Saving Ordinances

                While on my Mission was I assigned to my second area in about the most rural area on the planet…seriously look it up…go to Google maps and type in “El Sauce, San Julián, Sonsonate, El Salvador”. We didn't have a chapel there, but we rented a house where we held the Sunday meetings. For baptisms we had to go to a close by town called Izalco just to the North West. This was my second area and the first week as being a trainer. Of course I wanted to make sure my new companion felt welcome to the mission.

                The first week was full of great things. We had two families set to be married on Friday, baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday. The weddings went great, we loaned the two guys our suits and ties, took pictures and everything was in place for the baptisms the next day. I called to elders that night to fill up the baptismal font for us the next day as we always did. As I woke up the next day I heard some news that would start a fight between the adversary and me for the next 12 hours. The elders in the Izalco area went that morning first thing to fill up the font and the water was not working! In a panic I picked up the phone and called the branch president looking for a pool or something that would be big enough for the baptisms, determined to help these two young families realize their dream of becoming clean once again through baptism. We found a natural spring just a few miles away that was clean enough for the ceremonies. It was however against mission rules to baptize outside the church without permission from the Mission President. I called him and after explaining what had happened he gave us the OK to do the baptisms in the river under one condition. The baptisms had to be in a reverent place where the spirit could reside. I agreed and we were off to gather everyone. No one in the town had a car that we knew so we would always go to the main park and try to find someone with a truck that we could pay for a ride. After some bargaining we found a truck and loaded the two families up along with a few members from the branch to Caluco.

                At that moment I felt like I had won, there was nothing in our way now to stop these baptisms. As we pulled up to the river my heart sank as I heard the voice of my mission president play over in my head. An evangelical church was already there performing baptisms. The electric guitars, drums, speakers, microphones and 30+ people singing and chanting made my presidents one rule echo over and over again in my head. Of course no one with me at the time knew of the conditions so we continues to get ready in hopes that they would be wrapping up and we could have our turn in peace and quiet. Once we were all ready it became apparent they were just getting started too. We walked up stream a few feet and waited. Knowing in my heart we could not perform the baptisms without the spirit I leaned to the Lord for his help. I said a prayer in my heart for something to happen so we could have the spirit long enough to help these two families receive this saving ordinance. Just as I said amen, a quiet struck the river. The power had gone out!! All of the sudden we had all of our members plus 30 “investigators” watching us! It was perfect; the spirit was there, we performed the baptisms as everyone watched. Once the last person had gotten out of the water, the power came back on, not a second later!

               I know prayers are answered. God knows the importance of obedience to his commandments. He will prepare the way for us to follow him so long as we exercise faith and diligence. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. His authority and power was restored on the earth through Joseph Smith to perform saving ordinances once again.