I'm Going to Ecuador!

I'm Going to Ecuador!  Katie got her travel info--she leaves for Guayquil on Nov 18th!

November 8, 2013

Last week we got 16 new missionaries, 8 elders and 8 hermanas.  The district just before us left on Monday for Argentina, and since the four sisters I was living with all left and my apartment was empty for a couple days, I spent three nights in one of the other sisters' apartments.  I think they were sad for me to leave.  I really love those hermanas, they're all so great and really genuinely like having me around, even when I'm tagging along or dragging them places.  I'm really glad.  We got even more missionaries in our zone this week though, and there are--are you ready for this?--20 of them.  That's right, we got 20 new missionaries this week, and 16 last week.  It's half and half again, 10 elders and 10 hermanas.  So we now have six districts: my district of 5 elders and me (Elder Taylor left for the Colombia MTC on Tuesday), the two districts of 4 elders and 4 hermanas each that came last week, and we just got another district of 4 elders and 4 hermanas (these hermanas are living in my apartment with me now), a district of 6 elders, and a district of 6 hermanas.  There are 42 people in our zone now.  We doubled in one day.  Crazy.  I really like our newest hermanas so far, especially the ones in my apartment.  I haven't gotten to know the other 6 hermanas very well, but I think I'll like them pretty well.  But yeah, so we're officially the oldest district now.  We're the grandparents, the 16 are the parents, and the 20 are the babies--I mean, kids.

On Sunday, I got called to be the zone music coordinator.  I basically have to pick out the hymns for meetings and get people to lead and play piano.  I also organize musical numbers and make sure everyone knows how to properly lead music and stuff.  Should be fun!

Since Elder Taylor left and I was teaching with him and Elder Bueno Cabral, the two of us have been put with the other two companionships.  So now I'm teaching with Elder Howell and Elder Williams, and Elder Cabral is in a trio with Elder Robins and Elder Burnett.  There are two trios in our district now, a little weird.  

I got to host new missionaries on Wednesday.  Basically what that means is that when new missionaries get dropped off, I help them take their luggage to their room and get them settled in.  I kind of love it a bunch.  I super love new people.  My elders were laughing at me on Wednesday because I was just so happy and excited about all of our new people.  Anyways, as we got a new busload of people, I saw one of my friends from my last EFY standing on the corner!  I had remembered that she had gotten her call to Mexico, but I didn't know when she was reporting.  I remember we were the two Katies (except she spelled it Katy) and we both had curly hair, but she was super duper tall.  I pretty much jumped her when I hugged her and I got to host her.  I was so excited to see someone I knew!!!  I've seen her a couple times since then.

I saw two people I knew today on main campus (we went to print out our emails): one elder was a guy from my ward this past spring up in Rexburg, who is flying out on Monday for Ukraine, and the second elder was actually a friend from SOAR who went to BYU-Idaho as well and was actually friends with Brian, the first guy.  Small world!

I get like no mail ever (just two dear elders and two packages from you and a dear elder from Ashley, that's all I've gotten in four and a half weeks),

I better go, I have more emails to write and Elder Robins is dying to talk to me about some sort of girl advice or whatever.  He's an interesting guy... Talk to you more next week mom!

Love your baby girl, 

Hermana Iverson

MTC Life and Eye Problems

Enjoying some Halloween fun!

November 1, 2013

As far as my week goes, it wasn't as crazy as the last two weeks have been, but not completely uneventful either.  On Tuesday, we found out that Elder Taylor, the elder in my district who knew Eva, finally got his visa to go to the Colombia MTC.  He's really excited and leaves this coming Tuesday.  That evening, we went up to main campus for devotional, and you will never guess who sat down behind me.  Elder Anderson, Bishop Anderson's son!  I had never met him, but he recognized me from when I gave my farewell.  It was a slightly awkward conversation, made more awkward when we took a picture together for me to send to you (so you better appreciate it because oh my heavens idk why it felt so awkward).  Since Wednesday started my fourth week here, Tuesday was officially my halfway mark.  I am less than three weeks away from leaving.  AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Katie with Elder Anderson

We got two new districts this Wednesday!!  Both of them had four elders and four hermanas.  So we have eight new hermanas and they're all really wonderful!  I like all of them a lot and I think they like me so that's good haha. 

My patience was a little thin with my district this week.  Boys are crazy!  Like honestly I don't understand what's wrong with them.  I have to try and remember that they're going to be crazy and weird and I shouldn't try to change them (too much; they are elders now) jaja jota kah

So Wednesday night my eye started hurting a little bit when I blinked and looked a tiny bit red.  Thursday morning when I woke up it was hurting a lot more and was completely bloodshot.  It was pretty painful and I started worrying if it was pinkeye.  It wasn't goopy, so I was told that meant it wasn't that.  So the lady who called you had me take their shuttle to this eye doctor who was way on the outskirts of Provo.  Like apparently we were almost in Orem because one of the two elders escorting me could see on the hill the house right behind his from the parking lot of the medical office.  It was pretty weird.  Oh I almost forgot, when the lady called you her earset was really loud so I could hear your voice!!!!  I was just sitting there kind of inwardly freaking out and listening really closely and whispering to my elders "I can hear my mooooommm!!!" hahaha so yeah I enjoyed that part :)

Getting her eye checked out

As far as the actual eye appointment, it looks like the surface of my eye was irritated or something, I don't remember exactly.  I think he called it episcleritis or whatever.  Nothing serious.  He thought that maybe it could have been a result of dryness (I have decided I will never live in Utah because the dryness here will literally kill me like my knuckles actually were starting to crack because of how dry it is here), but there were no symptoms in my left eye so he didn't know exactly what was causing it.  He gave me some eye drops (the first time I have ever used them in my life btw) and now I have to put one drop in my eye four times a day for four days, and then three times a day for four days, and then twice for three or something, and then finally once a day for how many days.  I don't remember it exactly, but a lot of eye drops.  Ugh.  On top of that, the shuttle was an hour late picking us up from the office.  So lame.  

I asked the elders in my district to give me a blessing last night since I was kind of worried and my eye was starting to hurt more, especially when I was outside.  I also was (and still am a little bit) having trouble reading because my eyesight was starting to get a little fuzzy.  That really scared me, because when I went in earlier that day they were shocked because my eyesight was actually better than 20/20.  So I got up the courage to ask for a blessing.  I don't think I remember the last time I received one.  It's been a while.  I'm so glad I did though because it was exactly what I needed.  Elder Cabral mentioned that this was exactly where I was meant to be in this exact moment and that I was doing the right thing, and recently I had had a few doubtful thoughts hoping that this was for sure the right thing for me.  When he said that I started tearing up.  I feel so happy because I know for sure now, I have confirmation from Heavenly Father that there is literally nowhere else in the world that is better for me than right here.  I'm so glad because I love it here and what I'm doing.  I'm still terrified to go out to Ecuador, but I have moments too where I just want to get out there.  I'm so excited to be serving the Lord and to meet all of these amazing people.  Today we did an endowment session and I was probably praying for 10-15 minutes in the Celestial Room for everyone I could think of because I was just so grateful.  

Yo sé que Jesucristo vive y que él es mi Salvador.  Sé que podemos estar juntos con nuestras familias por siempre.  Me encanta este Evangelio y estoy muy agradecida por esta oportunidad de servir el Señor.  

Love,

Hermana Iverson

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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