The spirit is on target

One afternoon I picked up a young man in Sugarhouse. I was taking him to target to do his Christmas shopping. We started talking about how his day was going and discussing Christmas plans. I asked him what school he went to and he said that he was a student at the university of utah. He was homeschooled and graduated in 2020 which was great because homeschooling prepared him for his first year in college that was virtual. He said he’s so glad to be in classroom with lots of other students.

He seemed pretty self-assured and confident from his demeanor but when I looked in his eyes it struck me that he was missing something. He looked like a member of the church. He was born and raised in the sugarHouse area. He had all the outward signs of being a member of the church.

He asked me how I liked driving and I told him that it was fun to meet people and then I had the prompting to start talking to him about religion and start introducing it. I decided to get there by showing him about how to say words in a lot of different languages. I know how to say hello and thank you in like 20 languages. He thought that was fun and he said, “my best friend gets back from his mission in Madagascar next week”. He’s going to speak Malagasy. I wonder how that will sound.

I told him my nephew went to Madagascar on his mission and that I had served in the MTC and they taught Malagasy to the missionaries. I told him that I got to know a lot of these missionaries. I told him that this was pretty cool but that his friend had a tough mission. He said, yeah, his friend had lost a lot of weight. I asked, are you excited? Right then the spirit prompted me with a scenario and gave me the words that I knew I had to say. I told him that I had some impressions. I asked him if it would be OK if I shared them with him. I told him they would be personal. He said, yeah! Let’s go. I took a deep breath and said everything that came to me by the spirit in the prompting.

I said, it is a little hard for you to talk about your friend coming home from his mission because you didn’t go. I told him that he was less active in the church now and that he hadn’t been for years. I said, it started with Covid and then amplified when you moved away from home. With Covid you didn’t go to church and you didn’t take the sacrament. I told him that he got used to not taking the sacrament and used to not having that power in his life. I said, “you got used to not having the power of renewing your covenants on a weekly basis”.

I said, then you moved away from home and you began committing sins. Things that you knew were wrong and now you’re ashamed to go to church. You know that you’re not worthy to do the things you know you should do and rather than face it and fix it you stopped going to church.

I said, what that looks like is that you sleep in on Sunday morning and you use the excuse that you’re tired and you need a day off, for not going to church. You use the excuse of studying for not going to church when the real reason is that you feel guilt and you feel shame.

I said, you’ve told members of your family that you feel like everyone at church is judgmental but that’s one of the most judgmental things you can say. I said, the people at church aren’t that judgmental and they don’t care about judging your life like you think they do. I told him they don’t spend two seconds a week thinking about him and passing judgments on him.

I told him that in reality he is passing harsh judgment on himself so he figured everyone else must be as well.

He said, I feel like you looked into my soul and read me like an open book. He said, you’re exactly right how did you know these things. I told him that these words were given to me by the spirit to say so that he would know that what I am saying is true. I said, God put him in my car so I could help him. I told him God put him there to get a message.

I told him that the message was that God loves him and he wants him back. He wants him to start praying and he wants him to go to church and get right.

I told him that he had been telling himself that he could get right on his own without going to church and that wasn’t true. I told him without taking the sacrament worthily there is no way that he could be right with God. That only happens in church! If we don’t take the sacrament, we begin to wear down and Satan gains greater influence over our thoughts and our actions, I said.

I told him about when I was on my mission and I had a very difficult companion as my first companion. He made me walk a step and a half behind him everywhere we went. I had to open all doors for him and he made me carry everything. When I asked my companion why, he said because I’m your senior companion. I was helpless and didn’t speak the language at all. I was totally dependent on him and he seemed to resent me.

We lived in an open window apartment above the rented building where we had church. We used a room on the main floor as a chapel. It was right on the main street, overlooking the river and Paraguay.

The first time I went to church after a week of missionary service, I woke up and counted 36 mosquito bites on 1 foot. I was tired and I hurt inside and out. I went to church that day and didn’t understand a thing. You could hear every truck and bicycle whiz by in front of the church house on the freeway that was only about 4 feet from the front door of the chapel. There were tile floors and about 40 children for every adult. There was no reverence I didn’t understand anything and I was lost.

Then we had the sacrament. When we had the sacrament, it filled my soul with spiritual power, my tank was filled and I received the strength I needed to carry on for another week. Then I came back and refilled my tank again. Since that day, I have understood the importance of the sacrament.

I told him that during Covid when he didn’t take the sacrament his tank was empty and his spirit needed nourishment. At that point Satan pressed his advantage, I said.

I told him that this is why we need to pray. I told him that the spirit prompted me that he hadn’t prayed in years either, and he said that I was right. I said that this communion with God is more important than he could imagine. I told him he needed to get on his knees and talk to his father. I told him he needed to get to church and he needed to get to where he could take the sacrament.

He said, “I’m stunned”. He said, I don’t know what to say. I’ve never had a total stranger walk up and tell me such personal and private things about myself. He said, I know that’s from God.

I said, now that you know that this is from God you know what you need to do, you need to follow that path. He said, it’s a perfect time with my friend coming home from his mission. Maybe he can help.

I hadn’t thought about the thing regarding his friend but sometimes I believe God holds off and then sends help when there will be someone there to do the lifting. He puts us in our most advantageous position to succeed.

I asked him to talk this ride over with his friend. I asked, what have you felt in the car and in your heart? He said, I felt a peace and energy like I haven’t felt in my whole life.

I told him, the reason in the end he didn’t go on a mission when his friend did was because he didn’t think he had ever received an answer to his prayers about the veracity of the church. “You didn’t think God answered your prayers about the truthfulness of the gospel”. I said, is that true?

He said, yes that true. I told everyone else I got my answer but I never did and I never told anyone. I said, God knew that you didn’t understand the answer but I want you to know that what you’re feeling here in the car today is the spirit of God confirming to you now that these things are true. The spirit of God was very strong in the car.

I felt impressed to bear my testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I bore that testimony with as much power and spirit as I could possibly manage.

When I finished, he said, I don’t think I’ve ever heard those words more powerfully spoken. I haven’t heard them in a long time. I needed that. I felt like it fed me. He said, the spirit that I was feeling is increasing. He said, “I love this!.”

I said, today you can say, I know the church is true. He said, I do know the church is true. I said, well, then, what are you going to do about it?.

He said well, first, I have to think about everything I’ve heard and felt tonight because it changed everything. I’m going to talk to my friend and have him help me and maybe I’ll go on a mission. I feel like I need to do that.

I said, when you are feeling the spirit, the thoughts you have are your commandments from God so you should do that. He said, I will! I’m going to go to church this Sunday with my friend. He said “I’ll go to my ward next week”.

I told him that he needs to know that his Father in Heaven put him in my car because he loves him and he’s not here to beat him up or make him feel bad but to help him feel joy. I told him what he was feeling was a manifestation of his relationship with God. I told him that it’s how he felt the presence of God. I told him that this is what he is feeling when he feels the spirit. He said, I will never forget that.

We pulled up to Target and he got out of the car. He said he would follow through. Then he went in to do his Christmas shopping.