Manti Pageant

Dear Family and Friends,

Honestly I am somewhat embarrased that I haven't posted about the Manti Pageant yet. It is one of the biggest wittnessing opportunities off the summer, and it is going on right now.
The Manti Pageant is a play put on by the LDS church depicting the history of the church, as well as exerpts from The Book of Mormon. The Pageant is held on the side of a large hill with outside seating, and the Manti Temple as a back drop. Thousands of LDS people show up each night to watch the Pageant, which is why it is such a great place to challege people to dive in and study what they believe.
We begin by eating dinner togather at the Thompson's house, and then spend sometime in prayer. After this we head for Manti and gather on the street beside the temple grounds(it's blocked so only pedestrians can get through) circle and worship for a while. Next comes more prayer in small groups, and then we head out ready to share God's love and truth with people. I am hoping to get some pictures to help explain this better. Anyways we just strike up conversations with people and let God work. It is so amazing to see God to set up divine apointments over and over again. God is so good! Amen. For LDS people prayer and worship are almost foreign. They do it, but when they pray it is almost like they are leaving a message on a recording machine to God. They don't know Jesus. From what I can tell talking to some of the former Mormons, it blows LDS peoples minds that we would be praying for them and that we worship God like we do and that when we pray it is like we really know who Jesus is. Many LDS people have a love for God, but they don't know him, because they are lied to. Please we need your prayer's for these people. They are opressed by the laws and ordanices forced on them. Their prophets have taken grace and twisted it to mean something totaly diffrent than the true meaning, which is a free gift from God. Grace you have to earn is no grace at all. Anyways I will try to keep you all updated more often.

Thanks

The Salt Lake Temple Grounds vs. The Former Mormons

Dear family and freinds, this weekend was busy(actually by now it was the weekend before last)

After the compassionate boldness conference some of the former Mormons wanted to go up to temple square in Salt Lake City. This really took some courage on their part, coming out of the LDS church is very hard emotionally. There was one particular reason why they wanted to go, in the museum in the childrens room there is a life size pentagram for the kids to play with, also there are little pentagrams for the children to color. The former Mormons wanted to see it for themselves. I have a suspesion that that was not the only reason they wanted to go but that was our mission, to see the pentagram.

We did see the pentagram, but somehow we got in to conversations with some of the missionaries(LDS missionaries) there. Some of my friends talked to a guy missionary(missiariy A) for a long while. I was with two former Mormons who had to walk out because they were so frustrated at missionaires B and C. I walked out with them, but I went back in to get the others. As soon as I get in the doors missionaries B and C who we had been talking to started talking to me again. An hour and a half later I get a phone call from my friend Gareth telling me we needed to go. I had been talking with B and Cfor over an hour, I didn't even realize it. It was pretty amazing out God set that up.

So I headed back for the front of the building. All my friends were outside, evidently missionary A had followed them out. The conversation seemed a bit heated and emotional so I stayed back. After a couple of minutes missionary B who I had been talking to came out, like they were leaving from work, but stopped. My assumption is that God had been working on missionary B's heart before we even got there. Missionary B seemed to want to listen, intruiged. One of my friends who is a former Mormon began talking with missionary B. Missionary B seemed unseltted about the pentagrams as well, also the way Missionary A acted embarresed missinary B. At the very end missionary B just kinda broke down. We really hadn't talked about much but God was bringing her to a place of brokeness, so that she could understand His gift to her.

GOD IS SO AWESOME

Compassionate Boldness Conference

Hello again, to all my friends and family.
The Compassionate Boldness Conference was this weekend. What is the Compassionate Boldness Conference you may be asking yourself ( or maybe not, but I will tell you anyways). The Compassionate Boldness Conference was a conference whose goal was to show how someone could share the gospel to their Mormon friends with compassionate boldness, hence the name. "With compassion" means sharing from the heart. If we are not sharing Christ because we love someone then we are motivated by the wrong reasons. This is especially hard when sharing your faith with a LDS person. If you are not careful it can very easily turn into an intellectual exercise. But, compassion was only one part of what this conference was about. Boldness is another key part. This boldness should stem fourth from your compassion. This is very applicable to sharing your faith with anyone.
It seems in toady's world, sharing your faith or conflict at all is viewed as insensitive and insulting. During the conference this view of just focusing on things you agree on was compared with a friendship. If you tell someone that they can only talk about things that you agree with and that won't offend you, you will have a very very shallow relationship. But, if someone was really your friend and you cared about them then you would be able to talk about anything with them. In other words to apply this concept we need to view the big picture. If I were lost, and you had something that could save me, why would it matter if I might be offended if you told me about it. I am not saying we should just tell people whatever we feel like, what I am saying is that it is very important that we talk to people. Again both compassion and boldness are needed. With out boldness we will never open our mouths, and with out compassion we will most likely open our mouths too much. Our goal is to be able to approach and challenge people on their beliefs and still be able to shake hands and even be friends after the conversation.
The concept of compassion is illustrated by Paul who reveals his heart about his people, who are the Jews, in Romans 9 and 10, for example Romans 10:1-3. Unfortunately this verse is very accurate in describing the Mormon beliefs, which is ultimately based on works. They have a zeal for God, but have been lied to.
All in all this conference was very successful. It has been a long time coming. There seems to be a split in opinions on how to witness to Mormon and even if we should witness, I believe this conference will bring more unity to the Christian church in Utah.

Thanks