The Mormon Mirage

The Mormon Mirage

Latayne C. Scott

Zondervan

There have been countless books written that detail the theological differences of Mormonism and Christianity. There have been more written on the connection of Mormonism to Masonry and the Occult. I have read many of these books, and have found them to be written with various degrees of skill and truth.

The Mormon Mirage is definitely one of the best books on Mormonism I have read. This third edition has been updated extensively, with two new chapters dealing with major issues and challenges facing Mormonism in the 21st century. This issues include race and gender, the availability of information on the internet, and the visibility of splinter and fundamentalist groups that have arisen lately. New endnotes have been added providing additional support for Scott's points, and corrections have been made where needed.  Well written and detailed, The Mormon Mirage has been a worthy addition to the literature available on Mormonism.

Latayne C. Scott grew up in Mormonism, attending BYU university. After a few years of school, she was challenged to examine the teachings of Mormonism, and compare them to the Bible. After doing so, she realized that Mormonism did not hold up to true Biblical Christianity, and left the Mormon church. 

As she mentions in her opening chapter, most literature written against Mormonism makes one of two mistakes.  Either the authors underestimate the intelligence, integrity or character of the Mormon people, or they fail to fact check. Both of these are turnoffs, both for the Mormon and non-Mormon readers. With her background in Mormonism, Scott deftly maneuvers this book between these pitfalls, avoiding crashing into either. 

While the majority of the information has been found in other books I have read, there were some surprises that were here, enough even, to hurry to my wife and read her portions.  

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who want a book on Mormonism that is written from a loving viewpoint. In her conclusion, discussing her work, Scott says,

More than anything, it is a symbolic representation of the actions of the waving of a white handkerchief before the Lord, as I ask him again and again through liberating truth to save those people who are as I once was, when I was there, and I believed.

Grace and Peace,

Jonathan

For more reviews on this book, check out

Latayne Scott's website.

Jr. High Camp and Newsletters!

We are so glad to be back in our cozy little apartment after a week with crazy Jr. Highers! God did some great things at camp and it was emotional for Jonathan as he taught his last camp study. Leaving Jr. High is bringing 

the realization of Kenya just a little closer. The theme for camp was "Rock of Ages". The kids were split into teams and participated in color war games for the week. One of the highlights of camp was watching the kids perform their "music video" to different Veggie Tales songs covered by Christian bands like Stevenson, Tait, Superchic and Reliant K. The kids fished, hiked, wrestled, braided hair (the girls of course!) and worshipped the living God. We were so blessed to be a part of this camp. God even got me (Adrienne) through all the cooking. 

Jesaiah Keenan putting up his tent

Some of the kids wrote this AWESOME song and performed it for us. It was so catchy! We were all humming the song for days!

And Jonathan passes the baton to the new Jr. High Pastor, Chris Duarte. Please keep him in prayer. 

***All of the pictures above were taken by Autumn Keenan. Amazing job, huh? To see more camp pics visit:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/autumnklarebear/3667452172/in/set-72157620520671811/

Newsletters

We are going to be mailing out our newsletters so if you would like to sign up to get our newsletter, please email Adrienne with your physical address at ferg4africa@gmail.com. 

This week...

Our family will be headed to Big Bear for Jr. High Summer Camp. So we went from unpacking our bags from Mexico to packing our bags up again to head for summer camp. Tonight Jonathan and I did the shopping for the food for summer camp and it was quite comical. We were lugging around two shopping carts and a dolly/cart absolutely full of items. As we stacked up the carts, Josiah and Christopher kept throwing items out into the aisle. We were at Smart and Final for like 2 1/2 hours so the kids were quite antsy. Once Jonathan and I got to aisle eleven we were laughing hysterically and uncontrollably over how comical the whole situation was and how we were so overwhelmed. Our kids were sooo done with the shopping trip and all we could do was laugh. We had just completely lost it. It was either laugh hysterically or cry hysterically. It was one of those moments. So we thought we'd blog and ask you...NO...beg you to keep us in prayer as we will be leaving for summer camp on Monday. This will be our last camp before our move in late Aug./Sept.

We are also still in need of a truck or two that can tow a trailer. We have a small box trailer and a large 5th wheel. If you are able to tow a trailer, we are able to go up either Sunday or Monday, and also need the trailers towed back Friday. Email Jonathan (mungubariki@gmail.com) if you are able to help us out!

