my flight with noah

The flight from Atlanta, Georgia to Santiago, Chile is 9.5 hours.

I was in the window seat. My friend Abby was right behind me. Just about everyone had gotten on the plane and the seat next to mine was empty. I was happy. Then a younger man with his hair in a ponytail down to his waist walked in the aisle toward me. He looked at the seat at my side. I regretfully wished in my head that he would keep walking. He did not. He began talking to me. I do not like talking to strangers on planes.

He asked me why I was going to Santiago. I told him I was going for vacation. He asked why there of all places. I told him I had lived there before. He asked why. I told him I’d been a missionary for my church for a year and a half in Santiago. He looked at me differently.

He continued to make small talk with me. I was surprised. Due to my own slight lack of comfort, I tried to find an opportunity to end the conversation. He kept talking to me about his life. Finally I realized there was something he wanted to talk to me about. I felt ashamed for not having listened to his words unspoken as well as I should have been.

“Tell me more about you being a missionary.”

He was sincere. So I told him. I told him what church I’m part of. I told him why I went. I told him how much I loved it and how deeply I miss that part of my life. Then I stopped talking so he could continue.

“I think I’ve been to one of your churches before in Bolivia a long time ago. I went in one day. I just walked by and went in.”

I kept listening.

“I went in because I was searching for something at that point in my life.”

I gave him a faint smile.

“I think I’m still searching actually.”

He paused and pondered for a little bit the next words he wanted to say. “See, when you mentioned you had been a missionary when I first sat down, I knew I couldn’t have been sitting by you by accident.”

I asked him what he believed in. I listened to his response and I told him what I knew—that God knows him, that God has never left him alone. He asked me some more questions. I told him that we all have a purpose here on earth and that we are here to be tested. I told him that before he came to earth he knew these things and had just forgotten them. I told him a lot of other things. He asked me how I knew all of this. I told him about the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ through a prophet—the very same church Christ had established while He lived on the earth. I told him about a book that’s the most correct of any book on earth, a book that contains the fullness of the gospel and is another testament of Jesus Christ. I told him that God is his Heavenly Father and that He wants him to find happiness. He listened. He nodded. I invited him to come to church with me if he was going to be in Santiago that following Sunday. He said he would try.

A few hours later we landed in Santiago. He asked me for my email address. He thanked me. I told him how happy I’d been to meet him. We got off the plane, stood in line at customs, and he waved to me as he left the airport.

I feel bad that I had not been the one to start the conversation with Noah. I would have been perfectly fine had I not said a single word to him that whole time on the plane. How did that happen to me? I used to leave my apartment every day excited to talk to as many people as I could to tell them what I know, whether they wanted to hear it or not. In the same amount of time that I flew from Atlanta to Santiago, I used to talk to 100 people (literally), testifying of the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. Yet I almost missed an opportunity to tell someone about something he’s been sincerely searching for for years.

There are people all around us who are searching for something. Peace. Happiness. Direction. Comfort. Purpose. Love. The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us how we can find these things. We have a great role to play in helping people come unto Jesus Christ.

“And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength such as is not known among men.” Doctrine & Covenants 24:12