And one more picture...

Barrow and I at Lake Camanche with our catch.

--

Elder Chris Andrew

California Sacramento Mission

8267 Deseret Ave

Fair Oaks, CA 95628

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32

On Monday we went fishing! We caught four rainbow trout. It was a relaxing P-day. We took them home and gutted them in the kitchen sink :)

 

We met with our investigator, Steve, again this week. He is around 40, and he's blind. We've been teaching him for a while, and he's just awesome. We've had the most spiritual experiences with him. He has so much faith. He's been listening to the Book of Mormon on his MP3 player, and he's all the way past 2 Nephi! He is just amazing. This week we met at the church building and gave him a tour, so he would know what to expect when he attends church. We talked about sacrament meeting, Sunday school, and Priesthood. We showed him the chapel, classrooms, and the baptismal font. Hopefully he'll be able to attend church soon. Next week is General Conference! :) Can't wait.

 

On Tuesday we traveled to Stockton for a zone conference. We met with about 40 other missionaries and learned from President Lewis and our leaders. It was great.

 

On Wednesday I went on exchange with E. Maxfield in his area, San Andreas/Murphy's. He's from Lyman, Wyoming, and grew up ranching. He's so cool. During our lunch he showed me how to rope. Our day was awesome! We saw a hilarious less-active member in the morning. He's had a rough life, but has just a great attitude. He told us about all his friends of different faiths and things. After our meeting, as we were walking back to our car, we saw a couple of Jehovah's Witness missionaries across the street. He said to us, "Look, there's my Jehovah Witness friends." And then he spoke really loudly and said, "Well, I'll see you in church this week! Talk to you later!" As soon as we closed the car door we couldn't stop laughing. Haha, some people :) In the afternoon we visited one of their families who was getting baptized on Saturday! They're just awesome. I love doing exchanges with other missionaries.

This week has been a weird one for working. While we were driving way outside of Ione we came across this airstrip right next to the road. There was a neighborhood of mansions with huge plane hangers for garages! Random. We took a dirt road to find it; I don't think they really want to be found. On Saturday we visited people in Fiddletown and River Pines. We talked to a Seventh-Day Adventist that said he was "Devitical." He told us everything about prophesies and government conspiracies and moon phases. He said that he publishes lots of things on the internet. I think he got frustrated that we didn't really get what he was saying, but he didn't teach for understanding. It was crazy.

 

Well, write ya later!

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.

31

This week it rained...... a ton. It even snowed in our area last night! All the hills have exploded in green and the creeks are raging. Hopefully it's enough to fill up our reservoirs for the hot summer. There's a lot of ranchers that need irrigation for their cattle here.

 

On Monday our district met with one of our awesome members and toured Pardee Dam! Bro. Rowan manages the dam, controlling the level of the lake and all the water that he sends downstream to supply ranchers and also major cities in the valley. He showed us the warehouse and generators, and the he took us inside the dam, which is built from solid concrete, and showed us the stairway to the top. There are 278 steps. We climbed to the top and he let me sign my name, the only place that graffiti is allowed. It was awesome!

 

On Monday we also got a visit from Elder (Jaron, now) Harral! Him and his family came for spring break. It was cool to see him and meet his parents.

 

On Tuesday we had to travel south to Manteca to get our oil changed in our Corolla. It took a long time to drive and was a total miles killer. And tomorrow we have to go to Stockton for a zone conference! I hate using so many of our monthly allotment of miles in one day. Oh well.

 

On Saturday we helped two people move into the wards. Luckily they had everything well-packed and it went fast, 'cause it rained almost all day.

Sunday was our Stake Conference. There was a great talk by one of our bishops about the sacrament and Atonement. I can't write everything he said, but he spoke about truly valuing the time we have each week to partake of the sacrament. Many of us just routinely eat and drink the bread and the water, but we should remember to view the sacrament as a type of Christ. This Stake Conference has gotten me excited for General Conference in a couple weeks.

 

It's been a slow week for teaching, but it's looking better already for this week. Talk to you later! Love,

--

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.

30

Last Monday we went to Big Trees again this time for the River Canyon Trail. It's a four-mile descent from the North Grove to the Stanislaus River. There was still a lot of snow on the trail, but the day was warm and sunny. We had river-wraps for lunch on the banks of the Stanislaus. It was an awesome hike. I wish we could hike every pday.

 

On Tuesday we worked upcountry again, visiting less-active members and potential investigators.

 

On Wednesday we had an exchange with our zone leaders from Lodi. I was with E. Hock, from Kaysville, UT. He's awesome; probably the most charitable missionary in the mission. He's so loving and courteous. It was a great exchange, we did service in the morning and saw Steve again. The lesson went well, he was unable to come to church this week, but hopefully next week.

 

On Thursday we had a mission conference outside our mission boundaries (we met with part of the Roseville mission, too) for a meeting with Elder L. Tom Perry. He visited the area with his wife to set apart our new area seventy, who also spoke with his wife. We learned about 'finding the searchers,' those people who are searching for truth. The Gospel just makes so much sense to those people! I kind of evaluated our teaching pool right now and decided whom to focus our attention on.

 

Friday was awesome. Our Jackson ward had a "Variety Show," a potluck dinner with a talent show. There's a lot of talented members in Jackson :) The Saldate's did a skit to music in togas, squirting water from their mouths on each other like they were fountains. It was hilarious! E. Barrow and I did a skit we came up with. We called it "Tie-tying contest," to see who was the better, most experienced missionary :) We had a pile of 20 ties each, and whoever finished with all of them around his neck won. We acted like we were cheating, like Barrow slipped on 5 ties that he had pre-tied, I threw a few ties in his pile behind his back, and he pulled off one of the ties around my neck. We finished at the same time, and then we said, "It's a tie." Duh-dum-chh! Haha. The ward got a kick out of it :)

 

It's been a great week! It feels like spring outside. All the hills are green and the fruit trees are blossoming. I love my area.

--

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.

and more...

My companion just froze. I guess he wasn't used to the cold weather. I had to haul him back into the warm truck ;)

--

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.

29

This week was awesome! On Monday our district went to Indian Grinding Rock, a small State Park in our area near Black Chasm. We hiked around and explored the reconstructed indian huts. In middle of the park there's a huge exposed rock that the Miwok Indians would grind their acorns to make mush (doesn't that sound appetizing. Yum!). There's a ton of little potholes where they ground. It was cool.

 

On Wednesday I went on exchange with Boeke in Calaveras county! We decided to visit some families in Arnold, 4000 ft ele. It rained all day in the valley, so up there we had snow! It snowed the whole time we were up there, and by the time we left there was about 8-10 inches on the ground. We visited a few families in the hills and listened to Christmas music in the truck. When we finished we just had to stop and play in the snow a little bit. We were throwing snowballs, and pretty soon E Boeke just froze. I'll include more pictures in a separate email, so it doesn't overload ;)

 

On Thursday one of our less-active members called us. He was in the hospital for breathing poisonous fumes while he was welding galvanized steel. We visited him in the hospital and gave him a blessing. He's out now and doing a lot better. We help him out a lot at his ranch. It's pretty fun to work. He's awesome. 

 

It's been a good busy week! 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.