That boy had faith

One evening I picked up a guy by the capital. He was a landscaper and I was picking him up and taking him clear up by the hill in Centerville. It seemed like a long trip. When I got to the spot where I was supposed to pick him up he wasn’t there. There was no one there and I wasn’t excited to do the trip. I thought about canceling but I felt that I should call him.

When I called him he didn’t even know exactly where he was. He was down the hill in the Avenues somewhere. By that time his time had expired and I had every right to cancel the ride, make the money and not have to make the drive. The spirit had other ideas. I felt compelled by the spirit to go find him.

There I was driving around the Avenues looking for this guy. Finally, there he was down at the bottom of the hill just up from the Cathedral of the Madeline. A good 10 blocks from where he was supposed to have been.

He got in the car and we started driving. I figured that there was a spiritual reason for him to be in my car so I started asking questions that could lead us to a discussion. I asked him where he was from and he said Mexico. I asked him how long he had been here and he said two weeks. That’s a really short period of time and I was struck by it because usually people have been here quite some time when they have a job already.

I asked him what he thought about Utah and he said that it was peaceful. I asked him why he thought it was peaceful and he said that he didn’t know. He said that he guessed that the people were just good people. I told him that the people were good people but it’s because they obeyed God and they tried to do the things that they had been taught to do.

He told me that made sense. I asked him what religion he was and he said Catholic. In my mind now it was set how I was going to approach this. I was going to talk to him about the differences in the Catholics and our church and how we believe that God sent Jesus to America because he loves all of his children. This is a routine method I use of bringing up the church and highlighting the differences in our churches without being negative towards the other church.

I started to talk to him about prophets in America and how there have been prophets in America. He was interested but the spirit said no! Stop! So I did.

I was impressed to teach the Joseph Smith story just like we teach in the first lesson. I started with Joseph Smith a 14 year old boy looking for truth. He went to all the different religions and he couldn’t find it. I said that he was reading the Bible and he found the scripture in James and decided that he needed to go pray.

I talked about him going to the sacred grove, kneeling and praying with this question on his mind and had a vision where he was visited by God the father and Jesus Christ. I testified with power of the first vision. I could feel the testimony touch his heart.

He was looking down and then he looked up at me and said, that boy had an unbelievable amount of faith for that to happen to him. He said if you don’t have faith and a tremendous amount of it there’s no way something like that can happen to you. He said that boy has faith.

The spirit of God was in the car and you could tell that he was physically moved by it. He said, I believe you, I believe every word you said. I asked him what he felt and he said it’s like there’s a fire in my body put a peace in my heart. I told him that it was the spirit of God and that’s how God made him feel when he was near. I told him that when he felt that he would know that the things he was hearing were true. He told me that he knew it was true but this made it certain.

Then I asked him if he remembered the prophets that I had briefly spoken about earlier and he said yes. I said because God loves all of his children they had prophets in America. Your ancestors had prophets who spoke with God and they wrote the revelations just like the prophets did in the Bible. That’s why we have the Bible and we have the revelations written by your ancestors too.

He said really!? I would really like to know about that. Where can I find those revelations and prophecies? I told him that the same young man Joseph Smith was commanded to restore the church of God on the earth and that angels appeared to him to help him do that.

I told him one of the angels was a prophet who anciently lived in America and he showed him these prophecies and revelations written by his ancestors on golden plates. I told him that he translated those by the power of God and we have those revelations today.

He asked again, how do I get one of those? I said, I have one and I’ll give it to you. It’s called the Book of Mormon. I asked him if he’d heard of that book before and he said no. I told him that Mormon was an ancient prophet here in America and the book was named for him but it contained all of those revelations. He was excited I told him that that book also contained the account of the visit of Jesus Christ to America. He said what?

I told him that that book talked about Jesus Christ coming to America and that Jesus Christ held his ancestors in his arms and blessed them and their posterity. I told him that Jesus Christ invited his ancestors to touch the prints of the nails in his hands and then his feet.

I told him that this means that he and his family are important to God because God loves everyone not just the people in Jerusalem. Then in America Jesus said that he still had other sheep he was going to go visit.

He said that is so cool. I told him that we believe that God loves everyone and that he sent his son for everyone and to everyone. He said that sounds right. It feels right. I asked him if he felt that spirit again and he said yes I asked him what it meant and he said it means that this is true. The Book of Mormon is true.

I told him that when Jesus was in America after the people touched the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet they all said hosanna, which means save us. He called 12 and instructed them how to baptize and gave them authority to baptize everyone into this new covenant, to this new understanding.

I told him that all of those people had previously been baptized but Jesus wanted them to take this next step to be disciples at a higher level. He said that’s beautiful. He said the spirit just keeps getting stronger and stronger in the car. Everything you’re saying is true. I know it.

