Sometimes God sends you a lift

I picked up a man by 900 S. and 900 E.. His name was Juan and so I tried for the cheesy joke when he got in and I said your number Juan. He was Spanish-speaking as his first language and he didn’t get my horrible joke.

We started driving and started talking. He was from Venezuela and liked it here. He didn’t want to speak Spanish because he was learning English and he wanted to speak English. I totally respect that and always defer to that. I remember when I was on my mission and I would try to speak Spanish, people would act like they didn’t understand because they wanted to speak English. It made me so angry, so I’m sympathetic.

So we started talking in English about how things were going. As we talked, I had the impression that I needed to ask him the question, did you go to church yesterday? I also knew by his jewelry that he was not a member of the church. He had several crosses and seemed religious.

As we were driving, we passed by a church house and I thought that this was a good time to transition to that conversation. I said, that’s a really neat church. Have you ever been in that church? Of course I knew he’d never been in that church but I just wanted to get the conversation going in that direction so I asked.

He said no, he hadn’t. Then I said, well, you must have gone to another church. Did you go to church yesterday? He said no. I told him that I go to church every week because it makes me feel good and I love to feel the spirit of God. I told him that I love to go and pray and take the sacrament. He lit up.

He said, I’d love to go to church but I can’t find a church where they speak Spanish. I want to go worship God in Spanish. I said, I can help you with that! I told him that I could find a church in his neighborhood where they spoke Spanish. He said, that would be awesome! He said, if you could do that, I would love to go.

I told him that I don’t know how to find Catholic churches, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has Spanish congregations all over the valley and we can find one of them close to his house. I asked him if that would be fine and he said that would be amazing! He said he would do that for sure.

He said that he missed being in the presence of God.

He said he’d always been a religious man but it was really hard to stay close to God without attending church. I told him that was awesome! I told him needed eat. I said I thought the he would be fed by the word of God.

He said the word of God is important. He said that he loved to read the Bible and loved to hear the stories from the Bible. I asked him if he’d ever heard of the Book of Mormon. He said no. I just got here no to long ago. What is it?

I told him that it was the writings of prophets who lived in anciently in America. I told him that his ancestors here in America had prophets because God loves them and he spoke to those prophets. hey wrote these revelations down. I told him that those writings were translated and became the Book of Mormon. I told him the Mormon was a prophet who was among his ancestors.

He said, this is very important. I feel like what you’re saying is very important and I’m supposed to listen. He said, let’s speak Spanish, so I can understand. I said OK, and we flipped over to Spanish.

I told him that Joseph Smith was a young boy, who was looking for the truth. He, knelt and prayed. God,the father and Jesus Christ appeared and called him to be the prophet. Then he who was given the engravings from the ancient prophets. By the power of God, he translated them into English, and latter they were translated into Spanish.

I told him that Joseph Smith was called to be the prophet to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ on the Earth. I told him that we have that gospel. He asked me if we read the Bible and I said, yes. We have the Old Testament, we have the New Testament just like his church does but on top of that we have the prophecies and revelations to the people here in America and it’s called the Book of Mormon another testament of Jesus Christ. I told him that this was his testament for his people and their testimony of Jesus.

I told him that one of the things the prophets in American taught was that Jesus would come to them after his crucifixion. I told him that Jesus descended from heaven and stood in front of the people. I told him that the people touched the prints of the nails in his hands and worshipped him and he blessed them. I told him, your ancestors were blessed by the hand of Jesus Christ. The spirit was burning in the car. I asked him what he felt right then in his heart and he told me he felt a tremendous peace.

He told me he knew it the peace that comes from the spirit of God because he’d felt that in his life. I told him that the peace comes to him when God is there and God is there when he’s hearing truth. I told him that this spirit was testifying that the things I am saying was true. He said, I recognize that.

I told him that when we feel this we know that God is reaching out to us, and that God was reaching out to him. I felt a prompting to tell him that he had felt a little bit lost and alone. I said that God didn’t want him to feel that way. I told him that if he would go to church, he would feel the spirit of God and he wouldn’t be alone anymore.

He said, that’s amazing and that’s what I need to do. He said, can anyone just go to your church? I said yes! We invite everyone to come. I told him that our church is all about invitations. We do that because that’s what Jesus Christ did.

I told him that the people in the Book of Mormon had the church and they been baptized. When Jesus came they all asked him to save them. As an answer to this plea he gave them authority, instruction, and a commandment that each one of them be baptized again to a new level of discipleship. He commanded them to follow him with more purpose and to receive the Holy Ghost.

I told him with the Holy Ghost we never walk alone. I told him that with baptism we are free from our sins and we can stand before God. We qualify to be saved just like the people in the Book of Mormon. He was touched and he said this is true! Do they teach this at that church?

I said, yes they do! I reached into my glove box and I pulled out one of the Book of Mormons prepared by the Secrists, and I handed it to him. I told him this is the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. I want to give this to you. I showed him the questions of the soul and he read them. He said, some of these are questions that everybody’s always told me there’s no answer to.

I told him that the answer is right there in that book and that he could look it up and read it. I told him when he does, he would feel the same peace he felt in the car. He said, this is incredible. He said, God put you here didn’t he? God put you here today to give me this ride. I said, yes! God put you in my car because he wanted you to read this book.

God put you in this car because he wanted you to go to church. God put you in this car because he wants you to be baptized. That’s the invitation that Jesus gave to your ancestors in this book.

Not only is it the invitation Jesus gave to your ancestors but it’s the invitation that Jesus is extending to you. He wants you to go to church, learn, prepare, and be baptized.

He said, this is really exciting. I can’t wait to go. Then he said, where is the church? I looked up the church and gave him the address and told him that they meet at 11:30 on Sundays. He said that he would be there early. He didn’t want to keep the Lord waiting. He said, He said it’s been a few months and maybe I can just go, sit in the church and soak it in.

He said that was what he used to do before. He would go to the Catholic churches and sit there. He said, I never felt the spirit there like I have in this car today.

I asked him if it would be OK if I had missionaries give him a call and he said he would love it. He said he wanted to learn all about this and more than. He wanted to feel the spirit like this. He thanked me for the Book of Mormon and he said you’ll never know how much this means to me. You’ll never know how important this divine gift is to me. He said, I can feel how important this book is.

I’d been taking him to the bank and it was 4:50 and he had to get out and go inside before the bank closed. He shook my hand and said, I want you to know that this means a lot to me. He said, I’ve always been someone who loved going to church and I have a feeling that this is going to take me to a new level! He smiled and got out of the car. As he walked away, he was clinging tightly to the Book of Mormon I had given him.

I went on the Tools app and put in his address and sent the missionaries over to him. I called them and talked to them to make sure that they had received the message. I’m sure they’ll take great care of him.

I’m sure the missionaries are excited to have someone who can’t wait to commit and who wants to go to church. We should all want to go to church as bad as this man did. He will be a great member.

I was driving on a Friday and got a ride to the airport. It’s really funny how every day about 4 o’clock you’ll get a ride to the airport. As much as you try to stay off of the freeways it is to no avail. There you are on the freeway going to the airport.

I felt like I should take the ride, I didn’t feel anything in particular about the person that I was picking up and I didn’t believe we were talking about religion on the ride. I just took the right away. We went to the airport. On the way, I got the impression that there was a missionary purpose to the ride, but it wasn’t with the person I was driving.

I thought, maybe I’m going to pick up another rider at the airport. Usually I don’t do that because then you’re back on the freeway during rush-hour. I had my app turned off, so I wouldn’t get anyone else. Even though I had my app turned off, I still felt this feeling that I needed to be ready to share the gospel and it seemed strange to me. I felt like I had sufficiently insulated myself against any new passengers.

The Lord is smarter than we are!

I like to take people to the short term parking lot from time to time. I do that because it’s quicker and easier for me and it’s quicker and easier for them. They go straight through the tunnel to security. You don’t need to go up, down, cross the road or anything. As I pulled into the second floor of the short term parking where I was going to drop this young man off a woman stopped in front of me.

I stopped to wait for her and as we waited she put her Chevy suburban in reverse and forcefully backed right into my car. When she was backing up, I started honking and I honked for a good three seconds before the collision. There we were about 25 feet short of our destination.

I asked my passenger to get out and go in to the airport as we had almost arrived. He said that’s great. He gave me his phone number in case I needed a witness and he went in to get on his flight.

As he got out of the car, I saw the young woman who was driving the suburban get out and I heard the words “now you know who you’re supposed to teach”.

I have to say in the years I’ve worked with missionaries or been a missionary I’ve seen many mission programs and gimmicks, but not one ever involved getting into an accident with someone and then teaching them. I thought about it for a second, and then said, let’s go.

I got out and we started talking about things. Due to the fact that I drive a rented car, I need to get a police report and I told her that. I called the police and we had to wait for them to get there. She was on the phone with her family and they were concerned.

I started talking to her and I was doing the best I could to be supportive and friendly. I told her I know what it’s like to make mistakes when you’re driving. I told her it happens and that everything was going to be OK.

Finally, the policeman got there and we started doing the report and getting things arranged. He was a little bit rough and not very nice, at least to me. Finally when he was back in the car getting things ready I asked her if she was Samoan. She said. yes! I said talofa. That is a Samoan greeting and when I said that she lit up.

She said, where did you learn to speak Samoan? I told her that I don’t know how to speak Samoan, but I know a few words. I told her that I learned how to say those words working with missionaries in the missionary training center. I told her that the missionaries before they go on missions come there to be trained. I said that I worked with the missionaries that came from other countries, including Samoa.

I said, I thought it was important for me to learn how to welcome them. Then I said, so, talofa. She laughed and said, that’s awesome. She said that’s a great thing that you did. I said it was a great thing that God does for all of his children. He puts light in our heart and then we share it.

She said, I am blown away by how warm and friendly and understanding you have been with me here today. She said, I could’ve never imagined that you would’ve treated me this well and that you would’ve treated me better than the police officer did. We chuckled. I said, the prophet of our church has counseled us to be friendly to people, loving to people and I’m trying to do that. I told her, it’s easy to do that with great people like you.

I told her that I don’t believe there is a race of people anywhere that has bigger hearts than the Polynesian people so we’re just trying to keep up with y’all. She laughed and said, well we like to have people over to eat for sure. We both laughed.

I said, are you a member of the church? I knew the answer already, the Spirit had indicated she wasn’t and I could tell by the spirit when I mentioned the church, hat she also had questions.

In answer to my question, she said no. I gave my standard response to that which is, you mean, not yet! She smiled and said yes, that’s correct. She said that she had been taking lessons from the sister missionaries, but they stopped coming to her house. She said she liked the things they said, but she didn’t think that they liked the answers she gave.

We looked back and the policeman was deeply intent on whatever it was he thought he was doing. I’m sure he was running my name to see if there was something more he could write a ticket for. It was apparent that this was going to take some time.

I said, that’s awesome! You know the missionaries! She said, well, I don’t know the ones now because it’s been a couple of months, but I did like it when they came by.

I said, how did you feel when they’re around and teaching you? She said I felt awesome. I asked her what religion she was and she said that her family were all Christian. I said that’s awesome because we all believe in Jesus Christ.

I asked her what the things were different in our beliefs. She thought for a minute and she said the golden plates thing. I love that answer! I started to talk about the Book of Mormon. I talked about how we have prophets and they had prophets and God spoke to them. He speaks to us through their prophets and our prophet.

I told her that their prophets wrote things down and that is the Book of Mormon. I told her that the Book of Mormon teaches that God loves all of his children not just his children in Jerusalem. I told her God sent his son Jesus Christ to America so that his children here could be counted among his sheep and he that loves everyone. I testified of the Book of Mormon and of God‘s love for her and God‘s love for them.

I said, God loves everyone and he sent his son to his children which were everywhere. The spirit was strong and confirming the testimony that I bore. I could tell she was moved by the fact that she had tears in her eyes. I asked, is this what you felt when the sisters were there.? She said, yes, this is what I felt, I love this! I told her that this was the spirit of God. I told her that he sent the spirit to testify of truth and that’s why it was there because the things I was telling her were true and the things the sisters told her were true.

She said, oh I love this feeling. I told her that this was the feeling that she had between her and her father in heaven. I told her that this feeling was the thing that heavenly father has with us that helps us know what’s right and helps us come home to him.

I told her by following that spirit, seeking to have that spirit in our life and living worthy to have that spirit in our life is how we hold on to the gospel that helps us come home to our father in heaven. I told her that this is how he brings us home! I told her that he established this with us before we left to come to earth and it’s like a homing beacon. She laughed and she said, that’s awesome.

She said, this is beautiful. This makes so much sense. I told her not only did we believe that God loved everyone and sent his son for everyone but that he loved everyone no matter when they lived. I told her that 800 years ago in Samoa her ancestors had never heard of Jesus Christ, but that God‘s perfect plan allows us to be baptized for them so they can come home.

She said, you do that in temples, don’t you? I said yes! I said, it’s God‘s perfect plan so that every one of his children has a chance. She said it’s never been explained to me like that. She said that the sisters mentioned it but then moved on very quickly. She said, that makes a lot of sense a father loves all of his children. I said that’s right.

Then I decided to get down to brass tacks. I believe that I was guided by the spirit to do that and I asked her the direct question, “Why didn’t you get baptized?””Why didn’t you get baptized when the sisters asked you to get baptized?”

I said you know that’s why they stopped coming because you didn’t want to get baptized at that time. She said, yes, it’s almost like you were there. I told her that I had been there many times but that the spirit was helping me know that this was the deal in her case.

She said that in her mind she wanted to get baptized for herself. She said that she had a fiancé who was a member of the church and returned missionary. She wanted to be baptized and follow him, but she wanted to do it for herself. She thought that if she got baptized before she got married everyone would think that she got that baptize for him, and not for herself.

I thought about that for a second and I said, what do you need to do to be baptized and feel that you’re ready? She said, I guess I need to study. I don’t know what to study.

I said there are two things I want to say here. First, is that you have felt the spirit of God and it testified to you that the things we are saying are true. I asked her if that was correct and she said yes. She believed everything we talked about that day from the prophets to the Book of Mormon were true. I told her that’s what you need. That’s the knowledge that you need. You need to know that it’s important to follow God, that you want to follow God and how to follow God.

I told her that she knows that it’s important to follow God because that’s how she believes. In speaking about the spirit, I told her the spirit would teach her how to follow God. I told her that it was important to get that spirit, follow that spirit and do what that spirit says to do. I said, the spirit won’t lead you astray.

Then I told her that we have prophets and their words help guide us to know what we’re supposed to do. We follow those words. I told her an example of that is that the Prophet told us to be nice to people. I was trying to be nice and she had noticed. She nodded her head and said, yeah that’s true. I told her, that’s what he wants us to do because that’s what Jesus would do. He wants us to be more like Jesus so we can come home too.

I told her we also need to get the words of the prophets who lived before. These words are in the Bible and these words are in the words of the Book of Mormon. I asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she said that she did but she had no idea how to study it.

I had an idea. I reached in and grabbed one of my copies of the Book of Mormon that was prepared by the Secrists. I opened the book to the front page with the questions of the soul. I gave it to her and I asked her to read those. She read them and asked me, Do all Book of Mormons have these questions here? I said no, these are specially prepared and the tabs indicate where the answers are to those questions. She said that’s amazing. These are the questions I have!

I told her that by following the tabs she can find a way to start studying. I also told her it was important to read the whole book cover to cover and to pray. I promised her that if she did that she would have the spirit with her which is what she needed.

She said that’s what I need, that’s what I want and that’s what I’ll do! She said, can I have this book? I said, yes! It’s yours.

I said, you need to be baptized but next year after your marriage seems a long way away. She said well, we won’t be able to be married sooner because I live here and he lives in California and we’re back and forth.

The spirit gave me an impression so I ran with it. I said, I know you want this to be like your idea and not his. I asked her, why does it have to be after you’re married, though? I said, why don’t you bring in the missionaries, take the lessons, set a date to be baptized, call him the day before and say I’m going to be baptized tomorrow I want you to come and be there.

I said that by doing it this way, you would absolutely be doing it by yourself and for yourself. It would be a great surprise for him. She had a great big smile on her face with tears in her eyes and she said, I think that would be an amazing way to do it. I don’t know why I didn’t think about that!

She said, I love doing little surprises like that! I think that’s exactly what I need to do. I told her that if she did that the Lord will bless her and lift her and help her through. This is what she felt like she needed in her life right now.

She said, it’s been difficult lately with my family, but I think you’re right. This is what I need. I need to have the spirit with me. I told her that Heavenly Father knew that and he was reaching out to her.

I told her that normally I didn’t believe that it was an accident when God brought me together with someone to testify. I said that in this case today there is no way I could say that because it truly was an accident they brought us together. She laughed and called it a divine accident.

She said she hadn’t felt good about going around rudderless for the next year, just waiting for the right time. She said hat this was her answer. She said, I’m going to call the missionaries tonight. I want to get going on this because I think this is going to be a lot of fun. I told her that the most important thing to remember was the spirit that she felt. I told her that right now even in a time of stress, the spirit was there.

I asked her if she was feeling stress and angst, she said no. I told her that this is because the spirit was there. I told her God puts people in my car or better yet, in my path and I share the gospel with them.

I told her that I was glad that she backed into me and we both laughed.

By this time the police officer finished whatever it was he was doing and came over and gave us our sheets of information and said we were free to go. It had been an hour since I entered into the parking garage. It cost me $10 but compared to the price of a soul that is insignificant.

She was happy and holding tightly to her Book of Mormon. She got in the car and drove off. Her return missionary boyfriend has probably been praying that her heart would be touched and that day it was. He and her father in heaven will be so pleased with the outcome of that accident.

One night I picked up a young lady from a very popular chicken joint to take her home. Right off the bat I could tell there was a special feeling around this young lady. She didn’t feel worldly and she screamed dry Mormon.

I said a little prayer and received a confirmation that I should talk to her. I always get a confirmation on that before I go or have a confirming feeling before I talk because of the regulations of the rideshare companies and how I would be deplatformed if someone were to complain.

First, we talked about chicken. We talked about how lots of people go to the restaurant and how I like their lemonade freeze because it is really yummy. Then I told her that it’s really tough because the lines are always so long but right next-door there’s a Mo’ Bettas so sometimes I’ll go get Mo’ Bettas and then come back and get my lemonade freeze so I can have the best of both worlds.

She laughed and she said she loves Mo’ Bettas and that she’s sure that they have an agreement between those two restaurants for that exact purpose.

I told her that her restaurant was founded by good Christian people with good Christian faith. She said she knew that and she likes that. She said, I am a Christian. I said, so am I. When they say I’m a Christian, I know full well they mean that they’re a born-again Christian and not a member of our church but I never back down. I don’t want to allow the narrative that we are not Christian to persist

She started talking about how she was from a Mexican family so out of tradition she was baptized into the Catholic church. She said that it had never felt like it was anything special. She felt empty. She said she went to a lot of churches, even our church, but that for now she was continuing her search while attending the Christian church.

We talked about how evil the world is, and how lately it seems especially bad. She said it seems like everyone is following Satan. I said, sometimes it seems that way because we don’t stand up. She said, I want to stand up.

I asked her what it was that she was looking for in a church and she said that she was looking for a more complete experience. She said that the Catholic church had some things that the Christian church didn’t have and the Christian church had some things that the Catholic church didn’t have.

I had the thought (prompting), I’ve got someone that’s looking for the truth, someone that’s trying to find the church of God and she’s got all the same questions Joseph Smith had. She’s looking for the gospel.

I asked her if I could talk to her about our church a little bit and some of the things we believe. She said, I’ve been to your services once and I’ve talk to the sister missionaries. I asked her if I could tell her some things that I didn’t think the sisters had taught her or that maybe she hadn’t understood? She said she would love that.

I talked to her about my mirror analogy. I use the mirror and how the mirror represents the church of Jesus Christ exactly how he founded it when he was on the Earth. The mirror hangs on the wall using pegs but the things that were holding up the church of Jesus Christ were Jesus Christ himself and his apostles. When they were killed, that mirror fell down and broke into a bunch of pieces. I told her the people loved the gospel of Jesus Christ and so they grabbed parts of that mirror and reformed churches around that part that they had grabbed but that the complete mirror or the complete gospel of Jesus Christ was shattered and scattered. It was not close to intact when Joseph Smith was looking for the truth.

I told her he had the same question she did. He went and prayed. God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and called him to be the prophet to restore the whole mirror. The spirit always testifies of the prophet Joseph Smith and this was no exception. I could tell she was feeling it strongly.

I asked her if she could feel anything or if she felt different. She said, there’s a reverence in the car. I told her that this was the spirit talking to her spirit, letting her know that the things were discussing were true.

I asked her if I should go on and she said yes, I talked to her about how we believe that God is the god of all of the world. He’s not a provincial God, he’s not just a God of Jerusalem, he’s a God of all of the world. He is the God all of the people and he loves all of the world, and all of the people.

I told her that many churches say this, but they don’t have doctrines that reflect this and that this is part of the disconnect.

I asked her if the missionaries taught her about Jesus coming to America. She said yes they did. I recounted to her how Jesus came down from heaven, stood there, and the people recognized him as their God. I told her that they asked him to be saved, and he invited them and commanded them to be baptized to a new level.

I told her that even though these people had already been baptized, Jesus needed them to be baptized so that they could have the Holy Ghost. They needed this so that they could step up to that new level and find the same happiness that she was searching for.

I told her that the people here in ancient America had prophets because God loved them just like he loved the people in Jerusalem. I told her that when Jesus left here he said that he was going to other places to other people to count them among his sheep because God loves everyone. I asked her if she believe that and she said yes. She said, I’ve never thought about that, but of course, God would send his son to everyone because he loves them.

I asked her if baptism was important. She said, yes! Everyone needs to be baptized. She said, in both churches I belong to we believe that everyone needs to be baptized. I asked her if someone could go to heaven who hadn’t been baptized, and she said no. I asked her if everyone in the history of the world had been given an opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ during their lives and be baptized?

She thought about it, and she said, no, I’ve never thought about that, but very few have had an opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ. I said if they didn’t hear about Jesus Christ, were they able to be baptized? She said no.

I said God loves everyone. Every one of them that ever lived is a child of God? She said, Yep, I believe that. I asked her if she was mother of a bunch of children how many of them she would want to save, and she said all of them, of course. I asked her if Heavenly Father was a perfect father. and she said yes. I asked her how many of his children he would want to save if he’s a perfect father, and she said, thinking for a moment, I guess all of them.

I asked her if a perfect father would have a plan, or a way to save all of his children and she said of course he would. I asked her in her other religions, what they taught was God’s plan to save everyone who had ever lived if they wanted to come home to their heavenly father. She thought for a moment, and she said that she had never heard a plan.

I told her we have that plan and they had it in the New Testament. They had it when the mirror was complete and that’s called baptisms for the dead. She said, oh. She said I have friends that have done that, but I didn’t know what it was. I told her we go to the temple and are baptized for someone who has passed on. I told her they then get the opportunity to accept or reject that baptism.

I told her, this way every one of God’s children will have a chance to come home. I told her God is a perfect God. I told her, God was a perfect father, and he sent his son to save us. I told her that this is why Jesus came to America and he blessed the children. He gave them authority to perform this baptism, and commanded them to receive it.

The spirit had intensified in the car, and she said, this is certainly one of those pieces that is missing. I never understood this. I said the church and its doctrine are all about a father saving his children whom he loves. He knows us and loves us

I told her that I know that she is special to her father in heaven because he put her in my car tonight so I could share this information with her. She said that she knew that was the truth, because she has been wanting to take that next step and find the church that offered everything.

I told her that I thought it was special that that we have the record of Jesus Christ, visiting her ancestors and the blessings he left upon them and their posterity. I told her that this is all contained in the Book of Mormon.

She said she remembered hearing about the Book of Mormon from the sister missionaries. I asked her if she had one, and she said no. I reached in and grabbed one of the Book of Mormons prepared by the Secrists and handed it to her. I told her that this is a religious and spiritual history of her ancestors.

I told her that her ancestors knew Jesus. I told her that they touched him and were blessed by him, and that their posterity was also blessed. I told her that Jesus is inviting her to take that next step. I told her that the spirit has been working in her, trying to get her to take that next step, and that’s why I am here today. I told her that God put her in my car so I could share that with her.

She said, I felt the spirit the second I got in your car. She asked if I was sure it was OK for her to keep that book, I said yes. I had her open it and read the questions of the soul. I told her that the other things she was looking for were in those questions and the answers were in the book indicated by the tabs.

She took a second to read the questions and said you’re exactly right! I asked her what she was feeling and she said I’m feeling like the things you’re telling me are true. I feel peace and assurance and reverence in my soul right now. She said her soul has been a really loud place lately but right now it was calm and peaceful and that was how she liked it.

I said to her that this is the way she feels in the presence of God. I said that the spirit of God was there because we were teaching truth. I told her that there’s another thing in our church that she would be interested in. I told her that we believe in being married for time and all eternity. I said, that means that we’re not married until death do us part. I told her we’re married in temples by the power of God that he gave to Peter then Peter gave that authority to our prophets.

I told her we use this power to seal things on earth that are sealed in heaven. I said that this includes marriages. I told her not only do we do baptisms for the dead in the temple, but we do marriages for eternity. I told her that the family of God is eternal, and the families who believe in God and go to the temple to be sealed are eternal.

I told her that we make covenants to follow God and his power blesses our lives forever. I told her that this is the power that was missing and this is the power she’s looking for in a church.

She said, I can’t believe how happy I am, that God gave me this opportunity to hear this. I know this is true. She said, I’m going to read the Book of Mormon and I will go to church this Sunday. I need that next level and I want these things in my life.

I need the blessings of God on my family.

Sometimes people are wandering around looking for truth and they don’t know where to find it, even though it’s right under their nose. They may have even brushed up against it. I think that’s one of the meanings of this scripture, Doctine and Covenants 123:12-13

12 For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it—

13 Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven—

I felt an excitement, a relief and a commitment from that young lady. For whatever reason she hadn’t heard the right things the first time she met the missionaries but this time she’s loaded for bear!

One night late I took a ride out to West Valley. I forgot to pause or turn off my app and so I got another ride on top on that one. You can’t see where the ride is going when you’re already on a ride, they stack one on top of you. I hoped that it would bring me back into town or take me down south. I didn’t think it would be Herriman and I mean like back up on the mountain southwest Herriman.

It was after 2am so I decided to take the ride. It might not have put me closer to home but it ended my night and it was time. I drove to where I was to pick up this woman and pulled into the cul-de-sac. There she was kissing her boyfriend.

I sat there for a minute while they enjoyed their prolonged goodbye and then she got in the car. As soon as she got in the car the spirit indicated to me that she was someone that I needed to talk about the church with. That was great because we had a 25 minute ride and it would give me something to talk about. I was tired and this would help.

On top of that, when you talk about the church you always get energized or I do anyway. I asked her where she was from and how long she lived here. The usual stuff. I asked her how long she had been with her boyfriend and she said that she had been dating him for about a year.

I asked her how she chose to live in Herriman and she said she lived with her sister and her family. With all of that information I decided to start talking about the church. The spirit led me to know that the family was the key here and so I asked, so do you go to church with your sister‘s family? That is assuming a lot in ride-share late night circles but I felt strongly that the spirit wanted me to ask that direct question.

She said, well, yes, I do. I said, following a prompting, then they are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day. Saints aren’t they? She said, yes they are. I said, and you haven’t been baptized? She said, no! I said, you mean, no, not yet!

She laughed, and she said, I guess you could say it that way. I asked her if she could tell me what the issues were that kept her from joining the church. She said, yes. I asked her if she would answer my questions about the church and she said yes.

I perceived by the spirit that she was not a terribly religious person, but I assumed or believed that she was Catholic. I asked, do you consider yourself to be a Catholic since you were baptized as a Catholic? She said, no, I don’t consider myself to have a religion, but I was baptized as a Catholic.

I asked her straight up, do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe that he is the son of God!? She said yes, I do. That’s what I believe in but I don’t believe in all the stuff they do in the Catholic church.

I said, do you believe in God the father. She said, yes I do. I told her that we do as well. I asked her if she knew what the major differences were between our church and the Catholic church. She looked at me as if she hadn’t recognized that there were any differences. I asked again, do you know what they are? She said no.

I asked her if it would be OK if I told her what some of the differences were and she said she would love It.

I told her we believe that Heavenly Father is the father of everyone that ever lived no matter when they lived or where they lived. I told her that God was the father of her spirit, and that her spirit knew him personally, intimately and well. I told her that Heavenly Father is our spiritual father and he loves us. He wants us all to come home. I told her that’s what we believe and everything else we believe stems from that.

I told her that in our church we don’t say the word God to refer to Heavenly Father nearly as much as the another religions. She said, you know, I’ve noticed that! That’s true you guys say Heavenly Father. I said that’s correct because that’s who he is, he is our father.

I said, because of that we don’t look at the gospel of Jesus Christ as having happened in Jerusalem and Israel 2000 years ago and we’re just along for the ride. We believe that our Heavenly Father guides and loves us always. He has prepared a way for everyone.

I told her that the people who lived in America anciently we’re also children of our father in heaven. I asked her if that was true, and she said yes. I believe everyone is a child of our father in heaven. I asked her how God blesses his children, and she thought for a moment, and she said, he gives us commandments and his words so that we can follow them.

I told her that’s right, he blesses us for obeying his commandments. I told her he gives us his commandments because he loves us. I told her that the people who lived in America anciently had prophets and God had revealed his will to them so that the people could be blessed through their obedience to him as well. She said, that makes sense. I believe that!

I told her that we believe that God not only loves everyone in the world that ever lived, but he sent Jesus Christ to them also. I explained to her that after his resurrection, Jesus said he was going to go to other places and other people and teach them. I asked her if she thought an all powerful God would want to reach out to all of his children or just some of them. She quickly answered, all of them! I told her that Jesus, after his resurrection descended from heaven, pure and full of light and stood on the steps of the temple. I told her that the people who lived here were expecting him because they had been taught he would come by the prophets.

I told her that they went up and they touched the print of the nails in his hands and they begged him to save them. I told her that in answer to that he taught them that they needed to be baptized to a new level of discipleship even though they had previously been baptized, even those who had been baptized recently. He commanded them to be baptized so that they could have the gift of the Holy Ghost and step up to that next level of discipleship.

She asked, what is that next level of discipleship? I said, well, do you know how long we get married for? She smiled and said for eternity! I said that’s right! Jesus has given the power to people on earth so that they can seal marriages and families on earth and in heaven. We do that in our temples.

She said, oh, I know my sister has been married in the temple and I went to an open house down in Utah county. I asked her what she felt there and she said that she felt amazing in that building. She knew it was a special building. I told her that it was the spirit of God that she felt. It was the love of her father in heaven. I asked her what else we do in those buildings.

She thought for a minute, and I said, we do baptisms for the dead. We are baptized in the name of people who have passed so that they have the opportunity to accept or reject that baptism. She said, oh, that’s right. My sister’s children went and did that. I told her that because of that doctrine every person that ever lived no matter where they were would have the opportunity to be baptized and come home to their father in heaven.

I told her that it’s the only doctrine in the world that teachers that all of God’s children will be treated equally and fairly. She said, that’s amazing. I never looked at it like that. I told her that we also can then go in and seal them to their family so that they can be together forever. She said that was beautiful. The spirit was really powerful in the car. I said, you feel that? She said, yes it’s amazing. She said, I love this feeling.

She asked, did Joseph Smith teach all of this stuff, wasn’t he the one that wrote the Book of Mormon?

I told her that Joseph Smith was a young man who was searching for the truth. He decided he would pray and ask God what church to join. God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. They called him to be the prophet. They called him to restore the whole church that Jesus had founded when he was on the earth.

I said part of that restoration was the translation of the Book of Mormon. I told her that an angel, who had been a prophet here in America gave him those plates and the translating equipment so that he could translate that book by the power of God.

I started to bear testimony of the Prophet, Joseph Smith and something that is all too familiar happened. Her boyfriend called. I don’t know about you all but when I was on my mission every time we were testifying of Joseph Smith, we had a car backfire, or a kid drop a plate or someone knock on the door.

I saw this as the same kind of thing. I listened to her. She tried to get rid of him for about five minutes. Finally, she said to him, look, I’m talking to the driver. He is a Mormon and he’s teaching me about the church. I feel like it’s really important that I listen. She said, I feel like this is supposed to be happening right now and I need to pay attention to what he saying, so I will call you when I get home. She hung up on him and apologized.

The spirit was in the car, and I finished sharing my testimony about the prophet Joseph Smith. I told her that God had always worked through men who were not capable of doing the things that he asked them to do. I said, that this way God could show his power. I told her that if God called the richest, most powerful people to do things, people would believe that they did it, not God.

I told her, on the other hand, if God called someone who is incapable, they would know that it had to be the power of God. I told her Joseph Smith had a second grade education and he was a country kid. I told her that because of this, his faith and his belief, he was the perfect person to be called to do this work.

I told her that he translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God and he did it in 90 days. A kid with a second grade education translating a 600 page book in 90 days is astounding. She said, oh my gosh, that’s incredible,

I told her that Joseph Smith was called of God to teach us about God’s love and to show us his power, but most of all to restore his church so that we could return to live with him. I asked her if she felt that spirit still, and she said I do. I told her that people find their way to my car who are needing to hear the gospel.

She said, I believe that I am one of them. She said, I go to church every week with the family but I haven’t known what I should do. Recently, I’ve started zoning out but I think I need to pay more attention.

I asked her what feeling the spirit meant. She said, it means God’s here. I asked her, would God send his spirit if what we were saying was wrong? She said no. I told her that’s exactly right, the spirit of God testifies of truth, and when we feel it, we know that the things we’re hearing are true. I asked her if she felt that in church. She said not as strongly but yes, I do feel it in church. I asked her what it felt like and she said peace and happiness. I feel like my question has been answered.

We were pulling up to the house and I said I think God put you here in my car so that I could help you understand more about the church and help give you that push that you’ve been waiting for.

I told her that she had been coasting along, not wanting to make a decision, not wanting to commit, and kind of wanting to establish her individualism by not being baptized. I told her that now is the time for her to make that decision so that she can serve her father in heaven and follow him. She said, normally I wouldn’t like being called out like that but you were right and I can see that you’ve done it out of love and out of the love of Heavenly Father.

She said, I guess it is all about family and love if it’s done right. Then she said, I will take the challenge. Like I said, I go to church every week now I know that I just need to take the next step. I told her that in the morning she should tell her sister about the ride and what she had felt. She said, oh I plan on it.

I told her that her sister‘s husband could baptize her and she said she knew that because he baptized her nephew.

I told her it’s all out there in front of her for her to do. I said God would have her do and take that next step. She should take that next step up in discipleship and follow God. She said, message delivered and accepted.

I drove off thinking about how she told her boyfriend that she felt something special was going on here, that she was receiving information from me that she was supposed to have and that she was supposed to be in my car. Of this I have no doubt.

What a great way to end the day!!!

.

I picked up a young lady by Redwood Road and I-215. She was going out to the Amazon warehouse that is way out at the western edge of 90th South. She got in the car and she seemed really happy. There are thousands of people moving here to work at Amazon in their various facilities. None of them have cars apparently.

She had moved here from Texas and was afraid of the cold. It looked like it’s going to snow that night and she was just terrified. She said she wasn’t built for this weather and in Fort Worth it was always nice.

We started to go and I got the spiritual impression that she was very spiritually sensitive and that she had a lot of faith. I knew that I was supposed to talk to her about the church. I sought the spirits guidance on where to start the conversation and then realized that she had already given me the start.

I asked her if she liked it here and she said yes for the most part. I asked her how it came about that she got here. She told me that her boyfriend‘s friend was coming out and she just decided that she was supposed to go with her for some reason.

I asked her what she felt here. At first she started talking about the cold but then I refocused my question and asked how she felt spiritually here. She said it was very peaceful and living here made her believe that good things are possible.

I asked why and she said the people here are so good and they have treated me extremely well. I said, do you know why that is? She said, no I don’t.

I told her that it’s because people here try to follow God and do the things that he tells them to do. I told her that when you fallow the commandments and live right, God can bless you with his spirit.

I mentioned to her how funny it was that her friend was coming here and out of thin air she felt compelled to come with her. She said, that’s right! That’s exactly how it happened. She said, I don’t know how you knew that, but you nailed it. I told her that she was brought here by the hand of God so that she could be blessed and she said that she believed that one hundred percent.

Then she said, you know sometimes God puts people in your path to help you out. I said, I know. She said when her son had leukemia and she was in the hospital with him she felt down and depressed and sad. A man came up to her and said, everything is going to be fine, your son will be healed and he was. She said, that man told me that God put him there that day in the elevator to give her that message.

I told her that this is how she knows that God loves her. He sends people to her. I told her this happens to me all the time. God puts people in my car and gives them a message through the words he whispers for me to say. I told her that God loved her and that he wanted her to know that there was a purpose behind the things that were going on now. I told her God had never abandoned her.

She got very emotional and said “I guess somehow my life is an open book to you”. She said at times in her life she had wondered if God was there. I told her God is here and the fact that she’s here in Utah is evidence that he loves her and he’s got her. I said, even in those times when God seemed far away he was with you”.

I then had the impression to tell her that when she was a very young child she was abused by someone she knew and trusted. I told her that during that abuse it fell dark and she felt alone. I told her that God sent her his spirit so that she could hold on and make it through.

She said, I’m going to work and now you’re making me emotional because that’s exactly what happened. I have never told anyone that. It would have blown up my whole family. I found that listening to beautiful music lifted me and let me transport myself away from my troubles. Even though I was being abused listening to that music made it so that I could get through. The music reminded me of heaven and I felt the presence of God.

She said, I feel the presence of God right now in your car. I asked her what it felt like and she said peaceful, happy and motivating. She asked me how I knew these things about her and I told her that when we are baptized we get the gift of the Holy Ghost and that God can whisper to our heart through the Holy Ghost. He will tell us the things to say.

She said, oooooh, I know it comes from God. There’s no other way you could’ve known. I told her that God brought her here so that she could learn more about him and his gospel. I asked her if she knew what the members of the church believe and she said no.

I said we believe that God is the God of all of the earth not just Jerusalem. In Jerusalem he said he was going to go to his other sheep and that is exactly what he did. He went to his other sheep possibly including her ancestors in Africa. I asked her if she would like to know what He said to them. She said she really would! I asked her what it meant to her to know that her great grandparents had possibly been blessed by Christ and she said that thought gave her chills and made her feel loved.

I told her that he taught them the same things he taught the people in Jerusalem and we know this because he also came to America. I told her about the Book of Mormon and how it’s a collection of the prophecies God gave to the prophets that lived here in America, the ancestors of the Native Americans. I told her that Jesus also came to America and it is here that he said and still other sheep I have that are not of America or Jerusalem or the lands adjacent. He said that he was going to go to them so they could hear his voice.

She said, “I’ve heard of the Book of Mormon”. I said it testifies of Jesus Christ, that he is the son of God. I also took this opportunity to bear my testimony. I told her that the Book of Mormon was the word of God and that God loves each and everyone of us. I testified to her that God whispered to my heart today the things to say and I told her that the spirit was testifying to her of this right now.

She said, the spirit is really strong in the car. I said yes, and could that spirit be here if what we were saying was not true? She said, no, everything you’re saying is true.

I reached into my bag and grabbed one of my marked Book of Mormon‘s made by the Secrists and gave it to her. I explained the questions of the soul and how to find the answers. I said to her, this book will teach you the things of God and it contains the account of the visit of Jesus Christ to America. She asked, can I have it?! I said yes! She said, I’m going to read it tonight, I’m going to read all of it!

She smiled and said I know this book is true and now I want to know what’s in it. I asked her if she had any friends or knows anyone who is a member of the church. She said yes, the man that she works with, that she was going to see that very minute is a very strong member of the church. She said that he and all of his family are members.

I told her to show him the book and tell him about our car ride and she said she would.

She got out of the car and said, this ride has changed my life. I know that God is watching over me and I know he put me in your car tonight! Thank you for the message. She turned around and walked into the building with a surprise for that member of the church that she works with. Exciting times at Amazon

.One Wednesday I went out to work a little bit early and was picking up a couple rides. It seemed like every ride was going to the airport. I guess that’s what happens sometimes. The problem with the airport is that you’re at the airport and it doesn’t always work out so well financially.

I followed the directions to get to this kid, and soon found that I was up at the University of Utah in the President Circle area. He got in the car and immediately I knew there was something really neat about this kid. He really had that, “I’m going to be a member” feel and the spirit told me unequivocably that this young man would be baptized. The spirit told me he was ready and that this ride was important. I started paying attention really quick to what the spirit was whispering at that point. I started talking to him about what he was doing.

He said he was here at the school on his orientation trip and that he would be starting in the fall. He said he loved it so far. I asked him why he decided to come to Utah. He said, first and foremost, snowboarding, I love to snowboard.

Then he said that his grandparents had a place in St. George and he had always liked the people in Utah. He said everyone was so nice and he was excited to be a part of that. As we were driving down the hill, we talked more about the people here in Utah.

He said that he had not had any bad interactions with anybody. I asked him how he thought he would fit in and he said just great. He said that he had gone to a junior college in California, but he was looking for more of a real college experience. That’s why he was excited to come here.

He asked me if I went to the University of Utah, and I said, no. I went to BYU. I told him that my grandmother was one of the first women to graduate from the university back around 1915. I then made it clear that even though we are proud of her legacy, we had repented and started wearing blue.

I told him that today universities made it really hard on people of faith. He said he knew that was true. He said he had friends all over the place. They were losing their faith because they were in school.

He said he was not going to be one that lost his faith in Jesus Christ. I told him that at the University of Utah they hit at your faith that really hard, with an emphasis on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He said, I heard that. You would think that they would be nicer to the Mormons here in Utah, but I’ve heard that they can be very anti.

I told him that whatever he did he should get his information from the people over at the Institute building and not from his professors. He laughed and said he would do that.

As we drove down, Second South towards the freeway, so we could go to the airport he said, “Are we going to drive by the temple on the way out?” This was the kind of an opening that I’d been waiting for, and I said, yes, if you want to, we will. He said that would be cool and off we went. We went up West Temple around North Temple and back down Sate Street to fifth South on the way to the airport, passing the temple on three sides.

As we drove around the temple, we discussed his beliefs. I asked him what religion he was and he said that he was Christian. He said that he hadn’t been Christian for very long, but that he wanted to follow Jesus Christ. I told him it’s really important that we follow Jesus Christ! That’s why the name of our church is the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Day Saints.

I asked him if he knew what the differences were between our religion and his. He said, I believe it’s Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. You guys believe in the Book of Mormon instead of the Bible.

He asked me, is that true, did I get it right? I said it’s partially true we believe in the Book of Mormon! It is an other testament of Christ. We believe in the Book of Mormon as a companion to the New Testament and the Old Testament. I told him all three are testaments of Jesus Christ. He said, oh you believe in the Bible too? I said yes! We also believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God just like the Bible. I told him that we believe that the Book of Mormon is more pure because it hasn’t been translated and changed so many times. He said, that’s a good point.

I used the old missionary adage with him about pounding a nail in a board. I said when you pound the nail in the board you can still move the board but if you put a second nail in that board it becomes immovable. I said that is the value of having a second testament of Jesus Christ, a second testimony that he is the son of God.

I said, with that second testimony that board doesn’t move and the truth is firm. He said, I love that it’s great. I said yes! Do you believe God loves everyone, that we’re all his children, and that he loves us no matter when we were born or where we were born? He said yes! God loves everyone! He created everyone and he is our father!

I said, that is the basis for everything we believe. I told him that we believe everything that he believes except that we have more. I asked him to look at the temple and he did. I said we do really important things in these buildings. He said, what are they? I told him that when Jesus was crucified, his spirit went to the spirit world and taught the people that had not heard the gospel or had not yet accepted the gospel there in the spirit world. I told him, Jesus set that teaching up and that work still continues today. Every person, no matter where they were or when they were born is taught the gospel because of what Jesus did during that three days when his body lay in the tomb before his resurrection.

He said, that’s really cool. I’ve never thought of that. I asked him what those people would want to do after they had received those teachings. He said, they would want to follow Jesus. I told him that he was right, but that they needed to be baptized before they could go to heaven. I asked him how someone that was born 500 years ago in China could be baptized 500 years after they died.

He said, I don’t know, that doesn’t seem fair. I asked him if God was a father that would not be unfair to his children. He said, no! He would totally be fair. I said, that’s what we do in that building. We go in there and are baptized for someone who has died. I told him that the person then gets a chance to accept it or reject it.

I told him, it’s a perfect plan so that every one of God’s children has a chance to come home to him. I asked him if that sounded more like the God that he believed in. He said, yeah! That does sound right. I told him that in those buildings we also do marriages.

I told him that I was married in that building and when we are married in that building we’re not married until death do us part, we are married for eternity. I told him that our families are sealed to us. I told him that Peter got authority from Jesus to seal things on the earth that would be sealed in heaven.

I told him that Peter gave that authority to Joseph Smith by laying his hands on his head conferring it upon him. I told him that today we have that same authority and we seal our families. I told him that’s why our families are so important. He said, that’s amazing.

He said, I never knew all these cool things that you believe. There was a really peaceful, strong feeling in the car and I asked him, do you believe those things are true? He said, yes, no question, yes I do. I’ve never thought of these things, but as you say them, I believe they are true.

I told him that he had mentioned Joseph Smith. I asked him where he had learned about Joseph Smith. He said that he had a very good friend who is a member of our church. He said his friend talked to him about Joseph Smith and even took him to church a couple times. He said he loved that friend and he had always loved the fact that their family was so strong and that he felt such a good feeling when he was there.

I told him that that feeling was the Holy Ghost and that he loved being there because the spirit of God was there. I told him he is a son of God and he loves being in the presence of the spirit of God.

I asked him if that family had taught him about temples and if they had been married forever. He said yes, he thought so, but it didn’t really sink in like it had today. I asked him what else they taught him.

He said that they taught him about Joseph Smith and the Joseph Smith story. I said that’s really important. I stopped and bore testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the first vision and the book of Mormon. The spirit amplified my testimony at that point and I could tell he was feeling what I was saying.

I asked him if he felt that, and he said yes, oh my goodness I do! I said, what does it feel like? He said a peaceful fire ball of energy. He says it makes me want to go do something. I told him that is because it is true. This is why that feeling is in your heart. It is God testifying to you of the truthfulness of the things that I said. I asked him what he knew about the Book of Mormon and he said not much. I told him that God had prophets in America because that’s how he blesses his children. He gives them prophets and then he gives the prophets revelation to bless his children. I told him God had prophets in America and they wrote down these prophecies that God gave them on metal plates. They passed these plates down from prophet to prophet until they were buried in the ground and centuries latter given to Joseph Smith to translate.

