Why fake it when you can have the real thing?

It was a Saturday night and I just finished up my bonus and was feeling pretty good. I decided to take another ride and it took me down to a place called Shades on State. It’s kind of like the new place for college students where they don’t really check their ID and they can dance and get drunk.

I pulled up to pick up a girl and I didn’t know how many people would be with her. Usually when you go to a place like that, you fill your car with people and so I was a little shocked when I saw one person come running towards the car. I want to emphasize no one comes running towards the car on Saturday night at these places so I knew she wasn’t drunk even though she may have been drinking.

She got in the car and she was bubbly but underneath that I could tell she wasn’t really that happy. I said to her, so you like to be happy? She said, I try to be happy. When she said that I had a flood of promptings and so I just started saying them.

I understand the risk of just saying things because if they complain, I can be de deplatformed and I can and lose my ability to drive but the spirit came hard and I decided to follow.

I said you try to be happy but inside you’re trying to cover something up. You’ve been hurt and some people have hurt. Those people hurt you bad and it’s difficult for you so you over emphasize with a cheerful attitude. You try to compensate so that people don’t know what’s going on inside.

I told her that she didn’t feel like she was lovable and she didn’t feel like she was loved. I told her that I was here tonight to tell her that she was loved and that it was her Heavenly Father that loved her.

I could tell in the way she looked that she was shocked. She teared up saying I’m about to cry. She asked me how I could possibly know these things. I told her that’s OK because I felt by the spirit that I was supposed to say those things to her and that she needed to know that her father in heaven knew who she was and he loved her.

She said, I was raised Mormon. When 22 year olds say that they were raise Mormon I always chuckle. It’s kind a like, well, you’re not raised yet! There’s a long way to go! Of course, I don’t say that out loud but I always think it.

I started talking to her about the things that were coming to my mind, first off the atonement of Jesus Christ. I told her that when we have difficult things in our lives, we need to turn to Christ. I explained to her that God‘s plan is for us to turn to Christ where he can use his atonement to lift our burdens and soothe our souls. Satan‘s plan is to blame God, blame the church, being blamed the people at church, blame our family, blame everybody else and then marinate in our sorrow.

I told her that God’s plan with us looking to Christ allows us to be happy because he lifts our burdens, just like he lifted the burdens of the people of Alma when they were in captivity. I told her that they could barely even feel those burdens.

I told her that if she would look to God, Jesus Christ and his atonement instead of blaming, her burdens could be lifted. The spirit was really strong in the car and she was tearing up again. I told her that in the Book of Mormon it talks about the brazen serpent, and if the people would look to the serpent, which represented Christ, they would live, and if not, they would die. I told her that it’s the same thing here, if we look to Christ, he lifts our burdens and he blesses our life and we live. If we were to Satan, we die spiritually and blame others and become miserable.

I talked to her about LGBTQAI+ people I know who are good members of the church,who hold positions in the church, and worthily exercise the priesthood in their callings because they have learned this lesson. They have learned that if you allow the atonement to work in your life, you can trust God and in the end he will make it right. I told her that the problem is not just for them, but for us. Whatever happens to us in this life or whatever challenge we have, through the atonement it can be made right.

She said she never thought of it that way and she beamed. It was clear to me that this was one of her major issues and she saw an answer, and the spirit confirmed it to her. I asked her if she was feeling the spirit and she said “oh yeah “I asked her what she knew about the spirit and she said she knew what it felt like but she hadn’t felt it in a long time before tonight.

I told her that God is an all inclusive God who loves everyone and that’s why he sent Jesus to America and to the other places in the world.

I told her that baptisms for the dead is another great example of God showing his love to everyone, no matter where they were born, no matter when they were born. God has a plan for everyone regardless of their circumstance.

She said that she remembered doing baptisms for the dead and that it was the time in her life other than in the car right then that she felt the spirit this strong. I told her that it was because she was saving God‘s children. I asked her how she would feel if someone saved her child and she said she would love them and be so grateful.

I told her that when she did baptisms for the dead that is exactly how God felt. He was so grateful and loving for her having gone there to help save his child. I told her that this is one of the reasons why she felt his spirit so strongly in that occasion.

I explained to her that we all lived with our father in heaven and we had this feeling between us, that was nurtured over thousands of years and then when we came to earth, we didn’t feel it. Then one day we felt the spirit, she burst into my explanation and said, and then that’s what we feel when we feel the spirit. I said yes! She said that’s what we’re feeling in the car right now. I said yes, this is what we’re feeling in the car right now.

You’re feeling the spirit of your father in heaven, which is here. He is here with his spirit so that you can know that he wants you back. I told her about Ammon and how he came into the king and told the king the things that were in his heart that no one knew and that no one could have known. The king asked, are you God? He said no, but God has given me these things to know so that you will know that the things I say are from him and are true.

I looked at her and said it’s the same thing for you. The things I’ve said to you tonight shook you and surprised you that I knew them. She said absolutely. I said I don’t know them but God does and through the gift of the Holy Ghost he has let me know what to say so that you can know that the things I am saying are from him. Then he sent his spirit to confirm that to you. She choked up again. I felt the impression that her parents have been praying for her and that’s why I was there that night.

I told her, your parents have been praying for you. She said, yes, they tell me that all the time. I told her that because of their prayers, she was put into my car tonight so that she could feel the love of her father in heaven and know that he wants her back, know that he loves her and know that he cares. I told her that now she knew without a doubt that these things were true.

Her countenance had completely changed since she got in the car. She wasn’t fake happy anymore.

She was beaming. She had reacquainted herself with the spirit that she had forsaken before she came to college. I asked her if she would go to church the next day. She said, I will try. I looked at her skeptically and said that, we don’t like try we like to do. I received the impression that she hadn’t been to church at school and didn’t know where to go. I said, do you know where the Institute building is on campus? I knew that she did because it’s only a little ways away from her apartment. She said yes. I said, promise me that you will go at 11 tomorrow. She said she would.

She said in this ride everything had changed. I know what I have to do.

I told her that her father in heaven wants her back and that it starts with saying her prayers, reading her Book of Mormon and going to church.

She said she would do that. She thanked me like 5 times and got out of the car.

Believe me, I am smart enough to understand that she wasn’t thanking me because it was the spirit that was in the car that made it all happen. She had a miracle that night and now she doesn’t have to try to be fake happy.