Taaaaxi!

So many taxis!

One of our younger (34-year-old) temple workers, Kim, is on bed rest with a high-risk pregnancy.  She has been a devoted worker and loves to be with people, but is quite isolated socially now and is feeling nauseous and dizzy much of the time.  We have texted but I felt like I needed to go visit her.  Ron was not excited about driving in Cebu traffic to make a “woman-talk” visit, so I decided to take a taxi.  By myself!  Ron and I are always together when we go out, so this was new and scary.  We’ve had some good cab drivers and some that looked a little sketchy, but we got where we were going okay.  But by myself was a new adventure.  I prayed that I would get a taxi driver who would be safe and who would want a copy of the Book of Mormon.  The guards at the gatehouse will flag a taxi for us when we need one, so soon I was getting in one of the 7,000 taxis that crowd the streets here.  Good first sign—the seatbelts work.  Bad second sign—he doesn’t know how to find the address.  I got in front to show him an app called “Mapsme” that is like googlemaps, not as good, but doesn’t need data.  He was very cooperative and we did find the address easily.  But that’s getting ahead of myself.  We started with small talk, and I asked about his family.  He has two children.  Then he asked me what I thought about the end of the world, because his 9- and 12-year-old children ask him every day, “Is the world going to end tomorrow, Pa?”   I pulled up Matthew 24 on my phone and I read it and gave him some ideas and some of my thoughts.  I told him that he could reassure his kids that the world wouldn’t end too soon—still too many prophecies to be fulfilled.  Then I asked him if he would like the copy of the Book of Mormon that I had brought along.  He told me that he already had one, and pointed out a small card on his dash that was a picture of Jesus and children—it was a copy of the Articles of Faith in Cebuano.  A missionary had given it to him once when they were talking on the street.  And he wanted the Book of Mormon for his wife!  I didn’t know where to start, but I started to tell him about the gospel.  He really got an earful since our ride took more than an hour!  

Vilmar, the driver, carries this picture with him as he drives, because, "Christ loves the children."

I told him about temple marriage, being a forever family, baptism, priesthood authority, Apostasy and the Restoration—including the First Vision, tithing, Word of Wisdom, fasting, Joseph Smith receiving and translating the plates so we have the Book of Mormon.  I said several times, “I’m probably telling you so much that you can’t understand it!  The missionaries could explain it so much better!” But he would say, “It’s okay, sister, I like to hear you talk.”  When we got to Kim’s house, she suggested that I could make an appointment with him to come back and pick me up in 1 ½ hours.  I didn’t know that taxis would do that, but he was happy to get another big trip.  After my good visit with Kim that was waaay too short, the taxi came back and beeped for me.  As we were leaving the housing development where Kim lives, we had to stop at the guard house there for the driver to get his driver ID back.  Our temple guards don’t do that, but it’s quite common here.  There were two women, and the guard asked if they could ride with us, since it wouldn’t be out of our way.  They got in, and we started to chat—and they started to ask about why I was in Cebu, and what we believed.  They both had Mormon friends and both already had copies of the Book of Mormon!  So as they got out, we exchanged phone numbers and we will be getting together sometime!  Then I still had ½ hour or more with my captive audience.  Some of our topics this time were infant baptism, and the Holy Ghost, and personal revelation, and how he is shy to talk English and I am shy to talk Cebuano—but NOT shy in English!   I read and explained Moroni 10:3-5 to him and he really enjoyed it.  He told me that he prays and reads scriptures—and he pointed to the Book of Mormon—every day with his family.  So I was thrilled to meet him and got his name and address.  He was so sweet and sincere and I would love to meet his wife and kids.  We will see what happens!