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

Saturday, April 18, 2015

FROM PH: Bad Week for Numbers

Ouch! Bad week for numbers
Sent Date:  Saturday, April 18, 2015
Author:  President Hansen

Dear Mission Leaders,
It was so great to see all of you in zone conferences over the last two weeks.  I know the mission is really going to have great success with all the great things we have learned lately. We have had a couple of slow weeks after the great surge forward we have been enjoying. I think that the rainy weather and the flu that has been going around have slowed our progress. We need to make sure that all of our missionaries are not allowing little things to keep them from the work. I have heard from many who said they were not able to get out because of the rain. Help them to accomplish more, get rides, etc.  and not be stopped by small things. Also, I know that a lot of times missionaries choose service over teaching and finding. The best service we can do is to teach the doctrine of Christ.

How can we as leaders motivate our missionaries to more faithfully serve Heavenly Father? We need to set a vision of what can be done. Goals for our districts and zones that each missionary can get behind so that we are constantly finding, teaching, baptizing, activating and reactivating. Let's get our missionaries behind a program of finding daily, teaching daily and working with our ward members.
The goal the matters most to me right now is the three daily contacts with people we pass by. If we can get every missionary to do this every day the area will blossom.

All my love,
President Hansen

------(Companion) and I decided to take a faith walk. It took us 7.5 hours just to walk one block. We talked to everyone and anyone. We even helped someone move out! We had more contacts that day than we have had in a whole week! So many in fact that we lost track. Because of the Faith walk and the help of the Lord, our schedule for this week is full with return appointments.

------We have also committed 4 different people to baptism this past week on the first lessons. They all said yes!

------we were going to make proselyting Monday as productive as we possibly could ... and it was one of the best days of my whole mission! We taught so much!! We set high goals and we promised ourselves as a companionship that we would hit all of them. We hit our 5 other lessons but we weren't quite sure how we were going to get a lesson with a member present so we prayed and Elder _____ has the idea that we should go and visit one of the less actives that we are working with that lives in a big apartment complex and ask who we could go and teach with him, and he had a lady so we went and talked to her he testified and (he)said the closing prayer and said after that he will come back to church Sunday! It really was amazing!!

------This past week we have contacted so many new people and have so many new investigators! Experiences that used to be far and few between and considered huge miracles now happen daily! We are meeting so many people who are interested in the gospel and I'll be leaving at least half a dozen new investigators and several potential investigators when I leave.

------My branch president in the MTC told us something to the effect of "if you're an average missionary, your mission will be difficult. If you strive to be an excellent missionary, it will become much easier."

Monday, April 13, 2015

8 Weeks Left!

I am good! It is crazy that I only have 8 weeks left.  I am almost home.  It is crazy! Anyway I am kinda freaking out that I only have 8 weeks.  That is crazy. Then I will be home to go to Saint George with y'all and actually participate in these exciting stories that you send me each week. I am pretty excited, some days more than others but still. I will not let it become the senioritis that I had in high school but the feeling is still there.

My life is good.  Really boring and annoying but good none-the-less. The Zone is completely different because it has fewer people and way more space. So we are just trying to make it work.  I do have to say that it is WAY better like this. Fewer missionaries on top of each other pissing each other off.  I like it.  There are still some missionaries who don't work as hard as I know they can.  Nevertheless, I try to stand up for them.

Life is good, really good. This is the first Pday in a long time that I am not stressed or annoyed. So that's something. Love ya.

Letter from a Sister Missionary (She loves Zach)

Tomorrow is transfers, the last one we will be attending. We are losing one of our favorite Sisters and One of our favorite Elders [Zachary] which is very hard no matter how many times we watch it happen. It does not become easier. We spend a lot of time with these young people and we do get very attached and they are like our own children. We only want the best for them as they move to another area and we hope that they are put with wonderful companions and they enjoy their new area. We will miss them both and pray for their success. Love you both, Sister Keller

General Conference and What's Next

April 6

General Conference was so amazing...except for that one part.. The messages were so inspiring. I loved it all. One thing that I learned and thought was amazingly relevant in my life right now was the call to raise the bar for young single adults. Man it seems like they always raise the bar right before I get to that stage. Anyway some of my favorite talks talked about the Atonement. The Atonement is something that I have really grown to appreciate. I have learned an appreciation for my Savior that nothing will ever take away from me. I am so grateful for the chance I have to repent it is so amazing cause I make so many mistakes. SO MANY. But just like in the story that Elder Holland told we jump and he catches us all we have to do is be brave and take the only option left to us JUMP!

