Utah Trip Spring Break 2008

Dear Family and Friends,
This past spring break I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Ephraim, Utah. The focus of our trip was to minister to the LDS people in that area. We partnered with Chip and Jamie Thompson and spent most of our time at the Solid Rock Cafe and around the Snow College campus. Some of you supported me with prayer and some financially and I thank you. I always try to explain how my trip was but I it ends up taking a hour so I decided to write it out for all of you.
The goal of our trip was to get a feel for what mormon culture is like and making as many personal connections as possible. Of course in one week it was hard to make any lasting connects but all 18 of us did make an impact on the LDS in the area. Basically we spend a lot of time this semester getting a base knowledge of what exactly the mormons believe. I knew a little, but in our training meetings I felt like it was almost too much information at once to cover. Imagine a people group that believes in polytheism and the idea that as man is, god was, and as god is, man may become. A people group that have the idea that an individual can perfect themselves and one day become god of their own planet and have sex eternally with their multiple wives and rule over their world. Sounds like an eastern religion or scientology? It's actually Mormonism and the heartland of Mormonism is here in America. The Church of Jesus Christ and Later Day Saints (LDS) tries to sneak past the worlds radar by trying to take the guise of another Christian denomination. I will tell you now do not be fooled. Deception is the weapon of the LDS and on the outward appearance and in shallow conversation a mormon may appear Christian, but do not be fooled. Underneath its guise it is a total perversion of Christianity and its roots reach in to every aspect of an LDS person's life. Satan has pulled the wool over America's eyes and hid one of his biggest strongholds right here in our own country. Anyways on to the trip.
We left on friday the 8th at 11:30 I believe and arrived on saturday at 5 or so in Ephraim, Utah. We stayed at the Solid Rock Cafe. The cafe is kinda ironic since mormons are forbidden to have hot drinks and caffeine. So the cafe is the forbidden fruit for the mormons (it also sells food). The upstairs is a college house (dorm) for the men and the apartment above the garage is the women's dorm. Most of the team stayed there but I slept on a couch in the cafe (there were warm blankets there). Saturday night we ate and went to bed. Sunday we got up and went to Ephraim church of the Bible. The church is the only church for a good 100 miles (mormon churches are called wards so they don't count and their a cult) or so and is non denomination and is made up of mostly XMA's (X Mormons Anonymous). So we went there and some of the team members lead worship and meet some of the converts. It was a good time of fellowship with them. After church we had free time until dinner. For the first part of free time I loaded my weapons (marking places in my Bible and in my book of mormon did that some before the trip too) and then me and Gareth (my roommate) decided to go sledding so we took along some of the guys in the 15 passenger van. Gareth had spent the summer before up here so he knew a spot so we drove there. Basically we tried to drive a 15 passenger van up a snowy trail in the mountains. This didn't go well. We got the van stuck, so we left it. After an hour or so a guy came back from snowmobiling and tried to come down the mountain. He tried to go around us but got stuck, so we all ran over there and tried to help him out. I had the idea of getting in the van and pulling him out. The van was stuck but could still roll downhill. So I tried to get to a point where I could pull him but every time I tried to get close I slid back down the hill. Eventually I just slid all the way down the hill. So the poor guy called his buddy and the 5 of us tried to dig him out. Anyways he got out but we did get to talk to him and invite him to the cafe. That night two of the XMAs came over and shared their story of how they got out of the church. Basically throughout our training we are told to ask the LDS questions about what they believe since what they believe seriously doesn't make any logical sense. Basically these people have been brainwashed about what they believe. They have the Bible but they have been told not to trust it but instead trust the book of mormon. We are going with the Holy Spirit to try and wake them up out of their daze. Anyways, the XMA reenforced this and to emphasize the question “Who is Jesus to you?” Mormons believe that they have to perfect themselves to get into the Celestial Kingdom and basically after they do everything to perfect themselves (“after all we can do” I think thats in Moroni 10, Ill look it up when I get back to my room) then what Jesus does comes into play. So they believe that only after all they can do does Christ's sacrifice have significance. That still doesn't make sense to me. Im still learning. Anyways thats why the XMAs asked us to ask the LDS that question. So we went to sleep that night.
