A Week of Miracles - Vicenza, Italy

Ciao everyone!

It's been a busy week here. We have had a lot of work to do and it has been fun and exhausting all at the same time!

Last week was our pday to the town Asiago with the senior couple in our city. It was a BLAST. It's right on the edge of the country and is a well preserved and classy little European village that invented Asiago cheese way back when. We walked around and took photos and, of course, bought a block of asiago cheese.

 

Asiago

Saturday was Fatima's baptism and WHAT A DAY. President and Sorella Allen drove up for the event, and the entire thing was beautiful. Sorella Tullis and I gave talks in Italian, and the Anziani in our district did a nice musical number of "I like to look for rainbows" also in Italian. During the actual baptism, everyone stood in the little room with our font that looks like a wooden hot tub, and watched as she was baptized by a kind member of the Italian Ward. We had a lot of people come and celebrate from both the Italian and American wards which was also a tender mercy. Fatima is sincere and so spiritually aware, and after she got out of the font I think she was a combo of spiritually overwhelmed, joyful, and grateful. As a result, she fell to her knees still in her wet jumpsuit with a towel around her and started to cry as she thanked God over and over. I knelt by her and rubbed her back and quietly told her "you did wonderfully!" and when she was ready we helped her get up and walk back to get changed. The rest of the service flowed well and ended perfectly with a prayer from an American ward member who is also from Brazil and said the prayer in Portuguese. It was all so lovely.

Sorella McConkie, Fatima, Sorella Tullis

When we went to her house a few days after the baptism, Fatima seems calm and content and almost glowy. It's amazing to see the power of baptism can change someone and help them to feel like they've received a fresh start!

The rest of our week was good, and included some more awkward bus finding for myself, a meeting with some people from our zone, a fun relief society knitting activity, and some quality time with my companion who is going home in just two weeks. Holy cow where does the time go. 

Zone meeting

Sorella Tullis and Sorella McConkie

I love you all!

Love, Sorella McConkie