Elder Braden Baker: Coming Home, One Last Miracle

Coming home was a trip to remember and nothing short of a miracle. The last week of my mission was memorable for sure. It was part memorable because we didn’t know if it would be my last week or not. In my last email, I talked about the craziness with flying all over India and finally ended up in Bangalore at the mission home in hopes to get an international flight. Well, the mayhem didn’t end there. God had a different plan. Here’s what happened.

As soon as we got to Bangalore, they just shut down all the international flights from Bangalore so the next plan was to first fly to New Delhi and then get an international flight from there. Well, right as we got to Delhi, the Prime Minister of India decided to put the whole country on complete lock down and shut down all air travel!! We were officially stuck in New Delhi, which is outside of our mission boundaries, and we were stuck for an indefinite period with no day in the future of international air travel opening back up. So we had about 31 young missionaries and 10 senior couple missionaries staying at the mission home in New Delhi indefinitely. One night, we all started getting notifications that we are now part of the India, New Delhi Mission. It turns out that the Quorum of the twelve decided to just reassign all 41 missionaries to the India, New Delhi Mission since we are all there. So I got a new mission and mission president for a week and a half.

We spent our time at the mission home contacting people, teaching over video call, studying personally and together, learning and improving life skills, working out, playing sports like hockey, badminton, and spike ball, and just enjoying our final time together as brothers. If anything, I know it was God’s plan to have us stay in Delhi this extra week on my mission so that I could learn and grow more in unity with my zone. We seriously became brothers. One example. When the country got put on lock down, we were stuck inside our apartment and didn’t have any food. It had become dangerous for Americans to go outside. Luckily, Elder McGuire was born in India and then adopted and grew up in America. So, he is Indian looking and could go to the grocery store for all of us to get food. The next problem was our money. Some of us had more than others and some had very little. We sat down and budgeted out our money to make it last as long as possible as we didn’t know how long we were staying. As brothers, we all took out our wallets and took out all the money and put it all into one jar. We totaled our money and split it into each meal and planned for the next week. It was now our money as a zone and bought food for the whole group and cooked together!! It was so cool for all of us to sacrifice and help each other for the betterment of the whole group.

It was Monday morning when we finally heard something promising about when we could get home. We heard that our flight would leave Tuesday night. Later that day, we were told to leave the mission home at Tuesday morning at 11 am. I don’t know all the fine details of how the plane finally came to pick us up but I will say this much. It was chartered and paid for completely by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was orchestrated and organized by the US Embassy. Here is what my mission president said, “Team Work makes the Dream Work - Over the past several days I witnessed many acts of kindness, and how US Embassy personnel, India government officials, and employees of the New Delhi airport went the extra mile to repatriate 40 healthy American missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the United States by means of a chartered flight. Joining these missionaries were 176 other Americans who traveled as the Church’s guests. A great example of how “team work makes the dream work.” I pray God will bless all who helped us these past few days.” Not only was it a miracle for us 40 missionaries to come back home to America and our home, it was even more of a miracle for the 176 other stranded US citizens who got a seat on the Church’s plane home when they were also stranded. One young couple with an 18 month old child shared how they had multiple of their flights cancel and the next chance wouldn’t be until April 14th with prices reaching $12,000. After their fasting and prayer, they received the news that they could get on an evacuation plane home chartered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and would be provided without a request of compensation. The flight would be free. It was a miracle.

We started our evacuation Tuesday morning and got on a bus to the US Embassy. We waited there where a wonderful family made a goody bag for each missionary including chips, carrots, water, chocolate chip cookies, etc. We waited all day until we got on a bus to the empty closed New Delhi airport. We were escorted to the front and got our tickets. When we boarded the plane, we got a standing ovation from all 176 of the other US citizens traveling with us. It was special. Even more special was when I got the opportunity to say a prayer over the intercom for the whole plane before take off. It was the perfect start to our flight. Many people shared that it was the most comforting flight they’ve ever been on. One lady actually came up to me and had so many questions about the church and how and why we got this plane. I taught her about the restoration of the gospel, tithing, fast offerings, and a lot of stuff!! Her favorite was modern day prophets and she likened this plane picking her a miracle like Moses parting the Red Sea. For many, it was a modern miracle of that caliber. We went straight from New Delhi to Cairo, Egypt and then flew over the polar caps straight to Salt Lake City.

I stepped off the plane in America and the air smelled sweeter, fresher, and cleaner. I have loved eating the beef, cheese, milk, cereal and countless list of food I didn’t have while in India. I miss the people and mission so much but I’m grateful for the lessons I’ve learned and my testimony that has grown.

I testify that this is God’s plan, not ours. He will comfort us, and we will see miracles as we trust in Him. He knows us! We are counted!

"We see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth." (Alma 26:37)

If things don't change right away,

"Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power, and then may we stand STILL, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for His arm to be revealed." (D&C 123:17)

I promise He will hear us, as we seek to #HearHim

I love you all and hope to see you soon and would love to get in contact. Feel free to reach out to me and say hi now that I am home and quarantined!!

Find me on Facebook or you can message me at 435-632-0953.

Love, Braden Baker