On monday we woke up to a beautiful utah day. In the morning we were going to the institute classes. Now this is not at Snow College. Exactly across the street from snow college (state funded community college) was the mormon indoctrination institute and both are across the street from the college house. I went to the class “creation” with about 8 others. In the class was only 3 students, so our presence was quite obvious, so obvious that the instructor V (don't remember his name exactly) as soon as he got in the class and got situated exclaimed “On no, were surrounded on all sides by Christians” (kinda ironic since mormons consider themselves christians). I was sitting next to a girl named W which I would meet later in the week also. The three students seems a little uneasy as we talked to them. Real quick, the night before L (one of the supported missionaries staying at the college house who takes classes at the institute) asked the XMAs who the mormons were referring to every time the talked about the Anti-Christ. The XMAs said it was us (missionaries). So I guess is 9 Anti-Christs shows up in my class room, I would be uneasy too I guess. Ok, back to monday in the class. W got up to give a devo and it was over the trueness of the scriptures (to LDS (LDS and mormons are the same thing by the way if you haven't figured that out) the scriptures are the Bible, book of mormon, doctrine and convents, and pearl of great price) and she just began crying in class. She just said that there was a lot she didn't understand then she started to cry harder and said that she knew it was true because of her feelings. Now mormons justify their beliefs by feelings or a “burning in the bosom” as they call it. I learned later that W was a friend of L and L had gotten her talons in her (we still make a lot of jokes because the Mormons think we are from the devil). Anyways it was obvious that something about what she believed was troubling her. I figured out later that it was probably from L witnessing to her and the Holy Spirit was probably doing its thing. Anyways this hurt I saw in her life cut strait to my core, past all my emotional shields I have and I think at about that time I reaLed just how important my work there was. I was bring God to a lost people and hurting people that appeared on the outward appearance to be all happy and nice and stuff but deep down they were hurting. When you enter utah you can just feel the darkness but it doesn't become real until you get into the lives of its people. So after her short devo she sat down a seat down from me and recovered her self in moments. I of course tried to console her by asking her for a pencil since I forgot to bring one. Anyways we talked a little and then the class started. It was interesting and I wrote down some stuff and tried not to be to noticeable. After class I hug around and found two girls to talk to, well actually they were sitting by the door and then I talked to them, but I don't think they wanted to talk to me, but I talked to them anyways. When everyone assembled we left. After class we were supposed to do a work project, but Josh Eicholtz and I skipped out and walked around snow college handing out flyers for the free mexican dinner wednesday night and doing witnessing. We prayed on the way that the Lord would give us a few people to talk to. Once we were on the main strip we handed out flyers. Nobody seemed curious enough to ask what we were about so Josh asked one guy if he knew that when he died he was going to heaven. Ok this letter is getting long so ill paraphrase it. Mormons cant really answer that question because it depends on their works. If they say yes then they are implying they are perfect, so it is a good question to ask. So we talked to this guy, he seemed somewhat interested and looked like he was thinking about what we were saying. We unloaded our ammo on him (Bible refrences) and we had a decent conversation with him, but now that I look back, he probably wasn't paying that much attention. So after 45 minutes or so we moved on. Man this is paragraph so Ill start another one.
The next guy we met had just returned from his two year mission (young guys are required to go on a two year mission). We tried hard on him. We asked him his views of heaven and god and took him through a bunch of bible references. I took him through Ephessians 2:8-9 and pretty much showed him that the book of mormon teaches differently and he was agreeing with us but nothing got through to him. Josh and I were taking turns and I remember praying a lot but he was just didn't seem to care if he was right or wrong. He kept saying “Jesus is the man, he's cool.” So after we had both shared our testimonies and an hour or so later we went our separate ways. We prayed for him but we were kinda discouraged. We ate lunch and after lunch we had our official snow day/afternoon. We went up to the mountains to a hill that had a terrain park, but no lifts. Thankfully I brought my snowboard and gave a taste of snowboarding to my fellow team members. I went off the jumps and had fun. That night after dinner we went to a TLC members house. TLC stands for The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints which is a splint group of the LDS that claims to be the only true church of the face of the planet (mormons do to but they wont come out and say it). Anyways they are polygamists and believe that mainstream LDS are all apostates. We got to speak to an elder of that cult and pretty much he just bashed on the LDS the entire 3 or 4 hours we were there. Unlike the LDS they don't claim to be christian and are not afraid of people knowing their beliefs. So that guy had three wives and just married off his daughter. It was gross and I will not go on further about what all he and they do.
