Saluti - Pordenone, Italy (Last letter from Italy)

Buongiorno a tutti,

This week has been one of the best of my mission. First off, I'm so grateful that I got to be in Italy for 2 Christmases. They are my favorite. This week we kept doing as many Christ-centered things as we could.

We conducted our combined district meeting on Thursday and my companions and I talked about the covenant of salt talked about in the scriptures and how we, as missionaries, can accentuate the lives of the people we serve just like salt accents the flavours of food.

We went and helped out at giglio on Friday morning and walked around with the disabled adults and took them to a darling Christmas concert, and watched as they sang along to Italian Christmas songs and I loved it.

My final Sunday in church was very bittersweet, and I found myself getting teary as I listened to the sacrament prayers in Italian as a missionary for the last time. I know the sacrament is something so powerful and important and it's an area where my testimony had grown immensely during my time here. I also got to bear my final testimony in the Italian ward and I felt so much gratitude as I looked at all the faces in front of me that I've gotten to know and love so much.

I soaked up every minute of Christmas Eve and Christmas day, and many people were so kind to us. On Christmas Eve morning we went out on the streets and tried sharing a Christmas message with some people who were out and about. My favorite encounter was with this old man we stopped and before we could say much he looks at us and goes "ciao belle! Prendete! prendete!" And opens up a sack of freshly harvested raw purple potatoes and makes us take some haha. To prove to us they weren't bad or anything he took my potato and bit a huge chunk out of it. Yuck. We left laughing with a handful of potatoes and an invitation to go back and visit him.

We had member appointments the evenings of Christmas eve and day, and I love this time of year and that it truly does bring people from all over together. Even people from both our American and Italian wards were celebrating together.

These next couple days will be filled with as many investigator appointments ad we can fill our time with, just so we can see many of them and I can give them a squeeze and tell them that they are in good hands with my 2 capable companions.

Sorry this is such a long group email this week, I just keep writing things because I don't want to admit that this is another "last" of my mission that I'm about to finish. Makes me kind of sad. But I truly am so grateful for my mission. I love Italy. I love the culture and the food and the life and the people and the passion they have for all parts of their lives. They have taught me how to love more fully, worship more deeply, and how to develop more honestly into who God wants me to be. I know God lives and that He loves His children. It has been a blessing for me to see and be a part of bits and pieces of their lives and I know that the best thing we could EVER do this life is exactly what we were told at the beginning, to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind [and] love thy neighbour as thyself."

The mission is the BEST and I can't wait to talk everyone's ear off about it real soon!

Con affetto,
Sorella McConkie

My potato from the old man

 last Sunday at church with my trio

today's pday in Venice 

Buone Feste! 🎄

Ciao a tutti, 

This week was transfers and it was craziness. We hit the ground running back here in pordenone and it's been so fun here with my two new sorelle. 

Fun fact for the day: I finished Reading the Book of Mormon and then read an article in the Ensign that says that of the 6,607 verses in the Book of Mormon, 3,925 of them refer to the name of Christ. That is every 1.7 verses. It truly is a book about Jesus Christ! I have such a huge testimony of that an I'm so grateful for that book in my life. 

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone! Buone feste!! 🎄💕

Con affetto, 

Sorella McConkie

Here we go again! - Pordenone, Italy

Ciao!

It's transfers once more and the final round for me here. I'm getting 2 new companions today, Sorella Larson and Sorella Parker, who will take over Pordenone in 3 weeks when I leave. It's been a crazy week. I love the people in this little place. We taught our investigator {V} this week the restoration and it went so well. She was so open to the things we were explaining and especially loved when we shared the first vision. She is a special person who is very prepared to hear what we are teaching. 

It's been a long transfer day so I'm sorry for the shortness, but I love you all! 

Con affetto, 
Sorella McConkie 

our district Polaroid of how many transfers we have

puppy Eevee who is my twin haha

- Pordenone, Italy

Ciao!

It's such a great time of the year and I love that we're getting closer to  Christmas! Less than 3 weeks!! 

This week was fun! We had zone conference and sorella Johnson and I presented our training on the Book of Mormon. It went well and I felt the spirit strongly as we taught. I also got to bear a final mission testimony at the end of the zone conference along with others going home and it was a powerful chance to get to reflect back on my mission and see how much has happened to me. I'm grateful for God and change and that he loves us enough to help mold us to become more like him.

