Let the lower lights be burning;Send a gleam across the wave.Some poor fainting, struggling seawoman You may rescue, you may save.

I was up in Park City earlier than usual. I picked a family up from the airport that I was referred to by a friend so I could make a little extra money. When I dropped them off I decided to do some rides to see how it was in Park City that night. I got a ride right off the bat and had a couple that canceled. I was driving quite a bit between rides. I didn’t like that, I wanted a quick ride.

By the time I dropped off my last ride I was clear out at Kimball Junction which is almost to the freeway and close to 10 minutes from downtown. I drove around for a minute and got nothing. I wondered if it had died. I called Heather on the phone while I drove into town, the whole 10 minutes away, still nothing. Heather seemed astounded that so much time had past and I hadn’t had a ride. I was considering going back to Salt Lake but felt like I should just do another loop.

While I was driving on that loop I got a ride to pick up a young lady. She was from Costa Rica but she lives here permanently now. She seemed bubbly and bright when she got in the car and we started driving. I talked to her a bit about Costa Rica and how much I like it. I told her about how funny it is that in Costa Rica you’re always an hour from whatever it is you want to do but it’s the most beautiful hour you’ll ever spend.

I started speaking Spanish to her and she wanted to know all about how I learned to speak Spanish. I told her I learned it in a year and a half on my mission. She had been here in the United States for a year and a half and it made absolutely zero sense to her that you could learn a language that well in that short of time.

Her own experience with the English language had been difficult and so she was intrigued. She said, really? How did you learn to speak Spanish SO WELL!. I told her that when I was on a mission I was constantly in the presence of God. I had the spirit of God with me and when we are in the presence of the spirit of God our capacity to learn things and do things increases far beyond our own abilities.

I told her there’s no way on earth I could learn that language without the spirit of God and without his help because it quickened my intellect and made me better than I am. She said I am very interested in this.

She asked me how I like driving people and I said that it is fun to meet people but sometimes it’s very scary. I told her that the Spirit of God that helped me learn Spanish, also protected me. I told her about the time that I felt prompted to pray for protection and call upon God to protect me when a guy was in my car. I could tell he was evil and he went to try to grab me and my phone and was shocked into convulsions as he crossed from the backseat to the front seat to try to attack me as if he had been hit with a taser.

I told her that God shocked him to protect me because God knows who we are and he loves us. If we will call upon him he will save us. I then told her that this is how it was with Jesus Christ. I told her that because it was Easter it is a good time to talk about this. I said that in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus had suffered for our sins and our weaknesses, frustrations, our pains, illnesses, inequities that happen to us or injustices there are thrust upon us. I told her that because he suffered those things he can lift us above all of those things. The spirit was really strong in the car and you could tell that she was eating it up.

The spirit told me to tell her this thing and so I did. I said “you’re very happy on the outside because you’ve decided to put that out there but on the inside something very sad is happening to you right now and it’s very hard for you to deal with”. She started to cry and said yes. I said that the person who is doing this to you is using his agency poorly and was not from God, but that God can save you from that if you look to him. Through the atonement of Christ he can save you if you’ll turn to him.

She said, I want to do that! How do I do that? I said let me tell you a little bit about the church. I told her that God loves everyone in the world not just the people in Jerusalem and that Jesus came to America. I told her in the New Testament Jesus had said other sheep I have which are not of this fold and that God sent his son to those other sheep. Those sheep were the people in America and other places. I said God loves everyone not just the people in Jerusalem.

I told her that the people in America, her ancestors, also had prophets and they wrote down their revelations. I told her that those revelations were translated by the power of God through a prophet of God named Joseph Smith. I could feel the spirit coming out of me as I said those words and I could tell it was impacting her.

I handed her a Book of Mormon and I said these are those prophecies and it also contains the story of the visit of Jesus Christ to America where your ancestors touched the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet. They asked him to save them just like you need to be saved now.

She said, should I take a picture of this book? I said NO! This book has been prepared for you. It was one of the books that Sister Secrist and her husband Bert had made and prepared. She was blown away. I said do you have any questions right now? She said just one, no one knows about what I am going through, so how did you know?

I told her that I didn’t know but that God knew and that through his spirit he had whispered this thing to my heart to say even though it didn’t make sense to say it. He gave me those words so that she would know it came from him and that the rest of the things I was saying were true. She said I know they’re true! I told her that when Christ came to America and the people asked him to save them he gave them HIS baptism and the authority to preform it then he gave them the gift of the Holy Ghost to be their constant companion. I told her that the whisperings of the Holy Ghost is how I knew to say these things.

I took this opportunity to point out to her that it wasn’t the words that I said that made her know that it was true but the feeling she was having in her heart. I asked her to identify that feeling then I taught her that those feelings come from God and her relationship with him developed over thousands of years living as his loved daughter.

I told her the one thing she should know is that she’s a daughter of God and he loves her very much I said I am a dad and a grandpa. When I look at those little children’s faces the love I feel is incredible. She said I know that feeling because I have nieces and nephews too. I told her that the love her father in heaven feels for her as his little girl is like that only many many many times greater. He knows you and he loves you and he wants to help you.

I told her that the reason she was in my car today was to be lifted, helped and blessed by her father in heaven and with God on her side she had everything she needed.

I asked her if she could feel the presence of God and she said yes and she’s missed it so much in her life. She said “I love the feeling right here and I hate that I have to go. We had arrived and had been sitting there for a little bit. Sitting behind me she reached out and touched my arm and she said “I want you to know how much this has meant to me”.

I asked her if she knew of anyone who was a member of the church and she said no, but I really want to. I asked her if she would go to a Mormon church and ask for the bishop. I told her that there she would find someone that could help her and she said she would do that. She promised me that she would go to church this Sunday. She said she wants to know people who carry that spirit.

We are not able to ask for phone numbers or even exact addresses and were she is a young single woman I really felt that I shouldn’t ask for those details But I felt an assurance of the spirit that she would do exactly what she said that she would do.

She got out the car and she started walking away. On her way she kept looking back and waving at me.

The fact that it was impressed upon me so strongly for this young woman to look to the atonement made me think about Easter. I think it’s a great Easter message for all of us rather than trying to do it ourselves or suffer in silence we should turn to Jesus Christ so that he can take away the sting and lift us, not turn against God or to give into anger and say we feel like we were dealt with unjustly.