Brothers are best

I’d been out in West Jordan and West Valley City working much of the night on a Saturday night finishing off a Streak Bonus. I was excited to get back into town. Saturday night there are big bonuses in town and I was going to get some of them.

I got into town and I got a ride that took me to a Chili’s restaurant where I picked up the manager and started driving him clear back out to the far part of West Jordan. I was really disheartened because I wanted to make money and here I went on another long trip for $10.

He got in the car and we started talking. I felt the spirit tell me to get in the game. I perked up and listened to him. He talked about how he had gone to culinary school and that he was a chef and also he was a manager of the restaurant.

He talked about how he loves cooking and loves doing stuff in the restaurant industry.

The spirit told me that I needed to talk to this man and that I needed to get my mind right. I quit thinking about work and started praying about what to say.

He was a young man, 23 years old. I asked him if he lived with family and he said he had nine brothers and sisters. Four brothers and five sisters with him right in the middle. Once he started talking about his family the whole thing that I needed to say kind of laid out in front of me.

First I said the words that the Lord put into my heart. I told him that even though he had been very successful to have accomplished what he has at this point, he had been doubted not taken seriously by people professionally. Even though he never told anyone this it really bothered him.

He went to work with a chip on his shoulder and then he worked harder than everyone else around him and people didn’t recognize it. I told him that he felt like he had to prove everything and this was driving him to the excellence that he wanted to show.. I told him that the way he protected his feelings was also the way he protected his family. I said he was the brother who watched out for his little sister, who made sure no one messed with her and that he had everyone’s back and they all knew it. I also told him that even though he believed in God that he hadn’t prayed to God for a long time and that he needed to start looking to God. He was silent.

I asked him what he felt about what I was saying. He said that he was shocked and that I was right on. He really didn’t know how I could’ve known these things because he didn’t share them with other people. I told him that his father in heaven loved him and wanted to help him so he didn’t have to do these things alone. in With his father in heaven’s help he could do so much more than he could ever do on his own. I told him that he couldn’t do the important things without his father in heaven.

Again I asked him how he felt and he said that was he still in shock. He asked me again how I knew this. I told him that I was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints and when we are baptized we get the gift of the Holy Ghost It makes it so that we can have the spirit God with us. I told him the one thing that the Holy Ghost ghost does is it brings gifts of the spirit that help us bless people and one of those gifts is the gift of prophecy and revelation.

I told him that this is what the Lord had revealed to me about what was in his heart was in his soul. It gave me an insight into his relationship with God. I told him that God did this so that he could know that it was by God’s power that I was speaking. I asked him if he could feel the pretense he said again “I am still in shock”

I told him about how God loves everyone and how the Book of Mormon proves that. I asked him how could a God who is perfect and is all powerful would not bless and visit all his children. I asked him that if he were all powerful and was separated from his brothers and sisters would he just pick one or two to go visit or would you go visit all of them. He said of course I would visit all them. I love them.

I told him God loves us more and he is all powerful and he had prophets in America. These prophets wrote their prophecies.

I told him we have prophets in these days. I told him that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he spoke with God the father and Jesus Christ and they called him to restore the church and translate the Book of Mormon which is the prophecies that were written by the prophets in America. I told him Jesus Christ visited America because he was commanded by his father to go visit the other sheep and let them hear his voice and be counted among his fold.

He was touched. He said, my brother is a member of your church. I asked when his brother got baptized. He said, right after he met his wife. I told him that this Book of Mormon teaches of Christ and brings us closer to Christ and this is why his brother had embraced it.

This family is Brazilian, I don’t know what difference that makes, if any, but I thought I’d throw out that a former Argentine missionary teaching Brazilians is fine.

I told him that when Christ was here he taught the proper way that we needed to be baptized and gave authority to perform that baptism. I told him that’s another reason his brother got baptized. He wanted to do what Christ had commanded. I told him that Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to have that next level and those Blessings.

I told him that our father is reaching out to you now. He told me that he reached out to God several times when things were bad but then he would forget him. I told him God sent me here tonight with this message so that you could know that he is aware of you.

He said, I’m still in shock. I asked him to promise me something and he said he would. I said, promise me that you’ll go to your brother and his wife and tell them all about tonight. He said he would do that. I told him to tell his brother what he heard and what he felt during this ride and he said he would. Then I thought for a second and said, promise me and God, you will go talk to your brother and his wife and do this. He said he would.

I told him that tomorrow I won’t be around working but that i’d bring a Book of Mormon to him at his work if that’s OK. He said that would be really cool. We sat in the car for a minute enjoying spirit and he got out and left.

On Monday, on our way home from Idaho, Heather and I drove by and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. I showed him the questions of the soul in the front of the book and how to use the tabs. I asked him if he had talked to his brother and he said not yet. Later on that night I got a text from him saying that he had talked to his brother and thanking me very much. I can’t wait to watch his journey