Greater Western Slope Mission

Catching Up

Sorry for the long delay between posts.  We had some technical problems but have gotten them figured out and won’t have any of those issues again (doesn’t mean we won’t have others but we’ll do our best to make sure we update regularly).  Here is what has been going on the last couple of days.

On Sunday we had a great time at a picnic.  There were 9 churches that gathered together for a time at the park and a worship and prayer service in the evening.  It was really encouraging to see the churches come together and how much they love one another.  One thing I have learned since we got here is how lonely the Christians are.  Roughly 92% of people in this area are LDS and the evangelical Christians are rejected and ostracized by most of the people they are around.  Seeing them together and the strength they draw from worshiping Jesus together was a great blessing.  Please remember to keep the Christians here in your prayers as it is really easy to become discouraged.

Monday we went to visit a lady named Sandra Tanner.  She has come out of Mormonism and, along with her late husband, has contributed to over 40 books that reveal information about the LDS church that is not well known.  She is very knowledgeable and loving toward them but knows how deceived they are and has a heart and desire to see them meet Jesus.  She barely scratched the surface of the Mormon faith in the hour and a half we had with her but our students were absolutely stunned by what she was telling them.  They had a hard time really comprehending it all  because it didn’t make any sense to them.  We were very grateful for our time with Sandra.  Please keep her in your prayers as she is constantly attacked by LDS officials and Satan.

After visiting Sandra we went to the temple grounds and took the tour.  Two sisters were very nice and helpful.  They knew their history and answered our questions well.  All the students were thoughtful, polite, and asked good questions.  It was great to see how our students shared their faith by their actions and by not mocking or being condescending toward the sisters or their faith.  We got to watch a video that is a reenactment of what happened in the Americas during the time of Christ that provided us with a lot to talk about in the vans.  Our students were great at spotting fallacies and problem points and we had some great conversation about what we saw later.

We also got to tour the conference center where the prophet will speak new scripture two times a year.  Our host, Dean, mentioned a number of times what a great group we had and we really enjoyed having him show us around the building.  It is not a stretch to say that it is one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen and you can’t help but be in awe when you see the scale and attention to detail.  Seeing such an impressive building helped us to see the kind of influence and power that the LDS church has over many millions of people.  And knowing that caused us to pray for them and for their blindness to be removed

Please pray for us that as we serve, love, and give that God would use our actions and words to communicate his unending grace and love to people who so desperately need it.

- Jared