William Baptism Day Call with You (Coyhaique), February 16, 2026

Long Monday call broken across three fragments by connection drops. Anchored by yesterday's baptism: William was baptized along with two others (a triple baptism that ran over its time slot). William's young daughter attached to you at the piano - sat on the bench with you, put her hands on yours while you played the prelude, told you "I love you" while staring up at you in the hall after the service.

William's triple baptism

Sunday February 15 was a triple baptism in Coyhaique. William was baptized along with two others; the service ran over (started late, three people = long). You and Juncker were an hour late to lunch afterward.

William's daughter (young - preschool-ish; first name not captured) attached to you during the prelude music:

• Climbed up on the piano bench with you.
• Put her hands on top of yours during every song; tried to press your fingers down into the keys; eventually stood up so she could use the pedal too.
• Would "pick" songs by pointing not to a hymn but to a single line in the hymnal: "These notes."
• After the baptism in the hall, came up to you unprompted, stared up with big blue eyes, and said "I love you."

Your framing: the girl's family situation is hard - parents never married and effectively separating, mom on drugs, the girl is only with her dad half the time. She holds your hand tight when you walk; "if she wasn't holding my hand, we were stopped and she wouldn't go until she held my hand." During the baptism the girl asked you "When my dad gets baptized, can I be at your side?"

My reframe to you, captured close to verbatim because it shifted you visibly on the call:

"I don't know if there's a better way to express, from Heavenly Father - a real-life angel in someone's life as you are to her. You are literally representing him, and you are there for her. How amazing is that? She is literally looking at God through you. He is showing his love for her through you."

You: "I never thought of it that way."

William's backstory

• Long pre-contact: William has been in-and-out of contact with missionaries for ~7+ years; his partner (pareja in Spanish - unmarried but long-term) is a member. He had not gone past loose interest in all that time.
• Date put then silence: Elders put him on a baptismal date for Feb 8 during a group lesson. He immediately went silent for two weeks. The only messages he sent during the silence were videos of himself high on drugs in random wilderness.
• Decision moment (Feb 8): He walked into a different baptism in its last five minutes. Saw the church was open. Decided "now or never." Walked up to the elders.
• The dump on you: Elders re-set his date for the following Sunday (Feb 15) and told you and Juncker you had to meet with him every single day in between to keep him on the wagon.
• Baptism: Sunday Feb 15. Triple-header with two others.

Your dog bite + mystery sickness

• Saturday Feb 14: A dog bit you. Skin broke even though your pants and garments did not break. The dog is owned by a friend / former teaching contact who had stopped answering you; once you texted him after the bite he replied right away and confirmed the dog has all its shots (verbal only - no records shown). You didn't need rabies treatment.
• Sick all week: An unrelated nausea / fever / general sickness ran through Feb 9-15. Doctor at the clinic told you "you probably ate something weird" - no actual diagnosis. Recovered in a couple of days. The check-ins with William continued through the sickness.

Sports day with the elders

The local cancha (court) is just above your house. You and Juncker played:

• Football (soccer) - fun, low-stakes mixed group.
• Watermelon afterwards. You got the "odd corner piece" - messy. Washed your face in the river afterwards with Juncker.
• Basketball - "I've never been able to make so many three-pointers in my entire life."
• Volleyball - a few joined when basketball wound down.
• American football routes with Elder Delgado (from Saratoga; HS football player) - you ran a route, caught the ball, scored a touchdown to the confusion of the watching Latino elders. Me: "You brought honor to our family."

The gas tank delivery

Out of gas (you left the oven on overnight cooking cookies that you then forgot to take out). You called two gas-delivery places that morning:

• First place - when you told them the address (15 Avenida Simpson), they muted themselves; you were sure they were laughing at you. Hung up.
• Second place - took four seconds. "Hi, we want gas." "Great. What size, where do you live?" "Done."

Down there gas tanks are delivered by trucks driving around - the missionaries treat propane tank scheduling as a basic life skill. You: "I'm a propane pro, not a protein. You're right, protein."

The gay elder's goodbye gift

A recent-convert elder (whose conversion you helped) is leaving Coyhaique to study before his own mission. Yesterday was his last full day. He gave you and Juncker each a goodbye gift: a Chong-Mall makeup bag (you: "It's actually cute, I needed one") plus a cup with a handwritten letter. The letter told you you were the reason he got baptized weeks earlier - at an English class where you had asked him whether he was going to commit to the Feb 8 date and he had said he didn't know.

