Angels in the backseat

I picked up this man at his hotel by the airport. He just finished work and was getting ready to go into town to relax and get out of his hotel room. It was a Thursday and I had been hoping to get a bonus from the airport but was taken out to the hotels which for me is even a better run. You always want to go in town because it’s a fast trip.

My passenger got in the car. He was a big guy who looked to be in his 30s, with a big deep voice and a southern accent. I asked him where he was from and he said Macon, Georgia. I asked him if he was familiar with my favorite restaurant in Atlanta called Bones. We talked about the area he’s from and how he and his wife enjoyed traveling.

When he was talking about his wife and some trips he wanted to take I noticed that he was speaking in a strange tense like “had wanted to take”. This was made even stranger by the fact that I could feel the presence of someone else in the car.

I said to him “is your wife not with us?“ He informed me that his wife had passed away about two weeks prior. I could hear the pain in his voice and I could feel his heart breaking.

As he was talking my heart felt joy and the spirit whispered to my heart that she’s blond, she’s bubbly and she’s short. He was Latino and his name was Latino and I expected that maybe he had married a Latina. I was a little apprehensive to say the words but I decided to go all in.

I asked him if his wife was blonde, short and really bubbly. He looked shocked and asked how I could possibly know this about his wife. His voice cracked as he told me that she was a short, very blonde Irish fire cracker. She was always happy and always brought light. He told me that she had a minor surgery two weeks before and had died during that surgery.

We were about to enter into Salt Lake City and I looked at him in the mirror and I said that’s why God put you in my car today, he has a message for you. He wants you to know that he loves you and that he’s with you. I told him that his wife’s spirit was with us too, along with the Holy Ghost that was giving me the words to say to let him know that this was all very real.

I told him that God had a plan for him and his wife and that her death was not an exception to that plan but part of it. I taught him about the plan of salvation. I told him that she is still with him and was part of the reason that I was receiving these impressions from our father in heaven.

He seemed shocked. From where we were we could see the temple in Salt Lake City even though it’s under construction. I asked him, do you know what we do in that building? He said no. I told him that one of the things we do in that building is we marry couples for eternity. I told him that we get married using the same power Peter was given to seal things on earth that would be sealed in heaven.

I told him that with that sealing worthy husbands and wives could be together forever. He told me he always believed that and I told him that this is how that would come to fruition. I told him the members of our church can go to the temple and perform these ordinances. I also explained to him the people who die without this knowledge can still become members of the church by being vicariously baptized and vicariously sealed to their spouses. I told him that I participated in that many times. I told him that my wife and I were married in that very building by that authority.

He looked shocked. I told him, I guess what I’m saying is that you and your wife can be together forever and God can bless you. I told him that his wife wanted him to be happy and that God wanted them to be happy and together forever.

I told him that he would need to be baptized and she would need to be baptized and he would need to be worthy to go to the temple then this could happen. I said based on what we were feeling I felt that she would accept her baptism. I talked about being married to his wife in the temple and then he could be together with her forever. He said that’s beautiful how do we do that.

He told me that he had already been baptized and that she had as well. I told him that is amazing and it showed their love to heavenly father and Jesus that their parents did this for them but that this new covenant and this new blessing require that we have the baptism of the Jesus Christ, like he taught when he came to America. He said, Jesus Christ came to America? I said yes! I told him that his ancestors had prophets who spoke with God and that Jesus visited them like he promised that he would in the Bible when he said he would visit his other sheep.

I told him that those prophecies were written down and that now they’re contained in a book called the Book of Mormon. He said, the Mormon Bible? I told him that some people call it that but we believe in the Bible as well so it’s a companion to the Bible and they both testify of Jesus Christ.

I told him that before Jesus came to America the people listened to the prophets and were baptized but when Jesus Christ came to America the first thing he did was give people authority to baptize and then instructed them how to baptize his way and that’s the baptism we do today.

I told him that the invitation to that baptism is an invitation to the next level of discipleship to our Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus taught that we should all be baptized that way and gave us that covenant. He said wow, that’s pretty cool! I asked him if he would like to have a copy of the Book of Mormon so that he could read about his ancestors and what they believed. I asked him if he wanted to hear the words Jesus Christ spoke to his ancestors and he said yes. I told him that it was a very important part of his religious heritage. He said, nowadays, I spend a lot of time reading and that would be wonderful.

