Un anno ☝️ - Bergamo, Italy

Ciao everyone! 

Can anyone else believe that we are almost done with July?? A YEAR ago tomorrow I entered the MTC for the first time!! It's been a year of wearing skirts and walking lots and loving Italian people and this beautiful culture with my whole heart. I LOVE THIS PLACE. 

This week I've been thinking a lot about the promptings of the spirit. We had a lesson with one of our investigators and his wife who is member and she said something that was really impactful to me. She said that the times when the spirit has spoken to her most in her life are times when it would be easiest to pass off as coincidence. 

This week as a companionship, Sorella Ashcraft and I decided to work on humility together. It has pushed me to see "coincidences" as this woman said not just as such, but as real manifestations of God's love and power and the answers that he gives us everyday to our sincere questions. 

I got a lot of simple, quiet answers to a lot of questions and prayers this week and I was SO grateful. Our week started off wonderfully with a family on the street from El Salvador, and we taught them on Saturday and they want to learn more!! It truly was a miracle to have them just walk up to us and we are grateful for the opportunity to teach someone new in this time of year when so many people are deciding to leave for summer. 

Vi vvoglio bene and happy week! 

Love, 

Sorella McConkie 

A Skype lesson with our investigator {P} and the sorelle in Milano

where she is moving (#ilovetechnology)

Me and Sorella Ashcraft

This may be the best photo I've taken of my entire mission.

All 3 sets of senior couples that I've served in districts with came to

Bergamo to visit and it has been THE BEST PDAY EVER

"Can I confess myself quickly?" - Bergamo, Italy

Well hello! Happy Wednesday from Italy and I hope you are all having a lovely day. 

This week has gone by pretty fast. We taught lessons to some of my favorite investigators this week. Andrea is getting baptized at the end of August and we taught him and his wife about the gift of the holy ghost and read 2 Nephi 31 together. I think it was one of the most powerful lessons I've had and we all felt the spirit pretty strong. 

Sorella Ashcraft and I tried to do some book of Mormon finding this week thst didn't quite work out so well...but we had fun! Getting rejected is a good life experience. 

We had another lesson this week with a woman named {S}, who asked just to walk around and talk with us for a little while. {S} is very Catholic but LOVES the missionaries. We focused our walking lesson on explaining our purpose really clearly and saying how we left our families and lives to help bring people into baptism in our church. In the middle of our lesson we walked past a pretty Catholic church (fun fact: the city of Bergamo has 200 Catholic cathedrals) and she pulled us inside to look at it. As I was taking a picture of the awesome ceiling she comes up behind Sorella Ashcraft and I and goes, "Can I confess myself quickly?" And points to the priest sitting at the confessional booth!! We just kind of went, "um...sure?" And sat in the pews while{S} confessed to the priest...probably the fact that she was meeting with the Mormon missioanries. 

We went to visit another woman named {T} this week and attached this scripture that I love to a batch of cookies which reads: 

That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

And I know that this is so true! As we continue to find little bits and pockets of light in our lives then they will continue to grow brighter and brighter. There will always be things in our lives that can testify to us that Christ is indeed "the light and the life of the world". Faith grows line upon line and our light we shine to others grows in parallel with that. 

So be a LIGHT! 

️⭐

Lots of love, 

Sorella McConkie 

It's fun to stay at the YMCA 🌷💕 - Bergamo, Italy

Ciao and happy fourth of July! 

Out of the past 6 July 4ths only a third of those have been spent on actually American soil, but I am so grateful and happy to report that this 4th of July here in cute Bergamo has been a good one. This whole week was full of a lot of blessings, big and small. 

My new companions name is Sorella Ashcraft and she is so incredibly darling!! One of the smartest people I have ever met and has an enthusiasm for this work like I've never seen before. She is in her third transfer and just got done being with her trainer:) She and I spent a lot of time this week getting to know each other and the people here in the ward. It was hard leaving Torino after just 6 weeks but the people here seem to be lovely as well. We have some impressive investigators including one preparing to be baptized in August! Yay! 

Bergamo itself is gorgeous, and we went tracting and street contacting lots this week through the mountain villages and cobblestone lined streets. Going from two concrete jungles to this green mountain paradise has been a happy change:) 

One of our highlights this week included an Italian/South American wedding held in the chapel that we helped with!! They sure know how to throw a fiesta.  Shat makes a real party is Italian members hiring a DJ to blast music from the building and seeing them sing along to the YMCA song at the top of their lungs. 

They also have an amazing English class here in Bergamo, and it's actually the biggest student group I've seen here. I LOVE teaching these free English classes. We taught twice this week, and for one lesson I got to teach a class of base students how to sing the elementary school tune of "January, Februrary, Ma-arch, April..." 

All in all, it's been a good week. There have been moments of tears for leaving Torino and the people there I loved, but I'm grateful for the laughter and spiritual highs that have compensated. If I had to give anyone advice this week on how to strengthen their faith, I would encourage them to always rely on the gift of compensation and that God recompenses us for our righteous sacrifices. 

I love you all TONS 

Love always, 

Sorella McConkie

Sorella McConkie and Sorella Ashcraft