Never judge a book by its tattoos

One day I was driving in Orem. As I’ve mentioned before I don’t drive in Orem very often but I was going to spend the morning there so that Heather and I could have lunch together.

I got a ride to pick up a lady at the bank right by La Briioche Argentina bakery. I had been thinking about that bakery because one of the things I was contemplating for lunch was empanadas and gnocchi. I was sitting there waiting for her to come out of the bank and then she appeared.

She had tattoos on her arms and her neck. She had big hoop earrings and a huge piercing in her nose. She didn’t seem to have much if any light about her and I didn’t think I’d have a lot in common with her.

She got in the car and after the basic pleasantries I asked her if she was from here. She said no she wasn’t. I asked her if she liked it here and she said not really. Usually when they say not really I just kind of leave it alone at that point. This time I felt like I should ask more questions so I did. I said, why don’t you like it here?

Her reaction was funny because it seemed to say, well, of course nobody likes it here. Why would you ask that question? So I asked again, why don’t you like it here? Don’t you like the mountains? Don’t you like the outdoors?

She said, well I do like them. I guess that I am just I’m not used to it enough for me to be able to like it. She said, I grew up in California and I really liked it there and this is just very different.

I said, do you like the people? She said that the people had been very friendly to her and that she liked how friendly everything seemed to be. She said that is one thing that she liked.

I told her that when my kids were in high school one of them really struggled. I asked him every day to make a list of three things that he liked. I asked him to give it to me at the end of the day. She laughed and said that’s crazy. I said he had to spend all day looking for things that he liked so he didn’t have time to worry about what he didn’t like. She said, that’s great. Maybe I should do that here.

Then I got the prompting to say, do you go to church? She said, it’s funny that you should ask that. She said, I haven’t been going to church in quite a while because I haven’t felt it. She said she was Christian but not Christian like the people around here.

She said that just the night before she prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help her figure the church thing out. She said that there were a lot of things pulling her in her life and she wanted to have a better relationship with God. She said that she just wasn’t feeling complete and unfulfilled so she quit going to her church.

I asked her, do you want me to tell you a little bit about our church? She said, yes! We were passing by the brand new Orem Temple, heading south towards Spanish Fork. I told her that a lot of the differences between her belief and our church have to do with that building right there.

She said, that’s a beautiful building, tell me more. I told her that I would tell her more but I wanted to talk to her about some other things first and would circle back to that building. She said, OK.

I told her that our church believes very literally that our father in heaven is the father of our spirits and he’s the God of us all. Every person in the world and every person that’s ever lived in the world or will live in the world is a son or daughter of our father in heaven. I told her that everything we believe has to do with our heavenly father trying to bring us back home to live with him in heaven.

As I said this the spirit started filling the car. It was very noticeable due to the fact that when she got in the car you could not see the spirit in her countenance. The spirit was not yet engaged and there was not that feeling in the car. It came in the car with force at that point. I could see that she was perked up and the spirit started to work on her.

I knew that this was what my father wanted me to be doing right now. Against the odds, this person who you wouldn’t think of as being a person seeking their father in heaven certainly was doing that. I told her that he is our father and he gives us blessings and picks us up when we need him, and when we call on his name.

I told her that our father in heaven give us prophets who receive revelation from him. They give it to us so that we can be blessed. She said, oh like Moses? I said, exactly like Moses. God gave him the 10 Commandments and those commandments blessed those people and made it so they could be happy regardless of their circumstances.

I told her that if we obey the commandments, we will always have God’s spirit with us. I could feel the spirit intensifying in the car and I asked her, do you feel that? She said yes! I said how would you explain that? She said, I feel like I’m hungry and I want to eat that up. I feel like you’ve got something to tell me and I want to learn this.

I told her that that thing she was feeling was the spirit of God and the reaction she was having to it is how she always felt when she was in the presence of God or when truth was being taught to her. I told her, this is how you know the things you are being taught are right.

She said, that’s true! I know that what you’re saying is true and I know that I need to listen. I told her that the commandments are very important. A lot of people look at commandments as restrictions but we look at them as blessings. I used the example of a dude who has fathered multiple children out of wedlock with multiple women. I asked her if his life is peaceful and happy or if his life is chaos. She laughed and said, chaos.

I told her that if he had obeyed the commandments, there would’ve been less chaos and more peace and happiness in his life. I told her that we don’t believe in drinking alcohol. I told her that my grandfather drank alcohol and was an alcoholic and he was a slave to that.

I told her that if my grandfather had obeyed that commandment, he would’ve been freed from those chains of slavery and happier in his life. She said, that makes so much sense. I get that. I told her it’s like putting the fence at the top of the cliff rather than the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff to pick up the pieces. She laughed and said, that’s awesome. I love that.

I told her that God is all powerful and all knowing and he loves every single person in the world. He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to pay for their sins and their afflictions and their pain and their suffering and their torment and their infirmities. He sent Jesus Christ to do that for everyone, not just the people in Jerusalem.

This woman was of Mexican decent but she didn’t speak any Spanish at all. I talked to her about the Book of Mormon. I told her that God sent his son Jesus Christ to America. I told her that God loved the people in America too and that they had prophets as well. I told her that they waited for Jesus to come.

