Today we did not go to Salt Lake, as was previously mentioned in the last post. In fact, we had quite a busy night last night, and this morning (: After my last post, our little foursome headed to the "Megaplex 13," which has a mega lobby, and a small auditorium for our showing. We arrived at 10:11 p.m. (our movie started at 10:20) and were the first ones there, until we were later joined by two or three other couples. We saw "Despicable Me" which is super cute and quite funny also. If you ever need a nice, kid-friendly movie to see, try this one! We got out of the theaters at about ten after midnight and headed home, where a few of us stayed up and blogged or read, and the rest of us went to bed.
After getting ready for the day, our team left the Big Blue House at around 11:00 a.m. and headed to Temple Square. Originally the plan was to take a quick visit to the Genealogy Library (which was closed on Saturday because of Pioneer Day!) and a gift shop within walking distance of the Square. But as the day wore on, we found ourselves in a movie theater of one of their visitors' centers watching a movie titled, "The Testaments: Of One Fold and One Shepherd" and talking with some of the missionaries afterward. Once we finished talking with the two women, we continued on with some of the exhibits, where we talked with two more "sets" of missionaries, one pair with all four of us, and the other "set" was just with myself.
I was so excited to have this opportunity to speak with the two ladies. We began talking about why it's so important to know the "truth" because that is what determines where you go when you die. If you believe in the one true God of the Bible (John 14:6) then you will go to heaven. If not, then you will be eternally separated from Him. Mormons believe that baptism allows for the dead to have another chance to accept Christ if they choose not to in their "first life." As Christians, we know that this life is the only one we have, and therefore we only have one chance to accept or reject Christ. In response, one of the ladies said, "Well we believe that God will have mercy and compassion on those who haven't had the opportunity to know Him." I countered this statement by saying, "Well then how do you explain the passage that says, 'The heavens declare the glory of the Lord.' Every person has some sort of knowledge about God, whether its in the nature around them, or their own conscience." So the two sisters and I talked about this for a while and then moved on to defining who Jesus Christ is. Like us, they believe He is the Son of God who came and died to save sinners. But, as one of the women pointed out, they "have a hard time simply trusting in something, without having to do something." We then talked about salvation, and how one is saved. Again, they also believe we are saved by grace through faith, but Mormons also add that we must do works to help compensate for our sins. As one of the sisters told me, "I feel guilty if I do not do good things. I feel like I owe Him for what He did." Two things wrong with this statement. One is that her works and motivations are based on feelings and emotions. As we know, this is not a good reason to do anything. If we are angry, we should not act upon that feeling right? Anyways, then I said, "Well how does grace fit into your idea of working to obtain God's favor? Because as we know in Isaiah, it says that even on our 'good days' our righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6)." And she was somewhat unresponsive to that question, so I asked her to define what grace means to her. She replied honestly with, "I haven't come across a good definition of grace" so I asked, "May I show you a really good one?" And she was very eager so I pulled out my Bible and turned to Ephesians 2:8-9 and asked her to read what it said. After reading it, we talked some more about grace and how we cannot earn it or lose it, but Christ is the One who gives it. I also read to her and briefly explained Philippians 3:6-9 (specifically verse 9), as we slowly brought our conversation to a close on some other points.
I hope that I was able, by the Lord's grace, to plant a seed in the two ladies' hearts, and that the Lord would, in His perfect timing, save the two ladies' souls by revealing what the truth really is. And you can pray too! Pray for their souls, that their heart will be unveiled from the darkness and shown the light of His mercy and grace.
Anyways, after spending some time with those two ladies, we continued on in the exhibit and then headed to the observation deck, located on the 26th floor of the LDS Administrative offices. We had amazing views of two sides of the entire deck, and found out where their current "prophet" lives, as well as where Brigham Young is buried, and where one of their "apostles" lives. And aside from all that, the view was absolutely stunning. What a great way to look at God's creation!
After we left the observation deck, we headed to the temple. Unlike Saturday where all the gates within a ten-foot radius of the doors were closed and locked, we got to take a picture in front of the doors and take a look at the "viewing room" for all Non-Mormon visitors. Then, it started to rain. It started with a mist, on our way from the LDS Admin. headquarters to the temple. Then it became a little bit stronger, and soon we found ourselves taking shelter under a tree next to an elder of the LDS church. He was very friendly, and how strongly I wanted to scream the Gospel to him!
