A few of Jose's pictures

The sister in the middle was from Jose's city in Colombia, she is in Long Beach CA now.

One of our dishwashers!

Meeting for service

The trip home

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to let everyone know that we all made it home safely. Our plan was to leave the house in Sundance at 6AM, Saturday the 14th. The cars were all packed, the text read, prayer said and off we went at 5:50 AM! We made good time, did not have a flat tire, or any other car problems. Thank goodness! Altho we did run into some rain.
We all just had the absolute best time. To repeat, everyone needs to go to Utah to preach. You need to experience being with your brothers and sisters in one house, Sister Weathers described it like being in a missionary home. We certainly were able to get to know our brothers and sisters better. We all had a sense of humor, and some situations were just hilarious! Ask anyone of us about the games of spoons! Plus, being here refined our skills with the Bible. We all, after the first day of service, said we are coming back, Jehovah willing of course.
Anyway, thanks for following our blog. We hope you found it encouraging. We wish you all could experience the joy we have.
Stay tuned, we hope to post more pictures.
Love from all 14 of us!

Friday - Vacation day

Chicken Wing Shirley at the Lagoon

Dining in Park City

Dan falls in love with a bear in Park City

Today 4 of the girls went to Lagoon theme park in Salt Lake City and enjoyed the rides.  The Morris's, Brenda and Stormie went to Park City to see the town and shop.  Six brothers rode the lift here at Sundance up the mountain and took a trail to Stewart water falls and one of the mountain peaks with amazing views.

On the way to the Arrowhead summit

As the day wrapped up we where able to assess the impact of our week in the ministry. After interviewing everyone in the group and compiling all General Interest Calls and Outstanding Interest calls we came up with a total of 78 RV's that need to be made. 26 of them are Outstanding Interest and 52 are General Interest! We where also able to compile all of the rest of the totals.

Books --------------------------------------------------------  37
Hours --------------------------------------------------------   275
Mags ---------------------------------------------------------   451
RV's ----------------------------------------------------------   16

Imagine if two youthfull special pioneers worked for a full month at nearly 260 hours and got these results, what a month that would be!

Dan and Jill Morris

Hello everyone. Being here in Utah this week has been an incredible experience for us both. Being at the first meeting on Sunday was awesome!! Seeing all of the brothers and sisters from the other 2 groups, and then hearing the sound of their voices, singing so loudly, with hearts full of enthusiasm for the coming weeks activities, brought many, including us to sniffles and a few tears.  

On Monday, Jill and I went to the door and met a young woman, Ashley, who was very busy with 2 small  children. As we started to talk with her, we realized she was most likely not LDS. Still, we  continued on with the message we were determined to share - that Jehovah's Kindom, not any man made government under Satan's control, is the only solution to solve man's problems (Luke 4:5-7, Dan 2:44)  She was very interested in what we were saying and mentioned that she had not read the bible much and so we immediately shared Chapter 8  in  the Bible Teach Book, which she gladly accepted with a big smile. We let her know that we were only in town a few days and would like to come back an talk more about what God's Kindom would do. She seemed excited and said we could come back the next day.

On Tuesday, I met a younger man who was LDS, he had recently been on a mission to Honduras. We reasoned on Luke 4, Dan 2:44, and then 1 John 4:20,21, at this point I asked him- "if you support a government that could potentially go to war with Honduras, would you be willing to fight against the very ones you had just made your brother and sister in your faith?". He paused -  "I see what you are saying, I'm not sure, So let me get this straight, if you as one of Jehovahs Witnesses, were asked to go to war, you wouldn't?" - No, I said, many of our brother and sisters have gone to prison rather than fight for any of Satan's Governments, We are all united, Worldwide!!" Then I shared Dan.7:14 showing that all national groups and languages would serve Jehovah, not just one country. He seemed to be thinking about this and so I shared the Bible Teach Book and he gladly accepted it. Then he said -  as most LDS say- he was not interested in a return "discussion", but... I wrote him down as a return visit anyway.

Yesterday we said goodbye to brother and sister Weathers, hugs all around.
Brother Weathers even dried his eye as he let us all know how much we encouraged him and Barbara. We said good by to the Group from Long Beach too. It went by so fast!!
We enjoyed this week so much, what an awesome priviledge to be here.
We already cannot wait to do it again next year!!

