Sorella Bonzo: Become the Message

This week was crazy and stressful and exciting and difficult and spiritually uplifting and devastating all at the same time.

On Tuesday night we had tons of lessons and all of the sisters on the island coming in and half of them staying at our house for the mission conference the next day with president Kearon (Presdient of the European area in the church.) He did one conference here in Sicily and the other in rome. I got to see tons of old friends including my MTC companion sorella rushton!!

I appreciated the conference so much. I felt the spirit so strongly in that meeting and know that all the things we talked about were inspired. I was able to apply so many things to help me become a better, more consecrated missionary. President Kearon talked a lot about "becoming the message." My zone leader put it best when he said "trying to convince people of the plan of happiness without looking happy is like buying a weight loss pill from a fat person." It's so true! My faith and testimony were definitely increase and strengthened thanks to this conference. Above all, President Kearon expressed his love to us and his appreciation for our service. It really touched me, and after the 6 hour I could not believe it was over, I didn't want it to end!

We focused our week on preparing two of our investigators for baptism, however, neither of them ended up getting baptized. After Alessia's interview with the district leader, it was decided that she needed a few more weeks to strengthen her testimony in a couple areas. We are working to help her understand that this is a good thing and trying to prepare her even more so that she will be strong and ready when the time comes.

Anna, the 9 year old, was ready and excited. However, she has a terrible fear of water. We have helped her as much as we thought possible to trust in Christ so that she could overcome this for the baptism. The day came, and she was filled with excitement and joy. We dressed her up, she stepped into the water, the man baptizing her almost said the prayer, but at the last minute she freaked out and said the she couldn't do it. There were 2 other people being baptized that night as well so there was a crowd of people in the room and around the font. There was too much commotion so we weren't able to help her and talk her through it. In the end, she couldn't get the courage up to do it. It was devastating. We are still working with her though and we're praying that we will see a miracle.

Last night we did a gesso. I saw a man come up and look at one of the Books of Mormon on the ground. I walked up and started talking to him, asking if he'd seen the book before or heard of us. He said when he lived in Ecuador there was one of our churches right by his house. We started talking and he asked if I believed in the second coming, I told him yes. He said "well I don't, how old are you?" I gave him my age and he proceeded to say, "you've got a long walk ahead of you. This world is not good, the devil is real, and there are temptations. If we are god's children and he loves us so much why would he send the devil down to tempt us? I'm old, I've been waiting for Jesus to come for a long time, and I'm tired of it." I bore testimony after testimony of hope and joy and faith and all the things that I have in my life thanks to this gospel. I could see his heart softening. I talked to him for a total of like 30 minutes, and at the end his said "it's a beautiful thing to see a woman as young as you are have so much faith." During the conversation I asked him if we could exchange numbers and meet about 5 times, he declined every time saying that he was busy, but finally at the end I asked one more time. I told him that we can always make time for things that are important to us. He agreed and we exchanged numbers. It was a cool experience for me to be able to bear testimony and see the spirit touch this man's heart on a noisy, crowded, Italian street.

Thank you for the prayers, letters, emails, and love. Vi voglio un mondo di bene ❤️

-Sorella Bonzo

8 sisters, 1 bathroom, and a giant sleepover