I picked up this girl in Sugarhouse who was doing Christmas shopping. It was October and I admired her early approach to the holiday. She was a student at the University of Utah and I felt like the spirit was prompting me to talk about the church with her. She looked like a member of the church in every way but the spirit assured me she was not. I proceded with that knowledge.
I saw an opening with the Christmas presents and I took it. I said, a lot of people complain about the commercialization of Christmas but I think that it is a choice. She said what do you mean? I said well, in my family I told people that if they ever gave me a list they would never get anything on the list. I told them that part of their gift was that I went to the store and spent time thinking about them and what they would like. That didn’t go over so well as children but they usually got something they liked and for me it was never about the commercialization but always about the gift and the person. That way Christmas can be focused on my family and on Jesus Christ.
I said far too many people don’t bring Jesus Christ into that equation. She said, I know and it really bums me out. I told her that this year part of my family would not even be in the country. They were going to be in Argentina. She asked me if I had been to Argentina and I said yes, I went on my mission to Argentina. She asked if I spoke Spanish and I said yes, I still do interpretation of church meetings.
She asked how I could still speak Spanish after all of these years since my mission. I told her that when I was in the MTC we had an apostle come and he promised us that if we would say our prayers and read our scriptures in our mission language that we would never lose it. I told her that a promise from one of the apostles is a promise from God and since that day I have never said a personal prayer in English and I read my scriptures in Spanish. I told her that my Spanish is better today than it was when I was on my mission. She was impressed.
She said her friend just got called to Argentina on a mission and she thought it was awesome.
This was the opening I was looking for. I asked her if her friend had told her what she would be teaching and why she was going. She said no but that she thought it was really cool. I asked do you want to know what she’ll be teaching? She said, I absolutely do!
I asked her who wrote the Bible, she said prophets. I asked her what they wrote and she said the word of God. I asked her if God loved the people who lived in Jerusalem more than others and she said no. I asked her if God loved people from other places in the world and she said yes. I asked her if he loved them as much as he loved the people in Jerusalem and she said yes. I asked her if she thought that God was capable of giving his word to people other than the people in Jerusalem and she said yes.
I asked her, given that love why wouldn’t God bless them with his word as well. She thought for a minute and she said that she thought that he would.
I told her that Heavenly Father loved each of us and that he’s given us prophets through which he reveals his will and his commandments. I told her that we have a prophet today that speaks with God for us and he had called her friend to go to Argentina.
When I talked about the prophet and her friend she began to tear up. She said that feels so right, there has always been a special feeling around that girl and what you just said feels right.
I pulled out one of my Book of Mormons that was marked by the Secrist’s and I said this book is what she will take to the people in Argentina. I asked , have you ever heard of the book of Mormon? She said, I live in Utah of course I’ve heard of the Book of Mormon. She laughed! I said do you know what it is? She said no, she didn’t have any idea. I told her it was the revelations that God gave his prophets who lived here in America. It contains all of his truth and is another testimony, companion of the Bible, of Jesus Christ and his divinity.
I told her that her friend was going to take this book to Argentina and using this book teach people that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that he paid for their sins. their sorrows and their oppression. He made it so that we could return to God again. I said that is what is in this book and that’s the power of this book.
She asked where she could get one like that one! I handed it to her and said that book is yours if you will do one thing. She said, what? I said read it and pray about it with your friend who’s going on the mission.
She said she would and that sounded like a great idea and a great way for her to understand her friends mission with her.
The spirit was really strong in the car and I told her that I know the book is true and she said “I believe it is too”. “I can’t wait to learn.” I said, the Spirit of God will help you learn. I asked her if she knew what the Spirit of God felt like and she said she wasn’t sure. I asked her what she was feeling right then and she said warm energy. I told her that that is what the spirit of God feels like to her. I asked her what she was thinking right then and she said her mind was alive with questions and possibilities. I told her that’s how she felt when she was under the influence of the spirit and how God would reveal his will to her.
I told her to talk to her friend about that and her friend could help her understand the spirit as well.
She had to go to class but she reached out and touched my shoulder and said I want you to know how much this ride has meant to me. It’s like I found a piece to my puzzle that I didn’t know was missing. She got out of the car and ran to class.
And
A quick little bonus story
I picked up a family who just moved here from Peru a couple months ago and we started to drive. They asked me how I learned Spanish so well and I told him that I learned it on my mission. They told me that they had been talking with a couple of sister missionaries and that they wanted them to get baptized.
I asked them what was holding them up and they said two things
Thing one, they were baptized Catholic when they were kids and they didn’t see why they had to go against that tradition and why that baptism wouldn’t work.
I told them about Jesus coming to America and teaching how baptism was to be done and calling apostles and giving them authority to baptize and then commanding that everyone be baptized even though they had previously been baptized. He wanted them to be baptized to this new level to a new covenant to give them more power. I told them that it was no repudiation of their former baptism but an embracing of the Savior and his covenants. They loved that and said that’s great.
I could tell the spirit was touching both of them. Even their children were quiet. I couldn’t see the lady but I could hear sniffles and the husband had tears in his eyes. I said, that’s the power of the spirit testifying of the truth of what I just taught you. This is how you know that it’s important to do whatever it takes to be baptized. This is God confirming those words and helping you with your decision.
It turns out that the barriers are easily overcome mobile. They didn’t have a car.
Thing two, they lived in a house with three cars but they didn’t have a car. The church where the Spanish branch meets was some distance away from their house and they had no way to get there with their small family. They said that the sisters keep getting mad at them because they don’t go but they don’t understand them when they tell that they don’t have a car and they can’t make that journey. Their friend had paid for their ride that night but that they didn’t have money for car rides
I told them that the next morning they needed to get on the phone with the sister missionaries and tell them that they need to have either the ward mission leader or the elders quorum president pick them up and bring them to church because they don’t have a car.
Armed with the new spiritual experience and confirmation they had received, the husband spoke up and said, that’s exactly what will do. We will call the sisters.
Then he asked, are you sure they will they do that? I said absolutely they will. They were excited for 9 AM the next morning. They were going to call the sisters and arrange for someone to drive them to church. Why someone wasn’t already doing this I have no idea.
This whole thing breaks down over assumptions and miscommunication. We all need to make sure that the people in our lives understand the love of God and his covenants and that we understand their circumstances so we can best support them and help them on their path as new members of the church. Sometimes we might even need to give someone a ride but it seems to me that is all fair and good because Jesus has had me on his back, packing me and my problems around for a long time. This is how we become his hands.
Sometimes God sends you a lift 