Brenda's experience

 Jill and I were working together on Tuesday afternoon in an apartment complex and we found a young LDS man, TJ who told us he was busy having a meeting in his apartment. I asked if we could come back as he was interested in learning and was concerned about misinformation. On Wednesday afternoon Leon and I planned on going back after 5, however since I found a Muslim student from Kuwait, we didn't get to TJ's house until 5:40. He said he had to run to the bank so he went and got his appointment book and we set up a time for Thursday afternoon at 1. He told us he would have about an hour. The next day we were invited right in and he had turned on the a/c, which we greatly appreciated, since it was 99 degrees outside. TJ had been on a mission to Manitoba and while there had attended a KH and now wanted to know about the 144,000 and holidays. We started with Genesis 3 and explained the significance of what happened in the Garden of Eden and God's original purpose. He was very interested in Job 38 and thought that we had been spirits in heaven before birth on earth. We were able to use John 3:13  to disprove that. We also explained that Jehovah is a God of organization, and that He has a heavenly organization and an earthly one. This led to the 144,000 in Rev 20 and their responsibilities in heaven. He said he understood why we don't celebrate holidays and the scriptures on blood transfusions and admired our faith.  TJ was very polite and although he had the Book of Mormon bound with his King James Bible, he never referred to it.  We left Leon's card with his phone number and email address. Jeff had told us that the LDS make slow progress because of peer pressure but hope something is there with TJ.  What we learned from talking to a number of former LDS missionaries is that the Witnesses were the friendliest people they talked to and makes us want to invite them in if they call on us and kindly try to share a point or 2 with them.

Can you believe our trip is almost over? I think we all can agree that it feels as if we just began. Wednesday was another incredible day of field ministry. We began going back on the outstanding calls we had accumulated since Sunday and start real bible studies with them.
Here's an experience for you: Avalon and Shirley were getting a bit discouraged. Their group had been working apartments all morning and it felt like another day in Portland: no one was home! So finally 11:30 comes around; Scott and Leon have a return call on a man so they send the girls to 4 doors that weren't home the day before, for the sake of something to do. low and behold, the very first door opened up to the nicest young Mormon mother named Kyli. They talked about how many feel God is testing us on this earth (a basic teaching of the LDS faith) but how the Bible completely disagrees with that. The conversation continued, reading scriptures such as Revelation 12:9 and James 1:13. We could tell there was something there. So a Teach book was placed and we have arranged to return this morning. The next door the girls found a young man who hadn't even looked into the Bible very much at all! He was a clean slate, so to speak. When we brought out the Teach book his eyes lit up. This was perfect for him to see what really is taught in the bible without the teachings of false religion to overwhelmingly get in his way. What a blessing to know that with a bit of patience, Jehovah promises to help us find those right hearted ones who need the truth so desperately!

What a Day Wednesday!!!

Hi everyone...its Dan Ward.   Wednesday was an exciting and very memorable day.  We were really getting into the groove of the ministry here.  All of us had 10 or 12 hours of service in so far for the week and we were hitting our stride, making sharp points with the Bible and finding several honest hearted ones of multiple faiths that recognized the ring of truth from the Bible.  We broke up our service time a little different on Wednesday...hence why we didn't make a post last night.  We met the group at the park at the usual time, 9:00 am, but this time only went out until noon.  After that we did a little shopping in town and some ate lunch at the mall while others went back to the house for lunch and a little "heat of the day" rest.  We wanted to go back out in the afternoon and try to find some return visits as well as take a little different tack working afternoon door to door.  We had mild success in both, but always someone in the group had an outstanding conversation.  It is very common.  Everyone worked from 4-6 pm and we all met at the Outback Steakhouse for a nice meal, 14 of us together.  The waitress was very surprised that we didn't need any kid's menus...  :)

After eating for an hour or so, we made quick time to the Provo Kingdom Hall and shared a wonderful school and service meeting with our brothers there.  They had oral review this week, making up from CO visits and District Convention reschedules.  One of the brothers from the local congregation commented during his part..."I love seeing this hall so full"...he was not alone in his sentiment.  We all love seeing full Kingdom Halls and the near deafening roar of so many zealous ones singing loudly together gave many chills and goosebumps.  It was neat to see 5 students from BYU there at the meeting also.  Some from one of the other visiting groups had met them in the service and invited them to the meeting.  Talking with the locals, it is evidentally not rare for the LDS college students to visit the Kingdom Hall. 

