You cannot imagine how crazy my week has been

After Tuesday: Wow I can't believe ELDER DALLIN H. OAKS OF THE TWELVE came and spoke to us at devotional!!!!  He was right there in the same room as me!  So surreal, and so awesome.  He gave a really good talk.  And how cool that I decided to sing in the choir with my district last minute and got to be ON SCREEN as it was broadcast to EVERY MTC IN THE WORLD.  Like what.  Insane.

After Wednesday: HOLY SMOKES EVERYONE IN MY DISTRICT GOING TO THE COLOMBIA MTC GOT THEIR VISAS THEY LEAVE EARLY TUESDAY MORNING OH MY GOSH DO WE HA--oh me and Hermana Davenport's visas aren't in yet that's cool.

Katie showing her mission

Everyone in the district pointing out where they are headed

After Thursday: HOLY GUACAMOLE HERMANA DAVENPORT AND I GOT OUR TRAVEL ITINERARIES WE'RE LEAVING FOR THE MEXICO MTC 24 HOURS AFTER EVERYONE ELSE LEAVES FOR COLOMBIA THIS IS INSANE and I just got Mom's letter saying she was going to send me warm clothes.  Welp.  And what the heck, MY CYST FREAKING CAME BACK AND IT'S BIG AND IT HURTS WHY also we're all moving to West Campus on Tuesday so Hermana Davenport and I will be there for like a day.

Today: Well I spent my P-day running all over campus after going to the health office to have my cyst looked at again.  (Katie has a boil on her back that we thought had healed.  Obviously it chose a bad time to return) 

The doctor is keeping me here after all, most likely for the whole six weeks.  He lanced it and now I have a gauze bandage on it.  I was proud of myself for not freaking out (too badly) at having a male doctor look at it.  And get this: does the name David Brown sound familiar to you?  I'll give you a hint: he grew up in Hacienda Heights and was friends with Uncle David growing up.  Totally crazy.  Also it was weird because he would talk to me as I was on my side and he was looking at the cyst and I swear his voice sounded just like Uncle David's, it was freaky.  But yeah, so my entire district--which is literally the best district ever and I've already grown to love all of them so much after one week--will be leaving out of the country next week, and I will stay here, in West Campus.  Yup.  

So now that I've gotten those big items out of the way, let me go over some other stuff:

Speaking of funny coincidences, when I first got to the airport and was waiting outside for Nathan to pick me up (what's his address btw? I wanna send him letters and stuff since he's so close), I was talking to this other girl who was going to the MTC.  It turned out she was from Murrieta and we had come on the same flight!  Crazy, right?  Well, after I got moved into my room, I saw her enter the building as I was leaving, which was super cool!  Then it turned out that not only was she in my district, but she was in my room!  Her name is Hermana Clark (in that picture of the four girls in our room that I sent you she's the blond one in the glasses who was standing second to the left, next to me) and she is really great and awesome and funny and man am I going to miss her when she goes to Colombia.  She didn't know a word of Spanish when she got here, nor her companion Hermana Crandall, and they've both done pretty well so far.  But to make all of these similarities even funnier, do you remember that colorful printed skirt we got at Steinmart?  She got the same skirt, at the exact same store.  So I'll have to send you a picture of us wearing them together.

I bought a sweatshirt here at the MTC because I didn't have an actual jacket and I love it.  It's just so comfy.  Unfortunately, I don't really get to wear it very often.  But still, it's great.  I'm glad you'll be sending some more warm clothes though.  The last few days have been pretty nice and sunny, but I'm sure it'll get cold again soon.  Oh, dang I should have asked you earlier, but I was wondering if you could send me the weather forecast here for the next week every Friday, because I think that is the most frustrating thing about not having access to the internet: you don't know what the weather will be like the next day.  

Oh and just so you know our district is so amazing that we have the ability to perfectly harmonize with each other on demand and often will break out into beautiful a capella choral arrangements on the spot.  In fact just the other day the elders were out of the classroom for a moment and I think Hermana Crandall started singing the boys' part of "Love is Spoken Here", the primary song, and I started harmonizing like I do.  Some more of the sisters came in, and a few began singing the girls' part halfway through, and mom it was BEAUTIFUL.  It was amazing how spontaneously we just all came up with that.  The elders were right outside the door and instantly came in and asked how long we'd been practicing that, and we had to tell them we didn't even plan it.  They recorded us trying to do it again, but it wasn't nearly as good.  I'll try to send you the video.  I guess when anyone in the branch leaves, they have to perform a musical number in sacrament meeting before they leave, so we'll all be singing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" in Spanish (I think).  

Okie dokie so here are the pictures, in order:

1) This was for Nathan, but I don't have his email address

2) the nicest picture our district took on our temple walk on Sunday 

The Provo Temple

Unfortunately, it's not letting me send the video because it's too big.  I'll try to send it separately and see if it works.  It's pretty cool.

Well, I'm just about out of time.  Te amo!