Tuesday in Utah was a fun day, not as fun as snowboarding, but fun. Ill try to fit this day in on one page. I slept on the couch again and it was way more conformable than the mattresses that I tested upstairs. After breakfast, or lack of breakfast we headed over to debriefing on the polygamists by Chip. He pretty much pointed out some inconsistencies and that two of the women there were his wives and we had a round table discussion about what he said. After our meeting we were supposed to do construction again but Josh and I ran off again to do street ministry. Cheryl came with us this time. We again prayed walking out to the campus and we decided to split up. Cheryl came with me and Josh went off on his own. I figured since I was now experienced I had to start conversations so we went out and passed out more flyers. Josh immediately finds someone to talk to but Cheryl and I just kinda hung around. Finally we decided to pray so we prayed that the Lord bring us a couple people to talk to. Within a few minutes we found someone to talk to. His name I believe was B. We talked to B for a little while. Cheryl and I worked as a good team. I did a lot of the talking and Cheryl would have the scripture reference ready and would point it out to him. B hadn't been on his mission yet and didn't seem very confident in what he believed. He kept asking us to talk to missionaries and I kept telling him that I wanted to know what just normal mormons believed. Anyways he eventually just started sharing his testimony. I really hope something we said stuck. He shared his testimony, that was the same as every other mormon testimony: I believe that joseph smith is a true prophet and that the book of mormon is true...etc. So I switched the subject to what his major was and we talked a little more and I invited him to come to the cafe and hang out or had any questions. It may sound like we were interrogating him but we were just asking what he believes salvation and showing him what the Bible says about grace and Jesus and so on. I told him to read the book of John and then we departed. So I think Cheryl was a little more confident so we moved on and found another guy to talk to. He definitely seems liked the LeTourneau type. He was a CS (Computer Science major) I believe. Anyways his name was J. J was totally different then the rest of the dudes we talked to. J didn't believe what mainline mormons believed. We started on the topic of God. He only believed in one god and that Jesus was just a man. I got talking to him and realized that it seemed he saw the holes in mormonism and filled them with new age beliefs. So we tried to show that God's grace was free and I took him through a lot of Romans but it was like circular logic. He would say one thing then contradict himself the next moment. So we talked for like an hour. When we went our separate ways again. So we returned for lunch and after lunch we had to get ready for ugly dress night. Ugly dress night was for the purpose of soup night and was geared towards the christian club on campus. We had some mormons show up also. Basically we raided the thrift stores and got some strange clothes. I got some bright blue spandex shorts with a mesh shit and a ladies camo vest with the midriff cut out. Gareth gets women's overalls and everyone else looks just as ridiculous. Anyways three of us decided to run around snow campus to attract some attention to the soup night. Probably didn't work. So that night we had some soup and had everybody over. Someone decided to have a talent show so we had an hour or so to prepare. Terease and I sang Monty Python's Knights of the Round Table song and danced around. Gareth and I did some redneck wrestling and also sang the Mocking Bird song from Dumb and Dumber. We got two mormon missionaries to demonstrate their strength and Gareth and I tried to replicate that but failed miserably. Anyways after the soup thing we did dorm storming. Basically we went around to the dorms and handed out flyers. A few of our people got in a few conversations but nothing special for my group (I haven't used parenthesis for a while). And we went to bed