Jeff and Barbara Weathers

Following the meeting, Jeff Weathers, the local Special Pioneer that is organizing the group work, took all the visiting groups up to a viewpoint in the mountains above Orem.  Having shared with so many in the territory Luke 4:5-7, is was a running joke that he was taking us to "an unusually high place." It seemed like we drove and drove and drove...up and up and up.  But when we got to the top, the view was breathtaking.  The city lights were amazing. We could see over 30 miles north and south.  Jeff described where the unassigned territory borders were and we all felt a great sense of joy and accomplishment looking down on a portion of the world that the faithful slave had entrusted to us for preaching.  We stayed for awhile, laughing together with our brothers...sometimes at our brothers...but enjoying the fellowship with over 30 wonderful friends that we only find in Jehovah's organization.

We didn't get back to the house until after 11.  We went straight to bed...well some of us had ice cream, but we went to bed after that.   Hence no, post last night.



Meeting for field service in the Park

Today, Thursday I made my 3rd visit on a very special man that I met and placed a Teach Book with on Tuesday.  The initial call, Tuesday mid morning, was not unlike a BTB placement that we so often make in our Portland territory.  When we were working the apartments that this man lives in, we often took a much less straight forward approach.  Few in the apartments are devout or even practicing LDS.  Many more are just struggling people that need a hope for the future.  That was Mike's story.  I shared Pslm 37:10,11, he was amazed at the opportunity for perfect life on a paradise earth.  He literally snatched the book from my hand when
 I showed it to him.  We discusssed some chapters from the book and made a specific appointment to meet again the very next day.  If you have opportunity to do this with calls back home, please try it.  Here we have such a sense of urgency knowing we only had a few days to meet with interested ones.  If it is at all possible, go back on RVs the next day...two days at the most, their reaction can be outstanding.  Anyway, Shauna and I went back on Wednesday at 11:00 am and we were there for an hour.  Mike had stayed up that night and reread the book of Matthew.  He felt a need to be prepared for our next discussion.  He had wrote down some points he wanted to talk to us about, several questions he had and he could not wait to ask them of us.  When he brought out his personal copy of the Bible for our discussion, it looked like Sister Long's study copy of the Watch Tower.  Almost no margin not written in and so much highlighter the pages almost glowed.   We sat down on his loveseat and he shook his room mate awake that was sleeping in a sleeping bag on the couch.  "Get up and listen" he told his friend, whom I have to admit was quite surprised to see us in his apartment. 

Mike dove right in and asked us "what is the difference between you and the LDS church"....I could not have been happier to answer that question.  Shauna and I fired away at the LDS church, their teachings of politics, the immortal soul, God's purpose for man, approval of war and on and on.  We shared scripture after scripture and both men were absolutely soaking up the truth.  It was an enormous joy to use the Bible so freely and see intelligent men discovering the truth...and doing this all with my wife. They kept exclaiming..."this is so simple"..."why aren't you telling people this stuff"...we smiled, chuckled and told them about our worldwide preaching work.  The next question was..."ok...tell us what is different about Jehovah's Witnesses and other Christian churches."  I immediately went to John 13:34,35.  "This is one of the identifying marks that Jesus gave you, Mike, to find the true religion.  Go down to the Methodist church (his father was a methodist preacher) and ask them if they would send their young men off to war to kill other methodist in another country...and when they tell you yes!, then go down to the baptist church and ask them...and when you get done, go to the LDS church and ask them if they would kill their brother at the beck and call of some man made government...and then come down to Kingdom Hall."  Our loving unity will always make us different.  We also went to Matt 24:14, and said we are the only ones doing this work, preaching about the Kingdom of God.  We left him after an hour with the question, "what is that kingdom."  Both him and his room mate, Jacob, were so excited to hear what the Bible teaches and were nearly dumbfounded at the simplicity of the Truth. Shauna and I floated back to the car and truly felt Jehovah had sent us to Utah to find those men.

