Instructive Experiences

My testimony continues to increase surrounding two things: (1) the Lord is intimately involved in the details of our lives; (2) the Lord’s work is hastening and the people around us are having experiences that are leaving them with questions that are leading them to the gospel.

Experience No. 1 – 

This past week, I flew out to NYC. On the plane, I sat next to a woman from NY who is currently living in Park City. She is the COO of a law firm and has prior experience in investment banking at JP Morgan. We had a fantastic conversation, and I left knowing that our meeting was not merely a coincidence. I’m in the middle of making some big decision re my future and have a lot of unanswered questions. Because of her work experience, she was able to speak to my specific concerns in meaningful ways.

As we continued talking, I learned that she now lives with her boyfriend who happens to be an inactive member of the LDS church. We talked about religion, about missions, about eternal families and conversion. To be honest, I have no idea if she felt the spirit or hopped onto Mormon.org when she got home. However, I absolutely believe our conversation will not be forgotten. Though I’m not aware of the details of her life, I know that God is, and I’ve had numerous experiences on both sides where random meetings and meaningful conversations have made a difference.

Experience No. 2 – 

Yesterday I met up with a friend who I met this summer at an internship conference in SF. He is an MBA student at MIT and drove down to NY to visit. Though we have truthfully only spoken a handful of times over the phone and met only once in person before this weekend, we have been able to have great conversations, many of them concerning the gospel. Yesterday after walking around the city, we went to the Manhattan Temple and sat in the church building and talked for a few hours. We talked about church, temples and the priesthood.

We then got into a taxi and rushed to a dinner reservation. In the taxi, he asked me about what I believed about life after death. (His mom passed away when he was 8 years old.) We talked about the spirit world and the plan of salvation and more about temple work and eternal families. Suddenly, our taxi came to a screeching stop. We totally almost slammed into a car. The taxi driver (Bai) turned back to us and apologized – he said he wasn’t paying attention because he was listening to me. His mother also passed away when he was young and in Nigeria. He then went on to talk in detail about the eternal nature of spirits!

I pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down the Mormon.org website and my email address. I told him if he wanted to email me, I would connect him with missionaries, people who he could continue having these kinds of conversations with. Well, I found out that he has already met missionaries and has even been baptized! He kept saying “128 and Lennox” (address of a church building in Harlem). He’s now attending a Catholic Church. I told him he could still meet with missionaries anyway! 

Again, I'm not sure what will happen, and I haven't gotten an email from him. But the point is – of all the taxis in NYC, how interesting that we chose the one with Bai. And though I don’t know and understand everything in God’s plan, I am convinced that the people in our lives (roommates, parents, neighbors, strangers, classmates) are not with us by accident.

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“Perhaps the greatest reason for missionary work is to give the world its chance to hear and accept the gospel. The scriptures are replete with commands and promises and calls and rewards for teaching the gospel. I use the word command deliberately for it seems to be an insistent directive from which we, singly and collectively, cannot escape” (Spencer W. Kimball, “When the World Will Be Converted,” Ensign, Oct. 1974, 4).