Authorized drivers only! This car requires special keys.

Have you ever gone way west on California Avenue in Salt Lake? I got a notification to pick up a ride at 4400 W. off of California Avenue. That is a long way out there and I felt that I should go because it was a little slow and it was a comfort ride so you make a little extra money.

I drove out there over the bumpy horrible road and finally got to the turn. Once I turned, there was about a quarter of a mile I had to drive until I arrived at the spot where I was to do the pick up. In between me and the pick up was a great big long train. It was just sitting there. Not only was it just sitting there, there were about eight cars waiting for it to move. This indicates that there was no convenient workaround or those people wouldn’t have been sitting there just waiting.

You hate to cancel because they allow very few cancels. I strongly felt that I should go ahead and cancel, lose the extra money, and take the wasted half hour It took me to drive out there. That’s aggravating but I felt that was what I needed to do. I canceled and did a u-turn then started to drive away.

I had only gotten about 200 yards down the road when I got another ride. It was also on California Avenue at about 6800 W. I thought, no way! Against my better judgement I found myself accepting it and heading west. That road was horrible. It was very bumpy and had a bunch of potholes. It resembled a poorly maintained dirt road with the illusion of a being a paved road. I rumbled out to the location and found the man who I was supposed to take waving his phone frantically.

As I approached you could see that he was desperate. He said, I’m so glad you came. I didn’t think anyone was going to come. My car is broken today and five people canceled. At that point I felt better about having accepted the ride. He was a man in his 30’s from Kenya and he lived down in Rose Park.

The fact that the spirited had

whispered to me to take this ride made me start thinking spiritually with regards to this man. He was very well educated and had no accent on his English. I felt sorry for him as we conversed. He just wanted to get home and was angered by the cancellations. I told him that this is why they sent him the best driver, to make up for that!!

I told him that I live down in Utah County and he told me that he took his kids down there last weekend. He said that their mother lives down there. I saw an opportunity here so I took it. I said, “with last weekend being the pride festival, you made a good choice of a weekend to get out of Salt Lake City with your children”. I told him it was a little like escaping Sodom and Gomorrah. He laughed and said, absolutely 100%. I didn’t want them seeing or hearing any of that!

I could tell by the way he reacted to what I said about Sodom and Gomorrah that he had some depth in the scriptures. I said, it’s a shame that we celebrate hedonism and perversion on such a large scale. He said, “that’s it!” “We’re celebrating evil for a whole weekend. I don’t get it, and I didn’t want my children to have any part of it”.

He told me that you’ll never find a rainbow flag hanging from his window. He said he loves the people but he’s not willing to accept the effort to mainstream and normalize their sin. I said, I agree as well. It’s really important that we teach our children right and wrong. They need to know that even though God loves all these people, he does not condone the sins that they are celebrating.

He said, you’re 100% right and it seems like a very lonely time for those of us who believe that. I said, it can be but it doesn’t have to be. That’s why we go to church to find people who believe like we do and can lift us when times are difficult.

He said, I go to church every week and you’re right. I asked him, “what church do you go to”? He said, I go to a nondenominational church down in Orem and occasionally the Mormon church with my kids.

I perked up. I said, that’s awesome that you go to the Mormon church! Are your children members? He said, no. Their grandfather on their mother side was a Mission President but their mother isn’t an active part of the church. They haven’t been baptized. He said, I like to take them because I think that it is part of their heritage.

I asked him what he believes for himself and he said that he didn’t believe in one particular religion. He believed in floating around, checking out all of the different religions.

I said, I’ll bet you’ve had several sets of missionaries come to your house. I derived part of this from the fact that he had gone to church and I can’t imagine him going to church and not attracting attention from a ward mission leader. The other part of this question was the spirit prompting me that I needed to go into this.

He said, yes! I’ve had a few. He said, lately they haven’t been very good. It just seems like the sisters are trying to get through it quick and then they drop you really quick if you’re not ready to be baptized right now. It seems like they’re being run by a checklist.

He said, about two years ago I had a couple of elders that were really good. I asked him, why didn’t you get baptized then. Why didn’t you allow those elders to baptize you? He thought about it and said, I just wasn’t ready.

