Let your light shine!!

I picked up a girl downtown who needed to go to Bountiful. It was hard getting to her because Main Street was really full of cars and I couldn’t find her. I was about to cancel the ride but I felt like I shouldn’t and I didn’t.

Finally she got there and she got in the car and we started driving. As I looked back in the mirror at this 21 or 22-year-old girl, it seemed like she was trying to shy away from my gaze. We started talking about what she likes to do and she said she liked to dance and that she used to be a dancer and do competitions.

I told her I don’t dance and she laughed and she said all guys say that. I asked her, since she’s not a dancer right now what did she do and she said she worked at Panda Express and she gave me some pointers on what to order. By this time I could see that she was sitting up and engaging with me but we were almost to Bountiful. The spirit impressed me that I needed to move quick and gave me the words to say.

I asked her if it was OK if I spoke to her about my impressions of her and she said yes that would be fine. I told her that she had a very charming smile but she wasn’t using it and it was like she was trying to hide her smile and herself from everybody. I told her that there was a light burning inside of her that wanted to get out and that she felt like she had to protect it and keep it away from others so that it wouldn’t be extinguished.

I told her that somebody had been hurting her for a long time and that because of that she didn’t feel like she was worthy of that light. I said that she feel like people were trying to take it away. She felt like she was damaged goods and dirty.

When I said these things she started crying and said you’re seeing right through me aren’t you. I said no. I asked her if she’d ever heard of the Holy Ghost and she said yes I grew up in Bountiful, all my friends are members of the Mormon church. I said when we are baptized we are clean and pure before God we get the gift of the Holy Ghost. He gives us the words God would have us say. I told her that God was seeing right through her and he had given me those words and that he loved her and that he wanted to lift her and help her and let her know that she is loved and she’s amazing.

I told her that when she was hurt and damaged, she had blamed God and turned away from him. I told her, Satan just wins twice that way. I told her God would never take away somebody’s agency to do evil and that if a person or people decide to do evil, It is their right to choose.

When we make that choice to be evil that’s on us. The victim of our evil has been victimized by Satan and then Satan goes to that person and tries to convince them that God let this happen. He get them to think “How could God let this happen to me”? I said that’s how you felt.

I said that we can’t let Satan win twice. He made the person or prompted the person do the evil in the first place and then he gets you to reject God as the answer.

I told her that God has given us his son Jesus Christ to be the answer. He can lift our burdens and ease our pain. I said that christ could help her so she could feel the love of her father in Heaven. He would help her so she could turn to god and reject Satan. When I said this the spirit was strong in the car and I helped her identified it

I asked her if she could feel any difference in the car. I asked her what she felt and she said she felt heard. She said for the first time in my life I feel heard, I feel power and I feel love. She said I feel awesome. She said that it was incredible. I said this is what it feels like for you in the presence of God because his spirit has been here and this is how he lets know that you he loves you.

I told her that one of the things that Satan tells her all the time is that it doesn’t matter because she’s dirty, that she’s impure, that she can’t be clean, that she’s broken and that she’s humiliated. I told of her things are not true. They are lies and that God could make her clean. He could lift her and that he given his son so that she could come home.

She asked how does that work? I said in the church when we’re baptized we become clean from our past, then we get the gift of the Holy Ghost. He can be with us so that God can speak to our hearts. You can have his spirit with you always. I told her when we sin we need to repent and take the sacrament so that we can be clean and worthy to have the spirit again. This way we can feel the spirit that she felt right then and have it with us all the time. She said that’s amazing I would love that.

I told her that one of the best ways to feel the spirit is to read the Book of Mormon. I said that the Book of Mormon is the word of God revealed to his prophets who lived here in America. I said that It testifies of Jesus and brings us closer to God. I told her that it was translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith by the power of god. I said, there is power in this book. When I talked about the Book of Mormon the spirit testified again. I asked her if she felt the spirit testify of that too and she said yes. I said, it True!! She nodded.

I asked, do you have a Book of Mormon? She said no. I pulled out one of the copies of the Book of Mormon prepared by the Secrists and showed her the questions of the soul. I told her that if she’ll read that book she’ll feel the spirit. I also told her that she needed to look for some friends who were members of the church.

I asked her if she knew any good friends that were members of the church and she said every one of my neighbors. I asked “will you go to one of them and tell them about what’s happened in the car tonight?” I told her not to tell them the stuff about her situation but about the feelings she had and the love she felt from God and that the Book of Mormon was true. She promised me she would. She said I need to have this in my life. I can’t believe I’ve gone my whole life and it’s been right there and I haven’t reached out to grab it.

I told her that because God sent her a message and gave me these words to say. I said that she knows that the things I said are true. I asked her if that was correct and she said yes. Then I said well, then you know that this book I’m giving you is true and she said yes. I said, go to your neighbors and tell them about this and they will help you get this light in your life they will help you get baptized and they will help you feel the spirit. I told her then she could let he light shine and quit hiding it.

She said, “for the first time ever, tonight I feel like somebody heard me. Then they heard my heart and what the desires of my heart are. I’ve never had that happen.”

She said she would call when she got out of the car. She waved with a great big huge smile on her face beaming from ear to ear.

By the way she says the Honey Sesame chicken at Panda is the best thing they have. You should try it, I know I will.