I told her that he descended from heaven and he asked them to take a step up in discipleship. He asked to be baptized by his authority and the way he taught. He invited every one of them to do that and these were her ancestors. I told her that your ancestors were held in Jesus’ arms. I told her, “your ancestors were blessed by Jesus, and their posterity was blessed as well”. I told her, this means you.

This spirit was palpable in the car and she had a tear in her eye so I asked her, what does it mean to you to know Jesus Christ visited your ancestors. She said, it means everything to me. That’s so beautiful. She said, I’ve never heard anything like that but I’m burning up inside. I know that what you’re saying is true. I told her, the spirit is testifying to you that this is true. She said, I know, there’s no denying it.

I told her that we also received that same invitation from Jesus to accept that same baptism. That’s the baptism we do in our church. I told her that when Jesus came to America, most of the other people that were there had previously been baptized. Jesus asked them to take that step up to a new covenant, to a new understanding, to new levels of blessings.

I told her that this brings us back to that building, the temple. I told her that in that temple, we do really important things. We are married for all time not just until death. I told her, we call this a sealing because the marriage is sealed by the power of God. I told her that because we’re married in that building and our marriage is sealed, t means our children that come into that marriage are also sealed for eternity.

Now she was leaning forward and had a tears in both eyes. She said, do you mean that we can all be together with our families? Is that what that means? I said yes.

I told her that it’s not just her family that’s here with her now. I explained to her that every person who was ever born was also taught the gospel once they died. I pointed out in Peter that it teaches this very thing. Jesus set up the preaching of the gospel to those who would pass without hearing it. She said that’s amazing!

I told her that in the Bible it mentions baptisms for the dead. I told her that the people would go and be baptized for the person who had died that had been taught the gospel as a spirit. I told her that this person then has the opportunity to choose whether or not to accept it. They can chose whether or not to become baptized as a member of the church.

She said that this had always bothered her tremendously and that it didn’t seem fair. It didn’t seem like all of Heavenly Father’s children had the opportunity to hear the gospel. She said it didn’t seem fair that many died without being baptized especially little children. She said there was no way in the world she could believe that a child would be condemned for not being baptized. She said it didn’t seem fair and she didn’t see how that worked since God loves all of his children. She said that this is why she was skeptical of her Christian church.

She said, I like that they get to choose. I told her that God is all about choice and he wants us to choose to come home to him. That’s why he sent his son. That’s why he sent his son to America.

I told her that many people who have passed on are waiting for us to go and be baptized for them so that they can accept that baptism and come home to their father. I told her it’s all about family. It’s all about bringing them together and we are all part of the family of God.

She said, I know this is true!

The spirit was indicating to me that I needed to bear my testimony of Joseph Smith and so I testified of Joseph Smith, of the first vision and of the prophets who wrote the Book of Mormon. I testified to her that those engraving were given to Joseph Smith and were interpret by the power of God. I told her that this is the Book of Mormon, the translation that Joseph Smith did of the ancient writings from the prophets in America.

She said, I’ve heard about the Book of Mormon. My baby’s father‘s family are members of your church and they’re very active and they tried to give me a Book of Mormon but I didn’t know what it was so I didn’t take it.

I said, well, now you know. What do you think? She said, I want one. Those are my ancestors. I told her that her baby‘s father‘s family believed very strongly in this. I told her that It was important to them that your family go to the temple so that you all could all be together forever. I looked in her face and she was glowing by this point. She was smiling ear to ear.

This girl who had, at the first of the ride, looked anything but angelic was shining. She said, I have to tell you, last night I prayed that God would help me find truth. I prayed that God would help me find a better way forward and last night I prayed that God would send someone to help me.

I told her about the guy that we baptized a few weeks ago who had done the same thing. He had prayed that God would send someone and God put him in my car. I showed her a picture of me and this man at his baptism. She was happy, with a great big huge smile. She said, I never figured it would be a white rideshare driver. I smiled and said, I guess it doesn’t matter as long as it is a servant of God who testifies of truth. She said 100%!

I asked her, do you believe the things I said today are true? She said yes. She said, next time I’ll accept that Book of Mormon from them. I told her that we can do one better. I reached into my glove box and grabbed one of my Book of Mormons prepared by the Secrists. I handed it to her and said, this Book of Mormon was prepared for you.

I told her that the book has questions in the front that are answered in the tabs and that she should she read them. I said she should read the whole book too. I told her that as she reads it, she should pray to know of its truth. I said that if she he did she would feel the same thing she was feeling right now in the car.

She said that this was exactly what she would do and that she would love to do it. I told her to take this with her to the next family gathering and show it to them. I told her to talk to them about what she felt in the car today and what we learned. I told her to tell them what she now knew to be true.

She said, we get together every Sunday and I will do exactly that.

I told her that I was sure that Heavenly Father put her in my car. I testified to her that he had prompted me with the things to say. She said, that’s clear because you answered the questions I did not even ask. You answered the questions I’ve always had. You’ve answered the questions about how to me, it seemed so unjust that so many people would die without baptism and not be able to go to heaven. Now I know that I was right, that it is not true. Now I know that everyone gets a chance and my heart is full.

She said, I know God put me in your car and I’m excited to talk to my boyfriend’s family about this.

Just then we pulled up to her house and she said, I will read this book, I will cherish this book and I will always remember what I felt in the car today. I told her that this would bring her home if she will follow that feeling. She smiled, said thank you, put her hand on my shoulder for a couple of seconds and got out of the car.