The spirit prompted me to be straightforward here and ask this question so I did. I said, “you have an issue or a problem that you haven’t felt like there was an answer to. You felt that asking the question in and of itself would be disrespectful”. I said, I feel like you’ve respected the missionaries so much that you haven’t wanted to throw mud at them so you haven’t asked the question that you thought they couldn’t answer. He said, well, that’s exactly it.

He said, I just don’t see why I need a religion. He said, I have the Bible and I can go to a church and feel the spirit of God. He asked, why do I need a religion? I didn’t want to ask that question because it seemed a little disrespectful and I would never disrespect somebody like that.

He said, furthermore, once you establish that you think there’s a religion then you have to answer for the corruption in the religion and those kids don’t have a clue. These are the reasons I’ve never asked the question.

I asked him if it would be OK if I took a crack at that question. I said, look, you don’t need to worry about offending me because you don’t know me. You don’t need to worry about me not having the depth to understand because I’m older than you are and I’ve been around the block.

He said, let’s go! what’s my answer? I told him that the answer lies in several parts. I told him that Jesus Christ organized a church that was perfect but filled with imperfect people. He did this so that the people could become perfected within the parameters of serving God by serving others in the church. I told him that the church of Jesus Christ was a perfect church because it had the perfect authority.

I told him that authority was the key. They had apostles and prophets. They had the priesthood given to them by Jesus Christ, which was the authority and permission to perform the ordinances necessary to return to God.

I told him that performing an ordinance like baptism without the authority is nothing more than a demonstration of our love of God. I said,“that’s cool and that’s good but it’s not enough. We need to do the things that we do under the authority of God.”

I told him that in the New Testament it says there is one faith, one Lord and one baptism. I asked him how many churches that meant there should be and he said one. I asked him how many Lords are there and he said one. I asked him how many baptisms there should be and he said one. I asked him who would be the one to set the example for that baptism and he said Jesus Christ.

I asked him if he thought it might be important to find the church then that has that one baptism and that one faith in Jesus Christ and he said, yes, I suppose so.

I asked him if he knew about the Book of Mormon and he said yes. I asked him if he knew that the Book of Mormon came from the people who lived in America and he said, no. I told him that the people in America had prophets just like the people in Jerusalem and these prophets received revelation from God. They had churches and they did baptisms. I told him that those prophets in America prophesied that Jesus would come.

I told him that Jesus did come after his resurrection. In the Bible, Jesus said, other sheep, I have which are not of this fold and that he was going to go to them so they could hear his voice. I asked him if he thought that Jesus was going other places and he said, it sure sounded like it. I told him that the people in America were some of those other sheep.

I told him that Jesus descended from heaven and the people went up to him. They touched the prints in his prints of the nails in his hands and his feet. They begged him to save them. I told him that even though these people had been baptized in their other churches, the first thing Jesus did as an answered to that plea for salvation was call up 12. He gave them authority (the priesthood) and commanded them to be baptized into his church. He didn’t ridicule their other baptisms but he said that this was the baptism that would bring them salvation. He told them that this was the baptism that they needed to come home to their father in heaven. He invited them to take a step up in decipleship that gave them additional blessings.

I told him that this is what it is all about! It’s about coming home to our father in heaven. I told him that our father in heaven is our father and he loves all us. As I was testifying about these things the spirit became palpable in the car. I could tell that he was feeling it and he was leaning up almost to where his head was on my shoulder. He had unbuckled his seatbelt and moved forward to hear every word I was saying.

Due to the fact that I am an amazing driver I knew I wouldn’t get in an accident😀. I didn’t want to interrupt the flow and tell him to put his seatbelt back on.

I told him that the gift of the Holy Ghost is also important to help us walk with God and have God’s spirit with us all the time. I told him that the Holy Ghost is really important because it testifies of truth and it brings God’s spirit to us. I told him that Jesus gave the gift of the Holy Ghost to those people in America as well as the authority to confer that gift on others.

Jesus then said that he had other sheep that he hadn’t been to yet and that his father had commanded him to go to them. I told my passenger that God sent his son to all of his children, maybe even some of his ancestors. He was blown away.