When the rain let up, we walked past the temple and across the street to the LDS Church History Library and Archives. We arrived just as the last tour was on their way out, but this nice elderly man who was also an elder of the church gave us a tour of the lobby and then allowed us to go inside the library portion of the building. He was very sweet, and how much my heart wants to see the truth reach him! You can pray for him! His first name is Herb, so pray!
I stepped inside the main library portion of the building, and immediately found this book using Scripture to "back up" every aspect of the Mormon religion. It is shocking to see how these writers and people take Scripture out of context to use it to fit their needs! I know that sounds elementary but it's true! The simplest things become so distorted that it loses it's truth to people who need it so much!
Anyways, after we left the library, we went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner, which was an interesting experience for me. Let's just say it involved a chicken salad sandwich and a bug. (: After dinner, we grabbed cookie dough and ice cream from Smith's (the Mormon's version of Ralph's) and headed home to make pazookies and cookie ice cream sandwiches. Yum!
Then Russ came by and we had a sort of "debriefing" of this past week out in the backyard. He started out the conversation by asking each of us to sum up the past few days with one word of our choosing, and the one word that came up most often was "opportunity/potential." I mean, this entire state was founded for Mormonism, making EVERYONE here an opportunity for Christ. Then we came inside and watched a short documentary about Mormonism and Christianity called "Religion and Redemption." Right now it's only a five minute video, but a full-length movie is in the works, and you can check out the short clip here. So exciting!
After the movie, we prayed for each other and for the work we've done these past few days. Such a sweet and encouraging time of uplifting different needs to God and looking forward to seeing in what ways He will answer them. As we were praying, I kept thinking about Romans 10 and Isaiah 55:11. He who promised is faithful, so looking forward to what's ahead!
This will probably my last blog post from Utah, as our group leaves tomorrow :( But another team is coming (around midnight?) from Iowa to fix the roof on the Big Blue House and do other work here, so yay! I hope to come back and pick up where we are leaving off. But there's still stuff to do! Please continue to pray for those we have been talking to and praying for! Pray they will come to know the truth about Jesus Christ, and repent and put their full faith in Him! Also pray for Utah Partnerships For Christ or UPFC. Their work is ongoing, and sustained in part by prayer! So please, keep praying! Also, pray for us. Yes, we are going back home to California, but there's so many opportunities even there! In school, work, at the grocery store, etc. Our work for Him is not done! Pray that we would continually speak the truth boldly and in love.
Enjoying the spiritual blessings He has blessed us with,
Em
P.S.
Don't forget to keep checking the blog for a ton of pictures that will be posted soon!
After getting ready for the day, our team left the Big Blue House at around 11:00 a.m. and headed to Temple Square. Originally the plan was to take a quick visit to the Genealogy Library (which was closed on Saturday because of Pioneer Day!) and a gift shop within walking distance of the Square. But as the day wore on, we found ourselves in a movie theater of one of their visitors' centers watching a movie titled, "The Testaments: Of One Fold and One Shepherd" and talking with some of the missionaries afterward. Once we finished talking with the two women, we continued on with some of the exhibits, where we talked with two more "sets" of missionaries, one pair with all four of us, and the other "set" was just with myself.
I was so excited to have this opportunity to speak with the two ladies. We began talking about why it's so important to know the "truth" because that is what determines where you go when you die. If you believe in the one true God of the Bible (John 14:6) then you will go to heaven. If not, then you will be eternally separated from Him. Mormons believe that baptism allows for the dead to have another chance to accept Christ if they choose not to in their "first life." As Christians, we know that this life is the only one we have, and therefore we only have one chance to accept or reject Christ. In response, one of the ladies said, "Well we believe that God will have mercy and compassion on those who haven't had the opportunity to know Him." I countered this statement by saying, "Well then how do you explain the passage that says, 'The heavens declare the glory of the Lord.' Every person has some sort of knowledge about God, whether its in the nature around them, or their own conscience." So the two sisters and I talked about this for a while and then moved on to defining who Jesus Christ is. Like us, they believe He is the Son of God who came and died to save sinners. But, as one of the women pointed out, they "have a hard time simply trusting in something, without having to do something." We then talked about salvation, and how one is saved. Again, they also believe we are saved by grace through faith, but Mormons also add that we must do works to help compensate for our sins. As one of the sisters told me, "I feel guilty if I do not do good things. I feel like I owe Him for what He did." Two things wrong with this statement. One is that her works and motivations are based on feelings and emotions. As we know, this is not a good reason to do anything. If we are angry, we should not act upon that feeling right? Anyways, then I said, "Well how does grace fit into your idea of working to obtain God's favor? Because as we know in Isaiah, it says that even on our 'good days' our righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6)." And she was somewhat unresponsive to that question, so I asked her to define what grace means to her. She replied honestly with, "I haven't come across a good definition of grace" so I asked, "May I show you a really good one?" And she was very eager so I pulled out my Bible and turned to Ephesians 2:8-9 and asked her to read what it said. After reading it, we talked some more about grace and how we cannot earn it or lose it, but Christ is the One who gives it. I also read to her and briefly explained Philippians 3:6-9 (specifically verse 9), as we slowly brought our conversation to a close on some other points.
