23 and counting on her father in Heaven

I picked up a girl on State Street going to Park City. This was really weird because her pick up point was five blocks away from where He indicated pick up point was. I got her on the phone. It took some manipulating and interpreting to get us on the same page. Instead of being on 100 South and 3rd east she was down by Little America Hotel. I felt like ditching the ride because I could. It was a ride to Park City and I was going to lose money on the ride, but I felt impressed by the spirit to take this ride.

She got in the car and we started to go. It was a good ride but not long into the ride she confided in me that she was an alcoholic and 23 days sober. I congratulated her and told her how awesome that was. She told me that it would have been longer but she fell off the wagon 23 days ago and she was battling it hard core. She told me that it consumed every second of her thoughts.

As we started up the canyon she told me that she was from American Fork and she had moved there as a young child from Colorado. She also indicated the kind of work she did but frankly I forgot. I might not be a very good listener sometimes.

I felt like I should talk to her about the church The promptings came very strong that I needed to talk to her about the church but when talking about her family she said nothing about religion and almost purposely pushed away from the topic. I felt like I wasn’t welcome to go there.

I decided to talk about my grandfather‘s addiction to alcohol and how my wife had worked in the gastroenterologist office. She had seen people in their late 20’s early 30’s die from cirrhosis of the liver. Heather always mentioned how horrible and said that was. It just devastated her to know about this.

She said, well that’s my age! I said yes, alcohol will kill you! I told her that this is why getting rid of this addiction is so important. She said I know but it’s so hard.

I asked her if I could tell her something that I think makes it easier for me to understand and might help her. She said yes. I looked at her in the mirror, our eyes met, and I asked even if I talk about religion? I knew that she hadn’t wanted to talk about religion before but this time in this context she gave me the approval to talk about religion.

I told her that I had been Elders Quorum President and that I had people in my quorum that had been addicted. I had worked with them and the one of them had died from his addiction. I told her how sad it was. Then I asked her, do you want to know what I think is the difference between those who are able to overcome this and those who aren’t? She said yes.

There was an earnestness and a desire to learn in her voice and I felt like at this point she was open to hear what I had to say. I started talking about her being a daughter of God. I told her about how she lived with her father in heaven for thousands of years and that her spirit and his spirit knew each other and they loved each other. It was wonderful and amazing and it was the most central part of her soul. I told her that in everyone’s soul there is this place that is meant to be filled by the Spirit of God. I told her that was developed when she lived with her father in heaven before we were born. She was OK so far.

The spirit began to testify of the truth of her relationship with her father in heaven and I could see that she was thoughtful and I could feel her mind opening.

I talked about how when we came to earth and received our bodies we also lost our ability to remember exactly what that spirit was. Being prompted at that time that she was indeed a member, partially by her reactions and partially by the whisperings of the Holy Ghost, I said, when you were a child, either at girls camp, in family home evening, at church or praying with your mother, at some point you felt the spirit.

I told her that when she felt the spirit it was a wonderful feeling and that her spirit went crazy enjoying the presence of that spirit. I said it was like your spirit shouted my father’s here my father’s here, my father’s here. I told her that the spirit then filled that hole in her soul and she felt happy and complete.

I told her that we spend our lives on earth trying to learn how we can have that spirit with us like our soul craves.

I told her that Satan on the other hand is real. I said that people had told her that Satan wasn’t real, but he is and that he tries to copy and frustrate everything that God does. I told her that he tries to copy this feeling to lead us astray into paths where we won’t be happy.

I told her that getting high and getting buzzed is one of the things that he does. I told her that one time I was interviewing a sister in the MTC and when the spirit was there I asked her what it felt like and she told me it feels like I’m high. She explained to me that the only feeling she had experienced that was close to this was being high. he said that the Spirit of God was more powerful but that it was a similar feeling.

I told my passenger that by having us get drunk or high Satan counterfeits the feeling of the spirit and tries to fill that hole that’s been vacated in our soul. I told her it’s like feeding someone potato chips when they haven’t eaten for a week. I told her it’s not substantial and it doesn’t last like good food does. She said that makes sense.

She said that Alcoholics Anonymous says we’re supposed to look to a higher power, this must be the reason why. I told her that as a member of the church she has a greater understanding of that and a greater ability to understand what it is and why it is necessary. She asked me how I knew she was a member of the church and I told her that I just felt a prompting from the spirit that she was. I told her coming back to the church would be a way that she could get that help to fill the void in her soul. I told her that her alcoholism is a physical battle and a spiritual battle. I told her if she would take care of the spiritual void by filling it with the power of God that it would lessen her dependence and make it so that she could fight the physical battle. She thought about that for a minute and then said, my father and mother are members of the church, my brothers went on missions but I left that a long time ago. I could tell by the way she talked and by the venom in her voice when she said it, her parents disapproval of the lifestyle she was living created a great chasm even a gulf between them. It seemed as though she disapproved of the church almost exclusively to spite her parents.

I told her that if she would go back and surround herself with that spirit and fill that hole with the spirit instead of the things Satan was trying to stuff in it, she would have the power to resist the cravings and temptations to drink and do other drugs. She said, that would be hard to go back to my parents like that. I asked, how bad do you want to quit drinking? She said really bad.

By this time we had arrived at the place where she had pre design to go. She was getting ready to get out of the car. She said, I’ll have to think about it. I said do you believe what I said? She said maybe. I said during the ride you felt the spirit and she started to smile and she said yes. I said that spirit testifies of truth and she said, I know.

I said would God send that if he didn’t mean to validate what was said, if it was wrong? And she said no.

I said I have one more question for you. She said what is it? I said I want you to just stop and think about the cravings right now that you’re having. How are they by comparison with the way they’ve been for the last few days?

She gasped and answered, oh my, they’re Way less. She said that’s amazing. I told her that they were diminished because the Spirit of God was filling her soul right now as it had been during that ride. I told her that it was making it so that she only felt the physical craving. I said, now you see how this works.

She said how do I do this. I said go to your dad and ask him for a blessing. I told her to go to her mom and dad and discuss with them what we talked about. I asked her to be open with them about the fight she was having. I told her that they would love to wrap their arms around her and help her feel the spirit. I told her not to judge them for what had been said and what had been done before. I told her that she doesn’t like to be judged so she should let them off the hook a bit too. She smiled and said I guess you’re right. She said I’ll do that.

She turned and walked away full of the spirit. I’m pretty sure there’s a mother and father in American Fork that have been worried sick about their little girl because I know there is a father in heaven who has been. The fathers blessing is just what she needs and a hug of love and understanding like she got from the spirit in the car that day can help bring her home.