Drawn to the light

One day I picked up a girl in the Greek sorority section by the University of Utah. Normally when you pick someone up in this area you don’t think missionary work. I do think there’s obviously a lot of missionary work that needs to happen but these people are the very definition of debauchery most of the time.

She was heading to her job which was acting. She was acting in a play in another part of the valley. I asked her where she was from and she said California.

I asked her what brought her from California to Utah and she said, I don’t know, I liked my audition I did with the drama department at the University. She explained that she had to do auditions by zoom for colleges and none of them went well except for the University of Utah one so she came here.

She said that an extra bonus was that her good friend went to BYU. I asked her if she had been to Provo and she said that she had. She said she loved it. She said that she loved the mountains and that she was going to go down to visit her friend and try to climb the Y someday soon.

Strange words coming from Greek Row indeed!

I said, that was cool for her to have a friend so close at BYU. She said yeah, I tried to get her to go to the University of Utah but the rivalry and everything made it so her parents wouldn’t support that, not even for a second. I see that as quality parenting.

I said, do you know why they wanted her to go to BYU? She said, besides rivalry? I said yes. I asked her if I could tell her what is is, she said OK, what is it.

I said that her parents wanted her to date and marry someone that she could marry in the temple. I told her that we believe that when we marry someone in the temple that our marriages are forever marriages and our families are forever families. I told her the odds of finding a young man with those values is extremely high at BYU. I told her that her friend’s parents were playing the odds.

I told her that the parents wanted her to be with people that had similar beliefs so that when she had struggles, her college friends wouldn’t take her out to get her drunk but would lift her spiritually and in another ways.

I told her that the fact that BYU requires eight classes of religious instruction is a wonderful way to get to know her father in heaven and his word. I told her that these are the things her parents wanted along with the distain for the opposing team in the rivalry. We laughed.

Then the spirit moved me and I said you have been presented with opportunities to be baptized before. You’ve studied the gospel before. I told her that she didn’t do it because of fear for her social circumstance at college and her family‘s reaction. I told her that she liked it but those things were the complications that stopped her from being baptized.

She said yes, how did you know? I asked her how she felt right then. She said incredibly energized and peaceful. I asked her if she liked that feeling and she said yes. I told her it was the spirit of God and it was there to confirm the truth of the things I was saying and that the Holy Ghost had given me the words to say.

I felt impressed to say, “there’s someone in particular that you are thinking about right now who had really worked hard tying to get you to be baptized, who was that”? She said, that’s my boyfriend. He’s serving a mission right now.

I said that was great that her boyfriend was serving. I told her that he was out following the same spirit she was feeling now and saying the words the Lord put into his heart as well. I told her that this is how he was blessing people’s lives by bringing them the Spirit of God and God’s word just like we were experiencing in the car. She said that is was cool.

Then she said, my friend and Provo just opened her mission call and she’s going to South Carolina. She said that her friend was so excited.

I asked, you always seem to find yourself with members of the church don’t you? I told her that I felt that she was drawn to the light they have and that it was the same light our father in heaven has. I told her that this was the way he beckons to her and she felt the need to have that light in her life. She was drawn to it. I told her that she kept looking for it and was drawn to people who have it. I told her she wanted to have it but that this can only happen when she’s baptized.

She looked shocked and had a look of recognition on her face. She said, you’re right! I never thought about it like that.

I told her God puts people in my car and the spirit gives me the things to say. I told her again that the reason why you keep being drawn to members of the church is because your spirit knows that this is where you need to be.

I told her that her heavenly father knows who she is and loves her. He wants his spirit to be with her. I told her that her spirit wants the same thing. I told her that her spirit craves that association.

I asked her if she’d read the Book of Mormon and she said yes. I asked her if it was true and she said yes.

I asked her if knowing that it was God‘s will that she be baptized so that he could have his spirit be with her always made a difference and she said yes.

Then she sat back and said, WOW! There was silence for a minute. We sat there marinating in the spirit. Then she said, “I have to call my friend in Provo. We need to discuss this ride and the spirit we have felt”. She thanked me and told me this was the best ride she’d ever had. She said that what we had talked about and the spirit in the car had answered all of her questions and eased her concerns.

She said her friend would be so happy, and her boyfriend would be too!! She said , this was just what I needed just when I needed it. She smiled and got out of the car and went into the theatre.