Wednesday was to be the day of the big part, and it was! Im getting tired of writing but Im gonna keep truckin'. Ok so institute again. We returned to our creation class with V and this time I don't think W was there but then again we sat closer to the teacher. Oh by the way we had quite a few spiritual attacks. Apparently we stired up some trouble with the evil that was there. L got called into the Bishop's office at the institute and got chewed out on tuesday. She came in crying and Chip and Jamie had to go talk to the Bishop. Gareth decided that in the morning we should have a prayer time at 6 so we did. One morning I believe It was tuesday we were trying to pray outloud and the phone in the coffee shop rang. Gareth got it and it was some guy who called the wrong number or something he hung up, didn't last longer than 10 seconds. Anyways he sits back down and as soon as we start praying the phone rings. For some reason I yell “Dont pick it up” (I guess I was mad we were getting interrupted or it was the Holy Spirit) and he picks up and no one is there. So he sits back down. As soon as he sits down it rings again. We bind satan and tell him to stop interrupt our meeting and the voicemail picks up (its a recording so we can here it) and again no answer. The phone dosen't ring again and we continue praying for like another 20 minutes. As soon as we are done praying I try to go back to sleep (since we were praying downstairs where I was sleeping) and within a few minutes the phone rings again and there was nobody. Judge that how you will but I believe that satan would do anything to interrupt our communication with our Savior. So onto wednesday. In institute class we had L with us this time and we let her ask all the questions about the strange things we were being taught. Nobody from our group interrupted the class or any of the classes in anyway by the way. If the instructor answered a question, we answered what he was asking for and saved the butting of heads for outside of class. Everybody from our team either handed out flyers and tried to talk to people or went to institute. After institute, Gareth (Gareth is team leader by the way and has spent the summer in Utah) and I team up and walk around but it was class time so we head back and I grad a sugar-free Irish Cream latte. MMMM GOOD. So I have my latte and weapon locked and loaded (my bible and I also had my book of mormon) and we headed out to the institute to make trouble. We just hung around the institute until people came out between classes (yes the institute was integrated into the state funded community college, how integrated I don't know). Gareth and I just happened to be wearing both wearing jeans and boots with our bight blue Autosociety hoodies on so we probably looked like mormon missionaries except from the devil (mormons point of view). So we tried to talk to a couple of the guys. Ben's girlfriend (cant remember her name and Ben the youth pastor) gave us the Mormon's plan of salvation quick reference bookmark thats printed by the church and told us to ask the mormons where Jesus was on it (Jesus was no where to be found on their plan of salvation yet their church is called church of JESUS CHRIST and the latter-day saints, hmm... strange, yes). So I looked confused and asked a mormon about it. Immediately he looks for the printed by the LDS thing on it and then looks at it kinda funny. Eventually he tells me that it doesn't say it but Jesus is throughout all of it. We tried to talk more about it but he had to run. So Gareth and I wander around and eventually go in the back door (I still have my latte) and we say to ourself that we are just going to look at the strange paintings inside until someone talks to us. Anyways we end up in a conversation with one of the instructors and immediately he asks what we are up to. Gareth just tells him that we are there to learn about the mormon culture and converse with the students. Anyways we get into a deep conversation and he tries to talk down to us, but again he believes in something that has no truth behind it so even though we aren't scholars we can find the faults in his beliefs and try to bring up good points that hopefully will plant the seeds of doubt. He eventually gives me his Families are forever spiel. He says you can have your family sealed to you for all time and eternity. So I ask him “what if you don't like some in your family? That would really suck if you really hated someone in your family and had to spend eternity with them.” Mr. L (that was his name) just kinda laughed it off. Again flaws in what they believe. We have truth on our side. Anyways he wants to talk more so he gives us his phone number. At about this time it is lunch time again. We head off to lunch and after lunch one of the XMAs that was very deep in the church gave us a talk about the dark side of the church. After lunch we spent the rest of the day preparing for the mexican dinner.
