Hearts full of the spirit and stomachs full of barbecue!!

One late Friday evening I was working downtown. I have discussed here before that Friday evenings are one of the times you make all of the money you didn’t make the rest of the week and so they’re very important. I got a ride down to around 45th South. My thinking was that I would just head right back up to town but I forgot to put the pause on. I know it sounds like a lot of stories start like this but 98% of the time I am successful in pushing the pause button! This time I was not.

Right before I dropped them off I got another ride. My first reaction was, dang I should have put the pause on. Then the spirit reminded me that my main purpose here is not always to make money. I felt that I needed to keep the main thing the main thing. It was impressed upon me that this ride was important. Once I dropped off, I saw where the next ride was going. My heart sank, it was time to call upon faith.

The ride that I was going on was heading down to Bluffdale, south of where the prison used to be on that side of the road. That’s nearly the point of no return. Then I felt an assurance that this was a ride I needed to take. I felt like I needed to have faith and the Lord would provide if I did what he wanted me to do. I took that ride.

I pulled up to the apartment and these two people came out. It was a young man and woman. The apartments were around 45th south and around 20th East. That makes for a long trip as I had feared.

When they got in the car, I could see that it was a husband and wife and they were apparently having issues with someone. The spirit around them was quite agitated and contentious. They were a little testy to say the least.

I asked how they had been doing and they said that it had been a long day and that people are horrible. I laughed and said, that’s for sure but every now and then you’ll run into a good one that will reaffirm your be belief in humanity. I could hear like courtesy chuckles from the backseat.

I asked what was wrong because it was so obvious that something was wrong. They just left the home of some family members and there had been a contentious exchange regarding society, the world and its condition. The wife said, I’m so bugged. I just want to go to sleep and that was the last thing I heard of her until the very end of the ride. She was out.

I kept talking to the husband. I told him that it was very obvious that they had not had a great evening. I said, the vibe you guys got in here with was kind of bad. He said, I know we were both caught off guard tonight and it was a horrible feeling. I hope we can shake that feeling quick.

I said, do you mind me asking what it was? What was it that made your evening so horrible? He said, that’s a great idea, maybe I can get it off of my chest.

He said that these people were cousins and that they had always gotten along pretty well. They never discussed the things of the world and current political issues. He said that happened tonight and it didn’t go well. He laughed and said, we might need to get new cousins.

He said they disagreed on everything from gender politics to presidential politics and back. He said, the thing that tore it for me and my wife was that they said they hate Christians. He added, but we are Christians and that started a heated discussion that ended with them storming out of the house. He said, I don’t know that we can go back. I don’t know if we’re welcome.

I said, for the record I agree with you and your wife. I said, Jesus Christ, his atonement and his love is the only thing that can turn the ship around. He said, exactly! How do they not see that? He said, they mocked the Bible and said that it was nothing more than a bunch of stories made up to control people. He said, I believe in the Bible and so does my wife. We believe in Jesus Christ.

It was kind of strange at this point because the intensity in the car turned from an anger intensity to a spiritual intensity because of his testimony and his belief. It was pretty awesome to feel and all of a sudden I had so many things to talk to him about.

I said, yeah, here you have been testifying of Jesus and standing up for what you believe. That’s amazing and I applaud you for it. It’s really tough these days to stand up sometimes.

I mentioned to him that as a driver, I get lots of opportunities to stand for Jesus. I told him that I’ve had several times in my car where people have just become unhinged and began spewing profanity at me because they knew or assumed that I was a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. I said, one time I had a lady screaming in my ear for about 20 minutes of a ride. I know how that made me feel so I know how you feel here tonight.

He said, that’s just unacceptable. I said, you know the thing is that through the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ, we can have the wounds caused by those feelings and by those words healed. You can go on with your life and not let those negative feelings affect you or change you.

I said many people fall into the trap of just hating the other person and that’s not what Jesus would do. He expects us to lean on him and listen to the words of his prophets.

He said, that’s why I read the Bible. I said, I do too, I read the Bible and the Book of Mormon. He said, I don’t know anything about the Book of Mormon. I said, it’s a book that was written by ancient prophets here in America. They wrote down the revelations that they received from God. I said, we believe that God loves everybody not just the people in Jerusalem and that he had prophets in America and he gave them his words. I said, they wrote down those words and the translation of those writings are the Book of Mormon. He said, I like that, they are the word of God right? I said yes.

I said, these writings were given to a prophet. He translated those writings by the power of God and because of this, we have the Book of Mormon, another Testament of Jesus Christ. We have prophets today. They give us guidance and help us know the will of God. He said, that’s way cool. I thought we were down here just kind of bumping around on our own.

I said, the Book of Mormon also talked about how Jesus came to America after his resurrection in Jerusalem. He said in the Bible that he would go to his other sheep. We believe that some of his other sheep were here in America and he went to them because God loves everyone. He said, I like that.