I told him these prophets wrote about Jesus Christ. These prophets testified about Jesus Christ and about his divinity. I told him that these prophets taught almost excessively about Jesus Christ.

I told him that in the Bible, Jesus said other sheep I have, which are not his fold, and that he was commanded by his father to go to them. I told him that these prophets had told the people that Jesus would come to them, and he did. He descended from heaven, and stood on the steps of the temple, and they worshiped him. I told him that he commanded them to be baptized to a new level. I told him that this was the same level we had been talking about today, where God brings his gospel to all of his children, no matter when they lived, and no matter where they lived. On this new level God makes it so that we can live together forever as families in the family of God. He said, that’s amazing.

We arrived at the airport and he said I’ve got a few more minutes can we talk longer? I turned off my app and said sure. We pulled into the waiting parking lot by the Chevron and talked some more. I told him that when Jesus got here he had the people touch the prints of the nails in his hands and then his feet. They knew who he was because they had been taught. They had been looking for him and awaiting his arrival. He said that is so cool!

I told him that Jesus invited them to be baptized, cleanse their sins and to step up to that new level. I told him that now Jesus was inviting him to be baptized and take that step up.

He said, I haven’t been baptized yet, I was thinking about doing it this fall. Before leave for school I thought I should be baptized. I was going to be baptized in another church. I said, wouldn’t you like to be baptized by your friend? I asked him how old his friend was and he said 21. I asked him if his friend went to church all the time, and he said yes. I said, likely your friend would be able to baptize you. How would that be?

He said that would be amazing! I would love that! That’s what I want!

I told him that his friend, like me, as the priesthood of God. That is the authority that Jesus gave to his disciples in America to baptize. I told him we have that authority today and that his friend has that authority and that he can use it to baptize him.

I told him that the authority of God is an amazing blessing. It allows us to do the things God would do if he were here. I told him that through the priesthood we can give blessings of health or comfort and officiate in the ordinances that save us.

I told him that the word of God is powerful and great, but acting upon those words and using his power is another level. This is what what God would have us do. He said I can see that.

I told him that we have a prophet today who guides the church. He looked shocked. He said, really, a prophet? I said yes.

He asked, he speaks with God? I said, yes! I said he lives right here in Salt Lake City. I told him that he used to be a doctor and a teacher at the University of Utah school of medicine. He laughed and said things have changed a lot apparently, haven’t they. I laughed and said yes.

He asked, what is his name? I said Russell M Nelson. He said, I would like to see him or read some things that he has said. I told him that all of his talks are published and that through the church app he could download the conference sessions and read what all of the apostles and prophets have to say.

He looked at the app and said he would do that on the flight.

He said, there has been such power in our discussion today. I felt the spirit of God and I know the things we’ve discussed are true. I said, well, when you have a powerful feeling like that what does it require of you? He said, it means I have to act! I said, that’s right, you have to act. I asked him what he was going to do and he said he was going to go to his friend and ask him about it.

I said, I have a better idea, go to your friend and tell him what you have felt and learned in the car. Tell him that you want to be baptized. He said, that’s exactly what I’ll do! I want to be baptized! That is what I’m going to do! We left the parking lot and drove up to the departure point. I said to him, you know it’s not a mistake that you were in my car today.

I told him that God put him in my car, and he said, I felt that the second I got in. I felt safe and I felt the spirit of God. He said, when you testified I knew the things you were saying were true and now I know I have to act. It was no coincidence that I was in your car and I know God put me here because I need to take this step. I need to step up.

He got out of the car and waved and said one last time, I promise I’m going to call my friend as soon as I get through security.

Now, that’s a ride to the airport!

One Saturday night I got a call to pick up a girl at a restaurant on State Street. When I picked her up, she was in a group of women and they were hugging and embracing. She came over and got in the car and we started off.

When she got her seatbelt on she said, “wow! I just had something incredible happen”. I asked her what it was and she said that she had been at dinner with these people she had known for a while socially, but that she didn’t know them personally. She didn’t know their life story very well. They were considered her acquaintances, not close friends she said.

She said that while they were at dinner, she had the thought come to her mind that she was to turn to the lady and tell her that her husband, who had passed, wanted her to know that it wasn’t her fault and she needed to stop beating herself up over it. The woman in my car didn’t even know that her husband had passed or anything regarding the circumstances of that death. She then turned to the daughter of the lady who was there and told her that she was worried that her dad didn’t love her, but she needed her to know that he did love her and that he sends his love. She said that everyone got emotional and asked her how she knew this. They all were shocked and emotional.

She told me that she never had anything like this happen to her before. She said that she just felt the overwhelming urge to say these things and she needed to say them. She said that for some reason she felt like she should talk to me now. She asked me what I thought about that.

She said she was pretty freaked out.

I really didn’t think this young lady was a member of the church based on the vibe I was getting from her. If this was a member of the church, I would easily jump in to talking about gifts of the spirit and how Heavenly Father gives us gifts to bless other people. I would tell a member of the church that we are given gifts of the spirit so that we can serve others, bless others and that if we want to get additional gifts of the spirit, Heavenly Father can give us that blessing as long as we are trying to use that gift to bless his children.

That’s what I would tell a member of the church, but again she didn’t seem like a member of the church. The spirit, however, started telling me that I needed to teach this. The spirit was quite forceful with me, indicating the importance of this, and so I taught it. I told her that when we’re baptized we are clean and we get the gift of the Holy Ghost. I told her that with the gift of the Holy Ghost, comes these gifts of the spirit. This is how our Heavenly Father blesses his children. He blesses them through each of us.

I told her that our father in heaven really is her father. That she spent thousands of years with him, she loved him and he loved her. The spirit overwhelmed the car while I was testifying of the father’s love for her, and I could tell she felt it.

I told her that when we’re in the presence of the spirit of our father in heaven, he can help us, guide us, bless us and give us joy. I asked her what she was feeling right then and she said she felt like her mind was opening up, and her heart was opening up at the same time. She said she felt peaceful, calm and excited all at the same time. I told her that this was the spirit of God testifying of the things I was teaching. I told her that Heavenly Father has us do his work for him, we are his hands.

I told her that Heavenly Father gives us the words to say that he would say if he were there. He gives us the words to say that touch people in such a way that they can know that it’s his will and that the things we’re saying are true.

I shared a couple of experiences with her where Heavenly Father had blessed me with the words to say. I told her he gives me those words so that the person can know that the words I say come from God. I told her there’s no way I could know those words. God had to have given them to me and because of that they know that what I’m saying is true.

When I was done saying this, she said, I know a little bit about this because I was baptized and received this gift of the Holy Ghost when I was a child. She said I was eight and I remember getting the gift of the Holy Ghost.

This made a lot of sense to me. Boy, was I glad that I had talked about spiritual gifts as the spirit had directed me when she first said this about receiving these revelations. I didn’t know what to think because I was not exactly sure if you could have a gift of the spirit if you’re not a baptized member who has the gift of the Holy Ghost. I don’t know how that works but I knew and I am familiar with what she was experiencing. When I found out she was a member it all came together.

Now that I knew she was a member of the church, the spirit told me that this was a great opportunity to teach her about her father in heaven’s love and help her resolve issues and come back to him. One thing I knew is that she hadn’t been active. She told me she hadn’t been to church since she was 10.

I asked her why she hadn’t been to church. She told me the story of their family. She said that they were from Columbia. They moved here when she was very young and they were living in a ward with a bishop they knew pretty well. She said that they had neighbors that were African-American. Her family, being Hispanic felt a certain kinship to that family and started fellowshipping them.

The bishop told them that they should not have anything to do with that family. He said that this was not the kind of family that they wanted in the ward or at ward events.

The family was so offended that they decided they wouldn’t go back to church. She said, “that’s why we left the church, because there are racist people in the church”.

I asked her if it was OK if I spoke straight forward to her and she said yes. I said one thing I know about human beings is that we are horrible animals and we do and say horrible things. That’s why we have Jesus Christ so that when somebody says something or does something that offends us or hurts us, we can turn to him.

I also said, that’s why we have Jesus Christ so that we can turn to him and repent when we fall short. I told her it was all part of the plan. I explained to her that when somebody makes a mistake and does something hideous like she had experienced, we have a choice to look to Christ, and have him use the power of the atonement to lift us and lift our burdens or to look to see and blame God and follow satan. I told her that these were the two options.

I asked her how long it had been since she prayed to God. She said she hadn’t prayed to God for years. Since she was 10 years old she had been calling him a sky genie. She said right now that sounds very wrong to say but that’s what I’ve called him.

I doubled down and said, well now you know that he is your father and that he loves you. You’re his daughter and that love is central to who you are. I told her that this love fills a hole in her life that she has been trying to fill with other beliefs and other endeavors but hasn’t found a way to scratch the itch. I told her that she drinks and has done some drugs, but that didn’t fill it either.

I told her that this space is intended for the spirit and power of God and that’s the only thing that can satisfy you in that space. I asked her how she felt right now and she said amazing. I said this is how you feel when the spirit occupies that space.

She said thank you for explaining it like that. My mind is opening and I am understanding what you’re saying. I told her that in her life since she was 10 she’s gone around looking at members of the church and thinking bad thoughts about them. She said that was true. I told her that she thought that they were judgmental, harsh and rude. She said that this was true. I told her that none of those things are true. I told her that there are members of the church that are bad and there are members of the church who do bad things, but that by and large the members of the church are very good and trying to get better.

I told her that it was Satan who told her those things, who whispered those things in her ear, who whispered in her ear when she passed by the church, or by the temple, which is only a couple blocks from her house and told her that the people in there were hypocrites.

I told her that Satan is a liar. He’s the father of lies and lies about everything. He says we should do the opposite of what God would have us do.

I told her the story about the stake president stealing my great grandfather‘s cows. We discussed what a big deal that would’ve been back in the 1800s. I told her that my great grandfather left the church and because of that the vast majority of my father’s family are not members of the church or active.

I told her that they’re alcoholics, and that my grandfather was an alcoholic, and he beat my father. I told her that rarely in that family does someone have a marriage that works and no one is happy. I told her it’s all because they left the church.

Then I asked her why my great grandfather left the church and she said to punish the stake president. I asked her who actually got punished? She thought about it for a minute and a light came on. She said, your great grandfather punished himself and his family. I said that’s exactly right.

I talked to her more about the atonement and about how Jesus not only paid for our sins so that we can be cleansed of sin, but also our infirmities and the injustices and all of the pains and sufferings we could go through in this world. I told her that Jesus actually suffered those so that he could have the power to lift us. I told her my great grandfather should’ve looked to Christ.

I told her that this way when people do stupid things, satan will lose power with them if they look to Christ. Christ makes it all right.

There was stunned silence. She said this is amazing. I want to learn more. I want to know more! I pulled out a Book of Mormon, one of the ones prepared by the Secrist’s, and asked her if she had a copy. She said no she hadn’t seen a copy in many years. I asked her if she wanted that copy and she said she would love it.

I had her open to the questions of the soul and read those. She said, oh my gosh! These are the questions that have been coming to my mind lately. She said I need the answers to these questions. I told her that they were in the book. I told her that if she would read that book, she would feel the spirit and get the answers to those questions.

I asked her what else she thought she might need to do. She said, I think I need to pray! I said, that’s exactly right. You need to study the Book of Mormon and you need to pray. I said what else do you need to do? And she said, in a timid, unassured voice, I think I need to go to church. I said that’s right. You need to go to church and get right with God and then you can have his power supporting you, lifting you and helping you bless others.

She said that would be awesome. She said she wanted to do that. She said I’m going to start tonight reading this Book of Mormon. She said, it’s been a long time. I should have done this a long time ago.

I asked her if she knew anybody that was a member of the church and she said she knew people back where she used to live. I asked her if she knew anyone around here and she said that there were people at work. She said she worked at Primary Children’s Hospital and she knew some of the doctors were really good members of the church.

I told her to go to them and tell them about what we had felt in the car and talk to them about this experience. Then show them the Book of Mormon and ask them what they thought. I told her that they would be able to help her.

By this time we had been sitting in front of her house for 10 minutes. There was somebody who pulled up behind us and we needed to move. We drove around the block so that we could have a few more minutes. She didn’t want to leave the spirit.

I told her that Heavenly father puts people in my car. I told her that it was no mistake that today when she had this experience that Heavenly Father put me there to help her make sense of it. I told her that Heavenly Father put her in my car because he loves her so much and he wants her back.

There were tears in her eyes and she said, this makes way too much sense right now. I know what you’re telling me is true. I told her that there’s no such thing as coincidence and that Heavenly Father had a plan for her, including receiving this today. She told me that this had been the most remarkable half hour of her life. She told me that the light and knowledge that she was receiving and experiencing was incredible. She told me that it was clear to her that she is experiencing an awakening, and that she intends to take advantage of it. She told me that I had answered the question she had for quite some time, and that I had done the same thing to her that she had been able to do for those ladies by following the spirit.

I could tell that the spirit was in the process of changing this young woman’s heart, even as we spoke.

She said, I love this and I want this. I know she did and I believe she will run with it.

One night I picked up a lady just getting off work on Foothill Boulevard. She worked in a nursing facility and I could tell she liked her job. She gave great care to the people and she seemed very happy. That’s important I think, to be happy when you’re taking care of the elderly like that. It seemed like it was very rewarding for her.

We got going and started talking about experiences in the car as far as strange and funny experiences that I’ve had. She asked me if there was a time when I was able to make a difference? I told her that I had seven people that tried to or were about to commit suicide and they let me know riding in my car. I told her that I took the time to stop and help them. I told her one particular story that I wrote in December about a man who wanted to commit suicide and we prayed together. I told her that we drove by the church and I felt impressed to make a promise to him.

I told her that he has followed through and he’s doing really well. As I said this and told the story the spirit impressed upon me that this young lady had been through a lot of things. It impressed upon me that I was guided to this line of discussion and had said the exact right thing. The spirit told me that I needed to continue.

I said a quick prayer and then started listening for the spirit. I asked her if she was religious and she said that she was spiritual not religious. Immediately the spirit told me that she had felt betrayed and damaged by someone who she considered to be a religious figure and a person of trust. I said that to her and she said you’re absolutely right.

I told her about the pain and the stress it caused in her life and the darkness that resulted. These were the words that I felt to say so I said them. She said this is all too weird. How do you know so much about me?

I said I don’t know but the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, has whispered these things to me so God has let me know them. I told her that she had hid these things from the world but that God knew them. I told her she had hid these feelings from people but God knew them and he had revealed these words to me to tell her tonight in the car so that she could know of his love.

She said, yeah but you started out talking about suicide. How did you know that I tried to commit suicide when I was 15? I said, again, I didn’t know that but God knew that and he gave me those words for you so that you could know that he knew of your pain. I promised her that when she was in her pain, when she was in her darkness, God did not abandon her as she had previously thought. I promised her the God stayed with her and that likely he shed tears with her in those moments.

She said, wow. This is really quite an experience I’m having. The feelings I’m feeling are something that I haven’t felt in a long time. I told her that those feelings were the feelings of the spirit. I told her that God loves us and she had a relationship with him. I told her that this feeling was a manifestation of the relationship of God that she enjoys and that he sent his spirit to be in the car with us tonight.

I felt prompted to tell her that many times she drives by the church and every time she does she feels a desire to go but then is bombarded by negativity. I told her that she thinks that everyone there is a hypocrite, that they’re all judging her, that they are all arrogant and hateful. She said that’s exactly right I never thought of it that way. I told her that was Satan and that he was trying to keep her away from that place. I told her that he doesn’t want her to be happy and that he’s a liar. This is why he whispers those things in her ear.

I told her that God gives us free will and evil people are enabled by Satan to use that free will to damage and destroy. They hurt and maim. I told her Satan then tries to get us to blame God. Meanwhile God has given us Jesus Christ that we can turn to. He feels our pain, our sorrows and injustice. He suffered for our sins and made it so that we can live again with our father in Heaven. He made it so that we can live through our pain and suffering and still find joy. God would have us turn to Christ. Satan would have us turn away from God.

I told her more details about the man who was going to commit suicide that I had in my car. I told her the story about how God told me what to say by the spirit. In the end we he and I talked, prayed and we felt the love of God and we felt the presence of our Savior. I told her that it was the exact same thing that we were feeling in the car tonight. Clearly this was not something that she had expected to hear.

She told me, I do feel that spirit. I feel it very powerfully here in the car. I told her that because she’s felt that spirit she knows that the other things I’m telling her are true and she said, I know they’re true. She said, I am a member of your church but I haven’t been in decades. I consider myself to be spiritual not religious. I had convinced myself that the church wasn’t true.

She said, but in this ride I’ve just told you that I know it’s true, I know that to be true and I don’t know how to deal with it. She was very fidgety. I told her she needed to just relax and enjoy the spirit. She said that she would. I told her that her father in heaven really wanted to hear from her. She needed to pray. She needed to talk to him so that she could feel this in her life. She said she would. I reached into my glove box and grabbed a Book of Mormon, one of the copies by sister and brother Secrist.

I asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she said yes, I have a Bible in my home. The wording of her phrase was not lost on me and I said again, do you have a Book of Mormon in your home. I emphasize the words BOOK OF MORMON that time and she said no. I said I want you to take this book. She hesitated for a second and then took it.

I had her open the front page and showed her the questions of the soul and had her read them. She said many of these are the same questions I have. I told her that the answers she seeks are in this book and that the spirit that she has enjoyed tonight will come through reading this book and praying to her father in heaven. She opened her purse and put the book in

I didn’t feel like I could ask her any further personal questions. but I knew that everything she had believed for over 20 years since she was a little girl had been thrown in the air and swept away.

She had a neatly organized view of how the world was. She had constructed this world to explain why God hadn’t saved her and tonight she found out that he had. He sent his son Jesus Christ and she’s been given the tools where she can accomplish that.

I told her, as you contemplate these things, one thing you always need to remember is that tonight your Heavenly Father who loves you, reached out and gave you a hug. He wants to walk with you and be with you. Reading this book, prayers and going to church are the ways for you to do that. She thanked me and walked away.

She’s got a lot to think about but I know she felt the spirit, I know she knows that what I said is true and I know that she will never be able to forget or deny that. Most of all she knows that her father in heaven loves her and never quit loving her.

I think she finds her way back in the end. Now God has shown her that there is more power in being spiritual and religious.

It was a Monday night and I was going to work and then after work drive up to Idaho to give my dad a blessing. I was going to work until 1:30 am or so but around 12 o’clock I decided to take my last ride and go.

As I drove out of town to the Mavrek with the cheapest gas in the Salt Lake or Utah valleys, I got a ride clear out in the industrial areas by West Valley City.

At first I thought that I wouldn’t take that ride because I wanted to get on the way. I was a little tired and a lot worn out. It’s been a long couple of weeks and I have been working a lot of hours. I just wanted to get to Idaho safely.

As I reached down to touch the cancel button, I received a distinct impression that I should not cancel this one. I needed to take this ride. I pulled my hand back, put it on the steering wheel and away I went.

I pulled into the driveway of the warehouse and waited. He saw me, came out and he jumped in the car. I asked him where he was from, and he said that he was from Samoa. I said “Talofa”, which means hello in Samoan.

He said, how does a white guy know that word? I told him that I used to serve in the missionary training center, and I got to hang out with all of the missionaries from outside the United States. I learned to say some words in a lot of their languages.

He said could you say some of them! Sometimes I try not to be a show off, but this was not one of those times. I said hello to him in Tongan, Samoan, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Cambodian, Laotian, French Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and Guarani.

He said, wow, that’s pretty impressive. He said, that’s some kind of a gift. I told him it was exactly that, it was a gift from God. I told him that God gave me the ability to learn those things so that I could connect with and show love to those missionaries when they came into the MTC. He said that’s really cool.

I asked him when was the last time he went to his church. I knew he wasn’t a member of the church but I was trying to figure out how active he was in his own church. He said that he was Pentecostal, but he hadn’t been to church since he was a very young boy.

I told him that it’s important to go to church so that we can have the influence of God in our lives. I told him that when we go to church, we learn that God loves us, and we learn things about ourselves and our relationship with God that we didn’t know before.

He asked, like what? I told him that many of the Polynesians in our church, believe that their ancestors are represented in the Book of Mormon. The look of interest on his face told me everything I needed to know about how ready he was to hear this.

I told him that in the Book of Mormon it mentions that people left in boats from the north west corner of South America. I told him that is where Colombia is today. I told him that I read a National Geographic story last year that said that the Indians of Columbia have genetic markers that are matches to the people in Polynesia. I told him that they assumed it’s because by Polynesians traveled to America but we know that they came from America.

I told him the Book of Mormon, testifies of Jesus Christ. I told him that the people who had lived in America were the ancestors of the Native Americans. They believed in God along with his ancestors. I told him that they had prophets and those prophets spoke with God and he gave them commandments, revelations and blessings.

I told him that Jesus Christ came to America, and then in America said, I still have other sheep, that I am commanded to go to. I told him that if he reads Isaiah he will find that the children of Israel were prophesied to be scattered all over the world, including the isles of the sea. I said, that means America, and that means Polynesia. I told him that God sent his son for all of his children, to save all of his children, because he loves all his children.

As I talked about prophets, his eyes lit up. I could tell he believed in prophecy, and that I was speaking a language that was familiar to him. I told him that the people who lived here in America were taught by the prophets about Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ would come to America once he had been resurrected in Jerusalem. I told him that God loved all of his children and not just the ones in Jerusalem and that he had promised he would send his son to his other sheep, other places in the world.

He did this through his prophets, both in the Bible, and in the Book of Mormon. I told him that Isaiah prophesied that he would go to Israel, but that Israel would be scattered all over the world, including the islands of the sea.

I told him that when Jesus was resurrected in Jerusalem, he said that he had other sheep, and was commanded to go to them by his father. I told him that in America, he descended from heaven, pure and bright, and stood on the steps of the temple. I told him that the people touched the prints of the nails in his hands, and he taught them and invited them to a new level, a higher level. I told him it was just like a new level in a video game. Once you accomplish the first level, you move up. I told him that’s what Jesus did. I told him all those people had been baptized, and he gave them a new baptizing by his authority and commanded them to be baptized.

I told him that all of these prophecies, along with this account of Jesus Christ were written on plates, metal plates, and given to the Prophet Joseph Smith. I told him that the Prophet Joseph Smith translated them by the power of God so that we would have them today. This is how we know. We have prophets, and they speak with God.

I told him that this translation is the Book of Mormon. I told him that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that he was called to be a prophet by God to restore the church on the Earth.

I told him that he called 12 and gave them this authority and commanded them to baptize the people. This way they could go to that higher level. I told him that Jesus gave them the gift of the Holy Ghost so that God could walk with them, all of the time.

The Holy Ghost was strong in the car and I said, do you feel that? He said oh wow, I really do. I feel so comfortable and loved in my heart right now. I told him that this is the feeling he feels in the presence of God. He said I knew it was the Holy Spirit but I never understood exactly that until you taught me.

I said to him, with the gift of the Holy Ghost we can know the things that God would have us do and we can know the things that God would have us say. I told him, right now, the Holy Ghost is whispering to me that as I’ve talked about Jesus and as I’ve talked about baptism, you felt good about it, but it’s always been really hard for you to be in these kinds of conversations because you feel dirty.

I told him that he had done some things, even some things recently that made him feel unworthy to be in the presence of God. He bowed his head and said, yes, how did you know? I told him that the Spirit of God whispered that to me so that he would know that the words I am saying are true, but that God has hope for him because he sent me to teach him about baptism.

I told him that when he is baptized, he will be cleansed from that sin, and will be pure before God. I told him that the baptism will be the thing that makes him feel like he can stand with confidence and power.

I asked him if he was married and he said yes, and he had a little boy. I asked him if he would like to be pure and clean before his family and with his family so that they could stand together before God. He said yes! That’s exactly what I’d like. I asked him if he would like to have God’s spirit in his home and with his family and he said yes.

I told him this message was for all of them then. I told him that when Jesus was on the Earth, he gave Peter the authority to seal things on earth that would be sealed in heaven. I told him that Peter gave that authority to Joseph Smith and Joseph Smith passed that authority down to the prophet we have today.

I told him that we use that authority to seal marriages and to seal families so that we can always be together. I told him that we do not do ‘“til death do us part” but that we marry for eternity, and that we will always be together.

He said, hold on just a second, are you telling me that we have a prophet on the earth today? I said yes! Yes, we do and he tells us the things that we need to know and the things that we need to do to be holy and serve God. He said I want to learn more about that guy.

He said that is an amazing thought that we can be sealed to our families forever. I told him that it was part of the next level, the higher level the Jesus brought. I told him it truly is a higher level of discipleship and of commitment, but also a higher level of blessings received.

He said he saw that and that a wonderful feeling was burning in his heart. By this time we had been sitting 15 minutes in front of his apartment and I received another ride. I promptly canceled that one so I could continue our conversation. I hadn’t intended on taking any new rides, but I neglected to turn off the machine.

Our conversation continued. I asked him if he would like to have a Book of Mormon and he said yes! I pulled out one of the Book of Mormons prepared by the Secrists for us, and I gave it to him. I explained to him the question’s of the soul. He read each one saying these are the questions I have had. These are the questions everyone has. I told him that the answers to the questions were found by the tabs in the book.

He asked “can I keep this? I said, yes. I said, do you have a friend who is a member of the church? He said yes! I have a cousin who is a member who went on a mission. I don’t know why it didn’t surprise me that a Polynesian had a cousin that was a member of the church! I asked him to read the book, pray to Heavenly Father and ask his cousin to answer his questions.

He said he was going to see his cousin the next day, and that he would do exactly that. I told him that as he reads the book and prays, he would feel the same spirit that we felt in the car and that he would know it’s true by that spirit. I told him that this feeling was kind of like a magnet that Heavenly father uses to bring us in if we allow it to.

He said that’s amazing. I know I’ve been sitting here a long time, but I love this feeling. I said, I love it too and I never get sick of it! I asked him if he had seen missionaries around. He said yes, there are some on bikes that live right in the building next to ours. I asked him if he would talk to them? He said he talked to them all the time.

I told him to tell them what had happened in the car that night, what he had felt, what he had learned and what he now knew to be true. He said that he would love to do that.

I told him my circumstance about going to give my dad a blessing and having my thoughts on spiritual things. I told him about how I believe that God had guided him to my car to receive this message, to receive this book, and to feel the spirit. I told him most of all God put him here in my car so that he could know what that spirit was and know that his father in heaven loved him. I told him that God loves everyone not just the people lived in Jerusalem and that meant him.

There was a silent reverent feeling in the car. Finally, he said, I think I need to go, but I promise that I will do the things I have said that I will do in this car. I want to have my family forever. I want to have the spirit with me all the time and I appreciate God putting me in your car.

He got out of the car and walked into his home.

On a personal note I drove to Idaho Falls after this ride. In the morning I helped my dad give my mom a blessing and then I gave my father a revelatory and powerful blessing releasing him from this life. He passed away less than 48 hours later. What an amazing experience to share at the end of a great life.

My dad read every blog post and told me how much he loved them every week. Now maybe he can ride along.

Love you dad

One day I finished my car wash and I just felt the impression to flip the app on in Orem to see if I could pick up a couple of quick rides. I got a ride and it wasn’t a quick ride. I was picking up at the Starbucks in Spanish Fork. My first impression was, what? My second thought was not to question the impression from the spirit.

As I drove to Spanish Fork, I contemplated what could be the reasoning for this ride. I was sure that it wasn’t an accident. I pulled into the driveway and this guy got in my car. He seemed like a nice kid and we talked about his name which was a little different. One thing about this kid was that he sat in the seat right behind me.

As he sat there, I looked in the mirror, and the spirit told me that we needed to discuss some things regarding this guy. I got the impression that he was taking the discussions, but was struggling.

Usually people don’t get in and sit in the seat behind you because they’re instructed to sit in the seat on the passenger side. This provides, the driver with a view of the person and maximum distance between the two. This rule was instituted during Covid as a safety precaution and was kept following Covid as a security precaution.

He wanted to hear driver stories. I told him about the one time I threw a guy out of the car by his belt and his ponytail. He laughed and thought that was funny. He asked if it was ever really scary. Seeing where he was sitting, I told him the story about the guy I referenced a couple weeks ago that was trying to attack me but was shocked by God. I told him that the guy sat in the seat right where he was sitting.

He apologized and asked if he should move and I said no, you’re OK! As I told the story, I asked him if it would be fine for me to discuss religion with him. He seemed a little standoffish.

We talked for a minute and finally, he said yes. I knew his answer would be yes because I knew that this was why I was sent there. I started by telling him that I bless my car with the power of the priesthood every day, so that the spirit of God will dwell in it and people will feel it. I ask that I will be protected from evil and danger. I then started to retell the story in minute detail, including Book of Mormon references regarding the power of God that Nephi used to shock his brothers. When I finished the story this time, he said, God really did protect you that day. I said yes, he protects me everyday.

He said, that’s amazing. I said, you know we see God’s hand in our life all the time. I told him that I had the feeling that he had heard about the Book of Mormon before. I told him I thought maybe he had been talking to some missionaries.

He said, how did you know?. I told him that the Spirit of God whispered it to my heart so that I could know to say those words. He told me that he was Greek Orthodox, and that he had been very religious his whole life.

I asked him how long the missionaries had been visiting him and he said, about five weeks now. I asked him to tell me what the things were that concerned him and were keeping him from joining the church. . I told him I knew that missionaries had asked him to be baptized and for some reason he hadn’t been baptized. I told him there must be a serious concern he has that makes him unwilling to commit.

He said, well yes, there are a few concerns. He said the Book of Mormon and the Bible contradict each other. He said, I don’t like that. He said, you use the King James Bible and some of the verses are different than the Bible are use. That explains some of it, but not all of it.

He said, missionaries told me that the Book of Mormon was a completion of the Bible. He said, that didn’t make any sense to him, because he didn’t think that the purpose of the Book of Mormon, or any other scripture would be to trump the Bible.

I told him that being a missionary is a difficult thing and trying to explain what you know in your heart can be a challenge. I asked him if I could take a crack at it. He said he would love that.

I told him the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith using the power of God. I told him that Joseph Smith translated the revelations and writings of the ancient prophets who lived in America. I told him that they wrote down the revelations that they received, and that God gave them revelation so that they could share God‘s will so that they could be happy. I told him God wants all of his children to be happy, and that because the people in America were his children, he wanted them to be happy so he gave them prophets and revelation.

I asked him if that made sense to him and he said yes. I said, does it make sense to you that they would write something so important down. He said yes. I told him that through the power of God, Joseph Smith translated this book, that included the visit of Jesus Christ to America. He had heard about that!

I told him that the Book of Mormon teaches about Jesus Christ all throughout the book, and that the people were looking forward to the arrival of Jesus. I told him that the people were listening to the prophets, reading the scriptures and being baptized.

He said, well, that’s another thing, they want me to get baptized and I just don’t know what’s wrong with my Greek orthodox baptism. It seems perfectly fine to me.

I told him that the people in the Book of Mormon had been all been baptized and that it mentions this in the chapters immediately preceding his arrival. I told him, that when Jesus came, the people came to him and felt the marks of the nails in his hands, and bathed his feet with their tears and they asked him to save them.

His direct response to that was to give them his baptism and teach them his new covenant. I told him that he called 12 and gave them authority to baptize and commanded that everyone be baptized even if they’re already been baptized so that they could take this step up to a new level. He invited them to do this so they could take on this new covenant that would bless their lives.

He invited everyone to be baptized and then receive the gift of the Holy Ghost so that they could walk with God.

The spirit was strong in the car and I could tell he felt it. I could tell that he was polished and trying to act cool, but that veneer was cracking. Talking about Jesus Christ, and the truth of his gospel had an affect on this young man.

I told him it was the same for him. He needed to be baptized, not because God was angry or dismissive of his first baptism. I told him that God loved him for the faith he exhibited along with his family performing that baptism but that God had a higher level and a higher law. He wanted him to accept THAT baptism to take THAT step to THAT new level.

He said, oh, that makes more sense. He said why are there no histories or stories about Jesus coming to America if it happened. I told him about Cortez the Spanish conquistador. I talked about how when he arrived in America, the Aztecs received him as a god and gave him money and gold, because they thought that he was a bearded, white god that had dwelt among their ancestors and said that he would return someday. They thought Cortez was this great white God, and he robbed them blind.

I told him about Tulum that was built in 700 A.D.. I told him that the images carved into the stone reflect God the father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. I showed him my Tulum picture and he agreed. I asked him how in the world they could’ve known this at that time if Jesus hadn’t come to America.

He said that there was no way and that this made sense. I told him as much sense as these things make, the only reason to get baptized is because you know the things you’re hearing are true by the spirit. I testified to him that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that Jesus really did love him. I testified to him that Jesus paid for his sins, and that he could be clean. I testified to him that the Book of Mormon was another testament of Christ not a completion of a former Testament of Christ.

I told him that the Book of Mormon helped give us perspective and then light which gives you an understanding of the Bible, but it didn’t complete it or upstage it in anyway.

I told him that the Book of Mormon teaches that God loves everybody and not just the people in Jerusalem. I told him that God loves everyone everywhere no matter when they lived. I told him that we are even baptized for the people that have died so that everyone can get the chance to return home to their father.

He told me that the missionaries had taught, him this and that he thought that it was one of the most amazing doctrines. It was one of the things the made him believe and that made him seriously consider that our church may be true.

I told him that the spirit made me feel that he was uncomfortable about the Godhead. He said, I see contradictions in the Bible about the Godhead. The missionaries tell me that you believe that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are three people. The Bible teaches that it’s one person. He said the missionaries say that they’re one in purpose.

He asked me what I thought. I told him that I think that they are three separate people, but that the Godhead is a unit where these three men work as a unit we refer to as God. I told him that when Joseph Smith went to the sacred grove, God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. I bore my testimony of that vision, and the spirit testified in the car powerfully that it was true. I told him that they work together to bless the father’s children and carry forward his work. He said, that makes sense, I like that explanation. .

He asked about how in John, it says that Christ was the word. If Christ is the word, how can there be more than one god. I told him that he had to realize that Jesus was Jehovah of the Old Testament who gave them their words, their commandments and laws under the direction of the father. Because of this he was the word, but then he was made flesh as it says a couple of verses later.

He said that makes more sense.

He told me that he didn’t know how it was that he ended up in my car today but this chat had really helped him. He said the missionaries had come over every weekend for the last five weeks. He said they really want him to get baptized but they haven’t had really great answers for these questions. He said today, I got those.

He said the missionaries will be really excited to hear this report. I bore my testimony to him and told him that if he will do the things and make sure he prays, the spirit of God will confirm the truth in his soul. I told him that there’s no reason to be baptized, unless the Spirit of God confirms that it’s true.

I asked him, what have you felt in your heart while we’ve been talking? He said that his heart had been kind of troubled but that as we talked today, it had soothed that angst, and he felt confidence. I told him that this was the spirit of God testifying to him that these things were true. I told him to tell the missionaries that as well. He said that these were private questions that he hadn’t asked them, but now it was all OK.

I asked him what he thought God would have him do now that he had received a witness? He said, follow it!

He said again, I still can’t believe how this ride has gone. He said, drivers never talk to me about these kinds of things. This ride has changed everything. He thanked me and got out of the car.

I can’t wait for those missionaries to find out, that these important questions that have kept him from the waters of baptism now all have answers.

Fill that font

It’s LGBTQAI pride celebration this month. This weekend is the big kickoff in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake is full of all kinds of people promoting and celebrating sin. Driving in that morass can be difficult because passengers are very crude and combative.

Many of them will take that opportunity to rip on me for being a member of the church. Their hateful words and abusive actions make it hard to feel the spirit sometimes. I rely heavily on the blessing that I put on my car asking that the spirit will be there. That spirit really helps me through. By the end of the night I feel very drained,

I had just dropped off a person and was making my way through a crowd of people cheering with signs filled with vulgarity and mocking God when I got a ride. The ride was very close and so I cruised over to pick him up.

This man stood out from the other people around him. I knew right away that he was different and the spirit prompted me that we would be talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because of this prompting, I immediately started thinking about ways we could bring up the gospel as a topic of discussion.

When he got in the car, I asked him where he was from. He told me where he was from and mentioned that since he moved here, he has really enjoyed living here a lot more than the other places he had lived.

He said, normally there’s a peace living in this city that I’ve never experienced in any other cities around the world that I’ve lived in. He said I like it! Then he said he couldn’t wait for this festival to be over because it doesn’t feel the same today.

I pointed out to him but it’s going to be a whole month so will have to hunker down. We laughed for a minute, and then I said, so why do you think it is that it feels different here.

He said,, it is the people. There’s something about the people! He said that it’s not all the people but a good portion of the people. You can tell they have something and it transforms the area.

I asked him if he wanted me to tell him what that was and he said yes! I told him that people here are members of the church, and that there are a lot of them. I told him that as members of the church we believe in Jesus Christ and we believe in following his commandments.

I told him that as the father who gave those commandments, God gives us peace and those around us feel that peace. I asked him if he felt that in the car? He said yes! It was all crazy out there, but when I got in your car, I could feel that peace and that’s why I’m so excited to talk about it.

I told him that as we live the commandments of God, we as members of the church are allowed to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost. I told him that the Holy Ghost and his influence is what he feels that makes him so peaceful. He said that’s amazing.

I told him that I had lived in some other places too, including Argentina, where I went on my mission. He said, that’s so cool I lived in Buenos Aires for a while as well. He said that he really liked Buenos Aires, but it wasn’t very peaceful.

I asked him what he knew about the church. He said, not really that much. I asked him if he wanted me to tell him a few things, and he said yes

The Holy Ghost whispered to my heart and let me know that he was a Catholic so I approached it so as to answer his Catholic questions. I said, first off your Catholic and the things you believe are important to you. I told him, we believe most of what you believe but then we believe a whole bunch of things that you guys don’t know about yet.

He said, how did you know I was Catholic? I said the Holy Ghost let me know by whispering to my heart that you were Catholic. He said that was amazing and that he would love to hear more.

I told him that we believe that God loves everyone not just the people in Jerusalem. I told him that when Jesus was on the earth, he established his gospel, then he was crucified and later resurrected. After he was resurrected, he told the people that he had other sheep in other places, and that he was going to go to them.

I asked him, where do you think those other sheep were that he was going to go to? He said wow I’ve never thought of that. He said, I wonder where that could be? I told him that Jesus came to America.

The spirit emphasized to me that he had either Latin or Native American heritage, and so I asked him, “does God love your ancestors from here in America, just as much as he loved the people in Jerusalem?“. He thought for about 1/3 of a second and fired back with a fervent yes! God loves everyone. I told him we’re all God’s children and the people in America were God’s children every bit as much as the people in Jerusalem.

I told him that God had called prophets in America to give his commandments and teach his will to them. people who were his ancestors. I told him that God loved them so he gave them his word and his commandments, so that they could be happy.

I told him that as we see here, when you obey the commandments, you feel peace and you are more happy. That’s why God sent his commandments through his prophets to the people in America. I told him that these prophets wrote the prophecies down on metal plates through all of the years.

I told him that those plates also contained the account of the visit of Jesus Christ to America. I told him that Jesus Christ descended from heaven. He descended down until he stood on the steps of the temple. The people marveled. They came and felt the prints of the nails in his hands and bathed his feet with their tears. They knew that this was Jesus Christ. They knew that this was their God. They had been taught by their prophets that Jesus would come and visit them in America and here he stood in front of them. He taught them his doctrine and gave them a higher level of discipleship.

After this they said, with one voice hosanna. I asked him what that meant. He said I think it’s a praise, isn’t it? I said that he was partially right but the actual translation of that word is save us.

He said, oh, it’s a petition for salvation. I said yes. I asked him what he thought Jesus did in response to that, and he said, Jesus Christ would save them. I said that’s exactly what he did. He called up 12, he gave them authority to baptize. Then he commanded everyone there, even though they had previously been baptized, and believed in him to be baptized again by this authority that he had given, and in the way that he had taught.

When they asked to be saved he did exactly that. He gave them the baptism that would make them eligible to go to heaven and live with their father in heaven. He said that’s so cool.

I said Jesus taught them and blessed them, and then he said still other sheep I have, which are not of this fold or the land of Jerusalem or the lands adjacent, and that he had been commanded by his father to go to them so that they could hear his voice and be counted among his sheep.

I asked him, where else do you think Jesus went. We talked about the possibilities. I talked about things i’ve learned about other cultures that seem to fit, and he thought that was great.

I told him that the writings of the prophets, and the account of the visit of Jesus Christ were translated by a prophet of God named Joseph Smith. I told him about Joseph Smith and how he was given these plates. He translated the plates by the power of God so that we have these prophecies today.

I told him that the Book of Mormon really is another testament of Jesus Christ because it testifies about Jesus Christ, his divinity, and witnesses that he is the son of God. I asked him if he’d ever seen a Book of Mormon, and he said no.

I pulled out one of the copies of the Book of Mormon I carry with me prepared by the Secrists, and gave it to him. I explained to him how it works, as well as the questions of the soul in the front. I said, this book is your book. He said I will read it. I love to read, I testified to him of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and of the prophet Joseph Smith. The spirit was very powerful in the car and I asked him if he could feel it. He said yes.

I asked him what it felt like. He said, a tremendous peace and assurance that the things we were talking about were true, even though they sounded a little bit different than what he had heard before. He said, I like this feeling, I like this!

I told him that we have a prophet today that leads us and guides us because this world is very evil, and there are a lot of people and a lot of things trying to take us away from the path of God. He said, you mean like all of those people downtown.

I said yes, all of those people downtown. He asked me what our prophet had to say regarding, transgenderism, same-sex marriage, and all of the proclivities being celebrated downtown. He said I just can’t believe it’s from God. What does your prophet have to say.

I said, well, being a prophet he and his predecessors foresaw this years ago. They put together a document, called the proclamation on the family that discusses our roles and our purpose in life with regards to our gender and family status. I told him the family is the most important thing for us. I told him that we’re not married until we die, we’re married for eternity and our families are together for eternity.

I told him Peter had the power to seal things on earth that would be sealed in heaven, and we have that same power. I told him our marriages and our families are sealed together by the power of God, it talks about all of this in the proclamation of the family.

I asked him if he’d like a copy of the proclamation on the family as well. He said absolutely! I looked it up on my Internet and I texted it over to him. He said, I can’t wait to read this!

He said, these things have given me such hope. Hope for me, and hope for our world. With all the evil in it, our world needs this help.

The spirit was strong in the car, and I asked him again to identify what he felt. Again, he said he felt an amazing amount of peace. I told him that this was the power of God letting him know that the things I was saying were true. I told him that he was placed in my car by God to receive these things today.

He said, I know I was because this is just what I needed. He said that he had been feeling a little lost and this brought him back. He said that he loves this spirit and that he knows the things that we had discussed were true.

He said, you know I’ve never heard these things before, and you would think they would be a little strange to hear the first time. But they’re not strange they seem right on and perfect. I know that it’s the power of God that confirmed it to my heart that helped me understand that.

He needed to go, but he told me how much he appreciated it and asked me what he should do next. I asked him if he knew any people that were members of the church and he said yes, he worked with one. I told him to go to that person and discuss with him what had happened in the car that day. This person would help him know what to do.

He asked me if he could text me if he has any questions while he’s reading and I said yes. Before he left, I looked him in the eye and I said, remember when Jesus came to America and he invited those people to be baptized to this new level? He is inviting you to be baptized to that same level as well. This is his invitation to you and that’s why I’m here today.

He said I know that’s true. I’m going to follow up with my friend at work. He’s always talking about church. I think he will be glad to help me.

He said that he was glad that Heavenly Father could pull him out of that evil and put him in a holy place to learn his word. Then he got out of my car and went into his appointment.

I guess all that stuff going on in the street can cut both ways, can’t it!?

One day I was working close to home because I needed to be home for an appointment. I pulled up to a house over by Orem High School and I waited. I waited almost all the time they provide. I was about ready to leave and had the feeling to give it another minute. Out of the house came a mom in sweats carrying a baby car seat.

I’m always relieved when they bring car seats because so many times they don’t and then it’s sticky because you have to say no. She strapped the baby in and we started to go. I started to think that this lady looked like a member of the church.

She just looked like someone who felt very comfortable living in Orem and she just seemed like she was probably a member of the church, but I didn’t know if she was for sure. I learned a long time ago never to assume. Then I got the impression that she wasn’t a member of the church and that we needed to talk.

I asked her if she liked living in Orem and she said yes. She said it was very peaceful and that she and her husband liked that. I asked her how long they had lived here and she said that they had lived here about two weeks but we’re looking to stay. Having been primed by the spirit that she wasn’t a member of the church, I asked how her interaction with members of the church had been?

She said it had been great and that she really would like to learn more about the members of the church because they seemed like really good people. She had said that where she was from everybody was Catholic and so to her that seemed to be kind of what you did there.

She said that here everybody is a member of the church and so they thought that maybe they should go to our church because that’s what people here do.

I don’t believe that anyone should chose a church because that’s just what the people there do. I do, however, believe the whatever it is that opens the door to going to church or having these discussions is a very good thing. I believe that Satan is trying to slam doors as fast as he can and when one opens you jump through it.

I said, that’s great! Going to church is an awesome thing. I asked her what she knew about the church, and what the differences were between our church and the Catholic church. She was stumped!

She thought for a minute and then came out, saying, well, I don’t think you believe in the Virgin Mary. She said we believe in the Virgin Mary and you don’t.

I told her that that’s not totally true. I told her we believe that the Virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ. I told her that we believe that the Virgin Mary was chosen of God, and was blessed among women. I told her that we honor the Virgin Mary and love her, love her courage, love how obedient she was, and love her example.

I told her that we didn’t believe in praying to the Virgin Mary and that she didn’t have any godlike power. I told her that we believe that she was a very good person, but that we only pray to God, the father, in the name of his son Jesus Christ. She said, oh! Well, that’s not bad. She said, that sounds pretty good!

I saw the baby and was prompted what to say next. I told her that for us it’s all about family! She said, what do you mean?I said we believe that we are children of our father in heaven, and that he loves us. I told her everything we believe comes from the fact that we know we have a loving father in heaven, who loves each of us individually and personally. He has an individualized plan for each one of us to come home to him.

