Elder Zachary Andrews: I Serve My Mission in the Bayous of Southern Louisiana

THE VISION OF THE SOUTH

"Make no small plans: This is the vision I have for the South. I believe that one day the South will baptize more people into the church than all other English speaking missions in the world together....We will see the time when we will baptize hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands...In your day you will see a million members of the church in the South. There will be temples plural in the Southern States. What a great call you have to serve with these marvelous people." President Spencer W. Kimball

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

I Serve My Mission in the Bayous of Southern Louisiana

October 29

We are busy. Really busy. I love it. We have just been running his last week. We got two new investigator families this week. The Ortega family (Mexicans, super cool and fun) and Otzon and his family (Dominican and also really fun people). We have been running like crazy people. Ok so you want to hear something crazy about serving in Louisiana? One: it is the belt buckle of the bible belt. If we have to go to Wal-Mart to get a bike tube, we plan for a least an hour because it is so likely that someone will want to Bible bash with us. We try our best to not Bible bash, because we are not supposed to but sometimes, mostly when they talk about us not believing in Christ, we don't feel good letting those false things being said about our church.

So you name it, all that anti stuff, and I know the answer to them now.

I have a challenge for all of you. When people ask you what religion you belong to say: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are not Mormons. We are disciples of Christ. Christ is central to this church.

Satan knows this and he is working hard to keep the people in confusion and darkness. Because it is hard to bring someone out of that. But God is way smarter than Satan. We are working with one of our investigators, Jendric, great kid. Awesome, love him to death, but he has no knowledge of the Bible, has no knowledge of Christ. So he is hard to teach right? Wrong, and this is why. He recognizes things. He doesn't say anything about it, but we will teach him things and he will sorta perk-up and listen really intently. He recognizes things. He is a good guy.

Anyway love you all. I didn't get transferred. Algiers is mine, baby. Be good. And remember that all you have to do to share the gospel is be friends with everyone and live a good happy life, cause there is always something to be happy about.

Love,

Elder Andrews

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Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission

The first branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized in New Orleans with 334 members in 1841. The prophet Joseph Smith sent the first missionary to New Orleans in March of that year. After reaching 169 members in 1849, the New Orleans branch disbanded because of the threat of serious disease in the area. The Southern States Mission, which included Louisiana opened in 1878, but the first missionaries were not sent to the state until nearly 20 years later. Missionary work spread throughout the state during the early twentieth century and by 1930, there were 1500 members. The first ward was established in Shreveport in 1953 and the first stake in New Orleans in 1955.In 1975, the Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission was created and by 1980, there were over 12,500 members in the state of Louisiana. By 1989, Louisiana had 22,000 members in seven stakes. In 1998, the First Presidency announced the building of a temple in Baton Rouge. That temple was dedicated on 16 July, 2000.The Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission extends from Natchitoches South to the East and West borders through the state including the Gulf of New Orleans. The mission also includes the South West corner of Mississippi including Natchez, Liberty, and Macomb.