I told him that his spirit knew God ‘s spirit and when it was in the presence of God his spirit gets excited and it makes him feel good. I looked at him and said, right now you are feeling the spirit of God. How do you feel! He said, I feel engaged. I feel excited and I feel warm. I told him that this was the spirit of God and that is how he always feels when he is in the presence of the spirit of God.

He said, I felt that in other churches too. I told him that the Holy Ghost testifies of truth and those other churches teach truth but what they don’t have is the authority from God to perform that baptism and the other ordinances we need to get home. They don’t have all of the truth. I said, when they do testify of truth, the spirit will be there but they don’t have all of the truth and they don’t have the ability to perform the ordinances that are accepted by God for our salvation.

He said, what about corruption? Men are corrupt. Men in your church are also corrupt. Some of them do bad things. They have this priesthood and do these things, then they perform these ordinances you talk about. He said, it’s not just your church, every church has corruption.

He said, assuming what you say is true about the authority, would an ordinance performed by a person who wasn’t doing the right thing or was corrupt be valid? I perceived by the spirit right away that he had a specific scenario and person in mind. I could also could feel that he wasn’t going to ever divulge that. I was prompted that it was a specific ward leader so I went with that.

I said, in my mind, here is how it works. That person has the authority to perform that ordinance. The authority of God is the permission to act in his name. When we do that, it is up to us to be worthy to perform that ordinance and not be corrupt. We need to be doing the right things. We need to be trying to repent and be better. If we are knowingly, corrupt and still acting in God‘s name with his authority, God will hold us accountable but the ordinance would still be valid because it was done under his authority.

I told him that the church is like a car. I told him it’s a special car design to go to one place and it’s the only car that can make it there. I told him that this is your ward. I told him that God calls people in your ward and gives them authority to drive that car. He gives them the keys. I told him that sometimes they make mistakes and it’s like hitting a pothole or guardrail. I told him flat out some drivers are better than other drivers but the program is designed for that car to carry the people in it to the destination regardless of the ease or smoothness of the trip. That car will get there because it has the authority to run on that road and withstand the potholes and difficulties.

I told him that people that are willfully corrupt and do evil things have to answer for that, regardless of whether or not they are leaders or members of the church. I also told him that they can avail themselves of repentance just like every other person. I told him that no one is condemned just because they’ve had a bad day or a bad situation if they’re willing to look to God and repent.

I told him that the important thing is that they have that authority. I told him that Peter, James and John appeared to the prophet Joseph Smith. They put their hands on his head and they gave him this authority. He passed it down from that time through others and we have it today.

I told him that all priesthood holders can trace their priesthood lineage back to Joseph Smith then Peter, James and John and then to Jesus Christ himself. I told him we keep track of that. I can show him where my priesthood came from and that it came from Jesus Christ.

I told him that if he goes to another church they won’t be able to tell you where they got their priesthood. I told him that they’re just good people trying to do the best they can but they don’t have the authority to perform the ordinances that they need to come home to their father in heaven.

He said, doesn’t that mean that a lot of God’s children won’t make it home or won’t have even an opportunity to come home. I told him that this was the beauty of having the full gospel of Jesus Christ restored by Jesus Christ. I told him that this is why it’s important to have prophets and authority. I told him that God has a plan for every person that ever lived to be able to come home.

I asked him if he knew what we do in temples and he said no. I said, in our temples, we perform baptisms for the people who have died. I said, your great grandfather who died in Kenya probably never heard of our church. He said, I don’t think he heard of any church. I said, would it be fair for God to condemn him just because he hadn’t heard of Jesus Christ? He said, no! That wouldn’t be fair.

I told him that the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ set up the teaching of the gospel to the people who had died without hearing it and made it possible for every single person who ever lived to have a perfect opportunity to accept the gospel under favorable conditions.

I told him that his grandfather had been taught the gospel. Then I told him that we have our part to play in this. We go to the temple and we are baptized for that person and they have an opportunity to accept it or reject it.

