Elder Zachary Andrews: From President Wall, Apples or Oats

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

Monday, January 6, 2014

From President Wall, Apples or Oats

Sent Date: Sunday, January 5, 2014

If you were invited to sit down with the prophet and talk for a few minutes, would you want to hurry the time, or enjoy the moment? If you were to go on visits with him, do you think he would hurry so that he could see as many people in need as possible, or would he take the time with each person needed to comfort and help them? One of my favorite quotes is "life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away"...Live in the moment, get all out of each moment that you can. You can stop and paint a landscape masterpiece that is full of revelation and expresses wonderful emotion and thought, or you can stop and take a picture. And, remember, the good photographers will capture the moment, but they may wait for hours for that right moment to occur. Slow down. I once told sister Olden the story of the happy horse. Every day, the horses would go out to pasture and at the end of the day, they would race to get back to the barn. The farmer put out oats (which they loved) and hay (which was okay). The fastest horses would get the oats. There was one horse that never got the oats, but seemed to be the happiest of all the horses. This horse was always last to get back, so even got the worst of the hay. One day the farmer followed the horse home from the pasture to see why it was so happy. He noticed that when all the other horses had gone ahead, the happy horse took a little known path through an opening in the fence that led into a small apple orchard where this horse would eat apples every day (and apples are the favorite treat for horses). All the horses were so intent on getting back, that they missed the small opening in the fence. So, would you rather have apples or oats?

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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.