This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Passion for Christ, a ministry of Utah Partnerships for Christ. In Acts 26, 18, Jesus said, Paul's purpose was to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light. and from the power of Satan unto God. That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
We hope you'll join us for today's testimony of lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now let's begin today's episode. Welcome to Passion for Christ. This is Russ, your host. And on today's episode, we are going to be talking with some friends of mine from Grand Canyon University. They're here on a mission trip.
Our first team member is Stacia. Stacia, tell us so far, what has the Lord taught you on this trip to Utah? He's taught me a lot. He's taught me to be slow to speak and quick to listen. A lot of the times, I don't want to.
A lot of the times, I just want to. Yeah, cut off when we're having a conversation with Mormons, but yeah, the Lord is. Um so patient and so he tells us to do the same. Um even when we have those disagreements with the Mormons. Right, and you guys went to Temple Square yesterday.
What were some of the things that you observed when you got there? You went to the conference center. What's coming up in April, where they have 20,000 people that go and they hear their prophet, they call their prophet and their apostles and things. Did you see the cross when you were there? Did you see any symbolism there of the cross?
No, there wasn't any. pictures or wooden crosses that I noticed there. Um The one thing I did notice, though, was a lot more pictures of Joseph Smith rather than Jesus. Or if you did see Jesus, it was him in the Americas, and that's it. Right.
And so for our listeners who aren't familiar with that, there's Mormon teaching that would say that in between the time of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, he came to North America, South America. They don't really know exactly where, they say, but he established twelve apostles for this Side of the hemisphere, I guess, and these continents over here. And so a lot of foreign things that we don't find in the Bible. But your heart has been burdened for the Mormons. I know when I was down there at Grand Canyon doing some recruiting for this team, and you had a lot of great questions, I remember, and just have a real heart for the Mormon people.
And so thank you for that. And just if you were to give some advice to Christians listening right now that are in North Carolina, Ohio, Utah, what kind of. maybe tips would you give to to maybe communicate the gospel to a Mormon. Do you have any ideas there that you'd want to share? Yeah, and some advice I've gotten from ex-Mormons about that is when you spread the gospel, make it simple so that they can see the simplicity of the gospel and also how it differs from what they call I think they call it the revelation of the gospel or the fullness of the gospel maybe.
Yes, yeah, maybe, yeah.
So being slow in your explanation and. Yeah, we have our simplest form of explaining the gospel of the the three steps. I don't know if you've heard of them, but before, yeah. Um yeah, so basically when God made the world, he made man. Um and then the second is that man obviously had that free will and went against God to sin.
And then um Jesus came down, so God came down as man and took on that sin for us as man, taking on the punishment to give us grace and atonement for our sins, to give us full salvation if we accept it.
So it's really those one, two, three steps, trying to make it as simple as possible because really their gospel likes to complicate it a little bit. Yes, great, great points you just made.
So thank you for that, Stasia. And we want to move to Alex. Maybe you guys can switch seats. And Alex, you guys got to hear from a guy named Alan. Who was saved out of Mormonism?
What did you take away from that conversation? He was born into a Mormon family. He got saved about like 10 years ago or so. What was striking you in that conversation? For me, I think it was just the family aspect that scared me the most.
I think it's just the. The dire situation that you're put in when you leave or want to leave, it's like this separation from everything you know and love. And that's just like that was a scary thing for me because I realized, like, wow, like there are probably people out there, there are many that are looking to get out, looking for a place to go, but they feel like they cannot. And he was in that situation as well for a little while. And I just, you know, like, I just want to be the person that can tell you, like, look, like, Jesus can restore your relationship with these people.
You kind of just have to trust the process. And that's what he did. And that's how Jesus ended up helping his relationship with his family. And he actually talked to us about his wife when he started dating his wife. That's actually part of the restoration process.
Jesus used his wife and his closeness with his wife, who was Mormon at the time as well, to bring together his family after he left. I think that was probably the most shocking thing for me. It was literally a firsthand story. I experienced it kind of secondhand, like to hear a story about that. And that was, yeah, it was definitely shocking, but it was a reality check.
Like, it's a real thing. And you've shared with me that. The moment you got here, pretty much, it seems like God could very well be leading you at least to reach more Mormons back home or maybe Utah, not sure, but God has gotten a hold of your heart, hasn't he? Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I can explain it a little bit. I talk to my colleagues here, or my frie. I guess they're my friends. But they're my good friends. But and yeah, the people who are on the trip with me, obviously, if you weren't aware, but.
