One day early in the afternoon I had a ride from Lehi to the airport. When you do that, it’s always great to get a nice ride out of the airport and I got that. It took me to the top of the hill above Draper and Lehi. It was kind of a round trip and could go either way at that time of the day.
As I dropped my passenger off, they sent me a ride. That was a very nice ride back down to the airport. This would’ve been perfect and I accepted it. The problem was that due to the lack of reception it wouldn’t finalize the transaction. I missed out.
I started driving back down on the Salt Lake side of the mountain when I looked down and saw that the ride was still chilling there. This means, that for some reason, somebody had rejected the ride once they got it and they were trying to find a person or identify one of multiple people for the ride. I hit it again and indicated that I would like to get that ride and received it almost immediately.
It was in Highland-Alpine area back up in the corner of the valley. I rolled up the narrow path and couldn’t figure out where to park and wait. There were lots of little pathways, but nothing that would resemble a driveway. Finally I found a parking place and turned around and waited for the rider. He appeared with lots of luggage and a smile on his face. He said he was going to Hawaii.
Plenty of reason to have a smile on your face!
He got in and we started to chitchat a bit about Hawaii and driving. I asked him what he did for living and he said he was in sales and described the process of his work and what he did. He said he love sales and loved doing it.
As I looked at him, he seemed clean cut and had a return missionary vibe. His language was good and he was very respectful. I could feel that there was a problem here and that even though he seemed like a return missionary, he had a huge issue. I felt like I would be talking to him about the atonement. It was a prompting I had and I had no idea why other than he just seemed to be a little off center and the spirit said so.
After we talked about work and those things I asked, are you a member of the church? He said, no, I’m not.
I had the prompting to just ignore that and get on with it, so I started. I acted as if he had said yes.
His answer didn’t square with what I was feeling, so I just ignored it. I said, one of the things I really like about driving and what I do in my car is that God puts people in my car and I get to testify and help people.
I told him, I could’ve sworn that you were returned missionary. It just seems like you are and I felt a prompting that you were. he lowered his head and said, well I am not a member of the church but I knew a bunch of them when I lived in Brazil. I knew he was lying.
I started using some of my poorly spoken MTC Brazilian on him. He said, that’s pretty good, I don’t speak anymore.
I said, in Covid, my life got turned upside down and I ended up driving. God started putting people in my car. I told him that I’ve been able to teach and baptize many people in this way. I told him that I had been very happy even though it was a very difficult time for me. I just had to trust God.
I told him that the atonement had been the thing that has brought me through. It helped me get over the betrayal of people I thought we were my friends and the unfairness of the situation. I said, the atonement is a great equalizer because Jesus suffered for all of our pains, inequities, infirmities and injustice. Because of that he can lift our burdens and carry us through if we learn to look to him . I said, that’s how I’ve made it through, I decided to look to Jesus and his atonement. It’s given me strength and God has blessed me with the opportunity to serve.
I told him about passengers who had been in my car and their stories. I told him about Milagros and Angel, here are the links to those stories.
My God is a god of miracles
https://sometimesgodsendsyoualift.com/2021/09/12/my-god-is-a-god-of-miracles/
Angels in the backseat.
https://sometimesgodsendsyoualift.com/2021/10/24/angels-in-the-backseat/
I told him about how God had told me what to say about Milagro’s dreams and had told me what to say to Angel about his wife who recently passed away. In telling those stories, the spirit of God entered into the car and I could tell that he was not defensive in the least.
I asked him if he could feel the spirit in the car and he said yes. I asked him what it felt like. He said an excitement in his stomach. I told him, as you know, God sends the Holy Ghost to testify of truth.
I was then prompted to tell him about a couple of stories where Satan has confronted me and threatened me. I haven’t published these stories here because this is a missionary blog but in these stories, God protected me as he still protects me today. My passenger was astounded by those stories. One of the stories in particular is about two former missionaries who are living an LGBTQAI plus lifestyle. They were trashing on the church and taking it out on me. I talked to them about the atonement and how it could heal the wounds in their hearts. When I did they became angry and it became dark in the back of the car. One of these young men spoke with a voice that wasn’t his and threatened me. A couple of weeks later the very same thing happened with that exact same threat from a young woman. Upon hearing this, my passenger was quiet and pensive.
I didn’t know why I was prompted to share these stories at the time, but I later found out.
If any of you would like to read those stories, drop me a note in my messages or contact me personally and I will send you a copy of those stories, but I don’t want to publish them here.
I told those stories in the ride because I felt prompted to and knew that these stories must answer some questions that he had. They address the power of Jesus Christ and his atonement.
I turned to him and asked, did you notice I blew right by you saying you weren’t a member of the church and acted like I knew you were? I’ll bet you thought that I wouldn’t talk about the church. He said, that’s exactly right. It really shocked me. I asked him why he thought I did that and he said he didn’t know. I told him that the spirit told me to be bold and talk about the church so I did. I said, you weren’t telling me the truth when you said that you weren’t a member were you? He said that he didn’t consider himself to be a member.
