When you need help call the Elders….but get the right Elders!

One day I was in town, trying to make up some extra money early in the day. The ride share companies are tightening down our compensation and it’s making it a little more difficult for us to get by. We are having to tighten our belt and work a little bit more so I was doing that.

I got a ride to pick up somebody at The Cheesecake Factory. It’s right downtown on first south and I swooped in there to pick her up. She didn’t come for a minute but finally she showed up. She was a pretty young lady, but I could tell she had pain in her face. I could tell she had been through some things and the spirit was telling me that it was time to get busy. I had an 8 minute ride so it kind of had to be quick.

I told her that she seemed familiar to me. She did but I didn’t know from where. I asked her if she had taken car services before and she said yes. Two years ago she used to take them a lot, but then she went to rehab and hadn’t taken a rideshare for a year or so.

I felt prompted to speak to her about addiction, but I didn’t have any time to ease into it so I asked her if it would be OK if I talked to her about her addiction a little, and she said that would be fine. I explained to her about the spirit of our Heavenly Father and how our soul has a spot that we are programmed to want to fill with the spirit of our father. We spoke about how Satan exploits that. He fills that space with drugs and alcohol and riotous living when that’s not what was intended to be there.

I told her the purpose of that feeling was to draw us to God and bring us home, and Satan uses it to bind us down and take us away. She told me that she never heard anyone articulate that but that was exactly what had happened with her.

She said that she felt like she was caged in and had no out. She said that she felt like she had no options and that she had gone to her tribal elders to ask them for help. She was a Native American of the Navajo tribe. They had told her that there was something in her and something around her that was making her feel that way.

They didn’t help her. I told her that it was satan and that he had tied her down with addictions and bad decisions. This made it so that she wasn’t free. I told her a lot of people look at the commandments of God as restricting, but she was finding out right now in a very real sense that the chains satan binds you down with are the real restriction.

She agreed and said, that makes so much more sense than what they said. What they said had bothered her. Now she had a real answer.

I talked to her about the atonement of Jesus Christ and how he can lift us. I told her about our father in heaven and her relationship with him. I told her that she was his daughter and he loved her. I told her that it was a very tangible love that she could feel.

I asked her what she was feeling right then because the spirit was intense. She said, I feel assured, I feel lifted, and I know that the things that you’re telling me are true. She said that it was an amazing feeling and she loved it. She said that the feeling was overwhelming, but it was comforting her mind. She said her thoughts were racing, but they were focused. She said that this feeling she was having had pushed away any cravings or preoccupation with her addictions. She said she felt lifted and loved.

I told her that this was the spirit of God and it’s effect on her. It hold her that’s how she felt in his presence, and that this feeling was between her and her father. I said when she felt that, she knew the things that she was hearing were true, and that God was present.

I told her that with that spirit filling the hole, then she could physically fight the physical addictions and win. She said, I have no cravings right now! I told her that I had received a prompting to talk to her about this and also a prompting to tell her that she wanted to be clean and that was something she thought about a lot. I told her she felt dirty and embarrassed by some of the things that she had done and that she wished they would go away. She wished she could remove the stain.

She said, how can you know this? I told her I knew it because of the Holy Ghost which is the thing Heavenly Father sends that dwells within us. It whispers to us and tells us the things that God would have us do and that God would have us say. I told her that this was the way God had whispered to me the things to say.

She told me that it wasn’t an accident that she was in the car that day. She told me that she always takes the bus or the train. It goes right by her house but today for the first time in a year she felt compelled to take a car service. She hasn’t done that for over a year. She said that when I told her that I recognized her, she thought well, he doesn’t recognize me, if he knows me, he recognizes who I used to be.

She said, but now I know that I was put here to feel this and learn this.

I told her that God has a plan for everyone and he loves everyone. I asked her if she had heard of the Book of Mormon and she said yes! I asked her if she knew what it was and she said no! I told her it was the history of the people that came to the Americas. I told her that they came in about 600 BC. They had prophets who taught the people. I told her that Jesus Christ came to them. He descended from heaven, like he said in the Bible that he would because he had other sheep. I told her that he descended from heaven and stood there and that her ancestors touched his hands and his feet and worshipped him. They asked him to save them.

I could see that she was very engaged in what I was saying so I asked her if she could feel the spirit confirming the things I said. She said yes, I know that it’s true.

I taught her that Jesus called 12 people to come to him. He gave them power and authority to baptize so that the people could be clean of the sins that they had committed. This way they could be clean before God.

I told her that those were her ancestors that Jesus commanded to be clean even though they had other religions and had already been previously baptized. He commanded them to take that next step and be baptized with his baptism so that they could be clean, so that they could have the Holy Ghost walk with them and fill that part of their soul.

I told her that Jesus Christ blessed them and their posterity. I emphasized to her that these were her ancestors and that Jesus Christ had blessed them and their posterity. He had blessed her. I told her that God had sent me today so that she could collect on that blessing.

She said “I know this is true and I don’t want to leave your car”. I had another ride waiting. It was only two minutes away but I just let it wait until it canceled so I could spend more time. We talked about how Joseph Smith was looking for the truth and he couldn’t find it. He prayed and God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. They called him to be the prophet to restore the church.

I taught her about how the golden plates were given to him by an angel and he was given the power of God to translate them into the Book of Mormon. I reached into my glove box and grabbed one of the Books of Mormon I have that are prepared by the Secrists and I gave it to her. I said this Book of Mormon is the translation of those records written by the prophets who are your ancestors. It contains the entirety of the teaching of the visit of Jesus Christ to America to your ancestors and the blessings he pronounced on them.

I felt prompted to return to the narrative of Joseph Smith and tell her that he had a third grade education, that he was a farm boy, he wasn’t sophisticated, but yet God gave him the power to interpret this book. I asked her what she thought when I said those words. She said, first, I think it’s true, because I am feeling the spirit like you taught me. Second, she said, that’s what I need. I need God’s power to make me more than I am, so I can defeat my challenges. She said, hearing that story of a 14 year old boy becoming a prophet and translating a book when he doesn’t have the ability makes me believe that God can help me be more than I am, so I can defeat my challenges. The spirit was strong as she testified. She testified right there of the spirit.

I asked her if she would be willing to receive missionaries and she said she would. I told her that this weekend we have conference and that we have prophets today on the earth and they will teach us the words Jesus would have us hear.

She got excited. She said, I don’t work this weekend so I can watch conference. I told her that it’s on Saturday and Sunday at 10 AM and 2 PM. She said she wanted to do that.

I found the phone number of her missionaries on the gospel Tools app to guide her to them She said she would reach out to them. She sent them a text messages while we were in the car.

I looked down and it had been 45 minutes since we started. I said, Heavenly Father puts people in my car so that I can say the words he would have me say. Today he put you in my car because he wants you to know how much he loves you and he wants you to know how important you are to him. I told her, if you will read this book, you will feel the power of God and it will help you with your addiction. I told her if she would pray she would know it’s true and the spirit of that book would fill her soul with the spirit like we were feeling in the car.

I told her if she would listen to the missionaries she could become clean and she could have that spirit with her always. She said, that’s what I want. She said, I need to go in and you need to go to work but I just haven’t wanted to let the spirit go.

There were angels in the car and we could both feel them and both of our lives were blessed that day. I know that she’s going to hear back from the missionaries and that she’s going to be baptized. I have no doubt. I know God will do his part because I felt his love for her.