When Adversity Becomes Adventure - Vicenza, Italy

Ciao tutti!!!

What a week. To start, has anyone read the book "Our search for happiness" by Elder Ballard? If not, I highly recommend. It's 120 pages of just the basic beauty of latter-day Saint doctrine. I've been reading it trying to identify how I can explain the gospel to our investigators in more simple terms, but also because the title of it made me want to search for more happiness!! Anyway, I want to start off with a quote from him talking about missionary works. He says:

"The Lord does bless his missionaries just as surely as they bless the lives of those they teach and baptize...weaknesses become strengths, challenges become opportunities, trials become triumphs, and adversity becomes adventure." 

I love that last one. ADVERSITY BECOMES ADVENTURE. that is such a blessing and such a good shift in perspective! Missionary work can be rough sometimes. This week include a lot of awkward bus finding for myself, and also a lot of self doubt just realizing that all talents I thought I had have been ground into dust and I'm starting over with A LOT. but as I'm beginning to see frustrations and challenges as part of a grand adventure, it makes it more fun to move forward:) 

We're looking forward to meeting with our friend Fatima on Friday.

A very tender moment for me this week was visiting the member family named the Petriniany's. I walked into their house and instantly felt like I was at home in Salt Lake. It was so weird. They have 3 boys ages 13, 11 & 9, and their home was filled with a lot of star wars and Legos. I loved having a little family home evening with them and just watching these boys play and wrestle and laugh until they cried. It was a reminder to me of the 3 awesome Brothers that I get to have, so here's a shout out to Wilson, Hyrum and George for just being the awesome boys that they are. 

Anyways, I love you all and hope your week is filled with fun Halloween prep! Yay!! 

Love, Sorella McConkie 

eating with member Melanie and her baby

foggy Vicenza mornings

fun times with Sorella Tullis

making 10 bajillion cookies

a fun lesson with our friend from Morocco
who brought a selfie stick to our lesson! 

Fatima in the glasses

pretty fall leaves

teaching Nigerian girls English

waiting at the bus stop

Villia's 4th birthday! 

teaching our friend Vanessa with Sister Okimoto

enjoying fall

Gelato last pday with the Pordenone Sorelle visiting!
(Pistachio Gelato is my new fav) 

Pday

Pday

Pday

Yay for Pdays and a new amico! - Vicenza, Italy

Hello Everyone! 

As always, Pday has flown by and I don't have a ton of time. But Vicenza is doing so well and the people here are amazing!! We started to teach a woman 2 weeks ago who is from Brazil, and who Sorella Tullis says is the most prepared person she's ever met while on her mission to receive the gospel. We talked about baptism the first time we met her and gave her a date to pray about. November 11th. Everyone please pray for her! She is a lovely woman and so full of faith. She adores the book of Mormon and came to church for the first time on Sunday. We love her so much and can't wait to see what miracles will happen with her this week. 

Love to you all! 

Love, 

Sorella McConkie 

Hello Everyone! 

Busy Week - Vicenza, Italy

Hello everyone!

This has been one of my busiest weeks yet. We had tons of work on top of Zone conference in Pordenone on Thursday, a full Venice pday last Wednesday, my birthday on Sunday and new missionary training in Milan yesterday! So many fun things! 

First off, a big thank you to everyone who made my birthday so much fun on Sunday!! I felt so loved and happy by people in America and Italy and was super grateful throughout my whole day to the people who reached out to me. I woke up Sunday morning with my desk full of balloons and chocolate put there by Sorella Tullis, and so many sweet members kissed both my cheeks at church and said "TANTI AUGURI!!!" that night, we had dinner at our senior couples house which we used as an excuse to invite a less active couple to come and celebrate my birthday but really we were so excited to talk to them about coming to church again. 

During zone conference, we got the opportunity to learn more about technology in our mission. Every missionary here now officially has an iPad or Samsung tablet, the newest Samsung smartphone, and an active Facebook account. It's so hard sometimes to comprehend that technology can be a part of the missionary proselyting process, but after our training and experiences this week, I'm starting to believe it's true! As the world changes, God has made it possible for us to reach out to those who wouldn't be able to talk to us otherwise. Our friend, V}, for example, can usually only talk on Skype for our lessons because she lives further away and is busy, but it totally works! We finished teaching her all the lessons, she came to conference, and we are hopefully setting a baptismal date tomorrow! How cool is that!!!! 

Anyways, I'm attaching photos of our pday in Venice, some birthday celebrations, and other random happy things:) I'm grateful for you all! 

Vi volgio bene! 

Sorella McConkie 

Sorella McConkie and Sorella Tullis

Sorella Johnson and Sorella McConkie

Sorella Tullis and Sorella McConkie

Happy 20th Birthday!