Faith to be healed

Lay your hands upon the sick, and they shall recover. Return not till I, the Lord, shall send you. Be patient in affliction. Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (D&C 66:9)

Hispanics give each other really cool names sometimes. Take, for example, the Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca who explored the Americas. His last name translates to “cow’s head.” Maria Del Rayo, one of our converts, had one of those cool names. Maria Del Rayo means “Maria of the Lightning Bolt.”

Maria was a neat lady. She was a municipal judge and she worked at the Civil Registrar’s office, registering marriages and divorces, etc. I don’t remember how we met Maria, or what sparked her interest in The Church. I do remember that there were a lot of obstacles leading up to her baptism. One of her biggest challenges was her husband. Maria and her husband had a rocky marriage for years. Although he was always very polite to us when we were at their home or if he saw us in the community, he did not like his wife meeting with us. He pressured her in many ways to break off the discussions. After many lessons, Maria decided to accept our invitation to be baptized in spite of her husband’s wishes. We set a baptism date that was a few weeks off, due to some work and family related travel she had scheduled.

We kept visiting Maria whenever she was in town to keep her progressing. The Enemy was working hard on her but she was determined to be baptised on schedule. We were very proud of her, and we held weekly fasts for her benefit.

Finally, the day of her baptism arrived. I woke up with a strange feeling in my gut, but I was excited for the baptism and I just ignored the feeling. My companion and I went through all the steps of preparing: filling the pool, double checking the assignments, making sure the members were invited, etc. As the day wore on I felt increasingly sick. The strange feeling turned into disorientation and vertigo. Then nausea set in. Next a fever and a pounding headache. I was so sick we had to go back to the apartment for me to lie down.

To complicate things, that morning Maria’s husband threatened to leave her if she went through with the baptism. She called us to let us know that the baptism might be canceled. I was bedridden, too sick to move and Maria needed our support. There were about four hours before her baptism.

My companion and I prayed about what we should do. We both felt that if I showed the faith to get out of bed and go see Maria, that the Lord would help us and her. My companion gave me a priesthood blessing, and blessed me that I would be cured and able to help Maria that day.

Still feeling terrible, I stumbled out the door behind my companion. My head was throbbing and a couple of times I had to stop because I thought I was going to be sick. By the time we had walked about three blocks, however, I was feeling slightly better. It felt as if each step towards Maria’s house was a physical improvement. By the time we knocked on her door, I felt completely healthy and strong.

We bore our testimonies to Maria of the gospel and expressed our great appreciation for her and our support for her. We told her we would be waiting at the font at the appointed time, said a prayer with her, and left to set up the chairs at the church.

Maria was baptized on schedule.