If you chance to meet a frown do not let it stay, bring the spirit in the car and chase that frown away!

I picked up this lady at the Marriott downtown in Salt Lake City. She was heading to the airport and we put her huge suitcase in the back of my vehicle. We started down the road and I asked her where she was from. She said she was born in india but lived in Austin Texas now after spending years in California.

I asked her if she liked it here and she said are you happy here? My answer to her was the same answer I give to anyone that asks that, I like to think I’m the kind of guy who would be happy anywhere. It’s not the place where you are that determines your happiness it’s the way you react to it.

I told her that I used to have my kids make a list of five good things that happened to them each day so that they would be looking for the good not the bad.

I told her that I believe that our decision to be happy is the only real power we have and we shouldn’t give it away to other people, objects or circumstances.

She said after moving from India she wasn’t happy in California and it is no different in Austin. She just hasn’t been happy. I told her that I had a friend Landon who went on his mission to India. I told her how much he loved the people and that I would like to visit someday.

Then I asked her if it would be OK if I spoke about religious topics. She said yes, I feel like you’re supposed to be the one to talk to me about this. I asked her, have you ever started a conversation with a driver about happiness? She said not in 10 years of using car services.

I told her that the reason why she felt like she should ask me was because I have a message for her. I asked her if she believed in God. She said,” I didn’t used to believe in anything but lately I believe there’s something and I consider myself spiritual not religious”. When people say that to me it’s like saying yeah but I don’t wanna live commandments.

I knew that obviously she had been put in my car because she needed to know who God was so I started talking to her about her father in heaven and the bond they share. I asked her what she had felt in my car how the ambience felt, and she said it’s incredible and feels like home. I said, that home is the presence of the spirit of your father in heaven.

I told her that in our church when we’re baptized we get the gift of the Holy Ghost and we have the right to have our father in heaven’s spirit with us at all times. This is what it felt like to her, she said she loved it

I told her that before we lived on earth we lived with our father in heaven and we loved him and our desire to be with him is central to her being. This creates a space and filling that space with the spirit of our father in heaven is essential if you truly want to be happy. I told her that some people try to fill the space with drugs, alcohol and riotous living. These are cheap imitations. I told her it’s much like eating potato chips when you’ve gone two days without food. It just doesn’t make a lasting difference and in the end it just makes you sick. You need real food, food that was intended to nourish your body. I told her that’s what the spirit is for her soul.

I told her that once you take care of the spiritual component then it empowers you to decide to be happy. I asked her why she hadn’t looked at her religion and she said she didn’t like being told what to do.

I told her that she shouldn’t think of it as being told what to do. I asked her if when she was assembling something and looked at the instructions of how to properly do it, if she thought that that those instructions were oppressive. She said no! I told her that the commandments were like an owners manual for our life. It helps us use our agency in the proper way so that we can be happy and live in the presence of our father in heaven.

She said, that’s a great perspective! I told her that if she would not be afraid of committing to her father in heaven and living the way he asked her to that she would qualify to have the spirit with her.

I asked her when the last time was she prayed and she said never. I taught her how we pray and asked her if she thought she could do that. She said yes. She said she would like that very much. She said, I love what I’m feeling in your car so much, I want to feel it more.

As we were coming up on the airport she said this has been the most amazing ride ever! It has stirred up my soul given me hope and filled me with joy! It must be God. She said everything you’ve said is right exactly on point, it’s like you’ve known me for decades and know everything about me yet we just met 15 minutes ago. I’m going to do the things that you said because I want to have this with me. I know that it’s not an accident that you were my driver today. She said I’ve never spoken with a Driver about something personal like this and today God sent you.

After hearing this I was feeling a little bold. I said I have one other request I would like to make and she said what is it? Have you ever seen any missionaries around in white shirts and ties on bikes? She said yes, at the Mormon church house right across the road from my house. I said, go to them and tell them about our experience and what you felt and they will be able to teach you what you need to do to have this with you forever. They will teach you how to be baptized so that you can be clean from your sins and have God in your life.

She said that would be amazing I promise I will do that! She got out of the car and waved smiling and happy. I feel confident that she will be dropping in on that ward someday soon.