How do you cure the world’s biggest hangover?

One Monday morning, I was starting my drive earlier than normal in Salt Lake. That’s a mixed bag because you never know how long it’s going to take for you to get a ride. You like to be able to get 3 to 5 rides per hour and sometimes in the morning it doesn’t work so well.

I turned on and drove around for about 10 minutes and finally got a ride. I went over to pick the guy up an apartment complex on 200 W. I waited for quite a while and wondered if I was going to be timing him out and collecting the no-show fee.

Finally, he came out of the building with a burst. All I could say was wow.

He was a great big, huge Tongan man dressed in black flowing clothes and a purple scarf. He had very long hair and some tattoos underneath his right eye on his cheek.

He didn’t look like he was feeling very good and when he sat down in the car, he said,Uuuuh. I said, not feeling so well are we? He said, no! I partied all night into the morning. I was really drunk, I passed out on the floor. He told me that there were a whole bunch of people there last he remembered, but when he woke up, he was the only one there and he had the worst hangover ever. 

Having never been drunk in my life, hence never having experienced a hangover, I’m not very knowledgeable with regards to how you feel during a hangover.  I am pretty sure from what I understand that you want to close your eyes to everything. And hope that the headache goes away.

As I’m thinking this and kind of chuckling to myself, I get the impression that I’m supposed to teach this man. That’s a bold endeavor because he’s a lot bigger than I am and you don’t want to poke the bear. Again, the prompting came that he was put here in your car today to be taught. The spirit said go. I looked in my mirror and there he was slinking back in the seat with his eyes closed, nevertheless I decided to go for it.

I said, mālō e lelei. That’s a Tongan greeting. He said, oh you’ve been around some Tongans before! I told him I was around a lot of Tongans when I coached football and he said, that makes sense.  I said, but I learned to speak some words in Tongan while I was serving in the MTC. I told him that as an executive secretary, one of my responsibilities was to look out for and love up the international missionaries of whom many were from Tonga.

I told him that as part of my endeavor to love and respect them, I tried to learn to say hello and maybe thank you in each of their languages. He said, that’s really cool. The spirit prompted me to keep discussing the MTC. I said, it’s amazing when you see how much your Heavenly Father loves each one of his young missionaries.

I told him that they would show up and I could feel his love for them. I told him, I’ll bet you had relatives from Tonga that I met when I was in the MTC. I noticed that he was very pensive and his eyes were wide open which I’m sure is not a normal state for someone with the world’s greatest hangover.

I felt that Heavenly Father wanted me to keep going, so I said, I loved the spirit the young elders had and I loved to see the love in their souls for other people and for their Heavenly Father. It was an amazing thing.

Then I found out why the Lord wanted me to talk about the MTC and missionaries. He said to me, my son is getting ready to go into the MTC. I tried not to look shocked as I reacted to his statement. I shouted, great! Knowing that probably shattered his brain from the hangover I asked, where is he going to serve?

He said, my son’s going to serve in the Calgary Alberta Canada mission. You could hear the pride in his voice when he said that. As I looked in the mirror, I could see his countenance was still low, even though there was a jump in his voice.

The spirit let me see a man who had been beaten down by life. The spirited let me see a man who had felt pushed out and ostracized. He hadn’t felt like he belonged so he left. The spirit gave me the words to say through promptings of how to approach this man. I said, do you want to know what the most important thing is your son’s going to teach? Do you want to know what the most important thing is that he has to learn before he can be a good missionary?

He said, yes! I told him that the most important thing that your son has to teach and learn for himself is the atonement of Jesus Christ. I told him that all the other things flow from that and that the atonement of Jesus Christ is the thing that everyone needs to cure their spiritual and physical ailments.

I told him that when Jesus Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane he suffered all of the pains, injustices, illnesses, unfairness, and pain from sins that we could ever imagine. He suffered them all at once and that pain was so great that he bled from every pore. I said, he did this so that he knows how to lift us.

I told him that the pain was so great that he asked God to make it so he didn’t have to go through that if possible. I asked him, if his son was suffering like that and he asked you to take that pain from him what would that make you feel like? He said, it would make me want to make it better and if I couldn’t, it would make me feel horrible.

I told him that was just how Heavenly Father  felt. He sent an angel to Jesus to give him strength to help him through it. I told him that because Jesus felt and went through all of that, now we can rely on him.

I said, if we look to him, he can help us. I told him that I had received a prompting that in his life, he had been very offended and very judged by some family members. I told him that he felt that he had been ostracized and not wanted. I told him that for sure he was wanted by his father in heaven and that his brother, Jesus Christ, had felt that same pain and he was waiting for him to turn to him for help. That’s the family that matters.