We went back today.  This time Pete and I shared another 25 minutes with Mike.  We demonstrated the Bible study program, getting into the BT book under the subheading "What is God's Kingdom."  His interest in the truth is outstanding.  I could type 10 pages and still not tell you the whole experience.

It will feel empty not to go back again to this call.  We told Mike about Jeff and how he would be taking over the study the very next day.  Mike, gave us his phone number and enthusiasticly told us to make sure that Jeff comes by.  We assured him we would and I told him that I would call in a week to make sure everything is set up and to see how he is progressing.  With the right heart condition and if Jehovah draws this man, I have no doubt that he will make good spiritual progress. 

With that experience...my 3 sentence soap box.  I implore you to make time in your schedule to work unassigned territory.  There is no experience in Jehovah's organization like this.  You will be sharpened by the territory, encouraged by the tremendous interest that you find, uplifted by the time spent with your brothers and rejuvinated to continue the urgent preaching work back home. 

Your brother,

Dan Ward



The View from the "unusually high mountain"

More experiences



Jose leading the way!

Jose and I (Adele) were working territory this morning and came across a young mother standing in her yard. She was accompanied by her two expressive puppies and her 10-month old baby. She smiled at us, as we introduced ourselves, commenting on the long distance we had traveled to come here. Jose skillfully started the conversation by asking her what she felt was the theme of Jesus' ministry. He then read Luke 4:43 about the kingdom. He then alluded to the need for God's kingdom to rule; to solve mankind's problems. Having attended a Sunday School, when she was younger, she was familiar with the lord's prayer and agreed wholeheartedly with the inability of governments today to solve the problems in the world. Having established that fact, Jose asked why governments were having such a hard time improving world conditions, even when sincere men may be trying their hardest to do so. He then turned to the account at Luke 4:5-7 about the temptations given to Jesus by Satan. Why would this be a temptation, if Jesus was already in control of the governments? Having established the fact that Satan is ruling the governments. We expressed that, as Jehovah's witnesses, we refuse to take part in political affairs, and how we refuse to go to war. She was greatly impressed by this fact, as she had no idea that witnesses had gone to jail for refusing to participate in war. We could not, in good conscience, kill our brothers, just because they lived under a different government. Again, she was impressed. Jose then directed attention to her son. What would the future be like for him? She expressed her concern, for she was not blind to the fact that things are going to get worse. He then read John 17:3, emphasizing how the knowledge from the bible can benefit us, and, if we choose to follow it, we can recieve everlasting life. Again we directed attention to God's kingdom being the only hope for the future. He then pulled out the teach book and she enthusiastically accepted it. As we were about to leave, she asked us if there was a congregation nearby. She is a nurse working with mentally ill and disabled patients. Every week, they visit a different church, and 4 members of her group had been asking her to go to a kingdom hall. The nearest kingdom hall she could find (using google) was in Salt Lake City, which is at least 35 miles away. We gave her the jw.org website and directed her to the 'Look-up' tab. As we were standing there, she pulled up the website on her phone and was able to find the address of the nearest kingdom hall, which was about 3 miles away! Jose set up to return Thursday morning and will be taking Brother Weathers, as he wishes to accompany him. We shall wait and see the exciting things that happen next.  This was an amazing experience! Not only did we find a very nice and receptive lady, but we were able to find 4 people who have not been able go to the Kingdom hall. We can only imagine the intense  joy they will experience, when they are finally reunited with their fellow brothers and sisters. If we had not come to Utah, this experience may never have happened. How thankful we are to Jehovah, for giving us this opportunity and blessing our efforts. The fields are indeed ripe for harvesting!

Day 2 of unassigned: Accomplished.

It was hot hot hottttt today! Around 100 degrees, but boy was it worth it! Brother and Sister Weathers worked with our group this morning. At the first door Barbara and I (Avalon) got a young mother at the door. She was the sweetest thing you could find and very friendly. She was LDS, of course, but told us she really didn't feel comfortable getting into politics. This was quite a shock because most LDS members are devout when it comes to getting involved in politics. What a nice surprise! So we encouraged her with 1 John 5:19 why it was good to stay out of this world's governments and read her Luke 4:43 about the government we really should be supporting. We placed a bible teach book with her and plan to return Thursday.

