon (incredible!), ate gelato, saw the ancient roman city, saw the trevvi (?) fountain, the vatican, like 6 churches, ate some more gelato, shopped, went to the temple grounds, ate more gelato, and saw the pope. yes i saw the pope today. haha at one point we got pretty close to him too. it was weird though how they worship him. they put him on a jeep thing and drove him around the vatican while everyone was chanting and listening to funny music. its not what i thought is would be like at all. but im still happy i got to experience it.
shades and i went to visit three different families. i enjoyed it very much. haha italians feed you so much and we went to their houses back to back and i was dying. i swear i have gained like 15 pounds. the first two families didn't speak english. well the first knew a few words and could kind of understand me but the second couldn't at all. so i sat there for 2 hours and listened to jordan speak italian with some of his favorite people and it made me so happy because i could tell how happy jordan was. i wish you could have seen his face last night when we finally got home he was beaming. he said he would pay the 3500 dollars just for these last two days. he is in heaven. anyways the third family we went to visit was SO amazing. it was an extended family that found the gospel through their cousin (peachy) and changed their lives. they shut down their family owned restaurant so that they all could attend church on sunday. they have made incredible sacrifices for the gospel and it was so neat to finally be able to meet them and talk to them about their conversions and their lives now. we met up with sharon and jerome (cousins) and then went to eric and ann's house (sharon's sisters place) where they had a party for jordan. they even invited the chef from the restaurant peter, who was recently baptized. there was also some girl there that everyone called bing bing but i never learned her real name haha. they are all Philippians and i now want to live in the phillipines. haha do you know how cool it would be to serve a mission there? mom i bet that thought makes you so happy! haha. but they bore testimony in almost everything they said and i fell in love with them instantly. no wonder jordan was so happy on his mission.
well that was the highlight of rome. besides the food. italian food is amazing. haha we its kind of funny we all center our plans around meals and then make plans around that. i love it.
today there was supposed to be a big earthquake in rome but it never came. 20 percent of the city left last night. haha so people were kind of freaking out today in the city but luckily nothing happened. that i am aware of haha. but we were in the metros at the time it was supposed to hit and grace was freaking out hahaha.
right now i am in a city called osteo, which is a city on the edge of the Mediterranean sea about an hour outside of rome. we went swimming and played on the beach this afternoon and it was sweet. i love the weather here.
well here are a few things i have learned these last few days. number one, life is about experiences. i need to stop worrying about material things and instead look for opportunities to experience life and continue to learn and explore new things. number two, people are so amazing. everyone has a story and a reason for why they are who they are. i am SO grateful for the people i have met these last few weeks. the people in italy along with the people on this tour. i have made two amazing friends these past two weeks and they make me so happy. haha caitlyn reminds me a lot of allison and is hilarious and devyn is just awesome. number three, i am grateful for theraflu. haha i have been sick today (which is why this post is the way it is) and the medicine here just doesn't compare to my theraflu. haha.
well, we fly out for spain tomorrow. im really excited! jason aren't you jealous?? haha it will be fun. and then after sapin we are going home!! i cant believe how time flies. even though i have loves being here in italy, i will be happy to go home. i hate living out of a suitcase and i am missing you all like crazy!!