One Thursday night I was driving downtown. I got a ride to Sugarhouse. Normally if I go to Sugarhouse, I would just turn it off and go back downtown but I felt like I should let it ride. Sure enough I got a ride and sure enough it was taking me further south. This is what I was trying to avoid.
I went to pick the passenger up and it was about 2 miles from where I dropped off the previous passenger. It was about 36° outside so it was getting a little nippy.
When the young man got in my car he talked about how cold it was. He was on his way home from work by foot. At that point we were about 4 miles away from where he lived and I thought that was a long way to walk, especially in cold weather and he agreed.
He told me he walked home most nights and that he could do it because he had spent a large portion of his life living on the streets. I told him that the cold wasn’t fun but that I had an advantage because I have fat that keeps me warm. He laughed and said that he was ill-equipped because he lost 36 pounds this year.
He said that he lost the weight because he was working out a lot training to become an endurance athlete. He had a plan of running 250 miles next summer. He said he was working up to it. I told him I thought it was crazy and that he was going to need new knees by the time he was 40.
He laughed and said he was already 40! I told him it would beat on his body. He said his body had been beaten on all of his life but that this time it was in a good way. He said that he had lived on the streets and had done drugs, had been a drunk and had been in so many fights he couldn’t number them.
He talked about one time he was in a fight and the man he was fighting was very vicious. He said that he lost his footing because he was drunk and fell on the ground and this other man jumped repeatedly on his chest. He said he could’ve died.
I talked about how there are a lot of things in our life that pull us away from the good things and put us in dangerous situations. I told him that I had a girl in the car earlier that night and we had talked about how in society they tell you one thing but that things really are a different way.
He said, that’s what I believe. I believe there’s one truth. I said that’s exactly right. This girl earlier tonight had been obsessed with her own truth and gave no regard to the one truth or god’s truth.
He said the truth is important and we need to find it!. I smiled and then got an impression to tell him some things. I told him that he had been betrayed and hurt in his younger life and that he buried himself in other things to make it feel better.
I told him that God loved him. I told him that God had never forgotten him or left him alone and that he was always there for him. He needed to learn not to turn away. I told him that running from God and our problems won’t make them go away or lessen them but that with God and through the atonement, we can find our way through.
He told me that he had been adopted after his parents went to jail for what they had done to him. He told me that the family that adopted him were members of the church and that he had been raised in the church but that at 40 it had been along time since he was involved.
I told him that God never forgot about him and that God’s timing was many times way different than we might think. I told him that there were things that he needed to learn that maybe he hadn’t been ready to learn before.
I told him that Satan literally sifts people. I told him that Satan beats on people and thrashes them. I told him that some people don’t believe in Satan but that he is very real. I shared with him with an experience I had in my car where I was literally battling with Satan. I told him that Satan wants each one of us.
I told him that this is a war and it’s a war for each one of our souls. I told him God fights for each one of us and he had fought for him. He said there were definitely times in his life where things happened that saved him and made it so that he could be here today. I said, you are here today so that you can change.
I told him that in the past he had been offended by people and that if he would learn to turn to Jesus Christ, he wouldn’t have to worry about that. He said, that’s true! He had been offended. I told him that Satan whispers in our ears and tells us that people are judging us or that people are thinking bad things about us.
I told him that it’s Satan and that what he does. He lies because lying is what Satan does. I asked him how much time he spent thinking about his neighbors who live two doors down. He laughed and said I never think about those guys. I said, the funny thing is they barely think about you either.
I told him that one of the things that had offended him was that he felt like he was being judged. He thought people didn’t like him because he was different. I told him that this was Satan whispering to him. I told him that if he felt that in the future, he should just go up and put his arm around the people and tell them how much he appreciates their example and loves them.
He laughed and said that would totally disarm the whole situation, wouldn’t it? Why would we do something that makes so much sense? We laughed.
I told him there’s no one judging him because everyone is busy living their own lives. He said, that’s right! I told him that we all run around listening to Satan tell us that the people at church are judging us or the people at church who aren’t any better than us think they’re better than us.
I told him this is what Satan wants us to think so that we won’t go there to get the spiritual blessings we need to withstand him. He said, “that’s right, Satan is always whispering in my ear”.
I told him that he lived with his father in heaven and loved his father in heaven. I said that the spirit he felt with his father in heaven was something that his spirit loved. I told him that when he came to earth, he didn’t feel that, but that Satan came along with drugs, alcohol and evil. He put that in the space that had been prepared in his soul to house the spirit of God.
I told him that he got lost chasing the temporary fleeting feeling from the enticements of Satan and had lost sight of where he really wanted to go. I told him that he had lost sight of God and God‘s truth.
He said, that’s right, there aren’t truths for every different person. He said he knows a bunch of girls that always say “my truth” but he said that there can be only one truth and that’s God‘s truth. At this point, I felt very prompted by the spirit to bear my testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.
As I bore this testimony, I could feel the power of the words leaving my mouth and touching his heart. I could see in the mirror that he was reacting to them and I knew that he was feeling the spirit of God.
It was time to identify that spirit. I said, do you remember when I talked to you about how we lived with our father and our spirits remembered his spirit? He said, yes, I said, what do you feel right now? He said, amazing. I feel energized and warm. I said, that is the spirit of God and it’s testifying to you that the things I’ve said are true.
It’s testifying to you that you are a son of your father in heaven and he loves you. It’s testifying that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. He went to a grove of trees, and prayed asking God which church was true. God, the father, and his son, Jesus Christ, appeared to him and called him to be the prophet. The spirit is testifying to you that they called him to restore the gospel and translate the Book of Mormon.
I said, you wouldn’t feel that if the things I had said here, today weren’t true. He said, that’s right, I’ve heard these things before but as you say them today, the spirit is testifying that they are true. I know they’re true.
I told him that he needs to go to church so that he can feel the spirit of God. I told him that he needs to change his life so that God can walk with him. I told him that the gift of the Holy Ghost is how God walks with us and if we’re worthy to have it, it will continually fill our soul.
I felt to tell him that if he would follow through, God would use him to save many of his birth family. I told him that he had thought a lot about them lately. I told him that they were waiting. He said that he considered his adoptive family, to be his family, but that this had been coming to his mind a lot recently.
He said going to church is something that he had been thinking about lately too, but hadn’t told anyone that he was thinking about it. He said that a while back his mother told him that he needed God in his life and to find a church. I told him, well, any church won’t do. It’s got to be the church of Jesus Christ.
I told him it had to be our church because that is the church where he made his covenants as a child. I told him that it is the church of Jesus Christ and the spirit had testified to him tonight in the car that it was the church he should attend. He agreed.
We looked up the church house and his ward where he was to attend. It was six blocks from his house. He said that he would go this Sunday.
I got the prompting that he didn’t have a Book of Mormon, so I asked him if he wanted one. He said, yes! I reached into my glove box and gave him one of the Book of Mormons, prepared by the Secrists. He took it and said, I’m going to read this. He said, I’ve read parts of it before, but this time I’m going to read it all.
He got out of the car all warm and warmed by the spirit
Sometimes God sends you a lift 