I had a church calling that required me to attend meetings and trainings all over Orem and Vineyard. I would go to these meetings on Sundays and they were held in several different chapels. Due to this I got to know the different wards, stakes and Spanish wards quite well.
One Sunday, I was driving down Center Street in Orem heading towards meetings in Vineyard when I saw a man walking along the side of the road. This man was Latino and about 40 years old. He was dressed in pretty ratty and kind of dirty clothes. He was unshaven and looked dirty. Normally I drive right past that person. On that day I did as well but when I got about 300 yards down the road the spirit screamed at me to go back and get him and take him to church. I hit the brakes and flipped a U in front of Mountain View High School and drove back up and found him in the parking lot of the the offices behind the post office.
I pulled over to talk to him and at first he was a little apprehensive as you might expect. Soon he started to warm up. We talked about what was going on for a second. Then I said to him, “I am going to church down on Geneva Road. Have you ever heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints?” He said he didn’t know anything about it.
At this time there was a Spanish ward that met in the church I was going to take him to. It was a very vibrant, loving and fantastic ward. I had the very distinct impression that he needed to go there to that ward. (In the end it turned out that he lived in that ward’s boundaries. God does know what he is doing.)
He said he wasn’t aware of any churches on Geneva Road except Mormon churches. I laughed and said “why don’t you get in with me and I’ll take you there. I really think that God sent me to take you there because he wants you there. You are supposed to go there.” With a surprised look on his face he smiled and said, ok, I don’t have any other place to be or any place at all. There is no place where they want me so yes, I’ll go with you.
On the drive down I talked to him a little bit about the church and prophets. I explained to him that we had a prophet now on the earth just like we did in ancient times. I told him that this prophet speaks with God for us and that I believed that God wanted him to know what the prophet had to say. He said that he would love to listen to and learn from a prophet. He said he loved the Bible. I asked him if he thought it would have been cool if his ancestors in America had lived with prophets like they did in the Bible. He said, yes, that would be amazing. I smiled really wide and said, well they did. He said, what? I said, your ancestors here in America had prophets just like they did in the Bible . He asked, why have I never heard of this? I said, just like in the Bible, the people fell away, and the teachings were lost for a long time. He asked, how do you know this? I said, because just like in the Bible, the prophets who lived here in America wrote down their prophecies and their teachings. They engraved them on plates made out of gold to preserve them for us to have in our day .
I said, they wrote about God and his truth. They wrote about Jesus Christ and his visit to America. He said, I’ve never heard of that. I said, Jesus loves everyone, not just the people in Jerusalem and just like them God had prophets for your ancestors. Jesus Christ came to them as well because he loved them . I said, those prophets wrote about his visit and by reading it you can hear and feel the love of Jesus Christ for your people.
He asked, how do I get a hold of these teachings? I told him that God called Joseph Smith to be a prophet. Joseph Smith was seeking truth and was directed by the Bible to pray. When he prayed, God the father and Jesus Christ visited him in a vision. They called him to be the prophet. He was later given the writings of those prophets and he translated them. Because of this we have their words today. The book is called the Book of Mormon. He said, I’ve heard of that but I had no idea that is what it was. I said, it’s the word of God directly to you and your people. He said, I want one. I said, I have one for you and I gave him one that I had in my car. We were almost at the church and I asked him how it felt right now in the car. He said, exciting and happy. I told him that this was the spirit of God. This is how he felt when he was in the presence of God. I told him that God sends his spirit to us to reveal truth. I said, when you feel that, you know that the things you are hearing are true. He said, I know that what you said is true. I said, as you go to church and as you talk with the missionaries pay attention and look for that same feeling you’re feeling right now. When you feel that, you will know that the things you are hearing are true. By the time we got to the church he was pretty intrigued.
He was concerned about the way he was dressed. He wondered if he could go to a church dressed like that. I asked him if Jesus required those he taught to have fine clothes and worldly things or if he wanted them to be poor of spirit, humble and ready to accept his teachings. He said that Jesus taught the poor and I am poor. I asked if he was poor in spirit, humble and ready to listen to and follow Christ. He said yes.
He felt uncomfortable because he wasn’t dressed for church yet he stayed the whole time and talked with everyone who would talk to him. He really loved everything about it. During the next week he also spent a lot of time with the members of the church as he was taught the gospel. The following week when he came to church he brought his cousin with him.
He had told his cousin about everything. He told him how I had picked him up and taken him to church but most of all what he had felt and how he heard God’s voice in the car when I spoke. His cousin was also excited to learn so he began by taking the first lesson. The next week, right after church we had a meeting where they were both excited about the church and accepted baptismal challenges.
They were faithful and they went to church every week. The cousin had some issues from his previous life that he had to work through and had several interviews with the mission president before he finally received his clearance to be baptized. He was there when Jose was baptized and faithfully attended church and his lessons until the day when he could be baptized.
I thought about how at first when I drove by I may have looked like the priest or the Levite in the story of the good Samaritan. I was so busy getting to my meeting that I passed by the one who needed me.
I am thankful that God grabbed me, turned me around and helped me rescue these two men. The payoff was the first day I saw each of them pass the sacrament and officiate in the priesthood. I saw the change of their countenance of their no longer dirty and unshaven faces. They had that glow. When you see this change in people’s lives, it changes your life. You know that God works miracles.
Sometimes God sends you a lift 