I hope that I was able, by the Lord's grace, to plant a seed in the two ladies' hearts, and that the Lord would, in His perfect timing, save the two ladies' souls by revealing what the truth really is. And you can pray too! Pray for their souls, that their heart will be unveiled from the darkness and shown the light of His mercy and grace.
Anyways, after spending some time with those two ladies, we continued on in the exhibit and then headed to the observation deck, located on the 26th floor of the LDS Administrative offices. We had amazing views of two sides of the entire deck, and found out where their current "prophet" lives, as well as where Brigham Young is buried, and where one of their "apostles" lives. And aside from all that, the view was absolutely stunning. What a great way to look at God's creation!
After we left the observation deck, we headed to the temple. Unlike Saturday where all the gates within a ten-foot radius of the doors were closed and locked, we got to take a picture in front of the doors and take a look at the "viewing room" for all Non-Mormon visitors. Then, it started to rain. It started with a mist, on our way from the LDS Admin. headquarters to the temple. Then it became a little bit stronger, and soon we found ourselves taking shelter under a tree next to an elder of the LDS church. He was very friendly, and how strongly I wanted to scream the Gospel to him!
When the rain let up, we walked past the temple and across the street to the LDS Church History Library and Archives. We arrived just as the last tour was on their way out, but this nice elderly man who was also an elder of the church gave us a tour of the lobby and then allowed us to go inside the library portion of the building. He was very sweet, and how much my heart wants to see the truth reach him! You can pray for him! His first name is Herb, so pray!
I stepped inside the main library portion of the building, and immediately found this book using Scripture to "back up" every aspect of the Mormon religion. It is shocking to see how these writers and people take Scripture out of context to use it to fit their needs! I know that sounds elementary but it's true! The simplest things become so distorted that it loses it's truth to people who need it so much!
Anyways, after we left the library, we went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner, which was an interesting experience for me. Let's just say it involved a chicken salad sandwich and a bug. (: After dinner, we grabbed cookie dough and ice cream from Smith's (the Mormon's version of Ralph's) and headed home to make pazookies and cookie ice cream sandwiches. Yum!
Then Russ came by and we had a sort of "debriefing" of this past week out in the backyard. He started out the conversation by asking each of us to sum up the past few days with one word of our choosing, and the one word that came up most often was "opportunity/potential." I mean, this entire state was founded for Mormonism, making EVERYONE here an opportunity for Christ. Then we came inside and watched a short documentary about Mormonism and Christianity called "Religion and Redemption." Right now it's only a five minute video, but a full-length movie is in the works, and you can check out the short clip here. So exciting!
After the movie, we prayed for each other and for the work we've done these past few days. Such a sweet and encouraging time of uplifting different needs to God and looking forward to seeing in what ways He will answer them. As we were praying, I kept thinking about Romans 10 and Isaiah 55:11. He who promised is faithful, so looking forward to what's ahead!
This will probably my last blog post from Utah, as our group leaves tomorrow :( But another team is coming (around midnight?) from Iowa to fix the roof on the Big Blue House and do other work here, so yay! I hope to come back and pick up where we are leaving off. But there's still stuff to do! Please continue to pray for those we have been talking to and praying for! Pray they will come to know the truth about Jesus Christ, and repent and put their full faith in Him! Also pray for Utah Partnerships For Christ or UPFC. Their work is ongoing, and sustained in part by prayer! So please, keep praying! Also, pray for us. Yes, we are going back home to California, but there's so many opportunities even there! In school, work, at the grocery store, etc. Our work for Him is not done! Pray that we would continually speak the truth boldly and in love.
Enjoying the spiritual blessings He has blessed us with,
Em
P.S.
Don't forget to keep checking the blog for a ton of pictures that will be posted soon!
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