Elder Zachary Andrews: God Has Turned Me into an Optimist

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

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

God Has Turned Me into an Optimist

God has turned me into an optimist. We had 29 lessons scheduled this week and in total we taught six lessons, despite that it was a good week! Numbers don't matter yada yada ya (people here always say that.) We have been searching through the 29 page immense BRANCH roster. It gives us a huge job and it is fun because most times the address that a family is supposed to be living at is some field or in the Mississippi!!! It is pretty funny.

We were trying to find this lady on Saturday and came to a door with three different numbers on it. We didn't know if we were in the right place. So we knock on the door and this black guy answers. I looked at him and could tell that he was not Dominican so I spoke to him in English.....Blank stare....I tried again in Spanish assuring him that we are missionaries not cops (because now that we've had a car for two weeks everyone thinks we are cops). He was a really nice guy and turns out we wasn't Dominican but from some tribe of Africans. He came here on a slave ship, but the ship got marooned in Brazil and they all speak Spanish now. Anyway we contacted him and are going to go over there this week.

We are working hard. Nothing really new and exciting.

Love y'all,

Elder Andrews

No comments:

Post a Comment

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.