Elder Zachary Andrews: Expectation: Nothing Wasted

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, April 28, 2014

Expectation: Nothing Wasted

This week I learned a lot. I put a lot of things into practice and I saw the fruits. Saturday, we biked around all day and had so many people cancel on us. We could have easily turned around and said "Well we tried, and it's hot. So, peace out." But I wasn't going to let that happen. We biked through this huge nieghborhood where most of our Spanish work is. Nothing. So I see this street that is across the street from where we are. I realize that I have never been down this street. I turn to Elder O'Donnell and say, "Never tried that one. Let's go." We end up in an area that never really recovered from Katrina. It is all over grown; the houses are all destroyed. We bike around and I am just expecting to look at a house with like a halo over it with angels around singing "Elder Andrews this is the house with a family that needs your help!" Maybe I am just like a character in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific as they sing:

I have heard people rant and rave and bellow

That we’re done and we might as well be dead,

But I’m only a cockeyed optimist

And I can’t get it into my head

(I can't figure out how to make this stupid thing to stop with this stupid indent) Anyway so nothing like that happens but we bike to the end of the street and it ends up really close to Armondo's house so we decide that we are going to try to see a less active who is very much anti. But on the way the assistants call us so we have to stop and talk to them for a while. By the time we where done with that it was like 8:45 so we had to start heading home. But we decide to take sort of a wierd path home. We are biking down this street and all of the sudden this car, that was heading towards us, slams on his brakes then this guy jumps out and runs towards my comp. Turns out he is a member that has been searching for the church for 5 months. He just got here from Honduras and has been looking for members. If that day had gone any differently we would have missed him. If we would have had one appointment work out. If we would not have gotten lost. Everything that happened that day was God guiding us to get into contact with our dear friend Raephele. Nothing is wasted when you are serving the Lord. Nothing. Everything you do is completely managed by the Lord. You are not his tool but his instrument. You have the power to help him in so many different ways it is amazing.

Anyway love y'all, Let me know it there is anything I can do for you.

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.