Kat in Cali: ¡La vida en la valle!

Hello, all! It's my first Preparation Day in California, San Fernando, and I'm so excited to talk with you all! Last week was kinda crazy, and I''m sorry I didn't send an email out, but this week I want to tell you all about the valley!

So, President and Sister Henrie are in charge of all of us, and they're amazing. They picked us up from the airport, and fed us waffles and ice cream, and we did some orientation stuff, and then we met our companions and got going!

My companion is amazing. Her name is Hermana Barfuss, which is German for barefoot. She works super hard, and she's really patient as I try to figure out how to be a missionary! Also, her Spanish is a lot better than mine, which is great since I'm usually pretty lost when we're talking to native speakers.

So, this is a new area for both of us, and I think it's been closed for the six weeks before this. We're mainly working from the paperwork other missionaries left, which is a little interesting, but it's been fun so far. :) And we met a lot of the members during church yesterday, so hopefully we can work with them to find people to teach. :)

Part of our mission culture is something called "Knock Out". Basically, every day from 4:00 to 6:00 we go out and knock on people's doors and invite them to hear our message! I was super nervous the first day, because that just seems scary, but the people here are so nice. Even when they're not interested, they're polite about it, and lots of times we get to have really cool discussions about their beliefs and their lives in general!

The first day, I was running on maybe 2 hours of sleep, and I hadn't gotten to buy food yet, so I was kind of dreading knocking doors for two hours. But about fifteen minutes in, a man asked us if we had eaten yet, and he brought out two bowls of delicious lentil soup! We sat in his front yard, and ate dinner, and had a fascinating discussion about God and how God loves all of His children, all of the people on Earth. We taught him about our faith, and about how the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the Earth, and invited him to pray and ask God if this is the truth. It was amazing. :)

We definitely see a lot of miracles during Knock Out, and it's become my favorite part of the day. :) Hopefully we'll be able to have more lessons this week, so I can tell you all how that goes next Monday!

For now, I love you all, and I hope you have an amazing week! I know that God loves all of you, and He will always take care of you. :) We are in His hands, each one of us. :)

I love you!

Love, Hermana Katherine Jensen :)