A spiritual health appointment

One day I was driving in Orem and there was a family, a mother and daughter, that I picked up at the top of the Grandview hill. They were going to the county health center which is a dicey situation in the age of Covid. I have giving rides to 5000 people since August and I’m pretty sure there have been about 500 people who had Covid, at least. I feel like I’ve been protected by God

I picked them up and we started driving. I felt that I should bring up the church. I asked them if they were members of the church, they said no! I said you mean, not yet! ( I know, it’s my favorite thing to say!) They chuckled and we started having a conversation about the people they knew we were members of the church. Many of them were bad examples.

I asked them if they ever talked to the missionaries. They said yes, the sisters were over to their house just a few weeks ago. I asked them what they thought about the message. The mother spoke up and said that from what she could tell all they did was say that everything that she had ever done was wrong.

She said that she didn’t believe that her love for God was wrong and that the things she had done to come close to him were wrong and so they weren’t having the sisters back.

I asked them about the Book of Mormon, if they ever read any of it. They said they liked the Book of Mormon and they thought it was a really good book. I talk to them about the part where Jesus comes to America and how right before he comes everyone is baptized and they have a religion.

Then I mentioned that when Jesus came he gave them a new religion, new Commandments and a new baptism. I told them that he was pleased that they had learned of him and learned to love him and had been baptized. They had been very faithful in their religion that brought them close to God.

He loved them for their devotion to him and the things they had done as demonstrations of that devotion but now he had another level he wanted them to reach. A new covenant he wanted them to take upon themselves and give them a whole bunch of new blessings that they hadn’t had available to them before.

When I said this the spirit was really strong in the car. I said this is what the sisters meant. We’re not always the best communicators but the spirit you’re feeling right now is communicating the truthfulness of this to you. The girl said wow and the mom said that possibly her pride got in the way a little bit as well. She said her mom and her dad loved their church and she felt almost like she was betraying them but that this explanation helped her know that it wasn’t a betrayal at all, it was additional love and additional blessings and additional access to the Spirit and word of God.

I asked them if they would tell me what it was they were feeling right then, the mom said joy and happiness, the daughter said emotional and peaceful, I said awesome! I said that when you feel what you are feeling now, you know that the things you’re hearing are true. I asked them if they knew it was true right then in that moment, they said yes.

I said that now with this new understanding what should you do? They said they needed to get a hold of the missionaries and start talking to them again. They said they would call them as soon as they got out of the county health appointment.

I dropped them off smiling ear to ear.