“I Wanted to Do It Too”

On July 23, 2008, Aldair Campos and his younger sister were alone at home. It was a school vacation, and they were waiting for their parents to return from work. They searched for ways to entertain themselves, as children do. They found a bottle of alcohol and decided to pour it out a little at a time and light it on fire.

After a while, Aldair got tired of the game and took a nap, but his sister kept playing. The bottle of alcohol was next to where he was sleeping, and his sister tripped, knocking over the bottle, spilling its contents on Aldair and the floor, and accidentally dropping the lit match. Aldair woke and was able to put out the flames on himself, but the fire was spreading too quickly in the rest of the room. Aldair grabbed his sister and dog, and they ran outside.

Once they were safe, he ran back in to keep fighting the fire. “I did not want the house to burn down because I knew my mother would be angry and I did not want that.” The fire claimed the apartment building they lived in. He was rushed to the nearby hospital for treatment of third-degree burns covering more than 30 percent of his body. Because of the severity of his injuries, he was transferred to the Panama City Hospital, where he spent four months undergoing operations and therapy.

In 2012, his parents separated, and he moved with his mother and sister to an area with many Panamanian Latter-day Saints. Their neighbor sent the missionaries to visit them. His mother allowed them to teach her 12-year-old daughter, but Aldair was not interested. When his sister told their mother that she wanted to be baptized, Aldair decided that he did as well.

He said, “If my sister did something I wanted to do it too.” He and his sister were baptized on November 24, 2012. His mother supported her children’s decision.

When he was 17, Aldair decided to serve a mission. He submitted his mission papers multiple times. Twice his papers were returned because of issues with his medical evaluation. The third time, his papers were lost. “I was a little discouraged,” he recalled. “I did the papers for like a year.” His mother could see that he was struggling and encouraged him to go to college and serve a mission later. That Sunday, he told his bishop, “I want to wait a little time.” His bishop reminded him that “God is first in all things. He is testing. He knows you are going to have a lot of patience.” Aldair began his mission papers for a fourth time. This time, his papers were successfully submitted, and he was called to serve in the Peru Lima North Mission. He testified, “Jesus Christ and God are always there for us.”