First days

So Katherine has asked me to upload her weekly letters home. I'll add in pictures as well for your viewing pleasure.

Here's the first installment—albeit a few days late.

— William

Hola mi familia!

The first few days have been crazy busy but awesome. The first day was overwhelming but I love it.  I am at the West MTC, just like everyone thought! It's a little disappointing but I love my district and zone so it's okay. There are four Elders and three Hermanas in my district.  Elder Sonntag (Mesa, AZ), Elder Hixon (Mesa, AZ), Elder Koehler (Bountiful, UT), Elder Gilbert (Othello, WA), Hermana Taylor (McGrath, Canada), Hermana Gurley (Georgia) and my companion, Hermana Lopez (Highland, UT). She does not, as her name might suggest, speak Spanish. Her dad is from Puerto Rico but didn't teach her and her siblings so she and I are both at the beginning of learning Spanish. They are all about 19 or 20 so I am definitely the odd one out. There are two other sisters in our zone but they both leave on Monday. We've been asking them all the questions we can come up with since once they leave, we'll be on our own. Thursday also we also met our Branch Presidency! They are all wonderful and seem like great people.  I can't wait to work with them and learn more from them.

Katherine with her MTC district.

Today we had our first investigator lesson. My companion and I prepared a lesson but we got thrown off a bit as he answered our questions a bit differently. So we didn't have the vocabulary to answer his questions and I tried to answer but when I didn't know, I would say it in Italian, sometimes with a Spanish accent. Unfortunately it didn't go over so well and he didn't understand some of it. Oh well! We've prepared another lesson for tomorrow and we looked up anything that we might need to know. Hopefully that will help! 

      So my district and I went up to main campus to check out the cafeteria which has more options than we do in our trailer-cafeteria. I ran into Jordan Hansen (!) who is here studying Mongolian as she leaves in February. It was so great and I got some pictures. We had lunch together and caught up before I headed back to west campus to study some more.       

Katherine with her study abroad friend Jordan Hansen, whose father

is a childhood friend of our mother's. Jordan is headed to Mongolia!

I don't have much else to say. The food is alright; my favorite part is the salad bar and the fresh fruit. We're allowed to go to Brigham's Landing (where the Cocoa Bean is) and my companion and I are going there soon, probably today. I can't wait! My companion and I get along so well, it's kinda crazy that we've only known each other since Wednesday. Companionships are truly inspired. It's amazing how perfectly each of the sets of missionaries get along. I love being here and I love this gospel. It's true and I know it and I can't wait to speak Spanish well enough so I can teach the people of Mexico and help them learn more. I love you all and hope you are doing well.  

Sincerely,

Katherine

Another photo of Katherine and her district.