Grandma has her say

I picked up this young man from the airport. He was going to north Ogden so we were in for a ride. As we started I felt that we might possibly be talking about the church but doubts started creeping in.

We talked about some people that were yelling in Spanish at him in the airport. I told him I know Spanish and he said what are you? A Mormon? He said it with distain and threw in everybody’s favorite little curse word after that for good measure.

We started to talk and it was clear that he was a good dude. He always helped his friends and people came to him that needed help all the time. It appeared to me and the spirit told me that he was a hurting young man and gave me the empathy fo feel his angst and pain.

He talked to me about football when I said that I’ve been a high school football coach. He said that his dad played at BYU in the 80’s yet didn’t listen to Lavell and quit football after a couple of years. He thought his life would’ve been different if he had listened to Lavell.

He quit after he went on his mission. I said what? your dad went on a mission? I asked why he told me he wasn’t member of the church, when did that change? He told me that he told people he wasn’t a member of the church because he didn’t consider himself to be a member of the church.

He talked to me more about his friends and everybody that came to him and I received promptings as to his character and his love of helping people. That said a lot of people come to him for help and sometimes that can feel overwhelming. He loves serving others nonetheless.

I told him, that’s one of the reasons we go to church. I told him the story of a man I used to home teach and how sometimes we save other people in saving ourselves. I told him about going up to this man and saying why does it always have to be about you after he told me he was less active because he didn’t get anything out of attending church.

I said, don’t you think there are other people there who need what you have? Your service could make a great difference to them. Why does it always have to be about you?. After I told that to this man, he started going to church and is one of the most active awesome people I know. Any ward that has him is grateful he is there because he decided to serve others.

I told him that we need to go to church so that we can serve God by being his hands and his voice. I was feeling the spirit and I laid it out for him

I told him about the sacrament in Posadas Argentina in the first week of my mission. I was miserable. I couldn’t talk, I had 36 mosquito bites on one foot, my companion hated Americans and me by extension. I was going through culture shock and at church it was noisy and I was drowning. My tank was empty. When we took the sacrament everything changed. My tank was filled and I received the power from God to continue.

I told him that Satan doesn’t want him in church. He doesn’t want him to take the sacrament. He doesn’t want him to be filled with the spirit. He wants him to be filled with anger and hate instead. That is why he whispers these things in his ears, to keep him from the thing that would cure him.

The spirit was there and I asked him if he could feel it. He said he could feel it and he described it to me. He said he hadn’t had a talk like this in years.

I felt like he was a person who had been damaged by harsh judgments. I felt this as a prompting and I said, it seems to me like you’re somebody who feels like you’ve been misunderstood and harshly condemned or damaged by harsh judgments.

His dad had been a missionary in Denmark. His grandpa had been a stake president. He had gotten his girlfriend pregnant when he was 18 and everyone ostracized him, and everyone in the church and in his family were mean to him. He was grateful that they were supportive and loving to his girlfriend but he really felt angry, hurt and abused by the harsh judgment.

We talked about the atonement and the cups. How God doesn’t take from one and give to another to make it right, he brings in a new pitcher and fills them all up. I told him that he needs to stand up and make other people confront their sin of judgment and harshness and do it by being there as a constant reminder to them of their unchristlike behavior.

I told him if he goes in with smiles and he’s wonderful it will change them and eventually they’ll come around. He said his grandma is always praying for God to send people to him and that his grandma‘s prayers were working today!

I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon, he said he still has the one he bought for his mission before he got his girlfriend pregnant. I asked him if he would read it. He said he would read the book of Mormon and I told him that’s how he would have the strength and the spirit he would need to move forward..

I told him that he would be a much better servant to others when he takes care of himself spiritually.

I told him that if he would go to church, pray and read the scriptures, that when his friends came to him for help, he would find another level of support and knowledge to help them. I told him that this would help him serve them better.

In this story I need to talk about the change in his countenance from the airport to where we went. When he got in the car you could tell that the spirit was not striving with him. The look on his face was vacant. He blossomed as we talked and drove. One hour later he was a different person. He was smiling and his eyes were smiling. I talked to him about BYU in my experience there where I had to let go of the hatred for the people who were trying to ruin me. I talked about that in connection with the other 95% of the atonement that is referred to in Elder Renlunds conference talk.

Earlier that day I had been talking with President Stodard at the MTC about my experience at BYU and about how it related to the atonement and I believe that this conversation was prepping me for the ride that night.

In the end he said he would go to church. He said it was time for him to take the next step and make a serious move

Favorite ride to Ogden ever!

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