It wasn’t his typical 8 second ride. Less bumps and more power

One Friday night late as I was finishing up. I drop someone off in holiday. I was going to make one last pass through town. It was 2:45 and I thought if I could get one last ride it would finish a day off nicely. A three or four minute ride, boom and go home. That’s what I thought. Turns out Heavenly Father had different ideas.

I got a ride to go out to the town just west of Tooele about 20 miles. That’s right! West of Tooele about 20 miles. I thought, no! And I called the rider. He wasn’t drunk and he of had some car troubles. I begrudgingly accepted the ride and decided to take him home.

We started driving and I got the impression that we were supposed to talk about the church but I really didn’t know how to start. It was like a boxing match when you’re looking for an opening.

He was a professional bull rider and we talked about bull riding and rodeo for quite a while. We talked about how high up in the rankings you need to finish in order make money a rodeo. I don’t think I’ll be doing that anytime soon.

Finally about 25 minutes of rodeo talk had passed when he said, I used to enjoy rodeo more when I went with my brother but he passed away in a car accident a few months ago. The bells went off in my head Ding Ding Ding. This is how I was supposed to talk to him about the church.

He talked about how his brother had lived a really messed up life but had pulled it together and they were rodeo teammates. He talked about how his brother had married a really good woman and they had a baby. He told me he was godfather of the baby.

I said so you’re Catholic. He said yes I’m very Catholic. Then I asked him, so where do you think your brother is now? He thought about it and said I hope he’s with Jesus but I think sometimes he’s with his little son.

He said that’s all I know and that’s all I can say but his six month old son will lay in bed and say daddy daddy daddy daddy and we can all feel my brother there.

I love talking about the plan of salvation so I started in.

I told him that we believe that the spirits in the spirit world work amongst us. I said that it’s very possible that this child, so fresh from his father in heaven, could see his father there and was actually speaking to him. He loved that and said he believed it 100%.

What are the things that we teach that makes Mormons different and prove that the church is true?

I asked him about all the people who had ever lived in the world from the beginning of time, I asked him if they were God’s children and he said yes. I asked him if God loved them he said yes. I asked him if God love them all equally, he said yes.

I asked them if they could go to heaven without being baptized according to the Bible. He thought for a long minute and said the Bible does say you need to be baptized and as Catholics we baptize children because if they die without being baptized they can’t go to heaven so the answer would be no they can’t.

I asked him how many people die without the opportunity to even hear the word of God and he said 90% of them. I asked him if that would make God a just and loving father to condemn 90% of his children without giving them an opportunity to hear Gods’ word, and he said no!

I told him that this is why God‘s true church has to provide an answer to that question. It has to teach how God can be a perfect loving father and still require baptism. I told him that the answer is baptism for the dead. We go to the temple and are baptized in the name of someone who has passed. At that point this person gets the opportunity to accept that baptism and they then can go live with our father in heaven. He loved that answer. I said the true church of God has to have this answer.

I told him that when Jesus Christ was on the earth he gave the power to his apostles to seal things on earth that will be sealed in heaven. I told him we have this authority today and we use it to seal families together. When we are married we are also sealed for time and eternity not just until death. I told him that his brothers widow can be together with his brother forever along with their young son. He can still have his family that he loves so much. He was emotional and he said that’s beautiful. I need to make sure my sister-in-law knows about this.

I told him that God loves everyone in the world not just the people in Jerusalem and that in the Bible he said he was going to go to other sheep. When he said this he was talking about the people in America because they had prophets and they had revelation. It’s just like it is with baptisms for the dead. God loves everyone and he provides a path for everyone. I told him that after Jesus was resurrected he came to America and he visited the people and he loved them and taught them. I told him that he commanded them to be baptized even though they had previously been baptized so that they could take upon themselves this new commitment and covenant. I told him that this visit from Jesus Christ to America along with the other revelations to the prophets were contained in the book of Mormon. I told him that that the Book of Mormon really is another testament of Jesus Christ.

As I talked about the Book of Mormon and bore my testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his interpretation of that book the spirit powerfully manifest itself in the car. It wasn’t silent but it was quiet and there was a tremendous calm in one sense but you could also feel an energy and excitement.

I asked him what he felt on the ride and he said I felt a tremendous peace for the first time since my brother died. I asked him what that peace meant and he said it meant that his father in heaven is there. I asked him if his father in heaven would send his spirit to be with us if the things we were saying weren’t true. He said no. I said does this mean that the things I said were true? He said yes.

He then told me that his mother, his sister and himself were the only Catholics in his family and that all the rest of his family were members the church but that he had never been taught anything about the church. I told him that he should ask some of his cousins about the things that we had discussed. He said, these teachings make a difference in my life.

I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon and he said he had been given one in his life but he didn’t know if he had one right now. He said, I’m sure that my sister-in-law doesn’t have one and once I tell her what you said she’d love to have one. I gave him a Book of Mormon. I explained the tabs and the markings that Brother and Sister Secrist put in there to help people answer thei questions of life. He was blown away and said thank you.

He went to get out of the car and then stopped and he said, I don’t think I can get out of this car. It feels so good in here, the peace and comfort is amazing. He said I love how it felt in here. So we lingered a little bit longer before he shook my hand and got out. It wasn’t like a handshake handshake, it was like a Ben Hur handshake if you know what I mean!

He said that he has the impression that sometimes God puts people in other peoples paths to get messages and he thought that’s why he was in my car tonight. I love it when the passenger realizes that.