I asked, when did you go on your mission?He looked shocked and said, how did you know I served a mission? He said that he just got back about two years ago. I said, oh, you served during Covid. He said. yes I did. I asked him where he served in Brazil and he said that he served at the temple in São Paulo. He said that there wasn’t much else for them to do. He said, then I came home and left the church. I said, so you’re still a member? He said, well I guess so.
I told him that he lived with his Heavenly Father for thousands and thousands of years and that his spirit recognized the spirit of his father in heaven. I said that those feelings developed in that relationship with his Heavenly Father were manifest in how he felt the spirit. I said, that’s not only how you recognize the spirit but it acts like a homing beacon to take us back to the presence of our father in heaven. I said, we crave it and when we get a taste of it, we want to have more of it and we will do what it takes. It’s like eating the fruit off the tree in Lehi’s vision. It’s desirable above all other things.
I talked to him about how we are all God‘s children and I talked about our father in heaven‘s love. The spirit was plentiful in the car. I identified the spirit and asked him what that meant. I said it meant the things I was saying were true.
As soon as we got done talking about the spirit and the truth of the things that we had said he then opened up about what his issues were. He said, mostly my biggest problem is that there are so many judgmental people in the church. It’s really made it hard for me to be around them. I also have friends and family who are LGBTQAI plus. The way these people are so judgmental about my friends and family makes me angry at them and it makes me angry at the church.
I talked to him about how being judgmental and judging others is a sin. I said, those people are sinning when they judge unrighteously. I said, they most certainly should not do that.
I told him that being judgmental is, it’s selfish because we want the judgemental people to be tolerant of our sins and so we need to be tolerant of theirs.
I told him that the sin they are judging may be a word of wisdom problem or a moral issue as they see it. Judging someone for the sin of being judgmental is equally wrong. When we become angry at these people for being judgmental, we are committing the same offense that we see so plainly in their behavior. By judging them for being judgmental, we become hypocrites. I told him the best way to fight judgmentalism is with love.
He laughed and said, that’s crazy, I never thought of it that way. I said, we need to love those people just like we expect them to love us. We need to go up and put our arms around them and tell him we love them. That will change everything. It is really hard to harshly judge someone who is showing you tremendous love. He agreed and said, that’s a new approach. I need to take that approach.
I said, it works too! I told him about the time when our kids were little and the people in our ward complained about them. I explained to him that I had to make a choice on whether to stay active or avoid church because I had been offended by them. I told him that I went early every week so I could find out where they were sitting. I said, I always went up and sat right behind them in the next row. I told them how much we looked up to them and that we loved their example. Eventually, we became good friends.
I said, instead of turning to anger, we should turn to the atonement of Jesus Christ. We should look to him and live. I talked about how Alma and his followers were held captive and enslaved. When they looked to Christ he lifted their burdens so they could barely feel them. They lived.
I talked about how Moses saw that his people were being bitten by poisonous snakes. He fashioned a snake out of bronze and put it on a stick. He instructed the people to look up at the brazen serpent when they were bitten and if they did, they would be healed. That serpent was a representation of Jesus and I like to think of that poison as the evil things in our minds and in our hearts. We look to Christ and live just as they looked to that brazen serpent and lived.
I told him that when Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemany, he suffered all of our pains, infirmities injustice, and every negative thing that could happen to us. We need to turn to him. We need to look to him. There’s no reason for us to suffer these things and become jaded and damaged. We need to look to him and live. We need to let him lift our burdens. I said, his ability to remove that burden from us is something that makes satan angry and leaves him powerless.
I told him that God had put him in my car today. I told him that when I first saw him I knew I would be talking to him about the church. I told him it was time to come back, that God was calling him back. I told him that it was time for him to live up to who he knew he was during his mission. I said, that’s why God put you in my car today.
He said, I can’t believe this experience. I know that God put me in your car today. It’s very clear that this is the case. He said he figured that out early on in the ride.
He told me that he had received the message. He said that he hadn’t been to church for a long time. I told him that he should start now.
I told him about when I was first on my mission in Argentina and I couldn’t understand the language. My companion hated Americans and I was having a hard time adjusting to the culture. I didn’t understand anybody and I felt totally drained and powerless both physically and spiritually. I told him that when I went to sacrament meeting, I didn’t understand a word that was spoken but when I took the sacrament, it filled my tank and I felt the power of God surge through my body. I told him he needs that power now and he needs to get back to where he’s worthy to access it. S
I asked him again what church he belonged to and he said he didn’t belong to a church. I corrected him then I asked him again what church he belonged to and he told me the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints .
I asked him to promise me and promise God that he would go to church. He said, I need to do that. I promise I will.
I asked him to promise me and promise God that he would go and talk to his bishop and tell him about the things we had talked about and the things we had felt in the car. He said, if I’m going to do this, I need to talk to him. I need that help.
He said that he had never felt the spirit personalized for him like he had today and he had never felt like God came for him until today.
He said that he got in the car determined to never be a member of the church and that this had completely changed during this ride. He said that he would go to church this Sunday and get started. He asked me if God could forgive him. I said, of course he can. Let’s just get going.
He thanked me, got out of the car and went into the airport
Sometimes God sends you a lift 