He watches over us!

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.