A message from Heaven in Utah?

I'm not a superstitious person, but it felt as if a message had fallen from the heavens. It happened suddenly. We -my wife, myself and two friends- had visited the Mormon visitor center in St. George, Utah, in America when it happened. But before that…

Background

Utah is closely associated with the Mormon religion, officially known as the Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Joseph Smith founded the religion in 1830. According to LDS teachings, the angel Moroni came to him on September 21, 1823, and told him that he was chosen to restore God's church on Earth. Moroni also told Smith that he had placed gold tablets in western New York, and that they had the writings of the ancient prophets. Smith is said to have recovered the tablets four years later and translated them into English from an unknown language. The result of his work was the holy scripture of the LDS church - "The Book of Mormon".

The Mormons were thought to be rebels, so they were persecuted in Missouri and then in Illinois. In 1844, Smith was charged with treason and imprisoned. An anti-Mormon gang killed him in prison. Brigham Young succeeded Smith as president of the church in 1846. Young and his followers went on a great journey to Utah to escape persecution, and Utah has been the center of the LDS church ever since. There is a variety of religions in Utah today, with Mormons making up 40% of the population of 3.5 million.

Sister Davis was our guide in the visitor center, and she shared information about the Mormons. There was a film to see, and posters to read as part of the visit. It was very interesting for us to learn about the Mormons and their religion. Sister Davis was a friendly lady and patiently answered our questions.

Message?

After our visit to the visitor center, one of our guests took a few photos of us in our van. We were parked across the street from the center. I opened my window and reached out through the window for photos. Then I pushed the switch to raise the window. It started working properly at first, but then there was a loud noise like the sound of a shot and the window glass jumped up at blazing speed and then fell down again. The window was then fully open, and the switch no longer worked. A message from heaven perhaps?

Mechanic?

It was after 5 p.m. at the time and it was difficult to find a mechanic as most garages were closed by then. But there was one that would be open until 5:30. I called it, and I spoke to someone named Jake. I explained that we were parked outside the Mormon visitor center and that we were in trouble because of the van window. He agreed to take the van in even though it meant the mechanics would have to work overtime to fix the problem.

We drove straight to the garage, and they brought the van in right away. The whole process took about 45 minutes and the staff had to stay at work for more than half an hour after closing time. It turned out that the window motor had worn out, and they didn't have a replacement available on (such) an urgent basis. They would be able to lift the window and secure it in place with a screw and plastic fasteners – allowing us to continue our journey and get a new motor after the road trip. We agreed to that solution. Thanks to Jake and his team, we were soon on our way again and the window remained closed for the rest of the trip. The only minor problem we had was that it was a bit noisy when we were driving, as there was a small gap at the top of the window - but that didn't bother us.

Conversion?

I was so taken by the series of strange events that the other three started teasing me for a while. "Michael, do you intend to convert to Mormonism?" said one person. "'Yes", said my wife, "he will want to relocate to St. George soon.” And they continued to make fun of me. Were they right – is it?

Are you kidding me too? Seriously though, if I were a superstitious person, I might contemplate, trying to find out if the strange events of the day could be connected in some way to Mormonism. But I'm not like that. The window motor in the van was on its last legs, no doubt, and it's a coincidence that it broke outside the venue. And what about the garage that Jake kept open for us after closing time? Well, maybe Jake is an exemplary person, or maybe when he heard that we were outside his own religion's visitor center, he was inspired to do his deed of the day. In any case, I don't plan on relocating to Utah any time soon!

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