When I was helping the Spanish ward in the Alpine stake, I was driving down one of the residential streets. There was a family that I saw walking down the street. They were a cute little family, they had seven kids under 10 years old.
They had clearly been to the grocery store and were carrying lots of bags. Even the little kid had small bags. I felt a very strong impression that I should give them a ride and get to know them. I stopped and talked to them and ask them if they needed a ride. The oldest son yelled yes. Then one by one everyone agreed, put the groceries in my trunk and they got in the car. We took the long 2.5 block ride to their house. They were really nice and we got along really well. I asked them where they were from and they said Mexico. I asked them how long they’ve been here and they said for five months. I asked them if they were members of the church and they said no but they knew some people that were.
I asked them how they got to Utah. I wanted to know if they had any friends here that were members of the church. They said they had a family member and friends that were in the church back in Mexico and here. The wife told me that her sister lived in Utah and was a member the church. That’s why they moved here to be around people they knew.
I asked how they liked it and they said they liked it a lot. She said that her husband had found some buddies to hang out with on the weekends. The spirit told me that was a cry for help. The way she said it and the look in her eye, let me know that she was disappointed in his friends and their activities. I looked at him and said, so you have some friends to party with? He said, yes we go out on Friday and Saturday night.
I said, church starts at 9 AM so that’s going to be hard to hit after staying out late drinking. He laughed and said, I guess you have a point.
By this time we were at their house and I helped them with their groceries and we talked for a minute. I invited them to come to church on Sunday. They said they would love to come but on Sunday they didn’t show up
As soon as sacrament meeting was over I went over to their house and they weren’t there either. I went out into the car and prayed about what I should do. I felt strongly that I should go home, get a Book of Mormon and get ready to teach. I did just that.
I drove over to my house and got a Spanish Book of Mormon. One thing I know is that the Book of Mormon brings power and they needed power. I also remembered something we used to do in my mission. We would write the steps to prayer on the inside cover of the Book of Mormon that we gave to the people we were teaching.
We did this to explain to them that if they would pray like we taught, then they could get their answer about the truthfulness of the church. I decided to write those instructions on the inside cover of this Book of Mormon and then I headed back over to their house and they were there. I told them that we missed them at church that day. She bowed her head and seemed to be a little bit embarrassed. He said that they were busy and couldn’t make it. It was clear to me that he was lying. I asked really quickly right then for a commitment on the following week and they said yes.
I pulled out the Book of Mormon and taught them about how God shows his love for us through revelation. I told them that these revelations are written in the scriptures. I asked them if their ancestors in America had prophets or wrote scriptures. They said,no, they said only the Bible.
I said, that’s weird isn’t it? Why would God ignore your ancestors? Did he love the other people more? Why would he deny your ancestors blessings while he blessed other people?
Each of these questions hit hard and you could tell they wanted to say that God wouldn’t ignore their ancestors and that he didn’t love the other people more but they didn’t have any answers as to how that would be.
I told them that these answers are in the Book of Mormon. I said, the Book of Mormon is proof that God loves everyone, specifically your ancestors. I said, it’s proof that Jesus Christ loves everyone and that he visited your ancestors here in America. I said, he held their children in his arms and blessed them. I asked, can you imagine Jesus holding your children and blessing them? That’s what he did with your ancestors and that blessing is still with them today.
I said, the prophets here in America wrote their accounts of the visit of Jesus Christ, along with the revelations they received from God. They were hidden away for many centuries until God called a prophet to translate them by his power.
I taught them about Joseph Smith and how he was called by God the father and Jesus Christ to be the prophet. This record to proof that Jesus Christ loves everyone, he died for everyone and he made it so that every one of us can be saved. I said, the Book of Mormon is that record that was translated by Joseph Smith.
I said, the cool thing is that we have a prophet on earth today. God has not left us alone to fend for ourselves. He is our father, he loves us and he wants us to come home someday. That’s why he sent his son. That’s why he gives us prophets and that’s why we have the Book of Mormon.
