SisterEvieMcConkie: One Thing Led to Another

Buongiorno!

This week started off with last pday being a trip up to Città Alta with our senior couple and some of their family they had visiting. Città Alta is this amazing city in Bergamo that was built on one of the hills and is full of some of the prettiest streets and cobblestone and looks over the whole main city and it was a fun opportunity to roam around a truly Italian town. That same day we also had interviews with President Allen, and I always love getting to chat with him. He takes his call seriously and remembers the lives of missionaries very well. We talked about some of our investigators needs, but he finished my interview reminding me that I wasn't alone in the mission and that helped me a lot to know that he has planned a lot of my mission to be the way it is for some specific reasons. President Allen is THE BEST.

On Thursday we spent the entiiiiire day getting to Verona and back for a combined district meeting. It took so long that our 4 Anziani had to miss English class that same night and so Sorella snow and I taught a combined English class with our base and advanced students, with the latter of those groups being fascinated with American swear words. It was interesting. The funniest part of class was when one of the advanced students looks at me and goes, "It's such a pity you're blonde. You're too smart for that."

Friday was ROUGH. We taught a lesson to our investigator {S} that night, and she had just finished reading chapter 4 of 1st Nephi where Laban gets killed and she was highly disturbed. The worst though was at the end of the lesson when we were trying to invite her to come to church and she kept trying to avoid the subject or make some weak excuse as to why she couldn't make it yet again. Finally, after pushing and pushing we asked, "{S}, is there any chance that you would ever leave your church to come to our church?" And she answered that no, there was absolutely no chance that she could ever believe what we were trying to teach and she saw it only as something interesting to learn about, something along the lines of a captivating philosophy worth reading about. She said she would never be baptized and never be willing to change and a lot of other things that basically ripped our hearts out. I remember my mom telling me before my mission that sometimes it would feel like investigators were breaking up with us and that's how this lesson felt. The worst part is that {S} LOVES the missionaries and always calls us her family and will be devastated when we say we can't meet with her anymore. We sat on a street corner and cried for a minute after our lesson and just kind of caught out breath and talked about our game plan for next time. Sorella snow and I talked about how it's God's promise in this time that "the field is white and ready to harvest." At thst exact moment sitting on our street corner not 10 minutes after {S} had left, a man named Gian Franco walked up to us, pointed at our tags and asked if we were Mormons. We talked with him and found that he had tons of interest in the church and we got his number and sent it to the Sorelle in Bologna where he lives. It was am incredible moment and sorella snow and I both knew in that moment that the field IS white and we need to be out there talking more to those kinds of people rather than wasting time with people who aren't interested. It was a really cool 10 minutes of my week.

On Saturday, we did some service with our Anziani and then went to visit out investigator {P} who lives up in the mountains and who would be baptized right now if it wasn't for her smoking habits. She's such a sweet soul and wants to be baptized so badly, and so we talked about how overcoming addictions is hard and showed the "Continue with Patience" Mormon message where the kids have to wait to eat the marshmallows. Some of my favorite Book of Mormon verses are Mosiah 24:14-15, where God lifts the burdens placed on the backs of Alma and his people, and gives them patience to hear through their afflictions. We gave {P} the promise that as she continues to change little by little and is patient, everything will go well.

I loved church this week, and the best part was that our brand new investigator {F} came to church again and we had a little lesson with her during second hour. The spirit was so thick and strong and Sorella Snow and I had already prayed about a baptismal date, so we decided to extend it to her in that moment and SHE SAID YES. So we now have 2 scheduled baptisms for before the end of the transfers and we are so flipping pumped but also if you are reading this then please pray for us because 2 baptisms in a 3 week period is more than any at one time than I've ever had and we want everything to be peachy.

Monday...was an adventure. I'm not sure what other missions are like, but in Italy we have so much space and so few missionaries that our areas that 1 set of missionaries cover is huge. For us, it takes us more than 2 hours on a bus to get to the edge of our area which is high up in the mountains, and it's also where {F} happens to live. We went to try and visit her and, well, one thing led to another and before we knew if we were stranded at the top of a mountain. It took us almost 5 hours at that point to get home and we had to take a loooong hike down the snake and mosquito filled mountain to get to civilization and a bus stop. It was honestly hilarious and we felt like we were in the set of the sound of music.

The rest of the week was pretty normal, but I was just grateful for happy experiences and mistakes that turn into learning experiences and adventure. I've also been particularly mindful this week of the wonderful missionary examples to me from back home, specifically my brother Wilson who went off to England, my cousin Dallin who is about to go to Argentina and his brother Ethan who just got back from 2 years in Tahiti. It's a good time to be disciples of Christ.

LOVE YOU ALL

Love, Sorella McConkie