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On Saturday Rebecca Carr was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Elder Grow returned from his new area to perform the baptism. It was an amazing service. She had a lot of support from her family and the ward. In the photo on the left is Rebecca's parents and sister, and on the right is her fiance Robert and his parents. They just announced their engagement last week for October! Rebecca's story is that she come to church with various friends in the YSA ward until she met Robert and began dating him. She has sorta "flown under the radar" until a month ago when she came to sacrament meeting and we met her. She said that she was really interested in learning about the church and wanted to be baptized! As we have taught Rebecca it has really struck me how much charity she has. She never judges and always sees people with the love of Christ. She will be a great strength to this ward.

So, my new companion. I love Elder Stone!!! He is amazing. He is just what this area needs. He will be going home this transfer, so I'm probably going to stay here for another one after that. Elder Stone is from Weezer, Idaho, but lived in Arizona before his mission. He's got two older brothers and a twin brother. He is SO much like my best buddy Jed Hazlett. We're like Alma and Amulek! This will be the greatest transfer of my mission!

Love you all.

--

Elder Chris Andrew

California Sacramento Mission

8267 Deseret Ave

Fair Oaks, CA 95628

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92

This week has been just great. Last Monday during zone sports a guy named Dylan was kinda hanging out around the field where we were playing soccer. We invited him to join us and we played and got to know him a little better. He's had a rough childhood and life is challenging for him right now. He plays semi-pro football in Tracy. We invited Dylan to come to our YSA family home evening that night and he showed up! We taught him the next day about the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to be baptized on June 8th. He accepted! Actually, he wants to be baptized sooner than that, but the mission's standard is investigators have to attend sacrament meeting at least three times before baptism and Sunday was Dylan's first time. He loved it! He is so excited for his baptism.

Speaking of baptism, Shannon is incredibly prepared for her date of June 8th as well. In one of our lessons with her this week she showed us some of her notes from her Book of Mormon study and told us how she begins by praying, and then opens the book to a random page and reads. Every time it has been an answer to prayers. The scriptures she read have been like scripture masteries! At FHE last night she asked us if nose rings are not allowed (she has a small stud) and I told her that women are encouraged to only wear one in each ear. She said "Ok! I'll start doing that now." and removed the stud right there. Shannon is amazing.

Oh my goodness I still have so much to tell you.

On Friday Bro. Martinez (from my Jackson ward, remember?) traveled ALL THE WAY from Jackson so have dinner with my companion and I in Manteca. That's a long drive and a huge sacrifice, but I was so happy to see him! He is amazing. I shared with him some of the things I said in my testimony at my last zone conference. This week he will be traveling to Utah to be a part of the bible videos that the Church is doing. He's grown out a big 'ol beard for it too. He will definitely look the part :)

Yesterday Sis. Gomm (from my last area, El Dorado) came and dropped off her son, Elder Chris Gomm to work with us for a few hours. Actually, he's not Elder right now. He was serving in the Charlotte NC mission but tore his meniscus in his knee and came home for 6-12 weeks for surgery. He'll go back out but wants to still do missionary work. Ever since I met Bro. and Sis. Gomm I've wanted to meet their son! We have a lot of similarities (love the outdoors, both Recreation majors, love mtn biking, canyoneering, etc). Chris is an amazing missionary. He taught Shannon and Rebecca and a few other investigators with us yesterday. He be coming back down for the baptisms of Shannon and Dylan and hopefully to work with us a few more times before heading back to NC. We're pretty much best friends already. He is a spiritual giant. The picture is Elder Grow and I with Chris Gomm at the temple this morning. (oh yeah, another cool thing that happened this week. Got to see a bunch of my mission buddies at the temple)

So we got transfer calls last night, and I'm staying in Manteca! Elder Grow is leaving and my new companion's name is Elder Stone! I'm pretty sure he only has one transfer left, but I'll tell you more about him next week.

Rebecca is being baptized this Saturday! We are so excited for her. Her and her boyfriend just told us last night that they are engaged! Crazy.

Sorry it's all over the place but a lot has happened. 'Prolly took you a day and a half to read but I hope it's worth it. Love you all!

PS oh and remember Heston?! Elder Finnerty told me that he's getting married to his girlfriend that he just brought into the church! How cool is that?!

--

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.

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This week has been awesome! We taught Rebecca the "Big 3" (Word of wisdom, law of chastity, tithing) and she is committed! We are excited for her baptism on the 25th of this month. And we found a miracle investigator this week as well. Her name is Shannon. She is renting a room from one of our member families and we met her about a month ago. On Friday my companion and I felt prompted to visit her. When we knocked on her door she answered and told us that she didn't really have time right then but would like it if we could pray for her. We did, and after that shared a brief message about faith, repentance, and baptism. We set a return appointment for the next day.

The next morning Shannon called us and had to reschedule for later that day but told us that our message really hit home for her the day before. When we went to teach her, she had questions like "How do you get faith?" "How do you repent?" Shannon is really trying to change her life. She told us that the day previous right before we knocked on her door she had just decided to make some difficult changes in her life and was overwhelmed with how she was going to do it. Now she is applying the Atonement of Jesus Christ and striving to live the gospel. This has to be one of the greatest things to witness -- someone changing their life to enjoy the joy and peace of the gospel. Reminds me of Alma 7:11-16. Shannon doesn't have a date yet, but she will be baptized soon.

Yesterday I got to call home! My parents complained that I haven't put any pictures on here for too long, so here you go:

This is me and my companion, Elder Grow, right after zone sports today. Elder Grow and I bought water balloons and spent the morning filling ~250 of them up and right in the middle of playing soccer with our zone we ran and pelted our missionaries with them! It was hilarious. So yeah, that's why I'm a little wet in the picture :)

It was so good to talk with my family yesterday! My companion and I were eating dinner with one of our families with a son on a mission and they said something that really made me think. The said that they hope that when their son comes home from his mission that he notices a difference in them. They don't want to be the same people that he left a year and a half ago. I've always thought about that the other way around, that I want to be the one that others notice a change in. But as I spoke with my parents and my siblings I really could notice a difference, in every good way -- testimony, commitment, and conversion. I sure love them.

I know the Church is true!

--

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.

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This week has been great! I'll just tell you briefly the coolest stuff that happened:

 

We taught a new investigator name Rebecca on Tuesday. She is dating someone in the YSA ward and came to church last week and that's where we first met her. Rebecca LOVES the church. She accepts it wholeheartedly. Her favorite part is that we have a modern prophet. She told us that it doesn't make sense that God loves all of his children; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that He wouldn't have a prophet today. She got up and bore her testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday and she invited everyone to her baptism on June 1st. We are so happy for her. It is the coolest thing in the world to be able to teach someone like Rebecca. I hope that no member ever withholds a teaching opportunity from the missionaries in their ward.

 

Yesterday Elder Grow and I taught another new investigator named Alexis. She is friends with the Hunters, a member family in the Lathrop family ward. We taught Lexi first last week, but it was part of a plan of salvation lesson that we taught and focused on Jacob, a different investigator. We felt like we talked too much, we didn't listen, and Lexi didn't feel comfortable enough to ask questions, but apparently after we left she told her friend Claudia that we answered a ton of her questions she had about the afterlife. She asked her Christian parents about how they felt about her going to church with the Hunters and if she could be baptized. We were so excited when we heard that! So last night we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and read Alma 7:11-16 with them. The Spirit was strong and we invited her to be baptized on June 1st! She accepted.

 

The church is true my friends. Love you all. 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.