The lighting guy is done with the darkness

One night I was driving in Salt Lake and I was on the west side of town. Usually when I’m on the west side, I pause it so that I can get back into downtown but this time I decided to let it ride.

I got a ride out by 3500 South and around Bangerter Highway. I pulled into a business park where I was supposed to pick up my ride and there he was. You could tell this guy had been working.

He had work boots, kneepads, dirty clothes, and the whole get up. He got in my clean car and we started to go. I asked him what he did for a living. He said he worked in the lighting industry. I guess installing lights can be a dirty job. Through the dirt, I could see a lost man and had the impression that he was a member of the church.

He was headed clear out to Copperton and so away we went. We started talking about the lights he installed and what preferences people have for lights. He talked about how they can change the brilliance and softness of lights to accommodate the desires of the people these days.

I told him that he sure lived a long way from his work and he laughed. He said, yeah and I’m sick of taking rideshare twice a day. I asked him why he was taking rideshare at all and he said that he had received a DUI and couldn’t drive his truck.

I asked him how that was and he said that it went a night in jail and he had to pay a lot of money to get his truck out of impound. He said that he hadn’t driven his truck since and that it had been nearly one year. He said he would get his license back after one year and this rideshare nightmare would be over. I laughed.

He said that because of his DUI, his drivers license had been suspended for a year and so he had to take rideshare. This information didn’t fit with my first impression that I had received about him being a member of the church but I decided that’s why he was in my car.

I wondered if he had been convicted of a DUI or a DWI. The difference is that on your first offense, they will give you a DWI and it only cost about $5000 whereas a DUI is given to your subsequent offenses and it cost $10,000.

He assured me that he had been convicted of a DUI, even though he hired a high-powered attorney and that he had previously had the DWI so this time they threw the book at him.

I said, it seems to be like you’ve got something to figure out. He said, yeah, I’ve gotta learn to stay away from the wrong women. He said, I had been sober for about two years and I met this girl who loved to drink. I fell off the wagon. He said, I couldn’t say no to her. He said that she blew him off the second he got his DUI but he didn’t think that was a very bad thing in the end. He told me that she was nothing but trouble.

Right then I had the distinct impression that I should loudly and vociferously proclaim a solution to his problem. I said, you should go to church! You should go to church every week! I said, you should go to the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints and date girls you find in church on Sunday.

I told him that those girls won’t want him to drink and they’re not going to push him to do other things he shouldn’t be doing. I said, if you know what I mean.

He smiled, then said, I know exactly what you mean and that’s exactly what I need. He kind of laughed it off for a minute. Then I had the impression to say it again, so I did. I said, you need to go to church. How long has it been since you’ve been to church?

He said, well, I was raised in the church but I haven’t been in over a decade. I said, well, I think it’s time to start. Now the way I’m describing this may sound a little bit flippant but here was no mistaking the power that I felt when I said it. They were words that were given to me to say, and I said them and they were spoken with power.

I could tell they touched him. I could tell that he was shocked and taken off guard for some reason. I decided that this was a good time to bear my testimony about the importance of getting worthy to take the sacrament and then relying on the strength of the atonement to keep himself sober and worthy each week.

He said, that’s awesome! He said, I actually can’t believe that you just blurted that out like you did. I said that God puts people in my car sometimes. He gives me messages by the power of the Holy Ghost that I’m supposed to say. I told him that I felt very powerfully that I was supposed to say that to him.

I said, I also know that you felt it and that you feel the Holy Ghost in the car with us right now. I said, God has put other people in your path to say the same thing, don’t you think it’s time to listen?

He said, this is crazy! I was just up in Idaho two weeks ago visiting my friend, who used to be a member of of the church. We were talking about hunting and then all of a sudden he stopped looked at me and said “I feel like I’m supposed to tell you that you need to go to church. You need to go to church and attend the singles ward”.

He said to me “how did you know this? “This is an incredible coincidence”. I told him that there is no such thing as a coincidence and that it wasn’t a coincidence that God had been reaching out to him in more ways than this. God was trying to get him to go back to church and get him to change his life.

