Joy With the Uber Drivers
It all starts with a temple goal. In my case, that goal was set in January of 2017 when I decided to go to the temple two times a month. Just to make it interesting, I decided to make it two different temples, ideally. Joy with the Uber drivers happened yesterday as a result of one of those temple trips.
The Background
I have visited 56 temples since January of 2017. Two months ago I organized a trip to visit the Houston Texas Temple, which would happen on Saturday, July 27th. The airfare was only $92 round-trip. That’s the good news. The bad news is I had to depart out of the Philadelphia Airport, not my usual Washington DC area airports. Consequently, I drove three hours north on Friday afternoon to get to Philadelphia.
I arrived in Houston at 1:30 AM because the Frontier flight out of Philadelphia was 2 hours late. I found a deserted sofa in the airport and curled up there for the night. At 8 AM I got an Uber driver and headed for the Houston Texas Temple.
The Conversation
A very friendly guy!
When you’re in a car with an Uber driver and they are taking you to an LDS temple, the conversation is pretty easy. I told him about my goals and how this would be my 57th temple visited. He knew about the building and had driven by it before. It was easy to give him an Articles of Faith card in the process. This time I put my name and phone number on it too. I don’t usually do that.
What impressed me was his story. He is 72 years old. He drives for Uber from 5:30 AM to about 3 PM seven days a week. When I asked him why he does it, he simply said, “It keeps me off the couch watching TV.”
Good for you, I thought. Way to be active in your retirement years, not a couch potato. He was pleasant and friendly. This veteran Uber driver had logged over 4,800 rides with Uber. He dropped me off and was on his way.
Uber Driver #2
After the temple session, I got another Uber driver. This guy was probably 75. He picked me up and drove me to the Johnson Space Center, about 40 miles away. His story was interesting too.
He was married twice. He was also divorced twice. This man also drives for Uber seven days a week. He told me “…all religions are the same.” He also told me the missionaries had visited him at one point and gave him a “Mormon Bible.” I told him about my experiences in Missouri when I was 19. He liked that.
We had a very pleasant conversation as I ate my foot-long Subway sandwich which was courtesy of Frontier Airlines delay at the Philadelphia Airport. We talked about life, his current relationship situation (the closest thing he has to a girlfriend is a lady who is married to someone else) and about Houston. It was a wonderful time talking with him. We hit it off well.
Somewhere in the journey I gave him an Articles of Faith card, explaining I visited temples because of what was written on the card. He thanked me for the card.
A fascinating and HUGE Saturn 5 Apollo Rocket!
He dropped me off at the Johnson Space Center and thanked me very much for the “pleasant conversation.” I wished him the best and I was on my way.
I must be in Texas…
The Summary of Joy with the Uber Drivers
It’s easy to give away articles of faith cards when you’re on your way to visit a temple. Living your religion gives you extra opportunities to be a member missionary. If I was in town to hit a Houston Astros baseball game the conversation would have been different. I was grateful I took three articles of faith cards with me in my briefcase before I left home on Friday. That was intentional. I left with three; I came home with one.
Joy with the Uber drivers is an example of how easy it is to help people come closer to the truth. You have a captive audience who is either taking you to or taking you away from a temple. Piece of cake!
couch potato, houston, Houston Texas Temple, johnson space center, retirement, texas, uber
