One day I picked up a young man and his dad. The young man was a student at the University of Utah and his dad was there with him. I was taking them from his apartment to a storage unit. It was the end of the semester, right then there’s a lot of changing going on with regards to apartments and such.
When they got in the car they started speaking Portuguese to each other. I have some very basic and poorly pronounced Portuguese knowledge with regards to speaking but I do understand most of it. I listened to them for a minute, then I said tudo bem, which is how you say how are you in Portuguese.
I learned a lot about Portuguese when I was on my mission in Misiones in Argentina and then again when I was in a Portuguese branch in the MTC where the missionaries were learning Portuguese. The missionaries used to laugh at my Portuguese but I said, don’t laugh at me. I’m learning it from you! It was a good time but I did learn how to bear my testimony and say prayers in Portuguese.
I talked to them about how I had served my mission in Argentina and that I spoke Spanish and I could do OK with a combination of Portuguese Spanish. They laughed and said, half the world speaks Spanish . They asked how well I speak Spanish and I said, I do interpretation. They seemed impressed. They asked me how I kept it up after all this time and I told them that I say my prayers and read the scriptures in Spanish every day. I told them that I’ve done that every day since October 31 of 1981.
They thought that was pretty cool. The boy said, I would like to learn to speak Spanish better. This gave me an idea. I had realized that he wasn’t a member of the church and that he probably didn’t know much about it.
I had been looking for an opening and I decided to take it here. I said, when my son was a student at BYU he took a class that they have on conversion from Portuguese to Spanish and vice versa. It’s a class where they help you do the transition and then you can be fluent both languages.
I said that BYU has a Salt Lake center and I wonder if they teach it there. He said, I am so busy right now. I am not sure I would have time to take more on because of my studies here. Then he said, don’t you have to be a Mormon to go to BYU?
I said, absolutely not. To go to BYU you have to promise to live by the rules and be active in your religion but you don’t have to be a Mormon.
I told them that the rules are that you can’t drink or use drugs. You can’t cheat in your classes, you have to dress appropriately and you can’t have sexual relations outside of marriage. His dad chimed in and said, those are really good things! The kid said, yeah, I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I said, what you really ought to do is go to BYU in Provo.
For your information an international student pays a lot of money to go to the University of Utah. It’s like $50,000 a year. That’s what they’ve told me.
Knowing this information I said, you know as a student of BYU tuition is about $12,000 for nonmembers, and about $9000 for members. That’s a huge savings! The kid laughed and said, oh my gosh maybe I need to go there.
I said, there’s one other thing, you have to take a religion class almost the every semester. This is because it’s a church school and it’s funded by the members of the church. Everyone who goes there is expected to learn about the church. His dad said, that would be awesome. I think I would like that for him.
He said, I would love to go down and see BYU and maybe go there if I could get in. He said, do you think they would let me in? I asked him how good his grades have been and he said he had straight A’s at the University of Utah. I said, I don’t work for BYU but I think you could probably get in. He said, I’d love to try.
Then his dad turned to him and said, didn’t your mom tell you that you should consider becoming a Mormon. I almost fell out of the door as I heard him say, “yes she did. I really should go to that church.”
He turned to me and said, do you think they’d let me go to the church? I said yes! He said, what are the rules in the church? I said, kind of the same rules of BYU has. He said, that’s no problem. I’d like to go. How do you get an invitation?
I was blown away. He wanted an invitation so I thought I’d give him one. I talked to him about the church. I said that It’s really important for us to do the things that Jesus wants us to do. I told him we believe in that we receive revelation from God. I told him that Joseph Smith was a young man, not too much younger than he was. He was seeking the truth and couldn’t find it. I told him that Joseph prayed and God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. They called him to be the prophet and assigned him to restore the church of Jesus Christ on the Earth.
As I testified of these truths, the spirit filled the car and it filled our hearts. I could tell that both he and his father were moved. I asked him what he felt, and he said, amazing and happy. I told him that what made him feel like that was the spirit of god. I said that the spirit of god testifies of truth and can guide us and let us know the truth when we hear it.
I told him that because of this he knew that these things were true. He said yes. I asked him if he liked that feeling. He said he loved it.
I told him that we have the same church that Jesus organized on the Earth. I told him that after Jesus’s resurrection, he came to America to visit the people. I told him that they had prophets and they had been baptized. When Jesus got there, he invited them to receive his baptism by his authority. He invited them to become part of his kingdom.
I said to him, I guess that would be your invitation. We invite you to come to church and get ready to be baptized! He said, I would like that. His dad said, that would be great! I asked him if it would be OK if I had missionaries come over to teach him. He said yes.
He asked me, do I have to just go to church all by myself or is there someone that could go with me? I told him that this is what the missionaries will do. They will either go with you or they will find someone to go with you.
He said, that’s great! I’m looking forward to it. I reached into my glove box and grabbed a Book of Mormon. I said, do you remember when I told you that we had prophets in America and Jesus came to America.? He said yes. I handed him the Book of Mormon and said, here is your invitation to come to Christ and to church.
I said, just like the Old Testament the New Testament, this is another testament of Jesus Christ. I told him it talks about Jesus coming to America and his invitation for all of us to follow him. He looked at it and asked me, is it OK if I take this? I said, yes! It’s for you.
His dad said, that’s very generous of you. I said this is why we have these books. We want to let people know of their father in heaven’s love for them.
His dad said, your mom will be so pleased! You finally listened to her! They laughed and I chuckled as well. I smiled knowing that our father in heaven was very pleased.
I used the Tools app for members of the church and found out who the missionaries were that were assigned to the place he lived. I called them and they initiated contact with him right away. They said they would follow through.
A few days later I got this message from him after he and his mother attended church and met the missionaries. “Thank you, for introducing me to the church. I guess god really put our paths together for the better”
Yes he did!!
Sometimes God sends you a lift 