--Avalon

A brother and sister we met at the Provo meeting on sunday that Walter Knapp studied with in the mid 70's while in Foster Road congregation

     Hello Everyone! Yesterday Sherley and I (Shauna), had the opportunity to speak with a young woman that was raised as an LDS.  She had never owned a bible and had NO idea what the Mormon faith really taught.  She expressed how she has always intended to learn more about the bible, but has just never really put the time into it.  I showed her the Teach book and she said, "This is exactly what I need! I could really use this." She was just visiting her parents house and lives a few hours north of Orem.  She readily agreed to give us her address, phone number, and told us that when someone visits, not to go to the front door because she just rents the basement.  There are so many young people here just like her, they are losing faith in the Mormon Church and searching.  What an amazing opportunity, privilege and blessing this has been!!!

-- Shauna

WOW!!! MOOSE & ELK

We didn't want you to miss us too much, so we decided to post twice in one day! After dinner this evening, we decided to take an adventure higher up the mountain we are living on. When we got to the top we were at 8,000 feet! That's quite a difference from what we are used to in Portland, and it didn't disappoint. On the way up the first thing that stopped us in our tracks was a HUGE herd of elk! Not even kidding! There were about 15 to 20 elk from babies to cows to young bulls. It was incredible to hear them stampeding through the forests of aspen trees! We stepped out of our cars to take photos and you could hear their mewing and chirping as they talked back and forth with each other. It truly is amazing to see the intelligent creation Jehovah lovingly has given us to enjoy. What a treat! But as it turns out, that was only the start of our epic adventure! When we crested the mountain, we turned a corner and came head on to a cow moose with her darling newborn calf! They were completely calm and unafraid and posed for us repeatedly as we clicked picture after picture. The one attached we have chosen to give you an idea of what we were able to experience. We left them eating peacefully in their meadow and moved on to explore the rest that the Wasatch mountains had to offer.

Monday - Pulling them to the deep end...

Sunday Meeting - CO Visit with 2 other visiting groups

What a beautiful place!

Hey all!
It's Monday evening, we are back home resting after our first full day of the field ministry. Boy what a day! About 75% of the people here are of the Latter Day Saints faith, so almost every door you know what you are getting into...or so we thought. A good 3/4 of our group started bible studies today! The younger generation of the Mormons are the ones who seem to be struggling with the faith, hesitating as to whether it is true or not, and we can readily see that the foundations of the LDS church are breaking apart. And we found many young adults today who were quite willing to talk and interested in learning. But also a few of the older generation are responding. For example, at one door, a young boy (8-10) came and his eyes literally went into the back of his head and fluttered, afterwards he agreed to go and get his grandfather, who we were able to start sharing scriptures with. The young boy's sister called grandpa from the door, whispering to him that she wanted him to leave the house to talk with us; it seemed to traumatize the 4 children inside to have us talking there! It is obvious that there is a strong hold on these ones by Satan and his demons in the LDS church, to an extent we have never seen. Brother Weathers, the special pioneer here warned us that this was going to be the case, and in fact we had many interactions with experiences like this one. Many doors here you can expect to talk for at least 5 to ten minutes if they are LDS. We found a few offshoot religions but rare to none in contrast to the LDS population. We are also starting to realize just how much these people need to hear the truth. Orem has no congregation and 100,000 people who need to hear from us. These people really do need to hear this truth to set them free. We are so thrilled to be here! This has been the most incredible experience of our lives! We feel like every single witness should experience coming here. We are sharpening our skills in using the bible to reason with these people and most of all, to be bold! There is no messing around here, no sugar coating. When those ones open the door, we have an average of 5 scriptures planned to reason with them on. Today the groups focused on the political aspect of Satan's world and blatantly taught them how God feels about getting involved in this system's government. Either you support Jehovah and his kingdom, or you are supporting Satan and his. Plain as that. It is such a thrill to finally be able to firmly preach Jehovah's kingdom without hesitation. For instance, today a lot of us used:
Luke 4:43 (what was Jesus message) Are these governments today God's kingdom?
 Luke 4:5-7 (These government's are under Satan's control) So do we get involved in politics and governments today? Interestingly, most LDS emphatically say that we should!
That leads us to talk to them about wars and how they are alright with killing other LDS in war.
1 John 4:20,21 (if you hate your brother you are a liar)
Then John 13:34,35 ( Love one another)
We contrast Jehovah's Witnesses stand on politics and war to make a clear definition of what we believe and how we follow the bible. Many told us they had no idea.
At this point, they are still very calm and we are finding out if this sounds interesting for them or not. If it is then we pull out the teach book. If not, we leave them with maybe a magazine and go our separate ways on a friendly note. We really are giving a thorough witness to each one. Brother Weathers tells us we have to get them out to the "deep end of the pool" to find out if they are really interested or not. It's a fascinating process!We are going to need a lot of extra time at the service meeting to tell all of our adventures! More to come!

