Smith's Situation: MISSIONARIES AT TEMPLE SQUARE

Being a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an incredible experience, to say the least! We are 2 out of a force of 1,400 missionaries on Temple Square. Every single day we participate in life altering events. We are truly amazed at the folks who come to Temple Square with curiosity about the church and genuine questions about our beliefs. WE LOVE INTERACTING WITH THEM. Although we can't follow up with them, because our time together is rather brief before they move forward to another church site, we feel a profound connection as the spirit reaches out and touches them in ways that, perhaps, they have never felt before.

We have incredible experiences each day, too numerous to write them all here, but we will share a few. We give tours at the Church Office Building and acknowledge various points of interest around the valley, as we are on the observation deck of the 26th floor. Many of these highlights lead to questions from our visitors about the church.
One couple came from Canada to spend a week, solely, in Salt Lake City. Their purpose was to find out about the church in a non-threatening way because their daughter had married a horrible Mormon boy (she joined the church) and now the grandchildren were being raised in this evil church and are talking about going on missions. The grandparents are beside themselves, but are determined to find out what their daughter has gotten herself into. Kent had a wonderful conversation with them where their hearts were softened and they felt like, perhaps, we weren't so evil after all.
Another family came from Switzerland and were Jewish. They asked how their religion was similar to ours. Kent told them that our 2 religions were probably more similar than any others. They were particularly interested in the Family History and Genealogy part of what we do. Their conversation went on for an hour.
Another man and wife told us that they felt the LDS people got a bad rap and weren't treated fairly in the Southern States by the ministers of other churches. It's remarkable to me that our church leaders speak so kindly of other denominations, yet they can't think of anything nice to say about us. I guess persecution of our church may never end.
We've had other folks who can hardly wait to get their hands on a Book of Mormon. These are fun experiences.
A family from China came to our tour and were absolutely astonished at the goodness of our religion. The wife could hardly contain herself! She wanted to correspond, so I shared my email. She gave me a gift from China and insisted on having me in a picture with her.
Well, those are just a few (very few) of our experiences. Hey.....we even had one of our tourists take us to dinner the other night. That was quite the experience!!!!

This is the view from the COB 26th floor.