I was up by the mountain east of I-215 one day and I got a call to pick up a man. He came out of the house and got in the car and we started talking.
He was an actor in town filming a movie about the aftermath of a school shooting. He had been here for about six weeks and had about a week left of filming here in Utah.
I asked him what he thought about Utah. He laughed and said it was lot different than he thought it would be. I asked, what do you mean? He said, well, at first I confused the Mormons and the Amish. He said since he’d been here, he’d learned how silly that was. He told me that he really enjoyed the Mormons that he had been associated with and admired the peace that they seem to experience in their lives.
I asked him why he thought that there was a different feel. Why he thought they had that peace. He said he didn’t know but that he felt like he wanted to keep that when he left but he didn’t think it was possible. I asked him what he would say if I told him it was possible to take that peace with him. He told me that he would love that. He said, would you share that with me?
How could I refuse?
As soon as he said this I felt the spirit and knew that the Lord would give me the words to say.
I told him it’s because the people here believe in God. I told him it’s because the people here, many of them, strive to keep the commandments of God.
I told him that the peace he felt was the spirit of God and as I spoke the car flooded with the spirit. I asked him if he could feel it and he said, yes. I told him he could take that with him. He asked how?
I asked him if he’d ever heard of the Book of Mormon. He said he’d been to the musical several times. I told him that didn’t count and we laughed. I held up a Book of Mormon and I said, this is the Book of Mormon. I asked him if he knew what the Book of Mormon was about. He said no. I told him it was an ancient record of prophets who lived in America. I asked him if he thought it would be possible for God to love, lead and guide all of his people, not just the ones in Jerusalem and he said, yes. He said that’s exactly how he thought it was supposed to be but that to him the Bible had seemed to become kind of exclusionary.
I told him that the Book of Mormon testifies that God loves all of his children not just the ones who lived in Jerusalem. I told him that the Book of Mormon also teaches that Jesus visited America and other people in the world. He said, I’ve always believed that. He said, my ancestors in Africa love Jesus just as much as anyone else. Why wouldn’t he visit them? I said that I personally believe he did.
I opened third Nephi, chapter 16 and read to him the first three verses. We discussed Isaiah mentioning that God would visit his children, the house of Israel, who were in Kush. I asked him if he knew where Kush was and he said, yes! That was the first great empire in Africa. I said yes. I asked him if he thought it was possible that some of those other sheep may have been his ancestors and he said, yes!
I said, this book testifies that God went to his other sheep wherever God had sent them. He said that this made more sense to him than anything else he had ever heard in Christianity. I told him it’s because the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel. None of it has been taken out. It comes straight from God to us. I felt prompted to ask him what he felt right then and he said that the peace just keeps getting thicker. I thought that was an interesting observation and description.
I told him that the reason why I believe his family loves Jesus so much is because their spirits remember this connection. There was stunned silence. He said, this is a good point.
I told him that Joseph Smith was looking for for the truth and he couldn’t find it. He went to the Sacred Grove and knelt to pray. I told him that God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and called him to be the prophet. They called him to restore the church of Jesus Christ and its full teachings including the Book of Mormon which he translated from the plates. These plates were engraven by the prophets who wrote them in ancient America. He loved that. I asked him if he was still feeling the spirit, the peace and he said yes. I asked him why God would give him that if it wasn’t true.
I asked him if God would trick him and he said, no God deals in truth. I told him that is how he knows that this is true. I told him that as he reads the book he needs to be aware that if he follows that spirit it will lead him to baptism. Once he’s baptized he is cleansed of all of his sin. He can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and that’s how he can take the peace with him. He said, that’s amazing!
He asked me if he could have a copy. I said, you can have this copy and I gave it to him. He loved that it had the colored tabs and that he could look up the questions and the answers to the questions of the soul from preach my gospel. He said, I love to read and I promise you that I will read this book.
He told me that he had a friend from the movie that was a member of the church. He said his friend had been a missionary once. He said he thought he would bring this up with him.
It was amazing to see the Lord reach out and touch this young man who is clearly brought here not to make a movie but to receive a book
Sometimes God sends you a lift 