spring break - trip to utah

for spring break, i went down to provo, utah with carter, will and jesse to visit ian radford. we had a great time - there is so much i could talk about, but i'll narrow it down to a few points:

-probably my favorite thing was getting to talk with people different than me. going down there was like culture shock - BYU is (not surprisingly) 99% mormon, and mormon culture is different than anything i've ever experienced. i loved getting to talk with ian's friends. it was surprisingly easy to have chances to talk about what we believe. we didn't seen any "conversions" but i was praying earlier, and God reminded me of that verse in corinthians that talks about how paul planted the seed, apollos watered it, and God made it grow. i feel like, by God's grace, we were able to plant some seeds in a few people's lives. we had chances to have good, solid conversations with like 10-15 people down here...and only God can make those seeds grow. so, that was awesome.

- one other cool thing is that although this wasn't a mission trip, but we were able to just live life "on mission." there was little disconnect between the secular and the sacred...its just flowed from one thing to another..praying with each other, sharing the gospel, having fun, talking about serious things, reading scripture, etc. we were able to do these things throughout our trip, and it was absolutely incredible. one of my favorite moments of the trip took place in the car on the way back. we were driving through the gorge, watching the sunset, talking about Jesus, and then we began to pray...then we turned on some united and began to worship with each other - it was such a blessing to get to love Jesus alongside my brothers.

- i will share one conversation that we were all able to have. on sunday night, after attending both a christian and a mormon church and talking with mormons until about 4pm, we went to ian's friend's apartment. there, we ate zimbabwean food (that's where his friend did his 2-year mission) and talked for a bit. after a little while, about 10 of us ended up in a circle talking about mormonism and christianity. we discussed things, going back and forth about the major difference between christianity and mormonism - grace versus works. it was a relaxed, civilized conversation, and i think we were able to bring up a few points that by God's grace may have planted a seed in their lives. driving back home, all 5 of us were talking about the conversation, and ian spoke up. he said, "it's been so good to just listen to you guys talk about the gospel. i feel like i am learning the gospel all over again." we then started to pray for ian's mormon friends that we had just met...when we arrived back at ian's apartment, we just kept praying. it was beautiful...and it was such a blessing to be able to share Jesus at BYU.

that's all for the blog. if you want to know more, just ask. pictures are soon to come...and there's some good ones, so you don't want to miss those.

praise Jesus! i can't believe how good he is to us, and being around such a religious atmosphere, it makes the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus stand out even more. he alone is worthy. amen.