One night I was driving late. It was almost 2 am and I had just dropped off the cook from one of the bars downtown at his home. Normally what I would do because the bars are closing right then is pause my app and get back downtown to pick up a bonus ride.
I did that. I put the app on pause and started to drive. I felt the impression that I needed to take it off and go where it took me. That can be West Valley City or going to Ogden. I decided to be obedient. I took it off and immediately upon taking the pause button off I got a ride.
I was to go over by 39th South and pick up a man and take him to 90th South and State Street. That kills your night but I wasn’t too concerned about that. I was concerned about why I had been prompted in this case.
When I pulled up, this man got in my car. He was very friendly and we started talking. I asked him where he was from and he said that he had recently
lived down in Utah County but that originally he was from Mexico.
I decided to jump right into it and asked, “you lived in Utah County, does that mean that you’re a member of the church?” He said no, his sister is Mormon but he was not. I finished the sentence as I often do when people say that and I said, not yet! He laughed and said, well, not if my sister has her way!
I had a couple of impressions right off the bat. The first was that we needed to talk about baptism. We needed to talk all about baptism. We needed to talk about why he wasn’t baptized when his sister was baptized and about baptism in general.
Knowing the spirit was dictating, what I was supposed to say, I just said it. I asked him why he didn’t get baptized when his sister did. He said that he didn’t feel ready.
I told him that you will never feel ready. There’s no time when you feel ready. I told him that it will be that way until you’re baptized and you have the gift of the Holy Ghost. There’s no way that you can learn the kinds of things that you would need to know, if you were to call yourself ready without the gift of the Holy Ghost testifying to your soul.
I told him nobody knows everything but that through the Holy Ghost we can learn the things that we need to know. Then I felt the impression that I needed to talk to him about becoming clean through baptism, and then taking the sacrament.
I told him that when we are baptized we become clean and cleansed from all of the sins that we have committed. I told him that this is how we repent and are clean before God. I told him that after we are baptized we go to church every Sunday and we take the sacrament to renew our covenants and maintain our cleanliness.
“Yes”, he said , “you mean the bread and water?” I said yes. He said that he had gone to church with his sister a couple of times. I said, that’s amazing.
I told him that once we are clean the Holy Ghost can dwell with us, walk with us, whisper to us and help us say the things that we need to say to do God‘s will. He will tell us the things that we need to do as well as the things that we need to say. He said, wow. I didn’t understand what he meant by wow at that time. Later I found out it turned out to be an answer to his prayer.
I told him that Jesus commands us to be baptized. I told him that Jesus descended from heaven to the people who lived here in America and he gave them baptism. He called up 12 and gave them authority to baptize and commanded them to baptize everyone. He invited them to take a step up in discipleship.
I told him that this is how Jesus wants us to take a step up. He wants us to be baptized with this baptism, so that we can have forgiveness from our sins and have the spirit to be with us. I told him that worthy men also have the authority to baptize and to give blessings so they can bless other people. I told him that this is how God blesses his children because that way we can serve them by using his power and his authority. I told him that this is all part of the new level.
I told him that baptism is so important that Jesus, who is perfect needed to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. He laughed and said, wow, I never thought of it like that! He was perfect! I said, yes he was perfect and if the son of God, Jesus Christ, being perfect needed baptism to go to heaven, how much more do each one of us need to be baptized?
I admit right here that I stole that directly from the scriptures. It was actually my reading that day.
He said, that is crazy. I told him that to come close to God and serve God we have to follow his words and the example of his son.
We should have been done, we had pulled up to his house but I knew we weren’t done. I knew we had work left to do so. I turned off the app and ended his ride. I said, do you mind if we talk for another minute? He said, no, I love this.
I asked him what he felt. He said he felt peace and tranquility. I told him that this was the spirit of God confirming the truth of the things that we had said. I asked him how he felt about that and he said he knew it was true. I asked him if he had been to church here? He said that he hadn’t.
He said that he hadn’t been to church since he moved from Utah County. He said he went there a couple of times with his sister but that he hadn’t gone here. I asked him if he knew where the church was and he said no. I asked him if he had met with any missionaries and he said no.
I looked up the address of his church on the meeting house locator on the Internet. I gave him the address and the time his meetings were. He said, thank you! He said, I’ll go. His meetings are Sunday mornings at 9 o’clock. This was a perfect time to stop, but I felt like I needed to do more. The spirit was telling me I needed to do more.
I asked him if he wanted me to drive him to the church so that he would know where it was. He said that would be amazing. Off we went at 2:15 in the morning, driving to his church house. When we got there, he made a note in his phone where it was on his GPS. He said, now I know where it is I promise you 100% I will go.
I told him that in that building, through those doors he will learn how to follow Jesus and come close to him. I told him that this had been a great concern to him recently. The spirit was really strong in the car and I asked him again. Do you feel that and he said yes. He said I felt that and this is why I told you I would go. That’s why I promised that I would go. He said, I now know that this is what I’m supposed to do.
He said, I need to be baptized. He said, I haven’t been baptized in any church and I need to be baptized. He said, tonight I know that I need to be baptized in the church of Jesus Christ like my sister was and like my ancestors were all those years ago when Jesus came to America.
He said, what you don’t know is that last night when I went to bed, I said my prayers like I always do. He said, I had felt like I was falling down and not feeling close to God. It was distressing to me.
He said, last night when I prayed, I prayed that God would send me someone to teach me and tell me how I can come closer to him. He said, I prayed and asked God to send someone to tell me how I can become clean and worthy to be with him.
He said, then you show up, you answered my questions even without me asking them and you speak Spanish! He said, I know that God sent you here tonight to bring this message to me. He said, I am going to follow through.
He said, I have Sundays off. I will go to church in Spanish and then sit through the English sacrament meeting afterwards so that I can work on my English. I had told him that right after his meeting an English ward would be having their meeting. He asked me if I thought that would be OK and I said yes
He asked me if he needed a formal invitation to go to church or if he could just show up. I told him he could just show up but that we are not going to rely on that. I told him that we were going to call the missionaries and have them show up with him so that he could have people he knows there that can introduce him.
He said that would be great.
He asked, how long will it be before I can be baptized? I told him that generally you have to go to church three times in a row and take the lessons. I told him it would probably be 3 to 4 weeks. He said, I need to get started then.
We talked about his brother-in-law and how he would be able to baptize him as well.
We arrived at his house and he was excited. He said, I need to sleep, but I am so excited. I told him that what he was feeling was the spirit of God, and he should always remember what that feels like. I told him that this feeling would help guide him on his path.
He said, I know that God answers prayers because he sent you here today. He said, it was only yesterday when I asked for help and he sent you today. He said my sister is going to be so excited.
He said, you’ll see, I’ll be baptized very soon.
I know that he will.
Sometimes God sends you a lift 