One day I picked up a guy clear out by the Oquirrh Mountain temple. It wasn’t actually very close to the Oquirrh Mountain temple but I use that as a point of reference to indicate how far out there it was. It was a long ways out there. He got in the car and we started off.
He was heading to work at an Argentine restaurant in Sandy. As anyone here knows, that is something that will always pique my interest. We talked about the restaurant and the food. He told me that he was from Peru and had lived in Buenos Aires for 15 years. This is where he learned to cook.
We talked about Argentine food and how their customs with their foods came about. Of particular interest to him was gnocchi. He had no idea where the Argentine gnocchi tradition came from. I told him that it was a tradition that was started back in the 1920’s when there were a lot of Italian immigrants coming to Argentina
They were really poor and they were paid at the first of the month. At the end of the month they didn’t have any money to buy food so they would glean the potatoes from the fields and use the flour that they had remaining to make gnocchi. To this day in Argentina on Friday at the end of the month or on the 27th of the month the whole country has gnocchi.
He thought that was cool and he had no idea how I knew this. I told him that I went on my mission to Argentina. He said, oh, you went on a mission? I said yes. He said, can we speak in Spanish I’m struggling here in English. I said, yes we can! We started talking about where I served on my mission and then he asked. What did you do?
I told him that I spent the time on my mission talking to people about Jesus Christ and helping them understand how much God loves them.
This kid was about 28 years old and he looked like a good kid. He indicated that he had taken the communion when he was 12 but he really didn’t have very much more religious instruction than that.
I asked him if he went to church and he said that he did not. The spirit whispered to me that this kid was hungry for the spirit and that I should offer to teach him something about God and Jesus Christ.
I asked him, would you like me to teach you something about God and Jesus Christ and your relationship to them? He said, yes! I would love that! He said, I want to know what you guys believe.
I started with Jesus Christ. I said, when Jesus Christ was on the Earth he loved the people and he blessed the people. I said, he also organized his church. I asked him if Jesus was perfect and he said yes. I said, then, is the church that he created perfect. He said yes. I said, I agree the church that Jesus Christ created was perfect. It had the perfect authority to teach the people how to come home to God, his father.
I asked him what happened to Jesus Christ and he said, he was crucified and died. I said, that’s right. Jesus was crucified and suffered for our sins. He was buried in the tomb and three days later he was resurrected.
He said yes! This is what I’ve been taught. I told him, before he died, he organized a perfect church, right? He said yes. I said if you had a building on 12 pillars like the 12 apostles were each a pillar that would be a firm foundation wouldn’t it? He said yes. I asked him what happened to the apostles.
He said he didn’t know. I told him that one by one they were killed. I told him to think about that building again and assuming that each one of those pillars was an apostle, and after they all been killed, what would happen to the building. He said it would fall.
I told him that was exactly what happened to this perfect church that Jesus had built. I told him that when all of the apostles were killed the church fell and broke into pieces.
I told him that people took parts of the teachings and built other churches around it. There came to be a whole lot of churches because everybody interpreted things differently and there wasn’t a central authority to help everybody understand the will of God. They didn’t have Gods authority and hey didn’t have a prophet. They didn’t have a prophets and so they wandered.
I told him that’s why there are so many churches today. He said, that’s what confuses me. I told him that in New York in 1820 there was a young man who wanted to know which church was true. He went to all the different churches and tried to find the truth, but he couldn’t find it.
I told him that one day he was reading in the Bible in James, and it said, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” I told him that when he read that he knew what he had to do.
He went into a grove of trees, knelt and prayed. God, the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. When I said that his eyes popped open wide and a smile came across his face. I told him that God the father and Jesus Christ called him to be a prophet to restore the same church that had existed before. The church of Jesus Christ.
I told him that’s why we are called the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. I told him the prophets were very important and that God gives us prophets so that we can know his will. God gives us prophets to guide us in the darkness.
