When I was a language missionary, I was helping out in the Suncrest Ward. There was a man and his family who were originally from Mexico. They were living with his brother-in-law. His brother-in-law was second counselor in the Elders Quorum presidency but this man and his family were not members. His wife and children went to church and loved it. He went to church and tolerated it. He liked the missionaries and got along well with them but he wasn’t feeling baptism.
In his experience with 9 sets of missionaries, he had become a little bit jaded. It’s like they were non-stop trying to do an end run around him to try to baptize his family. He felt that they were trying to separate them and relieve him from his position by baptizing his family without him. He had his back up a little regarding this. He threw that in my face right away and said, what makes you think you’re the one? He said they had decided that whatever they did, they would do it as a family together. The continued persistence of the missionaries, when they tried to separate them, rubbed him wrong. He didn’t want to be swayed by emotional tactics. He felt like it was his responsibility to assure that his family made a good, sound, correct decision.
He had been living there and technically investigating the church for two years. The ward mission leader asked me to help him make this man a priority. The sister missionaries out of frustration had permanently dropped him because they said he would never make progress.
This was a great ward mission leader. Even though the missionaries showed no interest and dropped this family, the ward mission leader NEVER dropped them. He kept loving them, praying about them and working with them. He said he was looking for a miracle here. That is the business we are in.
I went over to their house and we hit it off instantly. He was very friendly and we had a lot in common. He was a cook at wingers and loved sports and as luck would have it I like to eat and love sports.
I started going by his work and buying wings. I decided that eating wings while doing missionary work is not harmful to your diet. I would also drop by his house and take their family treats on Sunday. Finally we had gained enough of his trust to start to teach. When I asked him why he hadn’t been baptized he said, “I haven’t gotten an answer “. He said, “when I do something I go all in and I won’t just do it because I like the messenger”. Here I need to get an answer from God or we won’t move. This is too important to us. I said, well, let’s help you get your answer.
I asked him, if you received an answer from God that you recognized, would you follow that and get baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? He said, yes I would, yes we would!! He said that if he got his answer they had decided as a family that they would get baptized together. He said they were a package deal, they all get baptized or they do not get baptized at all. They had decided to remain as a family unit in one church or the other. He said, with us it’s all about the family so we wouldn’t have it any other way.
I love to take people for rides to talk. It gets us away from distractions and allows us to be real with each other. We went for several of these rides together where we would talk and pray. Finally one night we were sitting there talking about the Book of Mormon. When we prayed, the spirit was really strong. I looked at him and asked, what do you feel in your heart right now? He said he felt peace and joy. I asked him if he knew what it was that made him feel that way. He asked, what is it? I said, that’s the Spirit of God! That’s how you feel when his spirit is present. This is how he reveals truth to you. He sends his spirit! When you feel that peace and joy you know that the things you are hearing are true.
He looked shocked! I asked him about his thoughts in that moment. I said, this very moment do you have any doubts about the truthfulness of the church? He said, no! I said, that is your revelation from God, this is how he answers your questions. We read Moroni 10:5 (5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things) and I explained to him that this was the power of the Holy Ghost telling him the truth of this thing. We had pulled over and took this opportunity to get out of the car, find a quiet, private place, kneel down and pray to God again that he might recognize that this was the answer he needed to take this step up to baptism. He received a deeper and further confirmation right there on his knees at that time.
He looked at me and said, I guess this means that I need to get baptized now. I said, yes! We set up his baptism and quickly taught the lessons to him again. Three weeks from that time his whole family was baptized. It was amazing. Twelve months later the whole family went to the temple and were sealed.
Today he has served in the Elders Quorum presidency and is currently Sunday School president in his ward. He is the head chef at an o great restaurant. We go there often :-). They are a great and powerful family in the church and are blessing many other families with their light.
In his two years investigating the church he had nine sets of missionaries but in the end the spirit won the day and it always does and always must.
Sometimes God sends you a lift 