She said, that’s beautiful, but what do you mean by individualized plan? I told her that we believe that God loves everyone not just the people in Jerusalem, and that he sent his son to his other sheep who didn’t live in Jerusalem.

I told her that he said this in the Bible after his resurrection. He meant that there were people around the world who were his sheep who did not live in Jerusalem, and they needed to hear his voice and know of the love their father in heaven had for them.

I told her that when Jesus was crucified, his spirit went to the spirit world. and taught the people there, who had never lived in a place where the gospel was available, or who would never Been taught the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I told her that after that he was resurrected and once he had been resurrected, then he told his apostles that he still had other sheep to go see. He received a commandment from his father to do so!

I told her Jesus went to these sheep, and some of them were in America. I told her that the ancestors of the people that lived here had prophets who spoke with God. Those prophets had taught them to look for Jesus. Jesus appeared to them, descending from heaven, and he stood before them. They felt the prints of the nails in his hands and his feet, he taught them and loved them.

He told them that the old law has been completed and then gave them a new baptism so that they could go to the next level. I told her that these people who already had their religion and their baptisms accepted the invitation to the go to the next level of discipleship and follow Jesus Christ.

She asked me if this was in North or South America. I told her I’m not sure, but that it didn’t matter because Jesus mentioned that he had other sheep that we’re not in that land or the land of Jerusalem or the lands roundabout. He said he was going to visit them so they could hear his voice and be counted among his sheep.

I told her that with this being said he could’ve gone to sheep in North America, South America, India, Africa, Japan, all over the world. I told her that because God is all powerful, he is not restrained in the loving and blessing of his children.

She said that’s right. It’s all about God’s love for his children. I told her that the prophets that lived here in America received revelation from God because he loved those children. They wrote down all of those prophecies as well as the account of the visit of Jesus Christ to America on these plates.

I told her that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet, and by the power of God he was given those plates and commanded to translate them. He was able to translate them by the power of God. I told her that today we have these teachings in the Book of Mormon and we call it the Book of Mormon another testament of Jesus Christ. I told her that this book is the word of God just like the Bible.

She said, I have heard about the Book of Mormon, but I didn’t know what it was about. The spirit was very strong in the car, and I could tell that she was engaged in the conversation, and that her spirit was engaged. I could see in her eyes that she believed, and she was accepting of the witness.

I asked her what she felt and she said I can’t even describe it. It’s a beautiful feeling. She said I feel amazing. I told her that this was the spirit of God confirming to her the things that she was hearing were true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, called by God. He translated the book of Mormon, which was the ancient writings of the people from America and their dealings with God, and his commandments to make their lives better. I told her that I know these things are true because I prayed and I felt the same spirit that we were feeling right then in the car. I told her that’s how I knew these things were true.

She said, I know they are true as well! I asked her what she thought about Jesus going to other places. She said, I had never thought about it and if you had asked me about it, I might’ve thought it was weird. Here in this car today it doesn’t feel weird it feels right and I know it’s true in my heart.

I told her it’s great to believe in a God that you know loves you and sent his son for you and to your ancestors. She said, yes it is and I believe that.

I asked her if she remembered what I said about Jesus going to the spirits in the spirit world who hadn’t had the chance to accept the gospel and she said yes. I asked her if baptism was important and she said yes. She said Catholics believe in baptism. She said we baptize babies so they can go to heaven. I told her that we believe in baptism too.

I told her that when Jesus came to America, he invited everyone as part of that new level to be baptized, and he gave them authority to preform these baptisms so that they could all have the chance come home to him.

I told her that baptism is so important that there’s no way we can go home without it. Then I asked her, what about somebody that lived in Mexico 700 years ago? I asked her if that person knew about Jesus. She said no. I asked her if that person had been baptized, and she said no. I asked her if that person could go to heaven according to the doctrine she had been taught in her life and she bowed her head for a minute, then shook her head, and then said no they can’t.

I asked her if a just and loving God would allow someone to be condemned, and stopped in their progression just because they never had an opportunity and she said no. I asked her how many people as a percentage, she thought may have lived in places over the last 5000 years where they weren’t able to hear the gospel.

She said, like 95%? I said, I’m not sure if it’s 95% but I know it’s really high. I said according to the doctrine that you’ve learned what has to happen to those people. Can they go to heaven? And she said no. I asked if a loving God would condemn 95% of his children and she said no, no way.

I asked her, if everyone needs to be baptized to go to heaven and the vast majority of God’s children never hear about that or about Jesus, how can that be fair? She said it can’t. I said, how can that be loving? She said it can’t.

I said, your a mom, how could a loving father condemn a child like yours just because it hadn’t been baptized? She looked at her baby in the car seat and said, no way!

I asked her what she would do to save her child. She said anything! Whatever it took. I told her that God as a perfect and loving father feels the same way.

I asked her if she heard of Mormon temples and she said that there was one just a block from where she lived. I told her that this was a church house, but that a temple was a bigger building where we did different things. By this time we happened to be driving by the Provo City Center Temple and I pointed it out. I said that’s a temple! She said, oh, there was a big one like that in my old town where I used to live.

I told her that in these temples we do important work and one of those things that we do is save the people who died without hearing the gospel. I asked her if she remembered what I said about Jesus going to preach the gospel to the spirits who hadn’t heard about Jesus during their life. She said, yes, I do. I asked her what she thought about that, and she said she thought it was amazing. I said, how cruel would it be to teach them and then not allow them to fully accept that and become part of it just because they weren’t baptized?

She said that would be horrible I said, in our temples we do baptisms for the dead. We go into the temple and are baptized for a person who has died. I said if a guy‘s name was Fred I would go to the temple and be baptized for him. I told her that Fred would then have the chance to accept or reject the baptism.

I told her that this is God‘s plan so that every one of his children will have a perfect opportunity to accept the gospel and come home.

She said, I love that. I said, doesn’t it sound exactly like something an all powerful, loving father in heaven would do for his children? wouldn’t he want to bring them home?! She said yes! I am a parent, and I want my children to be with me.

I told her that brings me to the other thing we do in temples. I told her that when we get married in the temple, we are married for eternity, not just until death. She looked shocked and said, that’s awesome!! She said, I would really like that!

I told her the members of the church can go in and be married and also be married for their ancestors just like they’re baptized for their ancestors. I told her that right after she’s baptized they can go in and be baptized for their grandparents and then once they’ve been sealed or married for eternity then they can go in and do that for the people in their family who had passed away.

She said, this is how it should be. I think my husband will love this. I I told her it’s all about family with us. It’s all about the love of our father in heaven, and because of that love, he wants us to be together. He gives us commandments and made a way that everybody can come home because he loves us.

The spirit was testifying in the car, she was emotional and we were at her destination. She asked me when and where she should go to church. She said that they’ve been looking for a church and didn’t know what to do. I looked up her ward address and their time and gave it to her and she said they were good and would go on Sunday for sure.

I asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she said no. Where do you get one?

I told her that you get one right here my car. I reached into my glove box and grabbed copy a copy Book of Mormon prepared by the Secrists, and gave it to her. I showed her the tabs and the questions of the soul. She asked, can I take your book!? I said, this book is yours, and it was prepared for you.

I told her that she was put in my car to get this book. I told her that was the reason for this trip. As I said that the spirit bore witness of this and I could tell she was feeling it.

She told me, I knew that early on. She said, ever since I moved here strange things like this have been happening, and I know that God‘s trying to direct us somewhere. She said, it seems like the things you taught me today were perfectly tailored to the questions I had. I see God’s hand in the things you’ve said, and the things you’ve taught.

She said that the spirit she felt is something she wanted in her family and she wanted in her life.

She said we’re on board. She took the book and the baby and headed in the building where I was dropping her. I have to say this woman was powerful, and I know the power of the love her father in heaven showed to her was the key for her. She saw everything through that lens. Isn’t that how we should all see it?

It seems like an inordinate amount of my stories begin this way but when I showed up to get this lady at the University of Utah ski team building she was nowhere to be found. I waited for a minute on the spot that was indicated and I was close to bagging it. It had snowed a lot that day and getting around was not easy. This ride was going down to Lehi and the last thing I wanted was a trip over point of the mountain with a lot of snow on the road.

I felt very impressed that this was a ride I was supposed to take so I picked up the phone and called the passenger. When I talked to the passenger I received very confusing instructions and I wasn’t any closer after that conversation to finding them than I was to begin with.

I took a moment, cleared my head, said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help me find them if I was supposed to take this ride. I could have just stayed there for another 30 seconds and got paid without going but I wanted to take the ride if Heavenly Father wanted me to even though the weather was horrible.

As I said my quiet prayer the Geo tracking for the person popped up on my screen. I followed the map around to where they were. There they were, 3 people right next to the Huntsman Center. That was a long way around from where I was supposed to pick them up but I was glad to have found them. I felt like my prayers had been answered and so I started this trip with my thoughts leaning towards looking for the gospel topic we were going to talk about.

We started talking about where they were from and what brought them to Utah. We talked about where we had lived and I mentioned that I served my mission in Argentina and spoke fluent Spanish. Talking about my mission usually opens a door. When I said this one of the people in the back sat up and took note.

There were three people in the back a guy on the left, a girl on the right and the lady in the middle. The lady was in charge and it was her account.

She leaned forward from her middle position and said I’ve had some sisters from your church coming over to my house.

I asked her if she had gone to church and she said yes. I wondered if she was going to get baptized because I figured this would be the result of the normal course of events when you go to church and have missionaries in your home. I asked her if she was going to be baptized and she said no. I quit seeing the sisters three weeks ago.

I said, why did you do that?! She said because I am a Pentecostal Evangelist and that’s the church I go to. I said, it can’t be that easy. There had to be some things that they were teaching that you liked or you wouldn’t have had them in your home and you wouldn’t have gone to church.

She said, hmmm, you’re right there were lots of things they taught that I liked. I liked how I felt and I liked talking about Jesus. I said, what were the differences between what they taught and what you believe in your church?

She said mostly Joseph Smith. She said, “in our church we don’t believe in the Prophet Joseph Smith”. I bore my testimony of the importance of prophets. I testified about Joseph Smith and the first vision. I told her that God loves us today just like he did in the Bible times and that’s why he sends us prophets to guide us. The spirit was very strong in the car and I could tell she was feeling it.

I asked her how she felt in her heat about what I had said. She thought for a minute then said “very calm and peaceful, you know I never felt like Joseph Smith as a prophet was wrong.” I thought that was an interesting answer so I probed a little deeper. I said, what were the things that they taught that made you feel like you couldn’t follow through and be baptized.

I then followed up quickly asking her if the missionaries had challenged her to be baptized. She assured me that there had been discussions of the topic of baptism but that no firm date or commitment had been presented to her.

I asked her what were the things that they taught that made her want to withdraw from the lessons and quit inviting the sisters. She started her list.

First she talked about timing. She wanted to know what we did with the tithing. She wanted to know if everybody paid tithing and then finally she wanted to know if her husband, who wasn’t interested in being baptized, or joining the church, could pay tithes at our church even though he wasn’t a member. Of course I said yes and I answered her other tithing questions as well. She was very satisfied with the answers and liked what I had to say.

I could see the spirit was working with her in two ways. One, she was focused and peaceful. Two, everyone in the back of the car mellowed and almost melted into the corner and it seemed like it was just us two in the car. The spirit was there and it was testifying of the principle of tithing. Fortunately she believed in it and had been paying tithing in her other church for years. This discussion was about nuts and bolts.

She asked about the Book of Mormon and what it’s purpose was. I told her it’s purpose was to be a second testimony of Jesus Christ. I told her that God loves all of his children not just the ones in Jerusalem and he had prophets in America. I told her that these prophets received revelation to bless God’s children with his word. I said he did it because he loves everyone and the Book of Mormon is the testimony that Jesus is the God of everyone and not just the God of Jerusalem.

Then she said what in the world is wrong with my baptism. I was baptized by immersion, when I was old and it was done by my preacher. I just don’t buy that I need to be baptized because I think I already have been. As you know if you read this blog I deal with this a lot and so I discussed Christ commanding the Nephites to be baptized even though they had previously been baptized. He invited them to a higher level of discipleship, to a new covenant through this baptism!. This is why we invite people to have that same baptism and to step up to that new covenant.

I then went into explaining, or giving an example of this new level by presenting eternal families through temple marriage. I said we don’t marry until death do us part, we marry forever! I told her that when Peter was on the earth he received power from Jesus to seal things on the earth that would be sealed in heaven. We use that same power to seal marriages and our families so that we can be families forever.

She said that’s beautiful except for I believe the Bible says that people are not married in heaven. I asked her where it said that and she said she wasn’t sure but her preacher had read it to her. The spirit then gave me the answer for this lady. I said well that is absolutely right! You have to be married on this earth. Marriage is an earthly ordinance that has to be done here but it is in force throughout all eternity if it’s done here properly by the proper authority.

I told her that if she and her husband were married in the temple and had their children sealed to them that they would be a family unit forever but that it had to be done on the earth. You couldn’t do it in heaven. I told her that we go to the temples and are married or sealed for other people who have died and then they get the opportunity to accept it but it has to be done on the earth it can’t be done in heaven.

I felt the spirit profoundly testify as I said these words and I knew that it was speaking to her heart. I could see a physical change in her countenance and her face seemed to shine in the little light that came from my phone, the radio and the lights from outside.

She said that makes so much sense because I’ve always thought it that was weird that love should die. I said that’s right. Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to love him and love each other and he’s provided a way for us to be with those we love the most forever. To receive this blessing you have to be on this new level. You need to take this new covenant.

I asked her, do you agree with me that marriage for eternity is a new level? She said yes! It is! I said, you have to have the baptism of Jesus Christ to achieve that level and receive that blessing. I said there are many blessings in our church that are additional to the blessings that you have received by the spirit and through your worship to this point but this is one of the most important.

She said, that’s amazing. Why didn’t they teach me that. I said my guess is that there was miscommunication but if you were to call them and ask them about if they would come out and teach it to you.

This ride on snowy roads to Lehi had moved quickly and we were finally pulling into her residence. I asked her, do you want that new level? Do you want these additional blessings? She said yes, I do.

I said then you need to call those missionaries and get them back in your home. Ask them about temple marriage and tell them you want to prepare for baptism.

She asked me what time they went to bed and if she should call them that night. I looked at my clock and it was 1035. I said, no, call them tomorrow because they’re in bed. I told her that if she would do this it would change her life and she would see positive changes in her marriage and her children as the spirit worked with them. She was tearing up at that point.

She said, yes I believe that. I said what does that mean you need to do. She said I need to follow the spirit, I need to call the sisters and I need to prepare to be baptized.

In front of the two people that were with her who were silent and stonefaced this woman was emotional because she felt the spirit. I asked her, what is it you’re feeling and she said tremendous pressure from my heart that’s making me cry. I told her it was the spirit of God and that he is here with us. I told her that his spirit was here to tell her that the things I said were true and what we had just discussed was being confirmed to her by the spirit.

She got out of the car and way goodbye and said she hopes to get me as a driver again. That would be great but I wish she’d move closer to downtown!

I’m so glad I got this chance to clear up a few misconceptions that had ended her pursuit of the truth in the gospel. The spirit had a plan all along.

I

One afternoon I was working in Salt Lake City and I was a little tired and thinking about taking a nap. I decided to take just one more quick ride and then take a nap. I was in the Cafe Rio parking lot on Fourth S. and Fifth E. When the ride came up, it was to Kearns. I thought, no! I’m not going to take that but the spirit said yes you are going to take that and you’re going to testify to this young man. Away I went.

I picked him up and started talking about the distance out to Kearns. I mentioned the route that I wanted to take. I was going to go down the Mountain View corridor, but the spirit impressed me that I should take him off of 47th S. and I-215 by the temple that’s being built.

I ran that route by him and asked him if that sounded OK. He said it sounded great and away we went. Talking about the route we were going to go gave me the perfect opportunity to bring up the church so I took it. I asked him if he had been noticing the temple that was being built. I told him I love how big and beautiful that temple is.

He said, it’s amazing! It’s beautiful and I can’t wait until it’s done. I want to go in it. I want to go in all of the temples when they have those open houses so I can go.

I knew that he wasn’t a member of the church because the spirit indicated to me that he wasn’t. I asked him if he had friends that were members of the church. He said, yes. I have friends along with my mother and her husband. He said my little sister is also a member.

He said they go to their little meetings and mentioned how happy it makes them. He said that he’s also got family that are Christian. He said that his dad was Christian and that God is very important to him.

I asked him why it was that he hadn’t joined a Christian church yet. I have to admit that I had a prompting about what the reasons were and this worked right into that plan. He said that everyone has good beliefs and truth but they’re all different and he couldn’t figure out which one he should join.

He said that he loved that they did good and that was an important part of the religions, but that each one of them was a little different and had a little different take on the truth that they espoused.

I told him about the mirror analogy. I told him that the church at the time of Jesus was perfect and it had all of the truth and it was held up by the apostles and prophets. Just like a mirror is held up with pegs

I told him that the church was just like that mirror. It was held up by the apostles and prophets and authority of God. I asked him what happened to the apostles and prophets and he said they were killed and died. I asked him what happened when they were taken away, he said, the same thing that happens to the mirror when you take the pegs that hold it up away. He said it would fall and break.

I said that’s exactly what happened. The mirror would fall and break into a bunch of pieces but the people loved the gospel and they would come and grab a little piece and form their church around that little piece. Just like you could take a mirror and still look into a little bit of it and see yourself. I told him it could function, but not like the full mirror could and it would never be as good.

I said that’s why there were so many churches. People grabbed pieces of this mirror and took the peace that was precious and important to them and reformed everything around that little piece, but they didn’t have all of the other pieces.

I told him that what he said is exactly what Joseph Smith said. I told him that Joseph Smith was a boy just a bit younger than he was. He was looking for the truth. He found that all of the churches had some truth, but they were different, and they taught different things and he couldn’t figure out which one was the right one.

I told him that he went and knelt and prayed to ask Heavenly Father, which one he should join. Heavenly Father commanded him to restore the whole church with all of the truth just like it had been on the Earth before when Jesus was here. The Church of Jesus Christ has the whole truth, not parts of it, not pieces of it.

Heavenly Father wanted Joseph Smith to restore the exact complete church of Jesus Christ as it existed on the earth before. He was called to became the prophet who did that. Part of what he would called to do was receive plates that contained the prophecies of the people who lived in America anciently.

I told him that the people that lived in America had prophets and they wrote their prophecies on these plates. They were given to him by an angel and he translated them by the power of God. I told him that this was the Book of Mormon.

By this time, the spirit was really strong in the car, and I said, what do you think about what I’ve been saying, do you believe it’s true or not? He said, I believe it’s true. It just makes sense to me in my mind that what you’re saying is true.

This was an 18 year old kid and he wasn’t thinking about what he was feeling and I wanted to get him to the point where he could understand that not only was his intellect being stimulated by the spirit but that his heart was too. I talked to him about how we all lived with our heavenly father, and that we have a relationship that is manifested in feelings that we developed with him. When we feel those feelings, we know that the things we’re hearing are true. The spirit poured out and we felt a burst of love in that moment.

I told him that you are the son of your father in heaven and he loves you. I said, when I say those things what do you feel in your heart? He said, I feel happy, and I feel peace. I told him that those feelings were indicative of the relationship that he had with God and when he felt those things, he knew the things that he heard were true. I told him that this was how God could guide him.

I asked him to think back and tell me if he felt that previously in the conversation. He did and said yes, I felt that since I got into your car. I told him that this was the spirit of God, testifying of the things that I was saying. I told him God was with us. His spirit was there to help him know that these things were true.

I told him that there were a couple things that he had questioned about the different Christian sects and these were the reasons why he hadn’t joined any of them to this point.

I told him that he was concerned that Christian religions seem to be very provincial or regional. These are my words for what he described as a religion that isn’t worldwide so doesn’t have the ability to save all of God’s children. He didn’t see how God could not put in place a mechanism where all of his children could come home.

I agreed big time because he was walking right into it. The spirit was helping him ask the question in a way that all I had to do was answer it. I told him that the Book of Mormon is proof that God loves all of his children, no matter where they were born. I told him that when Jesus was in Jerusalem, he said he had other sheep and that he would go to them. I told him that the Book of Mormon teaches that Jesus came here and then went to other places.

I told him that when Jesus came to America, he descended from heaven, stood on the steps of the temple and he invited people to a new level. They touched the prints of the nails in his feet and hands then asked him to save them. That’s when he gave them this new level.

I told him it’s like when you are playing a video game and you’ve done everything you can on the level, then they give you a new level. Jesus invited them to step up to a new level. He called 12 and gave them instructions and power to be baptized and to baptize others.

I told him that when his mother, sister and stepdad were baptized that they were baptized by this authority and with the same baptism as Jesus gave that day.

I told him that after Jesus taught, loved and blessed the people in America, he said, and still other sheep I have and that he was called by God to go to them. I told him that God is the God of everyone not just a God of Jerusalem . I told him that God loves everyone and so he sent his son to everyone not just the people in Jerusalem.

I told him what the Buddhist guy in my car had told me about Budda. He told me how the Buddha was the son of the great Buddha, and came to dwell with them and taught them.

When I told him, he just laughed and said, that’s the same story you just told me about America. I said, exactly! Because God is the God of everyone. He’s not provincial, and he loves all of his children.

I told him because he loves all of his children he sent his son to his children, not just to those in Jerusalem. He said, I feel that one in my chest when you say that! That’s true. I said, the spirit is testifying to you of these things, and now you know them.

I said, your mother, sister, and stepdad were baptized, why? He said, I suppose they wanted to be members of the church. I asked him why people in churches get baptized, and he said, I don’t know.

I told him that they get baptized, because Jesus commanded that everyone needs to be baptized to enter into heaven. That’s why when the people in America asked Jesus to save them, he gave them baptism. He saved them!

I told him we have the authority to do that baptism and that his family members have taken advantage of that. I told him that when Jesus came to America, he didn’t spend one second ripping on the other baptisms that the people had done previously. He gave them the next level and invited them to be baptized. I told him that his family members had accepted that invitation.

I asked him, what about people that never have the opportunity to hear about Jesus? There are people all over the world over thousands of years who have never heard about Jesus. I asked him if it would be fair for God to condemn them just because they hadn’t been baptized. He thought for a minute and said, no, they should be able to go to heaven, if they’re good people.

I asked him if it would be fair for him to withhold the opportunity to receive that baptism from them, and he said no. Right then we were turning by the temple on 4700 South and I-215. I said in that building we do baptisms. One of the main things we will do in that building is baptisms for people who died without ever having the opportunity to be baptized and have the baptism the Jesus taught, that next level.

I told him that when Jesus died, he went to the spirit world and set up the teaching of the gospel to the people who died, and that these people now had the opportunity to believe and accept those teachings. Then I told him that we go to the temple and are baptized for these people.

I told him if one of their names was Fred, I would go to the temple and be baptized for Fred. Then he would have the chance to accept it. I told him this way, God gives everyone of his children a chance to come home no matter when they were born, no matter where they were born, or under what circumstance they lived. He does this because God loves every one of his children.

I told him that this was one of the pieces of the mirror that had been lost but now that we have the full mirror, we understand God‘s plan to give everyone of his children a chance to come home.

I told him that not only do we do that in temples, but we seal families and marriages so that we could be together forever. He said that’s an amazing thing. I love that! I told him that’s next level stuff, isn’t it?! He said yes, it is. I told him that the complete mirror is a beautiful mirror and a perfect mirror and the complete gospel is the same.

He said, I wish somebody had explained this to me earlier. You’ve answered all my questions, and I didn’t even ask them. How did you know what it was I needed to hear? I told him that God had whispered to my heart through the Holy Ghost what things I should say, and I said those things. I told him I didn’t know, but God did, and that he gave me those words so that he would know that the things I taught came from God.

He said, my eyes have been opened, and I am seeing things that were right there in front of me, but I never saw. He said, you’ve explained these things to me and I want this. I asked him, do you want to be baptized? He thought about that for a minute, and said maybe.

I said, did you feel the spirit in the car witness that these things are true? He said yes. I asked him if he believed the Book of Mormon is true, and he said yes. I asked him if he believed that Joseph Smith translated that book and was a prophet based on what he felt and he said yes, those things are true.

I asked him, if Joseph Smith was a prophet, the Book of Mormon was true, and Jesus came to America? He said yes. I told him that Jesus came to America, he invited the people to be baptized, and that same invitation stands today. It’s not me inviting you to be baptized. I said, it’s Jesus extending the invitation and that’s the invitation that your mother, step father and sister accepted.

He said that makes sense. I think I would like to be baptized because that makes sense. He said I have friends that I talk to as well. I talk to a lot of people about God. I talk to my mother, I talk to my father, who is a Christian, I talk to my friends too! One of them that I talk to is a Brother Howard. He is a member of your church and he wants me to get baptized.

I told him that what I thought he should do is go to his mother and this Brother Howard and tell them what he felt in the car today and what he learned in the car today. I told him that he should tell them that he thinks he needs to get ready to be baptized and that they would help him. He said he would do that.

I told him that he should read the Book of Mormon. I asked him if he had one, and he said no but he could get one from one of his friends he was shore of it. . I told him that as luck would have it I happened to have one right there in the car with me. I reached into my glove box and pulled out one of the Book of Mormons prepared by the Secrists. I explained the tabs in the book and how they correspond with the questions of the soul pasted inside the front cover.

I told him that he should read this book and pray, and it would confirm to him what the spirit confirmed today to him which was that that book was true. I told him that reading this book would bring the spirit and would give him strength.

I looked back and he was glowing. I could see that the spirit was working on him and that he had been 100% genuine and honest about the things he had felt in the things he now believed. I asked him if his father would be upset if he decided to join his mother, stepdad, and sister in the gospel and he said no. He said that his father was very interested in him believing in something, and that he would be happy.

I told him that being around his father and doing the right things would change his father and his father would want more of what he has. I told him someday under the right circumstances your father will want to be baptized and you will be a big part of that.

I told him that earlier in the conversation, he said that he believed in helping people. I told him that’s exactly what God would have him do. I told him that he should get baptized and go on a mission. He said that he had talked to some missionaries. I told him that because he’s 18 he can go on a mission and teach people, help people and serve people. He said that’s what he would love to do. I told him I thought he would be a great missionary. He asked if I thought that they would let him do this and I said yes they would. He said, wow, that would be awesome.

He said, I want to call my mom and Brother Howard. I want to tell them about this! I’m so glad that I decided to ride with you today. I told him I was so glad that I decided to accept the ride because I was really considering canceling it because I didn’t want to drive out there and lose money. I told him that God has a better payment plan than the ride share company and that the experience we had was priceless. He laughed and said, for me too.

He got out of the car and went into his house. This kid said he wanted to be baptized and he loved the idea of serving a mission. I have no doubt based on what I felt and the fact that God put him in my car that day that these things will happen. This is a young man who wants to serve God. This is his time.

I picked up a guy up in the research park by the University of Utah. It was 2 o’clock in the morning and I decided to take this one last run. My goal had been achieved on the previous run and so I had thought that I would go home after I hit my goal for the day. The spirit had me take this last ride and I’m glad I did.

I pulled into the parking lot and this young man was standing outside. As I pulled up, I said his name. I do that so that they can know that I am the real driver. He said well, your name is Bruce and I said yes. He said I do that so that you can know that I am the one who is supposed to be here.

I laughed and said that’s true but the funny part is we never know who’s really getting in our car. People can put fake names or send cars for their friends. He asked me if that was scary, and I said sometimes.

The spirit then stepped in and told me to tell the story of the man that tried to attack me but was shocked and disabled by the power of God ( didn’t publish that story, but I have written it. If anyone would like to have that story, let me know by sending me an email in the contacts section and I will forward you a copy of it.)

Before I started, I asked him if he was religious. He said that he was more spiritual than religious. Then I told the story about this guy attacking me and how God was protecting me. As I told the story, I could feel the spirit in the car and I could tell that he was engaged. When I talked about how God shocked the attacker and that it looked like he had been hit by a taser, I could tell that he knew that I was telling the truth. There was a real understanding between us.

I told him that God had saved my life and that he had protected me that night. Then the spirit had me push In and start asking a couple of questions. I set up the questions by telling him that my experience tells me that when people say they’re spiritual, not religious, it is because of one of two reasons.

The first reason is because I don’t think they’ve found the church that they know is God‘s church or at least they haven’t taken the steps necessary to know that.

The second is they just don’t like the commandments. They think the commandments cramp their style and they don’t like to be told what to do. They just want to have fun.

He nodded, and then the spirit had me say, you’re in the first category. You’re not sure that you found the church and you have some doubts. He said that’s true.

I told him that the spirit had whispered some things to me about that and I asked him if it would be OK if I asked some personal questions. He said yes.

I said the first thing is that you feel like you were abandoned by God. You felt like he wasn’t there for you. You don’t feel clean.

He said that’s exactly it, I don’t feel clean. I don’t feel worthy of the presence of God. I told him that when he was hurt and when he felt helpless and damaged, Satan whispered into his ear and said that God doesn’t love you. Since then, he’s told you that you’re dirty and not worthy. I said, you’ve done things that you know you should not have done and you feel bad about them and it’s just added to the guilt.

I told him that Satan now uses that on top of the guilt he heaped on you initially. Now it seems insurmountable, like there’s no way he could ever be clean.

I told him Satan is a liar And the things he says aren’t true. I told him that God is our father and he loves us. The spirit was there in the car with us. The spirit was really strong and I could tell he was feeling it. I told him that God would not send that spirit if he were hopeless. I told him that his father loved him.

I asked him to identify that spirit to me and he said that it felt like he had someone right there with him and wasn’t alone anymore. I told him that was the spirit of God, and it was there to help him know that the things I was saying were true.

I told him that one of the things that made him not want to be in a religion was that Satan had convinced him that God wasn’t real, because a just God, and a loving father, would not allow someone to suffer like he had. I told him that this was one of his great doubts. I said it was the thing Satan used to drive a wedge between he and his father.

He said, that is amazing! How do you know these things? I told him that the spirit had whispered them to me because his father in heaven knew them. He had given them to me, so that he would know that the words I said, come from God.

I asked him if he believed that they came from God and he said that they had to. There’s no way you could’ve known this.

I explained to him that God gives us free will and allows us to choose to sin or to follow Christ. I told him that when people make bad decisions, sometimes other people are casualties of those decisions. I told him that this is where Satan gets in the ears of those people who are the casualties and tells them to blame God, hate God, and hate his religion.

I told him that this is how Satan gets us to turn from God and Jesus and their church. I told him that God wants us to look to Jesus because he atoned for our sins and suffered all of the negative impacts of sin.

Then I looked at him and said this that I am going to say now is especially for you. God wants you to know that Jesus paid for your embarrassment, your humiliation, your pain, and the injustice of what you suffered. He suffered those things so that you wouldn’t have to go through this alone.

That’s why he is reaching out to you today because you shouldn’t have to go through this alone. I told him it was really cool that when he felt the spirit it felt like he wasn’t alone. I told him that God has an answer to what Satan is saying which is to blame God, blame the church and to blame other people. God’s answer is look to Christ and be healed. Let Christ comfort you and you can be lifted. Give him your burdens.

I told him that God also expects us to be his hands to help people who have been damaged by other people’s agency. I asked him if that made sense. He said, wow, yes.

I told him that the next thing that I felt to say that was an issue for him was the justice of God. I said he looked at God like some people look at Santa Claus. A lot of kids when they’re around 10 years old start figuring out that it would be impossible for these things to be true because there are so many people in the world and most of them don’t even believe in Christmas.

He said that’s the exact analogy that I’ve thought of. I told him that his view of God as being provincial and regional because of Jesus Christ and the church being in Jerusalem was really a stumbling block. It was really an issue for him. He was putting limits on God.

I taught him that Jesus came to America and then went to other places to gather God’s children, teach them that God loves them and bless them. I said, is that more like what you think an all powerful God should be? He said that’s exactly how God should be, he should love everyone,

I said Jesus came to America and he descended from heaven and he stood on the steps of the temple. The people touched the prints of the nails in his hands and his feet and then they said Hosana which means “God save us”. He answered that plea as their God by calling up 12 men and giving them the authority to baptize and later, give them the Holy Ghost so that these people could be saved, this way these people could come home to God. This way they didn’t have to be alone

I told him that God loved everyone no matter when they lived or where they lived. He sent his son for everyone not just the people in Jerusalem. I told him that when Jesus was in the tomb before he was resurrected he organized the teaching of the gospel to those who died without hearing it, or having a good opportunity to hear it. Because of this, regardless of whether they lived 2000 years ago in China or they’re going to be born next week in India they will all have a chance to come home.

God sent his son to them so that they could be taught. I told him that we go to the temples and are baptized for these people using their name so that they can accept that baptism and go home.

I told him that when Jesus was in America, he invited those people to be baptized, and when they were baptized, they were clean and pure. They could then be confident to stand before God. I told him likewise when these people who have passed on have their baptism in the temple, they are clean and confident to stand before God.

Then I said, “that’s your problem.” You’ve never felt clean and confident to stand before God because of these things that have happened to you and those things that you have done. I told him it’s time to throw that off and become clean. I asked him if he knew that when he’s baptized all of those sins will be washed away. He said , no he didn’t know that. I told him that this is true. He said that he had never been baptized in any church. I said, “well, here we go!”

I told him that when he is baptized and gets the gift of the Holy Ghost, he will feel the presence of God like he did right then in the car and it will be with him, it will testify to him that he’s clean. This will give him confidence to be able to stand before God.

I told him that in the military they’re taught to have confidence and stand with their brothers. I told him that he couldn’t be strong without that confidence. I said it’s the same in this war. We are at war with evil and we need to have confidence in our ability to stand with God. I told him that starts with baptism and knowing that he’s clean and worthy.

I promised him that he would feel clean. I asked him if he felt the spirit confirm this and he said yes.

I got the impression that he was thinking about someone who had talked to him about the church. I said, you have someone that you’re thinking about right now. Someone who’s been talking to you about the church. Am I right? He said yes, how do you know? I told him that the spirit whispered that to me and I wanted him to know that this person will be the one to help him be baptized. I asked where he knew that person from.

He said that this person is a member of the national guard and that he is in the military with him. He said, he talks to me about it all the time we’re good friends. I asked him when was the next time they have drill and he said this Saturday.

I laughed and said, it wasn’t a coincidence that he was in my car today. I told him that there is no such thing as coincidence. He said he believed that.

I said, have you got the impression yet that God put you in my car, told me things about you I had no business knowing, teaching you the doctrine of Christ, perceiving your thoughts, and speaking so boldly? He said, it is pretty amazing.

I asked him why he thought that might be happening. He said, God has found me and he wants me to come home. I said, how amazing is that to know that your father in heaven knows you personally, knows where you are, knows what I needed to say, and revealed it to me so that you can know this. He is reaching out to you to bring you home. He said words weren’t sufficient to explain how he felt.

I said, when Jesus was in America, he stood there and invited the people to be baptized He meant that for you too. I told him that Jesus was inviting him to be baptized. I asked him if he would commit to do what Jesus wanted so that he could come home. I asked him if he would be baptized, and he said yes. I told him that his friend would help him and he said he knew that his friend would.

I asked him if he had been to church before and he said a couple of times. I asked him if he had been recently and he said no. I told him he would have to go for a few weeks in a row to show God that he was serious. He said, I will and I am serious. I’ll go with my friend this week at drill.

I told him much of what I had said was in the Book of Mormon. I asked him if he had one and he said that he had one somewhere but wasn’t sure. Where it was. I grabbed a copy prepared by the Secrists and handed it to him. I told him, “here’s one. I would like you to study this book. I would like you to pray, and I would like you to feel for the same feeling you feel right now.”

You should know that when the Holy Ghost is with you, you will never be alone. That is the spirit of God that had brought me here tonight and brought these words to you. I told him that when he sees his friend, he should walk up with that copy of the Book of Mormon, put it down in front of him and say I need to talk to you about what happened in my car ride the other night.

I told him to tell his friend everything that had gone on, including what he felt and his commitment to be baptized. He said he would. The spirit was incredibly strong. I decided to bare my testimony of Joseph Smith, his translation of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel. I bore my testimony of the love that our father feels for us, and how he wants to bring us home. I told him that tonight he had seen firsthand how God loves him. I said that a father reaches out to a child in trouble, gives him confidence and then brings him home.

The car was a reverent place and it was almost as if neither one of us wanted to move. Finally, he decided he needed to get out and go in. He thanked me and reiterated his commitment. He said his life has been changed and his doubts had been erased. That’s what the spirit can do.

He got out of the car and walked into his new life of faith and knowledge of who he is, and that his father loves him. He knows not to listen to any bad thoughts or any doubts that would say otherwise

I picked up a guy at the orthopedic therapy building at the University of Utah. It’s on the south side of a medical campus and you always pick up people who are struggling from that place. The guy really had a hard time getting into the car.

He was in his late 30’s – early 40’s and seemed like a really nice guy. After he got in and got settled I told him that he needed to quit skateboarding. He laughed and said he wished he could. I asked him where he was from and he said he lived in Utah all of his life.

I said, here comes another $10,000 question. What really happened to you? He said, “I was out on the freeway changing the tire on my work truck. I had been towing our work tailer and the flat was on the drivers side rear wheel. While I was changing the tire on the truck, another truck came along and hit me.”

He said that it broke his back and both legs in the femurs. I decided to be obvious and said, wow that sounds like it hurt really bad. He laughed and said it hurts really bad. He said that he was trying to do this without getting addicted to the drugs and so he was allowing a little bit more pain but he needed something and it was really hard for him.

He said he was married and had three kids ages 17, 15 and eight. He said he needed to go to work because he was only getting 60% pay and that was going to run out. The problem is that he couldn’t move. My heart went out to him.

I asked him what his employer had done to try to help his figure out how he could get back to work. He said he was working with them to see if they could get therapy to train him so that he could do something until he got better.

I asked him if there had been a spiritual component to his recovery. Then I stopped and asked him if it was OK if I asked questions about that. He said yeah, go ahead. I asked him again if there was a spiritual component to his recovery, and he said he didn’t know what I meant.

I talked to him about the atonement of Jesus Christ and how when Jesus suffered for us he not only suffered for our sins, but he suffered for our pain and illnesses and injustices. I told him that he was smack dab in the middle of pain, injustice and illness and that the atonement of Jesus Christ could help.

I had the prompting that he was a member and I said, are you a member of the church? He said, well, I was baptized, and I went to church until I was about 15. I haven’t been back since then. I said ahhh you’ve been on vacation! He laughed. I said, when I started talking about the atonement you were thinking in your mind,”I’ve turned my back on the church. I’ve turned my back on Jesus. I’ve done a few things that are against the commandments and there’s no way he’ll help me.”

I told him, that was exactly what Satan wanted him to think and that Satan had planted those ideas in his head. He said you are right about what I was thinking, how did you know? Talk to me more.

I told him that in the Garden of Gethsemane, and on the cross, Jesus suffered an infinite atonement and not just infinite in time, but infinite in it’s scope where he suffered all of the negative feelings and emotions and conditions that anyone would ever go through. I told him that by doing this, Jesus received the power to be able to lift us and take ease our burdens when we struggle.

I told him about the people of Alma in the Book of Mormon. He remembered Alma, but not the story of when Alma and his people fled from the King but were captured by the Lamanites.

I told him that the Lamanites made them slaves and gave them heavy burdens, but that their faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement was able to lift them through those burdens.

I told him that the burdens they had were not removed, but that they seemed light after Jesus blessed them through his atonement.

I told him that Jesus has the power to help us in our condition, whatever it is, through that power that he earned by performing the atonement. The spirit was in the car and he was feeling it. I asked him what he was feeling and he told me that it was a feeling he hadn’t felt for a long time. He told me that he loved it and that he was calm inside and knew everything would work out.

I told him that being confident in the presence of God is what the atonement is all about. I told him Satan was the one whispering things in his ears about not being worthy or qualifying for Jesus. I told him Jesus spent his life with people that weren’t worthy nor qualified and he healed them and he lifted them.

I told him he can do this for you. The spirit was really strong in the car and I testified to him that we have the atonement because things are hard and that’s God’s way. I told him about the brazen serpent in the wilderness. Moses erected this serpent so that the people bitten by the snakes could look to Christ or to the serpent and be healed. Those who wouldn’t look died.

I told him it’s the same for us today. God wants us to look to him and Jesus Christ when we have a problem so we can live. Satan wants us to blame God, be afraid of God, run from God and we die spiritually.

I said it is the same today just like it was in the time of Moses. Christ is there, all we have to do is look to him and he can help us through our hardest times. He will carry us through our trials if we let him.

He said, the spirit is really strong and I know that what you’re saying is true, but I haven’t been to church in forever. How do I go about doing that?

I said, who is your bishop? He said, “I have no idea who my bishop is!” I said, do you know anyone who would? He said, yeah, my mom.

I told him to call his mom, get the name of the bishop and his phone number and then call him.

I told him to ask the bishop to come over to his house and give him a blessing and to bless his home and his family.

He was quiet in the backseat then he said, do you think he would really do that for me? I said, yes absolutely, 100% without a doubt. I told him that the bishop had the priesthood and the authority to call down the power of heaven and could help him access the atonement.

He said, maybe that’s the part I’ve been missing here. We were coming up to his home and he said, do you think it would be OK if I called him tonight? He said, it’s not Sunday. I assured him bishops are used to getting calls all days of the week. I promised him that his bishop would not be offended and he would be more than happy, even thrilled, to come over and do this for him.

He promised me that he would. He said, as soon as I go in I’m calling my mom and getting that number. He said that probably she’d want to come and I told him that was OK. He grabbed my shoulder and thanked me and said, do you know that this has meant a lot to me. This ride was meant to be. I promise I am going to call my bishop.

He got out of the car and walked into his home in Magna.

Yeah, you’ve heard me complain about driving from the University of Utah to Magna before, but I am struck by the number of times the Lord uses that distance to help me get an opportunity to teach.

I have heard people make fun of people from Magna, but I’ll tell you what, miracles happen in Magna and this week one of His sheep is taking steps to come home in Magna

I was working in Salt Lake and trying to stay up there to make money. It was 11 o’clock at night and I had three hours left when I got a ride to go to Freedom Boulevard in Provo Utah.

That’s about as horrible as it can get because that ends your night. Let’s be clear. I don’t work the app in Utah County because It isn’t profitable. You drive 20 minutes to pick up a person to take them 5 minutes and get paid $4. I was going to cancel the ride and then I thought, no! You need to take this right and so I did

I went over and picked up this girl. She was a Korean girl who was a returned missionary and we had a good talk. It was a lot of fun but in the end it put me right in the middle of Provo. I got got some gas and thought I would go home. When I got up to Orem, I got a new ride. It was for up South Provo all the way down to Saratoga Springs. No one wants to go to Saratoga Springs.

When I picked this guy up, I asked him if it was hard to get a ride and he said nearly impossible. He said, I wonder if this is a bad ride for people. I explained to him that it’s a big money loser but that he seemed like a nice guy so let’s go.

He’s a 21 year old kid that sold solar panels all over the place. He was a salesman and I like that!!!

As we started the drive, I saw a light in his face and I knew why he was in my car. I didn’t know if he was a member of the church or not but I could see he had a light and we were supposed to talk about it.

I asked him, “are you a member of the church? He said no. I said I only ask because you’ve got a light in your face that makes me think that you are. He said, I get that from people sometimes.

I asked him, is it OK if we talk about this? He said yes. I asked him if he has friends that are members of the church, and he said yes, he’s got a lot of them. A lot of the people he works with live in Utah County and are good members of the church.

He said that he grew up partially in Midvale and that his adoptive parents who he lived with are very against the church. Personally he doesn’t know where he stands.

I asked him if he wanted me to talk about what some of the things are that we believe as a church. Things that he might not know. He said yes.

I started with, we believe that we are children of our father in heaven, real spiritual children of our father in heaven, and that he loves us, and we love him. I told him that everything else is based on the fact that he is a loving father.

I told him that because Heavenly Father is a loving father, he loves all of his children. I told him that Heavenly Father is a perfect, loving heavenly father, and he loves all of his children and that’s so important for us to know.

When I said that the spirit was in the car instantly and I could tell that it has been waiting to burst into the car and it was pretty intense.

I told him that our heavenly father sent his son Jesus Christ, to be the savior, and not just of Israel, or the Middle East or the earth but of all of God‘s children. I told him that Jesus Christ paid for the sins and angst and sorrow and injustice and sicknesses and problems of everyone who ever lived. He didn’t just do it for Israel, but he did it for everyone. It was not a provincial sacrifice, but that it was an infinite sacrifice.

I told him that Jesus Christ paid for our sins and was crucified but then he didn’t quit teaching while he was a spirit in the spirit world. He set up the teaching of everyone who has ever passed away without having a good opportunity to accept the gospel so that everyone would have a chance.

I told him that after Jesus was resurrected, he said other sheep I have, which are not of this fold. I asked him what that meant to him. He said people in other places? I said yes.

I told him that Jesus, then came to America, descended from heaven and the people touched the prints of the nails in his feet and his hands and asked him to save them. He gave them baptism and the Holy Ghost. Then he said still other sheep I have who are not of this land or the land roundabout. I received a commandment from my father to go to them so they can hear my voice and be counted. I told him God loves all of his children not just the ones in Jerusalem.

When I was talking about Jesus suffering for our pains and injustices, I noticed that he was a little pensive, and maybe distracted. Finally, he interrupted what I was saying, and he said, how does that work?

The spirit whispered to me that this young man had a rough life. The spirit let me know that he had been abused in unspeakable ways and that he had suffered loss. It was hard for him to bear.

I told him that when he was young and he was being abused he thought no one cared. He felt like he had been abandoned. He felt the dark and evil not only of the acts being perpetrated on him, but of the person that was doing it to him.

I told him that in that moment when he was about to quit and Give up, he felt empowered and lifted from a place he didn’t know. He felt a surge of strength that came from somewhere that he wasn’t aware existed. I told him that strength gave him the power to withstand what was going on.

I told him that power came from God and that God was angry with what was going on but that he had sent his love to carry him through. I told him that this power had stayed with him all these years and that’s part of the light people see in his face.

He said he almost lost his faith, and he had not embraced a religion because he was trying to figure out how God could allow that to happen. How could God allow a child to go through what he and his brother had to go through?

I told him that God gives us our free will to make choices and he can’t take it away but that he has provided a savior for us that we can look to. He can carry our burdens and lift us through.

I told him that Satan would have us blame and hate God and grind on that forever. God wants us to look to Christ so that we can heal and move on. I told him God could take away that sting and God could lift that burden.

