"Thursday we drove a few places in the mission to conduct interviews for baptismal candidates. One place was Piedras Negras, a small pueblo 90 minutes away from Veracruz. They have no chapel, but a decent branch of the church meets there. The father of the Camarillo Family was baptized two weeks ago at the beach. His wife hadn't been to church enough to qualify and was trying to work through her guilt for leaving Catholicism. Their three sons decided to wait until she was baptized. The interview was strong. She was ready and worthy. Before I continue the story, let me quote this to you.
"As he talks of the last days and some of their signs, the prophet Joel wrote, 'And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions' (Joel 2:28).
"Of course, the scripture writers famously wrote favoring the male gender, but certainly almost all scripture applies to both men and women. It is amazing the number of people who have told me about their dreams. I have never heard anything like them, especially with such frequency. Sis. Camarrillo had a series of dreams.
"At the end of our interview (she had been interviewed earlier by the zone leader but was in need of a special interview) I asked, 'Hermana, ¿porqué quiere bautizarse?' 'Sister, why do you want to be baptized?' She said, 'I have enjoyed the teachings, I have read a lot from the Book of Mormon, I have prayed. But, the dreams. That is it.'
"She explained that the missionaries have wanted her husband to baptize her. He will baptize the boys, aged 15, 14 and 10. But, not her. It is because of the dreams. She has not explained the dreams to the missionaries because she says she is a little cerrada, closed, about this. It is spiritual to her and unique. But, she opened up immediately and told me about the dreams. I didn't ask to be told. She volunteered.
"She had dreamed several times, during the teachings, that she was standing alone in a river, up to her waist. She was all alone. She didn't understand. That was all there was to the repeated dream. Then, she was interviewed by Elder Collins for her baptism. That night she dreamed again. It was different. This time she was dressed in white. She was not in the river, but was inside a church. She was standing in a baptismal font and her two missionaries, Elders Bradshaw and Quintanar, were also in white preparing to baptism her. A lot of people were standing around in a semi-circle watching. She told me that the missionaries should baptize her.
"After the interview I went and talked with the husband and boys, congratulating them on becoming a familia Mormona. He said yes, it will be good, but lately the demónios, demons, have been bothering them. I explained that now that he had been baptized and received the Holy Ghost, and that his wife and sons were about to do the same, that this would strengthen them against the adversary. He went on to rant a bit, saying that the demon hadn't even spoken to him for over ten years, and now that he was baptized LDS, now that his family was about to do the same, the demon was molestandoles, bothering them almost every day. But, he said, it doesn't matter because his family is going to be baptized and they will not go back to that church. Then, I realized that the 'demon' he referenced was the priest at their local parish!"
Well, Sis. Camarillo was never baptized. The demon continued to visit. There were times that the missionaries would go by and she would not come out. She was sick once and they offered a blessing, but she would not come out. I told them to back off. They needed to let her make the decision. We are not here to force our agency upon someone else. That is a violation. I asked them to go by every week or two but never to mention the word, "baptism." They did that.
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