Utah

Hey everyone,
I arrived in Utah a few days ago and since then I have been spending my mornings and evenings in training sessions on how to share your faith with Mormons. I have also gotten to meet a lot of really neat people from all over the U.S. who are here to ministry to Mormon people.
Today we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City and boy was it an interesting day. I spent the day with Greg and Serena, the two students who are on my team. We began at the Church History Museum. On the outside of the building there are several things carved into the stone above the entrance. Some of the symbols include the a sun stone, the all seeing eye, and two pentagrams. In addition, there are several other symbols. We asked a gentleman named Charles on the sidewalk to explain them and he gave us a lame explanation. We were able to continue the conversation however. He told us that he wasn't sure if he would get to be with God when he died, but that he was trying his hardest... It's kind of the theme among Mormons... I can never know, but I am trying.
Next we entered the museum and walked around looking at the different displays. Interestingly enough we were actually witnessed to by some other Christians there :) Anyhow, I was able to get into a conversation with Gerald. He is a genuine sweet older man who was in the museum. I asked him to explain some things that were on display. From there he told me about the different kingdoms of heaven and explained to me the concept of eternal progression. I asked him if one day he would be a god and he actually said yes... My heart is still breaking for this man who believes that one day he can be god. He believes that the children he fathers in the afterlife will one day worship him in the same way we worship God. Unfortunately Gerald had to lead a tour and was unable to finish his coversation with me. I feel however, it was the best conversation I had all day...
Moving on in the museum I met Eugene. He was working in the room where items owned by former presidents of the church are on display. He told me how they decide who the next president will be and about how revelations come through the prophets. Unfortunately this man was very racist. We talked for a while about how until 1978, black people were unable to be members of the LDS church. He told us that while he was on his mission, some 40 years ago, he was assigned to Tennessee. He told me that he and his companion would walk through black neighborhoods, but they had been instructed not to talk to the black people. Yikes!!! Does that sound like a church you want to be a part of?
Next we headed to the childrens' area where there is actually a wall that has a pentagram on it and the children are encouraged to rearrange the colors of the pentagram and play with it, then color a picture of the pentagram they created... That was one of the creepiest things I have ever seen.
Finally it was time for lunch and that went well. :) Next our group went on to the Beehive house, Brigham Young's house. The man who stalled while we waited for our tour, was talking about the extermination order given by the govenor of Missouri and when he talked about it he made a sign of having your throat split that used to be a part of the temple serimony. Unless you have seen or studied this, it probably won't be significant to you, but the Greg and I, it was absolutely bone chilling. We just looked at one another like, "can you believe he just did that?" The rest of the tour was less eventful :)
After leaving there, we cruised through the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, then into Tabernacle. Upon leaving I had a brief conversation with a gentleman about the many symbols on the temple. It is decorated with sun and moon stones as well as many, many pentagrams. He tried to explain that they represented the different levels of heaven. He quickly ended our discussion when I started to challenge this idea...
Next we went to the visitor's center where we got on a tour with Sister Powell and Sister Martinez. While on the tour one of the temple goons (security at temple square) came and talked to Sister Powell. We had officially been flagged as anti-mormons who were there to ask contentious questions from the missionaries. I will explain that in a minute...
Anyway- Sister Powell was really emotional and on the edge of tears several times during our tour. Each time it was over something non-emotional.
After leaving the tour with her, we were heading back across the street out of Temple Square and a few interesting things happened. We saw some Temple goons across the street and not knowing that two were right behind me, I made a comment about the KGB across the street. :)
Well, little did I know the KGB on our tails were on their way over to talk to a big group of people we had come to Salt Lake City with. They essentially told them that they were not welcome at Temple Square if they were going to ask contentious, argumentative questions. Greg, Serena and I watched the whole thing from across the sidewalk. Can you believe it? We were not allowed to ask questions about their religion at their headquarters!!! In the mean time while we were crossing the street with the goons behind us, I had asked Joe, a fellow Christian, what time we were meeting to leave. Because Greg, Serena and I had been flagged, when Joe and his friends walked into the Temple Square they were immediately asked to leave. Does this sound like a church with nothing to hide?
A few thoughts on the day in addition to what's above...
1. At Temple Square I saw multiple statues of the Angel Moroni as well as Joseph Smith, but I only saw 2 renderings of Jesus.
2. We were there for 6+ hours before anyone even mentioned Jesus to us... and this is supposed to be the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

Please be praying for Gerald, Charles, Eugene and Sisters Powell and Martinez as well as the other Mormons who were talked to today. Pray that God will use our words to penetrate their hearts.
More to come soon-