Saturday we found a new investigator!! 🎉Her name is {G} and we found her information on our area book. She was a referral from 6 months ago but there's no record to if the sorelle in the summertime ever went and visited her. We had no idea who she was and so we just decided to pass by. She's a young university student, around our age, and immediately let us in and said she was happy to have us. Turns out that one of her best friends is a girl named Elisa who is a member from our ward who is currently serving her mission on temple square. Before leaving, she gave a copy of the Book of Mormon to {G} with her name engraved on the front and a super sweet photo and note inside. {G} has obviously been treasuring the book for awhile, even if she hasn't read from it much. We sat down and read 2 Nephi 32 with her and talked about prayer and staying close to God. It was a brief appointment, but she agreed to let us come back and we're so excited!! 

I'll attach some more photos of fun things, but please know that I love you all and that God does too! It's a fantastic time to be a part of his church! 

Con affetto, 

Sorella McConkie

Photos! - Pordenone, Italy

It Would Be A Tragedy - Pordenone, Italy

Ciao tutti!

What a week and what a time to be a missionary. I haven't written for a couple weeks now so I'll sum up some other highlights from the last little while. First, last week was awesome because we got to have a member of the 70 come visit our mission! Elder Tunnicliffe is from York and he and his wife spoke to our half of the mission on Thursday in Bologna. It took us a while to travel there from Pordenone, but the conference was amazing and I soaked up every single second. He talked about humility and submitting ourselves to God and what success looks like as a missionary. I took pages of notes and have been reflecting often on things that he said. I also loved that the day after the conference, Sorella Johnson and I went up to Milano where Elder Tunnicliffe talked with the zone leaders and stls of the mission for the day. That was also a stellar conference and something that Anziano Tunnicliffe said at the end had been running through my mind a lot lately. He said: 

"If this mission was your peak (and it's pretty great), then that would be a tragedy."

What a face punch. He basically was telling us, "your missions are great and go and do great things, but just remember that they are preparing you for something bigger and more important." That really struck me as something I need to remember. 

We had Thanksgiving! With Americans!! It was the best. I forgot how much I MISS cranberry sauce and pie and Apple cider. Basically just all the sweet things haha. Sister Riding and her toddler from our ward had us over and we shared a message on gratitude (classic) and had a great time together. 

I've gotten to do more exchanges these past weeks and I adore them. I'm pretty sure the sisters from our Zone teach me way more than I could ever teach them though. Such stellar missionaries. 

We've been going tracting more frequently, and found 3 new people this week!! We've had a dry spell in our finding lately and have been finding almost no one, so we were super grateful to actually get to talk to people. The funniest was when we had a conversation go well on the porch with a woman named Monique, who lives up in aviano. After our discussion we offered to exchange numbers and she ran inside to get her phone and Sorella Johnson looks up at heaven and does the classic Italian thing where you put your fingertips to your lips and kiss the sky (poorly explained but just watch what people in Italian movies do after they eat a good pizza). It basically explained how I felt in the moment that God is good and is so kind to sprinkle us with little miracles. 

Have a great first week of December everyone! They just put up markets and a tree and ice skating rink in the main piazza here and I'm remembering why Europe is my favorite place ever. 

Lots of love, 

Sorella McConkie 

Yay for Fall! - Pordenone, Italy

Ciao a tutti! 

It's been a fun week here!! I love Pordenone. The people here have been so kind and thoughtful and I adore them all so so much.  Here are a couple speedy highlights from the week: 

1. Finding a darling new potential named {E} during tracting! 

2. Making a paper gratitude pizza where we put something we're grateful for on a topping every day. 

3. Seeing our investigator {I} at a baptism that was on Saturday! She brought her little brother and they really enjoyed it. We showed them the "He Lives" video another time this week and she started to tear up watching it. We're so happy to see her sweet spirit expanding and growing closer to Heavenly Father. 

I've attached a couple photos of the pretty leaves starting to change color and me outside the one semi-famous building here in Pordenone. 

Lots of love! And happy November!!!! 

Sorella McConkie