This week is good I went on two exchanges, one with Elder McMurry from Houma.  We had some good times walking around talking to people.  I really learned a lot from him. We talked to this one guy who was super interested but of course he lived in a different area so those missionaries get a referral. Golden Referral might I add. Then right after that we started an exchange with Morgan City so Elder Page and I got to work together and that was awesome. Life is so awesome.  The church is so true. I just hope I can use the Atonement everyday for the rest of my life. The desire of my heart is to follow the words of the Prophets and Apostles, Cause despite what others think THEY ARE CALLED OF GOD! How awesome is it that we have someone with the authority to say "Thus saith the LORD" best thing a dumb kid from Draper, Utah could ask for.

Love ya,
 
Elder Andrews
 
 
P.S.  What is something I learned in conference?  Well if I am going to be honest the Brethren did not help with the trunkiness.  All Saturday was get married, go home get married, go home get married... dang...I guess I've got to get married. Also I am so sick of people picking at all the things I do wrong. But I guess I just have to be better.

Weird Stuff


March 30, 2015

Spanish Zone!

March 23

So exciting news we are creating a Spanish Zone! I have been talking about it for about 6 months and then we talked about it with the APs the last couple of days and we are creating the Spanish Zone! I am so excited, Morgan City and The West bank are in my zone.  So are all my old areas I can go and visit. This transfer has just changed a ton so yeah, this is weird. But I am excited.

I really like my companion.  He is really cool. He is fun and actually he reminds me a lot of Elder Vaughn. anyway I really like him; he is nice. We are friends for sure. I don't know what do you want to know

Also I'm starting to worry about college.  Can you check my status and make sure I'm all ready for fall?

Transfers and Philosophy

March 17

The sisters are getting transferred.  I don't know where they are going.  They don't leave till tomorrow. They called me at 1230 last night about a cockroach in their apartment. They wanted us to drive across town to go and kill it. I was not happy and when I declined they were pretty upset.

I don't care where I get transferred or if I stayed. I will do what the lord wants but I am kind of am tired of the leadership minutia. But that is probably the lesson I have to learn so I guess I'll learn it.

I am going to learn my lessons through the constant stream of mistakes that I make. I feel the same way, always a different shade of the same problem. I am feeling it. I am trying to please everyone. I know some of the lessons I have to learn, and I have been taught them before, but I haven't learned them yet. That is how we are. Slow learners I have to be taught again and again until something clicks. I am waiting for the click in my life right now. But that is how it has always been for me especially in middle school. Just struggling through till it clicks. It's rough, really rough. But it is what turns coal into diamonds. There is a Mormon Message about that called Refiners Fire. Lots of missionaries get in the fire with a hard companion or area or whatever. They complain and ask to get moved and then President moves them and they miss out on what they could have been. But then there are some times that we are completely over our head and can do nothing but drown. That doesn't mean that the task isn't worth, it just means we need a different plan of attack. And as long as we keep all options open then the Lord tells us which one. Sorry I don't have any answers just mindless philosophy.

Love ya

Friday, April 10, 2015

FROM PH: 7 Minute Lessons

7 minute lessons
Sent Date:  Monday, April 13, 2015
Author:  President Hansen

Dear Elders and Sisters,
We have really enjoyed seeing most of you so (two more zone conferences this week) far in the last couple of weeks. I love what is happening in the mission with the shorter lessons. Remember, It is not about making the lessons shorter or about using the pamphlets to teach, it is really about having the investigators do the teaching. That is a trick that most of the missionaries have not quite mastered. Let's keep working on it in your companion study. In the lessons I have witnessed over the last two weeks, every time the missionary starts to explain the investigator checks out and you can see his or her interest level wain.

Never the less, this is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I was with the Eunice missionaries on Saturday and watched a man who said he was not interested go to a commitment to be baptized in about 4 minutes. It was awesome.

