A Sunday in the New Orleans Garden District

On Sunday, I was invited to speak in the New Orleans 1st Branch. As background information, when a congregation is too small to fully function as a ward, then a branch is formed. The ecclesiastical leader of a Branch is referred to as a Branch President, rather than a Bishop. So we are talking about a small unit. The members worshipping in the New Orleans 1st Branch live in the uptown New Orleans area. They include students and teachers attending Tulane and Loyola Universities nearby. The chapel (also referred to as the uptown chapel) is located in the famed Garden District of New Orleans at 3616 St. Charles Avenue. You can actually see what the chapel looks like on Google Maps Street View. At or near the above address, it's the red brick building with the plain steeple as you point north .

On my speaking assignment, I invited Bro. DiMaggio to come with me. Bro. DiMaggio is an older member who has a wonderful self-effacing sense of humor, and is a delight to be with as a travelling companion. We spoke on the 6th Article of Faith having to do with church organization (similarity to the church that Christ organized while He was on the earth), and discussed the priesthood offices in the church including apostles and prophets, all the way down to the young deacons (12-13) and teachers (14-15) who passed the sacrament to the congregation. I was not too surprised to learn that about half of the congregation was made up of out-of-town visitors. Apparently, this is not too uncommon. It reminded me of our first church experience in Hawaii in the Waikiki Ward, and our experience attending the Hyde Park Ward in London. The vast majority of church members who live in the New Orleans area, are in the suburbs, especially Metairie, Kenner, and the West Bank of the Mississippi River. Within the New Orleans Stake, our Thibodaux Ward is the furthest away from New Orleans, and the more affluent Covington Ward on the North Shore of Lake Ponchartrain is the largest, certainly in active priesthood attendance.

While many associate New Orleans with Mardi Gras and the French Quarter, New Orleans has so much more to offer. Whenever we take visitors to New Orleans, we try to make a special point of taking them on St. Charles Avenue so that they get some exposure to the architecturally delightful Garden District, especially at the end of St. Charles Avenue where Audubon Park and Zoo are located. The French Quarter is a whole different experience, and has much to offer. It is like a city within a city, sort of like some of the old European cities that have a old fortified city area that is surrounded by the modern city. The best part of the French Quarter, in my view, is NOT Bourbon Street, which way too commercialized for my taste. I much prefer walking from Jackson Square down some of the other French Quarter streets like down Chartres St., returning on Royal St., taking in a few perpendicular avenues, and avoiding Bourbon Street altogether. I guess you have to do a little bit of Bourbon Street, just so you can say that you did.

After the three-hour church block, we couldn't get onto St. Charles Avenue because of a Mardi Gras parade. So we ended up taking a back street to get out. Mardi Gras parades will be coming at us fast and furious until Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) next week.