Manuel and Guillermo are Saved from Shining Path

 Late in the day on June 7, 1990, Manuel Navarro and his mission companion, Guillermo Chuquimango, were walking back to their house in Huaraz, Peru. Manuel had begun his mission in March 1989 at the Missionary Training Center in Lima, one of fourteen MTCs around the world. He enjoyed being a missionary—working hard, visiting different regions of the country, and bringing people to Jesus Christ.

His current area could be dangerous at night, though. A revolutionary group called Sendero Luminoso, or the Shining Path, had been warring with the Peruvian government for more than a decade. Lately, their attacks had become more aggressive as rising inflation and economic strife beset the South American nation.

Manuel and Guillermo, another native Peruvian, knew the dangers they faced as they left home each morning. Groups like the Sendero Luminoso sometimes targeted Latter-day Saints because they associated the Church with United States foreign policy. There were now more than a million Church members in Spanish-speaking nations, with around 160,000 in Peru. In recent years, revolutionaries had assaulted Latter-day Saint missionaries and bombed meetinghouses across Latin America. In May 1989, revolutionaries had shot and killed two missionaries in Bolivia. Since then, the political climate had only grown more intense, and attacks against the Church increased.

The five missions in Peru had responded to the violence by setting curfews and restricting missionary work to the daytime. But this evening, Manuel and Guillermo were feeling happy and talkative. They had just taught a gospel lesson and had about fifteen minutes to get home.

As they walked and chatted, Manuel spotted two young men a block or so ahead of them. They were pushing a small, yellow car and looked like they needed help. Manuel thought about lending a hand, but the men soon started the car and drove off.

A short time later, the missionaries approached a park near their home. The yellow car was parked on the pavement about five feet from where they walked. Nearby was a military base with a detachment of troops.

“It looks like a car bomb,” Guillermo said. Manuel saw some people running away, and in that instant, the car exploded.

The blast slammed into Manuel, throwing him into the air as shrapnel whizzed around him. When he hit the ground, he was terrified. He thought of his companion. Where was he? Had he taken the brunt of the explosion?

Just then, he felt Guillermo pick him up off the ground. The park looked like a war zone as soldiers from the detachment—the bomb’s apparent target—fired their guns past the smoldering remains of the car. Leaning on his companion, Manuel managed to walk the rest of the way home.

When they arrived, he went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. His face was bloody, but he could not find a wound on his head. He simply felt faint.

“Give me a blessing,” he told his companion. Guillermo, who had received only minor injuries, placed his trembling hands on Manuel’s head and blessed him.

A short time later, the police came to the house. Thinking the missionaries were the young men who planted the bomb, the officers apprehended them and took them to the police station. There, one of the officers saw Manuel’s condition and said, “This one is going to die. Let’s take him to the health center.”

At the police health center, the chief officer recognized the elders. Manuel had recently interviewed him for baptism. “They are not terrorists,” he told the other officers. “They are missionaries.”

Under the chief’s care, Manuel washed his face and finally found a deep wound beneath his right eye. Once the chief saw it, he rushed Manuel and Guillermo to the hospital. “I can’t do anything here,” he explained.

Not long after, Manuel fainted from loss of blood. He urgently needed a transfusion. Saints from Huaraz came to the hospital, hoping to donate blood, but none of them had the right type. Doctors then tested Guillermo’s blood and found him to be a perfect match.

For a second time that night, Guillermo saved his companion’s life.

Saints, Volume 4, Chapter 25