When we drive to a house is indicates on the app when we have arrived. It starts a countdown clock that expires in five minutes. At the end of five minutes we are instructed to leave and it is counted as a no-show. We still get paid but they don’t want us wasting time.
One day I got a called to go up in the Indian Hills neighborhoods above the temple in Provo. I pulled up to the house and pushed the arrived button starting the five minute countdown. The lady inside texted me back and said she’d be just a minute. I said OK.
After four minutes had elapsed I sent her another text and said that our ride was close to timing out and that she needed to hurry. I got no answer from her. When the five minute time had expired I was going to push the timed out button and leave but I felt prompted to stay. I didn’t know why but I just couldn’t push the button. I waited for 10 additional minutes when finally she showed up.
She looked a bit disheveled and was a jumble of nerves. I asked her how she was doing and she said not good. She said that she had recently in the last year become active in the church after several years of drug addiction and riotous living. Her ward had been great and had embraced her in her change but that the last few months had been really difficult.
Because of Covid she felt isolated. She hadn’t been able to go to church and felt like she was drowning. She just found out that her boyfriend had been lying to her about his past and that he had several convictions including being on the sex offender registry. She said it rocked her world and she didn’t know what to do. She talked about how betrayed she felt and how alone she felt. She said that the isolation and stress were pulling her backwards into her old life and she didn’t want to go.
She asked me what I thought. I said run from that dude! Don’t look back! During this time, where she didn’t have the fellowship of the people in her ward, she couldn’t be in a situation where she was influenced by someone like that.
The fact that he hadn’t come clean with her about who he was meant he didn’t respect her enough and that she deserved to be respected. I said that this kind of flaw in a relationship doesn’t just mend itself and that when the foundation of the relationship is a faulty premise it’s difficult to build a strong life on that foundation.
I told her that I couldn’t be the only person giving her this advice. She said that she hadn’t really talked to anyone else about it because it was pretty new. She just found out the day before. I encouraged her to talk to her bishop. He would give her help. She called the first counselor in the bishopric and left him a message that she wanted to talk. She said he usually got back to her that day. I said in the meantime don’t even entertain thoughts of maybe we can make this work out because it was clearly not a good situation for her.
While she was on the phone leaving the message for her bishopric member I had the distinct impression that there was another person in the car and that I felt like it was her grandma. I heard the words in my heart my granddaughter is not alone.
When she hung up the phone I told her that she had done the right thing but I also said that you’re not fighting this alone. I told her that Heavenly Father has a lot of ways that he helps us during our difficult times. She had just barely qualified for a temple recommend when the temple shut down, and now this.
I asked her how long ago her grandmother died. She got all emotional and told me about her grandmother passing away two months prior. She said that her grandmother had been the person that rescued her and that she was her rock. She said that this had been an even greater loss for her sanity and stability than the loss of fellowship of the ward. She said that she missed her grandma so much.
I asked her if she could feel her grandma‘s presence from time to time. She said I feel it all the time but I didn’t know if it was real. She said she didn’t tell anyone because she didn’t want people thinking she was losing it. I told her that I believed her grandmother was in the car there with her right now and that she was feeling her presence. With tears in her eyes she said she did feel her grandmother’s presence. She said she felt silly saying it but that she definitely felt her grandmother around her a lot right now.
I said that I felt her grandmother’s presence too and that I knew that her grandmother loved her. That her grandmother had invested in her when she was alive and she wasn’t going to let her fall away now.
The blessings she received in the temple tie her and her grandma together. I told her that I felt that her father in heaven was working in her behalf and that he had prompted me to wait for her today so that we could have this discussion. I told her that there are many people invested in her on the other side of the veil. That there are many angels that God is putting in her path to help her both seen and unseen.
I related to her a story told to me by one of my friends about a man being in a hospital near death and then seeing many many people dressed in white singing hymns and praying for him. He recognized them but didn’t know their names. He was told that they were there because people were thinking of him and praying for him. I told her that I felt like it was the same for her. There were people that were praying for her and because of that God would send angels to help her, including her grandma. I told her to hold strong and know that she’s not alone in this tough time.
By that time we were at her destination and she got out of the car. As she did she gave me a card and said, I cut hair for a living, anytime you need a haircut it’s free. I thanked her and let her know that having this experience with her was amazing and that I would pray for her if that was OK.
She said yes she would love that! She said that she had never imagined having such an amazing spiritual experience when she left the house that day. She was feeling such turmoil and now she had such peace.
Just so you all know, I do believe that God sends us his angels when we need them and sometimes we get to work with those angels.
Sometimes God sends you a lift 