Lost in Guadalajara

The first day, I arrived in Guadalajara to be a "Zone Leader" I was asked to go out to one of the places at the edge of the city to interview a family for baptism. The family was from one of my district leaders. He happened to be the same missionary I had for my first junior companion back in Zamora. He was now a district leader in Guadalajara and doing great. The family I interviewed lived in a multi-story appartment building. They lived in the second story in the middle of the apartment building. They joined the church, then the family that lived upstairs from them, then one of their downstairs neighbors, then a family across the street, then another family in their apartment building. The rate they were going they were going to have a ward right on their block.

I wasn't very familiar with Guadalajara at that time on my mission. I had worked everywhere else in the mission. I didn't have a companion yet because he hadn't arrived in the city yet. I was taken from the mission home by the district leader to where the family lived. We took one bus from the mission home, then a second to the center of town and then a third out to where the family lived. I was told to pay good attention to where I got off the first bus and took the second bus.

The interview and baptism went fine. Then it was getting late so I started back to the mission home. I took the first bus back to the center of town. Then I got on the second bus and headed out toward the mission home. I remembered where I was supposed to get off and I got off the bus at the right spot. But the third bus never came. I waited and waited and waited, but no bus. It was getting late and I was worried that I might be spending the night on that street corner. I didn't know the mission home telephone but that didn't matter because there wasn't any telephones nearby anyway. I began to pray and pray.

Finally about 10:00 PM a bus showed up. He was very late. He had, had engine troubles but had finally got his bus moving again. I was so glad that he finished his route. I jumped on and eventually got back to the mission home about 11:00 PM that night. No one asked me anything and I was too tired to say anything anyway.