He said, it’s very dark these days. I said that’s one reason why we have a prophet today! We have a prophet who speaks with God for us today. We also have apostles and they teach us the will of God. He said, that’s so cool. The spirit was in the car and I could tell he was feeling it. The second his eyes popped wide open, I felt a rush of the spirit. It was like his eyes and his heart opened all at the same time.
I said, Joseph Smith was called to be the first prophet to restore the church of Jesus Christ and since then we’ve had prophets. A while after Joseph Smith was called an angel appeared to him and gave him some engraved metal plates. I told him God loved the people in America too and they had prophets as well.
I asked him, do you think God loved the people in America less than he did the people in Jerusalem? He said no. I said, does it make sense that they would have prophets in America too and he said, yes.
I told him that those prophets wrote their prophecies and the revelations they received from God just like the prophets of the Bible. This is what was on the plates that the angel gave to Joseph Smith.
I told him that through the power of God, Joseph Smith translated those plates so that we have the record of those revelations today. I told him it’s called the Book of Mormon. I asked him if he’d ever heard about the Book of Mormon and he said, no.
I told him that his ancestors who had lived here in America were loved by God and guided by his prophets. He smiled, the spirit testified. I told him that the Book of Mormon was the word of God, and companion to the Bible. I told him that the Book of Mormon also talked about the visit of Jesus Christ to America.
He said, whoa, when did that happen? I told him that it happened right after he was crucified and resurrected. After his resurrection he came to America for the same reason he had prophets in America, because he loves everyone. He taught them the gospel. He taught them that they needed to be baptized and though they had already been baptized. He taught them how to find their way home to their father in heaven.
I reached into my glove box and pulled out one of my copies of the Book of Mormon prepared by the Secrists. It was a hardback Spanish book. Most of the ones they give me are paperback, but this one was hardback and I said, this is the Book of Mormon. I explained the tabs and the questions to him. I asked him if he would like to have a copy of God‘s words to his ancestors.
He said he absolutely would love that. He said, I would love to read that. I said, here you go. He said, I can borrow that? I said, you can have that! He said, this is a really nice expensive book. I told him that his soul and his salvation was the most valuable thing and that this book was a tool to help him. I testified again of the truthfulness of the book.
I looked in his eyes and he had tears in his eyes. I said, what are you feeling right now? He said I’m feeling peace, tranquility, excitement, and love. I told him that was the love of his father in heaven. I told him that his father in heaven sent that feeling to him tonight so that he would know that the things I was saying were true.
I asked him if he wanted to see something cool. I showed him the picture I have from Mexican ruins from the 7th century that has three doors and three ledges, one above each door where image of the God that corresponds to that door is carved. One is a father, king God with a crown and robes. The second is a God descending from Heaven and the third has no carved image.
I asked him how in the 7th century AD they could possibly have known about God the father, Jesus Christ who descended from heaven to visit America in the middle and the Holy Ghost whose ledge was empty because he has no body. How could they have known this when no person had come from the old world to the new world yet? He thought and then said, it’s impossible. He said holding up the Book of Mormon “that blows my mind! This is true and it’s all in here “
He said, I know it’s true. He said, do you want this book back? I said no it’s yours. I asked him if he knew any members of the church and he said his roommates were all Mormons and they go to the temple every Sunday. I told him that he should go to his roommates, show them that book, tell them what he learned and felt in the car and ask if he could go with them next Sunday. He said, that’s exactly what I’ll do.
I told him that when you do you will eventually have the opportunity to have the same baptism that Jesus gave your were ancestors. Then you can have the Holy Ghost with you all the time so that you can walk with God. I asked him if he wanted to walk with God, and he said more than anything. I said, here’s your path.
We had arrived at his work and he said this has been an amazing ride. He thanked me for the book and the testimony. He said, I’ve never felt like this and I want to feel like this more often. He said I will do what you said.
He got out of the car and walked into the restaurant. This young Peruvian/Argentine man found what he was looking for that he didn’t know he was looking for. Even though it was right in front of him with his roommates. Heavenly Father let me ask, “do you want to know what we believe,” and then his spirit rushed in to fill in the blanks.
This was awesome.
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Sometimes God sends you a lift 