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.

28

Week one of transfer five! On Tuesday (pday for the last week of every transfer) we went up to the San Andreas building and had a Nerf war. E Harral has a whole artillery of Nerf weapons, and we set up barriers in the gym. It was awesome.
 
On Wednesday E Harral left for the mission office so he could go to the temple and have his departing interview. He flew home Thursday morning. (in the picture he's not that short, we're just on a slope :-) E jones left for his new area, so Boeke and I waited at the apartment until his new companion arrived, E Maxfield. E Maxfield is from Wyoming! A while after that my new companion arrived, E Barrow! He's from Houston, TX. He's the oldest of four. He's pretty cool. This is his second to last transfer, so he could die here in the hills just like Harral did. He's never been in a hills area before, so I broke him in by doing service every day ;) Working on Jess's ranch, helping Mark Tresnor, tearing down a carport, and helping a family move. We've been busy!
 
On Friday our Elder's Quorum President in the Ione ward asked us to be on the judges panel for the ward's chili cook-off. Oh boy. The chilis were dang good, but the next day we suffered the consequences.
 
Sunday was wonderful. I love Sundays. In Jackson ward we had many people that we've been working with attend sacrament meeting. We had lunch with the Busis, one of the awesome families here, and had dinner and a lesson with the Hertzogs. I love the people here :D
 
Well, this afternoon we'll probably be going to Indian Grinding Rock, a state park in our area, with Boeke and Maxfield. 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.

P.S.

BTW, we're getting our mission president back!!!!!

--

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.

28

Week one of transfer five! On Tuesday (pday for the last week of every transfer) we went up to the San Andreas building and had a Nerf war. E Harral has a whole artillery of Nerf weapons, and we set up barriers in the gym. It was awesome.

 

On Wednesday E Harral left for the mission office so he could go to the temple and have his departing interview. He flew home Thursday morning. (in the picture he's not that short, we're just on a slope :-) E jones left for his new area, so Boeke and I waited at the apartment until his new companion arrived, E Maxfield. E Maxfield is from Wyoming! A while after that my new companion arrived, E Barrow! He's from Houston, TX. He's the oldest of four. He's pretty cool. This is his second to last transfer, so he could die here in the hills just like Harral did. He's never been in a hills area before, so I broke him in by doing service every day ;) Working on Jess's ranch, helping Mark Tresnor, tearing down a carport, and helping a family move. We've been busy!

 

On Friday our Elder's Quorum President in the Ione ward asked us to be on the judges panel for the ward's chili cook-off. Oh boy. The chilis were dang good, but the next day we suffered the consequences.

 

Sunday was wonderful. I love Sundays. In Jackson ward we had many people that we've been working with attend sacrament meeting. We had lunch with the Busis, one of the awesome families here, and had dinner and a lesson with the Hertzogs. I love the people here :D

 

Well, this afternoon we'll probably be going to Indian Grinding Rock, a state park in our area, with Boeke and Maxfield. 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.

27

Busy as ever! It was rainy/snowy on Monday, but we went upcountry anyway to Black Chasm! It's this huge cavern that is managed by a member in our ward. She took us on an off-trail tour, sliding and crawling through the underground chambers. The rain made it even more wet in the cave, so we got pretty muddy. The formations in Black Chasm are the most distinctive in North California. The picture is of a wall of helectites. It was so awesome.

 

On Tuesday we went over to the Saldates, a family in our ward. They needed trees pruned and yard waste burned. We cut and burned a huge pile of branches and two Christmas trees. It was fun.

 

On Wednesday E. Jones came on exchange with me! We cleaned out one of our investigator's gutters and had a good lesson with her afterwards. In the evening we had a lesson with another one of our investigators, Steve. He is blind and we have been teaching him since the Gladys Knight fireside which he attended with a ward member. It was a great day.

 

On Thursday we drove to North Stockton because we needed to trade vehicles with another companionship :( Our vehicle coordinator, Elder Clifton, called us and said that the church wants all the vehicles to mature at the same rate and we were putting too many miles too fast on our truck. We haven't been exceeding our monthly allotment, but our truck is a gas-guzzler and with the summer months ahead we probably don't need the four-wheel-drive. So, we've been demoted to a corolla :( This will make some of the dirt roads harder to drive, but I'm sure glad we're not on bike.

 

On Friday I hit six months! My companion hit 24 on the same day. And now he's going home in two days. I'm really bummed, we've become good friends. We get along well, teach well together, and we have fun. I'm gonna miss him!

 

Last night we got our transfer call. E Harral's getting transfered to Utah and Elder Barrow will be serving with me in Jackson/Ione.

 

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.