Katie's First Letter

Ciao Famiglia-

OH MY GOSH I HAVE BEEN DYING TO WRITE THIS LETTER!!! The bad thing about having p-day on wednesday is that you have to wait a whole week before you can write home! Mamma Mia so much has happened! First off I would like to say that I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!! It seriously is the best thing in the world to wake up everyday, put on your nametag (Sorella Nilson- La chiesa di Gesu Cristo dei santi degli ultimi giorni) and know that you are serving the lord and doing his work! I LOVE IT! I think that I was made for the MTC, getting to study the gospel everyday... It just works for me :) But I can't tell you how excited I am to go teach the people of Italy... and for that reason, even though it has been only one week, I can't wait! So It has been decided... for sure I am staying the whole time here... 8 weeks! I was really disappointed at first, but I know there must be some reason I need to stay. They told me I could do the fast track, but my visa wouldn't be ready in time so I would have to go serve somewhere stateside first until it came through. So I decided I better just stay here and work more on the language so I am really prepared when I go to Italy! I am already learning a ton... and I know it will be helpful because even though I know italian, learning all the church words is a different story! There is still a lot to learn, and a lot to learn about the gospel. My cordinating sister, Sorella Hiener told me that "we were called to Teach the Gospel... in the italian language. We weren't called to learn italian to then teach the gospel." I know that there is a lot for me to learn about being a missionary and that really makes me able to love the MTC. I promise I love it, I really do...

I will now take one moment to give my input on the food. *Disclaimer- this is not a complaint (missionaries don't complain :)) this is a fact* The food is terrible!!! I thought that Seth and Chad were exaggerating... but yes... it is terrible. Not like the cannon. The other night we had Cod nuggets for dinner... I don't know about you, but I don't think you should nugget anything except chicken, and especially not cod! I am currently living off of salad and wraps and fruit every single meal. It is totally fine by me... it actually makes eating healthy easier when the sight of the food turns you away :) I'm not too worried since I know I will have oodles of delicious noodles once I get to italia!!

Well I my colleghe (companions) are great! They are Sorella Camp and Sorella Oakes! They are probably the nicest people alive and they both sing!! Sorella Camp was a vocal performance major, so I still get my fill of music which I love! Reminds my musical siblings! And Jos and Jen you would be proud, they wanted to sing in the chior, so I had to go along with them. So yes, I sang in the MTC chior... and was even up on the big screen for a minute... and thats a big deal here at the MTC! We have a lot of fun together! It is amazing how quickly you learn to love people here. We are taught how important it is that we love each other because, if you have problems in your companionship, you don't have the spirit, and if you don't have the spirit... You simply cannot teach!

My district is so jealous of me cuz I get so many letters!! Thank you , Thank you, Thank you my family! It really means the WORLD TO ME!! It seriously helps so much to have you all behind me, and It makes my day when I hear from you! If you send anything more to me could you send stuff that I can share with my district? Or write them letters? They don't all get a lot of stuff. You learn a lot about people here... Sorella Camp is an only Child, Sorella Oakes parents are divorced so it's just her, her brother, and her mom. Then one anziano (elder in italian) is fromwales and he is the only member of his family, he converted 3 years ago and decided to serve (he told us his conversion story, he said when he first felt the spirit he thought he had just eaten "a dodgey piece of cheese" and that's why he felt so different!) Another Anziano baptized his mom right before he came, but no one else in his family are members... And yet they are all so strong! They have testimonies of the church and want so badly to share it! Remember My whole zone in your prayers! We are all so close since there is just one zone of us! We also had one anziano go home yesterday. It was heartbreaking. You get so attached because you are all going through the same thing, we wish so badly he would have just kept sticking it out. We are all praying for him and hope with everything he will want to come back!

I love seeing seth, chad, and all of Josie's friends here! (I've seen Micah, Destin (we played volleyball), Michael, Grant Crossley, and some others) It really is the best because it is nice to know that we are all in this together (quote HSM) and working hard. Seeing Seth really makes my day everytime... He bore his testimony to me in tagolog... It was amazing and I have a testimony of the gift on tongues! It is real!

well I am running out of time but I want you to know that I love you all! I miss you so much it is crazy! Know that I am so happy being a missionary and have never felt the spirit so strong in my life! I know that the church is true! I know that we have an important work to do in sharing the gospel! There are people out there that need the blessings the gospel brings! how fortunate are we to know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who cares so much about each of us! I know that by faith all things are possible- always turn to Heavenly father and have patience and faith and you can get through anything!

Love you all so very much!

Vi voglio Bene,

Sorella Nilson

P.S. My p-day is wednesday as you may have guessed :) I only get to write letters today But i will write!