Um I talked to them last night. I said something that Mormons look for is relationship, and oftentimes we're so worried about giving them the gospel that we forget to be their friend first. And It's really easy to force information on people because you're looking for an outcome and what they can give satisfaction back to you that you did your job. But in reality, Jesus came to restore relationship, right, with the Father. And it's it's very interesting to me how sometimes we approach our gospel Preaching with the idea that we just need to force it upon them.
But in reality, we just need to be ready to be their friend, to develop a relationship, to show them the kindness of Christ first, and then to develop, and then to develop into the conversation, to continue the conversation, to move forward. That was like a big thing where I see a lack of, and I see myself, and I go, what if I just. Made that switch like a little bit and was just a little bit more impactful in that way. And let's see how that works. Let's see how I can approach it better in that situation.
And as soon as I kind of heard the Holy Spirit correct that in my mind, in my heart, I was like, you know what? I really want to do that, but I want to do that for forever. Like, I want to do that for the rest of my life whenever I encounter Mormons or people of different faiths, like to build a relationship before I try to enforce this, you know, religious perspective on them. You know what I mean? Great.
Well, thank you so much. Yeah. We're going to be continuing on with our conversations with the team members from Grand Canyon University. We'll continue with Kenzie. Kenzie, if you'd like to just share with us.
What's the Lord been putting on your heart since you got here in Utah and some of your hopes for this trip and so on? Yeah, I feel like the Lord has taught me a lot just about the Mormon people and just as a reminder that they truly are his children and that most of the missionaries we talk to just seem to actually lack a lot of knowledge of what the Mormon Church believes. And they even admitted to the fact they don't know the doctrinal answers to a lot of our questions.
So just. God has really put on my heart to have grace for them and just to, um share with them in a way that's not offensive to them by directly spilling our doctrine on them and pointing out the flaws in theirs, but asking them questions about what they believe, um, and allowing those holes to be revealed by themselves rather than us just um a almost like attacking them is what they described it as. Right, just just looking at the the t the many times when when Jesus would ask questions. uh of maybe his disciples and and the the woman at the well, um, the rich young ruler. I mean, he did try to bring out this this moment when a person could think through for themself you know, and hopefully own um These aspects of the true nature of, like when you say children of God, of course, I think what you mean is like created by God, and then those who receive Him, then they become His true children.
But I know what you mean, like as far as His creation, and God loves them, you know, of course. And so, So it can be challenging because you have this church that calls themselves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and they hold to an idea of Jesus, but he's so many things that are so different and everything. But like we've been talking about in this program already is. We'll be right back for the rest of today's testimony. Please know we at Utah Partnerships for Christ have been planting seeds of the gospel in Utah for over 24 years.
We welcome any questions you may have and invite you to visit our website to obtain a list of words and definitions that would help you understand how Mormons think and how to be able to better witness to your friends who belong to the Mormon Church. That website is www.upfc.org. That's upfc.org. We'll be right back. Welcome to Passion for Christ, a ministry of Utah Partnerships for Christ.
In Acts 26, 18, Jesus said, Paul's purpose was to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light. and from the power of Satan unto God. That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. We hope you'll join us for today's testimony of lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now let's begin today's episode. I just Made that switch like a little bit and was just a little bit more impactful in that way. And let's see how that works. Let's see how I can approach it better in that situation. And as soon as I kind of heard the Holy Spirit correct that in my mind, in my heart, I was like, you know what?
I really want to do that, but I want to do that for forever. Like, I want to do that for the rest of my life whenever I encounter Mormons or people of different faiths, like to build relationship before I try to enforce this, you know, religious perspective on them. You know what I mean? Great.
Well, thank you so much. Yeah. We're going to be continuing on with our conversations with the team members from Grand Canyon University. We'll continue with Kenzie. Kenzie, if you'd like to just, yeah, just share with us what's the Lord been putting on your heart since you got here in Utah and some of your hopes for this trip and so on.
Yeah, I feel like the Lord has taught me a lot just about the Mormon people and just as a reminder that they truly are his children and that most of the missionaries we talk to just seem to actually lack a lot of knowledge of what the Mormon Church believes. And they even admitted to the fact that they don't know the doctrinal answers to a lot of our questions.
So just. God has really put on my heart to have grace for them and just to um share with them in a way that's not offensive to them by directly spilling our doctrine on them and pointing out the flaws in theirs, but asking them questions about what they believe, um, and allowing those holes to be revealed by themselves rather than us just um at almost like attacking them is what they described it as. Right, just looking at the many times when Jesus would ask questions. uh of maybe his disciples and and the the woman at the well, um the rich young ruler. I mean, he did try to bring out this this moment when a person could think through for themself you know, and hopefully own um These aspects of the true nature of, like when you say children of God, of course, I think what you mean is like created by God, and then and then those who receive him, then they become his true children.
