Today we will be our first day serving in Salt Lake. Yesterday Stephan Suter, the North American Mission Board (NAMB) missionary, came by and offered a brief training for our time this week. The training was primarily a brief overview of worldview/theology differences between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) and Biblical Christianity. I must confess, I thought I had a pretty thorough understanding of the LDS church, but I did not. I am heart broken at the deception and confusion that that reigns in the hearts of those who are a part of the LDS church.
We are serving about 40 minutes south of Salt Lake City in Vineyard UT. We are in a traditional conservative LDS community. It is much more engrained with a traditional LDS worldview than Salt Lake City is. The average age of our community is 10 years old. Driving through the streets of our neighborhood you see young kids everywhere. It’s interesting to see the amount of young families that fill the area. I cannot help but think about the reality of whole families lost in confusion and theological darkness.
The beauty of the desert mountains is breathtaking. Every time I see a mountain range I am humbled at the majesty of our God. The grandeur of the mountains declares the glory of our God, but the streets are filled with people who are lost and deceived.
Pray for us today, we will be heading to a freedom parade to engage with people. This afternoon we will go to the park and/or a surrounding neighborhood to engage with those around the park. Our primary job will be to simply converse with those in the area. The NAMB missionary told us that it takes on average 100 gospel conversations for someone to leave the LDS church and surrender to Christ. Pray for us as we converse with those around us.
Pray specifically for:
Courage for our team
Wisdom in how to converse with those around us
Hearts to be softened to the gospel.