I told him that through the atonement of Christ it’s possible for us to forgive people who have wronged us greatly, and let Christ carry that burden for us. I told him that is a very powerful move. It allows us to be strong and happy, instead of weak and victimized.He smiled and I didn’t know why.

As we continued down the road we talked about Jesus in America some more and how he talked about baptism and how it was a new level that everybody is invited to come to.

I told him that he felt dirty and unworthy because of some of the things he had done. I said, you’re thinking about those things right now, the answer is this baptism. Once you are baptized you will be clean. Once you are baptized you will be able to stand before God as if you had never committed those sins..

This is what he offered to the people in America and this is what he offers to you. I told him that this message is why he was put in my car tonight.

We talked about how Jesus said that he was going to go to other places and we discussed what places those might be.

I felt a strong prompting to talk about baptisms for the dead in conjunction with Jesus teaching the spirits in prison so I did just that. I explained baptism for the dead, and about how God has a plan for everyone who’s ever lived even if they didn’t have the opportunity to accept the gospel in this life. They could accept it in the next life and be baptized by proxy through baptism for the dead. I explained to him that this is God‘s perfect plan.

God wants everyone to accept or have the opportunity to accept that baptism this Jesus invited the people in America to have. I told him that the prophets in America wrote down all these things and put them on metal plates. Joseph Smith translated those plates by the power of God and we have the Book of Mormon today.

I bore my testimony of the first vision and Joseph Smith seeking the truth and how in the end he read the Bible, went to the forest, prayed and then saw God the father and Jesus Christ. They called him to be their prophet.

The spirit was incredible in the car and I asked him what it felt like. He told me. Then I asked him to remember that. I told him that’s how he felt with God in the pre-existence and this is how he feels when God’s spirit is present. I told him that God is present in the car with us and that his spirit was there to justify the truth of the things that I was saying. He said he believe that.

I went back to Joseph Smith and told him that Joseph Smith was called to restore the whole church. The way it had existed in the time that Jesus Christ was on the earth and before it had been dismantled and broken apart. The people had left precious parts out. I told him that one of those parts was baptisms for the dead.

That was the second time in a short period that I brought a baptism for the dead and I felt prompted to do it. Then I found out why.

He opened up about his brother who in 2010 had committed suicide. People told him that he was killed in a car wreck, but he knew the truth and it hurt. I got the opportunity to teach him what Elder Holland teaches about mental illness and how it’s the same as having cancer or a heart condition. I told him that dying from a disease is dying from a disease and his brothers,was no different.

I felt prompted very strongly to say that his brother had been taught and accepted the gospel. This is why he was in the car with me tonight and spirit was screaming in our ears. He nodded affirmatively. He said I believe that.

I said your brother has accepted the gospel and now he needs to be baptized and that is your job. When Jesus invited people to be baptized and take that step to the new level, he invited you to take that step also. It’s time for you to do that and then shortly after, go to the temple and be baptized for your brother.

It was quiet in the car but it was hot with the spirit. He said that’s right! I have lots of friends and have had lots of coincidences that have happened. I am not a guy who believes in coincidence but you knowing all these things tonight about me and about what I’m thinking is crazy. I know that it is not a coincidence.

Then he said that his birth mother and father who had abused him had been reaching out to him and trying to make contact. He broke into full tears as he said that he didn’t or hadn’t known what to do but tonight he knows that through the atonement of Christ he can forgive and let God deal with it. He said he knows that he can trust God to take care of it. He said that he will trust Christ and move on. He believes that he can do this without hate in his heart.

I told him that I was given those things to say by God so that he could know that these things are true. He said I know that these things are true. I said, Jesus Christ has invited you to be baptized, and it’s time we get on to that. I reached into my glove box and pulled out a Book of Mormon prepared by the Secrist, and gave it to him. I said, this is the Book of Mormon it’s another testament of Christ. It testifies the Jesus Christ is the savior of everyone not just the people in Jerusalem. It testifies that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that we have the authority of God on the earth.

I gave it to him and asked him to read it and he said he would. We talked about his schedule and how he could work this out. He said he works every day with guys that go to church and went on missions. They would be so excited to hear what happened. I told him to go to them and tell them exactly what happened in our car tonight.

I told him to tell them that he wants to be baptized this month and he said he would. I said, you can tell by the spirit that it is the right decision and he said I know. It was time for him to get out of the car because we had been in the car on this last ride of the day for an extra half an hour. I had not been charging him during that time by the way.

He asked me if it would be OK if he gave me a hug and I said you betcha. I got out, walked around and gave him a big hug. He promised me again that this was what he needed to do and that he would follow through. He has missionary and temple work to do

I know he will do it too.

When I think about this experience and the number of miracles, it took to put me in that place at that time. I am blown away. The ride that I didn’t want to take that brought me from Salt Lake to put me in a position that I could get this ride that I didn’t want, where I had work to do. God is great and his plan is flawless

It was a Saturday night and I just finished up my bonus and was feeling pretty good. I decided to take another ride and it took me down to a place called Shades on State. It’s kind of like the new place for college students where they don’t really check their ID and they can dance and get drunk.

I pulled up to pick up a girl and I didn’t know how many people would be with her. Usually when you go to a place like that, you fill your car with people and so I was a little shocked when I saw one person come running towards the car. I want to emphasize no one comes running towards the car on Saturday night at these places so I knew she wasn’t drunk even though she may have been drinking.

She got in the car and she was bubbly but underneath that I could tell she wasn’t really that happy. I said to her, so you like to be happy? She said, I try to be happy. When she said that I had a flood of promptings and so I just started saying them.

I understand the risk of just saying things because if they complain, I can be de deplatformed and I can and lose my ability to drive but the spirit came hard and I decided to follow.

I said you try to be happy but inside you’re trying to cover something up. You’ve been hurt and some people have hurt. Those people hurt you bad and it’s difficult for you so you over emphasize with a cheerful attitude. You try to compensate so that people don’t know what’s going on inside.

I told her that she didn’t feel like she was lovable and she didn’t feel like she was loved. I told her that I was here tonight to tell her that she was loved and that it was her Heavenly Father that loved her.

I could tell in the way she looked that she was shocked. She teared up saying I’m about to cry. She asked me how I could possibly know these things. I told her that’s OK because I felt by the spirit that I was supposed to say those things to her and that she needed to know that her father in heaven knew who she was and he loved her.

She said, I was raised Mormon. When 22 year olds say that they were raise Mormon I always chuckle. It’s kind a like, well, you’re not raised yet! There’s a long way to go! Of course, I don’t say that out loud but I always think it.

I started talking to her about the things that were coming to my mind, first off the atonement of Jesus Christ. I told her that when we have difficult things in our lives, we need to turn to Christ. I explained to her that God‘s plan is for us to turn to Christ where he can use his atonement to lift our burdens and soothe our souls. Satan‘s plan is to blame God, blame the church, being blamed the people at church, blame our family, blame everybody else and then marinate in our sorrow.

I told her that God’s plan with us looking to Christ allows us to be happy because he lifts our burdens, just like he lifted the burdens of the people of Alma when they were in captivity. I told her that they could barely even feel those burdens.

I told her that if she would look to God, Jesus Christ and his atonement instead of blaming, her burdens could be lifted. The spirit was really strong in the car and she was tearing up again. I told her that in the Book of Mormon it talks about the brazen serpent, and if the people would look to the serpent, which represented Christ, they would live, and if not, they would die. I told her that it’s the same thing here, if we look to Christ, he lifts our burdens and he blesses our life and we live. If we were to Satan, we die spiritually and blame others and become miserable.

I talked to her about LGBTQAI+ people I know who are good members of the church,who hold positions in the church, and worthily exercise the priesthood in their callings because they have learned this lesson. They have learned that if you allow the atonement to work in your life, you can trust God and in the end he will make it right. I told her that the problem is not just for them, but for us. Whatever happens to us in this life or whatever challenge we have, through the atonement it can be made right.

She said she never thought of it that way and she beamed. It was clear to me that this was one of her major issues and she saw an answer, and the spirit confirmed it to her. I asked her if she was feeling the spirit and she said “oh yeah “I asked her what she knew about the spirit and she said she knew what it felt like but she hadn’t felt it in a long time before tonight.

I told her that God is an all inclusive God who loves everyone and that’s why he sent Jesus to America and to the other places in the world.

I told her that baptisms for the dead is another great example of God showing his love to everyone, no matter where they were born, no matter when they were born. God has a plan for everyone regardless of their circumstance.

She said that she remembered doing baptisms for the dead and that it was the time in her life other than in the car right then that she felt the spirit this strong. I told her that it was because she was saving God‘s children. I asked her how she would feel if someone saved her child and she said she would love them and be so grateful.

I told her that when she did baptisms for the dead that is exactly how God felt. He was so grateful and loving for her having gone there to help save his child. I told her that this is one of the reasons why she felt his spirit so strongly in that occasion.

I explained to her that we all lived with our father in heaven and we had this feeling between us, that was nurtured over thousands of years and then when we came to earth, we didn’t feel it. Then one day we felt the spirit, she burst into my explanation and said, and then that’s what we feel when we feel the spirit. I said yes! She said that’s what we’re feeling in the car right now. I said yes, this is what we’re feeling in the car right now.

You’re feeling the spirit of your father in heaven, which is here. He is here with his spirit so that you can know that he wants you back. I told her about Ammon and how he came into the king and told the king the things that were in his heart that no one knew and that no one could have known. The king asked, are you God? He said no, but God has given me these things to know so that you will know that the things I say are from him and are true.

I looked at her and said it’s the same thing for you. The things I’ve said to you tonight shook you and surprised you that I knew them. She said absolutely. I said I don’t know them but God does and through the gift of the Holy Ghost he has let me know what to say so that you can know that the things I am saying are from him. Then he sent his spirit to confirm that to you. She choked up again. I felt the impression that her parents have been praying for her and that’s why I was there that night.

I told her, your parents have been praying for you. She said, yes, they tell me that all the time. I told her that because of their prayers, she was put into my car tonight so that she could feel the love of her father in heaven and know that he wants her back, know that he loves her and know that he cares. I told her that now she knew without a doubt that these things were true.

Her countenance had completely changed since she got in the car. She wasn’t fake happy anymore.

She was beaming. She had reacquainted herself with the spirit that she had forsaken before she came to college. I asked her if she would go to church the next day. She said, I will try. I looked at her skeptically and said that, we don’t like try we like to do. I received the impression that she hadn’t been to church at school and didn’t know where to go. I said, do you know where the Institute building is on campus? I knew that she did because it’s only a little ways away from her apartment. She said yes. I said, promise me that you will go at 11 tomorrow. She said she would.

She said in this ride everything had changed. I know what I have to do.

I told her that her father in heaven wants her back and that it starts with saying her prayers, reading her Book of Mormon and going to church.

She said she would do that. She thanked me like 5 times and got out of the car.

Believe me, I am smart enough to understand that she wasn’t thanking me because it was the spirit that was in the car that made it all happen. She had a miracle that night and now she doesn’t have to try to be fake happy.

One night late I picked up a young lady who had been working and started to take her home. She seemed a little hard. The way she talked the words she used were just the kind of things that had a little street vibe to them.

As we talked I got the impression that she needed a Book of Mormon and that I needed to talk to her about the church.

At first I was questioning this because of her rough exterior. The way she was dressed, the way she talked and just her vibe. I couldn’t figure out how in the world I was going to get into that conversation but I accepted the challenge and away we went.

We talked about work and how things were going and everything and I felt like I should use that as my entry into the conversation. I said, what days do you work? She said, I work Monday through Friday usually but sometimes if we don’t get our work done they have us work on the weekends too.

This was the opening I needed and I said, I need my weekend, I need Sunday off so that I can go to church and rest from everything all week long. I didn’t stop there. I told her that I go to church and I interpret the meetings into Spanish and being in church makes my day really nice.

She said she grew up in a family that went to church all the time but that they were really harsh towards anyone that didn’t believe exactly like they believed and they shouted them down. She said it was very uncomfortable and she had to separate herself from that.

She said that right now she was going around looking for different truths so that she could find her way. I spoke to her from what she said and reconfirmed with her that what she was saying was that she wanted a religion that recognized that the other religions had truth in them. She said yes. She said it can’t be that they’re all evil because they teach similar things.

If this wasn’t exactly the Joseph Smith story, I’ve never heard it. I told her that I wanted to tell her the story of Joseph Smith. She said she had heard of him. I said he was the first prophet of these times in our church. I said that he was a young man and he looked around at all of the different churches. He was confused as to why they all had so much contention between each other and why they taught different things yet professed the same belief.

She said, that’s exactly right. I told her that he read in the Bible in James and learned that he should ask God. He went to a grove of trees and prayed. God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. When I said that it got quiet. That doesn’t mean that there was a lot of noise before because there wasn’t but it was a quiet all the way down to your soul. I could tell that she was touched.

I told her that God the father and Jesus Christ called him to be the prophet to restore the church just like Jesus had it when he lived on earth.

I told her that when Jesus was on the earth the church existed in its perfect condition but when he was killed and his apostles were killed it fell.

I used the example of the mirror held up by the pegs and when you take out the pegs which are representative of the apostles the mirror falls. I told her that people grabbed parts of that mirror that were important to them and they reformed churches around those parts but they didn’t have the whole gospel.

I told her that was what happened and that’s why every church has a little truth in it but that none of them have the whole truth except for the one that Joseph Smith restored under the direction of our father in heaven. She said, oh, that makes a lot of sense. I asked her what she felt and she said that she could feel a warmth and a peace that was different than she felt before.

I told her that it was the spirit of God and that it was there. I told her that when she felt that spirit she knew the things she was hearing were true. I asked her if God would send his spirit if false things were being taught and she said no. I said this is how you know it’s true, that Joseph Smith restored the church.

I told her that he also translated a book called the Book of Mormon. She said, “oh! I’ve heard of that book.” I said it is the collection of revelations received by the ancestors of the Native American peoples. I told her that they had prophets because God loved them.

I told her that Jesus Christ said he would visit other sheep and that this was who he was talking about. I told her that Jesus Christ descended from heaven and stood on the steps of the temple and taught the people. We have the account of this visit in the Book of Mormon because God loves everybody.

She said that’s really cool, that’s very important. I reached into my glove box and pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon prepared by the Secrists. I asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she said no. I gave it to her and asked her if she would like to read it. She said, yes, very much. I said, this is your book. She looked shocked and said, I can take your book?

I told her this book was here for the purpose of helping people find Jesus Christ. I said that’s you, so this book is for you. I told her it was prepared for her so that she could learn and come closer to Jesus Christ. She said, that’s what I need, that’s what I’ve needed for a long time.

I told her that what she was feeling in the car was her soul breathing in the spirit. I told her that the spirit was there to let her know that her Heavenly Father loved her and that God was about love. I told her that we believe that families and marriages are forever not just till death because it’s about love.

I told her that all the pieces of that mirror that everybody grabbed were true but they just didn’t have the whole mirror. I told her that we did and it was contained in that book. I told her we also have modern prophets who help us understand what God would have us do today.

I told her that when Jesus came to America he taught the people the fullness of his gospel which was a step up from what they had believed and he asked them to take that step with him to a higher level. He invited them to be baptized and that’s why as members of our church we want people to be baptized regardless of if they’ve been baptized before. Jesus wants us to take that step so that we can participate with the full gospel, the full mirror. We can be married for eternity and have the power of God in our lives

She said, that’s what I need. I need to find a church that talks more about what they believe in than finding faults in other churches. She said her parents and family were really abusive regarding other churches.

I asked her if she had friends that were members of the church and she said yes. I asked her if she would call one of them and tell them about this ride and she said she would. She said this was exactly what she needed.

She commented again on what she felt in the car, on the spirit of God, and said she wanted to feel it more often.

She said “I will read the book and I will call my friend. I will pray to my Heavenly Father. Maybe someday I will understand that spirit better.” She added, “I just wanted to tell you again that this ride was not an accident, it’s just what I needed.”

As I think about it, it was very impressive that she accepted as true everything I testified of. The spirit was strong and she recognized truth coming into her heart. That’s always neat when that happens. We should never be shy to tell the story of Joseph Smith and the first vision or to talk about the Book of Mormon because the spirit it brings opens hearts and changes lives.

One day I was in town, trying to make up some extra money early in the day. The ride share companies are tightening down our compensation and it’s making it a little more difficult for us to get by. We are having to tighten our belt and work a little bit more so I was doing that.

I got a ride to pick up somebody at The Cheesecake Factory. It’s right downtown on first south and I swooped in there to pick her up. She didn’t come for a minute but finally she showed up. She was a pretty young lady, but I could tell she had pain in her face. I could tell she had been through some things and the spirit was telling me that it was time to get busy. I had an 8 minute ride so it kind of had to be quick.

I told her that she seemed familiar to me. She did but I didn’t know from where. I asked her if she had taken car services before and she said yes. Two years ago she used to take them a lot, but then she went to rehab and hadn’t taken a rideshare for a year or so.

I felt prompted to speak to her about addiction, but I didn’t have any time to ease into it so I asked her if it would be OK if I talked to her about her addiction a little, and she said that would be fine. I explained to her about the spirit of our Heavenly Father and how our soul has a spot that we are programmed to want to fill with the spirit of our father. We spoke about how Satan exploits that. He fills that space with drugs and alcohol and riotous living when that’s not what was intended to be there.

I told her the purpose of that feeling was to draw us to God and bring us home, and Satan uses it to bind us down and take us away. She told me that she never heard anyone articulate that but that was exactly what had happened with her.

She said that she felt like she was caged in and had no out. She said that she felt like she had no options and that she had gone to her tribal elders to ask them for help. She was a Native American of the Navajo tribe. They had told her that there was something in her and something around her that was making her feel that way.

They didn’t help her. I told her that it was satan and that he had tied her down with addictions and bad decisions. This made it so that she wasn’t free. I told her a lot of people look at the commandments of God as restricting, but she was finding out right now in a very real sense that the chains satan binds you down with are the real restriction.

She agreed and said, that makes so much more sense than what they said. What they said had bothered her. Now she had a real answer.

I talked to her about the atonement of Jesus Christ and how he can lift us. I told her about our father in heaven and her relationship with him. I told her that she was his daughter and he loved her. I told her that it was a very tangible love that she could feel.

I asked her what she was feeling right then because the spirit was intense. She said, I feel assured, I feel lifted, and I know that the things that you’re telling me are true. She said that it was an amazing feeling and she loved it. She said that the feeling was overwhelming, but it was comforting her mind. She said her thoughts were racing, but they were focused. She said that this feeling she was having had pushed away any cravings or preoccupation with her addictions. She said she felt lifted and loved.

I told her that this was the spirit of God and it’s effect on her. It hold her that’s how she felt in his presence, and that this feeling was between her and her father. I said when she felt that, she knew the things that she was hearing were true, and that God was present.

I told her that with that spirit filling the hole, then she could physically fight the physical addictions and win. She said, I have no cravings right now! I told her that I had received a prompting to talk to her about this and also a prompting to tell her that she wanted to be clean and that was something she thought about a lot. I told her she felt dirty and embarrassed by some of the things that she had done and that she wished they would go away. She wished she could remove the stain.

She said, how can you know this? I told her I knew it because of the Holy Ghost which is the thing Heavenly Father sends that dwells within us. It whispers to us and tells us the things that God would have us do and that God would have us say. I told her that this was the way God had whispered to me the things to say.

She told me that it wasn’t an accident that she was in the car that day. She told me that she always takes the bus or the train. It goes right by her house but today for the first time in a year she felt compelled to take a car service. She hasn’t done that for over a year. She said that when I told her that I recognized her, she thought well, he doesn’t recognize me, if he knows me, he recognizes who I used to be.

She said, but now I know that I was put here to feel this and learn this.

I told her that God has a plan for everyone and he loves everyone. I asked her if she had heard of the Book of Mormon and she said yes! I asked her if she knew what it was and she said no! I told her it was the history of the people that came to the Americas. I told her that they came in about 600 BC. They had prophets who taught the people. I told her that Jesus Christ came to them. He descended from heaven, like he said in the Bible that he would because he had other sheep. I told her that he descended from heaven and stood there and that her ancestors touched his hands and his feet and worshipped him. They asked him to save them.

I could see that she was very engaged in what I was saying so I asked her if she could feel the spirit confirming the things I said. She said yes, I know that it’s true.

I taught her that Jesus called 12 people to come to him. He gave them power and authority to baptize so that the people could be clean of the sins that they had committed. This way they could be clean before God.

I told her that those were her ancestors that Jesus commanded to be clean even though they had other religions and had already been previously baptized. He commanded them to take that next step and be baptized with his baptism so that they could be clean, so that they could have the Holy Ghost walk with them and fill that part of their soul.

I told her that Jesus Christ blessed them and their posterity. I emphasized to her that these were her ancestors and that Jesus Christ had blessed them and their posterity. He had blessed her. I told her that God had sent me today so that she could collect on that blessing.

She said “I know this is true and I don’t want to leave your car”. I had another ride waiting. It was only two minutes away but I just let it wait until it canceled so I could spend more time. We talked about how Joseph Smith was looking for the truth and he couldn’t find it. He prayed and God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. They called him to be the prophet to restore the church.

I taught her about how the golden plates were given to him by an angel and he was given the power of God to translate them into the Book of Mormon. I reached into my glove box and grabbed one of the Books of Mormon I have that are prepared by the Secrists and I gave it to her. I said this Book of Mormon is the translation of those records written by the prophets who are your ancestors. It contains the entirety of the teaching of the visit of Jesus Christ to America to your ancestors and the blessings he pronounced on them.

I felt prompted to return to the narrative of Joseph Smith and tell her that he had a third grade education, that he was a farm boy, he wasn’t sophisticated, but yet God gave him the power to interpret this book. I asked her what she thought when I said those words. She said, first, I think it’s true, because I am feeling the spirit like you taught me. Second, she said, that’s what I need. I need God’s power to make me more than I am, so I can defeat my challenges. She said, hearing that story of a 14 year old boy becoming a prophet and translating a book when he doesn’t have the ability makes me believe that God can help me be more than I am, so I can defeat my challenges. The spirit was strong as she testified. She testified right there of the spirit.

I asked her if she would be willing to receive missionaries and she said she would. I told her that this weekend we have conference and that we have prophets today on the earth and they will teach us the words Jesus would have us hear.

She got excited. She said, I don’t work this weekend so I can watch conference. I told her that it’s on Saturday and Sunday at 10 AM and 2 PM. She said she wanted to do that.

I found the phone number of her missionaries on the gospel Tools app to guide her to them She said she would reach out to them. She sent them a text messages while we were in the car.

I looked down and it had been 45 minutes since we started. I said, Heavenly Father puts people in my car so that I can say the words he would have me say. Today he put you in my car because he wants you to know how much he loves you and he wants you to know how important you are to him. I told her, if you will read this book, you will feel the power of God and it will help you with your addiction. I told her if she would pray she would know it’s true and the spirit of that book would fill her soul with the spirit like we were feeling in the car.

I told her if she would listen to the missionaries she could become clean and she could have that spirit with her always. She said, that’s what I want. She said, I need to go in and you need to go to work but I just haven’t wanted to let the spirit go.

There were angels in the car and we could both feel them and both of our lives were blessed that day. I know that she’s going to hear back from the missionaries and that she’s going to be baptized. I have no doubt. I know God will do his part because I felt his love for her.

One night, I was in Park City and I was going to pick up one last ride before I went down to Salt Lake to work for the rest of the night. I got a ride to pick up three young guys in their 20s from a restaurant.

I pulled up, they got in and we started on our way to their Airbnb which was a short distance away. Right out of the box they asked me, so have you lived here all of your life?

I told them no, that I was from Idaho. They asked me why I came here and I said that I came here to go to BYU. They said, we love BYU football, we love Brigham Young. They asked me if I was a Mormon. I didn’t know how this was going to go because they didn’t ask in a reverent way and it was kind of like they were playing around having a good time. I was wondering if they would make fun of me or mock the church.

I said, yes I am! Absolutely! They said we have a question, will you answer a question? I said 100% I will answer your question. They asked, how many wives can you have? They asked, can you have a lot of wives or is that just a myth.

I told them back early on in the church there was plural marriage but that it was abolished in the church and forbidden nearly 130 years ago. They said, oh, so that’s not a thing. I said nope that’s not a thing.

They asked, why did the church have polygamy 130 years ago? This question represented a transition in the discussion. At this point I sensed that they were really trying to learn whereas before I thought that maybe they were being irreverent and crude.

I told them that back in the early days of the church there were lots of hardships, there was persecution and an extermination order and many men were killed leaving families fatherless.

They asked me why there was such hatred. I said, I’m not sure except that people didn’t change and there, in Missouri the church came out as abolitionists in the pre-Civil War south. I told him that in that powder keg, anything was possible. I told them that with these emotional topics people just lost it and our people suffered. I told them they were driven out of their homes.

I said that one of the things they did to take care of these families and assure survival of their church and make it so that people could have the blessing of family was plural marriage.

I said there are a lot of reasons but those are two of them. They said, what? We’ve never heard about that, an extermination order to kill Mormons in the United States? I said yes and that’s why they came here to Utah to escape the persecution that they received from New York to Ohio to Illinois and Missouri. Finally they’d had it and they were brought to Utah by the power if God.

They said, that’s cool. They said, we’re from Tennessee and I don’t blame them for wanting to escape Missouri! We laughed. Then one of them said, so was this all Joseph Smith’s doing? Who was Joseph Smith?

I told the story about Joseph Smith, a 14-year-old boy with a third grade education who was looking for the truth. He couldn’t find the church of God on the earth and he followed what he learned in the Bible and prayed and God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and called him to be the prophet to restore the church of Jesus Christ on the earth.

I said Joseph Smith was the prophet God called. One of them said oh, so you don’t think he was the Messiah or a God or something like that? I said no,he was a prophet and he was a man just like we are. I told him we have a prophet today that leads the church, they thought that was really neat.

I told them that Joseph Smith restored the church. He also received the plates with the engravings on them that when translated, by the power of God, were the Book of Mormon. I told him the book was written anciently by prophets in America. It is a manifestation of Gods’ love for the people in America. That is why he gave them prophets just like he did in the Bible.

I told them that these prophets wrote down these prophecies from God and that is the Book of Mormon. I told them that Jesus appeared to the people in America. The back seat said, what? I said, God loves everyone not just the people in Jerusalem, this isn’t a regional church and Jesus was not a regional God. Jesus was the savior of the whole earth. Not just Jerusalem!

I told them that we believe that God sent his son Jesus Christ to America and that Jesus Christ told everybody in Jerusalem that he was coming here when he said “other sheep I have which are not of this fold” and that he was going to visit them. They remembered that scripture and nodded.

I told them that while he was here Jesus said that he still had other sheep that he hadn’t visited and he was going to go to them. I told them about the Buddhist that I had in my car that explained that Budda was the son of the great Buddha. He came to walk amongst them and live with them for a time and taught them how to live. One of them piped up and said that sounds like Jesus Christ and they all agreed.

I said we have the whole truth and it was restored through Joseph Smith. I told him that we have prophets today that continue to receive revelation so that we can know the will of God. One of them said, this is fun we don’t have to get out of the car, do we? I said no. I turned off my app because I had planned to go down to Salt Lake after that ride so it was perfect timing. What a coincidence huh?

I told them that the Book of Mormon was a testament that Jesus Christ is the son of God just like the Old and New testaments. They loved that. Then one said, do you guys believe that if you’re not Mormon you’ll go to hell? That “only you Mormons are going to be running around in heaven”.

It’s a question popularized by South Park in kind of a funny scene but he said it with sincerity. I said, look, we have the authority to perform the ordinances and covenants that we need to go back to Heavenly Father. He said, yeah but does God love everyone or just Mormons and was everything we did to follow Christ in our lives a waste of time just because we’re not Mormons. I said, absolutely not. I told them that when Jesus Christ came to America he descended from heaven, he stood on the steps of the temple then the people knew that they had their God standing in front of them. They touch the prints of the nails in his hands and his feet and they said hosanna which means save us.

Then he called up 12 of them and gave them authority to baptize and commanded that everyone be baptized even though they had already been baptized before and regardless of if they had been baptized he commanded them all to be baptized to his new level, to his new gospel.

I said it’s the same now. God appreciates everything you’ve done and he loves you and Jesus Christ loves you for your devotion and your love and your service and now he is inviting you to take a step up. He is inviting you to this new level.

The spirit was in the car and I could feel it and I said, “what are you guys feeling right now”? Warm, excited and engaged were the three words that came out. I said that’s the spirit of God and that’s because he is here and he’s here because the words I’m saying are true.

They said yes, this is a really cool feeling. I told him that this feeling was here so that they would know what I was saying was true. They said they knew it was true and they all agreed. One said, you speak the truth and he slapped me on the shoulder.

I said, God invited the people in the Book of Mormon and he is inviting you to this new level. One said, what’s in the new level? I said we don’t just get married until death do we part, we have the authority to be married for eternity. There was silence in the backseat and one of them said that’s really cool. I said that’s next level stuff.

I said also back on the theme that God is the God of everyone and not just the people of Jerusalem, how many people lived in India and China and Africa that never heard of Jesus Christ? One of them said probably the majority of all the people that have ever lived on the earth. I said that’s right!

I asked them if they were Gods’s children and they said yes. I asked them if God would want them home and they said yes. I asked them if God was perfect and they said yes. I asked them if a perfect God would have a plan for them and they said absolutely. I told them that in the Bible it talks about baptism for the dead.

I told them that in our church, in our temples we do baptisms for the dead. I can go to the temple and I am baptized in behalf of someone who has passed on that did not have the opportunity to be baptized. He then has the chance to accept it if he wants.

I also told them that in Peter it talks about what Jesus did during the three days he was in the tomb. One of the boys spoke up and said I love Peter! I said, well, Peter taught us that that while Jesus’ body was in the tomb he went to the spirit world and taught the people who hadn’t had a chance to hear the gospel. He set up the work so that everyone there hears the gospel and can take that next step.

They asked me if they could go into the temple. I told them that to go into the temple you had to be a member of the church. They asked me how they could become a member of the church or how that would be possible. I told them that the missionaries would have to teach them and then they would have to be baptized and then they could go to the temple and do baptisms for others including their family members who had died.

I told them that because they had been taught, when we go to the temple and are baptized for them they can have all of the blessings even though they were technically never members of the church on the earth.

There was silence, they were stunned by the complexity and the totality of the gospel. One of them said, “he has everything covered.” Another said of them says, I don’t know what you do in your life but whatever it is that you’re talking about I believe it, I’m Buying. He said that he could not help but believe the words that I was saying and that he knew they were true.,

I asked him if they wanted a Book of Mormon and they said yes, all three said yes! I didn’t have the books with so I made arrangements to come back the next day with three Book of Mormonsfor them.

They told me that they were grateful that I had taken time to answer their questions and had brought the spirit into the car. They told me that they were excited to get those books and read them and that they’d like to have missionaries come to their home in Tennessee.

I told them that we could do that and that I would bring them the books the next day and we would have missionaries come over to their home. They went away happy, feeling the spirit and with a peace in their heart. They had been taught by the spirit.

I think great things are in store for these young men because they were expressing great desire that night to learn the gospel and to learn more about the things we talked about. I am very optimistic because I saw that they had a foundation and knowledge of the Lord and Savior and the desire to follow him. They were sensitive to the spirit and accepting the meaning of that. This could end up being a very nice addition for a singles ward in Tennessee

One night I had finished up and I was getting gas and preparing to head home. From time to time at the end of the night, I will give a ride to someone who looks like they need it. This was one of those nights. It was cold. it was winter. It was snowing and while I was getting gas I noticed a girl in a light sweater jacket, short sweats, and flip-flops with no socks come walking by.

She was holding in her hand plastic bags which I quickly recognized as the bags that the jail puts your stuff in and then gives to you when they kick you out the door at 3 AM with no ride and no way to get home. I felt very impressed that I was supposed to give this girl a ride and give her a Book of Mormon.

She needed a ride about 8 miles away and there was no way with those clothes she could walk that distance.

When she got in the car, my first question was, why were you in jail? She said that she had a roommate who was letting her stay in his apartment and she had no idea that he had warrants for his arrest. She said she also had warrants from two years ago for possession and prostitution.

When she opened the door of her place and looked out she saw the whole Salt Lake City police department out in front of her looking for this guy and she was caught up in the net. They told her that they would’ve never gone looking for her but snatched her up because she was part of their search for him and he was a really bad dude.

They put her in jail to make sure that she didn’t have anything to do with what he was doing and then her warrant kicked in.

She told me that she had done these things years ago before she moved to Texas and that she had just moved back and that’s when everything fell apart here.

She told me that she had tried to be clean from drugs and some times she was successful, and other times when she wasn’t.

The spirit told me that this was my opportunity. I told her I know a couple of things, first off, I know that you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints and that your family are good members. She looked like a deer in the headlights with her eyes wide open and her jaw dropped as she listened.

You couldn’t tell that from her appearance, especially that night but the spirit was screaming it. I told her that she was angry at her parents and made bad decisions, trying to spite them. I told her that it had snowballed out of control and she had been lost ever since.

She started to cry and said how do you know this? I told her that I knew it by the spirit, that it had whispered to me to say these things. She told me that her father was a stake president in Utah County stake. She told me that he kicked her out of the house.

I asked her if she wanted to go home she said yes. She said she would like to go home more than anything but she couldn’t go home until she got clean and then she didn’t know if her dad and mom would let her.

I didn’t want to put a judgment on her parents because I don’t know her parents and I don’t know anything about the situation and the dynamic between her and her parents, but her desire to become clean first and then go home touched me.

I told her that we were talking about two different kinds of clean. One clean is to be clean from drugs and the other clean is to be clean before God. I asked her if I could talk about both of these, and she said yes.

I told her that the atonement of Jesus Christ made it possible for the people who have done even the most serious sins to be forgiven and become clean but she had to develop a relationship with her Heavenly Father, so she could access the atonement of Jesus Christ. I told her that if she would do that, get worthy and go to church she could get and stay clean before God regardless of what she had done.

I told her that she looked back at the things she had done and she had agreed with Satan when he whispered to her that she could never be clean. I told her Satan was lying to her and that she could be clean because Jesus was more powerful than Satan. I told her that Jesus and his atonement is the thing that scares Satan the most. I told her that Satan has no power in the presence of Jesus Christ and Jesus has the power to forgive all.

I told her Satan wanted her in this condition, suffering because he’s suffering and he’s miserable and he wants everyone to be like that. I told her that Satan was lying to her, telling her that she couldn’t be forgiven because he didn’t want to lose her and right now he thought he had her soul. I told her that Jesus paid and bled for her soul, and that he would never quit if she would never quit.

I told her that Satan had put those words in her heart and in her mind and she had agreed with him from a place of fear and desperation. I told her that inside of her I could feel her spirit wanting to be clean and wanting to be good, and that it could happen through the atonement of Christ.

As I said this, the spirit rushed in the car. I told her that her Heavenly Father loved her and that she had felt his spirit throughout her life at different times. She agreed and said that she felt it growing up. I told her that her spirit craved that. I told her that feeling was developed by living with her father for thousands of years and she developed a relationship with him and the way she feels the spirit is how it felt in his presence.

I asked her what she was feeling right then and she said, “I’m feeling tingly warm and I feel love.” I said that’s how your father in heaven wants you to feel because that’s how you feel in his presence. Tonight he is sending you a message and he is sending his spirit with that message so that you can know that it’s true.

I told her the feeling she was feeling right then was the same feeling she felt with him in the pre-existence, it’s the same feeling she felt when she was baptized and it’s the same feeling that God was using to testify to her. She had tears in her eyes and she said you’re right, that is beautiful. I told her that when we’re in trouble our Heavenly Father sends help. Sometimes we take it, sometimes we don’t. I asked her, kind of rhetorically,“which kind of time is this? What will you choose?”

I told her that I was prompted by the spirit to pick her up and that her Heavenly Father wanted her to receive this message tonight. I told her that she needed to pray and that it had been years since she prayed. She said that’s right. I told her that she needed to read theBook of Mormon. I asked her if she had read the Book of Mormon lately, and she said she didn’t have a copy. I reached in my glove box and grabbed a copy of the Book of Mormon, prepared by the Secrists, and gave it to her. I asked her if she would promise me to read that every day and she said yes. I asked her if she would commit to pray when she read it, she said yes. I told her if she would do that she would feel the spirit and it would fill her and make it easier to change. I told her she had to go to church. She was a long way from where her mom and dad lived. I told her she needed to find a church house that was close and go to that church house on Sunday morning.

I told her that when she went to that church Satan would not go with her and she would have time to rest her soul and feel the spirit. I told her that this would make her stronger.

One thing she said was, I’ve wondered if my father in heaven was really there and now I know he is because he sent you. She said, I even prayed once a few years ago, to know and now I know he answers.

I told her that over at DI, which wasn’t far away, they have a transient bishop and she should go there and get help from him. I told her that he could help her. She said she would do that the next morning (which was like in 4 hours.)

I asked her if she wanted me to talk to her a little bit about her addiction and she said she would love it.

I asked her if she remembered me telling her about living with her father and that feeling. She said yes, I said you are hardwired in your soul to crave that feeling it fills the hole in your soul that’s intended for you and your father to share. I told her Satan counterfeits that feeling with drugs, and tries to fill that spot with drugs and riotous living. I told her that he makes it look more fun but in the end all she’s doing is filling the hole with cotton balls, potato chips, fluffy things with no substance, not the thing that was intended, not this substantial and soothing spirit of her father.

I told her that if she would go to church, say her prayers, read the scriptures and get involved with the church addiction recovery program through the transient Bishop that she would start to replace that emptiness with the spirit of her father in heaven. It would make it so that she could beat her addiction.

I told her that the addiction is a two-part problem. The first part that is an issue is the physical craving and the second part of the addiction is the hole that needs to be filled with the Spirit of God, the thing that gives us peace and makes us happy. I told her that if she would follow through, it would help her quit and fill that hole so that she didn’t have that craving. This would allow her to focus on the physical craving and she could win that way.

She said that makes sense. Why is it that no one ever explained this to me.? She said it makes perfect sense.

I asked, do you want to see how much sense it makes? She said yes. I said, when you walked up to me what were you looking for? She said money and a ride. I asked her what she was going to do with that money, she said she was craving drugs and she was going to buy drugs.

I asked her to take a minute and think about whether or not, she still had those cravings. She thought for a second and looked up with a surprised face and said no! I do not have those cravings right now. I told her it’s because the spirit was in the car and was filling her soul. I told her that if she really wanted to beat this addiction she would not be able to do it unless she had that spirit with her, filling her soul. I told her, how ever much that spirit was with her depended on her because the spirit was always ready to come around and lift, love and bless if she wants it. I told her she needed to take these steps, that she needed to reach out and that she needed to make this decision.

She said the decision is made. Tomorrow morning I’m going over to the DI to talk to the transient bishop. Do you think he’ll help me like you said he would? I told her he would.

She said, I’ve missed this in my life. I need to get right, I need to get home and I need to be the daughter my parents will allow in their home.

She took her Book of Mormon, clutched it to her chest and said, you don’t know what you’ve done for me tonight. I thought you were giving me a ride but you’ve brought the spirit and that’s going to help me get my life back.

She got out of the car and went into the seedy hotel room that she was staying in.

I felt the resolve and recognition in this young lady. I know our Heavenly Father sent me to pick her up and I know she felt the spirit and the message was delivered by the spirit. If she goes to the bishop like she promised she would and starts attending church, I believe that she’ll soon be home with her family,

I picked up a lady at an elderly facility one night. While I was waiting for her I had an ominous feeling like this was going to be interesting and maybe not in a good way. When she came out and she got in the car said hi. She was plenty friendly but you could tell there was an issue. You could feel the conflict.

In the car we talked about what we had been doing that day. I got the impression to tell her about a lady that I had just giving a ride to and how we had talked about her husband‘s death and the gospel of Jesus Christ. https://sometimesgodsendsyoualift.com/2023/01/08/she-loves-to-see-the-temple-shell-go-inside-someday-soon/

She said, that must be it, sitting in your car I feel the spirit of God so I think I can tell you what I was doing. I was helping my dad write a book. She said that it was a church book and that it was going to be the last thing her dad did more or less. He was in his 90’s and she didn’t expect him to last much longer since her mother had passed recently.

We talked about the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ and this is where she started to hedge her bet. She said that she was a practitioner of light and she believed in teaching about light. She said she believed in the laying on of hands and she have a gift. I was a little speechless.

I said, so you’re a white witch and she said yes. I said, interesting, do you see a conflict with the gospel at all with regards to what you do? She said no.

I felt an impression to tell her about what I do, how I drive and how God puts things in my heart to say.

I started telling her about the last two years and some of the situations where God has let me help him bless some of his children. I felt to tell her about how Ammon interpreted what the king was thinking in his heart and that because of this the king recognized that he had authority from God and spoke for God. Then I turned to her and said the words the lord put in my heart.

I looked at her and said, “and today he put you in my car.” You have had a lot of difficulty in your life. A lot of it started with an abuse that you suffered as a child that you haven’t told anyone about and you’ve been keeping that inside. I told her that this blossomed into feeling unworthy and judged and then trying to live on the edge to justify the feelings of guilt and inadequacy.

She said, Yep, that’s exactly right. It’s like I feel that I could never be good enough to make it. I told her that is exactly what satan says to everyone. I told her that satan is a liar and that he’s the father of lies and everything he says are lies. I told her, he’s not just a liar, he’s a damn liar and if we follow him we will have the same result.

I told her that when she would go to church, she would feel like people were judging her. She would feel like she was inadequate and things would come to her mind about why she shouldn’t be there. I told her that those were from satan and they were lies. I told her that the Book of Mormon teaches that anything that teaches that you shouldn’t pray or by extension, go to church, is not of God but is of the devil. I told her that every one of these kind of thoughts she ever had was from satan.

I told her it’s almost like she became comfortable with satan. She said, how could you possibly know these things. I said that the Holy Ghost was whispering them to my heart and I am saying the words he puts into my heart just like he did with Ammon

As I said this, I could feel a tremendous dark power in the car that was angry these words were being spoken. She was not angry and she was engaged in the conversation. I told her we should pray and we should look to God and we should go to church.

I told her that Jesus Christ had suffered the atonement so that he could understand what she felt when she was abused or when she was unrighteously judged or when she was hurt. I told her that when Jesus Christ suffered it made it so that we could look to him for relief and to be lifted out of our misery. I told her that was God‘s plan. I told her it was satan‘s plan to get angry and leave the church.

I told her about my great-grandfather who left the church because the state president stole his horses. The only one who was ever really punished by that act was my great-grandfather because when he left the church he destroyed his family and his heritage.

I said how “stupid is that!” I told her that the better act would be to go up and put your arm around the person who you think has offended you or misjudged you and say “I love that I have you as an example” then watch him melt and change. She laughed and said that probably would work! I said it does work.

I mentioned to her that these people have their sins just like we have our sins. I said that if someone is judging you, that’s their sin and we need to be as tolerant of their sin as we expect them to be of ours. We need to extend to them the same grace that we demand they extend to us.

She said, I never thought of it that way. I said, we look to God and not to satan. The anger I felt from in the back was building but my passenger was still engaged in the conversation. It was as if she was surrounded by the darkness but not fully participating in it. I said, you left the church sometime ago and she lowered her head and said yes.

She said that she was trying or thinking about trying to get back into it. I told her that was why God put her in my car tonight. I told her that God wants her back and he wants her to know that even in the depths of her abuse or pain he never left her and she knew it.

She said I can’t believe how right on you have been with everything. I said, I’m just saying the things that the Lord has put in my heart.

She said you have a gift, I said I do, it’s called the gift of the Holy Ghost and it’s how God communicates with us. I told her it’s not my gift it’s his gift and it’s his spirit and it’s his work and his glory.

I told her that satan had been there in the car around her and I asked her why. She said, I recognize that and in what I do, sometimes I dance with the devil. I told her that all of the power that satan has is a counterfeit and lesser than the power God has. I told her that everything the people need including the light they need comes from God not witchcraft.

Right then I could feel the power of evil very strongly and I used the power of the priesthood to cast it out of my car. As soon as I did that she repeated after me “in the name of Jesus Christ” in commanding that evil to leave. As soon as that happened the mood changed, the experience changed and she changed. I said you can’t be on the fence anymore because he will drag you down.

She said, I know I have to change. I said you need to go to church. Do you know where and when the church meets and she said yes. I said you need to pray to God not to anyone else. She looked down and said I’ll make that change.

I said you need to read the Book of Mormon everyday. I told her that would help rid her life of the evil we felt in the car and she promised me that she would.

She said, I just figured I could do a lot of good in the middle but what I felt tonight let me know that I wasn’t in the middle at all. I asked will you abandon this white witchcraft? She thought for a minute and said yes.

The spirit was in the car and I could tell that she was feeling the difference between the spirit she had brought into the car, a spirit of division, contention and angst versus the feeling of peace and calm we were then experiencing. I called to her attention that difference and she said I really do feel that difference. This is what I need to have. I told her to ask her dad for a blessing and that he could use the priesthood to bless her.

I told her that satan wasn’t going to leave her alone and that he would try to reel her in because she’d already been there. She said she needed to go to church and she would talk to her bishop and make a plan. This was my previous suggestion and I was very happy that she had embraced it She got out of the car and said there’s going to be a battle for this world and I want to be on the side you’re on. She turned around and walked off with a completely different feeling than she walked into the car with.

This was my last ride of the day. I was headed home pondering the ride. I began to feel that angst and nervous energy that had followed her and for whatever reason it was back. I could feel all of the emotions that I had seen in her countenance earlier. When I got home I cast it out again and I knelt and prayed and asked God to send his angels to push it out and to protect me and my family.

No sooner had I done this I felt relief from the darkness and I had a moment where I was sure that one of the angels my Father in Heaven sent was my Grandpa Wheelwright.

Grandpa Wheelwright died before I was born. I still have his favorite chair in my house and now I know that I have a place in his heart because he was there that night to protect us.

The power of the priesthood is true, the power of the priesthood is of God, the power of satan is insignificant by comparison. The light chases away the dark. Dabbling in darkness doesn’t really ever help anyone it only exposes you to darkness and it gets a little on your soul. This lady now understands that and having been relieved of it that night I pray she follows through with her bishop and her father so that she can stay away from it.

One Saturday night I picked up a guy right in front of the Holiday Inn on 200 S. That is an area with a lot of clubs and most of the people you pick up there on a Saturday night late are drunk. It’s not your most productive area to find people seeking for the truth or praying for miracles but that happened on this Saturday night.

