Changing hearts

One morning I picked up a lady from Primary Children’s Hospital. I was driving downtown trying to get a lot of rides. They put out a promotion were if I got 70 rides in a week I would get almost a $400 bonus. I was looking for quick rides and was staying in the northeast corner of Salt Lake City so that I could increase my chances of getting short quick rides. I got a ride so of course I was a little disappointed when it said 48 minutes south. That’s Orem.

Now as you all know I love Orem but not when I had just driven from Orem to Salt Lake to start work. I would rather stay in Salt Lake but I felt pressured by the spirit that I needed to keep the ride so I did.

I pulled into the hospital and a lady got into my car I could tell right away she had a Haitian accent and so I started talking about people I know from Haiti like the Montfleury family that I baptized several years back. She said that she knew them and she knew Sister Montfleury’s sister. We talked for a minute about them and then I started having a prompting about her. At this point I knew she was a member of the church because of the people I knew that were her friends. She also looked like a member of the church and she talked like a member of the church. The prompting I was receiving seemed strange given those circumstances.

I had to work into a spiritual conversation so I started with the obvious, what brings you to the hospital? She said that her son was in the cardiac unit and just barely had been released from intensive care. She said they were a little worried about him because he always gets the flu really bad so they made sure he got the Covid shots and now he had an enlarged heart. He went into respiratory failure when he was exercising.

I talked about how rough Covid have been on all of us and told her of my situation with my work. I told her that I believed that in the end it worked out because I had found a purpose. I told her that I believed that God puts people in my car and that he protects me in my car. I shared a couple of stories with her from people that had been in my car and also the one when God shocked the guy who was going to attack me. She was blown away.

I said, “God protects me in my car and he puts people in my car and gives me things to say, so do you want to know…”, she stopped me she and said, yes that’s my question I want to know what promptings you’ve had regarding me.

She said that her heart was breaking and she wondered if God had a message for her.

I told her it’s not a parlor game. I explained to her that Ammon told the king the things that were in his heart thereby showing the king that Ammon had the power of God. I told her that God puts people in my car and whispers things to my heart and I say them. The purpose of saying them is to let them know of God‘s love for them and his power. She said that she could feel the spirit and wanted to know what I thought.

I said, mostly two things. The first one is that up and until this health crisis, you had not been praying and you stopped going to church. I told her, your father in heaven is sad and he needs you to pray and you need to go to church to feel the spirit and take the sacrament.

I told her about her father in heaven and the relationship she had with him developed over thousands and thousands and thousands of years in heaven. I told her that when she felt his presence it felt like home. I told her, that this spirit from the preexistence is the person she had always been even though it was hard to be that if you didn’t have the spirit of God and the light it provides in your soul. When people feel the spirit, they feel like they are home.

I told her the other thing was that she had been horribly hurt, abused and wronged by someone and that she needed to understand and enact the atonement in her life because Jesus had suffered those very things so that he could give her relief. I talked to her about how Alma didn’t remember the pain of his sins but he could remember his sins. I told her that once you apply the atonement you can’t remember the pain of your abuse or injustice but you remember it so that you don’t make those mistakes again. She started to cry and said, I was beaten by my husband and now it has destroyed my family. He brainwashed my children and tonight I was kicked out of the hospital. I didn’t know what to do. I was thinking that I needed someone to help me.

She said, Heavenly Father sent you to help me and I appreciate that. She said, you’ve certainly given me a lot to think about. I told her it starts with going back to church and focusing on her relationship with God and accessing the atonement of Jesus Christ. I told her if she would do that, eventually she would be able to forgive and move on to be a stronger person. She could serve others who have challenges in their lives. She said, thank you. That’s exactly what I’ll do.

The spirit was really strong in the car and I identified it to her. I mentioned to her that she knew that when the spirit was there, truth was being spoken. She said that she knew that was true.

She thanked me and got out of the car. I never knew what became of her but I knew that the spirited had testified to her soul.

Fast forward two and a half years. I was driving down the road contemplating an experience that had just happened. This experience will be a story someday. I was wondering and maybe even doubting about what happens after these people leave my car. I never see them again and most of the time I have no idea Then I got a ride. I picked up a lady right by the arts festival in Salt Lake and gave her a ride to the mall. It was this same Haitian lady and I didn’t recognize her. She had none of the hate and none of the vibe that had been with her before.

I gave her a ride to her destination and she said, don’t you remember me? I said, I don’t think so. When she asked this question my mind started racing feverishly but to no avail. I said a quick prayer and then she said, 2 1/2 years ago you gave me a ride and the spirit whispered some things to you that changed my life. Because of that ride, I’ve gone back to church and I’m active now. It was an amazing ride. Then the spirit brought it all rushing back to my memory.

I asked, did I pick you up at the Primary Children’s Hospital? She said, yes. My son ended up having heart transplant surgery. I asked, did I take you to Orem? She said, yes! I asked, did I drop you at about 700 North between State and main? She said, yes! You do remember!

She said that for quite some time now she had been hoping to see me again to thank me. She said her son is doing well and the whole family goes to church. She said that it has been a great blessing in her life.

How can you beat that for a Friday afternoon ride!? You just can’t!