The spirit was really strong. There were tears flowing in the room. I said, how do you feel right now? She said, I feel very happy almost like I can’t contain it. I looked at her husband and asked, do you feel that too? He said, yes I do. I said, that’s the spirit of God. When you feel that you know that the things you are hearing are true. I said, because you’re feeling that, you know that the things I am saying are true. It was quiet and reverent in the room. Even those little kids that were pretty rambunctious seemed to have a calm and peace come over them. The parents both noticed this. The dad said with a chuckle, I wish we could do this with them more often.
I said, you can. I opened up the Book of Mormon to where I had written the prayer steps. I said, right there you have the steps, all you need to do is pray from your heart and God will send his spirit. This peace that is happening right now in your house is happening because the spirit is here. You can invite that spirit to be here with you.
I said, once you are baptized in the church, you will be given the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is what you’re feeling right now. Once you’re baptized and you have that gift, it can be with you always and you can have peace in your soul. I asked them if it would be OK for me to teach them how to pray and they said yes. I went over the steps of prayer and asked the father if he would pray. He said yes and said a beautiful prayer.
They both apologized for having not attended church. I told them that we talked to the primary and they were ready for the kids and excited to have them. I said, they are ready for you guys too. They want to be your ward family. They said that they would be there the following week for sure. They said that they wanted to be part of the church.
I talked to the missionaries and let them know that they would be there the following week. I filled them in on what I had talked to them about. They were very excited and said they would drop by and teach them during the week.
The family came to church the following Sunday and loved everything. The kids were great and the parents found fast friends. We set a date for their baptism. We were happy and everything was great. The missionaries were going over and continuing to teach them and making great progress.
Then satan decided to get his licks in. The dad decided that he still wanted to be a drunk. This was the Sunday that they were supposed to be interviewed. They weren’t at church. I went over to the house with the Ward mission leader and the father was passed out drunk on the couch. His wife and kids were ready for church.
Fortunately, I come well, equipped with knowledge and experience of how to deal with drunks. My grandfather was an alcoholic and was constantly drunk. Much of the time it fell on me to take care of the situation. Calling on this experience I got him awakened enough to ask him if it would be OK for his wife and kids to go to church without him today. He said yes. they got in the car and away we went to church. This was unfortunate because he clearly was not ready to get baptized because of his drinking. It was also a problem that he couldn’t or wouldn’t go to church with a hangover. A couple of times we went by to roust him out of bed but no go!
He told us to go ahead and baptize the family without him and we decided to do that. There was another problem. When we started to teach the law of chastity we found that they weren’t married. This was a potentially devastating problem.
After a lot of prayers and working with them they decided to get married. He was also reevaluating his drinking, so everything was working in a good direction. The next problem that serviced was that they only had Mexican passports as their ID. The missionaries had no idea what to do with regards to that and I was out of my depth. I went on a field trip down to the county building to ask a bunch of questions.
I found out that the state requires two forms of picture ID to be married and their Mexican passport could count as one but that was all they had. Only one of these forms of identification, had to be from an official government so we were shy one form of ID for both of them.
The state would accept the Mexican passports but they needed another ID. I asked the county person if this second ID needed to be government issued or if it could be a private ID. They said that it could be from Cosco, work, a store, a book club or really anything. I had an idea. I knew a place where a membership came with a picture ID and we ran over there to get one for each of them
With their ID’s in hand we went down to the county and got their marriage license. The next night they were married by the bishop of the ward. The ladies of the Relief Society made a cake and found a dress. It was great!!
The next day the wife was baptized as the husband wasn’t quite ready yet. He was baptized two months later. A few months later I saw them at another ward. Her sister was one of the stalwart members of that ward and I had no idea. There were a lot of tears and happiness when we put it all together. What an amazing thing to see that whole family walk into sacrament meeting and take up an entire bench! This was a great and beautiful family.