I was heading over to the Marriott to pick up someone and my phone just changed my location to pick up my rider. I drove over to the Holiday Inn and he was standing on the corner. He got in the car and when I slid it on to start the trip it’ said Orem was the destination . I turned to him and looked at him and said Orem? He said yes!

This was not great for me because it was going to end my night prematurely. By the time I drove to Orem and then back to Salt Lake there would be no more traffic and I wouldn’t make any money. As I pondered this I was rebuked by the spirit and told to knock it off. I knew exactly what that meant.

I asked him what he was doing in Salt Lake and he said that he was a DJ and that he had done a show that night. I asked him how hard it was to get a ride and he said very hard but that he had prayed that God would send him someone who was a good member of the church and a holder of the priesthood to drive him. He said felt like he needed to be strengthened and he could tell that I was an answer to his prayer.

It’s not easy to make me speechless. (many have tried and failed!) I was speechless for a minute. The spirit was in the car and I started to get promptings. The spirit told me that this was a young man who was being pulled very hard against what he knew to be right. He had reached out in prayer because he felt like he was being swamped.

As soon as I felt this prompting I related it to him. I told him that he needed to pray because he had quit praying regularly and he needed to quit dabbling outside of the word of wisdom. Then I just shut my mouth and listened. He said, wow you got right to it didn’t you. He asked me how I knew this and I told him that the spirit had whispered it to my heart. He told me it was true.

Doing his DJ job he had placed him in environments where the word of wisdom was more of a suggestion than a hard fast rule and that praying just didn’t seem to be appropriate. He said, sometimes you rationalize that God doesn’t care or doesn’t know but the fact that I knew was a wake up call. The fact that I had spoken those words shook him.

I asked him if he could feel the spirit in the car because I could. He said it felt good in the car, really good but he wasn’t sure he knew exactly what the spirit felt like. I asked him what he was feeling right then and he said that his mind was racing, his heart was pounding and his soul was awakening. He said it felt like an awakening.

I thought that was a pretty astounding description. I asked him what that feeling was and he said that it just felt amazing and that he didn’t know what it was. I told him that this is what the spirit feels like to him. I told him that it feels different to everybody but this is how he felt it. I told him that when he felt this he knew that what he was hearing was from God and that right now God was validating the words I spoke and was testifying to him. He told me how cool that was.

I talked to him about living with his father in heaven in the pre earth life and that this is how he felt all the time in his presence. I told him that he should look for this and look to have it with him all the time. I told him he could use that as a guide and when he didn’t feel it he shouldn’t be in that place or doing that thing.

I felt impressed to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. And I felt the power as I spoke the words. I asked him when the last time was that he had read the Book of Mormon and he said it had been about five years. In high school he had taken a different path and was still trying to decide which way to go. I asked him if he went to church and he said occasionally like once a month.

He told me his problems started because he didn’t get along with his stepdad. He had to move out to keep peace in the family and it kind of soured him on the whole deal. He said that his real dad wanted him to go on a mission but that he had questions about his him too. His real dad had married a former adult film star who had been baptized into the church. He said he had a hard time accepting that she could repent after what she had done.

I asked him why God would allow him or anyone else to repent and not her? Doesn’t God have to allow everyone the same opportunity if they come to him? Isn’t he their father and as a father wouldn’t he try to save all of his children? He said yes to each of those questions and told me that he had never thought of it like that.

I told him that one of the problems is that when we don’t find it in our hearts, to forgive other people, we have a hard time, seeing a path forward for us to be forgiven.

I told him that when you think of it like that, like a father trying to save his children who are in danger, then you see why God has as his top priority our salvation. I told him that is why God asked us to go on missions. He wants us to go to save ourselves and his other children. It’s just the best way to do it.

He was 22 years old and I asked why he wasn’t going on a mission. He said I’ve done a lot of things, so it’s kind of taking me in a different direction. I don’t think I’m worthy. He said that every worthy young man is commanded to go on a mission and because he’s not worthy he feels exempted from that mandate.

I told him that he was right, then I asked him, “who are those who are commanded to become worthy?” He said I guess everyone.

I said, so you’re commanded to become worthy, and he said yes I guess so. Then I said, so who are those commanded to go on missions and he said every worthy young man. I asked him if that wouldn’t be him after he becomes worthy and he thought for a second and said I guess so. I said that’s not a loophole that’s an expectation. He told me that he felt the spirit surge when I spoke these words.

I told him that this process would not be easy but it was possible and that it should start the next day in the bishop’s office. I told him to go into the bishop’s office and say I want to go on a mission and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get there. He promised me he would.

I said to him, let’s summarize:

1. You prayed to be picked up by a priesthood holder and God sent me.

2. God revealed to me some issues that you have and it blew your mind and opened your eyes.

3. God sent his spirit to testify.

4. You recognized that spirit and how it can help you.

5. God gave you a commandment to become worthy.

6. God gave you a commandment to go on a mission.

I guess the only question is what are you going to do?

He told me he would talk to his bishop at church later that day (it was now 2:00am Sunday morning). He said he needed to go on his mission and thanked me for the ride. He said that one day he would like to do what I am doing and start giving people a lift.

I had a timely experience that was a little different this week.The other night I picked up four guys from a bar down in Salt Lake City. They’d been drinking but they weren’t drunk and they had multiple stops in their ride. We dropped one guy off and headed to the other stop and I took a survey of the diversity in the car.

We had just about every race represented and it was interesting to hear the viewpoint coming from everyone. They were talking about the perception and or reality of being treated differently based on how they looked.

I chimed in with my experience from my mission of being held at machine gun point and the struggles we had during the Falklands war. I was held at gunpoint 11 times in one month. They were riveted while I told the story and enjoyed it.

The largest person in the group was the guy sitting right behind me. He had a booming voice and he was the one that was most agitated about how he had been treated. When I finished my story his agitation seem to change course and focus on me. Where he was the leader the rest of the car turned on me as well.

He shouted, are you still a Mormon? He said it in an antagonistic tone and with much force. I said in the most cheerful happy and powerful voice I could, yes! Absolutely 100%

He said, I have a question for you Mormon. I started to say a silent prayer asking for help on this one. He said, do you pay tithing to that church? I said yes. He protested saying how could you pay tithing when you know that your church uses that money poorly and hides it from the government? How could you pay tithing when they have that much money and you don’t know how it’s being spent?

Given that this guy was huge, angry, right behind me, agitated to begin with and focused on me I needed all the help my heavenly father could give me. The thing to say came to my heart. I heard or felt the words teach him and testify.

I felt the power of the spirit buoy me up and I spoke clearly, firmly and with the spirit. I could feel the spirit as I said these words, “Oh, I don’t pay driving because the church needs the money, The church doesn’t need my money, it’s insignificant andI I really couldn’t care less what the church does with the money I paid. The reason I pay is because God has commanded us to pay tithing.”

I told him that the Bible asks if we have robbed God. It says that we are supposed to pay our tithes and offerings and that in return the Lord will open the windows of heaven and give us blessings that is are so great that we can not receive them all. I told him, I won’t rob God

I told him that I had lost my job during Covid but had still paid my tithing and have been blessed by the Lord. I told him that we had never missed a meal and that we were being blessed because we play tithing. I testified that the reason why we were blessed is because we were paying tithing. The power of that testimony sunk in and I felt him being disarmed. I felt the animosity leave the car. A reverence and the spirit settled over the car. I told him that I didn’t know how we would’ve done it if we hadn’t paid tithing and received blessings from God.

He reached up and grabbed my shoulders and said that’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever felt in my life. That’s awesome. Thank you for teaching me. All of the guys in the car repeated what he said and mentioned that they had been touched and that they now understood. We were at the place they were going and they got out of the car.

I rolled down the windows as I often do to air out the car between rides and I heard him say to his friends, oh my goodness, that was awesome, did you feel that? The other guys in the car said yeah, that was so cool.

I was driving off and I don’t know how that ended but I know that the Lord gave me the words to say and that it made a difference that night.

This all happened two days after the media ran amok with the story of the church being fined for its accounting and investment practices. These guys thought they had me. They thought I would defend, argue and get down in the dirt to fight with them but that’s not what the Lord had me do. I thought about trying to avoid the conversation altogether but sometimes avoiding the conversation is not what the Lord would have us do either

That night I found that if you put your faith in God and listen for his will, he will fill your heart with the words he would have you say and even touch the hearts of those who would persecute you. Their hearts can be touched and changed. If you want to talk about miracles, to me, that was a miracle

Wednesday night is when they have college night at some of the nightclubs downtown. Drivers love to be downtown because you get lots of quick rides with bonuses even though it requires the ferrying of drunk College students back-and-forth from the clubs to their apartments.

One of the interesting things I’ve learned in taking freshmen who are inebriated from the clubs to their apartments is that a quality fake ID costs about $100. These are the things that we learn. I was driving along trying to scoop up as many of these wayward children as I could. I was right in the middle of downtown when I got a ride at 35th South 40th W..

The ride was supposed to go from 40th W. all the way out to the end of Magna which meant I was going to drive 15 minutes to pick this person up and drive him an additional 20 minutes. This happened at 1 AM right when the most profitable time in downtown had arrived.

I was torn and I was frustrated but I found myself driving out instead of canceling the ride. When he got in the car he told me that the previous drivers all canceled and I told him why it happened. I felt like elaborating on it so that maybe he would have pity on me and throw a tip my way. Then the spirit said to me, don’t you realize why you’re here? I suppose after all this time I should but I had only been thinking about my goals of the numbers of rides and the money I wanted to make.

I started looking for a way to introduce the church and I mentioned to him that I went on a mission. He asked me where I went and I told him I went to Argentina and he thought that sounded really cool. I assured him that it was really cool and that only the coolest missionaries went to Argentina!

I asked if he knew any members of the church and he said he knew a few. I asked what religion he was and he said that he was Catholic but that he really didn’t have the belief in the commandments like the Catholics did. He believed in God and Jesus but he thought that the commandments were a very personal thing that everybody should be able to decide on their own.

We talked about commandments. I talked to him about people who ignore the commandments and instead try to have fun but what they find is that in the process of having fun they lose the ability to feel joy and find happiness in their lives.

I talked about a drunk person I know who used to drink to have fun but then he became an alcoholic and he lost total control of his life.

He said fortunately he doesn’t drink much and that’s never been part of anything he wanted in his life. He’d always tried to be sober.

I talked to him about the people I know who don’t obey the law of chastity and because of that they lose their marriages or they have multiple children with different people and it ties them down instead of letting them be free. I told them him that if these people would obey they would have freedom and not be tied down by the consequences of their decisions.

I told him that it is truly like putting the fence at the top of the cliff instead of the ambulance at the bottom and that God gives us commandments because he loves us. I told him that each commandment steers us away from sadness, destruction and darkness.

I asked him if he knew what our church believes and he said no. I said for the most part we believe a lot of what the Catholics believe but much much more. I told him we believe that God loves everyone not just the people in Jerusalem.

I told him that this is easy to see. I asked him to explain to me what the Bible was. He said it was a collection of revelations to the prophets. I said why did God give them revelations and he said because he loved them a the father gives instruction to his children. I said that’s right. I asked do you think God loved the people in ancient America? He said yes.

I said, would an all powerful God who loves his children have prophets for one group of children but no communication at all with others in different places? He said he never thought about that but that it was a weird concept. He said of course an all loving all powerful God would give instructions to all of his children.

I mentioned to him that in the Bible Jesus said “other sheep I have which are not of this fold” and that he was going to visit them because he received a commandment from his father. I asked, would an all knowing, all loving God who is all powerful visit one group of his children but not another group? Back in that day, there was no television , no satellite or airplanes would an all powerful God send his son only to visit a very few of his children? He said no, he would visit them all if he could.

I talked to him about how Jesus Christ came to America. He descended from heaven and the people worshiped him. They came forward and they touched the prints of the nails in his hands and feet and then they worshiped him again.

This young man was of Mexican descent but spoke no Spanish whatsoever. I told him, those were your ancestors. Jesus came to your ancestors. I told him God is the God of everyone not just those in Jerusalem and he loves everyone not just the people in Jerusalem and he sent his son to them.

I told him that while Jesus was here he said still other sheep I have which are not of this land or the land of Jerusalem or the lands roundabout and that he had also received a commandment to go to them. I asked him who he thought that might be and he said the other people in the world.

I told him about a young man that I had in my car. We discussed Budda. He told me who Budda was. He said Budda was the son of a Great king who came and lived amongst the people. He taught them how to live. I asked my passenger who he thought that may have been and he said it sounds like Jesus Christ!

I told him that Joseph Smith was a prophet, called of God and that he translated the Book of Mormon. I told him that this is where we find these teachings. I told him that it contains the revelations and commandments that God gave to his ancestors as well as the account of the visit of Jesus Christ to America.

The spirit was really strong in the car. I could feel that he was basking in it and breathing it in. While he was enjoying it a light was coming on inside of him. I asked him what he felt and he said amazing! I feel like knowledge is filling my body. Then the spirit spoke to me and I said,in your life lately you have been had turmoil in your soul because someone has treated you very unfairly and very wrong.

I told him that when Jesus Christ suffered and died and was resurrected for us, he paid for our sins. Not only that, he suffered for all of the injustice, angst and all of the problems we have in our life. He felt our sicknesses and our frustrations. He made it so that we could look to him while we were suffering instead of being angry. I told him that anger forces people to turn away from God and that is what Satan would have us do. God would have us look to Christ instead of being angry.

He said how do you know this is going on? I told him that I don’t know but that God does. He said how? I said that when we are baptized we get the gift of the Holy Ghost that whispers to our hearts the things that we should say. I told him that God put him in my car tonight to get this message. I told him that this is the reason why I was pulled out of downtown during the most lucrative time of the night. I told him that to God he was much more important than money and he sent me to not only teach him these things but to help him understand the feelings he had his heart.

He said it’s crazy, it’s like an overwhelming amount of knowledge going off in my brain. I told him yes. I asked him how he felt in his heart right then, he said calm and overwhelmed with light. I said this is how you feel the presence of God and it’s how you know which things are true. When you feel that you know the things you’re hearing are true.

I asked him, do the things I’ve said to you sound true or not? He said they sound true and they feel true. I said that is because they are true. I told him Joseph Smith was a prophet and by the power of God he translated the Book of Mormon. I asked him if he owned a copy of the Book of Mormon. He said no, but asked where he could get one. I smiled and reached into the glovebox and handed him one of the Books of Mormon prepared by the Secrists.

I testified that today we have a prophet who leads our church and speaks with God for us.

I asked him who the people were that he knew who were members of the church. He said it was his brother-in-law. I asked, when will you see your brother-in-law next? He said Sunday! Family dinner! I told him that’s perfect. I asked him to do me a favor and he said what? I said, tell your brother-in-law about everything that we have felt and learned in the car today. He said he absolutely would but he wanted to sit in the car for a minute longer because he loved the feeling. I turned off the app so that he wouldn’t be charged and we sat there and talked about what it means to receive revelation and about God’s will.

Finally, he said I’m going to do this. He got out of the car and walked into his house. I drove off shamed and chastised that I didn’t understand the purpose of this ride earlier but I’m grateful that my Father in Heaven showed me. I’m grateful that he forgave me and got me back in the saddle that night. I’m grateful that this young man was receptive to the spirit and I have confidence that his brother-in-law will know exactly what to do.

Last summer in June, I think, I picked someone up by the temple in the Avenues. She was headed to a party on 200 S. over by 700 E. As we approached the party I felt prompted to say some things to her.

I told her that she was unsure about the people she was going to be attending this party with and that she was a little nervous inside. I I told her that nervousness was a sign that she was worried even though she looked very confident and bubbly. She was shocked and taken aback but I could tell that she felt the spirit that accompanied my words. The words I received directly to my heart through the prompting of the spirit.

I told her the one thing I felt was very important for me to do was to warn her not to allow anyone in that party to make her do something she didn’t want to do. I told her that it was her power and not to give it away.  I remember feeling like I couldn’t pursue it right then because the timing wasn’t great but I had a prompting that someday we would finish this conversation.

Fast forward to Wednesday night. I needed to make three more dollars to meet my goal for the evening and it was 1:30 in the morning. I knew I was going to make it and I had a ride to go pick up a young lady.

I had no idea that it was the same young lady as before but it was the same apartment complex. This is not news as I go to that apartment complex about every week with a myriad of different people but as I sat there the memory of dropping her off kept coming to my mind while I was waiting.

I waited and waited and waited, her time expired and I kept waiting. I felt like I had to even though the no show fee was enough to help me hit my goal. Finally, a girl came out from the apartment complex. It didn’t look like the same girl so at first I didn’t think it was. Before she had blonde hair and was bubbly, this girl was a brunette and not bubbly. This girl had no smile, she was crying and she was very upset. Her countenance was tortured and sad.

Before she had been very dressed up and looked very nice and now she was very dressed down and looked beaten down. She got in the car and started crying and sobbing. I still didn’t recognize her and we started to talk.

The spirit let me know that her boyfriend just broke up with her and that he had been abusive and used her. I could feel that she felt used and horrible. With this information in my heart I had to figure out a way to bring it up and there just seemed to be no good way. She was crying and it was hard to get a word in edgewise let alone a response.

We had to stop at a 7-Eleven on route to her house but I wanted to get something started before I got there because I felt very compelled by the spirit to do so. After the initial I’m sorry things aren’t going well kind of chitchat I said, there are a lot of reasons why we feel bad and horrible sometimes.

I told her that sometimes bad things just happen but other times the bad things that happen are as a result of our mistakes and poor choices. I told her sometimes we make mistakes and the consequences bring us down. I knew that was the case tonight. I knew that it had been mistakes that she had made that had led her to this problem with her boyfriend.

She repeated over and over and over that she had made a mistake and that she was a mistake, she was worthless, dumb and that everything was a mess and that she was a mess. She said her life was a disaster. She was crying and I could barely get her to stop as we pulled into the 7-Eleven. I knew I had to get her calmed down so that she could go in. We talked about how she shouldn’t let him have power to control her and to make her feel worthless. 

I asked her if she was religious and she said she was spiritual, she said that she was a little bit Mormon, a little bit Christian and a whole lot of spiritual. She told me she believed in God but that she didn’t believe in religion. She said that her mom was Mormon but had really done her dirty and that she had a lot of problems with the Mormon church.

I told her that the best thing about religion is it gives us a way to connect to people that believe the way we believe and can lift us and help us. I told her that it’s important for us to surround ourselves with good people that won’t use us and hurt us.

She said, your voice sounds so familiar. Do you remember ever giving me a ride before? I said no. At that time I hadn’t remembered although there was a familiar feel to her presence. She got out and went into the 7-Eleven and was there for a minute or two.

When she came out she had beer. This is not at all what I had wanted but I decided to roll with it. I told her that I didn’t think drinking a beer was exactly what she needed right now and she said that was what was “gonna” happen regardless.

We started to drive. Promptings of what to say  came to my mind very clearly.

She needed to know that she was a daughter of our father in heaven and because of that she had worth and value.  I told her that she had tremendous worth that she couldn’t even imagine.

As I said this the spirit bore witness. She was touched in that very moment hearing these words that God was her father and loved her. I then told her that she was allowing Satan to put up walls around her so that she couldn’t see out, see the light or see a future. I told her that Satan was trapping her.

I told her the pain she was feeling was not just from the boyfriend but from other issues in her life due to bad decisions and by harmful things that other people had done in many cases. I told her that the atonement of Jesus Christ was given to us so that he can share our pain and lift our burdens.

I told her that God loves all of his children and he sent his son so that we don’t have to suffer needlessly. I told her that the atonement was an amazing gift where we could become clean from our sins and the suffering they caused could be alleviated. I also told her that any pains, infirmities and injustices could all be swallowed up in the atonement so that we don’t need to bear those burdens all by ourselves. I told her that this is how we can become happy even in the midst of pain and chaos.

I knew by the spirit that right then she was thinking that she was dirty and couldn’t be forgiven and so I called that out. I said, right now you’re thinking that you’re dirty and can’t be forgiven. That’s a lie. I told her that it was Satan that was whispering that lie to her and that she shouldn’t listen to him. I told her that Satan tells her she shouldn’t pray, that God doesn’t want to hear from her because she’s dirty. She said how did you know?  I said the spirit has whispered that to me and I want you to know that Satan is lying to you.

I told her that Satan is a liar and that is what he does. He tells us we can’t repent and he tells us we can’t come back to God and he tells us that we shouldn’t pray and that we shouldn’t go to church.

She said, I am angry about the church. I don’t go to church. I felt anger and intensity behind those words. It was unsettling and I knew it was the spirit of Satan. I knew he was with her and around her. I cast Satan out of the car and out of her. She shutterd and she said, oh my goodness it’s gone!  There was a very distinct noticeable change in the car. She said, it’s like it was resting on my shoulders pushing me down and when you said those words it was gone. She said that feeling had consumed her life and turned it dark and now it was gone. She cried but it was a happy cry this time.

I told her that she had been surrounding herself with people that don’t have light. I told her that she loved the light. As I look back, I realize that before when I had seen her I saw the light but I hadn’t seen it this time until just then.

She continued crying, she said she knew that she missed the light. I told her that she also knew that the people around her didn’t have light and she had seen that and it bothered her. She said yes. I said you need to surround yourself with people who have light and that’s why we go to church.

I asked her if it would be OK if I looked up her church time and location and she said yes and I got it for her. She said she wasn’t sure if she would go but we kept talking. I told her that she needed to change her job. She’s a bartender at one of the hot pick up spots in town.

 I told her that her downward spiral began when she got that job and that the people at that job didn’t have any light. I told her, “bit by bit Satan was throwing up these walls around you so you can’t see the light and look at what it’s doing to you.”

I told her that Satan was after her, that he was coming around her from every direction and she had to separate herself from that. I told her that Satan would try as hard as he could but God was trying to rescue her. I told her that God put her in my car tonight and he’s giving me these things to tell her, things that I should not know. I told her that he’s giving me these things to say so that she would know the things that I was saying were true.

She said I wondered how you knew those things. I said it is the spirit of the Lord who whispers it to my heart and he’s doing it because he loves you so much that he wants to protect you and bring you home. I told her that if she does the right things Satan could not have strength or power over her. She said, I remember you. She said, you gave me a ride last summer.

She said, it was right at the first of summer and I was bright and happy and I had light. She said, I’ve made many bad choices since then. She said, you don’t know this but I recorded you that night last summer. She said those words were very impactful to me and that voice pierced me and touched my heart.

She said, I listen to that all of the time. I told her that it wasn’t my voice but the spirit that accompanied my voice that touched her heart and the same spirit was touching her heart tonight.

I explained to her that her relationship with her father in heaven is a very special one developed over thousands of years and what she was feeling tonight and what she felt that night were manifestations of that relationship.

I told her that when she feels this feeling she knows that her father in heaven is there. I told her that he wanted to help her and that his spirit was there to embrace her.

She said, “I never want to leave your car. My house is full of the darkness because of what I have done there.” I asked her if she would like to have a prayer and she said yes. I prayed for her and I felt the love of God for her. I looked back and she kept moving her shoulders. She said that she was doing it because they felt free of the burden she had been carrying.  She was smiling ear to ear.  There was the girl from last summer!!!

She said that she wanted to write these things down that we were talking about. I told her that it was important that she remember these things and that when she went into her apartment she should get out a journal and write them down. She said she would do that.

I told her before she did that she should pray. She said she would. I asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she said yes. I asked her if she would commit to me to read in the Book of Mormon and she said she would. I asked her if she would commit to me to say her prayers and she said she would. I asked her if she would commit to me to go to church and talk to her bishop about getting a new job and about getting worthy to take the sacrament. She said she was still a little hesitant about talking to the bishop but that she might talk to him after church.

The spirit was telling me that this had to do with the gay marriage issues regarding the temple and being married. I pressed for her to reveal that to me and finally she did. She said she had a sister that was gay and that this was a big deal.

I said, “tonight God sent you a witness. Many times you have prayed and asked for God to send you a sign. Tonight you got that sign.” I told her that God had sent me to give her these messages and that he had confirmed them with his spirit.  I said that there was no way she could deny what had happened in the car.

I bore my testimony of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and modern prophets. The spirit was strong and I asked if she believed those things were true and she said yes.

I said if those things are true then the atonement is the answer for people that suffer in this life. I told her if people would look to God he would lift their burdens and make it so that they can be happy in this life. I told her that counts for everyone including me and her and all of the LGBTQAI people in the world. I told her God loves them all, they’re all welcome in his kingdom but they need to learn to turn to God instead of turning their back on God and being angry.

I told her that she should sing the song “I am a Child of God.” I asked her if she knew it and she said yes. She said she would but then she also said that she really loved the song I Stand all Amazed. She said she was going to go in her apartment, play that song, pray and then write in her journal.

She said, I like that plan. I will go to church Sunday and I will talk to the bishop. I need to have this light in my life. I can’t live without it any longer. I need to do what is necessary to get it back. I told her to remember that the church is a hospital not a museum. She smiled and said I like that!

She grabbed my shoulders and talked to me about how she believed that God had sent her an angel tonight. She said that God had sent me once before and now this was twice. She said that she didn’t want to let this one go. I looked in the mirror and saw a beautiful smiling face where before I had seen pain and sadness.

As she got out of the car, she grabbed the beer and said, I think I’m going to put this on my neighbors doorstep. I think they’ll be really excited to have it. It will be a great gift for them.

It is simply amazing how I happened to be there both of these times and how the spirit gave me the words to say that were necessary both of these times.

She knows who sent me those two nights and she knows God loves her and sent his son, Jesus Christ so that she can come home.

I was in Park City picking up a woman to take her to the airport. It was snowing like crazy and even getting up to her location was difficult. We were leaving 2 1/2 hours before her flight and we thought we had plenty of time.

I got there early and she decided to come out and we got in the car and started to drive. Once we got on I-80 we saw a problem. There was a tremendous back up and all lanes were at a standstill. No one was moving. All of a sudden that sure arrival at the airport seemed to be in jeopardy. It turns out there was a semi-truck that jackknifed and everything was blocked

I figured we were going to be here for a while and we started telling Ride share stories. I felt impressed to share the story of the man who tried to attack me but was disabled by God. I asked her if she was religious and she said no. I asked her if she believed in God and she said no. I I felt impressed to proceed with the story anyway. Normally if someone says they’re not religious or that they don’t believe in God I don’t proceed with spiritual topics unless indicated by the Holy Ghost.

In that story when the guy tried to cross over to grab me it was like he was tased and started having convulsions. He lost control of his fingers and hands as long as he was in the front seat with them. When I threw him back in the backseat he was fine. I knew God had protected me.

She said, that’s amazing! What a coincidence! I took that opportunity to tell her that it was no coincidence and that there’s no such thing as coincidence. I told her it was the power of God and I testified that we have a loving father in heaven. I told her that he loves each of us.

Right then I received inspiration as to what she needed to hear. There were three things. First, she needed to know that our father in heaven loves her. Having just finished the story I could feel the spirit in the car and I decided to press that advantage. I discussed our relationship with our father in heaven and how he loves us and how our spirits crave his presence.

I thought her about her father in heaven. I could feel his presence. She told me that she was taught about God as a child but had abandoned those beliefs years before. It was very interesting to see her face light up as the spirit of her father in heaven touched her. I could tell she was feeling his presence. I told her that when we feel the spirit of God our spirit is remembering that from before we were on earth. I told her that our spirits thrive in his presence.

I told her that the Spirit of God makes her smarter, and more capable. I told her that I felt the spirit of God right now and that I could tell she was too. I asked her what she felt and she almost choked up. Power and peace are the words she said. I asked, do you know would that is? That is the spirit of God and do you know what that means? It means that God exists. I told her that she can no longer tell people she didn’t believe in God. She looked at me and said, You’re right! She said, this has been a very eye-opening experience.

I told her that our father in heaven loves all of his children, every one. I asked her if she had any friends that were members of our church and she said yes. They had a family that lived by them who were members of the church and were really good people. She said that their son was going to BYU.

She said that they had always admired that family and the way they lived their lives. She asked me if I thought that they were making the boy in that family who was 20 go on a mission. I laughed and said nobody makes him go on a mission but my guess is that if he went to BYU he probably is on a mission right now.

I told her that when I was 19 I went on a mission to Argentina and she thought that was really neat. She asked me what we did on a mission and I said we taught people about their relationship with their father in heaven just like I was teaching her in the car. She said, that’s cool because I’ve always kind of wondered a little bit what you guys believe.

We were still in the traffic jam although we had worked our way off of I-80 on the frontage road at Jeremy Ranch moving toward Summit Park on the south side of the road. There was no traffic there so we were able to bypass about an hour of delay. That said we still had plenty of time.

I asked her if I could pose some questions to her and she said yes. I asked, if God is an all powerful loving father which you know he is, does he love all of his children or just some of them? She said, he loves all of them. The spirit was telling me that this was the second issue that she had. She believed that Christianity was exclusionary of a large portion of the people in the world. She believed that it wasn’t fair and it wasn’t right.

I jumped right in that and said God loves all of his children and he is the God of all of these children. That’s why he sent his son to die for all of his children. I told her that Heavenly Father sent his son to atone for our sins, feel the pains and sufferings of this life and rise above it all. I said that he did this so that we could rely on Christ and his atonement to lift us when we had problems or tragedies in our lives. I pointed out that Jesus suffered for injustice and sickness and every evil that could be inflicted so that our burdens could be lifted by praying to God and asking him to bless us with the benefits of that atonement.

I told her that someone who is sick can still feel lifted even though they still have pain. They can still find joy because the burden seems light. I told her that the other part of this is that God then expects us to be his hands. We can take care of people’s needs while Christ succors them and blesses them spiritually emotionally in a way that no one else can. She said that’s awesome.

I told her that all Satan does is blames God or says there is no God. I told her that’s not useful, it’s not correct but it’s just the kind of lie that Satan tells people to pounce on them when they’re down. She said that’s right.

She mentioned that her aunt who is very religious and believes in Jesus had cancer and even though she was in pain she never quit believing. She told me that when her aunt died it was one of the things that made her not believe in God. She said that after our discussion tonight she knows that her aunt was happy even though she was going through this trial. Her aunt’s family was happy and joyful throughout, even after their mother had died they still expressed love and joy.

She said that before tonight she never realized that it was the power of God. I told her that God isn’t a genie that gives you three wishes or a vending machine where you put your money in and push the button and get your desired effect. I told her that God is there for us so that we can be strengthened and grow. If he just answered all of our questions the way we wanted them answered there would be no growth.

I told her that when we first started talking there were three questions that I felt like she had with regards to God and one was her relationship with God and we had discussed that, the second was what happens when people suffer and why does God allow it. The third was about all of the people everywhere that never get to hear about Jesus. She though this was unjust.

I told her that in the Bible Jesus said other sheep I have which are not of this fold and that he was commanded to go to them. I told her that the normal Christian world is very provincial in its view of Jesus Christ. He came to visit people at a specific place and a specific time and nobody else. I told her that’s not how it was.

I told her Jesus came to America and to the people here. I told her that he descended from heaven and the people touched the prints of the nails in his hands and his feet and they knew that this was their God. I told her that they had prophets who previously prophesied of Jesus. God gave them prophets and sent his son because God loves everyone.

I told her that Jesus taught them and then told them that he still had other sheep and other places and then he went to visit them. I told her that Isaiah indicated he went to many places in the world to visit the house of Israel who have been scattered all over the world. She said, that’s really cool.

The spirit was really strong and I testified that Jesus Christ came to America. I testified that God loves all of his children no matter where they live. I talked to her about the prophets who had written these prophecies and about the visit of Jesus Christ to America and that because of what they wrote we know what Jesus did at all of the other places where he went.

I told her that we knew what he thought and how much he loved everyone. I told her that the prophets wrote these prophecies and they were given to Joseph Smith. I asked her if she had heard of Joseph Smith. She said, I am from Vermont and we learned about him. I said yes, he was born in Vermont.

I told her that when he was 14 years old he was just like her. I told her that he was very confused about which religion he should join and then he knelt and prayed and God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. The spirit was so strong in the car and I knew she felt it. I stopped and said do you feel that? She said yes. I asked, what does that mean and she said it means that’s true. I told her that Joseph Smith was called to be the prophet, and then was given this book of revelations from the prophets of America so that he could translate it. I told her that this is the Book of Mormon.

She asked, so do you guys believe in the Bible too? I said yes! We believe in the Bible and we believe in the Book of Mormon and they testify of each other and they both testify of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

I asked her if she had ever heard of baptisms for the dead and she said yes. She said that her friends had talked about it to her. I explained to her that it’s where we are baptized for people who have died. I told her that way every one of God’s children can have a chance to come home. I asked her if every person on earth had received a baptism while on earth or at least an opportunity and she said no.

I said would a fair and just God exclude a large portion of his children just because they didn’t live in the right place at the right time and she said there’s no way. This is a problem that I have had. I couldn’t believe that God would not make a way for them. She said, I am Catholic but that just never sat right with me.

She said I understand that people need to be baptized but it just didn’t seem to me that God had made a way so therefore I didn’t see how that God was the loving God everyone thought about. That just seemed wrong to exclude everybody that wasn’t in a favorable circumstance to be baptized.

I said baptism for the dead is the answer to that and it was practiced in the New Testament and restored to us through Joseph Smith.

I said, as a Catholic you have lots of beliefs that are good but somewhat incomplete. I want you to know that we’re not here to tell you that you need to replace them. We’re here to provide light and understanding.

I told her that when Jesus came to America, everyone had previously been baptized. I told her that Jesus gave them a new baptism. I told her that Jesus gave them authority to perform the baptism and commanded them all to be baptized even though they have been previously baptized. I told her that Jesus offered them a new level. I told her that this level included baptisms for the dead and eternal marriage which she had heard about through her family friends.

I told her Jesus didn’t make them forsake their previous baptism because he appreciated the faith and love embodied in the act but now he had something bigger, now he had something better and now he had something glorious for them to receive. This required that new level.

I told her that her friend that was probably on a mission right now is out baptizing people with this authority so that they can have that new level.

I told her that he is out teaching them these very things, that God loves everyone, that God has a plan for everyone no matter who they are, where they live or when they lived. God, their loving father, has a plan to bring them home. The atonement is there to lift us through our adversities and bring us home by looking to God not blaming him.

I asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she said no. I reached in my glove box and pulled out one of the copies of the Book of Mormon the Secrists had prepared and gave it to her. I also helped her download the Book of Mormon app. I testified to her that the Book of Mormon was true and when she read it she would feel that same spirit we felt in the car that night.

By this time we were arriving at the airport. It had taken an hour and a half to get from Park City to the airport in Salt Lake. Just enough time to accomplish what God had sent us there to do.

I asked her what she thought about what we had talked about. She said, you answered every question I’ve had about God. All my doubts are gone. There’s no way you could’ve known that those were my questions except for the spirit of God revealing that to you. I know that the things that we have talked about tonight are true and I can’t wait to get started.

She said, I believe in God and I’m going to read this book. I need to study. I told her to seek for that spirit and it will help her learn. She said her roommate has some friends that are members of the church and that she was going to talk to them about the ride. I told her that would be awesome and that I would pray for her.

It really was an extraordinary night in the snowstorm. We were able to reconnect a father with his daughter and answer her unspoken questions.

One evening after I’d been working in Park city all day long and it was time to go home. When you’re in Park City you have to make a choice, you can go through Heber and it takes you about 50 minutes or you can go through Salt Lake and it takes you about an hour and 10 minutes. Clearly the better choice at 2:30 in the morning is Heber.

Whereas I had just finished a long day I was tired but I felt impressed that I needed to go through Salt Lake. I told myself that I would do that because I can get the cheaper gas at the Maverik on California Avenue. It’s an extra five minute drive but the gas is $.20 a gallon cheaper.

I started to go through the Salt Lake Valley and got ready to shoot out on the 201 so I could go over to California Avenue when I felt the impression that I needed to go to the Maverik on 33rd South on the west side of the freeway. I go to this Maverick sometimes when their gas price is low and I like the people that work there.

I feel sorry for the people that work there because it is less than a mile from the county jail and everyone released from the jail walks over there and hangs around. The people that work there are terrified most of the time and one of them got stabbed in the neck by one of these people.

That’s where I went, I filled up my tank and started walking in and there was a guy standing in the front of the store. This is not unusual because that’s where the homeless people and recently released prisoners hang out. They hang out there and beg for money and this night appeared to be no different and this man appeared to be one of them.

He started yelling that he needed a ride to Trolley Square. I told him I didn’t have any money for him because I only have credit cards. This is usually what I say to these people because if they know I have cash with me it puts me in danger. I know they can’t take a credit card.

He said, no, you don’t understand. It’s cold outside and it’s snowing, I need a ride. When we get there I will pay you $20. I’ve heard that story before and have very little confidence that those kind of things will ever happen or come to fruition.

The spirit had other ideas. It indicated to me that this was a different situation and that I needed to look more closely at what was going on. I went inside and asked the lady who works there what the deal was and she told me that the police arrested him and then released him but that he hadn’t got his money back from them so he had no way to get home.

I received the prompting that I was supposed to drive him to his home right by Trolley Square. After I went to the restroom and got ready I went out and told him that I would take him home. He was really excited and got in the car.

The first few minutes he spent telling me about the injustice of his situation and explained to me that he had been arrested for marijuana possession even though he had a marijuana medical card. I kept my mouth shut while he droned on.Sometimes it is the hardest thing for me to do but miracles are happening all over the place I guess.

When he got done the spirit told me that I would be teaching the gospel to that young man and so I started talking to him. I was trying to figure out a way that I could possibly talk to this kid and touch him. He seemed hard and extremely angry.

I asked about his family and he said, my dad‘s 70 and he’s very LDS like you are. That gave me everything I needed. I knew that if his dad was LDS and very LDS that he had been taught the gospel in his younger years.

I said, well, that means you are LDS too. He said, not really. The spirit moved and impressed me what the next things were that I should say. I told him that he was angry that people in the church said things and did things that were hurtful. I told him that bishops and leaders aren’t perfect. He said, they’re not perfect, nobody is perfect. I could tell that he was thinking about himself and and his relationship with his leaders like I was talking about. I told him that the great thing about God’s church is that even though we are not perfect his authority is perfect and the callings he gives us are perfect.

I told him that the power that we have is perfect because it comes from God who is our father and he is perfect. I told him that God is our father and he loves us and that love is perfect.

The spirit testified of the love of our father in heaven in the car. I could feel his anger subside and it was replaced with the sweet feeling of the spirit. He was listening.

I told him that he had been deeply wounded by people who judged him. He said, yes, the most judgmental people I have ever met in my life are members of the church. He said it with anger and venom. I told him that may be true. I asked him what he didn’t like about their judgment and he said they judged him for his sins and they wouldn’t tolerate him or allow him room to be better or fail and then improve.

I asked him if he thought what they did was a sin and he said yes! I told him that I agreed, then I said that what they did was a sin but that they needed to receive from him the same kind of tolerance, forgiveness and love that he expected to receive from them.

Silence!

I asked, how can you expect them to love you in your sins if you’re not willing to love them in their sin? I told him that we all need to do better. I told him that he needs to go up to those people who are judging him, put his arm around them and tell them what great examples they are to him and ask them for their help. I told him that this would change everything.

He said, you know, you’re probably right! I said this is how we become more like God and follow him.

I told him that my perception was that he had sins that he had committed that he felt guilty about and therefore he was critical of his leaders and critical of other ward members. I said that you try to bring them down so you don’t feel so low.

Silence.

The spirit was everywhere in the car and we could both feel it. I asked him if he felt it and he said yes. I told him it was the spirit of God and that it was testifying that the things I was saying were true. I told him that the words I had spoken came from God and that’s why his spirit accompanied them.

I told him that this is how it goes. I told him that this is how Satan convinces us to turn our backs on the people who would love us and help us. He makes us feel shame and we can’t stand the glare of the light. I told him that reaching out to people would transform him and help him feel that love and walk in that light.

I asked him what it was that he told himself was the reason he left the church. I phrased it that way very purposefully so as not to legitimize a reason. He said, I left the church because none of it made sense. I believe there’s a God but all of that other stuff seems a little bit out there sometimes and I haven’t seen anything that would make me believe.

I talked to him about the Book of Mormon and said the book is true. I said I know that book is true because I’ve prayed and God has revealed it to me. I told him that the spirit we felt there in the car was confirming to him that the things I said were true and he said yes. I told him the Book of Mormon was true. He nodded.

I told him that if he wanted evidence, there is evidence. I told him about an ancient temple in Mexico built 700 years after Christ that has a depiction of the Godhead with a descending God. We agreed that it clearly represented the Godhead. I asked him how that could happen 700 years after Christ. I asked him how in the world that information could’ve gone to America 700 years A.D. He said he had no idea. I said I know, it’s in the Book of Mormon.

I told him that Jesus came to America and that is the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is about the preparation for Jesus‘s visit to America and the aftermath of Jesus‘s visit to America. It’s all about Jesus and his visit to America. It’s a testament of Christ. I told him that book is true and the spirit testified of it to us in the car. I could tell he was moved.

Sometimes when you testify the spirit bears witness and the power is overwhelming. This was one of those times.

I asked, “you never thought you’d feel this way again, did you?” When you felt the spirit when you were young you loved it but you’ve allowed Satan to tell you you don’t deserve it. You’ve allowed Satan to tell you that God doesn’t want you. You’ve allowed Satan to tell you that God doesn’t want you to pray and you’ve allowed Satan to tell you that you shouldn’t go to church.

I told him that those whispering in his ear saying these things were Satan. I told him that the Book of Mormon teaches that anyone who teaches a man not to pray or any thought that teaches a man not to pray is of Satan. I told him that likewise the Book of Mormon teaches that if there is any thought or person teaching not to go to church that person is also doing Satan‘s work.

I asked, how can you let him just walk all over you and win? How can you let Satan win? I told him you’re not a quitter and you can’t allow Satan to win. The spirit was really strong in the car and I said “the spirit is here because God sent me here tonight to pick you up”.

I said, look at the condition you’re in and where I found you. I told him there’s no chance on earth that I would ever pick him up and give him a ride but I did. I did it this time because God told me to. I told him this is how angels work and God had sent me to give him this message.

I told him God sent me so that he could know that God loves him and that he wants him back and that he shouldn’t listen to Satan. I said that he’s got to straighten his life out. I said “that seems like a long way away right now”

I told him that we need to pray every day and we need to repent every day. We need to remember the things that we do so that we can ask forgiveness from God and try to make better choices the next day. I told him that repenting every day is something our prophet has said is important and it will help us step by step come closer to God. I told him that everyone needs to do this from me to him to my wife to the prophet himself. Everyone needs to pray and repent every day.

I told him that if he would do this, God would help him. I told him that tonight God sent me to help him know that he was not a lost cause and that he needed to get about it. I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon, he nodded and said yes and I also have a mother.

He said “tomorrow morning I’ll call my mother, she needs to hear about this. I’ll go to church with her on Sunday because you are right. Tonight I was in a very vulnerable state and at my weakest point ever.

I then said, God sent me when your ears were open so that you could hear the words I had to say.

I told him, tonight in this car God has given me things to say that I should not know about you. Things that you haven’t told anyone and when I said them you were astounded that I knew them. You wondered how I knew them. I told him that God gave me promptings of those things to say so that he could know that the things I said were from God.

I told him God knows that you were at the perfect time to receive this message and so he sent it. I looked back and he was sobbing. A grown man just out of jail crying in my car. He said, I really needed this. I needed to feel this. I promise you I will call my mom and I will go to church.

I told him never forget who you are and that God knows who you are and now you know that he knows where you are and what you’re doing. He knows the promise you made here tonight.

He said, I am going to do the things that I told you I would do. He reached out to touch me and shake my hand. His face had transformed and his spirit was happy. His spirit had just spent 15 minutes with the spirit of his Heavenly father and it was excited.

He turned around and went in the house. I thought back on all of the things that went into putting me in that position to receive the prompting to say those words. Heavenly Father knew his son was in trouble and I’m glad that he sent me.

I went over to pick up a lady that works at an senior adult care center. She was waiting out front when I got there and very cheerful. When she got in the car we started talking about where we were from.

I always ask that question because it seems nobody’s actually from Utah. When somebody says they’re from Utah, I always say “you’re the one!” “She wasn’t from Utah so she’s apparently she is not the one….. not in that way anyway. She talked about her life and how she lives with her son. She works this difficult job but she is really a happy person.

As we talked it occurred to me that she really liked living in Utah. She liked the people she worked with and she was happy. I had the impression to flat out ask this woman that I had known for three minutes if anyone had ever asked her if she wanted to know more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I usually try to be more nuanced than that. I try to find common ground or work into something. Nope! Not this time. The spirit said and asked her the question so I did. I kind of half expected that she would be shocked at the boldness. I was surprised to see her face light up and a smile as she said, I’ve always wanted to learn more. I’ve always wanted to find someone that could help me know more but no one has ever said anything about it or offered to help. As I spoke I felt power in my words a direct result of obeying the promptings of the spirit. The spirit flooded the car.

I felt properly chastised for doubting the revelation and then said, you’re Catholic aren’t you? She said yes, I knew this because the spirit indicated that to me. This time I just said it. I said one of the easiest things to think of as you’re looking at the church is that we have everything that you have plus more.

I talked to her about God‘s love for us. I asked her how it is that God shows us his love. She said that God shows his love by helping us live good lives. I said that’s exactly right. We are God’s children and he loves us, everyone. He wants us to be happy. To help us with this he gives us prophets and then reveals his words to those prophets so that they can teach us.

I told her that those revelations that the prophets receive are called prophecies and commandments. I told her that the prophets then gives us those revelations and commandments and if we obey them we can be happy. She nodded her head in agreement.

I said, that’s what the Bible is and we believe in the Bible. It is a collection of the revelations and commandments that the prophets received from God. I told her that they wrote them down and we have the Bible. She agreed.

I asked her if God just loved the people in Jerusalem or if he loved everyone. She said he loves everyone. I told her that we believe that the people here in America anciently had prophets as well. That God loved them too so he gave them prophets to receive revelations and commandments. When they lived those commandments they were happy and they were blessed.

I told her that those prophets wrote those commandments and we have them today. I told her that those commandments are found in the book called the Book of Mormon. She said, I’ve heard of that book!. I told her that the book contains commandments from God and talks about the visit of Jesus Christ to America.

I said that they had the bible and so do we but we have more, the Book of Mormon.

