Missionaries gotta eat!

One time I was in Ogden and I picked up a husband and wife. They were going to a friends house for a party. We had a previously scheduled stop along the way. When they got in we talked about places we like to go on vacation.

I told them that we like to go to Cancun up until the time when the world fell apart. They laughed and asked what we liked about Cancun. I said the sun, the beach, the relaxed atmosphere and that I really enjoyed sitting around listening to people speak in Spanish about me not realizing that I am fluent in Spanish. I told them it happens in the taxi cabs all the time. They speak to their friends about us and I learn a lot.

I told them that this works sometimes in my car too. People would speak in Spanish to each other not thinking that I spoke Spanish and they say things about trying to get over on me or sometimes say mean things. I told them I would just sit there and smile under my mask and then at the end of the ride I would say “que te vaya bien”. The look on their face is priceless!

They laughed and thought that this sounded like good fun then they asked me where I learned Spanish. I told them I learned Spanish when I was on my mission in Argentina. I told them that I served there in 1981 through 1983, and that it was an awesome place and I loved it. I told them that I had kept up on my Spanish since then.

Many times something like this is a great introduction to gospel topics. Where I learned about Spanish on my mission it gave me a great opportunity to talk about missions and the gospel. Sometimes you have to fight the normal reaction to say I learned it in Argentina or I learned it when I was young. It is better to be bold and say I learned to speak the language when I was in Argentina serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. We need to own that, stand tall and not run from it because it will open doors.

I felt like I should ask them about missionaries so I said, do you guys see missionaries around from time to time? They said, Yes we see missionaries going by all the time. I felt strongly prompted to say, you should feed those kids, they spend all day serving God and they’re hungry! They love people who feed them!

They started talking about how they really should do that. The lady then started talking about how her mother had always fed the missionaries. That they were in her home every day for years and that their family were strong members of the church. She talked about how they felt that feeding the missionaries was their way of giving back and the missionaries always stopped by for cookies even if they didn’t eat with them. She said she loved the feeling of having them in the home.

Now sometimes when you have a trip, included in that trip is a prescheduled stop for someone to run into a store and buy something or pick something up. This was the case. At that point we stopped at Maverik on one of these prescheduled stops. They ran into Maverick and picked up six cases of beer for the party they were attending! I smiled, but I was wearing a mask so they couldn’t see it, and said, thirsty are we?

They laughed and said, yeah there are several people that are going to be at this party and we’re all going to be quite thirsty apparently. We started off towards the party and the final destination. I continued speaking about the missionaries. I asked, when was the last time you had the missionaries in your home. She said that they had been married five years and she quit going to church two years before that. That was the last time the missionaries had been in her home.

I said, I’ll bet you miss going to church. If I miss a week I feel different. She said she really did but that her husband wasn’t a member and so she didn’t come back once she had quit going. He then turned to her and said, we really should go to church. I don’t have a church that I belong to so we should go to yours.

Then he asked me, are you guys Christians. I said absolutely, and not just Christians but Jesus Christ is the center of everything we do in our church. We have a more extensive belief of the ministry of Jesus Christ than any other religion. He said that’s amazing, he turned to her and said why didn’t you tell me about this?!

She said she didn’t know why she hadn’t brought it up. I talked to them about the Book of Mormon and how reading that book would bring the spirit of peace into their home. I mentioned that it would help them get their lives in line with what Jesus Christ would have them do. He said, that sounds good and she said I agree, we really need to get back to this.

You could tell by the look in his face and in the attention that he paid that he loved the spirit that he was feeling. It was very strong in the car and he was going right along with it. He knew what it was and he was trying to soak it in as much as he could.

We were at the home where I was dropping them off and I said, so what’s the first step for you guys with regards to coming to church. He said, shouldn’t we have those missionaries over and feed them?! She said yeah that sounds great! I see them every day maybe I can ask when they might be available. I told them I was pretty sure the missionaries would eat with them on Monday night if they would invite them.

She said that the next day she would go grab those missionaries and find out if they could come over Monday night. She thanked me for the idea and said, It’s been a long time since I’ve thought about those great memories of having them in our home. We need that and now we’re going to get it!

Having arrived at the appointed location they grabbed their beer and ran into their party! (We do this one step at a time) I’m pretty sure the missionaries had an appointment to eat on Monday and that somewhere in heaven her deceased mother was smiling.