Dinner time rolled around and it was fiesta time! A note about the Solid Rock Cafe is that the mormons know what the solid rock cafe is about and if mormon students go to the cafe they will get called into the bishop's office and get chewed out (also they will loose their temple recommend for this year for associating with apostates). So It was a miracle when 352 students showed up and ate free mexican food. Did I mention we have live jazz? Apparently Snow College is the place to be for jazz, so we have the college jazz band playing and man they were good. A few of our team members got into a few good conversations. Most people just took their food and left. Micah Martin apparently got into a really deep conversation with one of the students so that was good. So the night went exceptionally well for the Cafe. It showed everyone that the students weren't intimidated by the mormon leadership (praise God). Then L tells us that it was dance night, so of course I had to go. So about 12 of us head over to this dance hall where it is western swing night. Another thing about mormons is that they have basically a dance program at all of their wards so that their youth can find a good mate. So it is institutionalized dancing basically. Like I didn't even see a DJ. It was like music just started playing out of the speakers at a set time. I really didn't care what it was. So like we get in there and of course were obviously not from the town and we made that even more evident by having no idea what they were dancing. I noticed at the temple bookstore the next day that western swing dance tapes and book were sold there, so that explained why everyone was so good, because they are required to be! Anyways so like I go and sit down with Gareth and as soon as I sit down a rather large woman grabs me and starts dancing with me. At first I was unsure but she knew what she was doing and taught me the dance then she left me and went off and grabbed Gareth. So I was out there and I danced a little with L and her sister, then W shows up and interestingly comes over to our group (interesting because none of the other mormons did) so I dance with her for a few songs and she tried to teach me stuff but I don't learn to well. So I talked with her a little and she seems to only hang around our group. So that was very interesting indeed. Some dance started and I was like hey you live here you know this right? And I didn't get much of an answer back. So I have been praying for her ever since. Just praying that the Lord will just finish pulling her out. Anyway I was more wandering around then dancing and found my guys and was pushed into this dance circle thing by L. It is safe to say I had no idea what was going on, but it was fun. Oh I just remembered after things started to settle down and a new song was coming on and our conversation was dying down I was like hey Whiney dance with Gareth he's a stiff when it comes to dancing (I was no better). I figured dancing with Christians is better than dancing with mormons right? So anyways I don't know what relevance that has to do with anything but I'm just reporting the story. Then that night ended and we went to bed (after of course sharing our dancing experiences (bragging)).
Thursday was our Salt Lake City day. Early in the morning Gareth and I put gas in the vans. Gareth and I are in autosociety together also so we had to be driving of course. So we take off and wile driving to SLC we were trying to count how many stakes (mormon churches) we could see in one view. I think the count was five in one neighborhood. Apparently, as I found out asking a mormon, stakes are limited to 500 people for some reason (easier to brainwash I guess). So we made it up there at around 10am. Our ministry team decided to split into groups of 2 or 3 so that we all couldn't be kicked out at the same time (they take your picture if you cause trouble like witnessing). So some people go to the history place, some to the library, some to the general conference building, some to the joseph smith building, and some to temple square. I was in a group with Tyler W and Chip Thompson (the devil himself according to mormons). So anyways we decide to go to the general conference center (thats the place where the prophet speaks and pretty much tells the mormons what to believe for the next year). Chip tells us he's going to lay low and let us ask the questions. So we walk in and I make ourselves known by going up and talking to some of the people there. Another one of our groups was there and I had to go to the bathroom so I did and that helped so we were distanced from each other a little. So we just started asking questions to our guide. Our guide was about 80 years old or so and his name started with a V. Anyways I just pretty much let the constraints off my logic and just asked questions about everything (thats where I learned about the church size limit, also asked him if the prophet was like the pope). Tyler joined in. It didn't get into a theological discussion until we were in the main room. Chip left for some reason and I got the guy on topic. Of course it sounded christian until I asked his views of God (we believe in three in one, what do you think about that?). So we ventured off that path into a discussion and then Chip got involved. Chip had way more scripture memorized then us and he knew exactly where to go (in conversation). This whole