The Book of Mormon brings a happy place to you

One night I was out driving and I picked up a young man in Vineyard . He was heading out to do some work. He was an apprentice at a job and he was looking to have an opportunity with this company.

I asked him if he lived here all of his life and he said no, he wanted to get out of here as quick as he could. I asked him why he wanted to get out of here and he said that he thought he would be more happy in another place.

I took that opportunity to get on one of the soapboxes that I get on quite frequently. I talked to him about deciding to be happy and that if you’re not happy with where you are, you won’t be happy with where you’re going. You can’t stand around and expect other things to make you happy.

I talked to him about not being happy. I really got the prompting that his lack of happiness had more to do with his disobedience and the fact that he had left the church than any other factor. I looked in the mirror and he only looked like he was about 22 or 23. I felt that I needed to start discussing the gospel with him but I didn’t know how to begin.

Then he started talking about corruption and how there is a lot of corruption everywhere. As an example he said, think about P. Diddy. Am I a conspiracy theorist to think that a lot of people helped him out to do the horrible things he did?.

I said no, you’re not a horrible person at all to think that! Then I felt the words pop into my head that I should say. I said, you look at Epstein and his Island and P. Diddy and what you see are a lot of people that do horrible things and they protect each other from being found out or punished. I said, in the end after doing much damage, they finally get caught.

He agreed then I said, you know about the Book of Mormon don’t you? He said, yes, I was raised Mormon, my parents are still Mormon, but I’m not Mormon anymore. I asked , do you believe in the book of Mormon? He said, no.

I said, will let me tell you about something that is in the Book of Mormon. I talked to him about secret combinations and how the Book of Mormon prophesied that they would be amongst us. I talked to him about how the whole purpose of those secret combinations was so that those people could do horrible things like seek power,have whoredoms, take away peoples rights and freedoms and steal. They made themselves rich off the backs of other people and they did it in the secret combinations.

I told him that they got together and swore oaths to each other. These oaths were from Satan and were passed down for hundreds of years.

I told him that these things sound exactly like what’s going on today. I told him that these people did horrible things and were protected by the law and protected by governments and protected by wealthy people for years and years.

I said, the one problem is that Satan won’t stick with you to the end. I said, Satan uses you until he’s used you up and then he drops you off on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Then you die. I told him that I always tell people that Satan will drop you off somewhere between Battle Mountain and Winnemucca. He had driven that stretch road and really like that analogy.

I told him that the Book of Mormon warned that in our day secret combinations would be around so that we can look for them and fight them. I said, the Book of Mormon was written for our day and you have stumbled on the fulfillment of a prophecy from the Book k of Mormon.

He said, I left the church several years ago but I still remember a lot of the things from the Book of Mormon. I asked him, what were the things that made you leave the church?

He said, my parents pushed it really hard on me and I just rebelled. I don’t believe it anymore because I didn’t think it was right the way they taught me about it. This explanation made absolutely no sense to me. The spirit told me that the problem with this young man was that he didn’t have a testimony. The spirit told me that this young man had a sin that he had committed and it bothered him tremendously He didn’t have a testimony and he left the church rather than face it.

I decided to start with the Book of Mormon. I testified that the Book of Mormon was true and that it was the only book on earth that presented a vision of God that was loving and all inclusive.

I asked him if he believed in God and he said yes he did. I asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ and he said absolutely. I told him that our father in heaven loves every one of his children, no matter where they live, no matter when they live, and no matter how far they stray. I said, our Heavenly Father wants us all home.

I said, most of the world believes that Jesus was born and raised in Israel, died in Israel, was resurrected in Israel and everything happened in Israel. The world believes that all the prophets were Israelites and that’s why we have the Bible.

I asked him if thought that was fair. Is it fair to think that a loving Heavenly Father paid all his attention to one part of the world? He said, I never thought of it like that, but no, you would think that God would be the God of all of the world and love the whole world.

I asked him how God showed his love. He thought for a minute. I said, God shows his love by giving us prophets. He gives them revelation and commandments for us. When we obey those commandments, we are happy. I said, it’s all about us being happy. The whole purpose for is for us to be happy. I said, happiness is a state of being, not a spot or a location.

