One day I got a call to pick up a young man at a dry cleaner in Orem and take him to his home in Highland. That’s a pretty long ride and you discuss a lot of things in a ride like that.
We talked about dry cleaning and why my shirts are never ironed the way I want them to be and why buttons come off sometimes… things like that.
I asked him if they had always lived in the area and he said that they had. Earlier they had lived in Murray but then moved to Highland because it was closer to their store they owned in Orem. I said, that’s still not very close. He laughed.
We talked about things like how long it had been since he was in high school and what he was doing for college. Then I asked him about his friends and what were they doing. He said, “most of them are on missions.”
I asked him if he was planning on serving one too and he said that he didn’t consider himself to be a member of the church. I said, “for clarification purposes what exactly does it mean that you don’t consider yourself to be a member of the church?” He said that he wanted to explore all the world’s religions before he settled into one.
I told him that there are a lot of interesting things in the religions of the world. I had taken a class at BYU called “religions of the world” and really enjoyed learning about them so I could see why that would be important to him.
I asked him if he had been baptized into our church. He said, yes! When he was a kid the missionaries came and baptized their family but his parents had left it up to him to decide what he wanted to do once he turned 15, so he was on this quest.
I asked him what he was looking for in a religion. He said that he was looking for a fit for his beliefs and his way of thinking. It kind of seemed to me like he was a high school athlete hoping to be recruited by a college and choosing between a few. He wanted something that was easy and didn’t require him to make any changes in his life or attitudes.
I asked him if he was also looking into the church that he belonged to. He thought for a minute because he hadn’t considered that. He said that he was just looking at the others but that upon reflection he probably ought to look at his church too.
I asked him if there was a God. He said yes, he believed that there was a God. I asked him if that God cared about us or not. He said he’d never thought about that question but that he believed that God cared about each of us. I asked him if God knew him personally. He said that he didn’t know but that he hoped so.
I asked him what would be the purpose of God creating us and our world? He said, that this is another good question that I haven’t thought of. I asked him if God loves us, if he created us, if he cares about us, what is our end game with him and what happens after we pass on? If God is eternal and his love for us is real, would he create us and then just let us die and that be it? Doesn’t that seem like a waste? Would a loving father do that? He said that these are not questions that he had considered but they were very important questions in his quest.
I want to let you know that I didn’t rapidfire these questions at him but for the purposes of writing them down it might look that way.
I asked him if it was important to him that the religion he chooses be able to address these questions in a clear way that makes sense, given that he believes that God loves us. He said yes.
He said that he love these questions and wrote them down. He said they were absolutely important in the scope of the decision that he was making.
I knew right away that this was not a family that said lots of family prayers or read the scriptures together. That more than being apostate this young man had not been taught. He had not been taught the scriptures. He had not been taught to pray and he had not been taught about the spirit. Basically, he had not been taught the gospel although he assumed that coming from membership in the church he had that covered. It took about five minutes and he recognized that he did not have that covered.
I bore my testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and of the first vision. I talked about how Joseph Smith had very similar questions about which of all of the religions were true and that it led him to ask God.
I bore my testimony of the plan of salvation and about how God knows each one of us and we know him. I told him how our spirits react to his presence and we feel our love for him. When I started talking about our father in heaven‘s love a peaceful wonderful feeling came over us. He asked, do you feel that? I said, yes! He said that is the most incredible feeling. I said, that is your spirit recognizing that the spirit of our father in heaven is here with us today. It recognizes that feeling and remembers our father in heaven. God sends his spirit and these feelings when we talk about truth.
I told him that this feeling is how we can know we are doing the right thing and making good choices that God approves of. When we make right choices, his spirit, the Holy Ghost, can be with us. He said he had never felt that so strongly. I asked him if he prayed. He said he prayed when he was a little kid but that he always said the same things and jumped in bed really fast.
I told him that what I was talking about was a prayer where he communicates with his father in heaven, asks him questions and feels for impressions and answers. He said he had never done that. I told him that when he did, he could feel the same feeling that he was experiencing today in the car provided the things he was praying for and about were true and right. That’s how God cauldron guide him in his quest and that’s how God could tell him the truth.
I asked him if he believed that there was one truth? I asked him if this search was just a matter of finding it? He said that he supposed that there was one truth. I asked him what would be the best way to find out what that truth is. He said with a smile, “for God to come down and tell him.” I told him that this is exactly what prayer is, an opportunity for God to commune with him and reveal his will to him. I said, that when God is revealing his will to you, it feels like we are feeling right now.
I asked, does that help you on your quest? He said, absolutely! Even though I already knew the answer I asked, him have you ever read the Book of Mormon? He said that he had not read the book. I told him that the book was true, that it showed how God loves his children and how he blesses them. It shows that God loves all of his children and supports them through their trials. Where we have weaknesses, he is our strength.
I asked him if he thought he could know the truthfulness of the church without reading the Book of Mormon? He thought for a minute and then I said, let me tell you that you cannot know of the truth of the church without reading and receiving an answer about the Book of Mormon.
I told him that if the Book of Mormon is true then Joseph Smith, who translated that book, was a prophet. If Joseph Smith was a prophet, then the church he organized is the church of God and we have that church on the earth today.
I told him about how I, as a young man, had done just that. I read the Book of Mormon and then prayed to receive my answer. That answer changed my life and how I approach everything in my life. I told him that the Book of Mormon taught me the answers to every question we had discussed that day in the car and that each one of those answers had been confirmed to me by the spirit that we had felt in the car that day.
He told me that this had opened up another perspective to him that he hadn’t considered. The confirmation he was receiving of the spirit showed him how important the words I was saying were.
I told him that as a member of the our church, it is an incredible thing to study the religions of the world. They have a lot of interesting good traditions and beliefs. Knowing the truthfulness of the gospel helps you pick out the truth in their religions and see the good things that are found in their beliefs. Your understanding of the spirit helps you know that truth is found in many religions but that there is only one church that has all of the truth and authority.
I told him that armed with this knowledge, his curiosity and journey into the world of religious practices would be enhanced and he would have a better understanding. The spirit always enhances our learning of truth.
I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon and he said that he did. I asked him what his next step should be and he said, read the Book of Mormon and find out if it’s true. I told him to start with the confirmation of truth that he had received in the car that day. I said, that means something. He agreed and said, it sure seems like we have been speaking truth here today. I asked him if it would be OK if I prayed for him in this endeavor, he said yes.
He said that this was the most incredible ride he had ever been on and that he hoped to get me again as a driver soon. I look forward to that.
Sometimes God sends you a lift 