Here are some letters you will enjoy:
------…and we just didn't have a good feeling. So we came out to this main road where a lot of people could see us. And so we cut back on another street and we had a great feeling of peace. And we were walking down and there was a guy sitting on his porch with his head down. So we headed over to him to contact him. And we started to talk to him about what we do and also started talking about the gospel. We started to teach the way that the mission department taught us to teach, and it was amazing. I have never had a more powerful lesson in my entire mission. He said that if he knew it was true for himself he would be baptized by someone holding this authority. We asked him to pray about what we had taught. And after his prayer he just kind of sat there and looked at us. He looked up and said, "You guys are the angels that I have been praying for, to help me out and guide my life."

------I absolutely loved what Brother Donaldson said about baptism and the temple. He said when we are baptized we covenant that "we are willing to take upon us the name of Christ or in other words, willing to make covenants with God. When we get a temple recommend, we are saying that we are doing those things that we had said we were willing to do at baptism". Never thought of it like that before. There is much, much more that I learned.

------We had a first lesson on Friday with a members referral. It was only about 15 minutes or so and she not only just prayed, but she accepted to be baptized! She had her prayer answered and she said she felt very peaceful. We have taught her once since then and did the Book of Mormon approach that we learned with helping her understand and learn the wording. She committed to read the whole thing in 2 weeks! She said that was the goal she wanted to make. I know this new teaching method is going to work. I am excited about it!

------Sarah got baptized last December. She use to say I don't believe in love, or I am lost at sea and I feel like I'm lost in darkness. Once the Light of Christ Brightened in her she realized God loved her and he rescued her from her never ending darkness. God and Jesus Christ are always there for us we just have to call out to them for help and look for the light in the distance. Sarah told me Sunday, I never knew God loved me this much, I feel him in my life, and I feel like since joining the Church, blessings have poured down from Heaven.

------We showed them all of the pictures and asked them what they (thought) and it really helped make it more of an awesome learning discussion than us just talking at them. In fact she said, "I feel like I am doing most of the talking here" the spirit could be felt really strong and she committed herself and her grandson to come to church and test it out. They also committed to pray and to read the Book of Mormon. It was an awesome experience. We also testified that President Monson was the modern day prophet of the whole world and she just couldn't believe that, and it was one of the most special moments on my mission when I got to look her in the eyes and say that I love and sustain him and know that he is God's prophet on the earth today. I love being a missionary!!

Monday, April 6, 2015

Amazing General Conference

Weekly Letter - 06 Apr 2015
Sent Date:  Monday, April 6, 2015
Author:  Andrews, Zachary Jacob

General Conference was so amazing.... except for that one part.. The messages were so inspiring. I loved it all. One thing that I learned and thought was amazingly relevant in my life right now was the call to raise the bar for young single adults. Man it seems like they always raise the bar right before i get to that stage. Anyway some of my favorite talks talked about the Atonement. The Atonement is something that i have really grown to appreciate. I have learn an appreciation for my Savior that nothing will ever take away from me. I am so grateful for the chance i have to repent it is so amazing cause i make so many mistakes. SO MANY. But just like in the story that Elder Holand told we jump and he catches us all we have to do is be brave and take the only option left to us JUMP!

This week is good I went on two exchanges, one with Elder Mcmurry from Houma we had some good times walking around talking to people I really learned a lot from him. The exchange was really effective cause he didn't feel like he could tell his Zone Leaders anything and I had the opportunity to say "No i am here for you to help you to support you." We talked to this one guy that was super interested but of course he lived in a different area so those missionaries got a referral. Golden Refferal might i add. Then right after that we started an exchange with Morgan City so Elder Page and i got to work together and that was awesome. Elder Page is an amazing missionary one of the best in the mission and his work with Elder Karn is amazing he has helped him so much. It is astonishing to me the good he has brought about in that Elders life.  Life is so awesome church is so true. I just hope i can use the Atonement everyday for the rest of my life. The desire of my heart is to follow the words of the Prophets and Apostles, Cause despite what others think THEY ARE CALLED OF GOD! How awesome is it that we have someone with the authority to say "Thus saith the LORD" best thing a dumb kid from Draper Utah could ask for.

Love ya,
Elder Andrews

PS I took care of the Clerks office issue. I talked to President Garcia about it and he just said missionaries are not allowed in the clerks office so there.  I will see who has the keys and ask them to return them to their bishop or Branch President.

Thank you so much for all that you do. Let me know how I can help you.

Sent Date:  Friday, April 10, 2015
Author:  President Hansen
Thanks.