trip I've been try to keep it from looking like an attack on them by throwing in jokes and general man talk (or womanal conversation, I don't know what Im talking about) and expressing myself with hand gestures and body movements (picked that one up from dad). So we eventually got out of the conference room an hour later. The next room was the room with paintings of the jews coming to the early americas and of the battles between the nephities and lamanities (the nephites were the good people and the laminates bad and basically on the hill curmoa in Palmyra, New York the battle to end all battles saw the last of the nephites, which moroni the last nephite buried the golden tablets that Joseph smith later found (susposedly) but basically after the nephites were all destroyed, the lamanites skin became dark because of their sin and they became the native americans(wow makes so much sense(sarcastic))). So all the paintings depicted what looked like jews sailing across the ocean and meeting the Atzecs and the roman soldiers appear and the battle on cumora happens and its all in paintings in the general conference center. So of course we had plenty of things to ask and then the manager of the missionaries there came up out of no where to check on us. The guide was like “these guys are giving me a run for my money” and thats when the manager joined in. Then Chip got in a discussion and basically had them saying that no there is no proof from the book of mormon but they believe it to be true. It was pretty amazing to watch actually. Watching the veteran at work was amazing. Anyways he got on to the topic of celestial marriage in the temple and how no where is it found in the Bible or even the book of mormon. So the manager was about to blow a fuse so he left. Chip kept on going and me and Tyler watched. So we started walking back. Chip got to a point where he just needed to cool off, so I started talking to him. I believe he was tired as he was talking us back to the beginning. Anyways somehow I got off onto another subject and tyler and chip joined in again. Then I got a phone call that everyone was meeting for lunch. Turns out we spent like almost three hours talking to him. So went to lunch. So far this letter has taken me five days.
After lunch our group headed back out. Gareth, Tyler and I went off and headed to the main bookstore. We picked up some good mormon literature. I bet the book store clerks though we were good mormon boys, except that we had facial hair, so probably not. At 2:00 we were going to meet in the joseph smith building to watch the joseph smith video. The bookstore was in the basement of the building, so we decided to hang around the building. At the top there was an observatory, so we headed there. There we had a good view of temple square and it was evil. Once it was time we headed down to the waiting room. This place was wall to wall marble with red carpeting (someone has a lot of money). We sat in the waiting room. I took notice of the abundance of tissue boxes around the room. So we go in to this massive theater with read curtains and all. There was maybe 12 team members in the room at the time. Anyways the video was as you would expect. Politically correct load of brainwashing crap. I mush say it was the 'cheesiest' video I had ever seen. It was really sickening how they portrayed joseph smith. If you didn't know it was joseph smith you could have sworn it was Jesus (I actually asked the missionary later why they don't just call their church The Church of Joseph Smith and Latter-Day Saints, she was like no,no,no,no). They show joseph smith doing miracles and being all nice and abused by the evil 'christians.' There was an especially bad part where the 'christian barbarians' were joking about how they like to rape mormon women and how mormon children are not people but make good target practice. I can't explain it all but it was ridiculous. They show him with only one wife and him giving a donkey to a couple of former slaves. In reality, joseph was a polygamist and though that black people had dark skin because of their sin. He was tarred and feathered in the video for his beliefs, but in reality he was raping a 14 year old and got caught. So after the video was over we were let out and there were missionaries there, so of course we had to ask about this “historical video.” There want enough missionaries for all of us so we triple teamed most of them. Mormon missionaries come in a two pack, even the women. So most of the missionaries around the temple are women. So like we start talking to these two women. One was American and one was Hungarian. Chris (youth pastor) starts talking to one with Josh (Chaplain Carl's son) and I kinda wait around. I finally strike up a conversation with the Hungarian. I pretty much told her that my parents live in Germany and how I liked the county. I led that into asking her if she had seen any Roman or Greek ruins. She said yes and I continued on to discuss that there are no ruins or artifacts or anything to prove that the book of mormon is true. So that didn't go to far she kept saying to ask her partner. So we discussed the “historical video” about joseph smith. I asked if there was any documentation of his miracles or if there is any proof at all. Then I got into the polygamy subject. I took this to the point that the LDS are only showing what they want people to believe. Anyways