I told him that God loves everyone and it wouldn’t be fair to condemn a wonderful person from Kenya because of where they were born or when they were born. He said, that’s awesome. I said, this is part of being in the car, we can take our family with us. I told him that sometimes it’s bumpier than other times and sometimes God’s children fight in the backseat but that car will end up at it’s destination. The people who are in it will be glad they were.

I told him that since I had mentioned his great grandfather he was thinking a lot about other people like his grandfather. He said yes! I said, these other people are relatives right? He said yes. I told him that they depend on him to be saved. I told him that they are counting on him and they’re very interested in the outcome of this ride. I told him they were here to witness this because I know they’re very interested.

I told him that God had put him in my car today to receive this message. He said, I know that’s true. When you said that I felt it. He said, the fact that the other drivers canceled so that you could get the ride is too much of a coincidence to be coincidence.

I told him that there’s no such thing as coincidence and God put him in my car and directed our conversation. I told him that this is why God’s spirits has been here testifying if the truthfulness of the things I’ve said. I asked him again if he could feel the spirit and he said yes.

I said that I perceived by the spirit that he had been looking for a sign from God in all of these churches. He said, yes, and how do you know that. I said, I know that because I had a prompting that God wanted me to say that. That is part of having the gift of the Holy Ghost. God whispers to us and tells us the things that he would have us say.

I told him that with the miracle that happened today (me being the one to pick him up) and the revelatory conversation that we had participated in, along with the spirit we had felt, he can no longer say he’s looking for a sign. Now he’s had that sign. I told him that before he had told God he wanted his sign and now God has given him a sign. I asked him what he was going to do with that?

He asked, how should I move forward? I said, well, first you need to read the Book of Mormon. Do you have a Book of Mormon? He said, somewhere, I’m not sure. I pulled out one of my Book of Mormon‘s prepared by the Secrists and gave it to him. I asked him to read the questions in the front cover and told him that the corresponding pages are marked for easy access. He told me that he had read in that book before.

I told him that when he reads this book he needs to pray. I asked him if he prayed when he read it before and he said no. He told me that he just read it with the missionaries.

I told him that when he reads he needs to pray. When he prays, he will feel the same feelings he is feeling in his heart right now. I said, “at that time, you will know that God is revealing to you that the things you is reading are true”.

Then I said, “but you don’t need to wait until then to know it’s true because the spirit is telling you right now that these things are true”. I asked him if he knew that. He said yes. I asked him if he knew where his Salt Lake ward met. He said he had no clue. I told him that we could look it up and we did. We got the address and time for meetings. He said he knew exactly where that was.

He said, “it looks like I have a lot of work to do. I have a lot of things undone. I feel like what you said is true about my ancestors counting on me. I need to do better”.

I told him that when he goes to church, he’ll find that some people are flawed and they sin just like he does but to remember that the ordinances and the authority of the church are what drive the car. If we stick with the car we will end up at the right destination, which is living with our father in heaven.

I said, your children need to be baptized as well. I told him that he might want to reach out to their mother’s family that were active in the church and ask them to do this with him if he gets along with them. He said, I get along with them really well. I just don’t get along with her at all.

I said, I’m sure they’ve been praying for something like this. Just like you want to save your ancestors. They want to save you. It’s how it works between parents and children. Those grandparents have been praying for these children to be taught the gospel. Their mother refuses to do it but I think God has found in you, the person he can trust to see to it that those children get in that car and make it home. This is an answer to those grandparent’s prayers.

I said, you have a lot to do. He said, this could take a few months for me to get ready. I said, remember you’ve been getting ready already, you’ve been prepared, you’ve felt the spirit and you know what God would have you do. What more can you ask for from this ride! He laughed and said, I guess I need to get busy.

By this time we had been sitting in front of his apartment for about a half an hour. The spirit was burning in the car. He grabbed both of my shoulders then shook my hand and thanked me. I told him to remember to pray tonight and thank God for sending him an invitation to the get in the car so he can go home to his father.

I said, you need to always remember that this day God sent you this ride because that’s the day he gave you a miracle and gave you the sign you were looking for. He said, that’s exactly right and I won’t forget. He got out of the car and went inside.