I said, through obedience to the gospel we can access in the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. We can all have his spirit with us. I said, that’s what this is all about. We are here to learn to walk with God. He wants us to repent, be baptized, and have the gift of the Holy Ghost with us. That is what lifts us out of a bad situation. That is what gives us strength in turbulent times.

He said, those are very wise words and these are very turbulent times. That is how this discussion started tonight. We talked about the corruption in the world and in the government. We talked about the corruption in the political movements and how their point is to thwart God. He said, we especially feel strongly about this regarding the gender issue. We feel that God made us who we are and that God was right. We feel that it dishonors God to reject his work and that was a huge flashpoint tonight.

I said, that had to be hard but God loves us for doing the hard thing. He said, I guess we just should have been more vocal all along so it didn’t happen all of a sudden. You never know how it is going to go when you start talking about politics and corruption. He said that these discussions can take on a life of their own. I laughed and said yes, they can.

I said, do you remember the Book of Mormon I talked to you about? He said yes. I said, the prophets here in America wrote about the same things that we were experiencing in our world today. They wrote about how Satan had entered into the heart of man and had corrupted their hearts. Once they were corrupted they then corrupted the government and their society.

I said, the book talks about how they fought back against these groups of people they called secret combinations. One of the prophets in the end of the book warns us that in our day the same secret combinations that destroyed their society would be amongst us here in our day. He told us that we are to be vigilant and fight against it.

He said, that’s astounding! I would love to read that. It sounds like something we should have. I said, it is. The prophets talked about what they did and what the signs were. They talked about the bravery of the people and told us how to be safe. That’s the purpose of the Book of Mormon. It was written for our day so that we can be better followers of Jesus Christ.

I said, it talks about the importance of baptism. When Jesus came to America, the first thing he did was give them authority to baptize and commanded them to baptize each other. He commanded each one of them to be baptized as we are all commanded to be baptized by that same authority and in that same way. He said, that sounds important.

He asked, where do I get a Book of Mormon? Do I just go down to the bookstore? I said, no, I have one right here. I gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon prepared by the Secrists . He asked, how much do I owe you for this? I said, you don’t owe me for this. You only need to assure me that you are going to read this and pay attention to the spirit of God that accompanies the words in this book.

The spirit was strong in the car by this point. Testifying of the Book of Mormon had brought the spirit and it had completely chased the anger and frustration of their evening away. There was a tremendous peace and an excitement that had replaced that feeling and he was into it.

I asked, do you feel that? He said, yep, it’s pretty incredible and I think I’ll be able to sleep tonight. I was so angry before but now my heart is full of peace. I love this feeling. I said, that’s the feeling of the Holy Ghost. When we feel that, we know that the things we are hearing are true. It brings us the peace of the spirit of our father in heaven and calms our souls in troubled times.

He said, it’s worked like a charm here tonight! He said, I’ve never heard anything positive about the Book of Mormon until tonight but it can’t be wrong. If it teaches of Christ and brings the feeling we are feeling right now, it can’t be wrong. He said, I love to read! I’m going to read it.

I asked, do you have any friends that are members of our church? He said, yes, well, kind of. I laughed and said, that was very committal of you! Who are these friends that are members of the church? He laughed and said, well, my neighbors are members of your church so I guess you would really call them acquaintances. I guess they are not really good friends to this point. It’s not personal like that.

He said, they keep wanting us to come over on Monday night and barbecue with them. We’ve thought about it but we’ve never done it. It has just felt kind of uncomfortable because we don’t know them even though they have been very friendly and we get good vibes from them. I think we need to look into that Monday night barbecue I guess.

I said, you should walk up to them with your Book of Mormon in your hand and tell them about our ride. Tell them about what you felt here in the car and ask them if they’re still on for the barbecue. I said, this is how you fill your stomach with good barbecue and your heart with the spirit of God all at the same time. It’s a 2 for 1.

He said, that sounds like a great plan. I have loved the feeling here tonight. I’ve loved how it took the negative emotions and feelings in my heart, and just tossed them out the window and replaced it with the spirit of God. That’s what we need. I said, that’s what we need to have, you need to have the spirit of God in your home in these days. We all have to go out amongst the evil, but if we have the spirit in our home, it can be a refuge.

He said I like that!

Just then we hit a bump that I didn’t see and the bump woke up his wife. We were about two blocks from their house. After she woke up, she sat there for about 10 seconds like she was confused. Then she yelled, oh my gosh what happened in here? Her husband said, what do you mean? She said, when I went to sleep, there was a horrible cloud over us. It felt terrible in my heart. Now I feel peace and happy. This is awesome. What happened in here?

He smiled and said, we’ve just been talking about Jesus and the Book of Mormon and he held up his book. He said, you’re going to love this.

We pulled up in front of their house and they got out. It was 1 AM and the bonuses downtown were at their peak. I knew I would never make it in time to take advantage of those bonuses.

I knew, however, that I had done the thing my father wanted me to do and that is the bonus. I got to see this young man open his eyes and make a plan that can lead his family back to our father in heaven with hearts full of the spirit and stomachs full of barbecue!!