I told her that when Jesus was in Jerusalem he said, other sheep I have which are not of this fold and that he was talking about the people in America. I said that he descended from heaven and they touched the prints of the nails in his hands and they bathed his feet with their tears. He blessed them with commandments. He taught them and he loved them

I told her that when Jesus was here he told the people that they needed to be baptized even though they had already been baptized in their previous religion. He taught them to be baptized to this new covenant and this new level and invited everyone of them to do so. I told her that this is the baptism that we have today and the invitation that Jesus gave to be baptized to this new level and this new covenant still stands.

I told her, we have a baptism too, only more

I told her that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon from the writings of the ancient prophets to English by the power of God. I told her that Joseph Smith, who was a young man, had been searching for the true church. I told her that he had prayed and that God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and called him to be the prophet to restore the church. I told her that today we have a prophet and apostles who lead and guide the church and speak with God and then reveal his will.

I told her that they had a leader of their church, the pope. I told her that we have leaders in our church too only they have the authority from God, the priesthood and we have a prophet.

The same but we have more.

I told her that we believe that people should be married just like they do but that we believe the marriage lasts for eternity. I told her that when Peter was on the earth he was given authority to seal things on earth that would be sealed in heaven. I told her that we use this same power to seal things on earth. We seal marriages and families so that they last beyond this life. She said “that’s beautiful.”

I told her, that’s exactly what God has us doing. We are building eternal families to serve him.

I said in your church and in our church we have marriage but in our church we have a little extra, eternal marriage.

I could tell that she was feeling the spirit very powerfully so I asked her, “tell me what you feel right now.” She said that she felt exhilarated and she felt the power of the things that I was saying. I asked her if she thought they were true and she said she knew they were true.

I asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she said no. I asked her if I could give her one and she said yes. I grabbed one of the book of Mormons prepared by the Secrists and gave it to her. She said she would read it. She said she couldn’t wait to get started. I asked her if she had any friends that were members in the church and she said the owners of the business where she works were members of the church and she likes them quite a bit.

I told her to go and talk to them and tell them about our discussion and she said she would. I told her to tell them about what she felt. She said that she would try but it would probably make her cry.

I told her, that’s ok, sometimes we cry in church. I asked her if she wanted to go to church this Sunday which was two days later. She said she couldn’t this week but she would love to the following week. I got the information from her and I am calling the missionaries to make sure that she is well received while she attends the ward. It was time for her to get out of the car and I said, do you remember the part where Jesus invited the people to be baptized to that new level? She said yes! I asked her if that would be an invitation she would accept. She smiled and said she would love to and she wants to do that.

I think this day I learned that sometimes you just have to say the words and not worry about finessing yourself into a conversation. The bottom line is that the Lord knows where the conversation needs to go and he will guide it there.

One day I picked up a girl in the Greek sorority section by the University of Utah. Normally when you pick someone up in this area you don’t think missionary work. I do think there’s obviously a lot of missionary work that needs to happen but these people are the very definition of debauchery most of the time.

She was heading to her job which was acting. She was acting in a play in another part of the valley. I asked her where she was from and she said California.

I asked her what brought her from California to Utah and she said, I don’t know, I liked my audition I did with the drama department at the University. She explained that she had to do auditions by zoom for colleges and none of them went well except for the University of Utah one so she came here.

She said that an extra bonus was that her good friend went to BYU. I asked her if she had been to Provo and she said that she had. She said she loved it. She said that she loved the mountains and that she was going to go down to visit her friend and try to climb the Y someday soon.

Strange words coming from Greek Row indeed!

I said, that was cool for her to have a friend so close at BYU. She said yeah, I tried to get her to go to the University of Utah but the rivalry and everything made it so her parents wouldn’t support that, not even for a second. I see that as quality parenting.

I said, do you know why they wanted her to go to BYU? She said, besides rivalry? I said yes. I asked her if I could tell her what is is, she said OK, what is it.

I said that her parents wanted her to date and marry someone that she could marry in the temple. I told her that we believe that when we marry someone in the temple that our marriages are forever marriages and our families are forever families. I told her the odds of finding a young man with those values is extremely high at BYU. I told her that her friend’s parents were playing the odds.

I told her that the parents wanted her to be with people that had similar beliefs so that when she had struggles, her college friends wouldn’t take her out to get her drunk but would lift her spiritually and in another ways.

I told her that the fact that BYU requires eight classes of religious instruction is a wonderful way to get to know her father in heaven and his word. I told her that these are the things her parents wanted along with the distain for the opposing team in the rivalry. We laughed.

Then the spirit moved me and I said you have been presented with opportunities to be baptized before. You’ve studied the gospel before. I told her that she didn’t do it because of fear for her social circumstance at college and her family‘s reaction. I told her that she liked it but those things were the complications that stopped her from being baptized.

She said yes, how did you know? I asked her how she felt right then. She said incredibly energized and peaceful. I asked her if she liked that feeling and she said yes. I told her it was the spirit of God and it was there to confirm the truth of the things I was saying and that the Holy Ghost had given me the words to say.

I felt impressed to say, “there’s someone in particular that you are thinking about right now who had really worked hard tying to get you to be baptized, who was that”? She said, that’s my boyfriend. He’s serving a mission right now.

I said that was great that her boyfriend was serving. I told her that he was out following the same spirit she was feeling now and saying the words the Lord put into his heart as well. I told her that this is how he was blessing people’s lives by bringing them the Spirit of God and God’s word just like we were experiencing in the car. She said that is was cool.

Then she said, my friend and Provo just opened her mission call and she’s going to South Carolina. She said that her friend was so excited.

I asked, you always seem to find yourself with members of the church don’t you? I told her that I felt that she was drawn to the light they have and that it was the same light our father in heaven has. I told her that this was the way he beckons to her and she felt the need to have that light in her life. She was drawn to it. I told her that she kept looking for it and was drawn to people who have it. I told her she wanted to have it but that this can only happen when she’s baptized.

She looked shocked and had a look of recognition on her face. She said, you’re right! I never thought about it like that.

I told her God puts people in my car and the spirit gives me the things to say. I told her again that the reason why you keep being drawn to members of the church is because your spirit knows that this is where you need to be.

I told her that her heavenly father knows who she is and loves her. He wants his spirit to be with her. I told her that her spirit wants the same thing. I told her that her spirit craves that association.

I asked her if she’d read the Book of Mormon and she said yes. I asked her if it was true and she said yes.

I asked her if knowing that it was God‘s will that she be baptized so that he could have his spirit be with her always made a difference and she said yes.

Then she sat back and said, WOW! There was silence for a minute. We sat there marinating in the spirit. Then she said, “I have to call my friend in Provo. We need to discuss this ride and the spirit we have felt”. She thanked me and told me this was the best ride she’d ever had. She said that what we had talked about and the spirit in the car had answered all of her questions and eased her concerns.

She said her friend would be so happy, and her boyfriend would be too!! She said , this was just what I needed just when I needed it. She smiled and got out of the car and went into the theatre.

I picked up a lady in Rose Park at about 12:15 one night. Rose Park isn’t exactly the place you want to be at 12:15 but this time it felt OK. It took her a long time to get to the car but finally she came up and knocked on the window. It startled me a little bit but we got it together and she got in the car.

We started to drive to the first location, she had two locations in the App, when I started out she said we are headed to the wrong place. She got us going to the right place, went in and got the things she needed and then came back out to the car. While she was gone I kept having the thought that she was here for a purpose. I decided I better find out what that was.

We were headed down to West Jordan so we jumped on California Avenue and then onto I 215. She told me we should get off on Redwood Road and that’s how she wanted me to go. The app clearly was giving directions that I was supposed to get off on 47th South.

I said to her are, you sure we’re not supposed to get off on 47th South and she said she was very sure, “it’s so much better on Redwood Road”. Then the spirit whispered to me and said that the reason why 47th South kept propping up was because I was supposed to talk about the building being completed off of 47 South. and I-215. It is the temple. It’s nearing the end of its construction.

I knew that there had to be a reason that the app was telling me to go on 47th South. When I saw the temple this made sense. The spirit told me exactly what it was and I knew what Heavenly Father wanted me to do. I also felt like someone else who loved her was in the car.

I said, well, as long as were driving by 47th south and not getting off we can still look at the temple that’s being built there, it’s a beautiful building! She said yes, it is, it’s gorgeous! At this point I didn’t know whether she was less active or not a member and we hadn’t had any discussion it. The spirit indicated to me that she was one of these so I knew that she was one or the other.

She didn’t smell like smoke, she wasn’t drunk, she was modestly dressed, she didn’t use very much foul language and the spirit told me that we needed to have a discussion about the temple.

I said to her, are you excited that once it is finished you get to go into it? She said, “what? go into a temple? I’ve never been in a temple! Are you sure? I would love to go into the temple and see what it’s like.” I told her that right after they finish building it, they will have an open house and for about three weeks people will be able to go through and see the temple. She said “I would love to do that! I’m going to do that.”

I told her, the other cool thing is that the Salt Lake Temple will be finished in a couple of years and she will be able to do the same thing there. She said, “oh my goodness! That would be a dream to go in that building!”

She said, you may not know it but my husband went on a mission for your church. We were members of your church right up until he was murdered. Her husband was murdered in 2006 and since then she had kind of dropped out of everything.

I saw why I was supposed to talk about the temples, I asked, you were never married in the temple were you? She said no! So you’ve never been in a temple I asked?. She said no. I said do you know what we do in temples? She said hold services I suppose. I said well, not really.

I told her that we are married in temples. I told her that when Peter was on the earth he was given power and authority by Jesus Christ to seal things on the earth that would be sealed in heaven and that we have that same authority today. I told her that we use that authority to seal marriages and seal families so that those people will be married and together in the next life. I told her that I was sealed to my wife. I told her that we do not do marriages “till death do us part” in the temple. I told her that temple marriages are forever.

She said that is amazing. She said “I wish I’d known about that”. I told her it’s not too late because the other thing we do in temples is we do work for people who have passed. I asked her if she’d ever heard of baptisms for the dead and she said yes. I told her that when Jesus was in the spirit world and his body was in the tomb before his resurrection he set up the preaching of the gospel to the people who had died. I told her that we go to the temple and we are baptized in their name so that they get a choice to accept the baptism or not. I told her that if my grandfather had died without being baptized I could go and be baptized for him so he could chose to accept this baptism. She said that’s awesome!

I told her that we also do marriages the same way. I told her that she could go to the temple and a worthy man could represent her husband. I told her that this way she and her husband could be married and sealed for time and all eternity. She was emotional, she was crying.

The spirit of God was in the car it was touching me and it was touching her. I could tell she was also feeling the presence of her husband and I said you’re feeling him here now aren’t you. She said yes, I am, how did you know? I told her that the gift of the Holy Ghost was whispering it to my heart. I told her that our father in heaven’s spirit was in the car and that it was telling me the things that she needed to hear.

I told her that her father in heaven wants her back. I told her that he wants her to go to church and go to the temple, not as a visitor in an open house but as a worshiper and a covenant maker. I told her that her heavenly father wants her to be sealed to her husband and that her husband wants to be sealed to her. That’s why I was sent here tonight.

I told her that God puts people in my car so that they can receive messages and he sends his spirit. He also sends the words to say. I told her that God and her husband wanted her to learn about the temple and start making a plan to get there.

She said, this is right! This is what I want to do. It would make my husband so happy. I told her that I felt like she was feeling sad. She said she was because she was thinking about her husband being killed.

I told her that the atonement of Jesus Christ was a complete sacrifice to make it so that we could walk with God through our lives and have him lift us in our burdens. I told her that Jesus Christ could help ease the pain of the suffering that she went through. I told her that God did not want her to suffer like this. I told her that the atonement of Jesus Christ and being sealed to her husband in the temple is God‘s way of helping her feel joy, love and happiness in the midst of her trials.

I asked her again if she could feel the spirit of God and she said yes. I told her that this is because the things I was saying were true. She said she knew it was.

I told her that her husband‘s not in pain and she said she knew that. I asked her why she should be in pain if he’s not? There was silence in the car the spirit was strong. I said God does not want you in pain. God wants you to look to his son Jesus Christ and his atonement. God wants you to pray. She said I don’t do that very much. She said “I will start.” I said God wants you to go to church and God wants you to prepare to go to the temple.

She asked is there someone I need to talk to that can help me get ready? I said yes! It is your Bishop. You need you to go to church and find out who the bishop is then go to him and tell him what we’ve talked about in the car tonight and tell him your story. I told her that he would know what to do to help her and that he would be able to get her to the temple. I told her that he would make it possible for her to be married to her husband for eternity .

She said, this ride seems like a dream. This is what I need to do. This is why you’re here. I said there’s one more thing, we need to find out where you go to church. She said, that’s a good idea I haven’t been in 20 years and I don’t know.

I put her address into the meeting house locator and came up with her ward, it met right behind her house. It also gave us the name of the bishop and the time of their meetings. I said, do you promise me you’ll go? She said, wild horses couldn’t keep me away at this point. God has told me this is what I need to do tonight in this car and I felt my husband here. I know this is what he wants me to do too. I took the picture of the meetinghouse locator page and showed it to her and she took a picture of that page off of my phone so that she could have the information

I said go to church ask for the bishop and he’ll probably have some missionaries come over and talk to you. They’re missionaries just like your husband was a missionary. She said, he would love that! This is what I need to do.

She thanked me and headed into her house. She turned around and waved five times in the time it to to cover the 10 yard sidewalk. She had a smile on her face and she had clearly been lifted by the spirit. I rolled down the window and said, I want you to promise to me one more time that you’ll go Sunday. She said, “I’ll be there”. I know that she will! She wants to get married, this time in the temple.

It’s interesting to feel the spirit bring to your recollection things that you’ve learned in the past and prompt you to use them in a discussion. Sometimes you’re in uncharted waters, and somehow miraculously you just say the right thing. It’s the spirit!

When I’m mowing the lawn I listen to the scriptures. If you’ve ever yelled at me while i am out there mowing the lawn and wonder why I don’t hear you it’s because I’ve got my noise cancellation headphones and am listen to the Book of Mormon. Listening this way allows me to open my mind and focus on what the spirit is teaching me instead of scrutinizing what I am reading.

This is how I’ve come to understand Isaiah better. I listen to the story and think about what I’m hearing and what I’m feeling. It has made it easier for me to understand. It has also help me understand a little bit more about the scattering of Israel and the gathering of the tribes of Israel. I really look forward to that time each week in the summer. It has become quite a time of learning and closeness with the spirit for me.

It has helped me with my understanding of the scriptures and sometimes it gives me the background of the information I need so that the spirit can prompt me to use it latter when discussing the gospel. One cold night this was the case.

I picked up three guys outside of a club in Salt Lake City. At first I was a little aggravated because they had been smoking and you just can’t leave that smell outside the car……(rant alert) Just because you throw your cigarette away five seconds before you get in the car doesn’t mean the smell goes with it.

All three of them climbed in the car and we started to go. We began with the normal smalltalk and in that smalltalk I found out these guys were from Israel and that they were Jewish. One thing I have never taught is a Jewish person. Imagine my surprise when the spirit told me to get with it.

Argentina had just won the World Cup and I asked if they liked soccer and mentioned that I had served in Argentina. We talked for a minute about Lionel Messi and then they asked, are you Mormon? I said yes sir I am. Then one of them said but are you still Mormon? I said yes I am. They said do you still believe everything and go to church all of the time?

I somehow felt like I was in a really important temple recommend interview. These guys behind me in the car were grilling me about my beliefs and whether or not I practiced those beliefs. They were very interested. Once I had assured them that I believed the church is true and that I go to church every Sunday and serve where I can they seemed to be pacified.

One of them said that his last name was Zachariah. He asked me if I knew anything about the prophet Zachariah or if I’d heard about him. I told to him that I had and he said that he hadn’t ever heard much. Even though he had his name he had never really studied his words. He seemed relieved and even proud that I knew something of this prophet who he told me was his ancestor.

Then they said, teach us something about your church,. They said, we know that you guys have a lot in common with our church and our religion, so teach us something. I was grateful for the forewarning I had received from the spirit because I had already been praying about what to say and the first thing that came to mind was prophets.

I told them that we have a prophet that speaks with God and that our church was founded by a prophet. I talked to them about Joseph Smith and how as a young man he knelt and prayed to ask God which of all the religions was true. I told them that God spoke to him and told him that he would be the prophet to restore his church on the earth.

I told them that he was called to be a prophet by God just like Moses, Samuel, Isaiah and all of the prophets in ancient Israel.

I received the prompting that I should speak of the Godhead as Elohim, Jehovah and the Holy Spirit. In retrospect, I believe there was because they were confused by me using the words God and Jesus. When I started using those names they said well, that’s what we call them. Those are the same names we use for God. I said that we believe Elohim is God the father and that Jehovah is Jesus Christ. I said that he was born and then later crucified to pay for our sins. He also suffered so that he could lift us through our trials in this life and our sins in the next. I said, Jesus Christ is who we believe the Messiah is.

They said that they had heard that we believed Jesus Christ was the Messiah but that they had never realized that Jehovah was Jesus Christ and the relationship with Elohim was something they didn’t know a great deal about.

I explained them that the children of Israel were scattered to the ends of the earth. I told them that Isaiah spoke about this. I told them that Isaiah prophesied extensively about how the Messiah would minister to scattered Israel. I told them that isaiah taught that God never forgot those children of Israel who were scattered and that he loved them and remembered them.

I mentioned that they were scattered to everywhere, every continent and the isles of the sea. I also mentioned to them that Abraham was promised that the whole world would be blessed by his seed and that this was Gods way of fulfilling that promise. I also said that Isaiah mentioned that the Messiah would go to the house of Israel, all of the house of Israel and that he would gather them and bless them.

Right then the phrase that the Book of Mormon will convince the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ came to my mind. I knew then what to do. I went into the Book of Mormon and started teaching. I mentioned to them that the Book of Mormon was the history of a Jewish family and it started in Jerusalem. The father of this family was a prophet in Jerusalem.

I told them that Isaiah was very important and his words brought great comfort to these Jews. I said that this family knew and was contemporary with Jeremiah. They lit up as I used these names because they were all names that they were familiar with. I told them that the father of this family who was a prophet was commanded by God to leave Jerusalem with his family and commanded to keep a record.

I told them that God took them from Jerusalem, helped them build a boat and brought them to America just like Noah had been instructed to build a boat to save his family. Then I said that at this point his family became part of scattered Israel in the isles of the sea. I pointed out that Isaiah had mentioned this and that they were a fulfillment of his prophecy.

I told them that the people came to America and from America went to other places in the sea, other islands and possibly other continents. I told them that the Book of Mormon was nothing more than the revelations given by God to his people and his prophets. I asked them how important the words of the prophets are to the Jews and they said very important.

I told them, the cool thing about the Book of Mormon was that it is a record of a family of Jews that become Christians and how God directed that change. I told them that the prophet received revelations about Jesus Christ and that he would come. I also told them the Jesus Christ came to America and taught the people. I told them that once Jesus was crucified and resurrected in Jerusalem he descended from heaven in America and the people came to him.

I told them that they knew who it was because they had been taught by their prophets that he would come. They were waiting for the Messiah and they had him standing before them. I told them that as a nation that day they converted to Christianity.

I could feel the spirit in the car and so I stopped teaching for a minute to identify it. I asked them if they could feel something different. They said yes! One said he felt peaceful and another one said he felt warm and the final one said he felt peaceful and warm. I knew they were feeling the spirit and so I told them that it was the spirit of God and that he sent his spirit to testify of truth.

Then one of them said, isn’t the Spirit of God found in all things? I said the spirit of God is all around us but it comes into our hearts to testify of truth. If I had been lying would you feel like you feel right now? They said no. I said, if I had told you something that was false, how would you feel? Would God have sent his spirit to ratify that? They said that they thought that he would not. I said that the Spirit of God comes to us to help us know the truth.

I told them that they are children of their father in heaven and they readily said that they believed that to be true. I told them that his spirit is important to our spirits and that this relationship is vital. I told them that our spirits recognize his spirit because it is a father-child relationship.

They agreed with that and said they had never thought of it that way. I said, having the spirit with us makes it so that we can know that God is blessing the things we do in our lives. I told them that if we do the right things and make the right choices we can walk with the spirit of God.

I told them that once we are baptized we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost which walks with us and confirms truth to us. I told them that it comforts us and helps us. They said they heard about the Holy Ghost but didn’t have a great understanding of it. This made sense to them.

I told them that the Holy Ghost that they were feeling right now was here because the things I was saying were true. I asked them if they had a copy of the Book of Mormon and they told me they have the app. I reached in and pulled out one of the Book of Mormons prepared by the Secrists and gave it to them. I said, I want you to have one of these so that you can sit and read it.

They were touched. I told them to remember that this is the story of a Jewish family. A Jewish family who became Mormons. We all laughed. I told them what was more important is that this book is the story of a prophet who followed God and fulfilled prophecies pronounced by other prophets. I told them that this book was their heritage and that it would speak them.

Each one of them said we want to read this book, We want to study this book and we want to learn about your church through this book. I told them that as they read they should pray and when they pray, God would send the spirit that they were feeling right now to their hearts and they would know the things are true.

I told them that God doesn’t expect us to wander without a light and without a guide. I told them that he would walk beside us and that his spirit will be around us if we will do the things that he asks us to do. We were finally at the place where I was supposed to drop them off and one of them opened the door and the other one said shut that door we’re not done.

I could tell that they were feeling the spirit and not wanting the ride to end. They enjoyed this communion. To them it was a moment of enlightenment.

Then I looked at the one whose name was Zachariah and I said do you know what Zachariah taught? He said no, I just know that I am related. I told him that Zachariah taught of the gathering of Israel In the last days. I asked him if he knew what the mission of the book of Mormon was? He said no. I said it is to gather Israel. I said it’s very interesting that you, a descendent of Zachariah, are holding your hands the instrument of the fulfillment of his prophecy. He was touched and said, this is amazing.

We sat there for a minute and then finally they had to go. First there were fist bumps and handshakes. Then all three of them, six hands, were grabbing my shoulders and shaking me in a loving friendly way. I have said before than once people feel the spirit in my car they like to reach out and touch me and these three young men were no exception.

I know this ride was supposed to happen. I don’t know if they’ll get baptized but I know that they knew that this was true. They know that God confirmed it to them and I know that they’re going to read the Book of Mormon. I know God had a purpose for that ride and I know it’s a good thing I have paid attention when I’m mowing the lawn.

I picked up a girl at some apartments in Northeast Salt Lake City. She was just getting off a date and she was going home. She came out of the house and got in the car and had an unsettled spirit about her. I asked her how it went and she said it went good but I could tell she wasn’t telling the truth.

I said sometimes the guys are just underwhelming aren’t they. She said yes they are. I talked to her about a study I saw with regards to tinder and how easy it is for guys to be players and girls to be superficial. She said that’s exactly right.

I asked her if it would be OK if I spoke like a dad or like a grandpa and she said she would love that. The spirit had let me know early that she had been unsettled by her night and that this guy had tried to push her and she was not having it. I told her what I thought had happened and she said that I was very perceptive.

Then she went into an explanation on how tough it is to find good guys and asked me where do you think I should find them? She said my dad tells me to go to libraries. I laughed. I said you don’t strike me as a library type and then she laughed.

I said the issue is that in the daring process these days many women don’t feel like they need to have the man prove himself or his intentions and earn the right through commitment. Since the women don’t require this the guys aren’t looking to give this. That is why the dating apps are so horrible and just degenerate into a bunch of people trying to have sex.

She said you sound like my dad. She said, I was raised a Mormon but I’ve left the church. My dad has been a bishop and my dad and mom are still very active and you sound just like him. She said I can tell that you’re Mormon too. Then I told her, well then you know where I’m going to tell you you should meet the kind of guy you’re looking for, in a singles ward.

She said, let me tell you my story. She told me about being married at 18 to a young man that was 22 years old. She said that they were divorced now and that she was quite disillusioned and had left the church. None of this shocked me as I could feel her wounds but I could also feel her father in heaven‘s love for her.

I told her that the first thing that was important for her to understand was that God loved her. She had lived with her father in heaven for thousands of years and their spirits knew each other and her spirit craved the presence of her father. When I testified of her Heavenly Father’s love his spirit came in the car.

I could tell she was moved and I could feel that she was gobbling it up. I told her that what happens is people are led away and fill the space intended for the spirit with riotous living and substances that drag them away from happiness not to happiness.

She said that’s right, that’s what had happened. I told her that the spirit was telling me that when she thinks about going to church or drives by a church she has Satan in her ear telling her that she can’t go there because she’s not worthy. He tells her the people will be judging her and that she is not welcome and that she can’t pray because her father in heaven doesn’t want to hear from her because she’s unclean.

I told her that these things come from Satan and they are lies because Satan is a liar. I told her that her father in heaven wants her back.

I told her that he’s given her the atonement. There was a pause when I said atonement and I could tell she was thinking about confessing in the bishop’s office. I said repentance is only part of the atonement, when Jesus atoned he also suffered for our pain, the injustice, the angst, the infirmities and all of the negative things that we would have to go through so that we could lean on him.

I told her that the only way to heal totally and move forward is to take the atonement as if it were medicine and rub it on your heart and soul so that it can heal.

She said, that is beautiful. I said, that’s God‘s way of making things right.

The spirit was really strong in the car and I asked her what it felt like and she said it was a very strong feeling of peace. I said that’s how you felt in the presence of God for all those years and he is here. I said this is how you feel when you’re hearing truth or when you’re in the presence of the Holy Ghost. You know that the things you’re hearing are true. I told her that one of the problems we have is that she went to girls camp and felt that crying or shivers down your spine were the spirit. I told her that what she was feeling now was the spirit and that emotion could also be involved at times but that this peace she was feeling is how she felt in the presence of God.

I told her that God sent his spirit because he wanted her to have a message. I told her that God had given me these things to say so that she would know that he loved her and that he wanted her to come back to him.

I felt like asking her about the Book of Mormon so I asked her how long it had been since she read it. She said she had read it many times. Then it became clear to me that she had been frustrated by not receiving what she considered to be an answer after she read the book. When I said this she said she was confused by the fact that she had never received what she considered to be a revelation or answer as promised.

I took some time and went over Moroni 10:3-5. We talked about “receiving these things and pondering them in your heart.” We discussed making a decision and taking it before Heavenly Father and asking him to confirm that decision or let you know if it was wrong. I also told her based on verse five this is a pattern for receiving revelation in our life.

I said, that same feeling that you’re feeling right now in the car is the very feeling that you’ll feel as God confirms to you that the Book of Mormon is true. That is your answer! It’s not an angel, (probably). It’s not a whisper in your ear, (probably). It’s definitely the love and spirit of your father in heaven as manifest to you by peace in your heart as you have indicated here tonight. She asked, why didn’t somebody explain this to me. I told her it is very personal and very difficult to teach but that is why she was in my car tonight.

I asked her how she felt about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon based on the spirit she felt now. She said its true and that she was thinking about all of the times she missed that confirmation looking for something else.

I told her that when people look for who they’re going to marry they ask Heavenly Father to show them who they should marry and then look for dreams of 8 x 10 glossy photos of the person floating by that they are supposed to marry. They do this rather than study it out in their mind, make a decision, ask for confirmation and follow the spirit. I said that’s how we can follow the spirit and make good choices.

I told her that if you go to the singles ward there are still a few guys that are not great guys and you still have to make those good ones prove themselves. You still have to make them earn the right to be with you and prove their intentions. I said, you start ahead of the game by being in a pool of people that are looking in the same direction you’re looking. They are trying to walk in the same way you are even though they’re not perfect. She said that makes sense.

I told her that I felt impressed by the spirit that she hasn’t been praying for years. She looked down and said, how did you know. I told her that the spirit whispered it to my heart. I asked her how God can bless her and give her the man that he has prepared for her if she isn’t willing to turn to him in prayer?

I told her that the young man she’s looking for is in a singles ward and that if she prepares herself she will be able to recognize him. I said he’ll see the light in your eyes and recognize you. I told her to get to that point she needs to pray every day, she needs to read her Book of Mormon every day and that she needs to go to church.

I got the impression that she felt very deeply with her heart and that this gift wasn’t appreciated. Her heart had been wounded and that discussing the atonement was very soothing. I also had the impression that she really wanted to love more but had felt like she needed to restrain herself. I got the distinct impression that her love and her ability to love was a huge part of her patriarchal blessing.

I said these things to her and she agreed but when I talked about her patriarchal blessing she said there’s no way you could’ve known that. I told her that it was God that put these words in my heart so that she could know that this message was for her and that it came from him.

The spirit was in the car and she was feeding off of it. I could tell it was like you feel when you start drinking water after having been a long time without. You just soak it in.

Her spirit was soaking it in. I told her that her father in heaven loved her so much that he would do anything to get her back. I told her that he would even send a driver with a message if that’s what it took. She smiled. I could tell she didn’t want the trip to end even though we had been sitting in front of her house for sometime.

I asked her if she would commit to doing the things we talked about and she said yes. I told her it’s time to come home. I shared my testimony of the truthfulness of the church, of the Book of Mormon, the power of prayer and the love of our father in heaven. I told her that I have no doubt that he reached out to her tonight and sent me to help her remember so she could come back.

We went back to the discussion of who you want to date and marry. I said, one of the questions you need to answer is, when you’re sick or your child is sick, do you want the father of the child and your husband to give a blessing and call down the power of heaven? Or do you want to have to take that child to your father. She said she wanted the child’s father to be able to give the blessing. I said, that’s your answer and that’s what you need to work towards.

My perception on this is that when she left the church she was not ready to listen but after years of very unsatisfying and distressing social dating situations she was ready to listen to the spirit that spoke to her heart. She was ready to hear the word of God preached to her in a way that she had never heard before and it fed her soul. By coincidence I happened to stop by just at the right minute. I pointed out to her this coincidence and said how do you think it happened that out of all of the drivers, I show up tonight just at this time. I told her that I believed her parents were praying for her and the power of their prayers set this up.

I told her that tonight she saw the hand of God move to lift her and that if she will follow it she would find the companion she needs that will protect her, that will help her and that will uplift her and they can be one. I told her that this is what God has to offer to her if she’ll follow through with those commitments.

She sat there for a while, reached up and grabbed my shoulder and thanked me. She said she would do those things. I know that she will and that there is some lucky young man out there who will be the beneficiary of the work that she is now willing to put in so that they can walk together back to God.

I picked up a girl clear up at the top of the valley. It’s a road called Donner Road. Somehow I think that somebody should put a restaurant there that serves kidney beans and finger sandwiches. (Sorry my wife thinks that this joke is in bad taste haha) but i couldn’t help myself. I pulled around the corner and there was this young lady in the back of the cul-de-sac with her suitcase. She was heading to the airport to go visit her family in Colorado.

She had a big smile and was very happy. I could tell that this wasn’t one of those college students that spend a lot of time drunk, in Uber‘s heading out to do unmentionable things on Friday and Saturday night.

I asked what she was studying and she said biology. She was on a pre-med track. There’s a lot of that, it seems everybody wants to be a doctor these days.

As we started to go I asked her what she thought about living in Utah. She said she liked it. She said it’s not so much different from Colorado but that the people are really nice. I felt the impression from the spirit that I was supposed to talk to this girl about the church and so I immediately started looking for an opening.

I asked about her friends, I asked about her classes and her family. I was getting nowhere fast so I decided to jump right in.

At this point I didn’t know for sure that she wasn’t a member of the church. The spirit had just indicated that I was speaking to a nonmember. I asked her if she had much exposure to the church before she came to Utah. She said no.

I asked her what she thought and she said that she didn’t know much about the church but since she was going to live here she would like to learn some more. That’s always the best answer.

I said do you want me to tell you what some of the differences are between our church and your church? She said yes! I said, before I can tell you what the differences are I have to know what church you belong to. She laughed and said that she was Catholic. She said that while she was growing up they went to church every week but since Covid they had even started doing Easter and Christmas online. They didn’t go anymore.

For a Catholic to miss Christmas mass or Easter mass and accept online as a substitute was something new to me. I said, whoa even Christmas and Easter? She said yes. She said, we just don’t feel it like we used to.

She said I guess we can blame Covid in part but we just kind of grew away from the things in the church. She said for herself there were a lot of questions that she didn’t have answers to.

I said, now that I know that you’re Catholic we can talk. I told her that I went on my mission to Argentina and I knew lots of Catholics. The one thing I learned is that we’re not trying to repudiate their religion. I told her for the most part we are adding to what they already have. They don’t have to replace their savior, we have the same one. They don’t have to replace their heavenly father we have the same one. They don’t have to replace the Bible because we believe in the Bible.

I talked to her about Joseph Smith and how he was looking for the truth and there were many churches saying they had it. I told her that he knelt and prayed just like it told him to do in the Bible. I said that God the father and Jesus Christ once again called a prophet. Just like in the bible.

I told her that Joseph Smith was called to restore the church. I told her that in the time of Christ, after the resurrection the apostles were all killed and the church fell. I told her the people grabbed parts of the doctrine and reformed their churchs around those parts of the doctrine. I told her that they loved the church and they grabbed what they could but left some things on the floor.

I told her it’s just like a mirror that breaks and you can’t pick up all the pieces but maybe you pick up one or two and use it as a mirror because it does almost the same thing but it’s just not quite as good. She said she loved that analogy.

I testified that the Prophet Joseph Smith was called of God and the spirit was there. I asked her if she could feel it and she said yes! I told her that Joseph Smith restored the whole mirror or the whole gospel and that’s where we find the differences. I told her Jesus, the son of God, didn’t just go to the people in Jerusalem because God loves everyone. God is the father of everyone no matter where they live and he sent his son to them.

I told her how in the Bible Jesus said that other sheep I have which are not of this fold and that he had received a commandment from his father to go visit those other sheep so they could hear his voice and be counted among his sheep.

I told her that Jesus appeared to the people who lived here in America. I told her that the people here in America had prophets who taught them the will of God. I explained to her that the commandments we received from God are the way he blesses us. I told her that obedience to the commandments is what allows us to live a happy life. I told her that this is very contrary to what she’s seeing at the University but that God has always sent his prophets to teach us the things that we should do so we can follow himand be part of his plan of happiness.

She said that’s correct! I always feel better when I obey the commandments. I said, these prophets received revelations from God and wrote them down. Their writings included the account of the visit of Jesus Christ to America where he descended from heaven and stood in front of the people on the steps of the temple. They touched the prints of the nails in his hands and his feet and bathed his feet with their tears.

I told her that Jesus Christ taught these people to be baptized even though they had already been baptized. He taught them that they should be baptized to a new level, to a new covenant, and to a new understanding. He gave the authority to the 12 people he called to perform those baptisms and he taught them how to do it. After he taught them he commanded them to go out and baptize everyone even though they had previously been baptized.

Once he had done this and when he taught the people, he said still other sheep I have which are not of this land or the land of Jerusalem or the lands roundabout and I have received a commandment from my father to go to these people so they can be counted among my sheep.

I told her that Jesus went to people all over the world because God loves everyone not just the people in Jerusalem. I said no other church teaches that. She said, that’s crazy because it makes so much sense that a loving perfect all powerful God would love all of his children and send his son to all of his children. I asked her if she could feel the spirit when we talked about that and she said yes. I asked her what that meant and she thought about it for a second and said it means it’s true.

I asked her to describe for me what it felt like. She thought for a minute and said that it felt like a glowing light inside of her. She said “light! That’s exactly what it feels like”. I told her that this was how she felt the spirit of God.

I told her that God was her father and that her spirit recognized his presence and this is how she felt in his presence. She said I love it. This is what I have been missing.

I told her that this was correct, that God would not send his spirit if the things we were saying we’re not true. She agreed and I continued.

I told her that indeed she was correct in saying that God loved all of his children and wanted them all to learn the gospel. I told her that’s why in Peter, in the Bible, it says that when Jesus died he went to the spirit world and taught the people who had died without hearing the gospel. She said, that’s incredible. I wonder why I’ve never heard about that?

I asked her how loving it would be to go and teach people of the gospel and of its blessings, who did not have a possibility of being baptized because they were already dead. I asked her if that would be kind and loving and she said no. It’s never kind and loving to dangle something in front of someone knowing that they can’t have it. I said that’s right. I asked her if she had ever heard of baptisms for the dead.

She said yes! She had heard of that but she didn’t know much about it. I told her that you first find references to it in the New Testament. We go to the temple and are baptized in behalf of someone who has passed using their name. Then they get the opportunity to accept this baptism after having been taught the gospel in the spirit world.

I told her that is God’s way to make sure that everyone of his children has the opportunity to come home. Every one of his children will be taught the gospel and have a chance to accept it under favorable and perfect circumstances for them. They will be able to choose. She said, that truly makes this a very inclusive or the most inclusive religion because everyone has the opportunity no matter when they lived or where they lived to be baptized and come home. She said, I’ve never thought of such a beautiful thing but it’s incredible.

I told her that God also sent Peter, James and John to restore this authority to Joseph Smith. I told her that in the Bible it said that Peter received the authority to seal things on the earth that are sealed in heaven. I told her that we use that power to seal marriages for time and all eternity not just until death do we part. I told her we also seal children to their parents.

She said, you can tell that there’s something different about families of the LDS faith. They’re just a little stronger and this must be why.

I said, baptism for the dead, Jesus coming to America, the authority to seal people on the earth to their families and to their spouses are all things that were originally part of the church of Jesus Christ. I told her that these things were restored to Joseph Smith and we have them today.

I asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she said no. I pulled out one of the Book of Mormon prepared by the Secrists and asked her if she would like to have it. She said yes, she would very much like to have it and read it. I explained to her the questions of the soul and the tabs and how she could do some studying on what we believe using that Book of Mormon. She said, what a great gift! Thank you.

She quickly looked at the questions of the soul and said, well I have these same questions. She said this will be fun.

She said I promise that I will read it.

I asked her if she had any friends that were members of the church and she said yes, two friends were in her biology classes last semester. I asked her if they were good friends and she said yes. I asked her if she would go to those friends with that Book of Mormon and tell them about our ride in the car today. I asked her to tell them what she felt and she said she would.

She thanked me for the book and got out of the car and went into the airport. When she gets back some friends are going to get a fantastic opportunity.

I picked up this girl in Sugarhouse who was doing Christmas shopping. It was October and I admired her early approach to the holiday. She was a student at the University of Utah and I felt like the spirit was prompting me to talk about the church with her. She looked like a member of the church in every way but the spirit assured me she was not. I proceded with that knowledge.

I saw an opening with the Christmas presents and I took it. I said, a lot of people complain about the commercialization of Christmas but I think that it is a choice. She said what do you mean? I said well, in my family I told people that if they ever gave me a list they would never get anything on the list. I told them that part of their gift was that I went to the store and spent time thinking about them and what they would like. That didn’t go over so well as children but they usually got something they liked and for me it was never about the commercialization but always about the gift and the person. That way Christmas can be focused on my family and on Jesus Christ.

I said far too many people don’t bring Jesus Christ into that equation. She said, I know and it really bums me out. I told her that this year part of my family would not even be in the country. They were going to be in Argentina. She asked me if I had been to Argentina and I said yes, I went on my mission to Argentina. She asked if I spoke Spanish and I said yes, I still do interpretation of church meetings.

She asked how I could still speak Spanish after all of these years since my mission. I told her that when I was in the MTC we had an apostle come and he promised us that if we would say our prayers and read our scriptures in our mission language that we would never lose it. I told her that a promise from one of the apostles is a promise from God and since that day I have never said a personal prayer in English and I read my scriptures in Spanish. I told her that my Spanish is better today than it was when I was on my mission. She was impressed.

She said her friend just got called to Argentina on a mission and she thought it was awesome.

This was the opening I was looking for. I asked her if her friend had told her what she would be teaching and why she was going. She said no but that she thought it was really cool. I asked do you want to know what she’ll be teaching? She said, I absolutely do!

I asked her who wrote the Bible, she said prophets. I asked her what they wrote and she said the word of God. I asked her if God loved the people who lived in Jerusalem more than others and she said no. I asked her if God loved people from other places in the world and she said yes. I asked her if he loved them as much as he loved the people in Jerusalem and she said yes. I asked her if she thought that God was capable of giving his word to people other than the people in Jerusalem and she said yes.

I asked her, given that love why wouldn’t God bless them with his word as well. She thought for a minute and she said that she thought that he would.

I told her that Heavenly Father loved each of us and that he’s given us prophets through which he reveals his will and his commandments. I told her that we have a prophet today that speaks with God for us and he had called her friend to go to Argentina.

When I talked about the prophet and her friend she began to tear up. She said that feels so right, there has always been a special feeling around that girl and what you just said feels right.

I pulled out one of my Book of Mormons that was marked by the Secrist’s and I said this book is what she will take to the people in Argentina. I asked , have you ever heard of the book of Mormon? She said, I live in Utah of course I’ve heard of the Book of Mormon. She laughed! I said do you know what it is? She said no, she didn’t have any idea. I told her it was the revelations that God gave his prophets who lived here in America. It contains all of his truth and is another testimony, companion of the Bible, of Jesus Christ and his divinity.

I told her that her friend was going to take this book to Argentina and using this book teach people that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that he paid for their sins. their sorrows and their oppression. He made it so that we could return to God again. I said that is what is in this book and that’s the power of this book.

She asked where she could get one like that one! I handed it to her and said that book is yours if you will do one thing. She said, what? I said read it and pray about it with your friend who’s going on the mission.

She said she would and that sounded like a great idea and a great way for her to understand her friends mission with her.

The spirit was really strong in the car and I told her that I know the book is true and she said “I believe it is too”. “I can’t wait to learn.” I said, the Spirit of God will help you learn. I asked her if she knew what the Spirit of God felt like and she said she wasn’t sure. I asked her what she was feeling right then and she said warm energy. I told her that that is what the spirit of God feels like to her. I asked her what she was thinking right then and she said her mind was alive with questions and possibilities. I told her that’s how she felt when she was under the influence of the spirit and how God would reveal his will to her.

I told her to talk to her friend about that and her friend could help her understand the spirit as well.

She had to go to class but she reached out and touched my shoulder and said I want you to know how much this ride has meant to me. It’s like I found a piece to my puzzle that I didn’t know was missing. She got out of the car and ran to class.

And

A quick little bonus story

I picked up a family who just moved here from Peru a couple months ago and we started to drive. They asked me how I learned Spanish so well and I told him that I learned it on my mission. They told me that they had been talking with a couple of sister missionaries and that they wanted them to get baptized.

I asked them what was holding them up and they said two things

Thing one, they were baptized Catholic when they were kids and they didn’t see why they had to go against that tradition and why that baptism wouldn’t work.

I told them about Jesus coming to America and teaching how baptism was to be done and calling apostles and giving them authority to baptize and then commanding that everyone be baptized even though they had previously been baptized. He wanted them to be baptized to this new level to a new covenant to give them more power. I told them that it was no repudiation of their former baptism but an embracing of the Savior and his covenants. They loved that and said that’s great.

I could tell the spirit was touching both of them. Even their children were quiet. I couldn’t see the lady but I could hear sniffles and the husband had tears in his eyes. I said, that’s the power of the spirit testifying of the truth of what I just taught you. This is how you know that it’s important to do whatever it takes to be baptized. This is God confirming those words and helping you with your decision.

It turns out that the barriers are easily overcome mobile. They didn’t have a car.

Thing two, they lived in a house with three cars but they didn’t have a car. The church where the Spanish branch meets was some distance away from their house and they had no way to get there with their small family. They said that the sisters keep getting mad at them because they don’t go but they don’t understand them when they tell that they don’t have a car and they can’t make that journey. Their friend had paid for their ride that night but that they didn’t have money for car rides

I told them that the next morning they needed to get on the phone with the sister missionaries and tell them that they need to have either the ward mission leader or the elders quorum president pick them up and bring them to church because they don’t have a car.

Armed with the new spiritual experience and confirmation they had received, the husband spoke up and said, that’s exactly what will do. We will call the sisters.

Then he asked, are you sure they will they do that? I said absolutely they will. They were excited for 9 AM the next morning. They were going to call the sisters and arrange for someone to drive them to church. Why someone wasn’t already doing this I have no idea.

This whole thing breaks down over assumptions and miscommunication. We all need to make sure that the people in our lives understand the love of God and his covenants and that we understand their circumstances so we can best support them and help them on their path as new members of the church. Sometimes we might even need to give someone a ride but it seems to me that is all fair and good because Jesus has had me on his back, packing me and my problems around for a long time. This is how we become his hands.

Sometimes you get riders that become regulars. Sometimes it is by coincidence and sometimes it’s not. There is one young lady in particular that I have picked up about seven times.

The first time was a night that I had a flat tire. I drove her home with less than 5 pounds of pressure the last few blocks. We kind of bonded over that situation. I have picked her up when she’s been drunk and I had to make sure she made it safely to her house. I have picked her up from work, as well as her friends houses.

Mostly we’ve done small talk but she said she always felt good and safe in my car. She said she liked it when I picked her up. As you know I pray over my car everyday that the spirit of God will ride with me. I pray that the people who are in my car feel is spirit so that reaction doesn’t surprise me. The other part of it is that I tell people I shower and use deodorant which isn’t necessarily a given for Uber drivers.

One Tuesday I picked her up from work and we started driving her home. She is a waitress and she was going home early to ice her back. She was in an accident last year where somebody ran a red light and plowed into her which is why she uses Uber. She reiterated how comfortable she felt in my car and said that she wished I was her dad. Her mom and dad have been separated for many years after he had an affair and left the family. I took that as a compliment and an opportunity.

As we were driving we started talking about how crazy things keep getting for Uber drivers. I told her that sometimes I get downright distressed and depressed with some of the things I hear from the kids that use the service. I told her that one of the things that is most aggravating these days is how young women brag about their body counts ( in today’s vernacular “Body Count “is the number of people with whom you have had sex. ) I told her that there are a lot of reasons that this is just horrific.

We talked about the science of how it makes it very difficult for a woman who has a high body count to emotionally commit in a relationship. Then I said, this is one of the reasons is why God doesn’t want that behavior. It disrupts and destroys the family. She said that she and her mother could attest to that fact.

I asked her if it was OK for me to talk about the church and she said yes! I said the God gives us commandments to bless us and help us and keep us away from pitfalls. This would be a typical indication of what a pitfall would look like. It looks like fun but it’s a real pit. She laughed.

I told her that a lot of these women are just trying to bury pain and that’s why the church teaches the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I told her that Satan tempts a man to do evil and then he turns to his victims and tells them to blame God and the church. I told her that when people start taking this path they just keep going down that path. She looked at me and said, “Yep that’s right.”

