Just ask the questions already

I was driving from the south Springville exit north towards Provo and I got to the most north Springville exit when I got a call for a girl named Megan. Normally when I get a call there I end up going over the overpass and into the business park but this time I cut back up on the frontage road and went down the road a bit and there was a guy standing out there waving his phone. He didn’t look much like Megan.

When he opened the door, I said, you don’t look much like Megan. In a pretty thick Spanish accent he said that Megan was his girlfriend and that she had sent the ride.

He got in the car and I said let’s get you home. He said I live in Provo and I said great that’s on my way and off we went.

Immediately I started getting a prompting that this was a missionary ride and that I was supposed to bear my testimony. I did not start out at first with that though. I remember sitting at the stop light to turn onto the road to get onto the freeway across from the Maverick store thinking how do I want to bring this up.

I asked him where he was from, he said Ensenada Mexico. I asked him how long he’d been here and he said just a few months but that he had been really lucky to get a good job and he was enjoying it. At that point he wasn’t giving me much of an opening and hadn’t even told me that he was a member of any church. There were doubts in my mind that maybe he’s a member of our church. Why else would a guy from Mexico come here?

Then I got the impression to start talking about Covid. I asked him how he was doing with it, he said good. It did not really affect him at his work. I asked him about social things and he said no big deal because he had a girlfriend. I asked him about going to church, if he’d been able to do that.

He said that his church was clear up in Orem and that he didn’t attend. I asked him if he was Catholic and he said yes. I said, living in Provo do you get invitations to do things with the kids in the local ward. He said yes but that he never went even though he was friends with the people. He said when Covid goes away he will probably go to the parties etc.

His apartment was not actually very far away and I knew I had to get to it so I said do you know what the difference is between what the Mormons believe and what your church believes? He said no, he didn’t but that he’s really wanted to find someone who could tell him. He said that he asked his girlfriend questions but she doesn’t know the answers. All of the people he sees are good examples and he would like to know more about the beliefs of the church. He just figured that he hadn’t been there long enough for people to be interested in having him be part of it with the exception of his girlfriend who would love for him to investigate the church. He said the problem was that with Covid they hadn’t been attending.

It was really interesting what came to my mind next, I asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon, he said no. He said his girlfriend had one and they had read something in it once but that he hadn’t read it.

I kind of did the Book of Mormon in one minute and 20 seconds summary. I started with Abraham and how all the nations of the world would be blessed through his seed and that at one point God brought a prophet and his family over from Jerusalem to America which was a fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. I told him that they followed God and that he loved them.

I talked to him about how Jesus in Jerusalem said he would go to his other sheep and then he came to America to visit those sheep who were of the seed of Israel and Abraham. I talked about while Jesus was here he organized his church and gave them authority to act in his name.

I told him that this was his spiritual heritage. The fact that his ancestors knew Christ was an amazing gift to him. That they were blessed and their posterity was blessed by Christ was an amazing gift to him. I told him that God loved him and knew who he was.

These words touched his heart. He said that is a beautiful story! He said he had never heard these things and had no idea what it was that he and his girlfriend read in the book. He said it was so confusing at the time.

I asked him what he felt right then in the car. He thought for a second, choked back tears and then said his heart was pounding and he felt a tremendous peace. He said that was kind of strange to have both of those feelings simultaneously. He said he felt like he was supposed to listen to me.

I told him that this was the spirit of God. I told him that the Holy Ghost was in our car at that point with us letting him know that the things he was hearing were true. He thought for a second and he said that even though the things I told him were things that he had never heard before, in his heart and his mind he had no doubt that what I said was true. He said, you were right when you say that God is confirming it to my heart because that is exactly what’s happening.

Next I had a question for him that I think surprised him.. I asked him, so now that God has given you a witness that these things are true, what does that obligate you to do? Does God give you a witness for fun or is there a purpose?

He said obviously when God gives you a witness there is a purpose and at that point you were obligated. You need to act on the information you have received from God. He asked me what I thought the obligation was. I said that the obligation is that he needs to go to church, find the missionaries, talk to his girlfriend and the bishop of the ward where he lives and tell them about what had happened in the car that day and tell them that he wanted to start preparing to be baptized.

Given the short amount of time we had together I couldn’t believe I was that bold and that’s what I felt to say.

He said, you’re right! That’s exactly what I need to do. He said I’ll do it! He said this ride has changed my whole life. He said this would also make his girlfriend very happy. He got out of the car and as he started to shut the door and walk away I said, so what are you going to do tonight? He said I’m going to call my girlfriend and have my roommates help me find the missionaries and my bishop. I need to get started with this.

I believe he will do just that