*Please pray for summer camp*

*Please pray for an awesome time with the Lord for the leaders and kids.

*Pray that the Lord gives wisdom and discernment to the leaders as issues come up.

*Pray the kids would meet and come to know God in a deep and personal way.

*That the cook (me) wouldn't go insane & everything concerning the food and cooking equipment would go smoothly. (I've never cooked for a camp before)

*Pray for Jonathan and Chris Duarte (the new Junior High Pastor) who are giving the studies

*Pray that the kids would be safe (Jr. Highers and Josiah and Christopher)

*Pray that the kids would welcome those kids that don't have friends at camp and that their aren't "cliques"

Thanks for your prayers!

Adrienne

Wrapping up the last week of our F.I.T. Training

So instead of giving you a play-by-play of the last week at our F.I.T. Training, I figured, I'd post some of our pictures and bring you into our experience at the training center in La Gloria. 

We spent some time teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) to some of the members of Capillo Calvario Las Granjas and there were lots of kids that came to learn as well. So our team divided up the people into groups based on how much English they knew and we started our teaching. These pictures were from the second day of teaching ESL. 

One of the kids at the church wanted to take my picture so I'm posting the better of the two he took. Trust me, you don't want to see the other one!

Jonathan teaching some English words to the kids

Jonathan has some kind of kid magnet inside of him. It doesn't matter where we go whether it's a family reunion or a church in Mexico, kids just love him!

Kids playing "Red Light, Green Light". Jonathan and I being as mean as we are would periodically shout out, "Purple! Blue! Grrrrrray!" They got a kick out of our trickery!

We played Duck-duck goose in English so the kids could learn some new words and have fun with them! It was hard to keep their attention when all they could think of was tackling Jonathan!

The kids wanted their picture taken. They loved looking at the digital image on the camera. 

Jonathan had a line of kids that wanted Jonathan to lift them up into the air. His poor back. After about ten kids Jonathan was trying to figure out how to say his back was hurting in Spanish and all he could muster up was, "Back es muy malo!" Needless to say, they were persistent little guys

Another one of our little friends waiting for his turn...

We took a group picture because the Wallins had to leave early to make it to a wedding. Unfortunately ALL my boys were napping so they didn't make the picture. The Wallins are the young couple on the left. 

One of our assignments was to try "Tostilocos". It was great minus the pickled pork rinds....

An up close look at Tostilocos

This is the family our family stayed with for the "cultural immersion" portion of our training. This is Pastor Jorge (25 yrs. old) and his wife, Erica (21 yrs. old) and a boy they take care of, Moises (11 years old.) They spoke very little English and we spoke very little Spanish which made for a wild game of charades during our conversations!

The first night we stayed with the family they had us come to their kitchen for dessert. It was a sugary type bread that was very good. 

The boys as we do a little shopping excursion. We had to find the prices for certain items as part of our culture immersion experience. Like the price of beans, rice, milk and such. The idea was to give us a taste of what it will be like once we are out on our own in Kenya and have to find these things out. 

It was crazy to see how much Mexican candy can fit in one spot. This wasn't even an eighth of the candy in this one dulceria

Josiah contemplating which machete would be best for slicing open a coconut (:

Pinatas....hundreds of them covering the ceiling in the dulcerias. 

Christopher looking our the window as we are driving along the streets in Mexico.

And Pastor Jorge makes the jump! Yes, we even went swimming as one of our cultural immersion experiences. 

Jonathan follows up with an impressive cannon ball!

Josiah couldn't resist. He was so excited to get in the water but he just shivered in the pool. He lasted about 15 minutes before he was ready to get out. 

