We are all Mormons tonight

One time I was in Nashville, Tennessee. It was in the fall and we were going to be there over the weekend. The big problem with that was Brigham Young University had a football game against Arizona State and I did not want to miss it. I looked all over town to find a restaurant where I could watch the game.

The problem I was facing was we were in SEC country. Tennessee had a game that was going on that night and it wouldn’t finish until the third quarter of our game. Every TV in town was on the Tennessee game. Finally I found a place where the manager conceded a small TV in the worst most unpopular corner of his restaurant. The manager said he would put us out of the way and certainly off the beaten path. No one would accidentally find us. I was just happy to have a place to watch the game.

When I got there it was an incredible sea of orange. Everyone was there screaming, cheering and drinking. They were loudly supporting their Volunteers. “Rockytop”was was heard early and often. The staff at the restaurant said, oh yeah we have a place ready for you. They took me upstairs in a little corner of a big room with an old 20 inch TV set to watch our game. At least we got to watch the game! I ordered Sprite and a bunch of appetizers. I felt like if he was going to hook me up knowing full well that there wouldn’t be alcohol revenue I had to eat a lot. After Tennessee got done killing their opponent, many of their fans were preparing to leave. Instead of heading straight out from our area they all migrated up to our TV.

There were at least 40 people in this group and they yelled, who are we cheering for? I stood up and said, BYU!!Just then the waiter yelled, do you Mormons want more sprite? I said yes. Then they all yelled, we’re all Mormons tonight we all want Sprite. They started getting loud. They clearly had plenty of football left in them on this particular Saturday night. They continued their party and surprisingly started cheering for BYU to beat Arizona State and saying that they were Mormons.

I am sure that the restaurant never sold so much Sprite in their life as they did that night! They all stayed and cheered for BYU until the game was over. BYU won!!. Once the game was over they shook my hand, patted me on the back and said “go cougars” on their way out the door to go home. The place emptied out pretty fast except for one couple that lingered. They sat down with me and wanted to talk about what they had heard during the broadcast of the game.

They had several questions about players going on missions and if I had done that too. They were impressed when I told them that I had gone to Argentina and I spoke Spanish.

A few of our players had run afoul of the honor code and were suspended for that game. They wanted to know what this “honor code” was. I explained to them the honor code was an agreement entered into by every student at the university including athletes. I explained that it was an agreement between the student, their religious leader and the university that the student would abide by a set of rules. I told them that these rules include a prohibition on drinking, doing drugs, having sex outside of marriage and doing anything illegal or unethical in the community or within the university setting. I told them that violating this “honor code” can bring about suspensions for players and students as it had been mentioned in the game that night.

They were very impressed and quite surprised that an athlete would sign something like that. I spent the next hour discussing with them the doctrines of the gospel, prophets and the Book of Mormon.
I testified that the Book of Mormon was the word of God and an ancient record of god’s workings here in America. I told them that it contained the account of the visit of Jesus Christ to America after his resurrection in Israel. I testified that God loves everyone and that this book affirms that testimony and proves that God loves everyone not just the people who lived in Jerusalem at that time. I said, he loves everyone and sent his son to minister to them. I said “that is the Book of Mormon.” They were very intrigued by what I said but also and even more so by what they felt. The man said that he knew what I was saying was true. He said it just hit him like that, hard. His wife said she felt warm inside. I told them that this was the spirit helping them know that the things we had discussed were true. I said that God gives us truth, then he confirms it to our souls. I said that this is how you feel when his spirit is present confirming truth to our hearts. Tears were being shed by this man’s wife and he had a huge smile on his face. He said, yup! They said that they would love to have a copy of the Book of Mormon. I didn’t have one with me. I usually don’t carry one into the restaurant to watch football. I did however say that I would bring them one the next day. They gave me their address, phone number and schedule for the next day so I could drop by.

That next day, Sunday, I contacted the bishop of the area where they lived. I gave him my info on them from the night before. He gave me all of his phone numbers, as well as the missionaries phone number. I then took the Book of Mormon that was in my room at the Marriott, wrote my testimony on the front cover and took it over to their house.

I told them that I had contacted the bishop as well as the missionaries and that they would be reaching out to them later that night.

I left for home the next day but the missionaries came over and started teaching. I followed up with them for a couple months until their baptism day. They were excited and the ward was fired up. With that ward and a great bishop they were in great hands.

I lost contact with this family after a couple of years but I know that this night in that restaurant their lives changed forever. It all started because they decided to drink Sprite and be Mormons.