Love, 

Hermana Iverson

P.S.  I freaking loved those pictures of Nathan and Brian.  It made me so happy to see them together again.  It feels like all is right with the world once more haha (btw I told my companion that my brother looked Mexican, and now after seeing pictures of him she agrees with me)

I am in fact alive!

My name tag!

So everyone has different P-days (preparation days) here I guess depending on which branch you're in, so mine are on Fridays.  We went to the temple this morning and now we're wearing pants!!!!  It feels so good because honestly it is so cold here.

At the Provo Temple with my companion

After Nathan dropped me off on Wednesday, I got checked in and had lunch since I got there before the noon crowd.  I got to meet my district and my companion that day.  My companion's name is Hermana Davenport and she's going to the same mission as me.  She actually was supposed to go the Mexico MTC as well, but is in the same boat as me as far as visas go.  We have a really large district and the sisters way outnumber the elders.  There are twelve of us, with four sister companionships and two elder companionships.  It was confusing trying to find my companion at first because her twin sister showed up to our classroom first.  So yes, we have twin sisters in our district!  Everyone else in the district is going to the Bolivia Santa Cruz mission, and all of them had their MTC assignment switched from Peru to Colombia to Provo.  So my companion and her sister had different missions and different MTCs but the same reporting date, and both got transferred to Provo in the same district.  Pretty neat.

Hermanas Iverson & Davenport

Hermana Davenport is from Idaho right outside of Rexburg.  Her grandparents own some apartments in Rexburg, right across the street from the stadium. She was working there over the summer to clean them for the new residents.  I thought that was really funny because I lived literally around the corner just a block away.  She just turned 19 a month ago and she and her sister just graduated this May.  She'll be going to BYU-I when she gets back, since she won't have to pay for housing if she lives at her grandparents' apartments and she has a full tuition scholarship I think (?) so she'd basically be going to school for free.  Crazy.  But yeah, we get along really well.  I really like her a lot.  We actually stayed up late talking about ourselves last night.  Fun stuff. :)

My district

My room mates

I really love my companion and everyone in my district.  We've only been here for about 2-3 days but we all get along really, really well.  It's hard to remember to not say "guys" or "girls" but rather "elders" and "sisters" (or hermanas).  The other companionship that we share a room with both have zero Spanish skills.  One took French in high school and the other ASL.  We've been trying to help them learn the basics, especially since we teach an "investigator" in Spanish tonight!

You may have heard rumors about the MTC food being not that great........true.  It's all true.  You get over it really fast.  And they have dinner at 4:40!  Where is the sense in that?  We don't go to bed for another six hours, and by then you're hungry again!  So now we have to find ways to save treats for later when we're back in our residence.

We've had some classes here so far and a couple really neat workshops.  Our first night they had this teaching exercise where these actors came and pretended to be these investigators that we were teaching and as a group we worked together to think of questions and ways to help teach them.  It was really really cool and very helpful.  

Oh btw I have been so exhausted.  I only got about 15 minutes of sleep Tuesday night before we left, so by the time I actually got the MTC six hours later, I was ready for my nap.  Longest.  Day.  Ever.  This place is a time warp.  It's impossible how long the days are here.

Oh, I found someone here who was in my SOAR session!  I got to say hi to her and she recognized me after a minute (I didn't have short hair when I met her).  It was really exciting to find someone I knew.  Do you know of anyone else we might know who might be in the Provo MTC right now?  Because I can't think of anyone.

Well another thing to get used to is people calling me Sister Iverson.  So weird.  I keep thinking "uhhh that's my mom's name" haha

Yeah, so I'm really enjoying it here (except for how cold it is; it's annoying too because the elders will turn the A/C up in the classrooms because they're so warm, but then all the sisters will be freezing and trying to turn the heat up; it's a constant battle)!  My branch president said that in his experience if a missionary is assigned here they generally don't switch them to another MTC, so there's a good chance I'll just be here for all six weeks.  I kind of hope so now because I really like it here.  I LOVE my district.  I'm just really cold is all.

Well, I don't really have anything else to talk about.  It's been hard to be away from my phone and my computer mostly only because I kept wanting to text you or send you pictures like "look what's going on now!"  (also because I can't check the weather for the next day--not liking that)  I'm glad I'm here and I haven't regretted or doubted my decision to serve yet.  I love you all so much and I'll write more next Friday.

Te amo, 

Hermana Iverson

Leaving, on a jet plane...

October 9, 2013 - Heading off on her big adventure

Katie left California for the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  She was originally scheduled to train in Mexico City but a delay in obtaining her visa resulted in a last-minute rerouting.  The upside is that she was met at the Salt Lake City airport by her brother, Nathan.  He graciously (at the expense of some classes) took his sister to the MTC.  The downside of the change in plans is that all the clothes she packed were for the tropical climate she was anticipating in Ecuador.  Had to forage in boxes the night before the flight to find a few winter skirts for her time in Provo

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