But I know what you mean, like as far as his creation, and God loves them, you know, of course. And so it can be challenging because you have this church that calls themselves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they hold to an idea of Jesus, but He's, you know, so many things that are so different and everything. But like we've been talking about in this program already, is. We want to try to form some some level of relationship, whether it's it's it's just it's It's It's what we're trying to initiate, not just trying to dump a bunch of facts and stuff to them and expect them just to believe it. They have to know that we care about them.
And that's a big part of it, right?
Well, good.
Well, thank you.
Well, hey, let's now turn over to Brady.
So we'll have you guys switch. Seats there. And so, Brady, when I met you at GCU, when I had my table, I remember you and Alex were there, and you two guys were just, you know, really excited about reaching Mormons. And you, so, in your hometown, or when was the first time you started talking to Mormons, would you say? Do you kind of remember when that was?
Yeah, I do. When I was in eighth grade, one of my close friends was. Was Mormon, and he told me a little bit about the crazy rules they had. And I was kind of young at the time, so I didn't really understand it fully. And then, sophomore, I started working with two of my now best friends who are Mormon.
I kind of understood it a little more and did more research. But yeah, that was the first time I had interacted with them.
Okay, great. And then this is your first time in Utah actually doing ministry and all.
So you went to the Utah Christian Research Center with another group that's here from Tennessee working with Aaron Marshall and Rashio Christie. And so what were some of your impressions there? Because you saw some things that defend the reliability of the Bible, but you also saw some things that were to help us understand where the holes are, you know, in Mormonism and things, and it should increase our burden for them all the more. But what were some of your impressions over there at the. The Utah Christian Research Center.
Yeah, first of all, I thought it was just incredible being there. We learned so much. But then also, they have a representation of how heavy these gold plates supposedly were. And it is just like, it is too far-fetched to think that he walked that far with that heavy of plates. Unless it was like a miracle that was purported to be, huh?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is a problem as to that. And they do a really good job of explaining that. And anything else that comes to your mind, all the resources they have, books and things that you can buy and everything to help increase your ability to communicate the gospel to Mormons and so forth. Was it encouraging to see other young people You know, they're on a mission trip as well.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think Gen Z especially, we are on such a brink of revival. Like, we are so close to just seeing an amazing revival, not only in our generation, but every other generation too. And I think it is just so encouraging to me to see people my age this passionate for Christ as young as they are.
Excellent, excellent.
Well, thank you very, very much. And we'll have a chance to probably go around the horn here. And if some of you who've already shared want to share again, we'll probably have enough time. But I want to give everybody a chance to.
So this is Haley. Haley's going to share. Come on right up to the mic there and just share. What has been so far? I mean, today we're going to go to Weber State University.
So we're going to maybe try to invite some students out for maybe a meal together tonight, you know, and cover their meal, maybe even bowl with them. Just try to show that we care, you know. What have been some of your fears? Because I remember when we had the training, you know, I was pretending that I was a Mormon and I would have you guys try to share the gospel with me. Remember that, you know?
And just with all your preparation and things like that, where are you at right now on the trip? And what are you kind of anticipating and stuff? Yeah, I'm having a great time. I'm specifically excited to go to Weber to talk to students who are Mormon, but then also have opportunities to talk to students who aren't, because even if they're not part of the LDS church, we want to reach every single person, whether they're agnostic or atheist.
So having that opportunity to talk to all different students is really impactful because we are able to go to the LDS church members and tell them how our beliefs are different, but we're also able to share the true gospel with those who don't believe in any sort of Jesus Christ. Yes, yes, good. And then also, would you mind sharing with our listeners some of the things that we've been doing today in preparation for something later in the week? What have you guys been doing and what is the part? What's the part that That role that you're gonna have at this event, because kind of explain the whole thing to our listeners, what you're gonna be doing.
Yes, so later this week, we are getting to sit down with a homeschool co-op and talk about historical Bible facts and biblical preservation. And so, my specific part is I get to talk about different coins from the biblical period and how they've been proven and where they are from.
So, a specific coin I really like. Ooh, I'm gonna forget the name, is The Widow's Might. The Widow's Might. The Widow's Might, which in one of the books we have.
Well, just holding the coin, you can see it's not even half of your pinky finger nail. And so reading one of the books we have, it says that 400 widows' mites is equal to $1, which would get you a loaf of bread. You would need 400 of these coins to get a loaf of bread. And so you think back to the story in the Bible where the woman is giving two widow's mites and that's all she has. And Jesus says she's given so much more than every single other person.
