One day I was driving in downtown Salt Lake and I picked up a young lady at the corner of State Street and sixth south at the apartment building right across the street from Little America hotel. She got in the car and spoke English to me but it was very broken English.
When I was on my mission, people would look at me and say they didn’t understand what I was saying, even though I was speaking perfectly well. It made me very angry sometimes that they wouldn’t understand me and then they would speak really horrible English back to me.
I always wished that they would just try to understand and speak spanish rather than not even try. Sometimes I even had companions that didn’t speak as well as I did and because they had a darker complexion the people would say that they understood that missionary better than me. (there’s some kind of a social experiment there for sure.)
The short of it is that I always try to speak English to them and with them to honor their efforts at learning the language. It’s a hard thing and a frustrating thing. I want to respect them in that way.
As we drove I mentioned to her that I speak Spanish and she asked me to speak a little with her. I explained what I just explained here to her but I did it in Spanish. She lit up and said, let’s speak in Spanish. After a second, she said, wow, you speak really good Spanish. She asked me if we spoke Spanish in my home growing up or if my wife spoke Spanish. I answered no on both accounts.
She asked, how in the world did you get to speak that well? I told her that it was God. I told her about going on my mission and that when we go on a mission the spirit of God helps us learn to speak Spanish or whatever language. I told her that when I was preparing to go on my mission I was worried that I would never learn it because I hadn’t had any classes previously. I told her that Elder Packer of the quorum of the 12 apostles came to the MTC while I was there and he made us a promise. He promised that if we would say our prayers in our mission language and read the Book of Mormon in our mission language that we would never lose the ability to speak our mission language so that we could have it to serve God.
I looked at her and I told her that my Spanish is a fulfillment of that promise made by an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. I told her that as we read the scriptures, we feel the spirit of God. I told her also that as we pray, we have the spirit of God with us. I told her that the spirit of God quickens our intellect and makes us better than we are, stronger than we are, smarter than we are and more able than we are.
She nodded feverishly and agreed 100%. She said, I love God, I love going to church. I could tell that she wasn’t a member of the church by some of the things that she said but I could also tell that when I testified of the promise made by Elder Packer, she felt the spirit and she reacted to it. I could see in her eyes and I could feel the focus of her attention on the conversation intensify.
I asked her, what church do you go to? She said she attended the Evangelical church. I asked her why she went to that church and she said because there are a lot of young people and it’s close to where she lives. I told her that it’s important to be around people that love Jesus and that you have things in common.
I told her that in our church we have congregations just for people her age. She was about 25. I asked her if she had ever been to one of our meetings and she said no.
She asked me, when you were in Argentina on your mission, what did you do? Oh I love that question!
I told her that I spent my complete mission testifying about Jesus Christ and teaching people about Jesus Christ, his commandments and how he wants us to live. I told her we tried to model those teachings by doing service and helping people. I told her it was all about bringing people to Jesus Christ and the waters of baptism.
She asked me if that was something we were successful at. I told her that we were but it wasn’t us being successful. It was the spirit of God, touching the hearts of his children and teaching them truth.
She asked me what I taught that was different than what she was learning in the Evangelical church. I told her that the big difference was that we believe that God loves everyone everywhere no matter when they were born and no matter where they were born.
I told her that her people were a blessed people because Jesus Christ walked amongst them. Her eyes lit up and she said where did you learn that?
I told her that in the Bible when Jesus said that he had other sheep and he was commanded to go to them he was talking about the people in America. He was talking about her ancestors. I told her that Jesus came to America and he descended and stood in from in front of them. They came up and worshiped him. They asked him to save them.
She said, that’s beautiful! I told her that he called up 12 and gave them authority to baptize and taught the people how to be baptized with his baptism, the baptism he sanctioned and in the way he prescribed it. I told her that he commanded that they all be invited to be baptized by that baptism and they were.
I told her that this is the same baptism we do today and this is the same baptism I performed for the people in Argentina when I was on my mission. She said, that’s very cool. I told her we have the church of Jesus Christ restored with all the power and all the authority including the authority to perform his baptism and invite everyone to partake of it.