I told him that instead of turning to Jesus, he turned away from God. I told him that Satan tells us to blame God and blame our families. Satan tells us to self medicate and look for happiness in a riotous lifestyle.

I told him that Satan is a liar and that he never tells us anything that’s true. I repeated about four times that Satan is a liar and that he had been lied to by Satan.

I told him that on the other hand if he looks to God, he points to Jesus, and we access the atonement so that he can lift our burdens and heal our hearts. I told him, that’s what you need, you need your heart to be healed. You don’t need another bender with the dudes. I looked back and he was weeping. There were tears coming down his face. 

I reminded him of the story Alma, in the Book of Mormon. His people were captured by the Lamanites and put into slavery. I reminded him that when they called upon God and the atonement of Jesus Christ, their burdens were lifted and they could barely feel them. I reminded him that this didn’t mean that their burdens were removed but that because of Jesus Christ, their burdens were lifted and made bearable. They were able to be happy despite their trials because of the atonement Jesus Christ.

I asked him if he had younger brothers and sisters, he said yes. I asked him if when they were young they had come to him for advice and help because he had been there and done that. He said yes. I said, this works in a very similar way. Jesus Christ has suffered all things for us, and if we will turn to him and the power of his atonement , he can lift us and help us through these trials.

I told him that when we do this, it takes away Satan‘s power and his solution seems frivolous. I looked back in the mirror. More tears were flowing and not a word was being spoken.

The spirit told me that I wasn’t done yet. I told him that the atonement of Jesus Christ will make it possible for him to let go of the negative feelings he had towards those who had harmed him and allow him to forgive them.

I told him that the atonement of Jesus Christ is what his son, who was going on a mission, had to offer to the world so that the world could heal just like he needed to heal. He said, I never thought of it that way. I told him that the damage done to his soul was not done by anybody else but by the hate and rebellion in his own heart. I said, that’s what happens when we look to Satan and his solutions to our problems. I told him, his solutions are counterfeits. I repeated again, Satan is a liar and he lies to us. I asked him if he wanted to do what Satan tells him and he said, no. 

I told him again that Jesus Christ was there to heal him, which I’m sure was great news, considering he was in the midst of this hangover.

By this time he was sitting up not slouched back and he was paying attention to what I was saying. His eyes were wide open, but he wasn’t saying much. I could tell that he was listening to every word I said.

I said, God put you in my car today so you could get this message. God put you in my car today to let you know that he needs you to come back. God needs you to be a missionary father and God needs you to be a witness. God needs you to not only be a missionary father but a missionary yourself.

I told him that he had made quite an impression as a rebel. I told him that everybody knew how crazy he was and how much he partied. I told him that everybody knew how far off the path he was. He bowed his head.

I asked him, can you imagine the shock in everyone’s life when you go back to church, repent of your sins and start walking with God? I asked him, can you imagine the impact that will have on people’s lives?

I said, they will see the power of the atonement in real time in your life. They will see how God transforms people in real time in your life. They will see the love of God reflected in your countenance and in your life and they will know that the atonement is real. They will know that you have been forgiven and they will know, if God can do that for you, he can do that for them too.

I told him that while his son is being a missionary, if he will clean it up and embrace the atonement with all of his heart, he will change as many lives as his son will. People will recognize the power of that change. I told him, that way you can be a missionary too.

The spirit was palpable in the car and I could tell he was feeling it. I asked him if he felt that and he said yes. I asked him what it was and he said, that’s the spirit. I asked him what that meant. He said, it means that what you’re saying is true.

I told him again, God put you in my car today. God put you in my car so I could say this to you. It’s time for you to make that change. God stands there willing to help and is pointing to the atonement of his son, Jesus Christ.

I told him, don’t look to Satan. Look to God and be saved. The tears were still flowing down his face and he said, I know God put me in your car today. This is just what I’ve needed, I’ve needed this for years. He said, I suppose this means I’m going to church on Sunday. I need to go to church with my boy.

I told him that his Heavenly Father is his father and he loves him and that he will do this with him. I told him that God needs him back and he needs the people that he is going to influence and bring with him. He said, I needed this! This is exactly what I needed and I’ve needed this for a long time. I said, don’t let Satan tell you that the things you’ve done are so bad that you can’t return. I told him that Satan‘s next trick is to tell you that what you’ve done is so bad that you can’t be saved so you will be discouraged. I told him that it’s not true. Jesus Christ has paid that price if he will allow Jesus to do so.

He said, I’m going to do that. He said, at first I was wondering if you go around picking up all of the sinners and teach them about Jesus. Then I realized that my soul was open to you. You spoke directly to me and that it had to be Heavenly Father telling you what to say.

I’m going to go to church Sunday and I’m going to turn this around. I know Heavenly Father put me in your car today.

He thanked me and got out of the car.