Message Received

It seems that when I have a special visitor in my car there is usually some thing about the timing or circumstance of the ride to get my attention. Sometimes that might be a special feeling or a word the person says that touches me and the spirit starts whispering in my soul. Other times it’s a ride that I might not normally accept but I feel almost compelled to do so.  One such ride started in Springville one day about 5:30 PM and went to Lehi. I like to be home at six so at first I didn’t want to take it but I felt a strong prompting to do so.

When I arrived a nice clean cut man got in my car. He looked sad and he had a feeling of tumult. I had a feeling like his spirit was beaten and he was losing the battle and had given up. The first few minutes of the ride were filled with generic pleasantries and then I turned to him and said can I ask you a question? He said yes.
Then I said, I feel like you are scared, lost, beaten down and don’t know where to turn. He got tears in his eyes and asked me how I knew. I told him that I was just following the spirit and saying the things that I felt. He told me that he had been divorced for two years and that none of his family lived in this part of the country. He didn’t want to move to be by his family because he wanted to be there for his kids. he had to fight for every second he got with his kids. He said paying for lawyers had destroyed him financially but that having his kids on the weekends was the only joy in his life so it was worth it.
For whatever reason very few of the people I take in my car are members of the church. If they are members most of them are less active for whatever reason. I usually have no way of knowing whether they’re extremely less active or nonmembers. This man fit that bill.
I said that I felt that he was a member of the church but had been less active for quite some time. He answered that he hadn’t been to church in nearly 4 years. He had served a mission but that in his divorce and all the problems associated with that he had let other things get in the way of attending church. He said that he wasn’t sure what he believes anymore. He said that he had moved to a place where no one knew him and they didn’t know he was a member. That way they wouldn’t bother him
I told him by the spirit that he had hoped that God would reach out to rescue him and that he was angry at God for his situation. He felt abandoned and alone against the world. I told him that he was not alone and that God loved him very much and had sent people to him, to lift and help him but he didn’t recognize them. In his desire to isolate himself and rebel he had shut out the very angels God had sent to help him. He had run from those very people who God sent to bless him.
I told him that today God had sent me. I told him about the prompting I received to take his ride. He told me that two other people had rejected his ride and he wondered why. I told him it was because God wanted me to be there so we could have this conversation. I told him God wanted him to be happy and that God wanted him to be a powerful leader to his children in the gospel.
I asked him why he was trying to do this without God? Why he was trying to fight this battle without the strength the Lord could provide? He said he never thought of it that way. I told him that one of the biggest problems we have is we try to do things ourselves and rely on the arm of flesh instead of trusting in God and In his strength. I asked him if he remembered the power of the spirit from his mission. He said that it was so long ago it didn’t seem real anymore.
I testified to him of the truthfulness of the gospel and the power of God. I told him that our trials in life are only tests to see if we will turn to God or if we will turn inward. If we turn to God he will help us through and support us in the most difficult times.
I asked him when was the last time he took the sacrament? He said he couldn’t even remember but that it had been a long time. I told him about my first area my mission where I couldn’t speak, I was going through Culture shock and I was miserable. I didn’t understand a thing anybody was saying. In the chapel there was no concept of reverence. I was defeated and deflated, But when I took the sacrament it filled my tank and gave me power. God gave me the ability to carry on.
That was a manifestation to me about the power of prayer and a testimony of the power we received from the ordinance of the sacrament. I told him it is been way too long since he had filled his tank and God sent me there today because he wanted him back. God wanted to lift him and help him and give him power so that he could be the father he wanted to be and so that he could be happy. The spirit was burning in the car
All of a sudden I noticed that he didn’t seem sad anymore, he didn’t seem troubled. He was smiling! There was hope in his eyes. He said it had been so long since he felt the spirit like this. He said it reminded him of being on his mission.
I asked him how long it had been since he had read the Book of Mormon. He said that he hadn’t read it since his mission and that he didn’t even have one. Since he moved out after the divorce he left all of his books including the Scriptures and that his ex-wife had left the church too so she didn’t use them.
I happened to have a Book of Mormon with me that Sister Martino who was the Mtc presidents wife gave me to hand out and I gave it to him. I promised him that if he would read the Book of Mormon every day, pray multiple times every day and go to church with his kids on the weekend that everything would change for him. I testified of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and the power of that book.
He promised me he would do all of those things. He said that he couldn’t believe he had allowed himself to lose this. We looked up his bishops name and phone number. He said he would call him as soon as he got out of the car. The ride was over and off he went with a smile on his face and a spring in his step that he didn’t have when he got in the car. Message delivered Message received.