Sometimes it isn’t a glitch

One night I had been in Ogden. I was taken up there by a ride who was leaving a party in Salt Lake and going home. I hate trips to Ogden because then you drive back empty with no passenger. You are stuck paying all the gas or you stay in Ogden which is probably worse because eventually you have to Drive back and not get paid for it. The algorithm never takes you back to Salt Lake because they want drivers in Ogden.

One option we have to solve this is we have the ability to set a directional filter. The algorithm filters out any ride that doesn’t take you in the direction you want to go. If I am in Ogden and I set that filter for Salt Lake I will only get trips that take me towards Salt Lake. That’s how it always works, except two weeks ago.

I was driving back to Salt Lake with my filter on. I had started in Ogden and was in bountiful almost to Salt Lake when I got a call to go to Kaysville to take someone to Ogden, impossible!!. I thought, “how could this possibly happen with the filter on, it can’t happen”. I wanted to get back because the restaurants were closing and that’s the lucrative time in Salt Lake So I went to refuse the drive and felt an overwhelming rejection of that idea. I pulled my hand away and wondered why I was supposed to pick this person up.

I prayed as I drove to her house to pick her up. She took forever. I actually got the message that I was supposed to leave due to being timed out but I remembered the feeling I had when I tried to cancel so I stayed. Finally she came out. She was 22 years old and a veterinary student. We talked for a minute about Covid and school before I just couldn’t take it anymore.

I explained to her how the algorithm works and that there is technically no way I should be driving her tonight but here I was. I told her that something forced the hand of the algorithm to violate its parameters. I said to her that usually when this happens, it happens because God intervenes. I said, “Why did God send me to your house tonight?”

Now as many of you can attest, I’m pretty willing to say just about anything but even for me this was strong. I wasn’t just asking her, I was asking God for myself because I didn’t have a prompting at that point of what to say only that I was supposed to be there. She said that she didn’t know but she was glad that I was there because she felt peace in my car that made her feel safe and happy. As she said this in my mind I could see her crying out in pain and had the impression that she had been beaten and abused recently.

I told her that God loved her and that one of the reasons why I was there was to let her know that he had been with her and he is the one that pulled her through her abusive situation. I told her that he would never leave her alone. Even though she hadn’t seen him, if she thought back she would remember times that she found hope and strength even when she felt desperate and alone.

Previous to this, I had no indication that she had even ever been abused. She seemed to be a young ambitious college student but when I said that, this talkative young lady became very quiet and I could hear sniffles in the backseat. She said, now I know that God sent you because no one else knows about this, not even my sister.

She said to me, who are you? I said that I’m your driver but that I have the gift of the Holy Ghost and through the gift God can tell us things that help other people and tonight he was reaching out to her

She went on to tell me about her boyfriend that she had had for two years who physically and emotionally abused her. She had to stay away from her family so bruises and cuts could heal. She said that if her dad knew he would kill that guy.

I said that I don’t condone violence but that I understand how he feels because I am a father. I also told her that her father in heaven loved her more than any of us could ever imagine and that it hurt him to see his daughter in such pain. I told her that he had prepared a way for her to be safe and to find relief from her pain and grief.

I talk to her about the safety we find in the Commandments, a lot of times we look at them as restrictions to our fun but in reality they are safeguards that keep us from getting hurt. Following the Commandments is important. She agreed that the violation of a few of those Commandments is what has led to her situation.

We then talked about the atonement. How when Jesus suffered he felt the exact pain that she had felt. He felt the blows that she felt, he felt the humiliation that she had felt and he felt the loneliness of being forsaken in a place where no one could rescue him that she had felt. I told her that during the atonement he felt these things so that he could be there with her, give her strength, console her and lift her above those things.

We talked about how the atonement is Gods way of making everything equal regardless of your circumstance.

I told her that my being there that night was an evidence that God was reaching out to her and wanted her to be more. He saw more in her than she saw in herself. He saw greatness in her where she saw weakness. He saw worth in her where she saw worthlessness . He has a purpose for her where she felt rudderless. I told her that this was her time to change. The spirit was really strong and I asked her how she felt. She said safe and warm and tingly. I told her that that’s how her heavenly father made her feel when she was in his presence and when she felt that, she knew the things she was hearing were true. She said she knew that this was true and that God had sent this message to her.

She said, it’s funny but the sister missionaries have been stopping by her house a lot and the family would hide from them so they didn’t know they were home. I told her it’s time to open the door to the sister missionaries and to her father in heaven so that he can bless her and then she could bless her family. I asked her if she was a member of the church. It’s curious that I hadn’t asked this before but I didn’t know. She said no she wasn’t but that she had grown-up around the church.

I bore my testimony to her of the truth and I felt the power in the words connect with and touch her. I bore my testimony of the book of Mormon and the peace it brings. She asked me where she could get one. I just happen to have one of Sister Martino‘s copies in my bag and I gave it to her. I challenged her to read it every day and told her that it would bring peace to fill that void

I asked her if she knew what time her ward met, she didn’t know what ward she was in. We looked up the ward the building, address and the meeting times along with the bishops name and phone number. I texted them to her. I told her that I was going to call her bishop and let him know about her so she could go to church the next day. She told me that probably the next day she wouldn’t be able to because she had a prior commitment at that time but that the following week for sure.

After I dropped her off I called her bishop and he was excited to become involved. I gave him her name and address along with her phone number and he said he would reach out on Monday. The following Wednesday I received a text from her telling me that she had a meeting scheduled with the sister missionaries and that she was really excited!