Elder Zachary Andrews: Louisiana. Paperwork. Good People

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

Louisiana. Paperwork. Good People

Oct 21

This week was great. I almost feel like I am doing something wrong because I am having so much fun.

Crazy thing that really sucks. Is there is one branch here on the West Bank. Now it covers a large area but still only one branch, because there are not a lot of members. Well, we decided to look through the branch roster last week to see if there are any people in the area that we do not know. OH MY are there people we don't know. On our branch roster there are over 1,000 people and 500 households. We get somewhere between 100-125 people both English and Spanish combined at church (and that is when the weather is nice, completely other subject). The other people none of us have ever heard of so we have to find all of them. I know what I am doing for the rest of my life. That means that we are missing 900 people. So naturally being OCD I sat down the two district leaders here in the West Bank and said this is something we should do. Because of the vast amounts of "extra" work this is going to put on us they promptly agreed and so that explains the "Paperwork."

People. I love the people here. It is amazing how much I love them. All the Hispanics are such happy people. If you want to party go to a Hispanic b-day. All the people here need help from little things like one of the recent converts here needed a couch. So we found a couch, loaded it in the van and brought it over. All of these people need our help. It is my divine pleasure to help them in however they need help. Temporal, Spiritual, Emotional. You name it, we are there for them. Our Mission President has a motto for us. LOVE SERVE TEACH. I am trying everyday to radiate these characteristics.

This is long but I want to tell you about one of our investigator who just got baptized. His name is Samuel. I absolutely love him and his family. His mom and (hopefully) soon to be Dad live in our area. I have seen the gospel change their lives, no ifs, ands of buts. They are my family in Louisiana. They are awesome. Samuel is really strong in the gospel and is helping his family to stay strong while he waits for his mom and his step-dad to get married (his step dad is waiting for divorce papers in Mexico). He strengthens that family. And in turn his family strengthens him. He has built my faith that we cannot do it alone. Period. We need support whether it be from family or friends or heck, me. We are here together to help each other. because we can't do it Alone.

Love you all,

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.