When I first heard about the trip to Utah, I was terrified of what would happen. However, the closer we got to the trip, the more I felt the Lord preparing me for what was to come. In total, I had about 13 conversations, but one stood out to me the most. On our second day in Utah, we visited BYU, where we were supposed to find people and talk to them about the LDS faith. I felt hopeful about what the Lord would bring from the day and how He would use my partner and I. The second conversation we had lasted about an hour and a half, and I could see the Lord working throughout the entire conversation.
The woman we talked to was young, married, and very kind and sweet. She allowed us to sit with her in one of the grassy areas on campus. We wanted to discuss baptism and salvation because, according to the LDS faith, a person must be baptized into the church to reach the celestial kingdom and live with God. Therefore, this became the main topic of our conversation. She was very kind and open to hearing what we had to say. We encouraged her to read Scripture from an evangelical perspective while we read it from an LDS perspective, and she was excited to do so.
She even texted her husband and took a picture of the passage so she could read it later because she wanted to study it more deeply.
This was very encouraging to see. I noticed that in our encounter, she could not actually back up her beliefs with Scripture, and if she did back up Scripture, it was all wrongly interpreted. I noticed contradictions between the teachings in the Book of Mormon and the Bible, which helped me recognize the importance of comparing LDS beliefs with Scripture to better understand and defend the truth of Christianity. This helped me see the importance of knowing Scripture and being prepared to explain and defend what I believe.
Anna NeSmith, Class of 2027
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