I told him that obviously there are people at church who God has put in place that he needs in his life. I said that they would be a tremendous force for good and would help him along. I also told him that with his experiences, he could be a great missionary and would have tremendous empathy along with a capacity to love people who are struggling.

I told him that it’s not all about going to church and having people help you. The best thing that happens to us at church is the other people need us as well. I said, I think the message is pretty clear you need to go to church!

He said, I do. I need to fight my addiction and I need to have God on my side. I told him that if he will have God on his side, it will help him fight the cravings because the spirit of God will push it out and he will fill his soul with that instead of Satan‘s counterfeit.

He said, “that is exactly what I need”. I bore my testimony to him about the power of reading the Book of Mormon and saying his prayers. I said that if he would do those things, that God would lift him and bless him. He said, well, I have a Bible and I can read it. I said, that’s awesome! I always encourage the reading of the Bible, but I’m talking about reading the Book of Mormon.

I told him that the Book of Mormon carries a spirit with it that would bless him and lift him and give him more power. I told him that having the power of God around him would help him tremendously. I told him that he could listen to it on the way to work and read it at home whenever he felt the spirit waning.

I told him that he should read it every day besides those times and that he should pray multiple times a day. I told him that he should fill his life with the spirit and light.

I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon and he said no. I reached into my glove box and grabbed one of the Book of Mormon‘s prepared by the Secrists and gave it to him. He said, I can’t take your Book of Mormon. I said, this is your Book of Mormon! It was prepared for you.

He said, that’s awesome! I asked him if he knew where his singles ward met and he said he didn’t. I jumped on the Meetinghouse locator and found his singles ward. I asked him if he knew anyone that went to that ward and he said he knew a couple people.

I asked him if he would call those people that night and talk to them about attending with them. He said, I’m not sure they want to sit by me, they might be afraid the building will fall on them. Funny story, but I’ve heard many people say that and so I laughed and said, that would be what Satan would want you to think. He has a counterfeit for the spirit and he whispers silly things in our ears to keep us from doing what we should. He is always working hard to raise doubts.

I said, even though you said it in jest, I know deep down you worry about how you’ll feel or be received. The truth is that some might judge everyone has their sin. I said, I promise you that if you go and focus on God and focus on the spirit that you will be lifted and you will feel the difference.

I took that opportunity to bear my testimony of Joseph Smith, the restoration and the word of wisdom. I testified of the word of wisdom and the promise in the word of wisdom of being able to run and not be weary, walk and not be faint, and that the destroying angel would pass us by. I told him that there would be great treasures of knowledge given to those who obey the word of wisdom, but first you need to shake that destroying angel… alcohol.

He said, I never heard that part. I said, pretty cool huh? He said, yeah! I said, how about getting on THAT wagon! That one will take you somewhere good. He smiled and said, I like that.

I asked him what he was feeling right then and he said that he felt the power of the truthfulness of the things that I had said and he felt them all the way down to his heart. He said that he felt that it was all true. He said that he felt that the things that I had said were true.

I told him that the reason he knew they were true was because the Holy Ghost whispered them to his heart and confirmed them to his heart. The feeling he was feeling right then was the presence of his father in heaven. He said, it feels great! He said, this is a high I could get used to!

I told him that his spirit was used to it that his spirit had been used to being in the presence of his father in heaven, for thousands of years in the preexistence. I said that when he felt that spirit, his own spirit recognized the Holy Ghost. When he felt that spirit tonight, he knew that his father in heaven was letting him know that the things I was telling him were true.

The spirit was working with this young man in a very obvious way. He was moved and had become very reverent. He said, this is what I need to do. I’m going to the singles ward on Sunday. He said, I can’t let this go anymore or it will cost me my life. I told him that now he knows that there’s much more at stake than his physical life. I told him that he is a son of his father in heaven and his father loves him and wants to bring him home. He wants him back into the fold so that he can live the spiritual life he was intended to live as well.

He said, that’s what I’m going to do then. He grabbed me by both shoulders and shook me and said, this is the best thing that could’ve happened to me. You helped me see God‘s hand.

He said, I guess all ride-share experiences aren’t that terrible. He winked, smiled, got out of the car and went in the house.