Elder Zachary Andrews: Miracle

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

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Miracle

This week was awesome. We had an awesome experience; we decided to call a family and the wife answered, I guess that that was weird for her cause she never answers numbers she doesn't know. But anyway she tells us that she is having trouble with her pregnancy and that the baby is struggling. We ask her if we can come over and give her a blessing she says yes, so we went over there and gave her a blessing. Funny story about that, I did the anointing and then Elder Herbert and I put our hand on her head to give her the blessing. Then her husband puts his hands on top of her head too because we are dumb and didn't explain in well enough. So I am stunned but trying not to laugh or let it distract Elder Herbert. We just let him chill and about halfway through the blessing he took his hands off but it was funny. We called them later that week and come to find out that the baby is fine! The doctor said it was a miracle!! We later taught them the best lesson EVER and we are going back today and going to commit them to baptism. They are so prepared.

I am working really hard to be a good district leader. All the numbers and logistics are easy but it is hard to become friends quickly with those in my district. I am like a degree, it takes a while to get but after you have it, it is there supporting you forever. I am trying to speed the process up in the most appropriate way possible.

Church is fun, I lead the music, gave a talk, went to PEC and branch conference, taught a class and then we ditched halfway through priesthood so we could go with a member to Lafayette so he could have and interview with the stake president for the Priesthood. Crazy. After that we had the best lesson of my life.

We live in the white apartments [on Google maps] apartment #7. We know all the Hispanics who live around us which makes it feel like home. There are a lot of bugs here but they have these trucks that drive around the streets at night spraying crap into the air to kill them. Our new mission president comes early next month.

While we were teaching this family, I was reminded of how little of the teaching is really us. Right now I could not tell you what we taught them only that is was awesome and they had some killer questions. We are just the way that the message got there. Nothing more.

Love ya'll

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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.