For thus is the kingdom of Heaven

One day I picked up a kid in North Salt Lake in some pretty rundown apartments and I was taking him to West Valley City. He was pretty gangster looking with an oversized basketball jersey, an earring, dew rag, tatted up a bit, all the stuff!

He got in the car and I said, hey, how are you doing!? He said, really good. I’m going to see my nephew who was just born. I said, that’s exciting! I asked him where he worked and he said that he was a cook at the new Hyatt hotel in downtown Salt Lake. I told him that it looks like a really cool hotel and he said it was!

I said, tell me about the baby. He said that all of his family was over seeing the baby and that he was excited to get there. I felt impressed to talk about the purity of children. I talked How they come straight from our father in heaven and that they are pure before God.

I told him that this is why in our church we don’t baptize little children. We believe that they are saved in Christ through his atonement. I told him Christ said we should become like little children so that we can be with God.

He said that he believed that. He said, there’s nothing more beautiful than a little baby and you can feel the good. I said that’s right! We talked about how a lot of churches teach that they need to be baptized because the Bible says that people need to be baptized. He agreed. I told him that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ covers children but once we become able to make decisions and sin, we all need to be baptized or we can’t go back to our father in heaven. He said that this made a lot more sense. He said, a lot of little babies die and that he didn’t think he could believe in a God that would condemn that innocence.

He said that he was from an island called Chuuk and that there were lots of Mormons there. He said that his father was a minister there. He said that his brother whose house we were going to was a member of our church. He said again that there are lots of members of our church in Chuuk.

I got a big smile on my face when he said Chuuk. Chuuk is an island in the middle of nowhere Pacific Ocean. I believe it’s in Micronesia. We had a lot of missionaries in the MTC from Chuuk and they were so loving and had such lively spirits. You can tell they love their father in heaven. I loved those missionaries from Chuuk.

I felt impressed to teach him about the family and the eternal nature of the family along with the sealing power.

I told him that because of the power that Jesus gave to Peter to seal things on earth that would be sealed in heaven and due to the fact that this power was passed down to our prophet, we now have the authority to seal a marriage and it will be sealed in heaven. I told him, more than that, we seal children to their parents. We seal the whole family unit.

He said, that’s awesome! I like that. I told him this is what his brother who he was going to visit believed. I told him that he believes that we have prophets and they have authority and keys to help us do the things that God would have us do.

He said, that’s awesome. I told him that the people who lived in America originally had prophets. These prophets were among the ancestors of the Native American Indians and those prophets wrote their prophecies. I told him that those prophecies were written on plates and that they were given to our prophet in modern times who interpreted them by the power of God. I told him that this prophet was Joseph Smith.

I told him that Joseph Smith translated that record so that we have another testimony of Jesus Christ and the testimony that he loves everyone. I asked him if he had heard the phrase “isles of the sea” and he said, no. I brought up the Isaiah scripture where it talks about God calling to his children in Assyria, Pathos, Syria, Kush and the isles of the sea.

I asked him if he knew of a place that could be considered an isle of the sea, knowing full well that Chuuk is an island in the sea. I told him it also referred to America and other places that are not in continental Europe, Asia and Africa.

As I talked and bore my testimony, the spirit came in the car. As he realized that this message included him, he began to light up. I could tell he was feeling the spirit and being lit up by the spirit. From his eyes to his countenance, there was a change.

I asked him what he felt and he said that he felt like he found a puzzle piece that he had been looking for. He said that he felt knowledge pouring straight into his soul and that he felt peace. I said, that peace is confirming to you the truthfulness of the knowledge that you have received. He said, I can tell that. It makes total sense.

He said, that’s interesting, he had never considered that. I told him that Isaiah prophesied that the children of Israel would receive the words of God from the Messiah and that Jesus went to them. I told him that in the Book of Mormon is teaches that Jesus came to America and that he said, “still other sheep I have with your not of this land or the land of Jerusalem” or the land roundabout. He said, my father has given me a commandment that I should go to them so they could hear my voice and be counted among my sheep.

I asked him, who might he have been talking about? He thought for a minute and said, the isles of the sea! I told him yes, the isles of the sea. I told him that this book was written for him and that this book was written for me. This book was written for us so that we can know that God loves all of us and that his son died for all of us no matter where we live we are his children.

I told him that this book is a companion with the Bible and both testify of the divinity of Jesus Christ. The spirit was strong in the car and I asked him if he felt it. He said, yes. He said that growing up in a religious family where the gospel was taught, he was familiar with the spirit confirming truth to him and the things that I was saying were true.

I asked him what it meant that the things were true. He said it meant he needed to look into it and he needed to study. I had the impression that he was thinking that he was unworthy of purity.

I asked him what came to his mind when I mentioned that the baby was pure before God, he paused and didn’t answer. I said, it came to your mind that you’ve made some mistakes and they grind on you everyday. It tells you that you can’t be pure and that you can’t stand before God and you feel a bit like a lost cause. He asked, how do you know? I said, that same spirit you feel whispers to my heart.

I told him it was the Holy Ghost and that he can help us know the things to say. He can whisper to us the things that only god can know. I told him that his past could be put behind him. He could be pure like that baby and stand before God. I told him it’s done through repentance and it’s done through baptism. I explained to him that when Jesus came to America everybody had been baptized but he invited them to be baptized to this new covenant to his higher level.

I told him that Jesus appreciated what they had done to show their faithfulness in the past but that he wanted them to take this next step. I explained to him that this included baptism for the remission of their sins so that they could stand before God in purity. I asked him if that’s what he wanted and he said yes, that’s what he wanted.

I told him that, just like in the Book of Mormon, his father in heaven appreciated everything he had done to show his love. He appreciated the baptism that he had earnestly done and he appreciated his parents for teaching him the word of God. I told him that now is the time that he can take that step up and accept the same invitation Jesus gave in the Book of Mormon.

I asked him if he would ask his brother about it. He looked at the house because we were pulling up right then and he said, yes, yes I will. I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon and said no! I’d love one. He asked me where he could get one and I said, well, you could get one from your brother or I happen to have one right here I’ll give you.

I pulled out one of the Book of Mormon‘s that I have been using that are marked by the Secrists and gave it to him. I said, this is yours. It is a testament of Jesus Christ and his divinity. I told him it would bring him closer to God and it would lead him to the purity he seeks.

He said, I feel amazing. I feel like I’m flying in the air and I want this. I can’t wait to talk to my brother. He shook my hand almost as if he was making an agreement. Then he asked where he would go to church. I looked up his ward and gave him the information. He took it down and said I think I’ll go.

I said, you might want to invite your brother. He said, that would be fun, we’re fixin to have a big conversation about this. He laughed!. I said, just imagine someday when you have a family you’ll know that family is forever and that it was made that way by the power of God. I said, if you do the things you should, your whole family can be pure before God. He said, that’s amazing. He thanked me as he went into the home to see the baby.