Before I begin, I should note that this story is very spir­i­tual to me. At the same time it is some­what irrev­er­ent. It is one of my fond­est, most holy, yet fun­ni­est mem­o­ries from my youth and my mission.

When I was 19–21 years old I served my church as a mis­sion­ary in south­ern Chile. About half way through my 2 year mis­sion I was sta­tioned in a small town called Futrono in the Andes moun­tains. Futrono is a very scenic com­mu­nity adja­cent to a rather large lake, and it was a long drive from the near­est large cities or towns. We did not have a church build­ing in Futrono and there were only a hand­ful of church mem­bers in the town.

Keep in mind that it was still passed 10:00pm at night and very dark. For­tu­nately, at least it was sum­mer and the nights were rather warm. We weren’t about to give her hus­band a chance to change his mind and were deter­mined to get her bap­tised as quickly as pos­si­ble. My com­pan­ion and I each ran in sep­a­rate direc­tions. He to the branch president’s (sim­i­lar to a Bishop) home to wake him up, and I to the house we rented as a church to pick up two sets of white bap­tismal clothes. We all met in cabs at the side of the lake, not far out­side of town, along with a cou­ple of local mem­bers of the church. It was a mostly full moon that night and there was plenty of visibility.

In our church we bap­tise by immer­sion, which means the person’s entire body must be sub­merged com­pletely in the water. The lake was the only place nearby where we could do this. On this occa­sion, I had been cho­sen to per­form the bap­tism cer­e­mony and my com­pan­ion was to do the bless­ing and con­fir­ma­tion (like a spe­cial prayer) after the bap­tism was done. She and I went our sep­a­rate ways and changed into white bap­tismal clothes. Then, in the moon­light we waded into the lake and I per­formed the bap­tism. After the bap­tism was com­plete and it was ver­i­fied that she was sub­merged suf­fi­ciently under the water, we exited the lake and again went our sep­a­rate ways to change into dry clothes. The rest of the group waited at the lake­side, next to a large rock where she would later site for her con­fir­ma­tion blessing.

This is where the story gets inter­est­ing and a bit irreverent.

In an effort to find some pri­vacy where I could change out of my wet clothes I crossed through some trees and entered a field or pas­ture. The ground was some­what muddy so I made my way to a very large, flat boul­der lay­ing in the field and climbed on. I pro­ceeded to change my clothes. As I changed my clothes some­thing hit me in the head and star­tled me. A few sec­onds later, as I con­tin­ued to remove my wet clothes, it hap­pened again, then again. Before long I real­ized that I was being pelted in the head by a small mouse-sized bat. At that point I began to freak out and I found myself jump­ing around, com­pletely naked, like a crazy man, flail­ing my arms and kick­ing my legs in the air. As if on cue, over the hill and down the coun­try road next to this field came a lone car. As the car rounded a cor­ner and its head­lights fell on me (still jump­ing around and flail­ing my arms and legs) the car stopped and flipped on its high-beams. I can only imag­ine what that dri­ver and his/her pas­sen­gers were say­ing as they watched the only “Gringo” (N. Amer­i­can) for many miles around, danc­ing naked on a rock in the mid­dle of nowhere and in the mid­dle of the night.

For­tu­nately for me, the car finally left. Per­haps the car’s head­lights scared the bat off because shortly there­after it stopped pelt­ing my head over and over. I quickly threw my clothes back on and jumped off the rock before run­ning through the field, then the trees, back to where the group was wait­ing for me. Out of breath, I couldn’t bring myself to tell them what had just happened.

After the bat inci­dent, and after giv­ing my heart some time to set­tle down, peace was restored and we pro­ceeded to do the bless­ing and con­fir­ma­tion. Ulti­mately, it was a beau­ti­ful and cer­tainly unique bap­tismal expe­ri­ence. Never before have I bap­tised a per­son at night under the moon­light and I sus­pect that few peo­ple in the world, in our church at least, have had a sim­i­lar experience.