April 3, 2012

Utah Trip Part 1

On Saturday, I returned from a long trip to Salt Lake City, Utah with my college group from church. It was unlike any other missions trip I've ever been on before, but I really enjoyed every minute of it. I learned so much and hopefully will be able to take what I learned and apply it whereveer I go.

Saturday, March 24th: leaving day. We got into cars at 9am and departed around 10am. We drove north to Portland and then crossed over to Boise, Idaho. We stayed overnight at a church right next to Boise State University.
Sunday, March 25th: We woke up bright and early, and got on the road. We may or may not have stopped at Starbucks. No showers for us on this day, so that explains why we look decredpid in the pictures. We stopped in Twin Falls and saw a stunningly beautiful waterfall and were greeted by a rainbow. I saw it as hope being brought with us. :)


When we finally arrived in Utah, we went on a hike at Ensign Peak and prayed over the city of Salt Lake. We learned more of the history of the city and the LDS Church.
Here's the whole group at the falls, right before the rainbow came out

View from Ensign Peak-I am so in love with these Mountains

The group with beautiful Salt Lake City behind us
me and Caeli
Monday, March 26th: In the morning, we went to a local tv station, where myself and Austin were selected to be interviewed on live televison (I tried to upload a video, but it failed. Boo Blogger). We spoke about what we were doing in Utah and who we believe the true Jesus is. The program was called Walking in the Word.

Me and Austin while we're on tv

Then we went to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and had dialogue with Mormon students. We spent a lot of time dialoging with professors and leaders, and when we got into groups, there were about 2 Mormon students (Will and Christitan) and 6 Evangelical students (including myself). We were able to discuss our own faiths, the trinity, and many other complex doctrines from each religion. I really enjoyed being able to talk to Mormons themselves. I found overall my opinions about them were often wrong and I misjudged them.
After we left University of Utah, we got to eat at a great college hang out called The Pie. It had a great underground grafitti brick feel to it. I enjoyed the pizza I split with 8 other people. It had pepperoni, 2 kinds of sassage, ground beef, bacon, salami, and I'm sure more meat that I can't remember. HELLO heart attack. So good. I wrote "OSU was here" on one of the brick walls to make our mark.

After dinner, we headed to Temple Square. We all set off individually and did prayer walks around the square. I really enjoyed this time. I enjoyed the artictecture and beauty of the square, but I was so saddened by the need to appear perfect that I saw consitently throughout this trip. Temple Square is somewhat of a Mecca for LDS people, and it is clear why. I was definately impacted by the 30-40 minutes of prayer time around Temple Square.
LDS Salt Lake Temple

1 comment:

  1. I love The Pie! I'm so glad you got to go on this trip:)

    ReplyDelete