I told her that God is there and saying, look to Jesus and he can lift your burdens and ease your pain.

I knew she had a hard upbringing and I talk to her about the cups of Kool-Aid and how you even them out versus how the Lord doesn’t worry about even they are, he just comes in with a new pitcher of Kool-Aid and fills everyone’s cup.

I told her that God is there and all we have to do is reach out for him. She said that so beautiful why don’t they teach that at church? I said they do! I said redemption and atonement is what the church is all about. I told her that the atonement is what God has given us so that we can make it through life focused on the things that are important not the things that damage us.

By this time I had figured out that she was a member of the church and the spirit was confirming that to me. She said, I was a member of the church when I was young but when all these things started to happen I couldn’t do it anymore. Right then the spirit indicated to me four things that have been problems for her with the church.

I had an understanding by spiritual prompting that these things were the reasons why she left the church. They are 1. she felt judged, 2. she felt unworthy because of a traumatic event in her life 3. she felt like the church was not inclusive (I felt like that was more of a smokescreen for her looking to find reasons not to like the church but it had become a huge issue), and 4.she didn’t pray.

I decided to start tackling these one by one.

I told her that part of the reason why she left the church was that she felt judged. She said I don’t know how you knew that but that’s true. I told her that she even felt judged when she drove by a church and there was nobody there. She nodded and said yes. I explained to her that Satan is in her ears telling her that she’s being judged and trying to get her to turn from Jesus and blame God. She said that’s true, wow.

I told her that everyone who goes to church has Satan telling them that they’re not worthy, that they can’t be clean, there’s no way they can be clean, there’s no way that they can be in the presence of God, that there’s no way they can pray, that there’s no way they can do these things because they’re not worthy. I told her that he also tells them that the people that are there are hypocrites and judgmental.

I said, to combat that, imagine the power of walking up to one of those people who you perceive to be judging you and put your arm around them while saying“ I want to thank you for being a good example for me, I need that!” She said, that would change everything. It’s just a different way of handling it. I said, this way you are fighting the perception that Satan is putting in your mind and you’re turning to the love of Christ and to heal the wound and come to Christ. She said, until today I had never had an application for the atonement like that explained to me.

I told her that the spirit had let me know that she had a traumatic event in her early life that she never told anyone about. I told her, you just don’t talk about it, you push it down. She started to cry and said yes. She asked, how do you know these things. I asked her how her Book of Mormon knowledge was and she said it was pretty good. I said do you remember Ammon? She said yes! He cut arms off! I laughed and said you’re right. I told her that after he cut the arms off of the robbers and the king had asked where he was. When they brought him in the king was blown away by his service. Then Ammon interpreted the words that were in the kings mind and heart because the king was so astounded by his service that he could not speak. When Ammon told him what was in his heart and mind the king said, are you God? Ammon said no, but God has sent me and given me your thoughts so that you can know that the words I say or from him. I told her, “same thing” she started crying harder.

I told her that the abuse that she had suffered was also covered by the atonement of Christ. If she would use it the burdens and pain of that abuse could be healed and lifted. I told her that the people with Alma who were captured and enslaved by the Lamanites were given horrible demeaning and physical tasks that were difficult but because they turned to Christ and his atonement they were blessed that their burdens were lifted to the point where they barely could feel them.

I said that’s the atonement. Christ fills every glass so that we are full and no matter what our circumstance or hardship he has felt it, he knows it and he can give us peace in our souls.

I told her this peace is what we’re all after. The spirit was really strong in the car, she was crying and I identified the spirit to her. I told her that she was her Heavenly Father‘s daughter and that she had a relationship with him that was very real and that she could feel it. I told her that she felt this for thousands of years before she was born and she was feeling it today in the car. I told her that is the spirit of God. She said I know that is the spirit of God. I told her God gives you his spirit so you can know whether or not things are of him.

I told her that the spirit was also telling me that she had concerns about the inclusivity of the church. I explained to her that when Jesus came to America he said still other sheep I have which are not of this land or the land of Jerusalem and that he was going to visit them. I explained to her that God is the God of everyone not just the God of Jerusalem and we are the only church that teaches the Jesus visited God‘s other sheep. I told her, “that’s all inclusive”.

I told her about baptisms for the dead which she had performed when she was young. I told her that those people were taught in the spirit world about the gospel but needed to be baptized to come home to their father. I told her that the reason why we do baptisms for the dead is to assure that every person no matter where they lived, no matter when they lived, no matter what color they were or sex they were would have an equal opportunity to be saved in the kingdom of their father in heaven under favorable circumstances. I told her that we are the only church the teaches that.

I asked, can you tell me of another religion that has doctrines so totally inclusive as these. The spirit was strong and she said no, that’s incredibly inclusive. God is the God of everyone and he loves us all, he’s our father. As she testified the spirit was very strong.

To round out the four issues she had that were prompted by the spirit I said, you don’t pray. You haven’t been praying and your heavenly father really wants to hear from you. She said, that’s way true.

The spirit was testifying in the car and I testified of the truthfulness of the church and how obedience to the commandments and obtaining and honoring covenants brings happiness so that we can have the spirit of our father with us.

I told her that she needed to fill that hole in her soul with the spirit of God that she was feeling in the car right now and she said yes I do. She said, it’s amazing how you knew all of those things about me. I went back to the Ammon’s story and re-emphasized that God gave Ammon those things to say so that the king would know that the words he said came from God. She said that’s right. I said why do you think that God gave me the things in your heart and your thoughts, it’s the same thing.

It clicked. You could see it in her eyes and then her countenance. She sat up and said you’re right! She cried some more. I told her that there’s a reason that God has been putting her in my car and it’s so that she could become at ease with me enough that we could have this discussion. I told her this is the reason she was in my car today. Through the tears she agreed.

I said, so what do we do with this? I said that she needed to pray and she said that she would.

I said, you need to go to church. I said find a ward and go there at least for sacrament meeting for a little while until you’re ready to jump all in. She smiled and said, that’s only one hour, I can do that!

By this time we had been sitting 15 minutes in her parking lot feeling the spirit and seeing the spirit of God give CPR to her soul. There’s no other way I can explain it. The way she sat up was like she sprung back to life with the realization that God loved her and he sent someone for her. He had sent someone to rescue her and she knew it. God had sent someone to show her how much he loves her and she felt that.

She got out of the car and walked into the house waving.

Given what she had been through in her life this young woman had put up walls and it took all of those other rides and good encounters to lower that wall and give her the confidence in me where the spirit could work through me to bless her. I’m just glad that the Lord gave me the opportunity to be his instrument.

I picked up a guy at a warehouse out on 900 W. in West Valley City to take him home clear out by Magna. When he got in the car we talked about his name.

His name sounded Spanish but it was French Polynesian and his family was from Tonga. I said malo le le to him and he said, oh you speak Tongan and I said no but I can say one word and that’s it. I explained to him that when I served in the MTC part of my responsibility was to receive the international missionaries and I tried to learn how to say hello to as many of them as I could.

Right away I felt the impression to play the clip from the missionaries who sang Folofola Mai ʻa Sīsū in the MTC. I have used this song once before but it packs a punch in an inspired circumstance. The prompting let me know that this was one of those. I didn’t know if he was a member or if he was even religious. I had no clue if he spoke or understood Tongan but away we went. here is the link to that song. https://vimeo.com/578265270

(Those Tongan missionaries from back in 2018 are still blessing and teaching. We never know the profundity of our contribution. I’ll bet they thought their mission was over already)

As the song played the spirit burned in the car and you could tell that he was worshiping in the backseat and I was being treated to a spiritual feast. That song always does it for me. When the song finished he said that was amazing. I asked him if he’d ever heard that song before and he said no. He said it was amazing even though he’d never heard that song he loved it.

I mentioned to him that it would be a travesty to play an organ or a piano while the Tongans are singing because their voices are the musical instrument and they carry the spirit with them. He said yes that that was correct. I had the prompting to ask him which church he belonged to.

He said that he was from a mixed family. Half of were Mormon and the other half were Methodist but his father was Methodist and so he was Methodist. He told me about some of his cousins that are members of the church.

You could still feel the reverence in the car from the song and I asked him if he knew much about the Book of Mormon. He said yes, I have one. I asked him if he was aware of Hagoth and how they left to the west in the ocean. He said no. I told him that many Polynesians have taught me that they believe the Hagoth was one of their ancestors and brought those people to the Polynesian islands.

I told him that this is entirely possible. I told him about the National Geographic story that talked about the Columbian people that had the same genetic markers as the Polynesian people and that this surprised people in the scientific world. The Book of Mormon teaches that Hagoth and the people with him left from the north west corner of the land southward which is Columbia.

He said that’s cool. He’d never considered that. I felt very strongly that I needed to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it was the record of his ancestors and how Jesus had come to America to these people and then to others which would include his ancestors.

I told him this is the story of your ancestors.

I told him of Joseph Smith the 14 year old boy who translated the sacred revelations by the power of God. I told him that Joseph Smith had a second grade education and had no capacity to do this if it hadn’t been for the power of God. I could feel the spirit bearing witness. I asked, what do you feel right now? He said I feel like I’ve been told something that I should’ve known. He said a light has come on all over in my head and in my heart and I feel warm. I said, that’s the spirit of God and when he is here you feel that.

I said, God has sent his spirit to testify to you that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was his prophet. He felt, we felt, the spirit surge as I bore that testimony and I could tell he was deeply impacted. I asked him if he could feel that spirit and he said yes. I said what does that spirit mean? He said, it means that what you’re saying is true.

I said that’s correct! Would God send his spirit if it wasn’t true? He said no. I asked him specifically if the Book of Mormon was true based on the spirit he was feeling and he said yes. I asked him specifically if Joseph Smith was a prophet based on the spirit he was feeling and he said yes. I told him that God would not send his spirit if it wasn’t true because God isn’t trying to trick us.

I told him that God also sent his son, Jesus Christ, to America and he descended down and the people touched the prints of the nails in his hands and then his feet. They cried save us and in response to that plea he gave them baptism. He called up 12, taught them how to do baptisms, gave them authority to baptize and commanded them to baptize everyone even those who had already been baptized which was the majority. I told him that God commanded everyone to be baptized and they were. I told him that when Jesus commanded them to be baptized he didn’t spend any time ripping on their former beliefs or their former churches but he invited them to take a higher step, a higher law, a higher opportunity, a higher authority with more power.

I said, this is the same baptism we have in our church today. I asked him if he wondered why all of his friends and cousins who were members of the church continually asked him to be baptized. He said yes. He said that he always kind of felt a little bit defensive with that because he had already been baptized and they knew that. I told him that what they were doing was the same thing Jesus was doing.

I told him that when Jesus invited the people who had already been baptized to be baptized again to the higher level that became an invitation to everyone to be baptized to that level including him. I looked at him and I said that’s an invitation to you to be baptized. He said I can see that.

He said, this is incredible why didn’t my cousins tell me about this. I said don’t be too hard on them. A lot of times people have that testimony burning so brightly and they don’t know how to express it.

I asked him if he had any feelings about Jesus coming to America. He said it’s awesome. I told him that when Jesus was in America he said that he still had other people in other places, other sheep that he was commanded to visit. I told him that Isaiah said that Israel was found in the isles of the sea. I asked him if he knew any islands in the sea and he laughed and said Tonga.

I said, this is your story. These are your people. The spirit was strong in the car and he said this is incredible, I don’t want to leave. We had already been in front of his house for 10 minutes and his wife was looking out the windows. I said, when you’re in the presence of the spirit of God your spirit is soaking it in because it’s been in the desert and this is like water. He said, oh my goodness I love this.

I said so what do we do now? Where do we go from here? He said, I have to read that book. I said yes! I said, what else? He said I need to go to my cousins and ask them about being baptized.

I said when you talk to your cousins tell them about what you felt in the car. I asked him what that was and he said I feel that what you taught me is true. I feel that the Book of Mormon is true. I feel that there were prophets in America and among my ancestors. I feel that Jesus came to America. I feel that because the Book of Mormon is true and it was translated by Joseph Smith that he has to of been a prophet of God. I feel like I need to be baptized.

I said, will you tell them that? He said yes. I told him that he could probably be baptized relatively quickly but that he needs to read this book and pray so that he can have the spirit with him and he said he would. I asked him if he would promise me and make a commitment to me and God that he would talk to his cousins and tell them these things and he said yes.

I asked him if he understood the song at first and he said yes, every word. He said it brought the spirit into the car and touched our hearts. I said it always does. He said I speak fluent Tongan and that was a treat.

I told him that God puts people in my car and whispers to my heart the things I should say to them and he is here tonight. I told him that God loves him and just like the people in the Book of Mormon pled with Jesus to be saved, God wants to save him as well.

He thanked me, got out of the car, waved and walked away with a knowledge of the truth. The thing is he had heard these things before but this time the spirit bore witness to his soul. He recognized that spirit and what it meant and it all started with a song, Folofola Mai ʻa Sīsū which means thus sayeth the Lord in Tongan…… Amen.

One Friday I was picking up a young man from the Pie Pizzeria up on 13th East not too far from Rice Eccles stadium. I wanted to go by the stadium because Orem High school was playing in the semi finals against Timpview right then and so I was in that area. I got the ride and thought I’ll do this quickly and run in.

I pulled up and this kid came out who looked like a normal American kid. When he got in the car we started talking. He had a little bit of an accent but not much. I asked him where he was from and he said Brazil. I asked him if he liked working at Pie Pizzeria and he said that he put on a lot of weight working there but he likes it.

We started driving to his apartment which was in the campus housing up by Fort Douglas. We passed by the football stadium and I mentioned to him the game that was going on. He said he would like to learn American football because he only knew soccer. I told him that I served my mission in Argentina. I told him that I served near Iguazú Falls which are on the border with Brazil.

When I mentioned my mission my mind was enlightened about this young man and what a good young man he was. I felt God‘s love for him and knew that we were going to be talking about the church. I changed my focus a little bit from football. I asked him if he had ever seen missionaries.

He told me that right now he was talking to a few of them. He said he had two sisters that he talks to and that he’d been to the temple a couple of times. The temple he referred to was the Institute building on the University of Utah campus where they have meetings on Sunday. It was not an actual temple.

I could feel the spirit filling the car and knew that it was time to start saying the words that were filling my heart. I looked at him in the mirror and said so, have you thought about being baptized? He said, they’ve asked me to but I don’t know, I don’t think so.

I said, what is your question? That was not an artfully phrased question and given the language issues I am sure that it was a hard one for him to understand so I rephrased the question. I said to him, given the fact that they’ve taught you about the church and they asked you to get baptized, what is the question or doubt you have that keeps you from taking that step?

He had a shocked look as he glanced at me and said well, I’ve only been studying with missionaries for four weeks and I don’t think I know enough. He said he had read a little bit here and there in the Book of Mormon but that he didn’t think it was sufficient. He said, “they say I do and I don’t need to know everything but I think I need to know a lot more”. In my experience, when people say this it’s a smokescreen. It’s because they have other things that are bothering them and they fall back on there’s so much to learn and I don’t know enough.

Even though this isn’t generally a true objection and I knew that, I decided to deal with it anyway. That objection is a straw man to hide the real concerns in most cases. I talked about the importance of the spirit and how the spirit is the thing that teaches us. I talked about how once were are baptized we get the Holy Ghost. then the spirit can help us learn. I told him that the spirit guides us. I said that we need to learn to have faith in God and trust in his spirit. He agreed.

I told him that he could never know everything that he wanted to know but that he could know that the spirit of God had confirmed to him that it’s true. I asked him if that was enough and he said yes. Then I bore my testimony. I testified of the boy Joseph Smith going to the sacred grove, kneeling, praying and receiving a visit from his Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. I testified of the Book of Mormon and its truthfulness and how it proves that God loves everyone not just the people in Jerusalem. I said it proves that there were prophets in America and the Book of Mormon proves that Jesus not only came to America but he went to other places because God loves everyone. This is a gospel for everyone not just the people from Jerusalem.

I testified that we have a prophet today who leads the church and that a living prophet makes all the difference because God can speak to us through him. I told him the prophets are always God’s mouthpiece and we need God more than ever. He agreed. The spirit was really strong in the car and I said do you feel that?

He said “yes I do”. I said what does it feel like? He said it feels powerful and warm. I said, that is the spirit of God. I said that God has the power to touch your heart and confirm to you that the things you’re hearing are true. I said, “you know they’re true don’t you?” He said “yes”!

I told him that he lived with his Father in Heaven for thousands and thousands of years and he had a relationship with God. I told him that it is like a vibe if you will. I said he had that special feeling with God and it was the most important thing to his spirit. I told him that this feeling that he was feeling right now is that feeling.

I asked him if he believed that was true and he said yes I asked him if God would send that feeling to him if the things we were saying in the car were not true and he said no. I told him that God wants to save him not trick him.

I told him that and right as I was saying it I saw a flash of a thought on his mind. I told him that he was thinking of his doubts concerning the baptismal date that the sisters had challenged him to. He said that’s right, how did you know? I told him that when I was baptized I got the Holy Ghost and it whispered this to my heart so I could know to say it. I told him that God gave me that so that he could know that the things I was saying were true.

I told him that he was worried about that date and being baptized but that he didn’t need to worry. I told him that when Jesus came to America, he descended from heaven and stood on the steps of the temple. He invited the people to touch the prints of the nails in his hands and the prints of the nails in his feet and then they knelt and worshiped him. They said the word “hosanna”. I asked him if he knew what that meant? He said he didn’t know, I told him it means “save us”.

He said, I love that you mentioned that because this is one of the things that the missionaries had me read. He said it was beautiful how they bathed Christ’s feet with their tears and worshiped him. I told him that God loved them and he wanted to save them. I told him that he was right there in front of them and they knew this was their God. They were willing to do whatever he asked.

I told him that he called up 12 and gave them the power and authority plus a commandment to baptize everyone there. He instructed them how to do it and commanded these 12 to baptize everyone.

The spirit was strong and I said “I testify to you that this is the same baptism that the missionaries offered you and when Jesus extended that commitment to them he also extended it to you. I said do you accept that? He said yes! I could see another flash of a thought in his countenance and I felt the prompting that it was about his previous baptism and and his family traditions regarding his previous religion.

I told him the spirit is telling me that you are thinking about your previous baptism and your previous religious experience, your previous family traditions with regards to religion and your feelings that this is some sort of a repudiation of those things. I told him, this is no repudiation! Everything your family did for you they did to bring you closer to Christ. He loves them for that and he loves you for taking those steps.

I told him that when Jesus came he offered a new level, a higher level. Even though those people had been previously baptized he commanded that they be baptized again so they could take that next step in discipleship to follow him. I told him “that is what he required of them and that is what he requires of us”.

I testified to him that this was true. I said that this is the baptism that his Father in Heaven wants him to have so that he can take that step. He said, I feel like you’re right.

I saw another doubt flash in his countenance and the spirit helped me understand that he was worried about fitting in. I told him the spirit makes me feel like you are worried about fitting in culturally in the church. I feel that you think it might be difficult for you. He said how did you know these things? He said, I have tattoos and have already had people in the church negatively comment about my tattoos. Are they going to accept me?

I said,, your tattoos don’t matter! You come before God and offer him a broken heart and a contrite spirit and he will lift you, bless you cleanse you and sanctify you. Only the spirit matters. I told him it is important that we go to church so that we can have the spirit with us. I asked him if he felt the spirit right then and he said yes. I asked him if the things I was saying felt right. He said yes.

I told him that everybody has sinned, some people lie, some people steal, some people judge and some people break the word of wisdom. We all have sins. It’s up to us to help those people. I told him, “imagine how helpful it would be to those people judging you if you went up to them and put your arm around them and said, thank you for being such a great example for me. It means a lot!” I told him that they would melt and this action would change everything.

He laughed and said I guess you’re right!

I told him the story about the lady in our ward that told us she didn’t want us to sit by her because our kids were too noisy. I went every week early so I could find where she was sitting so we could sit behind her. He laughed. I told him that eventually we became good friends with them.

I could tell by the spirit that he was concerned about his family when I talked about them and I asked him what was his concern regarding his family. He said that the sister missionaries had told him that it was his responsibility to baptize his whole family or they couldn’t go to heaven. They said that they would have to go to the terrestial kingdom if he couldn’t get them baptized.

I thought, that’s a lot of pressure and kind of unfair to put on him now. I said, that’s not exactly how it works. I told him that he needs to be a great example and that he needs to try to introduce the gospel to his family. He needs to do the best he can but that God‘s timing is not our timing. I said that what God considers an opportunity may not be not what we would consider an opportunity necessarily.

I told him that God looks at time from the beginning of time untill the end of time and we look at it like 40 years. I told him that God would present each member of his family with a perfect opportunity under perfect circumstances to not only learn the gospel but then have the opportunity to accept it and accept a baptism. I told him that he may be God’s instrument in that for some of them but that this is God‘s work.

I told him that as a member of the church he would be blessed with the gift of the Holy Ghost and would have the priesthood to bless the lives of his family. I told him that this would help but that it isn’t all on him.

I told him that in the three days when Jesus was in heaven and his body was in the tomb he organized the teachings of the gospel to the people who had died without hearing it. Even the people at the time of the flood who maybe knew Noah but didn’t have a great opportunity. Jesus organize the teaching to them!.

I told him that Jesus didn’t do it so he could hold it in front of them and say, see, you could’ve had this! He did it with the intent that they would have an opportunity to accept it and have a baptism so that they could return and live with their father.

I told him that we go to temples and we are baptized for them using their name. I told him that someone will learn the gospel in the spirit world and when we are baptized for that person they are waiting to accept it or rejected immediately.

I testified of temple work and baptisms for the dead as God‘s plan to make it possible for each of his children to come home, even if we cant get to them on earth. I could see the spirit carry my words to his heart and ease his concern.

I could see the stress disappear. I told him we do everything we can but God loves all of his children and he will prepare a way for all of his children to have the opportunity under perfect circumstances to accept the gospel and come home. I told him that a father would always prepare a plan to make it possible to save all of his children and a perfect father certainly would do that and he agreed.

I asked him if he felt the spirit and he said yes. I felt it every time you have spoken. I know the things that you have said are true and that they’re from God. He said, I had decided today that I was not going to be baptized and that I was going to quit listening to the missionaries but now everything has changed. I asked him if he would contact the missionaries and tell them about our ride. He said yes.

He said he couldn’t find his Book of Mormon so I gave him one of the Book of Mormon‘s that I had prepared by the Secrists and told him he should keep it with him in his backpack. He said he would.

He said that it is amazing to him that on this day when he was doubting, on this day when he had decided not to continue with the lessons, on this day God sent this car and this message to him. He said if that’s not a sign from God I don’t know what it is. He said, I know that you were sent from God with this message

He said that he’s going home to Brazil for Thanksgiving so it will have to be in December but that he’s excited continue towards baptism.

One evening I picked up a guy by the capital. He was a landscaper and I was picking him up and taking him clear up by the hill in Centerville. It seemed like a long trip. When I got to the spot where I was supposed to pick him up he wasn’t there. There was no one there and I wasn’t excited to do the trip. I thought about canceling but I felt that I should call him.

When I called him he didn’t even know exactly where he was. He was down the hill in the Avenues somewhere. By that time his time had expired and I had every right to cancel the ride, make the money and not have to make the drive. The spirit had other ideas. I felt compelled by the spirit to go find him.

There I was driving around the Avenues looking for this guy. Finally, there he was down at the bottom of the hill just up from the Cathedral of the Madeline. A good 10 blocks from where he was supposed to have been.

He got in the car and we started driving. I figured that there was a spiritual reason for him to be in my car so I started asking questions that could lead us to a discussion. I asked him where he was from and he said Mexico. I asked him how long he had been here and he said two weeks. That’s a really short period of time and I was struck by it because usually people have been here quite some time when they have a job already.

I asked him what he thought about Utah and he said that it was peaceful. I asked him why he thought it was peaceful and he said that he didn’t know. He said that he guessed that the people were just good people. I told him that the people were good people but it’s because they obeyed God and they tried to do the things that they had been taught to do.

He told me that made sense. I asked him what religion he was and he said Catholic. In my mind now it was set how I was going to approach this. I was going to talk to him about the differences in the Catholics and our church and how we believe that God sent Jesus to America because he loves all of his children. This is a routine method I use of bringing up the church and highlighting the differences in our churches without being negative towards the other church.

I started to talk to him about prophets in America and how there have been prophets in America. He was interested but the spirit said no! Stop! So I did.

I was impressed to teach the Joseph Smith story just like we teach in the first lesson. I started with Joseph Smith a 14 year old boy looking for truth. He went to all the different religions and he couldn’t find it. I said that he was reading the Bible and he found the scripture in James and decided that he needed to go pray.

I talked about him going to the sacred grove, kneeling and praying with this question on his mind and had a vision where he was visited by God the father and Jesus Christ. I testified with power of the first vision. I could feel the testimony touch his heart.

He was looking down and then he looked up at me and said, that boy had an unbelievable amount of faith for that to happen to him. He said if you don’t have faith and a tremendous amount of it there’s no way something like that can happen to you. He said that boy has faith.

The spirit of God was in the car and you could tell that he was physically moved by it. He said, I believe you, I believe every word you said. I asked him what he felt and he said it’s like there’s a fire in my body put a peace in my heart. I told him that it was the spirit of God and that’s how God made him feel when he was near. I told him that when he felt that he would know that the things he was hearing were true. He told me that he knew it was true but this made it certain.

Then I asked him if he remembered the prophets that I had briefly spoken about earlier and he said yes. I said because God loves all of his children they had prophets in America. Your ancestors had prophets who spoke with God and they wrote the revelations just like the prophets did in the Bible. That’s why we have the Bible and we have the revelations written by your ancestors too.

He said really!? I would really like to know about that. Where can I find those revelations and prophecies? I told him that the same young man Joseph Smith was commanded to restore the church of God on the earth and that angels appeared to him to help him do that.

I told him one of the angels was a prophet who anciently lived in America and he showed him these prophecies and revelations written by his ancestors on golden plates. I told him that he translated those by the power of God and we have those revelations today.

He asked again, how do I get one of those? I said, I have one and I’ll give it to you. It’s called the Book of Mormon. I asked him if he’d heard of that book before and he said no. I told him that Mormon was an ancient prophet here in America and the book was named for him but it contained all of those revelations. He was excited I told him that that book also contained the account of the visit of Jesus Christ to America. He said what?

I told him that that book talked about Jesus Christ coming to America and that Jesus Christ held his ancestors in his arms and blessed them and their posterity. I told him that Jesus Christ invited his ancestors to touch the prints of the nails in his hands and then his feet.

I told him that this means that he and his family are important to God because God loves everyone not just the people in Jerusalem. Then in America Jesus said that he still had other sheep he was going to go visit.

He said that is so cool. I told him that we believe that God loves everyone and that he sent his son for everyone and to everyone. He said that sounds right. It feels right. I asked him if he felt that spirit again and he said yes I asked him what it meant and he said it means that this is true. The Book of Mormon is true.

I told him that when Jesus was in America after the people touched the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet they all said hosanna, which means save us. He called 12 and instructed them how to baptize and gave them authority to baptize everyone into this new covenant, to this new understanding.

I told him that all of those people had previously been baptized but Jesus wanted them to take this next step to be disciples at a higher level. He said that’s beautiful. He said the spirit just keeps getting stronger and stronger in the car. Everything you’re saying is true. I know it.

Then I asked, do we need to be baptized to go to heaven? He said yes. I asked him if he had ancestors that didn’t get the chance to hear about Jesus. He said, yes, before the Spaniards came none of them did. I asked him if God loved them and he said yes. I asked him if a fair and just God would condemn them for not being baptized.

He said no but that’s the law. I told him that when Jesus was crucified for three days while his body was in the tomb his spirit was in the spirit world organizing the teaching of the gospel to people who hadn’t yet heard it or had favorable circumstances to receive it. I told him that those people that died without hearing it on the earth or having the opportunity to hear on the earth are taught in the spirit world.

He said oh, so there’s a great big school up there founded by Jesus. A great big Sunday school! I love it! I told him that in that great big Sunday school everyone gets a chance to learn and decide whether or not they want to follow Jesus Christ. Then I asked him, is that enough? Do they still need to be baptized? He said yes.

I asked him how that happened? And he said that he didn’t know because they were dead. I told him that in the New Testament there was a practice called baptisms for the dead. I pointed to the Bountiful temple. I said in the temple we do ordinances that tie families together. People go in that temple and they are baptized for and in behalf of someone who has died.

Then the person who is dead gets the opportunity to accept or reject that baptism. That’s God‘s plan to give every one of his children a perfect opportunity to come home. Everyone will have the opportunity to be baptized either on the earth or by someone on the earth in a temple. He said that’s amazing. He said I’ve seen that building and it looks so beautiful I’ve wondered what they do in that building.

I told him that Jesus gave authority for people to seal things on earth that are sealed in heaven. He gave that authority to Peter and we have that authority today. We use that authority to seal important things like marriages. I told him that in our church we’re not married until death but for time in all eternity. He said, in our church were married until death do us part.

He said, that would be amazing to know that you would be together forever. No wonder the people around here have so much peace. I told him that not only is your wife sealed to you but your children also and you can be together with your family. He said, that is incredible. This is how it’s supposed to be.

I talked about the example of the mirror, where you have a mirror on the wall held up by 12 pegs. I asked him if you knock those 12 pegs out, what happens to the mirror and he said it falls down and crashes on the ground. I asked him how many of pieces would there be. He said there would be a lot of pieces. I told him that the ancient church of Jesus Christ was organized perfectly with all of the doctrines including eternal marriage, eternal families was held up by 12 apostles.

I told him that one by one those 12 apostles were killed and eventually just like the pegs, were gone and the support was gone and the church fell and broke into many pieces. I told him that the people loved the gospel and they love Jesus so they grabbed pieces of the gospel and formed churches like the Catholic church around the pieces they had. He said, like the Catholic Church? I said yes.

I told him that the things we had been talking about were the pieces that got left out that nobody grabbed. He said that makes sense. I reached into my glove box and grabbed a Book of Mormon in Spanish. It was one of the books prepared by Sister Secrist and I gave it to him.

He was visibly excited and emotional and thanked me. He asked me how much he had to pay for it and I said nothing. I only needed him to promise to go to church and to read the book. He said there are churches everywhere, which one should I go to. I looked up on the gospel Tools app and found out the church right around the corner was where the Spanish Ward met and I showed him that. I showed him that it also contained the phone number and name of his bishop. I told him that this man would help him on his journey.

He saw that it met at 9 o’clock on Sunday morning and he said I’ll be there 100%. I want these things. He said, everything you’ve said today has made sense and I know it’s true. I need this for me and I need it for my family.

I told him if he would pray God would send his spirit to confirm the truth. He said, I know, he’s done that already here tonight. I told him that’s what you look for. I told him that you’ll feel it when you pray, when you go to church, when you take the sacrament and when you get baptized. He said baptized? I said yes. I told him that we have that same baptism Jesus taught in American. When you are baptized, you will be clean from your sins.

I felt the impression to say to him that he had been having a struggle inside of himself in the car, wanting to embrace fully the spirit he was feeling but also hearing in his head that he wasn’t worthy because of bad things he had done. He asked how did you know? I told him that when we are baptized we are clean and we get the gift of the Holy Ghost and it whispers to our hearts the things God would have us say. I told him that the Spirit whispered that to my heart so that he could know that God knows who he is and that God loves him and that God wants him to be baptized.

He said, then I will be baptized. He said I will go to church on Sunday and I will do the things that you’ve said. He asked me if it would be OK if he called the bishop and I said yes. He told me he would call him later on that evening so the bishop would know he was coming. He asked if that would be OK and I said perfect.

He walked away with a smile and thumbing through the pages of the Book of Mormon on his way into his house. That was an amazing ride and this guy’s getting baptized. That boy has faith!

I picked up a young woman on 400 west and about 300 North. These are newer apartments and mostly known as areas where people are partying and enjoying their best single life outside the constraints of the gospel. The young lady came out of the apartments and she just didn’t seem to have the same feel as the people I drop off at that place most of the time.

Usually I get out and help people with their luggage but with her I felt like I needed to pop the hatch and offer rather than just take it upon myself to grab a bag. She said that she would put it in and that would be OK.

When she got in I told her that I have traveled a lot in my life and I hate it when people touch my luggage. I told her that I hate it when a driver has been blowing his nose and then grabs my bag.

She said I agree with that, I hate that, what’s wrong with people. We laughed at the thing we had found in common, Germophobia. We talked about hand sanitizer and how for 30 years I’ve been wiping down my seat on the airplane, my rental car steering wheel, gearshift windows everything. I mentioned that I even wipe down the radio in my rental cars. She laughed and said she did the same. Then I told her when I get to my hotel rooms I wipe down the remote controls, the door knobs, the light switches, the thermostat and pretty much anything I touch including the toilet handle.

She laughed and said you would think people would’ve learned better but it seems that people don’t understand. I said that is correct and we chuckled

Then the Spirit directed me to a line of discussion that came off of this topic that I believe was guided in the first place.

I told her, I get the impression that you’ve been marginalized, made fun of and kind of pushed aside in your way of thinking. Other people have done this to you and it’s made it so that you feel ostracized a bit.

This was a beautiful young woman and I would’ve had no other reason to say that except for the spirit prompting me. I told her that furthermore I believe that she has other gifts, abilities and talents that she’s hiding because of the fear of the shame that’s been heaped on her.

She said, how do you know this, you’re going to make me cry. I said that I am a member of the church and when we’re baptized we get the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost prompted us what to say and do. I said that I felt prompted by the spirit to say these things to her and tell her that God loves her.

I felt prompted to tell her that not only did God love her but he didn’t want her to hide the light that she had inside that was bursting to get out.

I looked at where I was with regards to the airport (which was our destination) and realized I needed to get with it. I told her that she was a daughter of God and that he loved her and that her relationship with him was the most central thing in her life. I said that she had lived with him for thousands of years and she craved that feeling. I told her that when when she came to earth she didn’t feel that anymore She blurted out the word yes! She said that’s exactly right.

I told her that her father in heaven loved her and he had given her these gifts so that she could bless other people. She said that she was going through a tough time right now trying to decide what to do in her life and that she was sure that I was sent to help her with that today. I told her that regardless of which way she decided to go in her life, God wanted her to use her gifts and blessings to help other people one on one.

I told her that her experiences had given her a rich sense of empathy and that she would have the ability to touch and lift other people, one on one.

She said, like you’re doing with me today.? I said yes. God gives us these gifts so that we can help other people. She said she was going to cry and I could see the tears welling up in her eyes. She said she prayed all the time every day that God would help her and that this is the first sign that he had heard he prayers.

I asked her what she felt and she said amazing. I said that’s how you felt in the presence of God. I said he gives us this feeling so that we can know when we are hearing the truth. He gives us this feeling so that he can testify of that truth.

She said that is awesome. I said that when we’re baptized we are clean we get the gift of the Holy Ghost to go with us and to tell us the things to say. It helps us know the things we should do. I talked to her more about how the spirit felt to her. I said that God had sent his spirit to show his love. She said yes, I believes that.

I told her God also sends that spirit to testify. I asked her if the things I was saying were false, would the spirit still be here? She said no. That feeling is helping me know the things you’re saying are true.

I told her that she had been focusing on the things in her life that were negative. I told her that she had been thinking about how she had been treated poorly and that this had made it so that she wasn’t acting like she wanted to and the way she knew the lord wanted her to. She said yes that’s right.

I told her that this is where we have to look to Jesus Christ. I told her that because of the atonement of Jesus Christ he can swallow up all the pain, hurt, injustice, infirmity, unfairness and sin in the world so that we do not have to suffer the effects if we will look to him to heal our soul, heart and our mind. She started crying overtly.

I told her that God doesn’t look at life like we do. He doesn’t take away from one person to give to another because he wants us all to have everything. I said that the way Jesus works is he comes in and sees us differently. It is like five glasses at different levels. To make them equal rather than take from one to put in another, he just fills them all. She said so God fills us full. I said yes. I said God loves everyone and regardless of our circumstance he will give us everything he has if we do our part. We will all have a full glass.

She said, this is awesome do you have a podcast? I said laughed and said no but I have a blog and I pointed her to the blog. I said in that blog I talk about when God puts people in my car to receive a message. She said, just like he put me in your car today to receive this message. I said yes!

I asked her if she had friends who were members of the church and she said yes. I asked her if she would go to them and tell them what she had heard and felt that day. She said she felt like she shouldn’t because they weren’t people who obeyed the tenants of the religion very closely.

She asked me if when she got back from her trip if she could reach out to me and I said yes. She said I have never felt like I feel in this car today. It’s an amazing feeling and I want to have this power with me.

She said that she would be in touch and with a huge smile on her face turned and went into the airport

I picked up two ladies down in Vineyard from Sri Lanka via London England, who were heading up to Costco. I’ve never given a ride to someone from Sri Lanka before and we began talking about traveling. I didn’t know why but I felt I should find a reason to talk about religion and so I said, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints and I’m very devout so sometimes when I travel I look at the religious aspect of the places I go.

One of them asked me where the coolest place is that I have ever been that had a religious connotation. I said Cairo, Egypt.

She said, you’ve been to Cairo? What did you see there?

I told them that in Cairo I stood in the spot where I could see the Mohammed Ali Mosque. It is the biggest mosque in the world. I also saw one of the oldest synagogues in the world, built over the pharaohs daughters wading pool (Yes, the rabbi took us down there and I waded in the water). I also saw one of the oldest Christian churches whose foundation was laid about 78 A.D. by the apostle Thomas over the spot where Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived when they were in Egypt. It is less than 50 yards from the synagogue that had been there for 3000 years over the place where Moses was taken from the Nile.

I was blown away being there and I told them that it was really cool. She said, I love that! That’s amazing! I need to go to Egypt!

She said, I’m very religious too. She said that she was Christian and that Jesus Christ was very important to her. I said, as it should be! She said so you’re a Mormon? I said yes I am! She said, tell me what you believe thats different from what we believe.

I told them that we believe that God loves all of his children everywhere in the world no matter where they were born or when they lived. I told them that God not only loved all his children but his son had died for all of his children. They said, we know and agreed.

I said that not only did God love everyone he sent his son to visit many of his children. They said, what?

I said that in the Bible Jesus said other sheep I have which are not of this fold. I no sooner got that part out then they finished the scripture. I asked them, who was he talking about? They said, I had never thought about that.

I asked, who was he going to go talk to, teach, bless that had not heard his voice at that point. She said she didn’t know. I said well we do! And it is one of the main differences between our church and your church.

I said he came to America. He descended from heaven in glory and stood there while the people felt the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet. He loved them and he taught them. He blessed them and then he said that were still other sheep that we’re not of that land or the land of Jerusalem or the lands roundabout. Then he received a commandment from his father to go to them so they could hear his voice.

I asked her where they thought those other people were?

She said she had no idea. I said that Isaiah gives us a hint when he talks about the children of Israel being in Egypt, in Africa and Europe and Asia and the Isles of the sea which includes America and the rest of the islands of the world. I asked them if that sounded right and they said yes.

I told them we know this because we had prophets in America and they wrote down their revelations along with the account of the visit of Jesus Christ to America.

She said, is that your Bible? I said no! Our Bible is the same Bible that you guys use but we have the Book of Mormon which is another testament of Jesus Christ and it testifies of him. I told her that the Book of Mormon is the place where Jesus said he still had other sheep he had to go see. That book is proof that God loves all of his children not just his children in one little country and that Christ is the Savior of all of the world.

She said, I like this, I believe this. I told her that she believed it because she believed that God was her father and that he loved her and a loving father would be fair and treat all of his children with love not just the specific ones in one specific area. She said you’re right. I I told her that the Book of Mormon was true, that it was the word of God that it was prophesied by Ezekiel as the stick of Joseph. Ezekiel said that it would be a companion to the stick of Judah, which is the Bible.

One of them said that makes sense to me. I told them that the Book of Mormon teaches us about Jesus and testifies that the things the Bible said are true. She said again, I love this. The spirit was strong in the car I knew I’d been guided from the start of my conversation as to which way to take it to open these women’s hearts. I didn’t want to blow it and the spirit was telling me to talk about baptism for the dead.

I told them that God loved every one of his children like we talked about then I asked them what would happen if somebody wasn’t baptized. They said they can’t go to heaven. I asked them if their ancestors in Sri Lanka 500 years ago were baptized and they said no. I asked them if they got the chance to hear about baptism. They said no. I asked them if they could even possibly have heard of Jesus Christ and they said no.

I asked them if those ancestors could possibly go to heaven then not having been baptized. They said no. I asked them if this is just. They said no. I told them that this was another big difference in the way we believe and in the way they believe. I mentioned that in the Bible it talks about the ancient practice of baptism for the dead and that we do that today in our temples. They said that they were very familiar with that passage in the New Testament.

I told them that when we go to the temple we are baptized for and in the behalf of another person who has died. They said, wow. I said then that person gets a chance to accept this baptism and it is as if they had been baptized on earth, thus allowing them to go to heaven. I asked them if a loving God could possibly ignore all of his children that hadn’t been born in a favorable time or circumstance to receive the gospel? They said no, there’s no way the just and loving God that I believe in could just condemn his children. I said that’s right.

We were now sitting outside Costco and I asked them to just be quiet for a minute and tell me what they felt. The words came rapid-fire joy, peace, emotional and tingly. I told them that this was the spirit of God and that when you feel this you know that the things you’re hearing are true. They said that they knew it was true but they had never felt the spirit this powerfully before. I told them that it was because God was there testifying about his truth to them.

They said, this is really exciting. We love this We want to learn about your church. I asked if they had a Book of Mormon and the one sister said yes. The other glared at her sister like, why have you been holding out on me! I laughed. I asked if they had friends that were members of the church and the sister that had been here the longest said yes several. I told her to tell them about what she had felt in the car that day. She said she would.

Her sister piped in and said well, I want to Book of Mormon of my own and I want to go to that church. I love it when they’re so demanding. I got their information and took them over a Book of Mormon prepared by the Secrists. The sisters contacted their friends that night. My expectation is that great things are going to happen.

One night I was picking up a guy at a hotel downtown. I picked him up at the Hilton and we were heading into a neighborhood. I asked him if he was going to an Airbnb and he said no, he was visiting friends.

I asked her where he was from and he said Cody, Wyoming. I know a lot of people from that area. My MTC companion was from Cody and still lives there today. My sister lives in Burlington which is just a little ways away and she teaches school in Cody.

We played the who do you know game. As I started talking to him I looked at him and thought that he was a dry Mormon for sure. A dry Mormon is someone who lives the gospel who hasn’t been baptized. He knew the vernacular and he had the feel of somebody who had lived right for the most part. I felt the distinct impression that he was not a member of the church but that he had grown up obviously in Mormon communities so he knew everything about the church.

I received the impression that he had been approached many times and that there was a specific reason that he had never wanted to tell anybody about why he didn’t get baptized. So I went right in with that.

I asked, you’re not a member of the church are you? He said no, but everyone of his friends were. He said that he was Catholic but that he didn’t go to church so he didn’t consider himself to be much different than his friends who are members of our church.

I asked, do you mind if I ask you a question? He said no, go ahead. I said growing up in Cody with all of your friends being members of the church, obviously they took you to church, they had you play ball with them at the church, and you did scouting with them, is that true? He said yes, that’s exactly what happened. He said, I guess culturally I would say we are the same.

I said, obviously there was something in the teaching of the church or in the belief system that didn’t work for you. Clearly there was something that bothered you and you didn’t want to offend your friendship by bringing it up so you just went with the culture.

He said, no one has ever asked me that question. He said, it’s not like I wanted to come straight out and challenge their beliefs. I like the results of their beliefs but there is something that just was hard for me. I asked what it was.

He said it was the Indians. He said, I don’t know how I could believe that the Indians came from Jerusalem. Where the Indians come from is my question. When I asked that they never felt comfortable or were able to make me feel comfortable in their answer so I quit asking it. He said that without this it didn’t make sense.

Sometimes we are really good at living a religion but not so great at explaining our religion. I looked back at him and said so the Book of Mormon is the issue? He said, yes. Not with the teachings because I think it’s a good book but it just doesn’t seem possible that the Indians came from Jerusalem.

I asked him if he thought God was all powerful. He said yes. I asked him if God loved everyone in the world. He said yes. I asked him if he loved people in one place more than he loved them in other places and he said, no.

I asked him how God showed love to his children. He thought for a minute and said that he gives them blessings. I asked him if he just blesses them regardless of how they act and he said no. He gives them blessings when they do what he says, when they act like he wants them to act.

I asked him how people knew what God wanted them to do and how he wanted them to act. He said that’s why we have the Bible. I said, God revealed his will to the prophets who then relayed that information to the people and wrote it down. This is why we have the Bible. He said yes. I asked him who had the Bible and he said the people in Jerusalem and later everyone in the world in the last 200 years.

I asked him if we need to know about Jesus Christ to be saved and he said yes. I asked him if we need to be baptized to be saved and he said yes.

I said, if God loves all of his children the same and they’re scattered all over the world why would he choose only one group of people to have his word and not all of his children. He thought for a minute And said, I don’t know. That’s a good question.

I asked, if God is all powerful as you said and he loves everyone the same like you said why wouldn’t he give his love or his commandments like you said to all of his children everywhere not just his children in Jerusalem?

He said wow! I never thought of it that way. I said that is the Book of Mormon. The people who lived in America could not get the words from the prophets in Jerusalem at that time. God loved them just like he loves the people of Jerusalem,or you and I, and he wanted them to have blessings. That’s why he gave them prophets. They wrote down their prophecies and that’s why we have the Book of Mormon. It’s a record of God blessing the people, his children, who lived in America because God loves everyone.

He said that makes a lot of sense. The spirit was strong in the car and I testified of Joseph Smith and how he translated the Book of Mormon and how it was the word of God. I could feel it and I could feel this young man readily accept that spirit because he had felt it in his life.

I asked, do you feel that? He said, yes it feels good! It feels right! I said think about the things I just said to you. They are not normal things in the world but how did you feel when I said them? He said I felt good. I said it didn’t feel strange, did it? He said no.

I said that’s because it’s true and the spirit is telling you it’s true.

I said, in the Bible Jesus said other sheep I have which are not of this fold and that he was going to visit them because he had been commanded by his father. This is more evidence I said. I said God loves all of his children and if an all powerful God loves all of his children who is he going to send his son to? He said, all of his children.

