The frozen chosen

I met this young lady on a snow day. It was the day after the biggest snowstorm we’ve had in Utah in a long time and I was out driving and making good money. I got a ride to go to the airport and I put my setting on end request because I wanted to go back downtown where they had bonuses available.

I hadn’t gone two blocks before the spirit told me to take that off and go normal. I followed the prompting and immediately received a ride request. I assumed that the ride request would be somebody at the airport going somewhere because that’s always how it works.

I was shocked to see that after I dropped off the other passengers at the airport, the ride I received was in Glendale south of the airport about 15 minutes. That was a little disturbing because I didn’t want to go to Glendale and that’s why I put the “end request” on in the first place.

I can’t really just reject rides once they’ve come and been accepted so I decided to go. I went and picked her up then started driving home to her home. She was speaking English to me but with a heavy Spanish accent.

I started speaking in Spanish to her and then she laughed and said wow we could’ve been speaking in Spanish all along. Then I said to her why don’t we speak English so that you can learn English. She asked me how I learned Spanish and I told her that I learned it on my mission. She said that she knew several people that had learn Spanish on their missions.

I then asked her, you’re not a member of the church are you and she said no. The spirit of the Lord already told me this and I knew that she was really close and that this could be a pivotal ride. I felt like I was supposed to pry a little and ask her what the real reason was that she hadn’t decided to listen to the missionaries.

I asked her if she would tell me what it was that was prohibiting her from being baptized. She looked at me with big eyes, aid that her brother was with the missionaries all the time and that he was 100% into the church but that she didn’t want to do it. I asked her why and she hem hawed about it and wouldn’t tell me the real reason.

The spirit told me the reason.

I said God puts people in my car to receive messages, that’s what I believe and I believe that today I’m supposed to help you with this. I told her the spirit was telling me that the reason why she didn’t get baptized was because she felt like it was rejecting what she had done in the past and calling it evil. I told her that she didn’t think it was evil and that she did it to show her love Christ. Therefore she could not see it as wrong or bad. It was an issue of pride a little bit too. She didn’t want her little brother to be right.

She said that’s exactly it. How did you know? I said the spirit of God whispered in my heart and I’m telling it to you the way he’s telling it to me. I told her that when Jesus came to America all the people had previously been baptized. They had done it to show their love of God and their devotion to him.

I then told her that the first thing Jesus did when he was with them was give them authority to baptize, demonstrate to them how they should be baptized, and then commanded that everyone of them should be baptized even though they had been baptized before.

I asked her why she thought Jesus would do that. She told me she didn’t know and that she was interested. I told her that he didn’t make them renounce their previous baptism or look at it as evil, he just offered them a new level, new covenant, a more perfect path. Jesus loved them and appreciated them for their devotion in the past but now he wanted to give them more and expected more of them. That was the covenant when they were being baptized.

This made total sense to her she said that’s beautiful! She said that’s really one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. She said that this has been my hang up hang up. Of course I want that higher level with Jesus Christ.

The spirit was really strong in the car and I identified it. I asked, what are you feeling?She said, I have to tell you when I first got in your car I was frozen. I was frustrated. I didn’t want to have to take a car service but as you’ve spoken everything has changed. I feel peace in my soul and I’m very happy. That’s what I feel right now and I love it.

I told her that was the spirit of God testifying that the things I was saying were true. I told her that I was teaching from the book of Mormon and that book is true. She said I know it is. I told her that it is the collection of revelations received by the Prophets who lived in America and that they worshipped God the father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost.

I told her that that feeling was the same feeling she had with God for thousands of years and that sometimes it could be emotional but this is how she felt in his presence. She said I love this.

She asked me to tell her about Joseph Smith and the church. I shared the Joseph Smith story about how he had been looking for the truth and hadn’t been able to find it in any of the churches. I used the example of the mirror that fell and people gathered the parts that they loved and tried to reform churches without all of the pieces. Joseph Smith was called to restore the whole mirror, the whole church with all of the pieces. She says that makes sense.

I said we have all of the teachings in the complete church of Jesus Christ. I told her than an evidence of that is baptisms for the dead. God being a perfect loving father who loves all of his children would need to have a plan to save or at least present an opportunity to save every one of his children. She agreed. She had heard about baptism for the dead because her brother had done them but this context provided a new way of looking at it for her and she loved it. She said the spirit is testifying that this true too. I said yes, it is. I’m glad you can feel that.

I told her I wanted to bare my testimony to her and I did. The power of the spirit accompanied each word and I could feel her receiving that testimony.

I asked her if she would promise me that she would go to church with her brother on Sunday and she said she would. I asked her if the missionaries were going to be coming to the house and she said, yes they’re coming tomorrow. I told her that when the missionaries were at her home to go up to them and tell them about our car ride in detail and ask them if you could set a baptismal date. She said she would do that.

I asked her what she learned on our ride and she said she learned that God loves her that the book of Mormon is true. That the church is true and that she needs to be baptized because she wants that next level of discipleship.

Now that she didn’t have to reject the love that she had for Christ or feel like she was turning her back on that love it made all the difference to her.

I told her that if she started going to church she should be able to be baptized pretty quickly and she said that this was exciting. She said, now I know that I have to be baptized.

I would love see the reaction of those missionaries that go into her house and sit down to teach her brother after already having been rejected by the sister and hear the words, I know the Book of Mormon is true, I know the church is true and I want to be baptized. When can we schedule a time for that baptism! That should make for an excellent P day letter home for those missionaries.