My God is a God of miracles

I was driving down the road and I picked up this young lady at the mechanic shop. She was there selling her car because she is going to go back to Peru. When I picked her up and started to talk to her I could tell that she had questions and I could tell that we were going to be discussing the gospel.

I asked her if she liked being here and she said she loved it. She said she loved the feeling of security and freedom. I asked her if there was different feeling she felt here in utah. She said that she felt peace. I asked her why she thought it was so peaceful. She said she wasn’t sure. I told her it was because many of the people here keep the commandments of God.

She asked me if I was a member of the church and I said yes! She asked if she could ask questions about the church and I said absolutely!

The first question was about miniskirts. She asked me if it’s OK to wear a miniskirt or if that’s against our commandments. I explained the law of chasity to her and how dressing appropriately is a demonstration of your commitment to God to be appropriate with your body.

She asked me about the Word Of Wisdom and I told her that we don’t drink or smoke. I also told her that we don’t drink coffee or tea. You should know that in Latin America they qualify teas and differentiate than we do. They have herb tea then they have black tea and green tea.

I explained to her that the black tea and the green tea weren’t permitted but the herb tea was fine. I happened to have several boxes of mate which is an herb tea from Argentina and I showed that to her. I said this is fine.

I told her that there are people all over in the church that are looking to find a scientific reason for why we have these rules and the bottom line is that we are blessed for obeying these rules. It’s an obedience thing.

I told her that if God told us to stand on the corner on Tuesday morning at 10 AM with our right hand on our head standing on our left foot, we would be blessed for obeying God regardless of whether there was a scientific or health connection. I told her that God gives us tremendous blessings for obedience to this commandment.

She asked about tattoos, she wanted to know if a member of the church would be kicked out of the church for having tattoos. I said no. They’ve asked us to treat our bodies with reverence and respect which generally means we don’t tattoo our selves but no one is kicked out of a congregation ever for having a tattoo.

Then she said, this is why you can’t have multiple earrings I guess. I said yes. They’ve asked us not to but nobody gets angry if someone does. It’s us showing God that we’re willing put him first.

She seemed satisfied with my answers and you could feel a sweet peaceful spirit in the car. I noticed that she recognized it and asked her what she felt. She said she felt amazing. I asked her if she thought she would be feeling that way if what I said wasn’t true. She thought for a moment and said no.

I circled back on the Word of Wisdom and said that when Joseph Smith gave that revelation no one knew those things were bad but God did and obeying it has saved many people and many families.

I told her that it was really important for God that we be happy and then the spirit whispered to my heart . I said before you came here you had some deep wounds in your soul. Your heart didn’t feel right. You were led here by God and you can’t get rid of that feeling. The spirit of God is drawing you and calling you. It’s because of that this peace which is the presence of God speaks to your heart and soul and soothes it. It makes everything right. I told her that having that spirit in her life has the capability to heal her wounds.

By the spirit I identified a couple of those wounds but I don’t feel at liberty to share them in this blog.

She was very involved in our conversation at this point and the spirit was palpable. She identified the spirit again. She said I know that when I’m feeling this the things you’re saying are true.

I told her that she was brought here by the hand of God and she knew it. I told her that even as I was saying those words it was coming to her mind what those things were that God did to bring her here. I told her it was important for her to recognize that it was the hand of God and not happenstance.

I told her that she was put in my car today by the hand of God and that this message was for her. I told her that God was reaching out to her and wanted to bring her home.

I felt impressed to share the story about the Castillo‘s and how they had had a dream and in the dream they were told to come to Utah and they didn’t know where Utah was. I told her that they got off in Orem because it sounded like prayer in Spanish. I told her that they prayed for God to send someone to tell them where to go and I told her that God sent me to say “you’re supposed to come with me, let’s go” and they did. Then they got baptized and they’ve been happy members of God’s kingdom for over 10 years. I told her just like God brought the Castillo’s he had brought her and she knew it.

She started to cry and asked me how I knew she had dreams. I said I didn’t know but God does. She went on asking me about parts of her dreams that she had been having. Following the spirit I did the best I could to answer her questions about what her dreams were trying to say. I felt that god was guiding me to give her the answers that were intended. In her dreams God wanted her to come here and told here where she should live. She also dreamed about a clear white rock. She said she what’s mystified by the meaning of this white rock. She took it out of her bag and showed it to me. She said that this rock in her dream was powerful.

If you read my blog very much you know that one of the things I love to talk about is the Book of Mormon and there’s nothing like clear white brilliant stones to start up a Book of Mormon conversation. We talked about the brother of Jared and how that stone was a light that guided them through the darkness by the power of God. All of a sudden things started coming together for her.

We talked about the Book of Mormon and how ancient prophets wrote that book for her. They wrote about Jesus Christ coming to America. I told her that God loved the people in America so much that he spoke to them through prophets. I told her about Joseph Smith and that he was a prophet.

I told her that Joseph Smith was looking for the truth and couldn’t find a church that had all of Gods truth. He found some truth in the churches but couldn’t find The one true church. I told her that you read in the Bible in James that he should ask God and that’s what he did. When I told her that God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith you could see in her eyes that there was total believe and total acceptance immediately.

II told her Joseph Smith was called by God that day to be a prophet. Then I told her that he translated the Book of Mormon and she said she wanted a copy because she knew it was true based on our conversation.

I told her that we have a Prophet nowadays who speaks with God for us. She asked where he lives. I said about four blocks from your house! She was thrilled and said, I hope I can meet him someday.

I gave her one of the specialty prepared Books of Mormon along with a few verses to read. She was so excited and said she would start reading it immediately. I talked about how in the Book of Mormon Jesus said that everyone should be baptized. She said she had been baptized before. I told her that Jesus wanted everyone to be baptized even if they had been baptized before, he wanted them to be baptized by his authority and in the way he instructed.

I told her that when we are baptized we are cleansed from our sins and it’s like they never happened. I told her that the pain and emptiness that she felt from mistakes in life would be cleansed through baptism and she would be pure before God.

I said by the spirit that she could be clean and even from that particular thing she had thought of that made her feel that she could never be clean. She had thought of herself as not being cleanable. She smiled and said really?! I said yes!

She said, I need to be baptized! When can we do this? I told her we had to talk to the missionaries but that she had to attend church several times and take the lessons.

She said, don’t the two times I already went to church all by myself count? I said, What? Yes they do! I told her that I would get a hold of the missionaries and that they would call her tonight. I told her that the very next evening we would be there for a lesson. She said she couldn’t wait.

She said that in her mind,this is clearly why God brought her here. She told me that when felt the peace of God she knew that was true because of our experience in the car.

I called some other missionaries I know in that mission and found out who the missionaries were for that area. I called those elders and told them exactly what had happened.

The elders have been fasting and praying that day specifically that God would touch a member and have that member bring them an person that could be ready for baptism. They were really excited and called her immediately. I didn’t expect to hear back from them for a while but in just a few minutes I got another phone call from the elders and they were so excited because she was already reading the Book of Mormon.

In preparing for a baptism she had several encounters with people trying to obstruct her pathway to God. Challenging her, berating her, and insulting her. We talked about how God sends people into our lives to counteract the people that Satan sends in to hurt us and take us away.

The next week and a half flew by and I had the privilege of baptizing her. After she was baptized she came up to me and said that the pain that was in her soul for the things she had done and been through we’re gone. She could still remember what she had done but for some reason the pain was gone. She said it was a miracle. I told her it was the atonement ofJesus Christ and the repentance she had gone through that made the atonement possible for her. One thing that we all know for sure is that she is a Milagro

Spanish vocabulary word for the day…. milagro. Look it up!