1 Peter 5:10

describes the night I had (thank you, Sarah):

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of ll grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ,

will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

This week mainly I’ve been doing a lot of clerical work for Joe and for Russ. I think I said earlier that the Blue House is a cool place to live because there are so many different ministries going on here. Through someone here I got invited to go to a house church on Tuesday night and it was a great blessing. It feels awkward telling groups of Christians I am a missionary to their area so I have tried to be more creative in saying that but they’ve all been very encouraging. On Wednesday night I was invited to go again but I went to an Intervarsity small group instead. That ended up being really wonderful too and I learned a great deal. The club is working on being sent people this semester so it will be a great encouragement to me each week and it will also be cool to work alongside them.

Some updates:

1) Joe had a bad day today. He gets shaky vision that he deals with most of the time but today he also had a weird twitch. He got blood work done this week so pray that the symptoms will subside and that the problem will be figured out. He’s a corporate chaplain so on Thursdays he meets with 180 people at their work places and gets to talk with them about Christ. It’s an awesome opportunity!

2) Young LDS people go to seminary/institute each day to learn about their faith. In most places they go before school, but in Utah, they leave school in the middle of the day and it counts as a class they attend. Somehow this works with separation of church and state but I’m not sure how. The school that Joe’s kids go to was a Christian school but they just went public as a charter school, and they want to start the first Christian Institute in Utah. They are looking for someone to help so I think I am going to get involved in that ministry. I’m excited about it!

3) The Christian radio station that runs out of the Blue House has lots of people from different ministries coming out. One lady runs a ministry that rescues people out of polygamist homes (when they ask her to). Russ wants to see if I can somehow get involved with that. It is really cool to see a plethora of different ways to serve.

So, tonight: I registered for a Book of Mormon class at the Institute of Religion by Weber State (the Institute is where the Ward is, it’s just like the church building). I was told to go check in so when I did that they asked for a lot of information and took my picture. I had to be evasive about where I live so I could get in-they don’t let people from the Blue House into the classes. I got in though and went to class. It was horrible. They started off by talking about how anti-Mormons sometimes take the classes and basically said if you are one, don’t ask questions in class. They also said they’ll try to talk to you after class and invite you over for pizza and then give you anti-Mormon literature. His response to that was “don’t let what you don’t understand interfere with what you do understand,” “there’s always an answer,” and “ever question answered brings up 20 more, just stick to the basics.” Questioning the LDS Church is discouraged. People are just assured that there is an answer, so don’t worry about the questions. He also told us that he was not a “Bible-basher” with the implication that many LDS people are. It was pretty clear he does not like the Bible (except for a few verses from the KVJ) but that he isn’t going to bash other religions. I was really surprised by that; I thought that most Mormons pretended to like the Bible even if they don’t read it. The night was an introduction to why we have the Book of Mormon so it went through an LDS interpretation of all of history, which started with him saying, “history disagrees right and left” and I could not agree more as I heard lie after lie. A great deal of it was straight up bad history and the rest was bad theology. It would be a lot to go into all of what they discussed but I do understand the LDS religion more now. It’s absurd. And dark. It was really awful sitting through that. Like I wanted to cry half the time and when he was warning against anti-Mormons I was really terrified. Not like for my physical health but it was just so dark…I had forgotten how hard it is actually going to be to step into a place where people are being indoctrinated by Satan. He is very active there.

I was very glad to leave when it was done and when I walked outside I was blown away. When I left the house it was raining a bit (I was delighted it was warm enough to rain), so I couldn’t drive because my car has been protesting the cold by refusing to unlock, wipe its windshield and other miscellaneous things. But during the hour and a half I was inside, a full inch of snow had covered everything and it was snowing still a great deal. It was beautiful. In that instant I knew that God loved me and was taking care of me and that he knew that it was hard for me to sit through that class. I had a wonderful half hour walking through the snow, crying and praying to God. I have been lazy about my relationship with him since I have been here because it’s all been pretty easy, but I cherished talking to him at that moment. It was one of the greatest blessings and most intimate moments I have had with him. After that I went to the Intervarsity large group where I got to worship God and meet with Christians. I talked to a girl from my small group the night before and she told me she was raised LDS and was only saved a year ago. She was excited about what I am doing and we plan to talk about that more. I am really excited about it. A girl on Intervarsity staff spoke who was also involved in my small group. She is the kind of person that is a fountain of grace. I really look forward to investing in those relationships more. It will be really nice to go to that meeting every week after going to the Book of Mormon class.

Please pray for me-this is going to be tough. Starting next week I’m going to be a lot more involved in the ward right there (when I tried to tell the registration lady which one I was going to she said flatly “we have 46”…I’m not sure if she meant in Ogden or what, I was very confused). I know it will be really tough to be there and to listen to this all the time. And now I know they warn them against going to meals which is how we try to do things at the Blue House. But I also know that God is encouraging me in the relationships he is building here. Please pray for Joe and for strength for me. I am not afraid of being in a dark place in my own soul like I was before; now I am afraid of just being in a dark location. But I am excited to see what wonders are accomplished when part of the Temple of the Holy Spirit is brought to those places. Pray that Christ is magnified.