I said in the Book of Mormon it contains the record of the visit of Jesus Christ to America. Jesus descended from heaven brilliant and beautiful. He stood on the steps of the temple and the people felt the prints of the nails in his hands and the prints the nails in his feet. They asked him for salvation and he gave them baptism and the authority to baptize. He instructed them how to baptize. My rider said wow that’s amazing. I told him that those people had already been baptized but Jesus brought a new covenant, a new level and instructed them to be baptized by that power to that level.

I told him Jesus didn’t spend any time demeaning the previous baptism that they had received. He gave them a new level and a new way to have more power. He said that’s amazing. I said that’s the Book of Mormon.

Then Jesus said still other sheep I have which are not of this land or the land of Jerusalem or the lands roundabout. He had received a commandment from his father to go to them too so they could hear his voice and be counted among his sheep.

I said this happened because God loves all of his children not just the ones in Jerusalem or America. He said that makes sense.

I said do you feel that spirit again, he said yes. He was astounded by the feeling. He said that it was overwhelming. I asked what does that mean and he said it means it’s true.

Now that he’d had a witness of the spirit I just had to have some fun and I pulled up a picture of Tulum. Tulum is an ancient Mayan temple built around 700 A.D.. In the tower of the temple it’s got three doors and three spaces on top of those doors where images were carved.

He looked at it with interest. I asked , do you know what those carvings above those doors are? He said no. I said, above the first door it is a carving of a king God with robes and a crown.

I said above the second door there is a carving of a God descending from the sky. Just like Jesus descended from the sky to the people in America.

I said above the third door it is empty.

I said, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The father, the King God, the son descending from heaven like he did in America and the Holy Ghost. He said, with no carving because there is no body with the Holy Ghost. I said, that’s right. I asked him how it was that they got that information in America 700 A.D. when that building was built.

He was stopped in his tracks, he couldn’t put that together. He said, I have no idea. That’s amazing. There were no planes or boats to bring that knowledge there. People didn’t even know America existed. No phones, no TV, no communication at all. He said, that’s right.

How did they get this knowledge that is very specific? He said I don’t know. I said, didn’t someone need to bring it? He said yes, Jesus obviously brought it with him.

I asked him again how he felt, he said that this cleared everything up for him. I could tell that his concern about the Indians was swallowed up in the knowledge of Jesus Christ’s visit and the words of God‘s prophets here in America. He said, I will have to go on the internet and research that. I laughed and said , I have a better idea. He said what? I asked if his best friends were members and RM’s. He said yes

I said, go to them and tell them what you have learned and felt in the ride. I told him to talk about how the spirit felt. He said he would He said, “this will be fun”.

I asked if he had a Book of Mormon. He said dozens of them. I said, you should be reading them then. He chuckled and got out of the car.

I feel bad that all of those years he let the fear of that question keep him from the full blessings of the gospel. I am stoked for his friends and their opportunity.

Here is a copy of that photo of Tulum that I showed him.

I picked up a young lady downtown in Salt Lake City from a bar called London Belle. I was expecting her to come out and be pretty much sloshed like everyone that comes out of that place. I was a little upset to begin with because this was going to be one of those trips clear on top of the mountain in the southwest corner of the valley. That’s a money loser folks.

I decided to take it anyway because I was feeling good. The ride right before this one I had picked up a young man and we discussed the gospel. It ended up a bit of miraculous experience. I was flying high so I decided to pick up this trip as well. I guess I thought I was being generous or magnanimous.

She got in the car and we started to drive. I noticed she was a very happy person and I told her that and she said people tell me that all the time. She said I just had to go home because I wasn’t gonna sit around with a bunch of drunks from work.

She said I’ve got little kids and I’m a single mother and I feel like I need to get home to my children. I told her that’s the right call and I supported that 100%.

As we drove down the road she started talking about her life.

She talked about her baby daddy, the father of her five children and how he had not been faithful to her and that he left her damaged.

We talked about how crazy it is out there now, people don’t seem to have great morals in some circles. She very much agreed and said that wasn’t the way she was raised.

This girl was not very modestly dressed and seemed a little wild but I received a prompting that this too would be opportunity to share my testimony. I started looking for a way to bring up the gospel.

She talked about how she had thought about driving Uber and that she was a little bit afraid because she was afraid of people sometimes. I asked her how she knew which people to be afraid of and she said she gets a feeling, an intense feeling around people who aren’t good.

I told her that driving Uber was dangerous but that I felt like I had protection from God. She told me that even though she was raised Buddhist she didn’t believe in that either and considered herself atheist. She played the religion role for family members.

I told her my story about the guy who came between the seats to attack me and God struck him almost as if with a taser.

She said well I’ve thought of myself as atheist.

I told her that story knowing that this was the opportunity that God had given me to use that previous experience to open up an avenue for testimony with this young lady. I told her about how I had prayed and that the power of God was very evident.

I told her that God works with us and he helps us in good times and bad. I told her that it seemed like she’d have a rough patch for much of her life. She said she had and she had some very heartbreaking experiences. I told her God knew that but that he loved her and wanted her to look to his son Jesus Christ to lift her.

She said well I’m Buddhist. I was raised Buddhist and whenever I do anything with regards to Christianity my family tells me they’re going to disown me. It’s very difficult for me. I said I am sure it is.

I told her about her relationship with God and how she was his daughter. I testified of his love and it filled the car. I could tell she felt it. I asked her how it felt right then and she said right now I know this is right.

I told her, I’m sure that it is very difficult. I discussed with her how Satan is always in her ear telling her that she’s damaged, telling her that she’s not worthy and telling her that she doesn’t belong with God. I told her that Satan is a liar. I said he’s a liar and everything he says is a lie.

I told her that anything that teaches a man not to pray or not to come to God is of Satan. I told her that I learned that in the Book of Mormon. She said, oh, I have gone to the Mormon church many times. My ex/baby daddy is a member of the Mormon church and we would go together.

I didn’t know whether she would be happy or angry but I decided to just roll with it. I asked her what she felt when she was at church. She said she felt calm and peace and that’s why she kept going to the Mormon church. She said she never felt anything like that before even though her family is Buddhist. She said that when she prayed to Budda she didn’t feel anything but when she prayed to God she felt his spirit.

I asked her if that kind of made her decision for her about what she should be doing and she said yes. She said that God had always given her the ability to tell good people from bad people. She knew when she got in the car that night that I was good and that this ride would be special. She said she could feel the presence of God in the car. I told her how God gives us capacity to do things that we’re not normally able to do. I explained to her gifts of the spirit and how once people have the gift of the Holy Ghost these abilities to perceive things are intensified because of the presence of the Holy Ghost. I told her that God gives us gifts of the spirit to serve each other and do his will.

I asked her if she had been baptized while she was attending church and she said no. I discussed with her the importance of baptism for becoming clean so the Holy Ghost can dwell with us and fill us with that peace and that feeling that she enjoyed so much.

She said, I’ll tell you one thing I’ve never felt it as strong as I feel it right now in this car. I told her that God gave her that so that she could know that the things that I was saying true. I asked her if she was familiar with the Book of Mormon and she said yes. I asked her if she knew that it was the writings of prophets from America and she said yes. I asked her if she knew that Jesus came to America and she said no.

I talked to her about Jesus coming to America and commanding the people to raise their level of discipleship by being baptized with his baptism so that they could become clean. I told her that this was what she needed to get over the hurt and the pain of the things that happened to her in the past. I told her that she needed to be clean so that when Satan whispered in her ear that she wasn’t valued by God and that she wasn’t worthy of his love, she could tell him that was a liar and dismiss it.

She was touched and moved by now. She said that’s what I need. I told her the spirit was important because it’s how we learn truth. I asked her if she believed the words I was saying were true and she said yes. I asked her if that meant that the Book of Mormon was true and she said yes.

I asked her if that meant that Jesus came to America and invited her and others to be baptized. She said yes. I asked her if that meant she should be baptized and she said yes.

I said, at this point normally what we have to do is come up with an action plan. I said clearly you can’t go back to the old ward where your ex-boyfriend/baby daddy attends.

She said, well that was in Taylorsville and I don’t live there anymore. I live in West Valley City. I said that’s great. She said there are several churches in that area and that she would go to one of them. I said, do you ever see any missionaries? She said absolutely! I see them all the time! They live two doors down.

She said, I always say, hey brother! She said it with a grin. It was impressive and very telling of the joy she was feeling in her heart.

I asked her if she would do me a favor and go to those missionaries when she sees them next and tell them about this ride and about the witness that she received from the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true and that the church is true. She said she would.

Then I said you should discuss with them about getting baptized. She said, I would love to be baptized but my family tells me that I am betraying all of my ancestors because of my Buddhist religion.

I told her that I knew by the spirit that she was not betraying her ancestors but that they would praise her name.

Then she said, wait wait! But I’m an atheist! She said it with a huge smile on her face because she had said it earlier in the ride with meaning. I looked at her and said well, I guess not anymore, huh?! She laughed and said, I guess not.

I picked up a girl on State Street going to Park City. This was really weird because her pick up point was five blocks away from where He indicated pick up point was. I got her on the phone. It took some manipulating and interpreting to get us on the same page. Instead of being on 100 South and 3rd east she was down by Little America Hotel. I felt like ditching the ride because I could. It was a ride to Park City and I was going to lose money on the ride, but I felt impressed by the spirit to take this ride.

She got in the car and we started to go. It was a good ride but not long into the ride she confided in me that she was an alcoholic and 23 days sober. I congratulated her and told her how awesome that was. She told me that it would have been longer but she fell off the wagon 23 days ago and she was battling it hard core. She told me that it consumed every second of her thoughts.

As we started up the canyon she told me that she was from American Fork and she had moved there as a young child from Colorado. She also indicated the kind of work she did but frankly I forgot. I might not be a very good listener sometimes.

I felt like I should talk to her about the church The promptings came very strong that I needed to talk to her about the church but when talking about her family she said nothing about religion and almost purposely pushed away from the topic. I felt like I wasn’t welcome to go there.

I decided to talk about my grandfather‘s addiction to alcohol and how my wife had worked in the gastroenterologist office. She had seen people in their late 20’s early 30’s die from cirrhosis of the liver. Heather always mentioned how horrible and said that was. It just devastated her to know about this.

She said, well that’s my age! I said yes, alcohol will kill you! I told her that this is why getting rid of this addiction is so important. She said I know but it’s so hard.

I asked her if I could tell her something that I think makes it easier for me to understand and might help her. She said yes. I looked at her in the mirror, our eyes met, and I asked even if I talk about religion? I knew that she hadn’t wanted to talk about religion before but this time in this context she gave me the approval to talk about religion.

I told her that I had been Elders Quorum President and that I had people in my quorum that had been addicted. I had worked with them and the one of them had died from his addiction. I told her how sad it was. Then I asked her, do you want to know what I think is the difference between those who are able to overcome this and those who aren’t? She said yes.

There was an earnestness and a desire to learn in her voice and I felt like at this point she was open to hear what I had to say. I started talking about her being a daughter of God. I told her about how she lived with her father in heaven for thousands of years and that her spirit and his spirit knew each other and they loved each other. It was wonderful and amazing and it was the most central part of her soul. I told her that in everyone’s soul there is this place that is meant to be filled by the Spirit of God. I told her that was developed when she lived with her father in heaven before we were born. She was OK so far.

The spirit began to testify of the truth of her relationship with her father in heaven and I could see that she was thoughtful and I could feel her mind opening.

I talked about how when we came to earth and received our bodies we also lost our ability to remember exactly what that spirit was. Being prompted at that time that she was indeed a member, partially by her reactions and partially by the whisperings of the Holy Ghost, I said, when you were a child, either at girls camp, in family home evening, at church or praying with your mother, at some point you felt the spirit.

I told her that when she felt the spirit it was a wonderful feeling and that her spirit went crazy enjoying the presence of that spirit. I said it was like your spirit shouted my father’s here my father’s here, my father’s here. I told her that the spirit then filled that hole in her soul and she felt happy and complete.

I told her that we spend our lives on earth trying to learn how we can have that spirit with us like our soul craves.

I told her that Satan on the other hand is real. I said that people had told her that Satan wasn’t real, but he is and that he tries to copy and frustrate everything that God does. I told her that he tries to copy this feeling to lead us astray into paths where we won’t be happy.

I told her that getting high and getting buzzed is one of the things that he does. I told her that one time I was interviewing a sister in the MTC and when the spirit was there I asked her what it felt like and she told me it feels like I’m high. She explained to me that the only feeling she had experienced that was close to this was being high. he said that the Spirit of God was more powerful but that it was a similar feeling.

I told my passenger that by having us get drunk or high Satan counterfeits the feeling of the spirit and tries to fill that hole that’s been vacated in our soul. I told her it’s like feeding someone potato chips when they haven’t eaten for a week. I told her it’s not substantial and it doesn’t last like good food does. She said that makes sense.

She said that Alcoholics Anonymous says we’re supposed to look to a higher power, this must be the reason why. I told her that as a member of the church she has a greater understanding of that and a greater ability to understand what it is and why it is necessary. She asked me how I knew she was a member of the church and I told her that I just felt a prompting from the spirit that she was. I told her coming back to the church would be a way that she could get that help to fill the void in her soul. I told her that her alcoholism is a physical battle and a spiritual battle. I told her if she would take care of the spiritual void by filling it with the power of God that it would lessen her dependence and make it so that she could fight the physical battle. She thought about that for a minute and then said, my father and mother are members of the church, my brothers went on missions but I left that a long time ago. I could tell by the way she talked and by the venom in her voice when she said it, her parents disapproval of the lifestyle she was living created a great chasm even a gulf between them. It seemed as though she disapproved of the church almost exclusively to spite her parents.

I told her that if she would go back and surround herself with that spirit and fill that hole with the spirit instead of the things Satan was trying to stuff in it, she would have the power to resist the cravings and temptations to drink and do other drugs. She said, that would be hard to go back to my parents like that. I asked, how bad do you want to quit drinking? She said really bad.

By this time we had arrived at the place where she had pre design to go. She was getting ready to get out of the car. She said, I’ll have to think about it. I said do you believe what I said? She said maybe. I said during the ride you felt the spirit and she started to smile and she said yes. I said that spirit testifies of truth and she said, I know.

I said would God send that if he didn’t mean to validate what was said, if it was wrong? And she said no.

I said I have one more question for you. She said what is it? I said I want you to just stop and think about the cravings right now that you’re having. How are they by comparison with the way they’ve been for the last few days?

She gasped and answered, oh my, they’re Way less. She said that’s amazing. I told her that they were diminished because the Spirit of God was filling her soul right now as it had been during that ride. I told her that it was making it so that she only felt the physical craving. I said, now you see how this works.

She said how do I do this. I said go to your dad and ask him for a blessing. I told her to go to her mom and dad and discuss with them what we talked about. I asked her to be open with them about the fight she was having. I told her that they would love to wrap their arms around her and help her feel the spirit. I told her not to judge them for what had been said and what had been done before. I told her that she doesn’t like to be judged so she should let them off the hook a bit too. She smiled and said I guess you’re right. She said I’ll do that.

She turned and walked away full of the spirit. I’m pretty sure there’s a mother and father in American Fork that have been worried sick about their little girl because I know there is a father in heaven who has been. The fathers blessing is just what she needs and a hug of love and understanding like she got from the spirit in the car that day can help bring her home.

I got called to pick up a lady on Circle Of Hope Drive which is the Huntsman Cancer Institute. I pulled up and she was clearly a disabled lady. She was able to walk very slowly. She walked up and asked if she could get in the front seat. She said she felt better in the front seat of a car but she had never asked that question of a driver before.

I said, absolutely and she got in the car. I could feel right away that she was a little bit of a tortured soul and the biggest pain she was feeling had nothing to do with her physical challenges. Fortunately for us it was rush-hour and we had to go from Huntsman Cancer Institute all the way down to 72nd south and that is a long ride so we had time.

We started driving. I knew by the spirit that I was supposed to talk to this lady so I started early trying to find out what were the things that I should say. I prayed and then the answer came to me.

First, I listened to her tell me the story of her mother who had advanced Alzheimer’s and had lived with her for six years. She said no one realized how hard that was. I told her that was Gods work caring for her mother and that no one understands how hurtful and abusive someone who doesn’t recognize you can be. She said no one gets that. I told her that God loves her for that service and her mother will remember it.

I told her how Covid had financially devastated us and that I wasn’t getting money from work so I had to drive. I told her things like that happen but the funniest thing is that I know I’m here being protected by God and doing the things God would have me do. I told her, “I am saying the things God would have me say”.

She said, what do you mean? I told her that I was protected by God physically! I told her the story about the guy that came through between the front seats to attack me and was shocked by God just like he was tased. I felt like I needed to attach it to the Book of Mormon so I said you’re a member of the Mormon church aren’t you?

She said I was raised a Mormon but I am no longer a member of that church. I said well you remember the story from the Book of Mormon don’t you. She said yes. I talked about how Laman and Lemuel were shocked when Nephi touched them. I said that’s exactly what happened to me in my car; God protected me.

I told her that God can protect us at times but I could feel her spirit cry, why didn’t he protect me? I had the impression that she was seriously abused at home as a child.

I started talking to her about the atonement and how Christ is there to lift us through our adversities and Satan is there blaming God. I told her that God gives us agency and many times people abuse that agency. I told her that its up to us to decide how we react to the abuse of agency.

I could tell the light came on. I could tell that this thing that I had said to her was a direct hit to her soul. I said you have been hurt in your life. People that you have trusted abused you and it made it hard for you to turn to God.

She said I have fought the impulse to blame God but I am angry at the church. My father abused all of us and it was horrible. He used the church to control us. My brother committed suicide by jumping from a hotel balcony because he couldn’t deal with it.

I felt that she had been sexually abused by her father even though she didn’t say that. She indicated physical and psychological abuse but I felt that this was the case very strongly and I alluded to it without saying it.

There was such pain in her voice and such pain in her face and she told the story of the beatings she would endure and the humiliation her father would heap on her.

Then almost to change the subject she talked about the other pain in her life. How she had been arrested, convicted and put in prison four times for forgery. She had broken her back and become addicted to drugs and had forged the doctor signatures to get the pain medicine that she needed.

She talked about how the judge told her that if she could ever get her life together she could be an amazing person. She told me that she was released from prison six years ago and had been caring for her mother since then.

I started talking to her about addiction and how there are two prongs to addiction. Two battles to face. The battle to fill our soul with the spirit which is the thing “the high” attempts to replicate with Satan‘s counterfeit and the physical addiction to the chemicals. I told her that everyone I know tells me that if you get the spiritual part under control it makes the physical part easier because you can focus on it.

She said wow, I had never considered that. I told her I learned that because one of my missionaries in the MTC had told me that a spiritual experience felt almost like being high and it was occurred to me that Satan was using that to fill the part of our soul where Gods love should reside.

I told her that even though she had an earthly father that was not a great man she had a Heavenly Father that was the best and that she had lived with him for thousands and thousands and thousands of years and she had a love with him and that feeling of being with him was so important to her. I told her that it was like when her child walked in the room, she knew that child was there without even looking. She said yeah I know that feeling.

I said you have that feeling with your father in heaven and I can’t tell you what it feels like because it’s between you and him. I told her that she had experienced that feeling and that she had been searching for that feeling, chasing that feeling ever since. I told her that I always ask people to identify that feeling so that they know what it is. This way, the next time they feel it they know their father is near.

I said, it’s just like Satan to lie, cheat and create a counterfeit to this. That way we become addicted to the counterfeit because we are pre-designed to crave the spirit of God.

I said it’s the most natural thing for us. If we feel the spirit of God, it fills us and makes us more capable and more powerful. If we choose Satan‘s plan and his counterfeit it wastes away and does nothing for us. That’s why drugs harm us spiritually. She agreed 100%

She said she had a brother that went on a mission. He lives in Australia. I said that’s amazing.

I told her that there are good and bad people and families in and out of the church. I told her that everyone has problems and everyone has sin. I told her that no one is perfect. I told her one thing for sure is that when her father abused her and her brothers using the church to do it, he was damning his progression and damning himself by unworthily using that position.

I told her that someday he would have to apologize to her and she would get the opportunity to forgive him. I told her that his own actions damned his progression. I said that I use the word damned because it stopped his progression. I told her that this is why if he is ever to progress he would need to come to her and ask for forgiveness, be sorry and be repentant.

I told her that God puts people in my car to receive messages. He whispers to my heart the things that I should say and today he put her in my car. I told her that this is why I had known the things I knew about her struggles and the abuse she had suffered. She said that it was amazing that I knew it. She said she had never told anyone except her therapist these things.

She told me about one time when she got 24 wacks with a 2 x 4 that had holes drilled in it. It left so many welts and bruises that it was noticed when she showered in PE. The case was sent over to child protective services for an interview. She said the people showed up and within 15 minutes they were laughing and joking it up with her mom and dad like nothing ever happened. She said they did nothing to help me. She knew that no one was coming to help her.

I also said it’s deeper than what you’ve told me. I remembered back to when the spirit prompted me that she had been sexually assaulted by her father. I said, there’s more abuse you suffered in an inappropriate way. I said that while you were suffering God cried for you. I told her that he sent his son for her so that she could have her burdens lifted but his heart hurt for his daughter he loved while she was suffering so.

She told the story about her 12th birthday when he humiliated her in front of people from their ward and the boy she had a crush on. He said something humiliating of a sexual nature and she said, “why didn’t the other adults in that room catch on to my dad and ask, how would he know that? Why didn’t they try to do something to help me?” I told her that I had the impression that it had been going on for several years before she was 12 and with tears in her eyes and a quivering voice she said, ”yes it had”.

She said that when her dad died of a heart attack he was still spiteful and bitter. I told her that she was bitter as well. I said that it’s understandable and she has a right to feel that way. I also told her that the atonement can take that sword out of her hand if she would let it. I told her that through the atonement she could learn to move on and not be so angry. I told her about Alma and his followers who were enslaved,beaten and abused. When they prayed and turned to the atonement their burdens were lifted and they were so light they could barely feel them. I asked her how she would like to have that burden lifted. I asked her if she would like to have Jesus Christ carry that for her. She said “yes, please yes!”

I told her that her father in heaven was everything her earthly father wasn’t. I told her again that she lived with her father in heaven and she loved him and that they had a perfect relationship and that it was on going for thousands and thousands of years. He loved her and even though she had been abused and taken advantage of in this life he loved her more than she could ever know. The spiritual was strong. She started to cry. She said, this is why I’ve never given up on God. She said, I’d hoped that he still loved me.

I said, do you feel that love right now and she said yes. I asked her what it felt like. She said it felt like her heart was so full it was about to burst. She said that the peace felt warm. I said, that is how you feel the spirit of God. That is how you feel in his presence. I said it’s here because the spirit of God is here with us now. I told her to remember how that feels because she will know that God is with her and that he loves her when she feels that.

I told her that God has given us the atonement of Jesus Christ so that we can be healed from the injustice and pain that comes from evil. Using the atonement of Jesus Christ is how we turn to him and feel his love in our lives.

By this time there were full on tears. I told her that her father wasn’t the church and that he had used the church. I told her that God really would love to have her back.

She said that this whole ride has been all too amazing. She’s been thinking about calling her brother in Australia and her daughter-in-law who previously served missions for about the last week. She had been feeling like she needed to do that and start going to church again. She said they had just been thoughts but then I show up and this happens in my car. She said it can’t be a coincidence.

I told her there is no such thing as coincidence and that the experience she had in the car was a way for her Heavenly Father to reach out to her. She said, I can’t go back to church, I’ve done so many horrible things in my life.

I told her that didn’t matter and that’s why we have the atonement so we can become clean. I told her that the atonement cleans us. Through the power of the atonement Jesus Christ saves us, not just in the end but during the trials that we experience.

I told her that every single person at church hears whispering in their ears telling them that they’re not worthy to be there that they’re not good enough to be there, and that they can’t do the things God has asked them to do. Satan tries to make us feel unworthy and inadequate. He does that so that he can keep us away from God.

I told her that anything that teaches not to pray or anything that teaches not to go to church is of Satan. I told her that if she feels that she’s not supposed to go to church or welcome, that is Satan talking and to never let him win. I told her Jesus would open his arms to receive her so what does it matter what everyone else thinks.

She said that’s a good point.

Through her tears she told me that all these things happening were crazy and that feeling the spirit and recognizing it for the first time in the car that day had changed her complete perspective.

I told her that this week is conference. I asked her to listen to one session of conference. She said OK. I said will you listen looking for a message from God to you? She said, yes. I said, do you promise? She said, yes, I promise but not more than one session. I’ve been away a long time.

I asked her if she knew who her bishop was. She said yes he is a very good man. I told her to go to him and tell him about our car ride and discuss the things in her heart with him. I told her he would know how to help her. She said, that’s exactly what I need to do.

Getting out of the car she said this is why all of this is happening. I’ve just never said it to myself out loud. I’m supposed to come back to the church. I’ve got some health struggles and it’s going to be hard. God is reaching out to me and I need to grab his hand. I promise you I will do these things.

She turned around and walked into her house. I had just seen the hand of God move to recover one of his injured daughters from the field of battle. She didn’t tell me but I think she has cancer. Getting rid of the cancer is important, but Satan is every bit as much of a cancer. When she listens to conference this weekend I am sure that (by coincidence) she will listen to the talk that speaks to her soul. (By coincidence) she will hear multiple talks that speak to her issues.

I can’t wait for conference!

I wrote this on Monday before conference and felt prompted that it was this weeks story. I just got done listening to President Nelson’s talk on abuse. The lord grieves for the abused. Look to christ! Let’s be his hands to lift and bless

Sometimes we are a little timid to bring up baptism but other times we need to be bold. Sometimes we need to ask Have you been baptized yet?

I picked up a young man at a Vape shop by State and 33rd south. On the way to pick him up I passed a car accident that had the route blocked off that we would need to take on the way out. I knew I would have to be creative.

It told me to pick him up at the Vape shop and I thought he worked at the Vape shop. I thought, eww a vape shop. When he got in the car I told him about the accident and that we would have to find another way. Silence! He told me he didn’t speak English but I heard a Spanish accent so I jumped right in.

I told him in Spanish that the road was blocked and he started laughing and said well, let’s try it anyway. We started down the road and found out we were blocked and we would be detoured and it was going to add about 10 minutes to arrive at his home. He was OK with that and so we went.

We had to make a turn north. The second I made the turn the spirit told me in a prompting this young man was highly stressed, very worried and needed to feel the spirit. I felt like God was going to show his power to this young man.

The first thing that came to my mind was, have you been baptized into the church yet? He looked shocked at the surprise frontal attack. He gathered himself and said wait no, I haven’t been baptized into the Mormon church yet. I said. Maybe it’s time you look into it.

I asked him if he had any friends that were members of the church and he said yes. He said he had two good friends that were members of the church. This is usually a question I ask at the end of the night or ride but for whatever reason I felt like I should ask it early on.

I asked him, what do your friends believe that’s different than what you believe as a Catholic. He thought about it and said, I don’t know. He said, I don’t have any idea what your church believes.

I told him that our church believes that God is the God of all of the world and not just Jerusalem. I told him that God loves everyone in the world and not just the people where he originally sent his son. I asked him if he believed that and he said absolutely.

I asked him if God loved the people in America that were his ancestors and he said yes. I asked him, if God loved them how would he show that love. He said he would help them. I told him that’s exactly what God did. He helped them. I told him that he gave them prophets.

I told him the prophets were people who receive revelation from God to help and bless the people. They wrote these revelations down and that’s why we have the Bible. They are the revelations of the prophets in Jerusalem. I also told him that the prophets in America amongst his ancestors also received revelation from God and they wrote them down.

I asked him, if that were true, would it be important for him to have that record? He said yes, it would be very important. I told him that those prophets also wrote about Jesus Christ coming to America. He said, what? I’ve never heard about that! I told him Jesus Christ was in Jerusalem after his resurrection and he said other sheep he had which are not of this fold and that he received a commandment from his father to go to them so there could be one fold and one shepherd. I told him that Jesus was talking about his ancestors here in America.

He said, this feels good, this feels right. I asked him if he knew where he could find these revelations and the history of Jesus Christ coming to America? He said no, where would I find that? I told him it was the Book of Mormon and he said ohhh.

I told him that when Jesus was crucified there was destruction in this hemisphere. I told him that there were earthquakes, tornadoes and tsunami‘s. I told him that after the destruction the people and the continent were covered with darkness for three days and they couldn’t see. They couldn’t light a match and they couldn’t do anything.

Then they heard a voice that said “this is my beloved son”. They looked to the heavens and saw Jesus descending from heaven dressed in white and glowing in glory.

I told him that his ancestors went up to Jesus and touched the prints of the nails in his hands and then his feet. They knelt and said hosanna which means save us. I told him Jesus helped them and blessed them and loved them. I said, this should be very personal to you because Jesus held, loved and blessed your ancestors.

When I said this I could tell that there was a tremendous peace in the car and I could tell that his eyes were wide open and he was eating it up. I could feel the spirit testifying to his soul. I said, then Jesus called up 12 and gave them authority to baptize and give the gift of the Holy Ghost. He commanded to these 12 to go and baptize everyone.

I told him that these people had previously been baptized and that they were good people. Jesus wanted to give them more blessings. Jesus wanted to give them a new level of commitment and a new level of discipleship. I told him that Jesus wanted to give them the ability to have families forever and to have power to save and live with those families forever in the gospel.

He said wow! That’s amazing! I asked him what he was feeling and he said he was feeling a tremendous peace like he had never felt before. I asked him what it meant and he said he didn’t know. I told him it meant that God was with us and that the things he was hearing were true. He said that he knew that they’re true! He said there’s no mistaking that right now.

He said he was also feeling a tremendous desire to learn these things that I was saying. I told him that because God loves us he sends his spirit to help us learn. I told him but I believed that God put him in my car tonight to receive this message.

He told me that he had a tremendously stressful day and he didn’t know how to move forward. He said that in the car he felt the peace of God and he believed that he had also seen a path forward for him.

I asked him if included learning these things and he said yes. I asked him what it meant to him that God would reach out and bless him with the spirit to help him tonight. He said it meant a lot to him. I asked him if it meant that he should follow these promptings and he said it did and he would.

We talked some more about the spirit and about baptism. I told him that based on the confirmation he had received from spirit it was important that he follow through and be baptized. He said that this was true. I asked him if he would be baptized and he said yes. Then he started talking about his family in Columbia. His wife and son live in Columbia.

He lives here and works two jobs and sends the money there so that they can be provided for. I told him that families are really important to us in our church and that the full restoration of the gospel teaches that families are the most important thing. I told him that when we are married our marriages are sealed for eternity. We don’t just do it until death but for eternity.

I told him that when Jesus was on the earth he gave Peter the authority to seal things on earth that will be sealed in heaven and we have that same power. We use that power to seal our marriages for all eternity. He said that this was an amazing thing and that he is 100% sure that his wife would love that.

He asked if it would be possible for her and his son to hear about the gospel in Columbia. I told him that we can send missionaries to their home in Columbia. I told him that when he was working with the missionaries they could conference In his family and the missionaries from that area so that they could learn together. This way they could be baptized together and sealed together later on. He loved that.

I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon and he said no. I grabbed one of the copies of the Book of Mormon in Spanish prepared by Sister Secrist and gave it to him.

I asked him if he would promise me that he would ask his friend about that book and he said he would. He said that he would do it the next day. I asked him if he would tell his friend about the spirit and the presence of God that he felt in the car. He said that he would. He said, I cannot deny It.

I told him once again that God had put him in my car to receive this book and these teachings so that he could move forward in his life and finally be baptized in the church. He said that’s just what I need.

I said do you work in the vape shop? This was a potential problem I foresaw. He said, no, I worked in the Subway right next to it. It’s one of two jobs that I have. He said lately he had been very worn down and without a hope. He said tonight the spirit in the car had rejuvenated his spirit and given him hope.

He said, I have to follow this path. I believe that for sure he’s going to get pretty wet on this path.

I picked up a kid at a bakery one night. I love bakeries! Alecia and I have always said the bakeries make people happy and I believe that to be a true principle of happiness. This young man was no exemption.

He seemed to be very happy and we were talking about life. We did the where are you from question. I always ask this question because no one is ever from Salt Lake that I drive. He said that he was born and raised! I said, you’re the one! He laughed and we started talking a bit about growing up in Utah.

He lived in Valley City, in kind of a rough area. He was about 21 years old. I didn’t think by the looks of him that he was a member of the church but the spirit told me that he was and that I should ask him about missions.

I told him that I wasn’t from Utah, that I was from Idaho and that I came here to go to BYU after my mission. I told him I went to Argentina on my mission.

He said, oh, I have a friend that’s in Perú on a mission. I said that’s really cool, are you close? He said yes! I felt impressed to tell him that I knew he was a member of the church and say last year when you considered going on a mission you felt like you couldn’t leave your family but now those things have resolved themselves. Don’t you think it’s time to reconsider going on a mission? He said, how did you know that? I told him the spirit of God put those words in my heart to say.

I told him that I had the impression as well that he was questioning the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of the church all together. He lowered his head and said yes.

I told him that I believe that these doubts were I just planted in his mind by Satan to try to keep him from going on a mission and that he knew that. I told him rather than fight these impressions and turn to his he entertained those thoughts and began to doubt. He said that’s exactly what it was like. He just didn’t have that feeling of truth anymore like he had at one time.

I asked him why he thought it was important for a young man to go on a mission. He said he didn’t know. I asked him if it would be all right for me to tell him what I thought and he said yes.

I told him that there are a couple reasons but first and foremost because Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he went to the sacred grove and prayed. God the father and Jesus Christ appeared just as surely as he was sitting in my car. When I said this the spirit began to burn in the car. I testified of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and how that message was a message that needed to be shared.

I told him about how the Book of Mormon taught the everyone need to be baptized. It taught that Jesus descended from heaven dressed in white and loved the people. They touch the prints of the nails in his hands and he gave them baptism and he invited them to be baptized. I told him that when you are a missionary you are the literal ambassador of Christ bringing that invitation that Jesus himself gave to the people. I could tell in the mirror that he was paying attention and I could see the spirit working in his countenance

I told him that as a father one of the most important things we do is give blessings to our children. We give them blessings when they’re sick, we give them blessings when they don’t feel good or when they’re going to school. I asked him how important it was for a father to be able to bless his child by the power of the spirit and the priesthood? He said very important. I asked him where do you think I learned how to do that? He said on a mission? I said yes sir.

I also said, when you’re giving that blessing it’s important to recognize the voice of God to your heart and say the words he would have you say and make the promises he would have you promise. I asked him where he thought I learned how to do that? He said on a mission? I said yes sir.

I asked him if he had felt the spirit in the car and he said he felt it like he had never felt it before. I asked him what the presence of the spirit in the car with us tonight meant and he said it means I’m supposed to go on a mission.

I could tell this was a good kid, I told him that as he reads the Book of Mormon this desire to share that will consume him. I looked back in the mirror and I could see tears streaming down his face.

I said, tonight you know that the church is true. Tonight you know that you’re supposed to go on a mission and he said yes, I know that. He said I’ve never felt like this.

I asked him what he needed to do next and he said he needed to go to his bishop. I told him he could be a great missionary and that peace he felt tonight is something he could take to others. He said that’s what he wanted to do. He asked me what my name was again and I told him. He thanked me and said it was his best ride ever. He promised me he would go to church this Sunday as well as see his bishop and get working on this.

I was thinking about this and the push the brethren made for young men to go on missions last general conference. It’s clear to me that Satan is working extra hard on them because if he wins, even if they stay in the church, without a mission they are less prepared as fathers and servants in the kingdom than they would’ve been had they served.

I end up doing a lot of things in my church calling. Currently I’m ward mission leader and I have a Haitian family that we’re trying to get baptized. They speak no English, a little bit of Spanish, no French only Haitian Creole. There is no help for Haitian Creole. They’re not particularly educated and reading is not their thing. We’re working double time on this one.

I had to take this family to Salt Lake City for an immigration court date on their asylum status. We got in the car and started to Salt Lake City and were going to the courthouse at the Decker Lake facility. I was Driving to Salt Lake for free! On the way I wanted to ask them when they planned on getting married and then baptized. So I asked and the dad said that if things went well that day in Imigration court they would get married and be baptized. I was thrilled and quickly started praying for success in court that day.

When we got there I looked at their paper and found out that we were an hour and a half early which shocked me because they never show up anywhere early. I decided that it was OK and that I would try to find something to occupy my time. We went to the gate to talk to the guard and he told us to go in.

At the same time there was another lady there. She was speaking Spanish to the guard and he didn’t understand a word she was saying. He asked me to translate when I started speaking to her because he couldn’t talk to her. She had an appointment set but they closed down early.

So there she was with her daughter. She had taken several buses to arrive and missed the cut off by a half an hour because they closed early. She was in tears and she had no idea how she was going to get home. I told her that I would take her.

I asked her to wait for a second while I took my Haitian family into the court and got them settled and then I came out and took this woman and her daughter to her house.

She told me their story about crossing the border and walking hours in the desert with her little girl. About how they arrived in Utah without even knowing what it was. I asked her what she thought about Utah and she said it’s very peaceful. We’ve never been anywhere like this, we love it!

I felt the spirit prompt me that I needed to get my head in the testifying game here. So I asked her, why do you think God brought you to Utah instead of one of those other areas? She paused for a minute and said, “I hadn’t thought about that, why do you think it is?

I told her it was because of the church. I told her that the peace she felt was because the people of the church follow Jesus and her family was brought here to receive that.

She looked shocked. I asked her what she knew about the church, she said that there were some missionaries that lived in the apartment complex by them and that she had talked to them a little bit. It had been quite a while since they talked.

I asked her if she knew what it was that the church taught that was additional to the things she already believed. She said, I don’t know.

I asked her who does God love? And she said God loves everyone. I asked her if he loved them equally and she said yes. I asked her if he loves everyone in the world and she said yes.

I told her about in the Bible where it says other sheep I have which are not of this fold and she finished the scripture for me. I asked her where those other sheep were if they weren’t in that fold right there in Israel that he was talk to. She said all over the world.

I asked her what does he say in that scripture he was going to do? She said go to those other sheep.

I asked her, does that mean he was going to go visit the people in America, your ancestors? She said, I guess it does but I don’t ever remember hearing about Jesus coming to America. She said I wonder if it happened.

I told her it absolutely happened. I talked about the destruction that happened in America when Jesus was crucified and the three days of darkness and then his descending from heaven to the people. I talked about how they touched the prints of the nails in his hands and worshiped their God. He then called up 12 and gave them the authority to baptize, instructions on how to baptize and commanded them to baptize everyone. The spirit was so strong in the car, she was tearing up and I was emboldened.

I told her that God loved her and her ancestors every bit as much as he loved the people in Jerusalem. She said, for whatever reason I’ve never heard this but I know the words you are saying are true. I told her it was because of the spirit she was feeling.

I told her that Jesus came to America and blessed her ancestors and their posterity, that meant her. She was visibly touched. I told her that this was exactly what she had always known in her heart but that the spirit was helping her understand it better right now. She agreed.

I told her about the Book of Mormon and how it came to be. I testified that God the father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and called him to be the prophet to restore Gods Church. I testified of the Book of Mormon and it’s translation. I held up a Spanish Book of Mormon prepared by Sister Secrist and said this is the word of God directly from your ancestors.

She grabbed the book and was a little bit emotional. The spirit was still very strong and I asked her if she still felt it. She said yes. I asked, what does that mean and she said it means this is true.

I told her how we had arrived at the court way early today and that I should’ve been there much later but God had brought us earlier so that I could help her and I could testify to her. I told her that God wanted me to give her this Book of Mormon and she held it to her chest.

She said, your church is true, it’s Gods church. I said yes that’s why it’s called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I said, now that you know this what do you need to do? She looked puzzled I said do you remember the invitation that Christ gave for them to be baptized? He invited everyone to be baptized even though they had already been baptized in the church previously.

He invited everyone to be baptized to this new covenant, to this new promise, to this new level and he is extending that same invitation to you.

She said I see that. I can’t do it without asking my husband because I think we need to do this as a family. I said that’s right! I told her to go talk to those missionaries and tell them what happened in the car and that you want to look into being baptized and learning the things you need to know. She said she would and then she said, I can’t believe what has happened today. I missed my appointment because they closed early. I was there without hope and you came in and bring me home and bring me this spirit and message. This was from God and I will do it. I know that she will.

I left her and returned to wait for my Haitian family and found that they had been expedited and were coming out as I arrived. They were done and the court went well for them. All good!

It was a very good day!

I picked up a young man downtown by the Union Pacific Depot to take him to his home in West Valley City. I could hear a little bit of an accent on his English so I knew he was Latino but he spoke very well. I spoke to him in English for about five minutes before we started speaking Spanish. I was really proud of how well he was doing. He had never gone to school or anything to learn English.

I asked him with no schooling what he did for a living. He said he worked In construction. I said that’s cool. I asked him what brought him to Utah and he said that he had lived in New York and Houston after he came here from Mexico City. He said that those places were crazy violent. He told me he wanted to be in a better place. His brother had told him to go to Utah so he did.

I asked him what he had felt in Utah and he said he had felt tremendous peace in Utah. The people are so nice he said. I love the way it feels here there’s just something special.

I asked him why he thought there might be something special and he said he didn’t know. I told him it’s because of the church. I told him it’s because the people here are blessed by the members of the church who live the gospel. I told him that it creates an environment where people feel peace.

He said, I like the church. I asked him what he knew about the church. He told me that he works on the construction of the Salt Lake City Temple. I was blown away.

I asked him about that experience and he said it was amazing. He said the people take care of them and they feed them. He said, remember I told you there’s a special feeling here? There’s a better feeling in there and everybody feels it. It’s an amazing thing to go to work.

I thought, this is great! I asked him if he knew what we did in temples and he said no but he’s been all through it.

I asked him if he had seen one of the rooms with an altar in the middle with big mirrors on the sides. He said yes. I told him those are the rooms where we get married. I told him that I was married in one of those rooms in the Salt Lake City Temple. I told him that we get married in temples because for us it’s different and it’s a very sacred thing.

I told him that when Jesus was on earth he gave his apostle Peter the power to seal things on earth that would be sealed in heaven. I told him that in the temple when we are married we seal our marriages for eternity not just until death do us part.

The spirit that goes along with speaking about the temple was palpable and you could tell that he was feeling it. I asked him what it felt like he said he was feeling knowledge and energy and peace in his heart. I told him that this was a spirit of God and that when he felt that he knew the things he was hearing were true.

I told him God gave us that authority so that our families can be together forever. I told him that God is all about families because we’re his family. I told him we can’t be saved without each other and that’s what the temples are about. He said that’s very powerful and I can tell that it’s true.

I asked him if he’d seen a baptismal font. He said yes! It’s impressive! He said, I saw them both in the Salt Lake Temple and in another temple where I was working. He asked if that where you are baptized?

I said kind of. I started by telling him about how when Jesus was crucified, during the three days while his body was in the tomb his spirit was in the spirit world and according to Peter he organized the preaching of the gospel to the people who had died without receiving the gospel or being taught the gospel. I told him that these people who are taught the gospel in the spirit world then get a chance to accept it or reject it.

I asked him, does your church teach that being taught the gospel is enough? He said no, we have to be baptized. I asked him if a person could go to heaven without being baptized according to his church and he said no.

I asked him if he believed Heavenly Father was his loving father and he said yes. Then I asked him if a loving father would condemn a majority of his children because they didn’t have the opportunity to hear or accept the gospel. I asked him if that would be fair and he said no

I asked him what his church’s answer is and he said frankly I’ve looked at a lot of churches and I’ve never heard anyone that even addresses this. He said,I don’t know that anyone has that answer. I told him that we do.

I told him that this baptismal font in the temple that he has seen is where we go to perform a sacred ordinance. That is were a person can be baptized for one of the people who were taught the gospel in the spirit world.

I told him that it that then the person in the spirit world has the opportunity to accept or reject their baptism. He said, that is right! He said I know that is right. He said that he had been looking for that answer all of his life.

He said that he knew God was good. He knew God was just and he just didn’t see the justice in the Catholic teaching of condemnation for people who hadn’t had the opportunity to be baptized. People who had died and never been taught the gospel or had a chance to learn it.

He said this is the answer!

I told him that we have prophets and they speak to God and that’s how we learn these things. I also told him that his ancestors in America had prophets and they spoke with God and blessed their people for many years. I told him that they wrote their prophecies. I told him that the prophesies were engraved on plates and the Prophet Joseph Smith translated those prophecies and that’s what the Book of Mormon is.

I asked him if he heard of the Book of Mormon, he said yes, but he didn’t know anything about it. He said all of this makes so much sense to me. I asked him if he still felt the spirit when we talked about the book of Mormon and he said yes.

I told him that the Book of Mormon also talked about Jesus Christ coming to America. He said what? I told him that when Jesus was with his disciples after his resurrection he said, other sheep I have which are not his fold. Jesus said that he was commanded by his father to go to them. I said that he was talking about the people in America, his ancestors.

I said that he descended from heaven and the people saw him and knew that he was their God. They touch the prints of the nails in his hands. I told him that then they knelt and worshipped him and said hosanna which means save us.

I told him that Jesus then called up 12 and gave them authority to baptize people even though they had already been baptized in the church. I told him that he commanded them to be baptized so that they could take on the new covenant that he was offering them so they could take that next step. I told him that Jesus Christ held his ancestors and blessed his ancestors and their posterity.

When I told him that his ancestors have been blessed and their posterity by the hand of Jesus you could see the spirit work on his face. You could tell the spirit was working in his heart and it was burning in the car.

He said, wow that’s true. I told him that this account of Jesus coming to America was also included in the Book of Mormon along with the other writings from the prophets of America. I told him that God loves all of his children and he sent his son here.

I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon and he said no. I pulled out one of the Book of Mormon‘s prepared by Sister Secrist and gave it to him. I asked him if he had Mormon friends and he said yes.

II told him to talk to them, and talk to the people that fed them at the temple while they were working. He said he would.

He thanked me again for the Book of Mormon and said, I’m going to read this! Then he looked me in the eye and said I promise I’m going to read this.

I bore my testimony to him of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. It was a sacred experience for me and I believe For him as well

I asked, how is it to know what it is that you feel in the temple? He said awesome. I asked him if he would ever look at that baptismal font the same ever again. He said no, that’s the answer I was looking for. He said that he would follow up like I had asked him to do and thanked me for the book.

I wonder how many other workers in the temple are feeling the same thing. They don’t even know the answers to their prayers are right in front of them. Maybe this man can help some of them find that.