she agreed with me a lot and I hoped and pray something stuck with her. Anyways we went over a couple subjects and they all ended the same. Id make a point and she would roll her eyes and smile and agree. Anyways I finally asked about joseph smiths encounter. In the pearl of great price, joseph smith talks about a incredible darkness that seizes him and he is in sheer terror before he gets his first vision (a pillar of light that turns out to be two parsonages, God and Jesus according to the official vision). They show that in the video amazingly (really creepy). So I asked her what she though about that. She said it was pretty scary. I was like “OK were on the same page. Have you read 2 Cornthians 11:14 and 15?” It goes like this: “14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works.” So I followed that up with: “So there was once an true church of God? correct? Good. And satan wants to destroy it and everything its associated with correct? Good. So according to his passage satan can come as an angel of light. Do you see a connection? Your video just showed him being overtaken by darkness followed by an angel of light. What does satan want to do more than anything?” Anyways I kept listing stuff satan wants to do and she keeps saying “and” for some reason and finally I was like “and what?! he wants to destroy truth! He wants to split the church!” So about this time half the team had been escorted out by the bouncers. The missionaries at temple square have little buzzers and they beep them when in trouble. So this elder guy had come up to Chris and Josh and told them to leave. And when I entered the conversation Chris was asking if he could pray with the missionary. I said that was a good idea. The elder guy was kept saying no and that they needed to leave. So Chris was frustrated. I don't think I was actually buzzed so maybe I got through to the Hungarian girl (I can't remember her name cause it was foreign). I then stepped in with my big mouth and was like “can we pray right out side where you can see us?” The elder or bouncer wasn't to happy and told us to leave again. So I was like “this is our eternal destiny your talking about and you have to go to a meeting?” (that was their excuse why they couldn't talk to us). He gave us these cards and said we can have missionaries come to our house. I was like “what's wrong with these two perfectly good missionaries?” So he just gave us a card and I wrote on it Galations 1:6-9 and told her to read it (gave it to the hungarian girl). Galations 1:6-9 says: “6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so I now say again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” Those are harsh words from Paul but he didn't want the Galtians falling for a perversion of the gospel. That is what mormonism is, a perversion. By the way we use King James Version because it is the only version the LDS recognize the least corrupt. So after we got kicked out I sat outside and prayed with Micah Martin for a quite a few minutes. Then it was almost dinner time so we headed back to the vans. Funny enough we walked around the joseph smith building and met the girls on the other side. So I said hi to them and hoped they had and good day and that we were praying for them and such. The bouncers had an eye on us so I said hi to them also. They aren't to sneaky. So we walked back to the parking place and talked to the people that had returned. Everyone had similar stories and were totally fired up. Was really uplifting. So we left and ate dinner on the way back. Josh and I ate together and we prayed for the people we met that day.
Next day we left early and had a somewhat uneventful trip back. So Im back now and writing this ridiculously long email. I love telling what happened on our trip. So Im recruiting passively recruiting for next year. Yesterday we got a prayer letter from Chip and Jamie. Apparently we rocked the boat pretty good. All the mormons are paranoid now, especially around Ephrium. If anyone wants that email I can forward it to you (saying that if you have made it this far). It is awesome to see what God has been doing on our trip in Utah. We could do nothing nothing on our own there (or anywhere) for our fight is not against flesh and blood but the darkness in this world. I've been to some dark places in this world, like Moscow and Kabul but Utah was a dark place in our own country. I said it a few pages back and Ill say it again, mormonism is one of satan's strongholds in our own nation and I believe that a haze has covered our country to where we cant see the problems in our own back yard. Anyways words cannot describe how I feel about this. My eyes were opened to this and I hope yours are two. Forward this to anyone if you want. I never know how to end a paper other than stop writing. Just go out there and ask your mormon friends about what they believe. Deception is the weapon of mormonism. They seem christian and try to hide under the christian banner, but the basic fact is that they ARE hiding. Dig deeper, ask about the exaltation doctrine or about salvation. You'll soon realize they are far from Christian. AND MOST OF ALL! Do it out of love for those lost in bondage. Pray that the Holy Spirit will pull them out. Remember, we have been redeemed and the Holy Spirit is in us. Im not a theologian or anything but we have tremendous power and the darkness goes running and tries to hide.