8/20/20
Not everyone in Utah is Mormon. That’s an important fact you should know. A minority of people are Christian or atheist or Muslim or you name it.
The community we stayed with was a group of 4 World Race alumni who share the story of being pulled from the field in March. They were in month 9 of their race and experienced a lot of time in Africa. So, obviously they’re Christian. 2 of them are a young married couple who opened their home to their squad mates so they could start a community in Utah and rent this beautiful house. We had plenty of floor space on the basement floor and it was really nice to have space to spread out after feeling a little crowded in our last home. On the Race you always find little things to be grateful for. Floor space is one of them.
But the husband of the couple, Austin, grew up in Utah and experienced public school life and recognizes the small ways that the Mormon Church has affected the way Utah has been molded to their beliefs and desires. So, he is the one who educated us a little bit on the differences between the two religions.
Our first ministry day was a day of learning and growth as we took a field trip just a little bit south of Layton to a town everyone has heard of: Salt Lake City.
So, when the Mormons arrived in Utah, they established themselves in Salt Lake City. The entire city is built around the Mormon temple. I truly say THE Mormon temple because even though there are many Mormon temples in the world, this is the most important one in the faith. I forget what scripture in the Bible they base it on, but they believe the Old Testament prophesying about a temple being built on a mountain refers to the temple in Salt Lake City rather than the temple Solomon was charged to build. I personally disagree but it’s good to have an idea where their beliefs come from.
In addition, they believe the US plays a huge role in God’s plan also because this is the place where the prophet Joseph Smith found gold tablets written by the Native Americans about when Jesus came to America after being raised to spread the gospel here in North America. So, they believe in the Bible as Christians do and also in the Book of Mormon as translated by Joseph Smith.
Those are important things to know about this religion. And a final thing to know is that young people, especially men but also women in more recent times, spend about a year and a half of their early adulthood in mission to spread their understanding of the gospel around the world. The current prophet of the church prays about where to send every individual for their mission and they go.
You can imagine that Salt Lake City, where THE temple is would be an important place to send missionaries. And so we went for our first ministry day as an ask the Lord day in Temple Square, which is an area including the temple, the church, and other important buildings and monuments (you only go in the temple for big commitments like marriage, and otherwise you go to the church for services).
So our group started walking around and immediately met 2 sisters on their mission in Temple Square. We just had such a good time getting to know them. We asked them questions and learned from them and challenged them about their beliefs and literally talked and laughed for a couple hours. And then we went to lunch and broke into teams for ask the Lord ministry.
My group of 3 went to get a tour of Temple Square and guess who got to be out tour guides????
We were absolutely stoked and excited to spend more time with them and another group of 3 of our squad joined us. And I’ll tell you we made it to the 2nd stop on the tour before we just stopped and started talking again. I wouldn’t have minded learning more on the tour, but I know God knows what He is doing in loving those sisters through us and letting them love us in return.
And now, as we‘ve already left Utah, let me tell you that I’m sad we weren’t called to go back to Temple Square and talk to those 2 sisters again.
So that’s what I’ve learned about the Mormon Church in my time in Utah. I pray for them to know they are loved by a merciful and loving God. And I’m grateful for this opportunity to learn something I wouldn’t have had if we didn’t come here. I thought I would be in Romania right now, but God’s plan was for me to be loving the people of Utah.
Pray for Utah. They’re some pretty good people.
