# My First Encounter With Mormons



## ryanpresnell (Oct 26, 2021)

I'm not sure if this is the right place for posting this, but I'm very excited with how my first interaction with Mormon missionaries went and thought I would share it here. I will try and give a play-by-play of what happened in case anyone is interested or would like to give advice or resources for further study (I appreciate the suggestion of Brian Schwertley's sermonaudio clips which I found in another thread).

My campus ministry had a partnership evangelism session today, and unfortunately I showed up late and was unable to find anyone I knew from the ministry, so I'm not sure if anyone ended up going or not. Fortunately, I happened to pass by some Mormons who were speaking with someone. I decided to keep walking a bit and then walk back so that I could wait for them to finish talking with the person before speaking with them. First, they showed me a verse in the book of Mormon that essentially said that if you genuinely seek the truth and pray to God, the Holy Spirit will reveal the truth to you. I added that one who is genuinely seeking the truth should do as Christ commands and search the scriptures in addition to prayer. Then we started discussing Bible translations and I asked their opinion of the Joseph Smith translation and I think they said that they believe the JST mostly contains revelations of verses that were lost or changed. I remembered a specific "prophecy" from the JST attributed to the book of Genesis in which Joseph Smith is apparently predicted by name. I suggested that it was strange that there was not a single shred of manuscript evidence for this prophecy or for any of the other extrabiblical "revelations". They said that they would research it further. I then brought up Deuteronomy 13, which says not to follow a prophet if he instructs you to go after other gods, to prove that Joseph Smith should not be followed because he serves a god that is not triune. To prove this I started with the apostle John saying that the prophet Isaiah saw the glory of Christ in Isaiah 6, when in the cited passage, Christ is referred to as Jehovah. They responded that they believe Jehovah is the Son, and Elohim is the Father. I had heard this before but was uncertain whether this was common to all Mormons. So, I then went to Psalm 100:3 which says that Jehovah is Elohim. They were unable to respond and asked if we could set up a later meeting so that they could look into the matter. I happily obliged and gave them my name and phone number. I have already received a text message from them, so hopefully soon we will be able to speak again. Overall, they seemed fairly knowledgeable about what the LDS beliefs are but did not seem well-equipped to handle Christian polemics. I would appreciate any prayers that may be offered both for the conversion of these two Mormons as well as for me to have the ability to recall scripture and other relevant information when necessary in future encounters.

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## Stephen L Smith (Oct 26, 2021)

ryanpresnell said:


> I'm not sure if this is the right place for posting this


Moved to cults and world religions


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## Jack K (Oct 27, 2021)

My two cents: I have found that most of these Mormon missionaries have never heard the true gospel. Or they are so deeply mired in their works-righteousness system that if they did hear it, it didn't register.

As missionaries of a false gospel who proclaim a false god, they are officially working as agents of the enemy, no doubt. In that sense, they do need to be opposed, resisted, and corrected. But keep in mind that most of the time they are also very young, scared, and anxious about whether they are doing enough for their god. They don't just need to be corrected; they also need to hear the true gospel and feel how Jesus frees a believer from that religious treadmill. If you can personally share _that_ with them—how Jesus has freed _you_ from condemnation, from worry about God's disapproval, from the gnawing sense that you haven't yet earned the right to call God your Father, from the oppression of lingering sin that you can't seem to shake, from nagging uncertainty about your future with your Savior, etc.—you should be able at least to get their attention and plant a seed that says the true gospel is not only righter, but a zillion times better.

If you get to the point where you can ask, "_If Christianity were true_, wouldn't that be so much better than what you believe? Don't you _wish_ it were true?" and in their heart they start to answer that yes, it would be better, then convincing them that Joseph Smith was full of baloney becomes pretty easy.

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## MountainPilgrim (Oct 27, 2021)

Jack K said:


> anxious about whether they are doing enough for their god. They don't just need to be corrected; they also need to hear the true gospel and feel how Jesus frees a believer from that religious treadmill. If you can personally share _that_ with them—how Jesus has freed _you_ from condemnation, from worry about God's disapproval, from the gnawing sense that you haven't yet earned the right to call God your Father, from the oppression of lingering sin that you can't seem to shake, from nagging uncertainty about your future with your Savior, etc.—you should be able at least to get their attention and plant a seed that says the true gospel is not only righter, but a zillion times better.



I grew up in a _heavily _Mormon community and absolutely agree with Jack. While the temptation is often to attack the more ridiculous claims of Mormonism - and let's be honest, there's a lot of low-hanging fruit - I have never found that to be particularly helpful. Frankly, I think it comes across as quite rude and condescending. But one thing Mormons indeed struggle with is knowing if they're good enough. They are always trying to be "better" in every sense, and it leads to a very real despair. Most will never admit it, for to do so would be to likewise admit their guilt, but there is a reason Mormon communities are some of the biggest consumers of pharmaceutical anti-depressants. 

I've found the most effective means by which you can show a Mormon the inadequacy of his "gospel" is to ask, as legend states Martin Luther did, "But how do we know?" And then, as Jack said, offer the true comfort and glory of a Gospel finished for us, apart from us, in which we can rest and give thanks to God.

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## Santos (Oct 27, 2021)

I have had a similar experience with "Mormon Missionaries" in the past who were young and could not answer my questions and they graciously requested that we meet again. They showed up with an older "Elder" who was more informed. However, he also had no answers. Expect them to break out the big guns at your next meeting.

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