The other side of the tracks

One night I was out driving and I was starting a three ride streak at 1 AM. That means that if you do three rides back to back to back then they give you an additional $18. I got my first ride done then my second ride took me clear to North Salt Lake. I started getting texts for that ride while I still had my other passenger

The text said my husband is out in the cold, hurry up and get there. You never know what the reception is going to be like when you get a text like that. I went straight there after the drop off. It was in North Salt Lake in the industrial area by the hard to get to side of the railroad tracks and it was a little freaky.

I waited for a bit and finally the guy comes out and he gets in the car. We start chatting about cops and being pulled over for things like not signaling enough. That’s happened to me twice this year on the freeway all by myself at 3 am. We laughed about it and talked about how hard it would be to be a cop. I told him my dad was a cop and a little bit about that and he was really interested.

Then he said that he had been in prison and it was really hard but that he was on probation and he was trying to straighten up his life. He told me that he took this horrible job at horrible hours so that he could take care of his two little girls.

He lit up when he talked about those little girls and the spirit told me that it was time to talk about the truth of the gospel. I talked to him about his responsibility as a father, to protect them physically and spiritually. I told him he needed to teach them to pray and that he needed to pray for them.

He told me, I won’t lie, I haven’t said a prayer in a long time and I’m not sure I know how. I told him that it was really important that they learn how. I asked him if he’d ever seen Mormon missionaries and he said yeah, there were some that lived in his neighborhood. I told him to go to them and they would teach him how to pray.

He told me this would be so awesome, he said, I’ve had a lot of interest lately in learning about the spirit and praying. I told him that his father in heaven was his real father every bit as much as he was a father of those two girls. He hadn’t understood about the love that heavenly father has for him. I asked him how he would feel if his little girls didn’t talk to him, he said horrible. I told him that’s how your Father in Heaven feels when you don’t talk to him. He wants you to talk to him. He was touched by the spirit as he started to consider what I was saying.

There was an amazing spirit in the car and I could tell he was feeling it. I thought we were done with the trip. We had arrived at the stop but I was wrong. They had programed a second stop and he was just going in to get pizza and then we were going to continue the journey.

While he was in getting the pizza, I had been thinking and praying about what to say next. I asked him to tell me about his time in prison and he said that it was really hard. He was in solitary for a while and once they put a pedophile in the cell with him. He said he had to get that changed but he said that this man was bad and evil, you could tell. He had to get away from him.

The spirit started whispering to me about what to do and what to say. First, I asked him what he was feeling and he said emotional energy and love. I said that’s the Spirit of God. I asked him if he had ever felt that before he said yes. The spirit whispered to me what to say and I said there was somebody in prison who made a big difference to you, who touched you and he did it by the power of God.

He said, how could you possibly know that? Yes! There was a man, he was from your church and he would come around and he would teach me through the door and when he had the same spirit with him that I feel in your car tonight. The same feelings and the same power. I feel that power tonight only a lot more and I love it. One time when he was teaching us he told me that God would never leave me alone and just as he said that I looked out the window on a cloudy day and a ray of sunshine came through the window rested on my shoulder. I knew God loved me. That’s what got me through.

He was very emotional at this point, he said I want to cry. I told him that the missionaries would teach him a lot more than how to pray. I told him that the missionaries would help him understand his feelings and help him come to Christ. I told him that Jesus Christ had suffered for him, for everything he’d ever done wrong. He also suffered the pain of injustice , infirmity and poor choices so that he could take all of that upon himself. This way christ could lift him above it. He said that would be amazing

I told him that when Jesus Christ came to America the first thing he taught was that they needed to be baptized even if they’ve been baptized before. I told him that those missionaries could help him prepare to be baptized and what that would mean is that he would be following Christ and in return Christ would wash away his sins.

He was quiet, then he said I’ve got a lot of sin. Do you think Christ would really wash away my sins? I said absolutely and I testified to him that the atonement was real and that Jesus Christ could cleanse him of those sin and lift him above the other issues that so tormented him.

He said, I would love that. I asked him about his probation. I asked him how much longer he has on probation and he said six months. I told him that in the next six months if we worked, I was sure that by the time he was off probation the missionaries could have him ready to be baptized. His face lit up and he said this is exactly what I want for me and for my little girls.

I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon. He laughed and said, I’m not even a Mormon why would I have one of those. I told him that he would find power in it. I told him Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon and that it was the ancient writings of prophets from America. I told him that there had been prophets outside of Jerusalem around the world who received revelation. I told him in America they wrote it down and that’s the Book of Mormon. I told him that the book is true and it brings us to God. He said I want that book. I told him I had happened to have one with me and gave him one of Sister Secrists marked copies. He grabbed it and said that he would read it for sure.

As he got out of the car I said I had the urge to tell him one last thing before he went. I said you know, God really wants you to be baptized, to be clean and bless your family. You know that don’t you? He said never in my life have I thought that God would want me for anything but tonight after what I felt, I know that he does. He said, tonight has changed my life and what I have felt tonight has put me on a path that I need to follow. He grabbed the pizza and said that he would talk to the missionaries the next day. He shut the door and went into to the hotel where his wife was waiting. I dropped him off, I was tingly.