Elder Zachary Andrews: FROM PH: Finding Finding

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

Sunday, March 15, 2015

FROM PH: Finding Finding

Finding, finding and finding
Sent Date: Sunday, March 15, 2015
Author: President Hansen

Dear Elders and Sisters,
Since the mission has caught finding fever, I thought I would share some of the miracles that have been taking place. I think it was Elder Halstrom who said, "faith to find means; go and find." Thanks for all your faith and hard work this week. We are teaching lots more lessons to lots more investigators and having more baptisms and confirmations. "The field is white..."

From your letters:
------we had a referral that just wanted a bible, so we took it to her and we were able to teach her the restoration. When were about done teaching I said, "don't you think it is pretty important to know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet?" and she said, "well yes". So I dropped to my knees and said, "lets pray about it" and everyone got on their knees and we went around the circle and everyone offers up their own prayer to know the truthfulness of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and when we got to the lady who was the last one to pray got done praying, we just sat there and the spirit was so strong at that point, she lifted up her head and said, "I feel the spirit" and I explained to her that was Heavenly Father testifying to her that everything we taught them was true and she was super excited!

-------This week has been really great! We found 6 new investigators... We went and sat down by a lady with a small son and then soon, she said that we actually stopped by her house months ago and that she is interested. We are seeing her this week. Then we went to a Black History Celebration with one of our investigators moms. His mom called us up to speak last minute so we were able to bear our testimony and talk about our church in front of a group during this celebration. After the celebration a lot of people came up to us and were interested in learning more. I know God is preparing those for us to teach.

------We had 19 lessons this week which is a record for both of us and it just encouraged us to be even better this week. We know we can hit 20 or more and we have the desire to do so and to find more people. I'm so excited!

------We are teaching almost a whole apartment complex which started out as us conversing with people outside their apartment. Then, they would invite their neighbors over to listen. Its awesome!

------The miracle that topped it off for me this week was counting our numbers at the end of the week. I've never been so close to accomplishing such high goals on my mission. I've never had this many progressing investigators, never seen this many people at church, never had this many people with a baptismal date, and I've never taught this many lessons. We taught 16 lessons without teaching any members and that is the most lessons I've ever taught in this area. We have even more coming as well which is so amazing and I can't believe how blessed we have been.

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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.