I said, when we listen to the prophets and obey the commandments we can be happy. I told him that there had been prophets here in America and they taught the ancient people of America their prophecies and the commandments of God. Then I testified about Jesus coming to America, descending from the heavens. As I was doing this the spirit fell over the car, it felt electric. I told him about how Jesus stood before them. They touched the prints of the nails in his hands and then they begged him for salvation. He gave them authority and commanded that they be baptized.

He commanded that they all be baptized so that they could go home and live with their father in heaven. I told him that this was the way that we make it home. I told him that God wanted all of his children, not just in Jerusalem, but in other places to be taught by his son Jesus Christ.

I told him that Jesus held the children and blessed them. Then he wept. As I was telling him this, I looked in the mirror and he looked like he’d been hit by a train. I could tell the spirit was working on him and he said, I keep getting chills. I haven’t felt like this for a long time. I said, it’s the spirit of God and you were put in my car tonight to feel that.

I said, you were put in my car tonight so that you can know that God loves you. You were put in my car tonight so that you can know the Book of Mormon is true. I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon. He said he had one that his mom gave him when he was baptized. I said, have you ever read it? He said, no.

I said, God has given you a witness that it is true. I said, when you were a young man, you sought a witness from God and didn’t believe that you had received it. This is what it feels like when you received that witness and you have received it tonight here in this car and that’s why God put you here.

He said, wow, this is pretty amazing. I asked him, do you have any doubts right now that the Book of Mormon is true? He said, no, it just seems to make sense to me and feel exactly right. I keep getting those shivers.

I told him that this was the spirit of God and this witness was given to him so he could follow the truth and it would lead him back to his father. I looked in the mirror and said, the spirit has given me some promptings and one of them is that you committed a sin. In your eyes this sin is pretty bad and you are not able to forgive yourself and you don’t think God will forgive you either.

I told him that God wants to forgive him and wants him to come home. He was a little bit emotional and had a shocked look in his eyes. He told me that he had never told anyone that and asked me how I knew. I told him, God gave me those words to say just like he put you in the car today. He gave me those words so that you can know that the rest of the things I say are true.

He lowered his eyes and said, yes that’s true. I told him that Satan, the same one that pushes those people into those combinations also works on us one by one. I told him that what Satan does is he gets us to make a mistake and then he lies and tell us we can’t be forgiven.

He lies. He tells us that our father in heaven can’t do anything about it and that we are lost. I told him that he felt lost. I told him that this was why he left the church because he didn’t feel worthy.

I told him that’s just exactly what Satan wanted him to believe. I told him that Satan hates the atonement of Jesus Christ, and if you will believe his lies to the point where you don’t take advantage of it, he wins.

I told him that Satan‘s whole game is to get people to not look to Christ and not take advantage of that atonement. He lies to them. He tells them there’s nothing they can do. He tells them that they can’t be clean and he is a liar. He is the father of all lies and you believed him.

I said, God gave you a witness that the Book of Mormon is true. If the Book of Mormon is true, what does that mean about Joseph Smith? Does that mean he was a prophet or not? He said, now that I know the Book of Mormon is true, I know that Joseph Smith had to be a prophet or he couldn’t have translated it.

I said, that’s exactly right! Truth cannot come from a fraud. It had to be a prophet of God who translated that book. He agreed and I said, we also have a prophet of God today and listening to these prophets is how we know how to stay on the path and look to Christ. He said, I need to do better. I need to start doing that again.

He said, I don’t want to go to church with my mom and dad. I don’t even know if I want them to know I’m going. I said, in time, you’ll work through your issues with your parents, but in the meantime, you’re 22 and single. There’s a singles ward you can go to and you don’t need to go with your parents.

I told him to go and talk to the bishop. I told him to tell him his story and include the miracle that happened in this car. I said, it’s very important that you don’t say, I know the Book of Mormon is true and just leave it at that. You need to read and study the Book of Mormon and you need to go to church and pray.

He said he would do that. He said, I will read the whole book. I promise you. I said, will you commit to go to church? He thought for a minute and said yes he would. I found the location of the young adult ward for him and they met later on in the day. You know, sleep is important for kids at that age.

I guess I kind of need to change my happiness spiel. I said that happiness cannot be found in a place. The thing is, we know that happiness is found in the presence of God. That day in the car in the presence of God’s spirit we were happy and we knew that truth was being revealed.

The key is living with the spirit so we can take our happy place with us wherever we go. I guess deciding to follow Christ, love God and serve him is deciding to be happy.