Jonathan helping Pastor Jorge and Erica with their English pronunciation

Graduating Field-environment Intensive 

Training Class

Please pray for our class:

Denise and Geiner-Future missionaries to Costa Rica (scheduled to leave end of June)

Alison, Mike, Ben and Faith Wallin-Future missionaries to Rome, Italy 

(scheduled to leave end of August)

Susan-Future missionary praying for the Lord's direction 

(prays she will be leaving by the end of the year)

Jonathan-Future missionary to Israel

Easy like Sunday morning

Well, today has been so nice. This morning we headed to church in an area of Mexico that looked a lot like Nairobi, believe it or not. The service was completely in Spanish and we had such a great time during the worship session. The kids let us know as soon as they got there that they desperately needed a nap so we spent most of the service trying to keep them from having a complete meltdown. It was a good taste of what to expect when we get to Kenya. WE didn't have control over much but we were able to keep calm through it and the kids did fine. Tomorrow night we will be going back to the same area and doing an ESL (English as a Second Language) class. I wish I could show you pictures of the surrounding area but I didn't feel right about snapping shots of perfect strangers. Maybe after we've established some relationships and ask the people, I might be able to post some pics. 

After we got home, Jonathan went to the store and the boys and I got a much needed nap. After, the team decided to go back to Tacos La Gloria and so we enjoyed another meal with THE BEST tacos ever!!!

Tacos La Gloria

We weren't able to take our van that fits everyone because the keys were left with Ron who had left to pick up our speaker for tomorrow, Tripp Kimball. So, we piled in the back of a truck (Christopher and I were in the cab, buckled up). We had tacos and ice cream. The perfect ending to a long morning!

You know what they say...When in Rome....           Christopher's Sunday afternoon nap. 

F.I.T. Week one

Reflecting back on this last week it can be summed up best as one of our instructors described, "Like drinking from a fire hose." Yes, that's exactly what this week has been. We have been in the classroom from 8:30 in the morning till between 8:30 to 9 P.M. (minus 15 min. breaks and meal time) We have been mentally exhausted but the information we have received here has been invaluable. In the morning we are up at 6 AM and get the kids ready for the day. At 7 AM, all of the future missionaries gather in our room and we do a group devotion. We have breakfast at 7:30 AM and are in class pluggin' away. In the classroom today, we

 discussed culture/language acquisition. We learned about methods and ways to study language and we were able to put them into immediate practice. We were taken to Rosarito where we practiced our new methods of learning a foreign language. During this excursion, Jonathan and I met a man who sold paintings his cousin made. After lots of exchange he told us that his three yr. old daughter passed away 8 months ago and showed us a picture of this precious angel. He allowed us to pray for him right there. Our hearts were broken as we left for this man and his family. After coming home from our trip to Rosarito we FINALLY had our first break since we've been here. We took the opportunity to have tacos at the infamous Tacos La Gloria stand, followed up by ice cream. As I post this blog our team is sitting and

watching Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events. It feels so nice to finally put our brains in neutral. Tomorrow we will attend a church service that is spoken in Spanish only. After church we will have the whole day to relax.  We have been so thankful for the time here and have met some pretty great people who are going out on the mission field. There's a couple here going to Costa Rica, another young couple with two small children about our kids age, going to Italy, a single guy going to Israel and a single woman who is still praying for where God will send her. It has been so neat to see how God brought all of them to this place. Not just at the

training center but how God spoke to their hearts about the mission field and specifically,

                 

where they were called. 

Please pray for the families and singles here as we seek the Lord and gain in knowledge. 

Pray that we will retain and apply the information learned here to ministries back home and on the mission field. 

Please pray for strength for our family as we head into another week of intensive learning. Please pray for Josiah as he still has a fever. 

Please pray for God to confirm timing of our move and financial provision. 

Thanks so much for being a part of our lives and the ministry we and all of you are privileged to be a part of. 

Bless you guys, 

Adrienne

F.I.T. Update

Well, we have an amazing time here in Mexico at the training center. Let me just say first off that Christopher's temp went away and he was great on Monday morning. Josiah, however, has had a temp. Please keep the kids in prayer. We have one of the girls here who watches the kids pretty much all day (accept for breaks and mealtimes) so both Jonathan and I can be at the sessions. Please pray for Ilandra as she is in charge of two 2 yr. olds, a 14 month old and a 7 month old. She is so sweet and is doing such a great job with the kids. I'm sure the days are long for her though.

So far we have had several sessions that were so eye-opening and beneficial for the ministry we will be going to in Kenya. Sessions such as church-planting, conflict resolution, spiritual warfare, family relationships on the field and so much more are the classes we are in (sounds ike a commercial, huh?). They have been so great. 

Thanks so much for keeping us up in your prayers!

Adrienne for the Ferg4