The Spirit of God was really strong in the car and the presence of his wife was palpable I could feel them both and distinguish them both and so could he. I asked him how he felt in his heart he said he felt joy, light, relief and a strong calming peace.

I told him that the peace in his heart came from his father in heaven and that this is what he had always felt when he was in the presence of his father in heaven from way back even before he was born. I told him that his father wanted to love him right now while he was so sad. This is why he sent his spirit and it was powerfully undeniable.

He said in the past two weeks he had felt from time to time the presence of his wife but he thought he was going crazy. He was happy to know that somebody else felt it too. He said that the problem was when it left he would be very sad again. I told him that the spirit could also help him through and that he should seek to have the Spirit of God with him by reading the Book of Mormon and praying. He said he would.

I didn’t happen to have a book with me that day as I had just given it out and so I told him that I could drop by his hotel with a book the next day. He said that would be great because he doesn’t do anything after he gets done with work so I could just come by. He gave me his phone number so we could coordinate and I told him I would see him the next day with the book. The spirit was so strong in the car and he was astounded by the goodness of God and the revelations we had felt.

I bore my testimony of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and the power it would bring into his life. I told him these feelings that he was having were sent to him by God and that he should seek to have them in his life always.

He got out of the car and said he was really excited to see me the next day. I drove off looking forward to the next day.

The next day was a Friday and I had a lot to do. That night I was going to baptize another person so, of course, I had a problem with the car brakes. On top of that problem with the brakes I had two really disgustingly dirty people in my car and it took me out of commission for a long while as I had to clean it again. I was behind and I was losing money fast. It was putting me in a bad mood and I felt that the purpose was to get the spirit away from me so that I wouldn’t be in tune for the baptism. I felt like Satan was throwing things in my path. As I got the car cleaned and finally got things together it was much later than I had expected and I needed to meet my wife and then go get the person we were going to baptize.

It just seemed all too much and I thought to myself that I wouldn’t take the Book of Mormon to him. I was running late and I told myself I didn’t want to rush it and who knows how that second meeting will go.

I got on the freeway and turned onto the sixth south on-ramp going into town and the spirit rebuked me. It told me that I was to go back and take the Book of Mormon to him and that this was not secondary in anyway on this day to anything. Feeling fully rebuked, I went over to the fifth South on-ramp and took the freeway out to the airport and to his hotel.

When I got to the hotel it took a minute for him to come down and I was wondering if he had lost excitement after a night out and a day of work. Finally he came into the lobby and we sat down and had a really good discussion. He gave me his address and I looked up his ward and Bishop on the “find a meeting house” tab on the church’s website and texted him the screenshot.

I also gave him the Book of Mormon and wrote down some things inside. It was one of the Book of Mormons prepared by Sister Secrist so it had the tabs to make learning easy. He took the book and said he would be in touch with any questions. I thanked him and bore my testimony of the truthfulness of that book and how it will bring us to God and bring his family together.

I went out to do my baptism that evening and it was amazing!

The following Monday I had just finished washing my car and I was in my driveway doing emails when I got a phone call from this man. He told me that he had gone to the address I gave him for the Mormon church that morning and that no one was there! I kind of chuckled and explained to him the Monday isn’t such a big day at our church houses and that much of the time no one is there. I told him that I would call his bishop and hook them up so that they could work it out.

I called his bishop and spoke to him about the whole experience. He was excited and said he would personally involve himself with this man’s conversion. I gave them each other’s phone number and my passenger was extremely grateful.

Four weeks later I got a voicemail from a missed call that was my passenger. He said that he was being baptized the following day which was October 17th. He said that he wanted to thank me for that day in the car. I was so happy and overwhelmed that he would reach out to me!

They sent me the link to the baptismal service on zoom and I was able to watch it. I did leave church a half an hour early but I consider it an excused absence. What a great Sunday and what a great man. He bore his testimony of that day in the car and the powerful experiences he’s had since. He will be a great member of the church.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my heavenly father for the opportunity to be in the car and say those words that touched his heart because I know they came from God. It’s God’s work and God’s glory and God is great. You never know when you’ll have an Angel or two in your car.