I picked up a man by 900 S. and 900 E.. His name was Juan and so I tried for the cheesy joke when he got in and I said your number Juan. He was Spanish-speaking as his first language and he didn’t get my horrible joke.
We started driving and started talking. He was from Venezuela and liked it here. He didn’t want to speak Spanish because he was learning English and he wanted to speak English. I totally respect that and always defer to that. I remember when I was on my mission and I would try to speak Spanish, people would act like they didn’t understand because they wanted to speak English. It made me so angry, so I’m sympathetic.
So we started talking in English about how things were going. As we talked, I had the impression that I needed to ask him the question, did you go to church yesterday? I also knew by his jewelry that he was not a member of the church. He had several crosses and seemed religious.
As we were driving, we passed by a church house and I thought that this was a good time to transition to that conversation. I said, that’s a really neat church. Have you ever been in that church? Of course I knew he’d never been in that church but I just wanted to get the conversation going in that direction so I asked.
He said no, he hadn’t. Then I said, well, you must have gone to another church. Did you go to church yesterday? He said no. I told him that I go to church every week because it makes me feel good and I love to feel the spirit of God. I told him that I love to go and pray and take the sacrament. He lit up.
He said, I’d love to go to church but I can’t find a church where they speak Spanish. I want to go worship God in Spanish. I said, I can help you with that! I told him that I could find a church in his neighborhood where they spoke Spanish. He said, that would be awesome! He said, if you could do that, I would love to go.
I told him that I don’t know how to find Catholic churches, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has Spanish congregations all over the valley and we can find one of them close to his house. I asked him if that would be fine and he said that would be amazing! He said he would do that for sure.
He said that he missed being in the presence of God.
He said he’d always been a religious man but it was really hard to stay close to God without attending church. I told him that was awesome! I told him needed eat. I said I thought the he would be fed by the word of God.
He said the word of God is important. He said that he loved to read the Bible and loved to hear the stories from the Bible. I asked him if he’d ever heard of the Book of Mormon. He said no. I just got here no to long ago. What is it?
I told him that it was the writings of prophets who lived in anciently in America. I told him that his ancestors here in America had prophets because God loves them and he spoke to those prophets. hey wrote these revelations down. I told him that those writings were translated and became the Book of Mormon. I told him the Mormon was a prophet who was among his ancestors.
He said, this is very important. I feel like what you’re saying is very important and I’m supposed to listen. He said, let’s speak Spanish, so I can understand. I said OK, and we flipped over to Spanish.
I told him that Joseph Smith was a young boy, who was looking for the truth. He, knelt and prayed. God,the father and Jesus Christ appeared and called him to be the prophet. Then he who was given the engravings from the ancient prophets. By the power of God, he translated them into English, and latter they were translated into Spanish.
I told him that Joseph Smith was called to be the prophet to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ on the Earth. I told him that we have that gospel. He asked me if we read the Bible and I said, yes. We have the Old Testament, we have the New Testament just like his church does but on top of that we have the prophecies and revelations to the people here in America and it’s called the Book of Mormon another testament of Jesus Christ. I told him that this was his testament for his people and their testimony of Jesus.
I told him that one of the things the prophets in American taught was that Jesus would come to them after his crucifixion. I told him that Jesus descended from heaven and stood in front of the people. I told him that the people touched the prints of the nails in his hands and worshipped him and he blessed them. I told him, your ancestors were blessed by the hand of Jesus Christ. The spirit was burning in the car. I asked him what he felt right then in his heart and he told me he felt a tremendous peace.
He told me he knew it the peace that comes from the spirit of God because he’d felt that in his life. I told him that the peace comes to him when God is there and God is there when he’s hearing truth. I told him that this spirit was testifying that the things I am saying was true. He said, I recognize that.
I told him that when we feel this we know that God is reaching out to us, and that God was reaching out to him. I felt a prompting to tell him that he had felt a little bit lost and alone. I said that God didn’t want him to feel that way. I told him that if he would go to church, he would feel the spirit of God and he wouldn’t be alone anymore.
He said, that’s amazing and that’s what I need to do. He said, can anyone just go to your church? I said yes! We invite everyone to come. I told him that our church is all about invitations. We do that because that’s what Jesus Christ did.
I told him that the people in the Book of Mormon had the church and they been baptized. When Jesus came they all asked him to save them. As an answer to this plea he gave them authority, instruction, and a commandment that each one of them be baptized again to a new level of discipleship. He commanded them to follow him with more purpose and to receive the Holy Ghost.
I told him with the Holy Ghost we never walk alone. I told him that with baptism we are free from our sins and we can stand before God. We qualify to be saved just like the people in the Book of Mormon. He was touched and he said this is true! Do they teach this at that church?
I said, yes they do! I reached into my glove box and I pulled out one of the Book of Mormons prepared by the Secrists, and I handed it to him. I told him this is the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. I want to give this to you. I showed him the questions of the soul and he read them. He said, some of these are questions that everybody’s always told me there’s no answer to.
I told him that the answer is right there in that book and that he could look it up and read it. I told him when he does, he would feel the same peace he felt in the car. He said, this is incredible. He said, God put you here didn’t he? God put you here today to give me this ride. I said, yes! God put you in my car because he wanted you to read this book.
God put you in this car because he wanted you to go to church. God put you in this car because he wants you to be baptized. That’s the invitation that Jesus gave to your ancestors in this book.
Not only is it the invitation Jesus gave to your ancestors but it’s the invitation that Jesus is extending to you. He wants you to go to church, learn, prepare, and be baptized.
He said, this is really exciting. I can’t wait to go. Then he said, where is the church? I looked up the church and gave him the address and told him that they meet at 11:30 on Sundays. He said that he would be there early. He didn’t want to keep the Lord waiting. He said, He said it’s been a few months and maybe I can just go, sit in the church and soak it in.
He said that was what he used to do before. He would go to the Catholic churches and sit there. He said, I never felt the spirit there like I have in this car today.
I asked him if it would be OK if I had missionaries give him a call and he said he would love it. He said he wanted to learn all about this and more than. He wanted to feel the spirit like this. He thanked me for the Book of Mormon and he said you’ll never know how much this means to me. You’ll never know how important this divine gift is to me. He said, I can feel how important this book is.
I’d been taking him to the bank and it was 4:50 and he had to get out and go inside before the bank closed. He shook my hand and said, I want you to know that this means a lot to me. He said, I’ve always been someone who loved going to church and I have a feeling that this is going to take me to a new level! He smiled and got out of the car. As he walked away, he was clinging tightly to the Book of Mormon I had given him.
I went on the Tools app and put in his address and sent the missionaries over to him. I called them and talked to them to make sure that they had received the message. I’m sure they’ll take great care of him.
I’m sure the missionaries are excited to have someone who can’t wait to commit and who wants to go to church. We should all want to go to church as bad as this man did. He will be a great member.
Sometimes God sends you a lift 