Having "Reflections of Christ" here in our mission for three week has been such a blessing and has opened more doors than we ever imagined. The first miracle was the news paper article written by the religious editor of the main newspaper in Baton Rouge. He did a page and half on the exhibit. He interviewed me(dad wasn't home yikes) and he interviewed Mark. He quoted us both accurately. The clincher was when he mentioned The bad rap Mitt Romney got because of his religion and that people think we believe in another book other than the bible. He stated that it is the Book of Mormon and that it is in addition to the Bible and we believe that it is a second witness of Jesus Christ. He also stated very simply that we believe that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. It is never stated that accurately and unbiased. We had people come to us and say that they have prayed for years for an article like that to be written in the paper. We had an episcopalian theology teacher come through the exhibit and loved it so much that she brought 50 of her 7th and 8th graders back becasue they were studying the New Testament. The students just kept thanking our members over and over again for the beautiful exhibit. We had several people drive by the stake center, see the sign, and feel very impressed to turn in. Three of them are now being taught the lessons. Mark came the first Sunday it was open and give a wonderful fireside. We had 563 people in attendance . probably 100 of those were not of our faith. By the time the week was over 1,700 people had gone throught the exhibit and at least 500 of those were not of our faith. The closing night of Baton Rouge we had Alex Boye of the Tabernacle Choir,Freddie Ashby, and Clyde Bawden , come and do a concert. It was unbelievable!! I will never forget it. It was so much fun having them stay at the mission home. They are so much fun. I fixed breakfast for them and before I knew it they were doing the dishes. We took the exhibit the next day up to Alexandria ,where it was being hosted in a First United Methodist Church. They did a concert there in the stake center that night. There were several ladies of the Methodist Church that couldn't come to the concert so Alex and the gang went to their church at 9:00 and gave them their own private concert. There were probably 50 Methodists there. It was pretty amazing to see three priesthood holders on a methodist stage singing I KNow That My Redeemer Lives with tears rolling down everyones cheeks. We had the Methodist Music Director write Freddie Ashby an email and tell him that they "blessed their socks off." By the end of the week in Alexandria , there were 1.200 people go through and 700 were not of our faith. One couple had just come from a Baptist -anti-mormon lecture and after seeing the exhibit came out with tears in their eyes and said"we are going to go back to our pastor and tell him he is wrong. You people definitely believe in Jesus Christ. I think this beautiful exhibit and the spirit that comes with it did so much to bring the church "out of obscurity" Thank you Mark for sharing your gifts and testimony with the world.
