HELLO CALIFORNIA!!!

Helloooo! :) 

So I will just begin by saying that California is the best. Seriously, I can't even handle it! AHH! 

Sooo last Tuesday we had a district meeting! Our whole zone had their own district meetings going on throughout the church, so afterward we all got together to eat pumpkin pie. It was way fun to get to meet everyone in the zone! :) I ended up meeting this one elder, Elder Bennion. He asked me where my family was originally from because he is related to some Walkers... who were from RAYMOND, ALBERTA! We started freaking out and RAN to the family history center to find out how we were related! As it turns out, his grandpa is Reed Harris Walker, my grandpa Glen's BROTHER!! ELDER BENNION IS MY SECOND COUSIN! It was the craziest thing of my whole life! AHH! 

After our district meeting and the family history shenanigans, we went to go to see this less-active lady named Holly. She's a recovering drug-addict who loves to swear her head off haha. She was pretty funny. :) We committed her to read more often from the Book of Mormon and she promised us that she would! :) Woo hooooooooo! After we met with her, we found a wallet on the ground and spent about an hour trying to find the owner. We were so excited when we found her house, but she wasn't even grateful. She pretty much just said "okay" and then closed the door on us. Oh well. The hunt to find her was pretty fun, so it's all good. :) 

On Wednesday the coolest thing EVER happened! So we were walking back to our apartment when we saw this girl sitting down on the ground. We decided to stop and talk to her, and as it turns out, her mom had forgotten her after school because it was a short-day. We felt way bad for her, so we just hung out and talked to her for a while so that she wouldn't be alone waiting for her mom. Her mom called her after a while and asked if there was someone who could take her home, so we ended up walking Pricilla home. Her mom was so grateful to us that she took us out to get shaved ice! :) It was so FANCY! She told us about how she had met mormons before and wanted to know more, so we are meeting with her this week over lunch! :) I'm sooo excited and am so grateful that Sister Naitoko and I followed the prompting to talk to Pricilla. :) 

On Thursday it was 104 degrees outside and I LOVED it! Oh my gosh it felt so good! It was a nice change from the Ukrainian winters haha. Anyway, we met with a family that night and it was so fun! :) I love getting to spend time with families. :) We got to go to ANOTHER family's house afterward to discuss their family mission plan and they are SO awesome! They had all talked to their friends about the gospel! I want to be like these righteous members when I get home. :)

The next day we went to stop by a referral that the elders gave us and as it turns out, she is a tad bit cray cray. We walked into her house and BOOM. The spirit was gone! She started telling us about how she chased her brother's wife away and all of these wild things and I was just like, "man oh MAN I gotta get outta here!" Eventually we did make it out of there, but it was a narrow escape! Kind of. Actually, it was pretty normal escape. Also, that day Sister Naitoko dumped me into our huge dumpster. So she went out to take out the trash and ended up throwing the lid of our garbage can away haha. She started freaking out and was like, "Sister Walker! We can't just have a trash can with no LID!" So we came up with a plan that she would lift me up with her muscly Tongan arms and I would fish it out of there. We probably looked like dum dums, but we have a lid to our garbage can now so I don't even care. 

On Saturday morning we went to a soup kitchen to help feed some homeless people. It was so rewarding to see how grateful all of them were that we were there. :) Afterward we met some Tongans outside of the church! They were the first Tongans that Sister Naitoko has met here, so they were all freaking out and wanted to take us to lunch! :) So off we went and it was a grand time full of Tongan JOY! I loved it! Later that night around 10:20, they called us saying that they had something for us. What da eck? So we went outside and they had bought us a TON of groceries! Can you believe it?? Tongans are the BEST! :) 

Yesterday was sooo good! :) I finally got to meet the ward and they are just the greatest people out there! For real, it blew my mind how nice they were! I'm so grateful that I get to serve here! :) Oh, and later that night guess who called us again? THE TONGANS. They had made us fancy Tongan food! AHH! Sidenote: they call me the "balangi", which means "white person." Hahaha. :) But yup. Dem Tongans, tho. 

Well. This ended up being a really long email haha. My bad. BUT it was a really good week and I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to get to serve here in Upland. :) The gospel is so true and I love seeing how it changes the lives of people here. 

Anyhoo, I love you all and I will talk to you next week! :) 

xoxo
Kimmie