I picked up a guy at the Brickyard restaurant on a Friday night. He came out and he had been drinking a beer but he wasn’t drunk. He was loud! Loud doesn’t scare me. He got in the car and liked the song I was playing on the radio and started talking about how growing up in Costa Rica his family used to listen to the radio and that was one of the songs.
I told him how much I liked Costa Rica. I told him it’s a beautiful country and it’s one of my favorite places to go. I said Pura Vida which is the Costa Rican word for awesome or cool. He laughed and said he doesn’t hear that much up here.
He said that he really liked my Spanish and that my accent was really cool. I told him I have a lot of opportunity to use my Spanish. I told him that I do interpretation. I told him that these days I do a lot of interpretation for Venezuelans. He said oh, I know! There are Venezuelans everywhere.
He said it’s like almost every other person he speaks Spanish to is from Venezuela these days. He said, I have a serious question for you. I said all right fire away!
Why do you think that all these Venezuelans are coming to Utah? I said, well, obviously they want to get out of Venezuela. It’s a communist, socialist country that robs them of their soul, freedom and dignity. They want to be free.
He said, I know that, but why Utah and not New York or Los Angeles or Chicago or Texas? I said do you really want to know? He said yeah. I said, I’ll tell you if you really want me to tell you what I think. I wanted to give him a second chance. He said yeah, I want to know what you think.
I told him that they are brought here by the hand of God to receive the gospel and learn about the church. It was dead silent for about five seconds. After five seconds was up however there was a loud obnoxious groan from the backseat. He was almost a little angry that I said that.
I said, you asked me what I thought and I asked you if you really wanted to know and you said yes. This is what I think. He calmed down and said, I shouldn’t have reacted like that because I did ask and I apologize. He said, it’s just that I have so many questions about some things regarding your church.
I said we’ve got a few minutes let’s get into it. He said we don’t have enough time. I said let’s try with your most serious concerns. He said OK. Explain to me polygamy and familial incest along with clergy abuse.
I’m sitting there like, whoa, but I prayed in my heart and then I talked to him about a different time. I talked to him about we have different standards now and how during the time of polygamy, people with means took care of people without money. I talked to him about how these days the idea of polygamy should be abhorrent to us as it is. I told him that this had been the case since the practice was abandoned over 120 years ago.
I told him that my wife just wouldn’t put up with it for a second and he laughed. Then I told him I don’t think I could put up with it for a second and he laughed harder. As far as the sexual violation of anyone, it is against God‘s law and is against the churches law.
I said that sometimes evil people find their way in. I told him that other times people who are not evil but are lost and confused make horrible decisions that could cost them their salvation.
I told him that in any case God has given us his son and his son has given us the atonement to help us through these things.
As I bore my testimony of the atonement to him a sweet peaceful spirit came upon the conversation and I could tell that he was really interested in what I had to say. I continued talking about Jesus and how he loved Gods children but he didn’t take away their circumstances, he gave them a way that he could ease their pain. This is why we teach of Christ so that he can lift us above that pain.
I asked him if Jesus and God were all powerful and he said yes. I asked him if Jesus and God loved everyone in the world who would ever live and he said yes. I asked him if God loved his ancestors in America less than he loved the people in Israel and adjoining areas where the gospel was preached and he said no
I said if God loves you as much and he’s all powerful wouldn’t a loving father send his son to visit your ancestors also? He thought about it for a minute and said yeah. I asked him if God chose favorites and he said no. I told him that it is very consistent that God would send his son to his other children because God is a perfect father.
He said that is an amazing thought that I’ve never heard before but it makes total sense. Why wouldn’t God sent his son to visit the people in America?
I said, that’s what I thought you’d say. I said, have you’ve heard of Joseph Smith? He said yeah. I told him Joseph Smith was a boy seeking the truth and God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and called him to be the prophet. I told him that he received the Book of Mormon written on plates in their original language and he interpreted those writings. This is the Book of Mormon. I told him that the Book of Mormon is the religious history of his ancestors.
I talked to him about some archaeology that we were both familiar with that show a king God and a God descending from Heaven and a God without a body who was a spirit. I asked him who he thought these Mayans were worshiping when they worshipped these gods. He said it’s clearly God the father Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost but there’s no way they could’ve known that at 600 AD unless someone came and taught them.
I told him that person was Jesus Christ. He was the descending God because here in America he descended from the heavens. He said that makes sense. He said, those dang Mayans knew everything! I laughed.
He said who’s Moroni? He is the guy on top of your temples, right? I said Moroni was one of the prophets from America that is one of your ancestors. He is the one that brought the plates to Joseph Smith so that he could translate them.
I reached into my glove box and pulled a Spanish copy of the book of Mormon prepared by Sister Secrist and gave it to him. I explained the questions of the soul and how to find the answers to those questions un the book. I held it out to him and I said this IS the ancient religion of your ancestors, would you like a copy. He got emotional and said yes and he took the book.
In this instance the spirit didn’t come like a wall of power. It gradually grew and by the time we got to this point it was clear that the spirit was in the car. I asked him, how do you feel now compared to the way you felt when we first started our ride? He said he felt warm and an emotional rush and excitement from deep inside. He said he couldn’t explain it. I told him I could explain it, it was the Spirit of God testifying that the things I was saying were true. He agreed.
He said he would love to read it and he promised me that he would read it. He said that he never had anyone explain to him anything about the church and that he only heard negative. He commented on the peace that he felt and how inside right now he had a burning desire to have the knowledge in this book.
He asked me if he could shake my hand. It’s really interesting that when I have an experience like this with people they always want to touch me, whether it’s my head or on my shoulder or my hand. It’s not common at all when I’m giving rides for people to want to touch me. Yet almost exclusively when we’ve had one of these experiences it happen. It’s like their spirit is reaching out hoping to hang onto just a little bit longer.
He was clearly motivated to read and excited to do so. He looked back at me as he was heading to his house and said I promise you I will read this book, all of it. I know he will. That was incredible
Sometimes God sends you a lift 