So Much Grace

One of the biggest things about talking with Mormons is realizing how much I am covered in God's amazing grace, that He loved me so very much that He saved me, ME, gathered me into His fold and drew me close and called me His own. There is nothing that I can do as a fallen, sinful and depraved human being to earn God's grace, but it is only through the blood of Jesus on the cross that I can gain my salvation. while I was still a sinner, God chose to give up His one and only precious Son to die for me. What could ever surpass this? How can anyone ignore this grace? Why me, why did I get to receive this love?

"But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."

Galatians 2:17-21

Back Tracking!

Wow! What a whirlwind experience these past 13 days have been!

We have stayed in a total of 5 different towns; slept on beds, floors, couches, vans, and tables; visited countless other towns; gone to 6 different college campuses; served with 6 ministries & churches; had to bathe the entire team in lice shampoo, procurred some minor injuries and ailments, got lost several times; met tons of amazing people and really saw God's love and movement here in Utah.

We are now preparing to wind down the trip and head back home to California while surely leaving some part of ourselves here in Utah. This morning we are worshiping with Grace Bible Church in Springville and then loading up into our van train to drive about 4-5 hours south the St. George. There we will be doing our last campus visit to Dixie State College and will then spend the rest of our time reflecting and debriefing as a team.

I cannot say thank you enough for all of the support and prayer, our trip to Utah would have been completely different without it!

I'd like to share a passage that we've really been coming back to during our time. I encourage you to read the whole thing, I will just share a part.

Romans 10:1-15
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."

It goes on to talk about the need for Christ followers to go out and speak the truth to those living in darkness. This was our call to Utah and it has been so encourraging to see God flowing through us!

It's about time for church to begin and then our long drive, but more updates on what we have been doing to come!

A Little Nugget..

This is just another thing I stumbled upon from our day at Temple Square, which I will have to give deets ('details' for those un-hip readers out there) on that day soon!

We have been crazy busy lately, going non stop but ever more experiencing the amazing love and grace of God!

I meant to add a little explanation for that photo...

So this is a statue in one of the buildings at Temple Square. The two sister missionaries that were leading our tour explained it as Jesus being at the center of our universe. What you can't really see in the picture is the painted mural of the universe everywhere around this room.

Over the years, our team has come to refer to this guy as 'space Jesus' which is not intended to be offensive to anyone, I promise. it's just that when you see the room as a whole, that's kind of the impression one gets.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

Quick Prayer Request...

Of course, as it goes with many missions trips, our team has been facing minor injuries and sicknesses. One of our wise leaders, Kate, made a great decission to force us all to to take 1 chewable vitamin C a day.

Great idea- this is what happened.

Here is a rightside up view

Salt Lake Temple! This may be sideways but I had to get moroni on the top there..