Elder Zachary Andrews: Nativity and Sacrament

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, December 22, 2014

Nativity and Sacrament

Dec 16 at 11:00 AM

Elder Drollinger is leaving. That is sad, but I'll make it work. This week was good, Angie is going to get baptized on Saturday and I am super excited for her and for the amazing step that she is taking. We have been working really hard with her and Donal, her husband, to help him to be advanced to a Priest and then next month to be an Elder.

I have been studying the Nativity lately and I have learned a lot of things. I love the thinking of Mary and Joseph looking for some place to stay. They are walking around looking for some place to stay. Every place that they go is closed just imagine what they where thinking about the throng of people before them I imagine it was something like this: "You don't understand. Today is the most important day that has happened up to this point, Today the Savior of the WORLD comes, your Savior and your Savior, when you get to heaven you are going to wish you had let us in." Something like that, looking at the people thinking when they realize the chance they missed they are going to regret it. But Mary and Joseph, the faithful parents push on and finally find a place to stay. In a stable, not that weird of a place mind you. They found it they made it. There is some many more symbolic things there. That is just a little thing that struck me.

Just really quickly I want to testify of the importance of the Sacrament. I love the opportunity that I have to partake every week I look at it like a Checkpoint. I never understood the importance of it before my mission but I love it so much. The opportunity we have to have an accountablility with the Lord every week and see what we did well, what things we can do better then set goals and do them.

This week I was struggling hard core. I was praying really earnestly during sacrament, which is last hour, and after I took the sacrament I was ready. I was ready to do the things that I was going to be asked to do. I still feel the power that it brought into my life right now. It is one of the best assets that we have and it is so horrible that I was lax in my efforts to partake before my mission. Now I know why we take it. I know that it is important. I testify to all of you that if you worthly partake of the sacrament each week there will be nothing that week that you cannot over come. And even if you fall all the more reason to take it the next week and try again.

Love you. Thanks so much for everything. I feel the strength that your prayers give me.

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.