And that's really impactful because two widow's mites can't even buy you a little slice of bread or like a crumb. And so that was really impactful to see and be able to hold in my hand. That is so great. That makes my day. That's just awesome.
Well, yeah, I'm looking forward to that day. That's going to be great. We're going to have like six tables or so out, and we're going to have like about 50 parents and students from 12th grade down to kindergarten, I think. And so you guys are going to have some great opportunities to share, and they're going to move around and rotate and stuff. And so you guys are going to be going out to Ephraim, Utah, tomorrow with this group that Aaron Marshall has put together from Tennessee.
Going to be working with Trigrace Ministries. And so that's what. I think it's been really fun being part of this ministry, this small ministry of ours, Utah Partnerships for Christ. We try to partner with other ministries because it's a big job here in Utah, and we can't just do it alone. I think we have to partner with the body of Christ and with Discovery Christian Church.
You guys are down there. Pastor Jared Hunsinger has been gracious to open up the doors down there.
So, okay, well, thank you, Haley. And we'll move now to Ethan. Ethan. Ethan, what's going through your mind now as we talk about this mission trip to Utah? What have you gained so far, and what do you hope the Lord will do in your heart throughout this trip?
I mean, I've just been having a wonderful time so far. It's definitely been eye-opening for me to see just like. How prevalent Mormonism is here, and it is so very much in Arizona as well, but it's just like even more here. But I mean The work we've been doing has been amazing, and I think all of the group has been doing an amazing job here. And I mean, I've just been having a great time and Just been learning a lot so far.
Yeah. Excellent. Thank you, Ethan.
So let's go ahead because we're getting kind of towards the end of the program.
So thank you, Ethan. Let's have you switch chairs with Diego. Diego, would you have just maybe about a minute and a half or so? Just share whatever's on your heart, whatever is on your heart. I remember you calling me up and you wanted to go on this trip.
You're a senior at GCU. What are some of your hopes and anticipations for this trip? Yeah, I mean I I've just been Um very humbled as to like how much how little I know um In the Mormon faith and in even defending my faith, but it's been so. Awesome to um here from specifically the um Oh, the Community. Research Center, yes.
Bill McKeever. Bill McKeever. Yes, that guy. Yeah, yeah, the director for Mormonism Research Ministry. Yes.
Yes, so his talk was very impactful for me. Just asking really. Really important questions, really impactful questions for Mormons, really getting down to the root of. what they believe. Asking questions like: Do they care about knowing the truth?
And if they learned that the thing that they believed was untrue, Would they still stay in? The Mormon faith. And that was really impactful for me to really not attack them, but just ask. fair, valuable questions that they can start to unpack their own beliefs. And that really opens up and s I believe softens their heart.
To allowing us to share what we believe. And so that was really impactful for me. Yeah, 2 Timothy 2:23 through 26 talks about being a kind, gentle, patient teacher. You know, and not the servant of the Lord must not quarrel. You know, so that's what you guys are doing.
And so. Awesome. Yeah. Well, thank you very much, Diego. And we'll end our time here with Rachel, who's going to come up to the microphone and just share a little bit.
The first day you guys got in, you guys went to a Mormon ward. A co a college ward. And then you also met a girl at the health club who's not a Mormon. Do you want to share a little bit about that? Like, what was it like at the Mormon ward?
Yeah, we got in there and immediately just kind of the atmosphere was just so kind of dull. I've been to like a lot of different churches before, and so I just never really experienced it. And one of the first things I noticed is there weren't really crosses anywhere. And so I actually ended up asking one of the girls about that, and she didn't really know why they don't put significance into the cross. And so yeah, it was really interesting.
They didn't stand up when they were worshiping and they're like singing of the hymns. It kind of seemed more like ritualistic rather than like truly worshiping. Yeah, very sad commentary. But wow, you know, what a great opportunity, though, that you have listening right now to get more equipped to reach Mormons for Christ just by hearing these guys sharing about the challenges that they're having, the highs, the lows.
So I would just ask you to pray for each one of these students as they're planting seeds of the gospel. And we're just going to keep trusting the Lord and walking with Him.
So my thanks to everybody here. Uh here from Grand Canyon University. Grand Canyon University, we've just Encourage you to look them up and see if God want maybe wants you to go there for further studies and so forth.
So with that, we'll sign off here on another edition of Passion for Christ. Before we sign off for today, please know that all of us here at Utah Partnerships for Christ appreciate your prayers and support. We are also available to do Zoom call workshops or personal coaching on reaching Mormons for Christ. Contact us today at upfc.org. That's upfc.org.
Thanks so much for joining us on another edition of Passion for Christ.
