This is an experience that happened to me some years back. It was one of the most amazing and impactful missionary experiences I have had. God is great and his love is eternal.
One Sunday, I had an assignment to be at the Spanish speaking ward down just off Geneva Road. It was a really good ward and it was very full. All of the people that I needed to see and had expected to attend arrived early and the meeting had begun. I always like to have my investigators sit with people in the ward and preferably with the people with whom they are receiving lessons.
I was sitting on the back bench and for whatever reason it was wide open. That’s your first miracle, a back bench open in an LDS chapel! I sat down and they started to do the announcements then the music started for the opening hymn.
The craziest compulsion come over me that I needed to lock my car. I was pretty sure that I had locked it when I got out of it but the feeling came over me very strongly again. As much as I hate to get up and leave a meeting during a song and deprive those in attendance of the sweet sounds of my angelic voice, I decided to get up and go out in the foyer to hit my key fob. I looked out the window to assure the light flashed on my car, indicating that it was locked.
I pushed the button a bunch of times and sure enough the lights flashed. Then my eyes caught on something. Beyond my car at the back of the parking lot there was a pavilion and grass field owned by the church. Walking across that field, I saw a Latino family, a man, a woman and a child. They were dressed in shorts, flip-flops, and T-shirts. They were walking from the parking lot over to the pavilion. The second I saw them the spirit said, that’s why you’re out here, go tell them that they’re supposed to come in here with you. They are supposed to be in church today.
The song was just starting and there was a lot of church left to go so I decided to follow the prompting. I walked out across the parking lot towards the pavilion and met them. I looked at them and said, you’re supposed to come with me, you’re supposed to come to church with us.
They look shocked. The lady said that they were not dressed properly. I said that it didn’t matter and that we would love to have them dressed just like that. After a pause they said said, OK let’s go. We changed directions and headed over towards the church. I thought, this is crazy! We went into the chapel and there it was, the empty back bench. It was almost as if Heavenly Father kept it empty for us that day.
They stayed for the whole sacrament meeting and loved it. At the end of the sacrament meeting we started chatting about where they lived and how we could get them hooked up with missionaries and teach them the gospel. They said that they were kind of all over the place but asked if they could meet the missionaries there at the church. I said, yeah, we can do it tonight! They said that would be great and we decided to meet at 7 o’clock.
We arranged to split with the missionaries and one of them went with me. At this time I was what was called a language missionary. We were allowed to teach the lessons under the direction of the Zone leaders and the Mission President. It was an amazing calling. We met that night and started teaching them about the apostasy and the Book of Mormon.
The spirit was there and they were eating it up. I felt very impressed to stop and say to them, “I feel by the spirit to tell you that you were brought here today by the power and hand of God. You know this without a doubt and the spirit is confirming this to you right now.“ I sat there for a second feeling with the spirit and knowing that the things I had said were the words that God put into my heart so I waited.
The lady spoke up and said, funny you should say that. She began to share this story with her husband glowing, nodding and grinning the whole time. She said, two weeks ago we were living in San Diego. It was a Wednesday night and we were both asleep. All of a sudden, at the same time, we both we woke up with a start and sat up straight in bed. We had both had the same dream.
In that dream we had been told to sell everything we had, quit our jobs and move to Utah. We didn’t even know where Utah was.
She said they got out a map and looked for Utah and found it. Then they decided they had better do what they had been instructed to do in their dreams. They quit their jobs. They sold their stuff and with their map in hand they started driving north to Utah.
They drove all day and late into the night. As they were driving through Utah, they wondered, where in Utah would Heavenly Father have them go. As they were driving up I-15 they saw a town named Orem. That impressed them because the word Orem is very close to the word Oren in Spanish. Oren in Spanish means they pray. She said, “we figured that of course God would send us to a place where they pray.”
She said we decided this was the place we were supposed to be and got off the freeway. We drove down this road just a little ways and saw this church house. It was all perfect and we knew it was what we were supposed to do.
We parked in the parking lot and slept through the night. This morning we woke up and looked around. There were a bunch of cars here at the church. We said a prayer and asked God to send someone to tell us where to go.
After we prayed, we got out of the car and started walking over towards the pavilion in the park and you showed up. We had asked God to send someone to tell us where to go and you said, you’re supposed to go with me. You’re supposed to go to church with us. These were the exact words that we were waiting to hear. We know that this is where we are supposed to be and that these things that you are teaching us are the things that Heavenly Father wants us to know.
The spirit was everywhere and it was strong. I asked them if they could feel it and they said yes. I asked them what it felt like and they said comfort and warmth. I said, that’s how you know that the things you’re hearing are true. That’s how you know God’s word and his truth. She said, that makes a lot of sense to me.
That qualifies as a successful first lesson and it proves that God is a much better missionary than we could ever hope to be. He moves people around and puts them where they need to be to carry out his purpose. That night they excitedly accepted a baptismal challenge.
From that point forward, they progressed really well. We worked with the bishop and he got them a place to stay so they wouldn’t have to sleep in their car. The ward stepped up and got food for them and helped them figure things out. They were baptized three weeks later and it was amazing. We all took them under our wings and she even wore one of Heather‘s nice dresses to her baptism.
They did really well. She started her own company making tamales and he worked with her, preparing their trailer and doing the physical part of the business.
Exactly one year after their baptism, they were sealed in the temple and it was glorious. She was Relief Society president and he was in the Elders Quorum presidency. They were doing really well with their business too and picking up odd jobs here and there. They have stayed so strong.
After about a year, their English was good enough that by the end of the second year they moved to an English ward because they wanted to contribute.
I got to take the family on a tour of the MTC before I was released. It was awesome. It was special and they loved it, especially their son. Even though the husband passed away unexpectedly the family, the mother and her son were strengthened by the church and their testimony gave them compfort. They knew there were an eternal family.
I’m sharing the story this week because their son who was very young when they were baptized is right now finalizing his mission papers. What an amazing story! What an amazing family. What an amazing kid with an amazing mother and the father and now the father gets to watch over his son on his mission.
It’s humbling through the years to watch a miracle like this blossom and an eternal family grow.
Sometimes God sends you a lift 