Well, this picture is from Lizzy's blessing day over a month ago, but I think it fits the story well:
John wants a bike for his birthday this year, so we’ve been looking on Craigslist.com for used bikes. We found one that sounded great in Lynchburg (1 ½ hours away) for $35. The owner said it was about 5 years old but was a smooth ride. So, I packed up Lizzy in the car and made the trip down to Lynchburg, a very Southern Baptist town because of Liberty University, the Christian college located there. When I got to Lynchburg I found that the bike was busted up pretty bad and not very ride-able. The owner said he didn’t know it was in such bad shape (you’d think he would have tried it out before promising a “smooth ride” but I guess not), and he felt really bad about it. While he tried to fix it his roommate started to ask questions and it came up that I had gone to BYU. He asked if I was Mormon. When I said that I was, he said, “I don’t know much about Mormons, but I watched a show last night about the FLDS.” I quickly said, “Oh, that’s not us.” He said, “But they used to be, right?” I fumbled around for a good answer, and the best thing I came up with was… “um…a long time ago.” I felt so dumb. I didn’t know what else to say. Then the guy selling the bike apologized that he couldn’t fix it and said he’d just give it to me for $5. I agreed and we all went our separate ways. I hadn’t gone far when Lizzy started to get really upset. I pulled into an empty parking lot next to a Mexican mart and tried to calm her down. It was cold outside and Lizzy didn’t want to be in the car any more, so I took her inside the Mexican mart to look around. There was a Korean girl working inside (funny for a Mexican mart, I know). She asked if she could help, and after explaining why we were there she began to chat with me about other things. I told her that my brother had been a missionary in Seoul Korea. She seemed to think that was pretty cool, but when it came up that he was a Mormon missionary she became quite a bit less interested. I felt bad about missing the opportunity to share the gospel with the roommate previously, so I decided to give the Korean girl a pass along card even though she didn’t seem all that interested. As I started to drive away, Lizzy started to cry again. The thought came, “she’s trying to tell you something. She wants you to go back and give that roommate a pass along card and she’s not going to stop fussing until you do.” It felt awkward, but Lizzy insisted. So, I called back the guy with the bike and told him that I had found something in my car about Mormons that his roommate might be interested in. He said I could leave it in the mailbox. So, I drove back and dropped off a pass along card with the articles of faith and the church’s website on back. It was so much easier that it seemed, and as soon as I had dropped it off Lizzy calmed right down. She even slept all the way home! She may seem too small to know very much, but the spirit knows everything and I think He tells her a heck of a lot more than He tells me…probably because she’s so much better at listening.
