Did you think to pray

One week I had a bonus from the company Incentivizing us to take more rides. If I got to a certain number of rides during the week I would get a $200 bonus. Of course I was trying to get as many as I could and included in the calculation was that any trips outside of the downtown area are immediately rejected preferring to take short, quick trips and stay busy doing that. This way I racked up the numbers and got the bonus earlier.

I was up on 13th east and 9th S. when I got a ride clear over at the airport that was going 33 miles to the east. We all know what that means, Park city. This is exactly the kind of trip that I was trying to avoid. 15 minutes to the airport 10 minutes to pick up 35 minutes to drive to Park city and 35 minutes back with no passenger or fare to defer the cost. That’s one hour and 35 minutes for those of you keeping score, for that investment of time I would get $24, $10 of which would go to pay for the gas. That isn’t even $10 per hour. I need to make double that.

Due to the fact that almost no one who goes to Park city ever tips I am pretty much against those rides as a matter of principle, especially on a week where I’m trying to rack up numbers. During that same amount of time I could easily get six rides.

I was getting ready to cancel the ride as I had so many before but this time it wouldn’t let me. I tried but it kept coming back up. I figured that there must be a reason that I was supposed to take this ride and off I went.

I picked up the kid, a 24-year-old ski instructor from Atlanta Georgia. We got in the car and started up the canyon. I said the weirdest thing, I told him that there had been snow and that we needed to pray that the roads would be in good shape. That would be something you would never say because you don’t want to erode your passengers faith in your ability. They’ll mark you down, you’ll get bad ratings and it will penalize you. But there it went! flying right out of my mouth as if I had no control. Turns out I didn’t for good reason!

He said, funny you should say that because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about God and I want to learn to pray. Could you teach me how to pray? All of a sudden I saw this ride in a different light.

I asked him if he was serious, he said very serious. Religion hadn’t been a part of his life but he wanted to communicate with God. I said that praying is good but really he should understand who he’s praying to and the nature of his relationship to his father in heaven. I started with those powerful words “we are children of a loving father in heaven”. I talked about how we lived with him and loved him and had a relationship with him, it was personal. I told him that prayer was our way that we could step out of our world and communicate with our father and creator.

I said that he loves us and he wants to hear from us just like his dad back in Atlanta wanted to hear from him. I told him that our father in heaven wants to hear the good and the bad and our challenges and our successes. I told him, that’s why we pray and that this communication in and of itself was a blessing.

He said do you feel that? Undoubtably I did feel the spirit in the car. Anytime you discuss the love of our father in heaven in sacred terms the spirit testifies of the truthfulness of the doctrine. I said yes this is how you feel when his spirit is around. This is how you feel when you are having communication with him. This is how you feel when he’s revealing his will to you.

He said, I like this I could get used to it. I said your spirit is used to it, loves it and craves it. I said your spirit was meant and created to need that feeling and be around it. This is why we pray

I told him that a search for truth in life always leads people to their knees in prayer. I talked about Joseph Smith, a young boy of 14 years who wanted to know which church was true. The Bible told him to kneel and pray so he knelt and prayed and God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and called him to be the prophet.

The spirit was really strong in the car and he said “the words you say about a 14-year-old boy seeing God sounds a little bit strange but because of the feeling I know that they’re true”. I told him that’s exactly how it works. The spirit helps us understand the difference between things that are true and things that are not true by confirming truth.

I told him that the power of prayer is that we can call down the presence of God to help us make righteous decisions for our lives. He said this is amazing that’s exactly what I need.

He also said “I am looking to start attending church as well. I had thought about going but I felt kind of uncomfortable”. I asked him how long he would be in Utah. He said he would go back in two weeks. I told him that if he would give me his address in Atlanta I would have two young men come and they would go with him to church so that he would be comfortable. He said that would be amazing.

So I told him the steps to prayer.

Our heavenly father

We thank thee for

We ask thee for

In the name of Jesus Christ amen

I went over a couple of sample prayers with him. I told him we can pray anytime and anywhere but we should pray at least twice a day in the morning and at night. That way we can have our father in heaven walk with us throughout the day. He was excited and wanted to do this.

I then told him that when we pray the Lord will show us truth. When we read the Scriptures we will understand them better because we invited his spirit to be with us.

I then talked to him about the Book of Mormon. I told him that Joseph Smith was called by God to translate the book. This book is the religious history of the ancient inhabitants of America. Where he was Latino I told him that they were his ancestors and his religious heritage. I told him that included the account of the visit of Jesus Christ to America. He said whoa, I’ve never heard anything about that. I discussed with him the many evidences in Latin America of a white bearded God who blessed the people and said he would return. I discussed with him archaeological evidence as well as the reception Cortez received because he was a white bearded man and they thought he was God.

I said that these people were all waiting for the return of Jesus Christ. In the Bible he had said that he had other sheep and that he was going to visit them. These were the other sheep. His ancestors were the other sheep. And he had a tremendous rich religious heritage that he would begin to understand as he read the book. I asked him if he’d ever heard of the Book of Mormon and he said yes. I asked him if he’d ever read it or had a copy he said no.

I said I had a special copy I’d like to give him that was marked with some important scriptures on the questions of life. He said that kind of thing would be really good for him and would help him a lot.

He asked that if God loves us so much how come he allows so much suffering in the world. I said that God wants us to have our agency. We need to be able to make our own decisions and choose to follow God. Many people don’t make that decision and choose to do evil and because of that there is a lot of suffering in the world. I said that the good thing is that God allows us to be his hands and his voice to bless, help and protect those people who have been harmed. We’re to be Gods hands, his instruments both temporally and spiritually. That is our responsibility and that is our charge. He liked that answer.

I told him that God is no respecter of persons, he loves all of his children no matter when they were born or where they lived. He has a plan for everyone. Part of that plan is us becoming involved. He loved this explanation. I told him that God sees things from an eternal perspective that we don’t understand completely. I told him that this is why we are married in the temples and our families are sealed with the power of God for eternity not until death do us part. He mentioned that he had a friend that was a member of the church back in Atlanta. He talked about being in their home and what he felt. He said this all makes sense.

I told him that because of Christ every person who ever lived will have the opportunity to live with God, Because God loves all of his children. I asked him if a perfect father in heaven would have it any other way, he said no.

We had finally arrived in Park City and I let him out and told him I would see him the next day with the Book of Mormon. I made an appointment with him to drop it off that 6 PM. I thought that this was going to kill my pursuit of the $200 bonus but God always has to come first and he had brought this young man to me for this purpose.

The next day I grabbed one of the Book of Mormon‘s that Sister Secrist had prepared and headed up to Park City. I drove right to the spot where he said he would be. On the way I was praying that he would be there, As anyone who has ever done missionary work will tell you, you never know. There he was, right where he said he would be. I gave him the Book of Mormon and he graciously accepted it and promised he would read it.

We contacted those two young men who are going to attend church with him and everything seems to be progressing.