She said she loved that and she asked, where did you learn about this? I told her that in America there had also been prophets who received revelations from God and wrote them down. They included writing the story of the visit of Jesus Christ to America and this is how we know.
I told her that there has to be one true church because all of the churches disagree, so they can’t all be right. I told her that the authority makes the difference.
I told her that in the 1800’s Joseph Smith was looking for that true church and he couldn’t find it. I told her that he was confused by the fact that everybody taught different things and professed to be the church of God so he prayed and ask God to show him which church to join.
I told her that God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph and called him to be the prophet to restore the true church. They told him that the other churches teach some truth, but not all of the truth. They said he would restore the fullness of the church of Jesus Christ on earth.
I told her that later, one of the prophets from ancient America, who had passed away, visited him as an angel and took him to where these writings of the prophets were buried. He gave them to him to translate by the power and authority of God. I told her that you cannot do anything without the authority of God.
I told her that this is the Book of Mormon. She said, oh, I’ve always wondered what that was. They don’t like it down at the Evangelical Church. I laughed and said that they would if they knew what was in it. I told her that it was a testimony of the divine mission of Jesus Christ and God‘s love for all of his children. I told her it was another testament of Jesus Christ.
She said that’s so cool! She said, I’ll have to go buy one of those. I said, as luck would have it I’ve got a copy right here. I pulled out one of the copies prepared by the Secrists and gave it to her. She said, is this for me? I said, yes. I had her open up the front cover to questions of the soul. I told her that these are questions that a lot of people have and they answered in the book. She speaks English ok and the book was in English so I knew she would be ok. As she read the questions, her eyes lit up and she said, this will be fun. I’ve always had some of these questions.
Then she asked, this book came from my ancestors? I said, yes, the indigenous people of the Americas had prophets and they wrote down their prophecies and their dealings with God. I told her that it’s the story of a family that starts in Jerusalem and comes to America. These are her ancestors.
I told her that there were lots of ruins in South America that depict a God descending from heaven to the people and blessing them. Kulkulcan Quetzalcoatl are some of the names given to this god. I told her that these traditions predate the arrival of Europeans. I told her one ruin specifically shows a king God, a descending God and an empty space representing the Holy Ghost. She said, well that’s kind of proof right there of what you said.
I told her that this book is her religious heritage from her ancestors. Her way back great grandparents saw Jesus and he blessed them. By this time, the spirit was really surging in the car and there was a sweet tranquility. Identifying it was easy this time.
I said, do you feel that? She said, yes! I said, what are you feeling? She said she was feeling tranquility like she had never felt before. I told her that this was the spirit of God and it was telling her that the things that I had said were true. I said, God sent his spirit to testify of truth, and right now, his spirit is giving you a hug. She smiled and said, I feel that.
She said, I’ve loved talking about your church. I asked her if she would like to have some missionaries come over and teach her more about the church and she said yes. I got her information and then I said, I want you to know that God put you here today so that he could reach out and show you his love. He showed you his love by giving you his word. He showed you his love by sending his spirit to validate those words.
I said, just like Jesus invited your ancestors to be baptized. He also invites you to have his baptism. He invites you to have that baptism that he gave to them and the missionaries can help you get that. She said, I can’t wait! Have them call me.
There was a profound sense of the spirit and a real tranquil vibe in the car. It was undeniable and she was so happy. Joy filled the car and as she got out, she said, I’m going to do this. I want to go to your church.
We’d been sitting there for a minute, but finally she got out and went into work right before it was time to be there. She turned around at the door and waived.
I sent her information to the missionaries through the Member Tools app. Once you have sent in the reference, it takes you to your missionary page and you can click on the name of the person that you just sent in. At that time it will open up and you can see who the missionaries are who are assigned to teach the person you referred and the ward they should attend.
When I did this, I was really excited because they were some missionaries that I had worked with before with another person that was in my car. He got baptized. When they answered the phone, they were excited to hear this because they remembered me. We had a good time reminiscing and they were very excited to teach this young lady too.
This lady is in good hands, the hands of these missionaries and the hands of God most of all
Sometimes God sends you a lift 