Week 19

This weekend was awesome! On Friday we went to the church building with a few other zones and the mission office handed out all of our packages from home, along with a few other things from the mission. They made us cool mission t-shirts! It has the California bear and the Nor-Cal star with a map of our mission on it. When we got home to our apartment E. Amos and Choi opened their gifts already. E. George and I exercised our self control and waited 'til Christmas morning :)

Saturday night (Christmas eve) our zone gathered at a member's house and had a bonfire. We played games like the triangle game and the Green Glass Room and other riddles. We roasted marshmallows and hotdogs and starbursts. It was the best zone activity I've had so far... so fun. Good times.

Christmas morning I opened my package from home! One of the best things they sent were pictures from the family reunion and the family beginning of December. I also got a package from the Moab Single's Branch and the Stuckis! It was a good morning.

Both of our ward's cut their meetings to just sacrament meeting. In El Dorado Hills ward we had a neat experience. Manish, an Indian man I met while tracting a month ago, called us and asked if he could attend one of our meetings and bring a few of his family and friends. When I met him before we taught him the restoration and about the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy and invited him to church. So yesterday he came with about ten family members and friends from India! I had the opportunity to sit with Manish and explain sacrament meeting, the sacrament and it's symbolism, and the priesthood. Somehow, you seem to learn and understand more about something when you teach it, and that's what happened to me. Manish and his family had already attended their temple that morning, but they enjoyed the music and the speakers and thanked us for the opportunity to worship Jesus Christ on this significant day of the year, when Christmas falls on a Sunday. He asked if they could have a prayer with us in the ancient language of Sanskrit. So we led them with Bro. Spicer, our ward mission leader, to an empty classroom where Manish explained some of their beliefs. Hindus believe that Jesus Christ is and "incarnation" of God, so just like we take different roles in our lives like son, father, friend, co-worker--God took the form of Jesus. So, they worship Jesus, along with other multiple gods. They led us in a prayer, or chant, in Sanskrit, that lasted maybe five minutes. I didn't understand anything, but it was pretty cool.

Most all of the Hindu and Muslim people I have met (there are many in Folsom) are the most kind and loving people. That is definitely the case with Manish. I love him like a brother.

After church Amos and I headed to a member's house to call our families! I got to call my parents in Highland, where they are visiting my Andrew Grandparents. It was so good to talk to them! There's a big difference between emailing them every week and actually talking with them on the phone. BTW, I didn't cry. All the other missionaries told me I would, but I didn't. Ha :)

Well, that's my Christmas weekend. I hope yours was just as wonderful! Love,

Chris

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Elder Chris Andrew

California Sacramento Mission

8267 Deseret Ave

Fair Oaks, CA 95628

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Week 18

This week E. Amos and I have both been sick. I got a cold, and Amos was nauseous, so we had to stay in the apartment for most of the week. It's not like staying home from school, where you can watch movies and play around on the computer, but it was still fun. On Friday Amos had a doctor's appointment in Roseville, which is out of our mission! That was exciting.... something different. We're feeling better now.

Last Monday E. George and I went exploring around the other bridge in Folsom. The American River is so beautiful. The section we were checking out was below the Folsom Lake Dam, so it's really calm water. I caught a little crawdad :) I took some sweet underwater pictures too.

Saturday evening Amos and I were feeling better so we went out to visit a few of our investigators. We were walking down the street when we ran into this guy who started asking us more about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and other doctrine questions. We were so stoked. He took us to his house and we taught him right there. As we taught he asked questions that lead right into the next part of our discussion. At first I wasn't sure if he was just a member pretending to be an investigator, but then I saw a bunch of booze in his kitchen. BUT, he has a really open mind and is receptive. Miracle!

Yesterday a Korean member in our ward brought her nephew to church, Eric. He's nine, his parent's aren't members, but he wants to be baptized. He is a smart kid for his age.... knows a lot about religious history. We taught him last week, but this week we invited him to a baptism date: January 7th! I'm  so stoked. It won't count for a white christmas december baptism, but I don't care. It's a miracle! :)

--

Elder Chris Andrew

California Sacramento Mission

8267 Deseret Ave

Fair Oaks, CA 95628

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Week 17

Oops, I sent this last week but it failed :P........................

This week was awesome. On Tuesday I got a package with stuff from my family and cousins! They sent a paper Christmas tree that I put up above my desk. And thank you for the spices, I'm going to make wassail tonight :)

On Wednesday we tracted into this guy who is in a band, "Dance Gavin Dance." My companion E. Amos played with them in Miami! The guy gave us both two cool band shirts.

On Thursday our zone combined with a couple others and had a temple conference. It was my first time through the Sacramento Temple... it's pretty similar to the Monticello Temple. It was incredible. And I met Sis. Landon, the Hazlett's cousin! She entered the MTC the same day I did, but stayed there for nine weeks to learn Spanish.

On Friday the member that owns Great Harvest Bread gave us both cards for a loaf of free bread. We got spinach feta and cheddar garlic. Way good.

Tonight we're having dinner at the Nugent's. He likes to draw robots... his video is on Mormon.org.

I love Folsom and El Dorado Hills.

Love ya.

--

Elder Chris Andrew

California Sacramento Mission

8267 Deseret Ave

Fair Oaks, CA 95628

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Week 16

This is E. Forster and I right before he left on Wednesday. Now it's E. Amos and I! He's a funny guy. He's from Miami, he's a pro skateboarder, competed in the DEW tour, likes to wakeboard, was in a metal band... and he has a cool conversion story. We've had so much fun this week!

Last night we enjoyed the Christmas First Presidency Devotional. The video Henry B. Eyring showed reminded me of the video "Luke II" that my family watches every Christmas eve. I miss visiting Temple Square every December. I can't wait for Christmas!

E. K moved out too and now we have E. Choi. He's way cool - he played rugby for Highland and is a DJ. There are four sisters now: Sis. Foster and Sis. Konou, Sis. DeSpain and Sis. Angimarou.

The work in our wards is picking up and we've added a few new investigators and taught a lot of lessons. No firm baptism dates for December yet! Hopefully next week I'll be able to say that we have a baptism.

--

Elder Chris Andrew

California Sacramento Mission

8267 Deseret Ave

Fair Oaks, CA 95628

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.