I had a friend from Latin America who had been very less active. I worked with him a lot to get him active in the church. After many months we were there and he was getting ready to go to the temple. He was on fire. Then tragedy struck. He was in a very serious accident near the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon. They have been told by the doctors that he was dead and would not be coming home. He was miraculously healed by the power of the priesthood and the faith of his family. Even though he was out of the hospital and recovered, he was a little bit slower than he had been . He asked for his cousins to come from South America to work for him in the company that he owned.
They were living in the house with my friend and his family. My friend had two rules that needed to be obeyed by them in exchange for free room and board. They were, you go to church and you talk to Bruce.
I was not fully aware of this rule. It was funny because I wondered at first why they were so compliant. I would talk to them about the gospel and they would just say yes to everything. While it’s nice to hear yes to everything, it did seem kind of robotic. I got the missionaries and we started going over. They were always available and it was nothing but yes. What a great program.
Finally I figured something was up and I asked my friend. He told me that indeed he was pressuring them but he wanted them to get baptized. I told him,”let’s let the spirit pressure them”. I said, that way you don’t have to and you can just love them into the church. We changed tactics that day.
Once they understood that my friend wasn’t going to kick them out and that we were there as friends for real, they lightened up and asked really good questions. You could tell that, even though they had been learning by force originally, the spirit had been working them over. They were ready to hear the gospel.
When we told them about the first vision, the spirit was really strong. It always is! I remember bearing my testimony and seeing these two men staring at me with their eyes open wide and their mouth ajar. They were paying attention to every word that we were saying and they were soaking in the spirit.
I asked them if they felt something special. They said yes. I asked them, what does it feel like? The one said that he felt power and excitement. The other one corrected him and said no, it’s peaceful and quiet in my soul. They bantered back-and-forth for a minute each trying to convince the other that his way of feeling the spirit was the right one. I laughed and told them that they were both right.
I told them that the way we feel the spirit is a manifestation of our relationship with God and his love for us. I said, that’s how you feel it. It’s very personal to you and it makes sense that each of you would have a different reaction to it. You have a different relationship with your father in heaven. I said, one thing for sure is that he loves you and he sent his spirit to be here today, and you know it!
They both acknowledged that and one said, I feel like I’ve known this. It just makes sense. I know it’s true! They both agreed. I said, when you feel this you know that the things you’re hearing are true. This is how you can discern truth.
I gave both of them a Book of Mormon. I asked them if they had heard about the Book of Mormon and they said yes. I asked them if they knew what the Book of Mormon was and they said no. I told them that the Book of Mormon was the writings of ancient prophets that lived in America. I told them that God loved everyone in the world, not just the people in Jerusalem. He showed his love by giving them prophets, revelations and commandments, so that the people could be happy. I said, obeying the commandments is the only true way to be happy and without prophets and scriptures, how could we be happy.
I told them that these prophets wrote these revelations down along with the account of the visit of Jesus Christ to America. They were shocked! One of them said, are you sure you’re not confused? I said no! I’m not confused. Jesus Christ came to America because God loves everyone not just the people in Jerusalem. He loved your ancestors just like he loved the people in Jerusalem. I asked, do you believe that? They thought for a minute and said yes. I said, Jesus promised he would visit his other sheep and the people in America were some of those sheep.
I said, he came to them. He held them, he blessed them and their posterity. I said, you are that posterity. I said, these writings from these prophets were given to Joseph Smith and he translated them by the power of God. That’s how we have the Book of Mormon. It is proof that Christ loved your ancestors and my ancestors and that he is the God of everyone. He sacrificed for everyone and he atoned for each one of us. I said, I know the Book of Mormon is true.
I asked, do you feel the spirit again right now? They nodded feverishly. I asked, what does the fact that God sent you his spirit when I testified about the Book of Mormon mean? One of them said, it means it’s true. The other one agreed. I said, that’s correct.
The spirit was really strong and I asked again, do you feel the spirit right now like you did before? They both nodded.
One of them was so impressed with the spirit he felt and with his newly found knowledge of the gospel that he asked me if there was anyway we could share this with his wife and children in South America. I told him yes. It would be a lot of fun if they could take the lessons at the same time he was taking lessons.
I got on the meetinghouse locator and found his Bishop’s phone number in South America. I called the bishop down there and he helped me speak with the missionaries. His family started taking the lessons one week after he did. They were able to talk and testify back-and-forth. They talked about the information that we gave them to study and prepared together for our lessons. It was really cool Everything was moving very smoothly. Finally we got to the point where we were teaching about the commandments and especially the law of chastity and the word of wisdom.
When we got to the point where we needed to get a commitment from these men on their willingness to live these laws. Both of them agreed but after some contemplation the one that was single and actually the more quiet of the two asked, “does that mean I can’t even have sex with prostitutes? Drinking is no problem but sex?” We explained to him again about the importance of this law. He thought about it for a minute. You could tell that this kind of sent him for a loop. I wondered how he would respond. I was pleased when he said that he would have to pray about it. I was excited that he would pray about it. You could tell he was very earnest about this and wanted to receive an answer to that prayer. I told him that if he would pray about that commandment as we had explained it, he would feel the same spirit that he had felt with us, confirming that this was the Lord’s will. He said he would and that he would have an answer for us the next time we were there.
We set an appointment to come back in three days and during that time he was doing his work and asking his father in heaven if this was his will. Really, both of them decided to take this time to reaffirm their commitment to obey the commandments they received from their father in heaven. Three days later we went back and this young man sat very quietly. We decided to proceed with the lesson. I think our thought process was that we would talk to him at the end of the meeting. After a few moments, the tension was killing me and I think it was working on him too. He looked at me in the eye and said, this commandment is what Heavenly Father wants me to do and I am willing to do it. I can commit.
From that time forward everything went very smoothly. They took the lessons that remained, had their interviews and were baptized. One week later the married man’s wife and children were baptized in South America. We were excited about this as well and had been following their progress and helping them out.
They embraced the gospel fully and they had the Aaronic priesthood conferred upon them and were ordained to the office of priests the same Sunday they were confirmed. They began immediately going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. They did the genealogy work on their families so that they could be baptized for them. They were all in and they still are. The married one was able to lead his family in their search of the gospel from a long ways away. It was a cool thing to watch.
These men made a great change. Their change not only affected their own lives but touched many other lives as well. Since that day, the other young man has also found a wife and they have been sealed in the temple.
I think it’s amazing how the spirit indeed was the thing that pressured them, taught them and confirmed truth to them. The change was phenomenal. Whenever we try to pressure people bad things happen but when the spirit is the one applying the pressure, it always seems to work out. This time with two families sealed in the temple.

Sometimes God sends you a lift 