If you can’t say anything thing nice….

One night late I picked up a young lady who had been working and started to take her home. She seemed a little hard. The way she talked the words she used were just the kind of things that had a little street vibe to them.

As we talked I got the impression that she needed a Book of Mormon and that I needed to talk to her about the church.

At first I was questioning this because of her rough exterior. The way she was dressed, the way she talked and just her vibe. I couldn’t figure out how in the world I was going to get into that conversation but I accepted the challenge and away we went.

We talked about work and how things were going and everything and I felt like I should use that as my entry into the conversation. I said, what days do you work? She said, I work Monday through Friday usually but sometimes if we don’t get our work done they have us work on the weekends too.

This was the opening I needed and I said, I need my weekend, I need Sunday off so that I can go to church and rest from everything all week long. I didn’t stop there. I told her that I go to church and I interpret the meetings into Spanish and being in church makes my day really nice.

She said she grew up in a family that went to church all the time but that they were really harsh towards anyone that didn’t believe exactly like they believed and they shouted them down. She said it was very uncomfortable and she had to separate herself from that.

She said that right now she was going around looking for different truths so that she could find her way. I spoke to her from what she said and reconfirmed with her that what she was saying was that she wanted a religion that recognized that the other religions had truth in them. She said yes. She said it can’t be that they’re all evil because they teach similar things.

If this wasn’t exactly the Joseph Smith story, I’ve never heard it. I told her that I wanted to tell her the story of Joseph Smith. She said she had heard of him. I said he was the first prophet of these times in our church. I said that he was a young man and he looked around at all of the different churches. He was confused as to why they all had so much contention between each other and why they taught different things yet professed the same belief.

She said, that’s exactly right. I told her that he read in the Bible in James and learned that he should ask God. He went to a grove of trees and prayed. God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. When I said that it got quiet. That doesn’t mean that there was a lot of noise before because there wasn’t but it was a quiet all the way down to your soul. I could tell that she was touched.

I told her that God the father and Jesus Christ called him to be the prophet to restore the church just like Jesus had it when he lived on earth.

I told her that when Jesus was on the earth the church existed in its perfect condition but when he was killed and his apostles were killed it fell.

I used the example of the mirror held up by the pegs and when you take out the pegs which are representative of the apostles the mirror falls. I told her that people grabbed parts of that mirror that were important to them and they reformed churches around those parts but they didn’t have the whole gospel.

I told her that was what happened and that’s why every church has a little truth in it but that none of them have the whole truth except for the one that Joseph Smith restored under the direction of our father in heaven. She said, oh, that makes a lot of sense. I asked her what she felt and she said that she could feel a warmth and a peace that was different than she felt before.

I told her that it was the spirit of God and that it was there. I told her that when she felt that spirit she knew the things she was hearing were true. I asked her if God would send his spirit if false things were being taught and she said no. I said this is how you know it’s true, that Joseph Smith restored the church.

I told her that he also translated a book called the Book of Mormon. She said, “oh! I’ve heard of that book.” I said it is the collection of revelations received by the ancestors of the Native American peoples. I told her that they had prophets because God loved them.

I told her that Jesus Christ said he would visit other sheep and that this was who he was talking about. I told her that Jesus Christ descended from heaven and stood on the steps of the temple and taught the people. We have the account of this visit in the Book of Mormon because God loves everybody.

She said that’s really cool, that’s very important. I reached into my glove box and pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon prepared by the Secrists. I asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she said no. I gave it to her and asked her if she would like to read it. She said, yes, very much. I said, this is your book. She looked shocked and said, I can take your book?

I told her this book was here for the purpose of helping people find Jesus Christ. I said that’s you, so this book is for you. I told her it was prepared for her so that she could learn and come closer to Jesus Christ. She said, that’s what I need, that’s what I’ve needed for a long time.

I told her that what she was feeling in the car was her soul breathing in the spirit. I told her that the spirit was there to let her know that her Heavenly Father loved her and that God was about love. I told her that we believe that families and marriages are forever not just till death because it’s about love.

I told her that all the pieces of that mirror that everybody grabbed were true but they just didn’t have the whole mirror. I told her that we did and it was contained in that book. I told her we also have modern prophets who help us understand what God would have us do today.

I told her that when Jesus came to America he taught the people the fullness of his gospel which was a step up from what they had believed and he asked them to take that step with him to a higher level. He invited them to be baptized and that’s why as members of our church we want people to be baptized regardless of if they’ve been baptized before. Jesus wants us to take that step so that we can participate with the full gospel, the full mirror. We can be married for eternity and have the power of God in our lives

She said, that’s what I need. I need to find a church that talks more about what they believe in than finding faults in other churches. She said her parents and family were really abusive regarding other churches.

I asked her if she had friends that were members of the church and she said yes. I asked her if she would call one of them and tell them about this ride and she said she would. She said this was exactly what she needed.

She commented again on what she felt in the car, on the spirit of God, and said she wanted to feel it more often.

She said “I will read the book and I will call my friend. I will pray to my Heavenly Father. Maybe someday I will understand that spirit better.” She added, “I just wanted to tell you again that this ride was not an accident, it’s just what I needed.”

As I think about it, it was very impressive that she accepted as true everything I testified of. The spirit was strong and she recognized truth coming into her heart. That’s always neat when that happens. We should never be shy to tell the story of Joseph Smith and the first vision or to talk about the Book of Mormon because the spirit it brings opens hearts and changes lives.