Then I asked, do we need to be baptized to go to heaven? He said yes. I asked him if he had ancestors that didn’t get the chance to hear about Jesus. He said, yes, before the Spaniards came none of them did. I asked him if God loved them and he said yes. I asked him if a fair and just God would condemn them for not being baptized.

He said no but that’s the law. I told him that when Jesus was crucified for three days while his body was in the tomb his spirit was in the spirit world organizing the teaching of the gospel to people who hadn’t yet heard it or had favorable circumstances to receive it. I told him that those people that died without hearing it on the earth or having the opportunity to hear on the earth are taught in the spirit world.

He said oh, so there’s a great big school up there founded by Jesus. A great big Sunday school! I love it! I told him that in that great big Sunday school everyone gets a chance to learn and decide whether or not they want to follow Jesus Christ. Then I asked him, is that enough? Do they still need to be baptized? He said yes.

I asked him how that happened? And he said that he didn’t know because they were dead. I told him that in the New Testament there was a practice called baptisms for the dead. I pointed to the Bountiful temple. I said in the temple we do ordinances that tie families together. People go in that temple and they are baptized for and in behalf of someone who has died.

Then the person who is dead gets the opportunity to accept or reject that baptism. That’s God‘s plan to give every one of his children a perfect opportunity to come home. Everyone will have the opportunity to be baptized either on the earth or by someone on the earth in a temple. He said that’s amazing. He said I’ve seen that building and it looks so beautiful I’ve wondered what they do in that building.

I told him that Jesus gave authority for people to seal things on earth that are sealed in heaven. He gave that authority to Peter and we have that authority today. We use that authority to seal important things like marriages. I told him that in our church we’re not married until death but for time in all eternity. He said, in our church were married until death do us part.

He said, that would be amazing to know that you would be together forever. No wonder the people around here have so much peace. I told him that not only is your wife sealed to you but your children also and you can be together with your family. He said, that is incredible. This is how it’s supposed to be.

I talked about the example of the mirror, where you have a mirror on the wall held up by 12 pegs. I asked him if you knock those 12 pegs out, what happens to the mirror and he said it falls down and crashes on the ground. I asked him how many of pieces would there be. He said there would be a lot of pieces. I told him that the ancient church of Jesus Christ was organized perfectly with all of the doctrines including eternal marriage, eternal families was held up by 12 apostles.

I told him that one by one those 12 apostles were killed and eventually just like the pegs, were gone and the support was gone and the church fell and broke into many pieces. I told him that the people loved the gospel and they love Jesus so they grabbed pieces of the gospel and formed churches like the Catholic church around the pieces they had. He said, like the Catholic Church? I said yes.

I told him that the things we had been talking about were the pieces that got left out that nobody grabbed. He said that makes sense. I reached into my glove box and grabbed a Book of Mormon in Spanish. It was one of the books prepared by Sister Secrist and I gave it to him.

He was visibly excited and emotional and thanked me. He asked me how much he had to pay for it and I said nothing. I only needed him to promise to go to church and to read the book. He said there are churches everywhere, which one should I go to. I looked up on the gospel Tools app and found out the church right around the corner was where the Spanish Ward met and I showed him that. I showed him that it also contained the phone number and name of his bishop. I told him that this man would help him on his journey.

He saw that it met at 9 o’clock on Sunday morning and he said I’ll be there 100%. I want these things. He said, everything you’ve said today has made sense and I know it’s true. I need this for me and I need it for my family.

I told him if he would pray God would send his spirit to confirm the truth. He said, I know, he’s done that already here tonight. I told him that’s what you look for. I told him that you’ll feel it when you pray, when you go to church, when you take the sacrament and when you get baptized. He said baptized? I said yes. I told him that we have that same baptism Jesus taught in American. When you are baptized, you will be clean from your sins.

I felt the impression to say to him that he had been having a struggle inside of himself in the car, wanting to embrace fully the spirit he was feeling but also hearing in his head that he wasn’t worthy because of bad things he had done. He asked how did you know? I told him that when we are baptized we are clean and we get the gift of the Holy Ghost and it whispers to our hearts the things God would have us say. I told him that the Spirit whispered that to my heart so that he could know that God knows who he is and that God loves him and that God wants him to be baptized.

He said, then I will be baptized. He said I will go to church on Sunday and I will do the things that you’ve said. He asked me if it would be OK if he called the bishop and I said yes. He told me he would call him later on that evening so the bishop would know he was coming. He asked if that would be OK and I said perfect.

He walked away with a smile and thumbing through the pages of the Book of Mormon on his way into his house. That was an amazing ride and this guy’s getting baptized. That boy has faith!