This changes everything.

I picked up a kid in Midvale and was taking him out to Magna. He got in the car and we started talking about what he did for a living. He was a barber. He told me he really liked his job but that his life had been pretty troubled lately.He said that he had lots of stress and problems and that it just seemed like sometimes it was overwhelming. Right then he was going out to visit his mom. He talked about the stress and how he didn’t know sometimes how he could do it.

He was currently living with his girlfriend and things didn’t seem to be going well. This is when I was prompted that he was a less active member of the church. He just seemed lost to me. Lost in sin, lost in his relationship and lost in life.

I asked him about his relationship. I asked him to tell me what he wanted out of it. He told me he wanted to be there for his girlfriend and his kids when he had kids. He was afraid that life would rip their family apart like all of his friend’s families. He asked me how you can make a marriage last. I told him that there was only one way that I knew of and that was understanding how to forgive and be forgiven.

I asked him if he was a member of the church and he said no. I knew immediately that this was not true but he was another one of those people that quit identifying themselves as a member of the church. I think they do this because their sin makes them feel separated from the church. They tell themselves they’re doing it because they really want to fit in with and fear the judgment of those in the great and spacious building. They deny who they are very loudly in an effort to cover up that constant voice that calls them back.

I told him that as the husband or father of the family there’s really no one standing around to give you atta boys and pick you up. The only way to make it through with your heart intact and your family together is by embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of the atonement. I told him that through Jesus Christ the stresses, challenges and burdens could be made light.

I was prompted that he was going through a tremendous amount of pain and that he had previously gone through a tremendous amount of pain in his life. I asked him to tell me about the pain he had gone through. He told me about a couple of relationships and how his trust had been shattered and abused. He felt like he was damaged and he could never have or find the right situation.

I told him that bad things happen but that if we are looking to Christ and his atonement he can be there for us. I told him, “I know you’re saying that you’re not a member of the church but I feel like you are, why did you say you weren’t”. He looked surprised and asked, how did you know that? I told him that the spirit told me. He said, to answer your question I guess it’s because I don’t live it.

I said, that’s why God puts people in your life that can help you live it and can pick you up along the way. He gives us apostles and prophets. I talked to him about Elder Renlund’s talk from April 2021 conference about the atonement and how none of us get through this life without having to go down that road and understand the greatness of that sacrifice. We all need to access that to be happy. I talked to him about Elder Holland‘s talk from that conference as well and texted both talks to him.

These have to be two of the finest talks given in conference on the atonement in my opinion. Not just details of the atonement but the application of the atonement in our lives as a tool to overcome adversity.

I then asked him, why are we going to Magna? I had an intense curiosity that I think was brought on by the spirit. He said, my mother is sick and I’m going out to take care of her. He said that she was not doing very well. I had the prompting to ask him what her view on life was. He said she was happy and he didn’t understand why. He said her relationship had failed and she was happy, her children had bailed on her and she was happy, she was sick and dying and she was happy.

I told him that she understood what Elder Holland and Elder Renlund were saying in these talks and that brought her peace and happiness. I told him that she had hope for him and that she was praying for him and that’s why I was here talking about these things. I told him that she prayed him into my car. I told him that she saw something in him that he didn’t see in himself and that she knew God could touch his heart.

I looked back and God was touching his heart. You could see in his face that he was engaged and his heart was being softened. I asked what he did with his mom when he went there. He said they sat and talked. I asked him to take those talks and sit with his mom and discuss them with her. I told him that if he did that, he would understand his father in heaven‘s love for him and he would see that in her life as well.

I asked him if I could bear my testimony and he told me to please do so. I bore my testimony of Joseph Smith and how he felt lost and confused. I told him that I knew Joseph Smith went to the Sacred Grove and that God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. I told him that the Book of Mormon was the word of God and that it was translated by the power of God.

I told him that if he would read the Book of Mormon he would hear the voices of his ancestors pleading with him to come to Christ. I told him that the prophets in the Book of Mormon prayed that it would be preserved for him and that he would feel the power if he would read it and pray.

The spirit was strong, he was crying and apologizing for it. He said, I just don’t cry. I said, the spirit brings emotions to the surface that we’re not used to feeling if we haven’t been close to the spirit. When you feel that, you know that God is with you and that he is telling you that what you were discussing is true or what you are hearing is true.

He said, this changes everything. I need to do what it takes to have this in my life. When you say those things, this feeling that I have in my heart right now tells that it’s true. I asked him to describe that feeling and he said it was euphoria and it felt like his heart was going to explode. I told him to remember that feeling and keep that memory with him. It would give him a light and indicate the way back.

I told him that power would transform his life if he would allow it to. It would improve all of his relationships, not just his relationship with God. I told him that if he would take this seriously, God would lift his burdens and walk with him. I told him that this is what his mother was praying for and that she was a woman of tremendous faith.

He said, you don’t know the half of it. She prays nonstop! I laughed and said, someday when you’re a parent you will understand. You also need to understand that your father in heaven is a parent and he wants you to obey so he can bless you. God loves you even more than your mother loves you and he wants you to be happy.

I could tell that impacted him. I asked him what he would be willing to give up to have that kind of peace and joy. He said, if I could get that I would be willing to do anything. I said, do you mean that? He said yes.

I told him to remember that God doesn’t give us commandments to make us feel trapped. He gives us commandments to make us free, free from sin and free from pain. He gives us his son to lift us above those things and that all we need to do is look to Him. He gives us commandments and one of those commandments has to do with being married before you live with your girlfriend. Another says you need to go to church. When you live those Commandments you will feel his love and you will be lifted and blessed.

I told him if he meant that then it was time for him to make a decision about his girlfriend. He needed to change that relationship to fall in line with the commandments of God. I told him that God didn’t care whether he got married or moved out but that they had to get on the same page with God or God could not bless them in that relationship. I told him that if God wasn’t in that relationship that they had to do it all by themselves and I don’t see how that’s possible these days.

I asked him to tell me what he thought about what we discussed. He told me that he knew it was true. I asked him what he knew about the Book of Mormon that he didn’t know before. He said he knew it was true. I asked him what that meant that he needed to do. He said that it meant that he needed to go in and read those talks with his mom and figure out how to make those changes to get his life on track. I told him, I think she’ll help you. He smiled and said, I don’t think anything would make her more happy.

I told him, you know that this is what your mother has been praying for. He said, yes, she always gets her way. He smiled, thanked me and got out of the car with a spring in his step and ran upstairs to his mother’s apartment.

Here are links to the talks by Elder Renlund and Holland from April 2021

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/04/25renlund?lang=eng

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/04/23holland?lang=eng