Posted by Avalon

Hi -- this is Stormie and I just want to add something really neat. When we go to the door, we introduce ourselves and immediately say we are Jehovah's Witnesses from Portland, OR. In Portland, if someone comes to the door and states their denomination and says they are not interested, we understand that to typically mean they want us to leave.  Here in Utah, we take a different approach.  We smile and ask them their opinion on the Bible verse, which most will give.  And then we take them from the "shallow end of the pool", where they feel comfortable with thier programmed answers, to "the deep end" where they can't answer by rote. We are hoping this will force them to question what they have been taught. To do this we are being bold and making sure we don't leave until each person has an opportunity to see Bible truth. 

Leon and Ken Preaching

Sunday Night

Good evening everyone. It has been a real whirlwind since we arrived here on saturday afternoon. We got to Sundance at about 5 pm on saturday evening. Upon arriving there was shouts of joy as all went running through the house. It is amazing! take a look at the pictures. A couple of sisters went to the grocery store and was able to put together a great spagetti dinner. We were all very tired, we met for a few minutes to hash out the plan for sunday and most went to bed. Sunday morning we all got up and went to the meeting in Provo, about a 30 minute drive from here in Sundance. We were quite fortunate, we caught the last visit of the circuit overseer, Brother Johnston, who know's Brother Wickers. Suprisingly we were not the only group visiting, there is a group from Long Beach, California and a group from L.A. The group from L.A. is working in Orem with us but the group from the LBC is working in Provo.

After meeting we went in service for the first time! What an experience! This is such an different territory. We are learning a lot about the Mormon people, faith and teachings. They are friendly and mostly agreeable. Some tried to reason on the religion and politics watchtower and some tried to reason on the immortality of the soul. It was exciting, lots of literature was placed and we are starting to learn to rethink our approach.

At 6pm we had dinner with Brother and Sister Weathers, they are the special pioneer couple assigned to Orem. After 2.5 hours of different viewpoints and conversation about how to reason with mormons, we where able to develop some new strategies for tomorrow

In portland you have 15 seconds to get a word in, here you have 15 minutes to figure out if there is any real interest. There is not the agreement between the LDS that you  might think. Also many very "interesting" beliefs, more to come on that.

Knock knock joke

Knock knock,
Who's there?
Brigham young,
Brigham young who?
Jesus said, "brigham young children to me, do not stop them".

-Danny Morris-

Breaker breaker

Midnight leader, silver bullet and white lightning (aarp car) using the latest technology

Only a few more days and we will be leaving! Everyone is so excited.
We had a meeting last Saturday night to iron out all the details.
We are taking 2 cars and a van. Plus pulling a small trailer. Glenn has offered his Buick and Cheryl has offered her van.The Morris'es are taking their car.  We are leaving Friday at 12:45 PM. We will drive to Baker City. Saturday morning we leave at 6AM for Orem. We have been watching the weather, and it will be a big change from here, where summer has barely begun to Utah, which is in the 90's.
We plan on going to the meeting on Sunday, and service afterwards. Then service Monday-Thursday, and on Friday some will go to a waterpark, and others will do sightseeing.
So, stay tuned for our big adventure!