Week One

Dearest Brothers and Sisters,

 I am just beaming with the goofiest smile and laugh as I've read all of your letters. You have no idea how happy they make me. Please keep sending emails, even if they're only a couple lines long. I love them.

 Alright, so I've got a lot to say and time is ticking. It's super intense in this room right now because we're all overwhelmed with how happy we are with emails, but we have so much to write about and so much to say. Let me start out by saying that I am in heaven here in the England MTC. I can honestly tell you all that I have not had one moment of deep sadness while I've been here. It's almost terrifying me how well and smoothly everything is going, and how well I'm adjusting. But I'll take it and keep in mind that the hard times will come without me asking for them. I'm going to break this letter up into subpoints, so my missionary friends can skim over these letters because I realize how little time everyone has.

 MY COMPANION: My companion's name is Sister Taylor. She's from Alberta, is a track star, and an awesome mix of Chloe O'brien from 24 and Aunt Tracy (hi aunt tracy, love you!). She's so hilarious and very level headed and down to earth. She makes me laugh like crazy with how clumsy she is, but she is definitely intense about following the rules and working hard. It's perfect. I can't imagine having a better companion. What a relief, right?

 MY DISTRICT AND TEACHERS:   I also love everyone in my district. I daresay that our district is the closest district here, and I think we owe that to our incredible teacher Brother Day. Brother Day is from Manchester, and has a great sense of humor, and powerful spirit. We had another teacher for a day, and it was the slowest day here. Brother Day just has a way of unifying everyone, and explaining things about the gospel in a very simple, but profound way. The teachers here are are wonderful. Except one. But they are always coming in during our personal and companionship study to help us, and to do roleplay and stuff. It also helps that every male teacher here is attractive AND has an adorable accent. It's sometimes hard when we're role playing, because I can't help but smile when I look at them. They're cute. Be excited Sara Mclaws (if you're reading this). I don't know what the Provo MTC is like, but the England MTC is heaven on earth. It's very small--only about 50 missionaries--and we all know each other. And the missionaries are from all over the world, it's incredible. We've got missionaries from Hungary, Scotland, France, Australia, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and lots of other places. It's cool to see how unifying the gospel is. I also love how free we are to go outside. I spend a lot of time outside studying, and even went on a run outside of the MTC with my companion (it about killed me cuz she's an all star runner). I've never felt like I'm going insane or felt trapped or anything.

 COMMENT ON THE SPIRIT A lot of people talk about how powerful the spirit is in the MTC. I sort of thought that I would come in here and the spirit would knock me over or something by the way people were describing it. But it's not that way. The spirit is here, and it is powerful, but it's different from how I expected. The spirit here for me has been soothing and calming. I look back on this last week and I have been so happy. Not in a weird hyper, jump-up-and-down, Book of Mormon Musical kind of way, but in a really simple way. I feel at peace with my life right now. It's almost like everything inside of me is in harmony. There's no internal dissonance, and that's the best feeling. I've learned a lot about how simple the gospel is. It's simple and gives us direction, but that's what makes it so great I've learned. It's also so nice to learn about the gospel without any distractions. I'm not thinking about my phone, or evening plans, or anything else. I have a lot more to say, but no more time. I love all of you, missions are awesome and not what I expected. I have been so pleasantly surprised. I'm adjusting easily and I'm excited, but definitely scared of getting out into the mission field. It feels good to be back in England.
 Love you all,
 Sister Katarina Dushku

 P.S. You know how I said that addressing myself as Sister Dushku was weird? I'm used to it, and I actually really like it which surprises me.... It creates a nice respect for each other.

For those who don't have Katarina's email address it is:  katarina.dushku@myldsmail.net