Out with the old and in with the new

On New Year’s Eve I was out working and getting ready to kill it moneywise. People were handing out $20 tips like popcorn. It was one right after another, it was “tips O’plenty”. I was loving it and had just taken a ride from downtown out by the airport when I got another ride but I didn’t know where it was going. I went over and helped him put his stuff in my car assuming he was going to the airport to catch a flight.

He said, I’m going to Wendover! Immediately I saw my lucrative day flash before my eyes. I could see myself driving to Wendover, spending four hours, and only making about $50 when everyone in town was making over $80 an hour. The worst part about that is that you have to ride back with no one and paying for your own gas.

He said that he had already been rejected by four people who didn’t want to go to Wendover and that he needed to get there tonight.

I asked him if there was anyway he could compensate me for the gas on the way back. He came up with the idea of canceling the ride altogether and then just paying me to take him to Wendover which would give me enough money to make it worthwhile.

I told him I agreed and away we went. We stopped at a gas station because I was nearly on empty and the thought came to me, I wonder, what we are going to talk about for two hours? The answer was clear, he was going to hear about the church and that’s why he was in my car.

As we started out we talked about the fact that he was an architect and he was from Boise Idaho. His wife was a nurse and was working in Elko but they lived in Boise. He was originally from New York and had lived in 10 different places in the last two years. We talked about what kind of buildings he designs and things like that for a while.

He was a really nice guy and we were hitting it off really well so I asked him what he thought about Salt Lake. He said he liked it and that he had never been here,. Then I asked him what he knew about the church

He said he didn’t know much but that he was trying to find someone that could let him know a little bit about it. Well, we still had an hour and 45 minutes left in our ride so we got busy.

He said that he was Catholic but that he had struggled with the religion. He had a cousin who passed away and had not been baptized. He felt that the treatment the church gave them was very poor and made them out to be hateful, mean and spiteful. He said that he didn’t believe that about his cousin. He said that he wanted to believe in a God who loves his children.

I told him that first off, God loved all of his children no matter where they lived, when they lived, or how old they were when they died. I told him God had an all inclusive plan for everyone of his children to come back to him.

We talked about our belief that through Jesus Christ and his atonement all little children are saved and are with God. I told him that God not only had a plan to save little children but that he had a plan to save everyone who would ever live if they would look to Christ. I asked him if baptism was important, he said yes, that’s why they said my cousin was condemned. He said that he didn’t believe that. I told him that through the atonement of Jesus Christ all little children are saved in his kingdom with no exceptions. I told him baptism was necessary but that God had also created a plan whereby all of his children would have an opportunity to be baptized. I asked him if he were a loving perfect father and he had 26 children and he had a house with 26 bedrooms how many of them would he plan to save in case of a fire? He said, I would make a plan to save every one of them. I told him that his father in heaven did the same thing.

I told him that when Jesus died he set up the preaching to the people who had died without the law. Baptism of the dead anciently and today was the practice that God had set forth to ensure that everyone had that opportunity. He loved that idea and asked why it wasn’t part of his church. I use the mirror analogy and explained that the church was held together by a foundation of apostles and prophets and when it fell, like when a mirror falls, it broke into pieces and people who love the church grabbed one portion or another of the mirror because they love the teachings of Jesus and they reformed churches around that portion of the mirror that they could hold but they never had the whole mirror. He loved this analogy and could see the truth of it in the fact that his religion had some truths but was missing out on others.

I told him about Joseph Smith, who was looking around at all of the religions and was very confused. He read in the Bible where he should go ask of God. Then he went to the sacred Grove where he knelt and prayed. God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him, calling him to be the prophet to restore again the whole mirror. This made a lot of sense to him.

He said he had heard about Mormon temples and asked if we attend church in our temples. I told him that we have both temples and chapels. I told him we go to chapels on Sunday. In temples we do these baptisms for the dead and its where we are married and sealed to our spouse not till death but for eternity.

I told him that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon from ancient plates written with a kind of reformed Egyptian hieroglyphic language directly from prophets who lived here in America. We talked about how the Book of Mormon is a religious history of the people of America and that it is a companion with the Bible. It teaches the same principles taught in the Bible. I said that it is truly another Testament of Jesus Christ.I told him it talked about Jesus coming to America, visiting the people, loving them blessing, them, teaching them and telling them he would return some day. They referred to him as culculan or quetzequaltal.

I told him about Cortez and when he came to the Americas they were fooled because they thought he was the bearded white God that they were expecting to return.

I told hm that In the Bible Christ said that he had other sheep that weren’t of this fold and he was going to visit them. He asked if this would be where he would visit the other tribes of Israel, I said yes. He said that makes so much sense!

I told him that when Jesus came here he instructed them how and by what authority to be baptized. I told him that we have that same baptism today he loved the idea of baptism. To him it made sense to make a new covenant when you start your new life in the church.

The night before they had dinner with his wife’s cousin in Salt Lake. This sister (the cousin) had gone on a mission to Central America but she and her husband had left the church because they like to party. They did say great things about the church and their missions in Central America. They talked about how they loved helping the people. He looked on this as a sign that he was being led to investigate the church.

The spirit was very strong in the car. From the time that I felt the spirit indicate that we would be talking about the gospel to the time I dropped him off the spirit guided our conversations and testified of each principle we discussed. He recognized the spirit and was very moved. We discussed it and what it means. He said I know this is Gods spirit here with us in the car. He said he had no doubt that the things I was saying were true because the spirit was making him understand and feel it.

I testified of Joseph Smith, the 14-year-old boy who went to the sacred Grove. He knelt and prayed. He saw God the father and Jesus Christ. I testified of the book of Mormon and the miracle that this book was. The spirit intensified in the car and it felt like there were angels. I said that today we have a prophet that speaks with God for us. He got visibly excited at that news.

I usually have a Book of Mormon with me in the car and that day it was between his seat and the console. I pulled it out and handed it to him. I said I want to give you this book. It was one of the books that Sister Martino‘s sister had prepared and he was touched that I would give him a book that had been marked and prepared like this one was. I said it was prepared for you before I even knew you. This is your book. He promised to read it and he promised to pray. He said that he would pray to know that it was true but that he already knew that it was true.

He held that book out in front of himself like you would hold a valuable sacred text that came direct from God. He said.”this comes right from God, his words direct to us! I thought about how many times we toss the Scriptures on the couch or the table. This man got it

He said he would read and wanted to talk to the missionaries. He said that this was clearly the path God was leading him in. He mentioned again that he had recently been studying about the beliefs among the eastern Indians that they were a lost tribe of Israel. Combining that with what he heard about missions from his wife’s cousin plus this ride he knew that God was leading him here. He said that in this life there are really no coincidences and that this had to be the hand of God preparing him.

I am sure that he will never forget that ride. I know that I won’t.