The conversion analogy you used in that English class, retold for me:

"God has given you this opportunity and you have your car, right? But you cannot go anywhere in your Ferrari if you don't take your key and use it. Because if you don't turn the key and turn the car on, the car is not going to do you any good. It's cool, it's awesome, and you're now rich because you have it. But if you don't use it, what's the point?"

He told you after the letter that you would work together in the States ("maybe we'll bump into each other when we're taking blood samples in the hospital or something"). You ribbed me about your demographic luck: "I love getting people. I love gay people. They love me. We're a happy family."

Venezuelan lunch and dinner with Carlos and Victoria

Lunch: Tebrepo, a Venezuelan restaurant. Pebitos (Venezuelan sandwich), patacones (savory plantain "bread" replacement). You loved both.

Dinner: with Carlos and Victoria. Drove home with them; Victoria (a nurse) gave you a shot in the car and explained the technique in real time. You translated the explanation into English for Juncker as it happened.

Tomorrow - intercambio to Coyhaique Centro

You're doing an overnight intercambio to Coyhaique Centro (different sector, same district). Pulling up a map for me - the sector colored in is yours; the area you're going to is the directly adjacent one. Juncker stays back in your normal sector. You return Thursday morning.

You showed me ICE on the map too (another district) - adjacent area visible only as a small island region. You don't think elders ever serve the actual island; it's there mostly as a checkbox.

The baptism tally

You enumerated your baptisms (people you found OR baptized, depending on Mom's vs your accounting):

Your count:

• Rodrigo - Punta Arenas; you found him; baptized him.
• Yasdiel - Punta Arenas; media reference.
• William - Coyhaique; baptized Feb 15, 2026.
• Possibly Carmen - Coyhaique. (Flagged.)
• Giovanni - Puerto Montt; just got baptized.
• Benjamin - Puerto Montt; you told him to get baptized, so he did.

Mom argued for counting:

• Carmen (Punta Arenas) - you found her even if her baptism happened after you transferred out.

The President interview

You had your interview with Mackay. Walked away with "revelations I can't reveal." Won't say more.

BYU-Idaho confidence shift

Long late-fragment thread. You have been working through self-narrative: you keep hearing about peers going to BYU-Provo and feel you're missing out on that culture. Mom and I made the BYU-Idaho case:

• Smaller, more personal campus.
• Less competitive in classes, so you might actually be able to focus on the material.
• All the religious infrastructure (devotionals, art) is the same.
• You'll have a personal connection there already - Hermana Juncker confirmed, plus Hermana Larson, Elder Cutler, Elder Ulrich, Elder Shepherd; "the Idaho grandma" you keep mentioning is nearby.
• Your landing: "I need to give it a chance for sure. I don't think I would have gone through this whole process of switching BYU and then BYU-Hawaii and then back to BYU and now having BYU-Idaho feels so right."

Closing nostalgia - my dating origin with Mom

You sang Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat (which Mom remembered as my opening line in a dating situation - "Have you ever seen Joseph in the Technicolor Dreamcoat?" - Mom thought I was asking her out, but I was actually asking her roommate). Me: "Real love is hepatitis B." First date: Burger King chicken sandwich. You: "That was your first mistake."

Me on my pre-Mom dating life: "If I dated Mom first, it would have been game over. I'd had no experience, and then she would have just been like, 'this dude has no experience, I don't even want to date him anymore.'" Hence the strategy of dating all of Mom's roommates first.

Closing

Sign-off. You would call back tomorrow.

Cleanup Notes

• The Carmen baptism question: Your tally in fragment 3 included "and here I baptized William and Carmen" - "here" being Coyhaique. This contradicts the Jan 5 update on Carmen (Coyhaique) (she blocked you; stopped teaching). Flagged for confirmation; her wiki note has not been updated to claim a baptism without it being clearer.
• William's daughter is a load-bearing emotional moment but she is unnamed in the source. Skipped wiki-person creation.
• The gay elder: First-name not captured. Skipped wiki-person creation.
• Elder Delgado: From Saratoga (Utah). HS football player. Skip wiki note; glossary mention.
• Three-fragment combine: Combined into one canonical for readability.