March
14, 2017
I
am still amazed each time I see a loving Father in Heaven intervene to help one
of his children. It awes me when I see
these simple yet powerful acts.
We
had two Elders flying home today because of health problems. We were taking both Elder Nava and Cortes to
the airport early this morning to catch planes.
Elder Cortes' plane didn’t leave until mid-morning, but we had
interviews starting at nine in a chapel over an hour away, so the two were
going together.
Last
night we had second thoughts – if we had Elder Cortes stay at the office
instead of our home, we could take Elder Nava at 4:30 AM, turn around, drive to
the office, and pick up Elder Cortes.
This would give this Elder two more hours of sleep with just a little
inconvenience for us. We changed plans.
We
left home at 4:30 and were able to finish with Elder Nava by a little after
six. We drove to the office and proceeded
with our Plan B – pick up Elder Cortes and head back to the airport.
We
didn’t realize we would be part of heavenly intervention until we arrived the
second time to the airport. As we walked
towards check-in, we saw an Elder standing by the chairs, shifting through
papers. We stopped to say “hello” to
Elder Smith. Elder Smith was flying home
to Washington from the Puebla mission.
He and other Elders had left very early in the morning for the three-hour
bus ride to the airport. Since Elder
Smith was the only one of the group that had flown more than one time, he took
the time to check each of them in and get them to the security gate. He then checked himself in. He inquired about the immigration form that
he knew he needed because he was a resident with a green card. The check-in said they were out and to go to
an office down the hallway. That office
said they he needed to go to another place.
He finally found the form, filed it out and headed to the plane. However, one step was missed. Instead of going to the immigration table
after security, he went to the information table who said he was fine and to go
to the plane. Once the error was found
while trying to load the plane, Elder Smith had to run back, get it stamped,
and ran full speed for the airplane – which had just left.
When
we noticed him he did not have a phone, a phone number, or even one peso to his
name. He had spent all his money
checking his second bag. He had asked to
borrow a phone from several people but was declined. He was there alone, upset, and wondering what
to do. However, Heavenly Father had
already solved that problem with the change to our plans the night before. Divine intervention.
We
arranged a new flight, called parents, gave him some money for food, and hugged
him good-by. He will arrive five hours
later than originally planned with no luggage, but I don’t think his parents joy
will be any less.
