Transfersssss - Bergamo, Italy

Buongiorno!! 

What a week it has been. All of our time and energy was spent into pouring love and confidence into {F} as she prepared for her baptism on Saturday. We spent Thursday and Friday going to Verona for scambio with our stl's, and then ran home after that to meet with her one last time to figure out clothes and share with her the "Because of Him" video to serve as a reminder that at the center of all we do is Jesus Christ and the Atonement. 

Saturday itself was very busy, and we were stressed about the fact that no one, not even our bishop who was supposed to baptized her, had come to the church within minutes of the meeting starting. But right at the last second multiple families and friends walked in and we had a nice little crowd help participate in {F}'s baptism! 

The last thing of significance is that (drumroll please) we had transfer calls once again and I will be leaving beautiful Bergamo to go to a city called Pordenone. And I'm very excited because I will be going back to my very first zone in the mission! I get to go back to Venice and see a lot of people dear to my heart in that little zone. Transfers always tend to rip my heart out though to some extent or another, and the past couple days I've been trying to stay positive and remember that change is normal. In the mission life or not. 

I love you all tons and tons. Buona settimana! 

Love, Sorella McConkie Love, Sorella McConkie 

visiting Bishop Locatelli and his wife

Gorgeous food spread from members house
where we went to dinner last week.

{F}'s baptism

{F}'s baptism

Small and Simple Things - Bergamo, Italy

Ciaooooo tutti! 

It's been another wonderful week. Thursday was full of travelling back and forth between Bergamo and Verona for zone conference. Mamma Mia trains are the worst sometimes. BUT good news is on the way back I sat across from a woman named Luisa and she and I chatted and I found out that she is a professional printmaker. For any of you who know me well, you'll know that that is a very big deal. I got very excited and we talked for the next hour about pictures of her work and the church and we exchanged numbers and she invited me to come see her show if I ever find myself in Brescia! It was awesome. 

Friday and Saturday were composed of a lot of appointments with a lot of the Africans we work with right now. I also ate fufu for the 1st time so that's an achievement. For those of you who don't know, fufu is a typical African dish composed of a slick, dense dough that you use your hands to dip in a vegetable meat sauce, and then swallow the whole little glob without chewing. Imagine swallowing a ball of cookie dough but it's not sweet and if you chew it they get offended. It's a fun time. 

We taught a couple more lessons to {F} this week, and she is doing well! We finished teaching her all the lessons and we are on track for her baptism this Saturday. At the end of our lesson we asked her why she wanted to be baptized. Her answer was simple and I felt the spirit very strong as she was talking. She told us in about 2 sentences that she wants to follow God and be closer to him. It was such a simple thing to say but the Spirit hit our hearts in the silence afterward and we felt good about it. It was a good reminder to me that through small and simple moments and experiences, we can slowly grow our faith and testimony and God loves growth even if it's slow. 

The church is also working very hard on this "21 day Book of Mormon Challenge" and it's starting to become more popular in our area. The challenge itself has been extended to the just the Europe area, and had a question correlating to each day where you read a passage of the Book of Mormon to answer the question posed. For example, day 2's question is "how can I find joy?". I recommend everyone go read Mosiah 4 and go figure it out

This week is transfers calls so wish us luck! Vi voglio bene come sempre 

sorella McConkie 

Our district at zone conference (the ties were just for the photo).

A cute watermelon sign

Hiking up to a church in a cave today for pday

Visiting {K}and {F} who I promise are happy people
but just don't like to smile in photos apparently

Eating fufu for the first time

A not so subtle note we left to an investigator who's been avoiding us.

No time but yay miracles! - Bergamo, Italy

Hi friends and fam! 

I don't have tons of time today but here are attached some photos of the amazing baptism we had for {A} on Saturday. Thank you for all prayers for the missionaries. They're working! 

Lots of love, Sorella McConkie